Home Accessories? Take the elevator to the 7th floor...

I will stress time and time again the fact that I'm a follower... a copier of things already designed.   My first blog post will show you that!   

My cross stitching days started a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... I digress!   Let's just say I started this particular hobby before the children were born.  I played around with it from time to time during the child rearing years but have just recently taken it back up in earnest.  

Youngest son is returning to college very soon.  Friends of ours there in the Knoxville area will pick him up at the airport and get him safely back to the campus.  Robin and I have been friends since our children were very little -- I wanted to send something back as a thank you.   Enter a November 26, 2011 post over at Appleseed Prim.  It's always a struggle for me when the Christmas decorations all come down and leave such bare spots throughout the house.   I saw this and immediately fell in love with it's simplicity and the generic value of it in terms of "winter" decorating.   It takes just a while longer to make two of them so immediately set to work.  

My first dilema came in the form of her "suggested threads" chart down below the pattern itself.   I searched (though not very hard) for a conversion from "Gentle Arts" to "DMC" threads to no avail.   So did the next best thing -- camped out in front of the DMC floss display at our local JoAnn's Store!   I came up with the following colors:  DMC 524, 3782, 902 and 500.   Must admit that I wasn't totally happy with my choice of 524 being that my background cloth is the color that it is but.... 

Second decision -- how to finish it off.   Thought a quick run to the local Good Will store might produce an adequate frame of some sort but my time is running short.   Robin and I enjoy a love for all things "country" so decided to make an old fashioned pin cushion for the both of us.   (Again, an example on Appleseed Prim can be found here.) 

A miniature pillow if you will -- easily done once fabric for the back was chosen -- fabric taken from my stash and NOT purchased -- thank you very much!  I cut out my stitched images making squares measuring 4 1/2 inches by 4 1/2 inches (1/4 inch given for my seam allowance).  Similar sized squares were cut from my green / tan homespun fabric for the backs.  It was just a matter of sewing the two fabrics together, leaving a small opening for turning the pillow right side out, and then stuffing them to my desired volume. 

Viola!   Just like that -- two winter shelf sitters!   And one more project finished up!   Opps... almost!  Being that it IS a pincushion, I thought it best to add a couple pins -- rusted pins to be exact!   Can't remember which site I ordered these from so will give credit to both of the sites seeing as how I have ordered from both of them!   Sew Many Prims site can be found here and then Leslie at The Farm Prims on Etsy -- they both have awesome product! NOW... one more project finished up properly!  

I would be VERY negligent in my duty if I didn't give credit where credit is due.  Appleseed Prim is one of the blogs that I follow pretty faithfully.   I love her ideas and her patterns -- a number of which are FREE!!!  You can't beat that with a stick.   Please hop on over there and see what she has to offer!  

So.. what do you think?  An appropriate shelf decoration for the both of us as we await the Valentines Day decor choices?  I thought so.... 

Not crafty?  No time?  Like to have one of your own?  Leave me a message at the Customer Service Desk!