Did I say I was getting rid of stuff?

This is kind of a funny post to make after declaring on Wednesday that I'm getting back to my "Making Space" challenge (i.e. getting rid of stuff).  And after writing last Sunday that I planned to take my 30 year-old sewing machine to the repair shop to see if I could get it fixed.  Well, I did make a trip to the sewing machine repair shop, but since I was already in the mind to start looking for a newer replacement for my old machine, I was an easy (and willing) target for a sparkly new sewing machine when I walked into the store.

So...  now I'm the owner of a new Janome Sewist 721.  Ain't she purty?

If you're so inclined, you can embiggen the pictures by clicking on them.

It's a fairly simple mechanical machine, but it has some extra stitches and it sews soooo smoothly. 

This week, my 30 year-old machine will be posted online - free to someone who'll come and get it.  I've had it apart and oiled it and gotten it to (sort of) work, but it needs for someone to remove more than just the top and bottom of the machine.  It looks like it will require removing multiple pieces of moving machinery so that the old dried-out grease can be cleaned out and replaced.  From, watching Youtube videos, I think for a person who's interested in doing all that, it might be worth it, but now that I've got a shiny new machine, I'm hard pressed to want to do that.  And truth be told, I'm as likely to break the old one as to fix it, so I'd rather let someone else have a shot at it.

Also this past week, I got some fun mail.  I don't recall where I heard of Cross Stitching Supplies just north of Indianapolis, but I'm so happy to have discovered them.  I ordered some cross stitch fabrics (in colors I hadn't been able to get at my regular online cross stitch resource), and a bunch of overdyed floss - since they offered a nice discount on the first order.

I can't  wait to dive in and start stitching something new.

Lindsey, the owner of Cross Stitching Supplies is a good communicator.  She even notified me that she was giving me a partial refund on one of the fabrics because it had a random dye spot on it (that didn't belong).  I thought that was very nice, but I imagined I might have to sacrifice half the piece of fabric (for what I wanted to use it for, anyway).  But when it arrived and I saw her hand-written note on the fabric, I looked it over and it was the tiniest spot that didn't appear at all on the opposite side, so the whole piece of fabric is totally useable!   

It's pretty handy that Lindsey is located on the north side of Indy while I'm on the southside, so my order got here lickety split.  I will definitely be checking first with Cross Stitching Supplies when I want to place an order in the future. 

~~~~~

And on the crafting end of things, I managed to finish off more of the little stitches I posted about a few weeks ago - some of which have been waiting years (okay... decades - lol) for this day...

They aren't perfect, and I'm still learning some things about finishing small cross stitch projects into mini-pillows, but I'm so glad to have FFO's rather than the small bits of projects these were before. 

And that, dear reader, is all she wrote!

Making Space...

Life has started getting back to normal here and while I'm probably lacking in some needed motivation to continue downsizing, it needs to happen regardless - so  I'm restarting my Making Space posts.  Hopefully, with some regularity now.

Since I started these posts last November, 29 weeks have past, so I'm counting this as Week 30 in my personal Making Space challenge.  Truthfully, throughout the last several months I've been continually "making space" by moving my brother's things out of the house - either to relatives who've wanted items, or selling and donating items.  I just haven't been recording that activity here - perhaps for obvious reasons.  

But now that I'm seeing my way clear to start clearing my own stuff again, I decided recently to remind myself of the container concept described by Dana White and apply it to my cross stitching magazines.   I updated the link above with a more current, and excellent video of Dana explaining the container concept.

A few years ago two large binders of vintage Just Cross Stitching magazines came into my possession. While I took the time then to look through all of the magazines, I was determined to only keep one binder full.  Today, I decided to free myself of some of the magazines I've been holding onto and let someone else possibly enjoy them.  

My plan is to put them on the free shelf at the library - maybe in batches

Now, never mind that I have kept maybe twice as many magazines as you see above, I have lightened my collection and am using the less full binder to also corral and organize printed out patterns I now have in plastic sheet protectors.  

In case you didn't watch the video linked to above, this is the container concept (my paraphrase):   You first decide what the container of any particular collection of stuff is, and then you only keep what will fit inside the container.  It's really a very simple concept that only requires will power to adhere to.  I'm going to start exercising those will power muscles again.

I think I'm moving into the master bedroom next.  Somehow, it's become a catch-all of things I didn't want to lose track of while we've been sorting through my brother's things, and now it's a mess again.  Or at least a few spots are a real mess. 

So...  I'm going to watch me some Dana White videos, and see if she can't inspire me to chip away at that area.  Hopefully, in a week I'll have more to show.

If you haven't clicked on Dana's video linked above, I'll make is simple for you:

Meanwhile if you're curious about my personal Making Space challenge, here is a link to a post I wrote when I started it last November.  I would love to have anyone join me (or rejoin me) who would like to.   I know a few of you have been keeping this up in some measure.  In that case, I just want to let you know I'm back, and I'm re-joining you!!!  😉

Making Space Week 30:  157 things outta here!

Cross stitch smalls...

It was tempting to skip posting again this week, but crafting mojo is so elusive lately, I thought I'd better post while I have something current to show.

In my last post, I was making plans for finishing some older cross stitch projects.  Well... I finally stitched a few up into little pillows:   

The hardest part was just deciding to do it.  Though, it did take a bit of time to cut everything out, iron on interfacing (to make the projects nice and smooth - I heard somewhere to do that).  And I left too small of openings for turning them right side out, so I had to unpick some stitches.

But seriously...  It's embarrassing how long it took me to finally set myself down to do this.  I've had the cross stitching finished on this one since last October:

In the process, I found out my 30 year-old Singer sewing machine is frozen.  I'm thinking all it needs is a good cleaning and re-oiling, and whatever a repair shop does to get a machine in good working order again.  Meanwhile, I'm sewing on my MIL's nearly 70 year-old Singer and it hums along so nicely.  It's tempting to just chuck my old frozen one, but it is very handy for quickly zig zagging edges, and creating buttonholes - whereas doing these things on my MIL's machine requires fiddling with attachments.  So sometime this upcoming week I'm thinking of biting the bullet and getting my old machine to a repair shop. Wish me well in that plan. 

And that's all she wrote!

I've got plans...

Except for crocheting some on what will be my son's ripple blanket, and a little dishcloth knitting, I didn't do much crafting this week.  In fact, I contemplating skipping making a YOP post today because I had nothing to show, but then it occurred to me...  I have plans.  Why not write about that?!?

But first the inspiration behind my plan.  With time on my hands this week, I found myself perusing Youtube (when I probably should have been getting something done, but nevermind that).  I came upon a delightful woman in Germany, named Silvia.  Her Youtube channel is beckisland.  It appears she hasn't posted in about eight months,  but I found myself completely charmed by her and her lovely small cross stich pillows.  I was so inspired, I decided to pull out all my small stitches, and go through my fabric stash to see what I could pull together to possibly finish some small pillows.  

First off, the stitches I have that are waiting for some love:

After I took stock of my non-FFO'd cross stitches, I opened up the containers that have all the fabric I brought home from MIL's last summer and found some nice materials that I think will work for finishing the above into pillows.

First up is a stitch I did many, many (I'm sure close to 40) years ago and for some time, it was in a very ornate oval frame (oh boy...  thinking this might have been a Creative Circle kit, I looked it up, and indeed it was!  Check it out here if you like.) While I displayed it years ago (in the ornate frame), for way too long it was stuck in storage - probably in the garage.  I think it was a couple of years ago that I rescued it from obscurity and now I think I will make a medium size pillow out of it.  

While the colors in the fabric above are perfect, I'm having second thoughts about using it to make a pillow (with this stitch). For this stitch, I want to make it into a larger pillow (like something that might sit in a chair), and I want a significant amount of a print fabric to show on the front of the pillow.  I may have to actually buy some fabric to fit this project. But that's okay...  I have enough projects below to keep me busy while I find a more perfect fabric for this one. 

Meanwhile, check out the back and the snazzy way I stitched it up to be taut for framing:

I think I've found fabrics that will work with the various other projects.  Tell me what do you think:

If I still have this color thread in my stash, I think I'm going to add some stitching to some of the stars.  A couple of them seem a little stark to me.

Seeing the picture above, I may swap this fabric out for something else.

I think I made these "quilt stars" in the 80's.  My MIL was a quilter, and I seem to recall that I originally made an ornament of at least one of these stitches for her and then I got hooked on them for a while.  I know I have several as ornaments in our Christmas decorations.  I think I even sold some when a friend and I did a couple of craft shows together way back then.  I don't know why I never put these last ones together.  If I remember correctly this was a free pattern in some ladies' magazine back then.  Woman's Day, maybe?

This one (above) I haven't decided between the flowers or the polka dots.  The red in the polka dot fabric is exactly the same as the strawberries.  But the little white flowers in the other fabric remind me a bit of the flowers on a strawberry plant.  I suspect either will look great, but I'm curious if you have an opinion.  On this one, I plan to have some of the print fabric on the front, with the same fabric making up the back of the little pillow.

The patterns above came from a vintage Just Cross Stitching magazine.  I believe the animal ones are from Prairie Schooler, but house is from another designer.  For my purposes, I think they all go together perfectly.

And some may remember the stitch above from last autumn.  I finished it after October, I'm guessing, and wasn't overly motivated at the time to fully finish it for display at that point.  Well, now I am.

And there are two little candlewicking ornaments I stitched up - over 30 years ago, I'm sure.  Those need to be finally finished and put with Christmas/winter decorations.   

One of the things I really love about Silvia's little pillows is the simple ways she finishes most of them.  I like a simple finish, I've concluded.  Silvia shows that even the most simple finish can be lovely.  She does like to add fabric to the front and some ric rac or ribbon trim to some, and I do like that, so I headed over the local Hobby Lobby yesterday afternoon to see what they might have.  Boy, did I have good timing.  I hit the mother lode!  Spooled ric rack and ribbons were 50% off!  So I got bunches.  For the price, I decided to get all of the colors of ric rac and a few special ribbons, and figure out later how I might use it.

I have two thoughts as I look at the above ribbons and trims:  I have just derailed my plan to continue downsizing my stuff!  And... Why did I not buy MORE?!?!?  Seriously now...  look at those colors.  How could I resist?

And that, dear reader, is all I've got. 
Just plans for some fun finishes.  

A little finish...

Wednesday of last week I wrote an update about what's been going on in my little corner of the world. There was lots of Spring evident, a couple of birthdays celebrated, a sister visited, and my brother's house sold!  All very good things.

And then, yesterday I set myself to finishing this little project:

The May pattern of the Joyful World series

found on The Snowflower Diaries blog

Using a fabric in my stash (that once was in my MIL's fabric stash), I made this cute little stitch into a pillow.    Now I just need a few dozen more little pillows and I'll have a display-worthy collection.  At the rate I stitch, I may have that collection done by say...  the end of the decade.  😄

This next little bit is for my reference mainly, but if you're interested in the materials used, read on.  I used a combination of called-for Gentle Arts Sampler Threads, and DMC floss. The cats are stitched using various shades of DMC grays, and I turned what was originally a white bird (a dove, maybe?) into a bluebird.  Fabric for the stitched part is 18-count Aida from Picture This Plus - in the colorway, Sterling.  Stitched 2 over 1 on 18-count Aida, the design measures 5.25" x 4".  Just right for a small pillow.

And that's pretty much all I've got on this beautiful late-April Sunday afternoon!