Sunday, January 9, 2011

Blessings be Thine

It's a happy time right now....

 Blessings be Thine by Blackbird Desings
stitched on 32ct Belfast Light Mocha
using the recommended threads (GA and WDW)

My first finish 2011 - and I loved every moment of stitching it.

The next happy thing is that I "fixed" the botched R&R fabric. As told in my last post washing an R&R fabric turned out a tad less well then expected and I had to order another piece of apple brown bindi which arrived yesterday. And so I thought, what the heck can I loose here...and mixed up some strong loose leave tea together with some vinegar and salt and put the fabric in the hot solution. Washed it and repeated that. And it turned out so nice that I decided to use my self dyed fabric.


Before and after:




Amsterdam grew also a bit (still in love with this one)
Amsterdam by Thea Gouverneur

And lastly....do you know what one does in the scorching Australian Summer heat? No? Sewing couple of foot warmers of course. What else??? (insert head shake here)

While thinking what to give my Aunt for her birthday, I came across some foot warmers on the internet here . But then of course had to change everything to my likings. The idea is the same though. I often have cold feet when sitting in my comfy chair stitching away. And so does my Aunt.  First Imade  one for myself to see if this is really nice, filled it with wheat, and ab-so-lu-te-ly love it. You pop the thing in the microwave for 2 minutes and put it then in front of you, insert feet...and life is beautiful. If it's cold that is. Which it is not right now. It's HOT here. And I stay under the airco.
But anyway, bag has a zipper at the end so that the bag with the wheat can be removed without hassle. Something that will be on the floor quite often must be washable after all. Plus if it's not washable I BET that one of my cats would throw up on it. They love to do this kind of things. Making it washable prevents this kind of "accidents".

The left one is the birthday present for my Aunt (who is not a blog reader) and loves blue. So does my daughter who gets the one on the right. And the middle one is for myself.

Next in the planning is starting "Their Song" by Blackbird Designs, stitching an ornament, and knitting some gloves.

36 comments:

sheri said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
sheri said...

Oh, Blessings Be Thine is so pretty! Congratulations on your first finish of 2011! You have also made amazing progress on Amsterdam. There is so much detail in that one. It's going to be stunning when it's finished.

You were lucky with your linen. I coffee-stained some linen that was too yellow-ish and now it just looks like brown yellow. Yours came out lovely.

It is freezing here and those foot warmers look so warm and cozy! I will check out the directions but I don't know about sewing in a zipper....I've never tried that before...but they look sooo comfy!

Happy Stitching!

Brigitte said...

Congratulations on finishing this great piece. It looks wonderful.
Your hand-dyed fabric came out very nicely. I have never tried this but have seen it many times on the blogs. Maybe on day when I'm short of a certain fabric colour.
My daughter would also love such a pair of footwarmers as she always has cold feet. What a great idea these footwarmers are.

Maggie said...

congratulations on your first finish of the year, and such a lovely one too!

Love those foot warmers! I too suffer fron cold feet, they look perfect :-)

Bertie said...

Striking colours on your Blessings, very nice, congratulations on your first 2011 finish.

Isn't it great the Tea & Coffee save us all with our linen, the colours look really good.

Now those feetwarmers look a treat for cold feet, I might just copy that:)) thanks for sharing.

JessB said...

Congrats on the finish. Blessings is a fun pattern to stitch. The foot warmers look really neat too.

Carol said...

What a gorgeous finish, Gabi! I do love the colors, the words, and just everything about it--congratulations on your first 2011 finish :)

Emily in NC said...

What a great finish, really love the idea for the foot warmers.

Elizabeth MacGregor-Kirkcaldy said...

Oh, I dearly love Blessings Be Thine, Gabi! It's truly BEAUTIFUL! Congratulations on your first finish of 2011, Hun! And my but your needle has been flying on Amsterdam! It's gorgeous and so very detailed... I can't wait to see more! Your hand-dyed fabric turned out Lovely! It's so beautiful... I really must try this if I can figure out how and get over my terror of ruining my fabric! LOL And I Love those foot warmers... What a wonderful idea! It's freezing here so they would come in handy! :) I love Their Song... it's also on my to sitch soon list... Can't wait to follow your progress on that and to see your gloves... I want to learn how to knit as well... so many projects... so little time...

Blessings and love always in stitches...

Quiltsmiles said...

Beautiful finish and I lov hte link to the foot warmers. The fabrics you selected is absolutely purrfect! LOL Looks like your 2011 is going to be a very productive one.
Jane

diamondc said...

Gabi: What a beautiful piece its just lovely.
I look forward to seeing the finish on Amsterdam.
Catherine

Sally said...

Blessings Be Thine is gorgeous. Love the colours.

Your linen came out beautifully.

Kathy said...

What a pretty finish. And a lovely way yo begin the new year! I love the colors in this BBD.

As for those foot warmer. OM goodness they look so inviting. I just love the fleece. And I hear you about them being washable. Perfect idea too. :)

Nancy said...

Gabi, Your Blessings is beautiful. And I love your foot warmers. Have you thought about adding lavender to the bags of wheat so you get relaxing aromatherapy while warming up. Sometimes I wish I had something like that. When I my feet get cold, I end up so cold and it takes a long time for me to get warm.

Jennifer Ann Fox said...

Gabbi I love reading your blog! Foot warmers in the summer for you, huh? LOL

Listen, Amsterdam is so absolutely gorgeous and you know my Dutchey self will follow your progress. So pretty!

The BBD piece is so pretty too and you did a great job on the linen and the tea. I haven't used tea yet. I keep saying I will. I have only used coffee, but right now, I'm staring at a teabag I have by my cup.....just might have to play.

Jennifer

Shelley said...

Blessings Be Thine looks wonderful :) Congrats on your first finish of the new year.

Amsterdam is coming right along. I am really going to enjoy watching this one grow.

I love, love, love the foot warmers. I could use that right about now as I can't get my toes to warm up for nothing. I spent last night under a heated blanket and my toes still were cold.

Faye said...

Your fabric is lovely!!! Good recovery...Love your stitched pieces also!~

Take care, Faye

Nancy in IL said...

Blessings Be Thine turned out beautifully, and Amsterdam is looking magnificent! You must be a very fast stitcher!

Besides all that, your sewing prowess is turning out masterpieces with your foot warmers, and what is it about cats throwing up? I have 5 of the lovely critters and am always cleaning up a pile!

Your self-dyed fabric looks better than the original. Nice job!

Giovanna said...

Congrats on the wonderful finish, and on everything else - great fabric recovery!

Robin said...

Congrats on the beautiful BBD finish! And on the results of your fabric dying...it looks great! I love the idea of warm-able slippers, what a clever idea! Looking forward to watching your progress on Amsterdam and Their Song.

Carol's Stitching said...

Blessings be Thine is gorgeous and you have every right for a HUGE happy dance! The footwarmers really nice and I'm sure your aunt will love hers. Just joining your blog and looking forward to reading your future updates.

htimcj said...

Your finish looks beautiful! And I love foot warmers. They will come in handy for you when the weather cools off.
Heidi-ILCS

Laurie in Iowa said...

Blessings Be Thine is beautiful. Congratulations on your finish.
You also did a great job in dying your piece of linen. Very nice.
I could use some foot warmers her in my little corner of Iowa. It was bitterly cold this morning and we'll be getting more snow on Monday into Tuesday.

Terri said...

Great stitching Gabi. And those foot warmers look fantastic

Julianne said...

Gabi,

Congratulatons on finishing Blessings Be Thine. It looks wonderful. You are really making good progress on your Amsterdam piece. It looks like it has a ton of color changes in it.

Missy Ann said...

Pretty all around! I think you're very smart to make the foot warmers now. Once winter arrives you'll be able to put them to use for every single day of the season.

Anonymous said...

wow, I can't believe the difference in the fabrics - you salvaged it nicely with the coffee staining :) Great footwarmers too, they're really funky ;) And finally, congrats on a lovely finish - BBT looks great :)

Carol said...

Beautiful finish! I saw someone charging $89 USD for that chart on ebay this week!

Carolyn NC said...

Love the finish and the foot warmers! It's so good to have you back!

Jenna said...

Awesome:) The fuzzy/furry fabric looks so warm & cozy! I am so excited to see someones version of the foot warmers!!! Yea!!

Jenna @ simplyjenna.blogspot.com

Sadie said...

Lovely finish Gabi :-) and those foot warmers look so snuggly.

Nancy M said...

Congrats on a lovely finish and it's even greater is you had such a love of stitching it! Your Amsterdam didn't grow just a little, it grew a lot! I love the details in it already. Those look like great foot warmers! Perfect for Michigan right about now!! LOL

Meari said...

Congrats on your first finish, Gabi. It's beautiful.

What a novel idea for the foot warmers. They look cute, too.

Can you tell me the reasoning behind vinegar and salt in the tea-dyeing process?

Siobhán said...

Congratulations on the finish!! Beautiful job. Your Amsterdam looks great, too.

Great job on the linen dye job! I did some the other day and it turned out a bit too yellow, but it will still work, I think. I want to do a bunch of PS ornaments.

The foot warmers look great!

Unknown said...

Beautiful Finish Gabi!
The foot warmers are very novel and I really like them.

Karin said...

Those feet warmers look fantastic! Congrats on the finish.