Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Progress on Teachers' Cross Stitch...

Hi there! I hope you are doing well this fine Tuesday! It is absolutely gorgeous here today!! A fine treat after the wild and wooly weekend. *Ü*

Did you know this week is National TV Turn Off Week? Yep, it is. The girls' school sent home a little flyer on activities to help support this idea. Last night they had a sing-along at the school. The girls really wanted to go, so we went and had a blast. Unfortunately for most people, we only found out about the sing-along yesterday, so not too many people showed up for it. The music teacher (she's so fabulous) led the activity and had songs ready to go with lyrics on a power point presentation. She projected the words onto the wall nice and big. So we all (yes, even the adults) sang and danced our hearts out for about an hour. So much fun! And they didn't chatter with each other near so much as they usually do when they go to bed. LOL

Tomorrow night we are going back to the school to celebrate Earth Day. My friend (who is organizing the event) asked if I'd be willing to help out at a table. I'm happy to help when I can,  so I'm going to co-man the paper hat making table. Should be fun. Then Friday night, we'll go back for the ice-cream social! Tonight is Brownie night and Thursday is Daisy day and we started another session of swim class this week. Oh and the kindergarten class is going to a near-by park later this week to have a kite flying day! That's going to be great as it is supposed to be sunny and warm (and hopefully, windy enough to get the kites in the air...LOL). Guess it's going to be a busy one for me again. But that's okay, they are all pretty fun activities.

Enough jabber. I was hoping it would distract you from the fact that I don't have a card to share today (or yesterday for that matter). Did it work? I've been running errands while both girls are at school and have given up my uninterrupted creating time in doing so. 

But I'm happy to report that all the stitching is done on the first cross-stitch project. I actually finished over the weekend and haven't cleaned or pressed it, but I wanted to share (so you wouldn't think I've fallen off the face of the blogosphere). LOL So, please forgive the wrinkles and hoop marks. Now before you get all worked up at how fast I got this done...this is a 14 count aida cloth (I prefer 18 count) and it's mostly full cross-stitches, meaning it goes pretty fast. It's definitely not an intricate pattern, either. I also pushed myself a little to work on it because I really wanted to have one done as soon as possible.

100_5948

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I added the close up picture of the hair, which was really fun to do. Those are not French knots which can be a pain in the patootie to create. Nope, these are Colonial knots which I hadn't done before and they were rather fun. There was a note in the pattern that cross-stitchers now prefer this Colonial knot over the French knot because it adds a great texture to the project and is a great alternative to the French Knot. Here's a link I just found in case you are interested in seeing how it is made... The fabric in the picture is what I am going to use to back the project. The directions for the project doesn't  have any back on it, so the recipient would see all messiness on the back side. I'm still not 100% convinced I'm going to make it a bell pull like the sample. I thought I might modify it to be a wall hanging, but without the fringe on the bottom. We'll see what I end up with when I actually put the whole thing together. Wink

So, that's it from me today. Thanks so much for stopping by. Hope your week is going well and that Spring has finally sprung in your neck of the woods...

Jeanne

7 comments:

Barb said...

SUPER job, Jeanne! I love counted cross stitch. At first glance I thought those WERE French knots, but you cleared that up for me. I once made a sampler for my dad, that had a bunch of sheep on it, made of mostly French knots. I got very adept at making them very quickly, but it is not anything I would tackle again. Wish we were neighbors, 'cuz we would be some craftin' fools!! LOL!! TFS Take care and keep on craftin'!

Hugs,
Barb

Sarah said...

WOWzer Jeanne that is totally awesome. Any teacher would be ecstatic to recieve that piece of art!
Sounds like you are a busy, busy mom at the moment!
Thanks for sharing your work..I love it!

Anke said...

Wow Jeanne. that is a lot of work. I used to cross stitch a lot, on linen. I loved it. Now I scrapbook and don't do anything else anymore. You did such a great job with this, I applaud you. Don't forget we want to see cards too though ;)

Kathi Carlson said...

Great job! I love her hair!! What wonderful gifts those will be. As for not stamping, you have quite an extensive agenda this week. All good stuff with family. Enjoy!!

stampmonkey said...

Jeanne, your girls' teachers are going to LOVE these cross-stitched gifts! You're doing a wonderful job, and no matter how you end up finishing them, they're going to be true treasures! I really like the fabric you've chosen to use with the stitchery.

I've never heard of Colonial Knots, and if you hadn't mentioned it (thanks for the link!), I'd have sworn they were French Knots. Darling way to create curls. ;) tfs

Jackie said...

Oh that is a cool cross stitch...haven't done cross for years

Kim Burmeister said...

Wow! You are so talented in all your crafts! Love it!