2025

Some of the work I finished in 2025.

One is a piece that I bought in Bergen, Norway, a country that I have ties to and finished as a gift for a relative. It is a map of the country with illustrations that show animals, sites, and other things associated with Norway. 

I also finished a seasonal piece 

And an ornament. It was supposed to be a pin, but I finished it differently. It was a gift for a friend. 

Another small piece was from a magazine freebie. The card turned out well.

2024

Here are the things I've finished in 2024. 

Needlework

First finished piece was this plastic canvas winter piece. It is by Dimensions and called Snow Family Greetings. It is supposed to be finished as a doorhanger, but I decided not to do that. A friend liked it, so I gave it to them. 

I did a small kit that I received as a gift, that was just meant to be a hoop finish. I am considering using it as part of a larger multi-media work. 

I have been working on several other needlework pieces over the course of the year, but they are mostly still in progress. I did finish one at a stitching retreat that I went on in August, a simple kit that I started and finished there. The piece was prestamped on fabric, and it wasn't centered on the fabric. It was meant to be framed partially at the edge of the piece, with stitching going outside the hoop. I was a bit disappointed in how off centre it was printed, but I used the provided image as a guide and only stitched a bit beyond what was meant to show. I have some other kits by this designer, but it seems that this is a common thing with her kits, so you have to decide yourself where to stop stitching. I eventually framed it in 2025 and gave it as a gift to a close friend. 

I had a relative who got married in early 2024, and I did a couple of pieces as gifts. One is a small mouse bride and groom, pictured here, and the other is a wedding sampler that I haven't included a picture of for their privacy. 

September through December 2023

Kids' Crafts

 I did more kids' crafts through work. Here are some of them. 

Weaving

I also did my first yarn weaving project using a very small loom to make a bookmark. I definitely need to work on by tension so it stays more uniformly rectangular. 

Needlework

I did some stitching from a company called Craftpod. Their winter 2023 kit included these two projects. The scene in the hoop is done in embroidery on brown linen and white felt. I quite like it, but the back is proving a bit bulky to finish because of the felt.

 

This polar bear was supposed to get a blanket and scarf, but I liked him "au naturel"

Here's the framed alphabet piece that I showed a picture of last post. It's called Heard It Through the Grapevine.

I did a couple of gifts that were for my niece's wedding in January, so will waited to include these pictures. 

September through December 2022

These months I framed some previously finished needlework pieces. 

This is Scarlet Letters by Tempting Tangles

This is Turkish Delight by Ink Circles. I think the pale frame and rich blue mat really brought it to life.

I also finished one of Amy Mittens' Excursions, #22: Spain and framed it. The double mat and the scrollwork frame complemented it nicely.

I finished my Little Pin for Winter by Lynn Payette and found the perfect fabric for the back. I also decided not to put ribbon around the sides as I like it as is. 

 

I did some more art projects, some of which I kept a record of. 

This is a simple painted clay pot, done as a candy corn for Halloween

This is my first attempt at doing impasto. As a non-painter I struggled a bit with the technique and it didn't come out as I liked, but we still used it. 

This was a Christmas plaque, which started as an unpainted wood piece with some layers. I used both paint and modelling paste to bring it to life. 

Also on a Christmas theme, I tried my hand at a ribbon tree. I used a Christmas themed snowflake earring as the topper. It turned out pretty good. 

I did a few other crafts, but didn't keep them, and forgot to take pictures. 

I also have several other needlecraft pieces on the go, but will wait until they are further along, or finished to document them here. 

Happy crafting!

Catching Up: from July and August 2021 to July and August 2022

I spent a lot of time reading and being outside near the end of the summer of 2021, despite more rain than usual, but also spent time with family. I started quite a few pieces that are in progress and will finish them at some point, but here are my finished items.

First, I got my Sedona Soleil piece back from the framers and couldn't be happier with it. They did a lovely job.

I also finished Scarlet Letters, by Tempting Tangles, a piece I began pre-pandemic. I had to do a little adjusting because it bothered me that one of the words wasn't in alphabetical order. I charted out just switching the order of the words to fix it, but had some letters running into ones from the line below when I did that, so I ended up choosing a different, and I think a better word to substitute. I used a similar font, borrowing elements from other letters in similar fonts elsewhere in the piece to make it, and am happy with the results. 

 

This is a Mill Hill kit for a small piece that you could make into a brooch, a magnet, or another small item. I thought it was a really fun piece. 

I also started working part-time at a crafting shop in the fall of 2021, and am involved in some of their crafting workshops, camps, and classes. Since I had to do a sample for many of these, I am including a few of the ones I rather liked here. 

These ones are from the Kids Summer Camp. My favourite is the solar system necklace. 

   

   

March and April creations

I finished a few more pieces in this time period. 

I finished an needlework piece for a wooden box top to hold buttons. The box was unfinished, so I painted it with acrylic paint in a coordinating colour and then added the stitched panel to the top after lacing it to a thin but stiff piece of cardboard. It took me a while to find the right edging to finish it off, but I was going through my stash and found this purple mini bobble edging that was a dark purple, so sewed it on using a blanket stitch. This piece is by Noteworthy Needle and is called Button Box.

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It also took me a while to find the right item to place in the center of the small circle on this canvaswork piece. The designer was unable to supply the original crystal she used as it went out of production, so I ordered a few different cabochons trying to find the right fit. And one order took two months to arrive, so that really slowed me down. This piece is designed by Lorene Salt and called Sedona Soleil. I'm taking it and dropping it off to be framed in early May.

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I continued by Exploring Texture and Pattern course with 2.2, drawing with back stitch using a picture of my house for the subject. I did it really quickly, so the lines aren't all nice and straight, but it was fun and my husband liked it. 

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I did the stitching from beginning to end for this fun cross stitch piece. I loved the fabric which is called Boleyn from Primitive Hare. The pattern The Raven is also from them.

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January to June

Well, lots has happened over the past few months, and it looks to be a very different year than what we expected.
I've been doing a few creative things, trying some new crafts and different techniques

Crafts
At the library I used to work at, I was doing some adult craft programs, and in January I tried out some clay projects. This is a clay that is set by baking on low heat. I mixed different colours, and then added some metallic paint on the edges afterwards. I also added a stamped design to the bottom of one piece. Another creation is a simple chrysanthemum ring. I chose a blue one and a matte silver base and think it looks good. That was super simple, just gluing the two parts together.

 

In February I tried out paper quilling for the first time. I quite enjoyed it, and so did the one person who came out. She is a teacher and tried it in her grade three class and it was very successful.
Here's what I made in the program.

We started out with the thick felt heart (from Michaels) and then took the smaller wood heart and painted it with acrylic paint. The paper quills were made in different sizes from a variety of red and pink quilling papers, and then glued to the wood heart. For a couple of the bigger diameter quilled circles, I put stick-on gems over the middle. I think it turned out pretty good.

Punch Needle
I got a punch needle kit through Kiwi and tryed my hand at designing and executing a pillow. The kit included a few balls of wool, a punch needle, a threader, a pillow form, a piece of woven cloth with pillowback pieces attached, and needles and thread to sew it into a pillow. It also had some patterns and some blank pieces of paper to create your own patterns, which I did.
I love cats, and so did a cat design. Played with the limited colours of wool that came with the kit. I have to say that while it was interesting to learn, I didn't love this. The frame provided didn't keep the fabric taut with the effort needed to punch the needle through it, and the threader broke within the first hour of stitching, so after that I watched my thread level and tied the next piece on, doing the same when switching colours.

Needlework
I worked on a few things. First a simple kit that I got from a friend with the words New Zealand and some Kiwis on it. My niece went there last year, so I ordered some backing fabric with kiwis on it, and sewed it into a bolster style pillow

I finished an alphabet piece for a gift (so no picture until later this year), and I also worked on some others pieces that are still in progress.
These include a red-themed piece, a canvas piece with beads, and a couple of small experimental pieces.