a chocolate, blue bird coffee cozy

A chocolate, blue bird coffee cozy.

I needed a new coffee cozy for my french press coffee maker.  

So I made a paper template out of scrap paper just by

- holding the paper up to the carafe - 

- measuring it - 

- folding it - 

- penciling it - 

and then simply just cutting out a basic shape to serve as my pattern.

And then ~ I got out my g hook and started crocheting row after row of simple sc until it matched the height of my paper template.  

I used RedHeart Chocolate Soft Yarn.

Notice the little piece I crocheted to the right ... that's where the buttons will go.

Now to dress this up, I figured a cute little cross-stitch pattern would be adorable.

I found this blue bird pattern here.

Using scrap yarn and a tapestry needle I cross-stitched directly onto each 'square' of each single crochet stitch.

Such a perfect combination ...

coffee, crochet & cross-stitch.

so girly -- once again

Once again we are -- so girly -- here.
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Another one of these small carryalls, but for our older teen.
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Taking cross-stitch pattern that looked most like her from this book ...
a

and the deepest blues that mimic the sea....
g

and a black & white animal print...

a couple of fabric yo-yo's and some ric-rac...

And she's got a brand new bag.

so girly

So girly for my teen girl. She wanted a little bag to carry her essentials. You know...cell-phone, pencils, iPod & lip moisturizer.
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Now that she has turned 13.
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And Chloe, the cross-stitch girl from this Meet the Girls cross-stitch pattern book looked so much like her that I added her as an embellishment.

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Crocheting some very easy & simple flowers to add some more embellishment...

...using all of her favorite colors.

Hmmm. Wonder if you could make a baseball one for a boy who just received a Nintendo DS for an early birthday present.....

catchin' up on Christmas

WARNING---> If you are related to me & your name starts with a B, E or L --->StOp reading now!

I am catching up on Christmas gifts & am in the process of finishing these cross-stitch items for my favorite sisters-in-law and mother-in law. The black & white stitching is going to be a biscornu -- French for a 'quirky, little pincushion with 8 sides'. Because 'L' is soooooo into beading, I will be making a matching scissors fob to go with this pincushion so she can take these to all of her beading classes -- and for those times she sets up 'beading camp' on the dining room table as soon as a family meal has been cleared.

'B' has a love for goldens that almost surpasses our love for this beautiful dog, so when I saw this pattern I just knew that this would become a pillow for her....and most likely her dogs. Hey, she leaves the TV on for them while she is at work -- so providing a stitched pillow is almost a requirement for them......

And here is a blue-bird with apple blossoms that will become some sort of something for 'E'. She is so sad that their cat has chased away all of these birds from their feeders, so I tried to capture their beauty in this stitching. I'm not sure how to finish this, but hopefully an idea will spring forth before the mad dash for getting all of my gifts done hits me on the head-- that mad dash usually hits about the 20th of December. But.....

ThIs YeAr WiLl Be DiFfErEnT!

BQ

BQ. (Before quilts and quilting.) Before all of this quilting that I am so head-over heels about-- I somewhat dabbled in cross-stitch.


I actually purchased this cross-stitch project because the entire thing was about purses. And I have this thing for purses. It took forever (a few times I just wanted to get rid of the whole project because it was soooo time-consuming.)

My hat is off to women who love this type of stitching (and I envy your stick-to-it ability to do this type of stitching) but I have found that although this came out quite impressive, my love still lies with quilting, sewing and embroidery where the choices seem to be endless as far as what you can do to make it come alive.

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And the fabric in the first picture is for a bag that I was asked to make and auction off for the Leukemia Foundation later in March. I'll be posting that when it nears completion.