At long last ...

I return from posting never land! I have actually still been stitching pretty regularly despite having a three month old and a 1 1/2 year old! Here's my main accomplishments from the past several months:

For my son:


For my niece (to hang the same way as Emily's!):


For baby Vick:


I am so proud of these, and I can't believe I've made eleven Christmas stockings!!!

Christmas Stockings

I love the way our family Christmas stockings look ...

A few finished projects

I finished up a few projects just in time for Christmas ...

Meara's stocking (finished in record time!!!)

Sus's Christmas sampler (she did most of the work, I just finished a bit of the stitching and framed it)

A poem for Dad for his two doggies (China and Mea) that passed this year

And I didn't get photos of the poinsettia towels I stitched for Sus or the Woodland Walk sampler I did for Mom. I always forget something!

And because they didn't make an earlier post .. here are the two stockings I made as gifts last year:

It was cool to see four of my handmade stockings hanging in a row this year!

Grant's Stocking

I have been working on lots of stitching projects lately, and don't have many finished to show off ...

But I did finish Grant's Christmas stocking just in time for the holidays. It is one of the hardest projects I've undertaken. Tons of blended thread, tons of different colors, specialty stitches, beads, and a very small thread count. I think it turned out beautifully, but I won't be doing this pattern again!

Upside Down Tomatoes

Matt got me an upside down tomato garden for my birthday, and we've been patiently watching two tomato plants grow for the past couple months. There are several promising looking specimens, and I hope that we have some nice sunny days so that they ripen quickly!

The two varieties we are trying are Bella Bush and Patio (both are determinate).

Our first tomato was a sad little guy - early on in his life he had a run in with a caterpillar and he barely recovered. He was quite delicious, and I was so excited to eat him that I didn't get a photo!

The second tomato might win a competition for smallest tomato ever. He managed to grow right in the shadow of the grower so he never got much sun. See what I mean?

(and yes, that's a baby spoon)

Who knew I could quilt?!?

My wonderful admin at work, Winky, was always bringing in these beautiful quilts that she was working on. One of the quilts had this perfectly pieced tiny little square patch in it, and I asked her how in the heck she got the tiny little pattern to be so exact. She told me that she was using a technique called Paper Piecing.

She said that it was pretty straightforward and that I would definitely be able to do it. After months of thinking about it, I was inspired to try it out! I thought I would make Mom a thank you gift for the amazing hand made baby quilt that she did for Grant. I know that she likes the log cabin pattern, so I found some instructions on how to paper piece it here.

She and I have been admiring William Morris fabrics and ideas for a while, and I actually found some Morris inspired, pre-cut fabric strips to work with. I ordered a roll of 40 different strips of fabric. When the roll showed up, it was like Christmas!!!

I used tracing paper to print out the pattern off of the internet, cut my strips to lenght, got out my roll of Scotch tape, and went to work. It only took a few days of working on it every now and then to make one 12" by 12" square - too cool!

I left it unfinished and gave it to Mom to do with what she will. She said that she liked the idea (and the fabrics) so much that she might want to do a whole quilt for her bed with the same squares!!!

Fun framed projects!

I got some fun things framed for around the house! The first are some really cool (color copies) sketches from a friend of Grandpa's family (Kennedy) ... they were the Christmas cards that the friend sent for several years (during the 1920s and 1930s).

I love how detailed and tiny they are!

The second is a piece of textile that I bought when Mom, Emily and I were on our two week cruise around South America. I bought it on the Falkland Islands (how many people can say that?!?). I think it turned out so cute! The weaving is only about 4" tall ...

The third is a photo from the children's book, The Advice of the Dandelions, that Granny Farley read us when Emily and I were little and would go stay with them during the summers. I bought the cute antique frame on eBay - it has a domed piece of glass, and I think it's just perfect for the picture of Larkspur the donkey.