Saturday, November 7, 2009

Buttons Up The Nose and Pine Needles

I bet that subject line got your attention, didn't it?

My precious grandson has disappointed me. For months now, when he comes over for a visit, he likes to get out my little jar of old buttons to play with. Now, I know you're thinking, and I've mentioned this before in my blog, "letting little ones play with buttons isn't safe" And I realize that there is a safety issue, but he enjoys playing with them so much and I'm always with him when he is playing with them. I constantly remind him to not put buttons in his mouth with the threat that I would put the buttons up if he ever did.
He just loves those buttons. He sorts them, he stacks them, he tries them out in other containers, and he talks about the colors.
I wouldn't say that we get hours of fun out of those buttons. As active as he is, I'm happy to get a good solid 10 minutes of quiet time fun out of the buttons. Then we put the buttons away, because "the vacuum doesn't like buttons" (what I tell him)

So the other day, he was visiting and playing with his mom and the buttons. I'm not sure what happened but some voice inside my grandson's head told him to shove a button up his nose. Jen was able to get it out, easily, so it wasn't a problem. But the buttons have been put up and away.   Haha..not up his nose ... up on a shelf!
Now at this point, I have to really wonder, what kind of thoughts are racing around in that cute little head of his? What compels him to push a little white button up his nose? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to read his mind to understand what the heck he could possibly be thinking? Why? Is he storing it up there to play with later? Why?

He has put things up his nose before. His parents found a raisin up there a day after he had been given raisins. We think he put a mini m&m up there, but the "melt in your mouth, not in your hand" promise, musta worked because we saw no signs of it later. He's been told many many times why he shouldn't do it, but yet, he still did it.
So I'm disappointed that we can't play with buttons now. I really enjoyed doing that. It would look silly for me to sit by myself playing with them, sorting them, admiring their colors and dumping them from container to container ... my kids would probably carry out their threats to put me in a home if they saw me doing that. I'll just wait a few weeks before getting them out again. In the meantime I'll start lecturing him about noses and not listening to "that" voice inside his head.


Ok, on to the Stocking Candle Mat, which BTW, I am going to sell the pattern for this. I'm getting it all ready to send off to the printers ... all I need is to get a nice picture of the finished mat to use for the front of the pattern.

My pictures from the other day showed the stockings stitched onto the black background. Now it's time to do those pine branches. So the picture above shows the three stages of creating the pine branch. First, with a chalk pencil, I lightly draw in the branch lines. Then with some brown pearl cotton thread, I stem stitched along the lines. Once all the brown branches are stitched in above the stocking, then I work on the pine needles ... just making random straight stitches on either side of the brown branches.
This takes quite a bit of time to do. It's not difficult, just time consuming.
I have to admit, and I know this probably sounds odd, but I don't really like embroidery type stitching. As much hand sewing as I do, people might be surprised to learn that about me. It's not that I hate it, it's just that I prefer doing applique stitching and try to limit the embroidery as much as I can in my designs.
However, as you can see, this mat does require a lot of embroidery. So if you like embroidery stitching this is a good pattern for you.
If you like embroidery stitching but stink at doing it? This will be a good pattern for you too because the more crooked your stitches are when making those pine needles, the better the branches will look ......


And this becomes a problem for me too, because I tend to be a perfectionist when it comes to stitching. I have a LOT of difficulty making crooked straight stitch lines, so this took me more time to sew simply because those pine needles have to be crooked to be perfect.
But really, it's so easy to do and no matter how you stitch in those pine needles, you can't make it look bad.
Today, I'll work on filling those stockings with gingerbread men and adding on tassles with stars.
I'm hoping to finish it up tomorrow.
Keep watch for the upcoming pattern.

Happy Day everyone!

13 comments:

Terry said...

Your stitching is just beautiful! I want to start working with wool. It looks so soft and pretty! :0)

Christine said...

Had to laugh outright at the thought of you sitting by yourself playing with a jar of buttons! So funny but I know what you mean - my mom keeps a jar of buttons and my kids like to play with them.
Yet another beautiful mat and your stitching is wonderful. Love it!
Thanks, too, for the info about burning candles with huggers on them as it was really helpful.
Christine

Wendy said...

Just found you! Love your designs, Particularly loved your step by step guide for the snowmen candle mat. Do you sell/ship your patterns to England?
I have to put my hand up and own up to playing with buttons!....I've even been known to sort them into colours and sizes, I even tried to count them once...hehehe! I wouldn't confess that to just anyone, but well sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do! Love your blog!

WoolenSails said...

Your embroidery is so wonderful, it really makes the piece look even more beautiful. I need to keep practicing my stitching.

Debbie

SDQuilter said...

I love your designs and am looking forward to purchasing this pattern from you, too. Thanks for your tutorials!!

Something Nice and Pretty said...

I too love your designs...this one is just darling!
Rondell

Janean said...

so festive!! i too am a perfectionist with my stitching, but quilter friends keep telling me "if it looks good on a galloping horse, it's good!" LOL

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

I love your stitch work. I have an upcoming project that I might be doing some embroidery work on and the pine needle stitches reminded me of that.
Karen
http://karensquilting.com/blog/

Karen said...

Excellent penny rugs!!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful work, as always Cathy. So the little "rug rat" finally got on Grandma's bad side! I bet you raised your voice a whole 1/4 of a decible when you scolded him.
I can hardly wait to see him at Thanksgiving. Warn Jen that Uncle Mark will be there causing trouble. Of course, I'm the one that showed Kaiden how to eat olives off his fingers! Hmm, what can we think of next? Maybe a fire hat with a loud siren?

Casserole Carol

Sarah Payne said...

I think that everyone should be able to play with buttons, no matter how old you are! So get that button box out and play to your hearts content!

Primitives By The Light of The Moon said...

OH how these lil' ones like things up their noses. I've been having to watch our grandson pretty close lately with him trying the same thing.
You go right ahead and play with those buttons.

JoDee said...

You are so funny! The visuals of Kaiden had me laughing out loud! I am so glad I found your blog. I have a country store on Cape Cod and would love to sell your penny rug patterns. Is this something you would ever consider?
If you get a chance, take a peek at my blog: http://cinnamonsticksandcandlewicks.blogspot.com
Thank you for sharing your blog, and also for the comic relief...I've enjoyed both very much!
JoDee