December 1st To Christmas Is The Longest Time Of The Year

I'll do business first just to get it done and out of the way....


The Snow Faces patterns are in the mail and on their way to their new owners. I was able to get them all finished and mailed on Saturday. Expect them in a few days. Thank you all for such a wonderful response and for your orders. I so much enjoy all the feedback I get.
The pattern is still available until the end of today for $8.00 including the shipping. Tomorrow the price will go up to the regular price of $9.50.

December 1st is tomorrow! Wow, where did November go?
My neighbor and good friend, Linda made this for my Jen way back in 1986. The cross-stitching on it is beautiful.
Yes, it's an advent calendar. When Linda gave it to Jen back then, when Jen was only 4 years old, Linda had tied candies. Every year after that for ... I dunno ... 10 years or so, I tied candies on it and Jen would stand in front of it each and every night throughout December, reciting the verse, ringing the bell at the bottom and then getting her treat.
I can still hear Jen's little girl voice saying that verse. This little advent calendar has soooo many good memories for me. I got it out this year, hoping that Jen will start making her own memories with K, learning and then reciting the verse. I'll go out today to purchase the candy for it.

Linda, if you're reading this ... thank you for doing this oh so long ago. Benny and Linda are our most favorite neighbors (wink, wink)


Soooooooo, Thanksgiving day here at the Wagner home was ....
sorry, but it was a heck of a lot of work!
But it was all worth it because my sister, the ever popular anonymous blog commenter (Casserole Carol), and her family were here, along with my brother, Michael and his family. We don't get together often so the times that we do are so nice that the work involved with getting ready for it is all forgotten.

Naturally, the conversation turned to comments about my blog. The clear message that I got from everyone in the room that reads the blog is that I need to get a picture of myself on here so that people can see what I look like.
I told them that I realize that my face on this blog should appear at least a few times, but no one ever takes my picture and I'm certainly not going to take a picture of myself!

Soooooooo at that point .......

Out came the cameras!

Here's a picture of me with my sister-in-law, Janet. I think we might be eating pumpkin pie here ....



Oh wait ....

Jen forgot to send me that picture. She remembered to put it on her facebook page so let's all go there to see it ....

Oh wait ....
we don't have Facebook, so we can't see it.

That's ok. Here's a picture of me sitting beside Carol. Steph took this one. Don't we look happy??


Oh wait. Stephanie didn't send me that picture yet. I think she forgot.

:)


So .....

It's very clearly NOT MY FAULT that there are no pictures of me on my blog. :)



Sadly, Rachel went back to school on Saturday. Volleyball practice is important at this time of the year. Her team is leaving for the national playoffs in St. Paul, Minesota, tomorrow. Their first game is on Thursday and I wish we could go to watch because it's going to be some mighty good volleybal playing.
Any blog readers who live near St Paul and want to see some really good volleyball games, be sure to check out these tournaments. Look for #13 on the Cal U of Pa team and give her a hug for me. It would be really funny to have a blogger run up to Rachel to give a hug. If you can give her a hug while talking with a thick "Fargo" Minnesota accent ... you would absolutely make her day and mine ... joyous.
So Rachel will be on a mini vacation ... being treated well by the NCAA, shopping in the Mall of America and making great memories with her volleyball "family". She's one lucky girl ... but I really really miss her .. a lot.

Ok, I'm going to get my sewing things back into the dining room now so that I can get back to doing what makes me happy.

Have a happy day everyone!

New Design: "O Snowy Night"

Just a quick picture to show what I finished up last night. I think I'll call it "O Snowy Night". It's a little tablerunner. :)

The pattern will be made for this but I won't get a chance to work on this until next week or so.

The GOOD thing about having Thanksgiving at my house is that I'll have leftovers for the next 5 days or so. Do you know what leftovers mean to someone that is busy??? It means NO COOKING! No cooking for me for 5 days means I will have time to catch up on things ... like ......

The "Snow Faces" pattern. I've everything ready to get the pattern assembled now. I did one real quick just to show here. With Thanksgiving preparations, I don't have time now to assemble it but I'm hoping with Rachel home, she'll help me on Friday and perhaps I can get the orders mailed out on Saturday.

Thank you all for the orders. The pattern is still available as a preorder for $8 including shipping. After Monday, the price will go up to the regular selling price of $9.50.

That price is good for all my Canadian friends too. International sales? Well, thanks to a friendly UK reader, I found out how easy it was to mail the patterns to other lands. So I will offer this for international sales too! Just ask me what the extra shipping costs will be and I'll send an invoice for the total. I'll share the shipping costs with you too!

Questions, I get questions!
**I was asked if I'm planning to make the Christmas Sampler candle mat into a pattern to sell. For now, no. It's so detailed that it would take a tremendous amount of time to write the instructions so I'm going to hold off on that for now. Besides that, I'm hoping to take some of the individual shapes off of that design to create other designs ... like the gingerbread man on that one will be used to make a gingerbread man candle mat. So I want to keep those sampler designs for myself for now so that I can get different uses from them.

**I was asked where I got the mottled green colored wool that I used in the Christmas tree.
That was my own dyed wool that I showed here in this post . That was "Married" wool. When I dyed it, I hadn't planned for it to be so mottled, so it was a big surprise. I had planned to use it to make a ivy garland type candle mat but just never got the time to do it. So there the wool sat, unused until now ... Never thought that mottled green and white wool would look so good as a Christmas tree until I actually cut it out and placed it.
I show how to "Marry" wool here . Marrying wool always creates delightful surprises.

That's all I've got for now ..... Seriously, I've got to get this house cleaned, pies made, and turkeys to defrost. I shouldn't be sitting here typing ... what's wrong with me??? ! :)

Happy day everyone and a wonderful Thanksgiving day too!

"Snow Faces" Pattern is Ready!

Well, that title line is a little misleading. The "Snow Faces" pattern is ready for printing. It's being printed today, so it should be ready for mailing on Monday.

My own "Snow Faces" candle mat is listed on Ebay right now. Hop over THERE to see more pictures.

This is a design that I created a few weeks ago with no intentions of making a pattern for it. Because of all the requests after seeing the finished mat, the pattern is created! I really appreciate all the feedback I get on any of my designs.

Anyway, this pattern is super easy and quick to make. The snowman faces are the background wool so the hats are positioned at the top of the scallop and all that's left to do is add the face details and you're done!

I think it would also look cute with just two alternating colors for the hats. This can easily be made with woolfelt too.

So I'm going to put another Paypal button up there on the left corner of this page. If you wish to preorder this pattern, it's a special price of $8 which includes shipping. After next Monday, the price will go up to $9.50.

If you prefer to pay by check instead of Paypal, just let me know.

Ok, now the fun stuff .....

I've finished up my Christmas Sampler candle mat. Ohhhhh , I'm so proud of this! It really turned out so much better than I had expected. I'm really not sure which one of these I like the best. I really REALLY enjoyed making this. Most candle mats are repetitive and by the time I get to the last stitches, I'm weary of looking at it.

This one has no repeats of anything, so each little design could get as many or as little different details that I felt like doing. soooo sooo fun to make.
The green wool that I used for the tree is mottled with white and makes the tree look snow-covered.
I attached real jingle bells to the candy canes. I thought about rusting the bells first, but I once I held them on the canes, I really like the sparkle and shine that they add, so they stay shiney.
I had the most fun doing the snowman. I have a little cardinal nesting in his hat and I've dangled snowflakes from his arm limbs.

So, I just need to attach the backing to it and I'll be finished with it. It will be listed on Ebay Sunday, probably. I just might keep this though. I've not decided for sure.

I probably won't be blogging much in the next few days until after Thanksgiving. My sister (Casserole Carol) and her family and my brother and his family will all be coming to our house for Thanksgiving, so I've much to prepare ... yes, the dining room will have to be cleared of all my sewing things to make room for real, live people, so that will take some time to do. I'm looking forward to Thursday simply because my house will be clean, finally. :)

Great news is that Rachel will have Thursday, Friday and part of Saturday to spend with us. She won't have to be back for Volleyball practice until Saturday at 4, so I'm pretty happy with her coach right now ...

Happy Day everyone!

Oh, it's been such a busy weekend! We finally went out and socialized with actual real live people last night. The night before, we traveled down to California, Pa to watch Rachel's volleyball team playoff games.

The good news/bad news is that Rachel's team has once again won their division and is now going on to play at the nationals.

So this is the third year in a row that their team has done so well and it's been such a great opportunity for Rachel because of all the traveling they've been able to do with all expenses paid. I hate to complain because it's been so much fun for her, but the bad news is ... once again, she will probably only be able to come home for Thanksgiving day. If it's like every other year, they'll have to stay at school for practices and training to prepare for the big event.
But, I'm really happy for her and her team.

So, since I haven't been home much, of course, not much stitching was done. I did manage to finish the reindeer, the angel and the gingerbread man. I still have to do the stocking, the Christmas tree and the snowman. I'm going to save the snowman for last just because I really like doing snowmen and look forward to making him look jolly and festive.

I' like how that gingerbread man turned out. I liked making him almost as much as I like making snowmen. I would like to make him and a girl and a gingerbread house candle mat sometime, IF I get the chance/time. I always make little miniature gingerbread man cookies for christmas, and they're so cute it's almost like you're killing them we you take a bite. We've killed dozens of them over the years. :)
Here's the reindeer and the angel that are finished. The deer looks really bright in the pic but it's done in a perfect fawn brown color. I'm happy with this mat so far.

Someone asked me if I blanket stitch everything. It was an anonymous comment so I'll just answer it here since I can't email respond....

Mostly everything gets a blanket stitch edge, but it just depends on the look that I want and the size of the applique piece that needs to be atached. This reindeer wasn't blanket stitched because that face and those antlers would look too messy with blanket stitching. I just tacked/whip stitched them on and then did a primitive running stitch around the perimeter of the deer body. So it just depends on what I feel like doing at the time. There are no rules. :)

I'm hoping to Ebay list my "Snow Faces" candle mat tonight. I've had a LOT of requests for the pattern for that one too so I'm going to try to work on writing the instructions for that today and maybe, just MAYBE I'll have the pattern for it ready to sell next week, after Thanksgiving.

Happy Day everyone!

Thanksgiving and Ebay Do Not Mix!

Y'all have disappointed me. A few postings ago, I mentioned that I was going to Ebay list my "Snowfaces" candle mat on Thursday night. Out of all the people who have read my blog over the last few days, not one person warned me to not do that on Thursday night.
I've made this mistake before and thankfully I caught it myself before I did list it last night.
So what's wrong with Ebay listing something on a Thursday night???
Usually nothing, except last night is exactly ONE WEEK away from Thanksgiving night. When I Ebay list, it's up for a week. NO ONE is sitting at their computer watching Ebay items on Thanksgiving night. If no one is bidding at the very end of the sale, guess what? SOMEONE will get a bargain! :) While I don't mind so much someone getting a bargain, especially if it's a good repeat customer, I certainly don't want to set myself up to purposely sell it at bargain basement prices.
So my "Snowfaces" Candle Mat will be listed on Sunday night.
You readers need to be more alert, because really, I am such a scatterbrain sometimes, I need the assistance when it comes to things like this.

And now, since I'm speaking about being a scatterbrain .... I've received quite a lot of emails lately. I've tried to respond to questions but there've been times that I put off answering the questions because of lack of time. Then I go back to find the questions, and that email is lost in a sea of new emails asking questions.
So, if you've asked me a question either in comments or via email and I haven't responed to you, please don't be offended. Because of the giveaway, I was bombarded and I lost track of the questions.
Just ask again, please? I don't mind getting questions at all so ask away, but if I don't answer back within a day or two, just understand, I'm scatterbrained and I've either forgotten or I've lost the question!


Ok.

New designs are swirling around in my head and I've so many cute ideas for Christmas candle mats that I just don't have the time to make, the idea occurred to me to make a "sampler" candle mat using one of each of my design ideas.
So, that's how this new drawing started .....

Excuse the bright, glowing date stamp on there. I'm going to be dating most of my design pictures on here for proof of ownership. I'll make a post sometime soon about copyrights and what I've learned recently, but for now just know that my dated pictures have rewarded me with proof of ownership and protected me from copyright thievery and that's invaluable ... and well worth the ugly bright date stamp that you see.

So here in the picture you'll see eight different holiday pictures squeezed onto one candle mat shape. I roughly drew it all out and then roughly colored it in just to give me some help in creating some color balance. Since I have to consider size balance and color balance on the mat, I decided just to cut out each individual pie shape so that I could easily rearrange the shapes to their positions on the mat.

So here, I've kinda settled on this arrangement, knowing that once I actually go upstairs to the woolroom to select the wools, I might have to change it around again.
I spent an entire morning working on this .. getting the pattern drawn and cut out and then figuring out what wools would work best....

This is what I've come up with. Changes had to be made during this whole process. I took out the gingerbread house and made an angel instead. The gingerbread house just has too many tiny details and it just wouldn't fit right into that little pie shape without cramping it. It's going to be a very "busy" little mat as it is so I have to be careful to not make this into something that is heavy with too many details.

The colors changed from what I originally planned because I found a wonderful soft plaid wool with different colors that could be "fussy cut" to make that mitten, the angel and the stocking. They will blend well because it's from the same wool, but they're each slightly different colors. Am I going into waaaay too much detail here? Am I losing you?

hahah .. ok ....

I'm starting to stitch each shape on now, starting with the shapes that I'm most concerned with. The candy canes came first because I wasn't sure if I could manage to make them look like candly canes in such a small space....

Oh and those white stitching lines that section off each pie shape are just quick basting stitches to mark the territories. They'll be pulled out once the mat is finished.

But yeah, I really like how they turned out. The pic is blurry here, sorry. I had to use heavier white wool for these just because there is so much stitching going into the fiber that a lighter weight wool would break down and shred. The heavy wool held up nicely.

After finishing up with the candy canes, I did the mitten. I wanted to put a cute little button snowman on the mitten and I was hoping that the mitten color wasn't going to be too dark to show the snowman arms. It is a bit dark, but I think you can still tell it's a snowman, so I'm happy with this.

I'm now starting to stitch on the angel. She's looking a little large on her pie shape, so I'm going to clip her wings ... just a bit to see if that helps.

That's it for now. I'm hoping to have most of the stitching done by Sunday night and I'll try to show the progress in a Sunday post.

Happy Day everyone!