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Picnic Fairy Stitchette up in the Shop

The Picnic Fairy Stitchette has made her way to the shop this morning.

I’m kicking around some ideas for what I’m going to do with my finished embroideries this time. I think it’d be so cute to make some sort of picnic basket cover out of them but I don’t have a nice basket yet. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll make another garland or apron.

So a note on the pattern: all the detail in the samples I made up is not on the pattern. This way you’re free to add detail but don’t have to get all teeny tiny nitpicking if you’re not feeling it. The gingham pattern on the wings is not on the pattern. That I did with criss crossing running stitches. Same with the details inside the squares on the quilt. I think that’s it. Oh, I did some dots on her dress, those aren’t on the pattern. Again, a running stitch. Everything else is done in my usual split stitch or backstitch for tiny details. French knots for the eyes and dots. Oh and detached chain stitches worked well for the watermelon seeds. More info: I stitch mine up on muslin with half a strand of DMC floss (3 out of the 6 threads) and as I mentioned before, with whatever needle is on hand, you know.. the one that’s not too big or too small. Shoot me an email (hillarylang at gmail) if you have any other questions. Thanks!!

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sugarplum fairy giveaway


It’s not really sugarplum fairy season but maybe the abundance of smore making around here has brought about this early visit. Or maybe she’s just hanging out waiting for Gum-Drop and Lolli-Pop to make it out of the craft room. Either way, she’s only here for a brief stay. I’ve been trying for a while to make something fun for a giveaway (maybe the good giveaway karma will help my odds in winning some of the amazing fabric giveaways that I keep entering!) but things kept getting in the way (popped seams, sloppy stitching, people needing presents, etc) but (I hope) this gal is good to go! If you need a smore eating companion leave a comment to be entered in the drawing. I’ll close comments on Monday or Tuesday and pick a winner. Fun!

*** I closed up comments now. I’m going to go hunt down that random number generator and I’ll have the winner later this afternoon. thanks! ***

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picnic fairy & her friends

I’d been staring at a half-drawn picnic fairy for, I think, almost 2 months now. I would take it out every night and stare at it and nothing. Lots of drawings with kooky ants in them. But you know what, I HATE ants. That’s a fun homeowner story for another day. After I decided no ants it all cleared up for me and here is the Picnic Fairy and her friends… watermelon butterfly

I’ve got a frisbee catching puppy & a kite flying ladybug to go and then the set will be complete.

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doily doll

distraction doll "a" finished. distraction doll "b" – with the crocheted hair – has been scrapped. now it’s on to distraction bear. I mean, back to work on the kit, chloe & louise pattern of course.

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stop-and-go action

So, blog… I just cannot stay focused on anything for more than a few moments. I have a giant list of should-do’s that are being leveled by pangs of doubt & indecision and, I think, some hot weather laziness. Instead of staying on task I keep picking up random projects, fiddling, putting them down, etc. Last night I futzed around with this idea – crocheting doll hair from torn strips of fabric. Could be cute. I should really try to finish it.

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raggedy

Since I decided to punk out on cooking for Phoebe’s party I had just enough time to squeeze in another present.. this little Miss Raggedy Ann.


I had this idea for her hair — it’s strips of cotton quilted down to wool as a batting — stuck in my head and it was perfect for a Raggedy Ann doll. She’s a little crazy-haired but Phoebe seems pleased. Of course she’ll go after just about anything with a face on it.

I was going to go on and on about ragdolls, patterned hair, baby quilts, but I have to get up from this computer. I’ve spent the past hour checking through all my paypal orders from last month to make sure none have been missed because motherscratchin frakkin gd #^%@&$* paypal decided to start randomly dropping email notifications AGAIN. I cannot wait until there is an alternative to this piece-of-crap service.

Tomorrow I will be less cranky and go back to my goings on and on 🙂