Linda's Review of Tiny Treasured Diamond Holiday Cardinal Embellished Ornament Kit by Mill Hill

I've always wanted to try beading and have admired beautiful crazy quilt creations with beading and ornaments created with beading for a long time.

I've also admired goddess dolls and have wanted to try my hand at creating some of the beautiful beaded goddess dolls that I've seen.  Back in 2009 when I wrote about the goddess dolls in a Linda's Blog post entitled "Why Not Be Adventuresome?" and "My Goddess Doll Adventure So Far!" I was hoping to have some time to create some of them.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to do so as of yet.  I'm still hoping that maybe this year I will find just a smidgen of time.

I was first introduced into beaded ornaments many, many years ago when a colleague at work brought in some of the beaded tree ornaments she had made and was selling. She had some large blue beaded ornaments like those shown in the picture below and some smaller white beaded ornaments like those shown in the 2nd picture below. So, I bought three of the large blue ones and 3 of the smaller white ones.  They quickly became some of my favorite Christmas tree ornaments.

Linda's Review of M'Lady's Chateau - Dimensions Gold Collection Cross-Stitch Kit

If I told you that I had spent over 250 hours on a cross-stitch picture you'd probably think I was nuts. However,  if you're a follower of my The Book Review Corner blog you already know that I love needlecraft's.  So, spending 250+ hours on a cross-stitch might not be hard to imagine.

I did spend that much time on one cross-stitch during the last few months and I'd do it again as the cross-stitch picture (shown in the picture above and shown framed in the picture below) is absolutely stunning.  If you click on both images you can view an enlarged version of the picture.

To give you a little background on why I would do this, back in July I wrote a Linda's Blog post about my pressed flower pictures entitled "My Pressed Flower Pictures - Now That's A Great Idea!"  In that post I told you about a large pressed flower picture I had made that was hanging in our master bedroom and, sadly, was fading which meant it needed to be replaced.

Well, my husband thought a needlepoint picture like the one I had done in the dining room but much bigger would be nice. I wrote about this needlepoint picture awhile ago in a Linda's Blog post entitled "Needlecraft Picture From A Decade Ago - Or So!"

So, since our house is filled with dolls and pictures of buildings & houses I thought a cross-stitch Victorian scene might be just the thing. So, I set out to find some large cross-stitch kits that would be suitable.

Pumpkin Patch Penny Rug From Lakeview Primitives

I just LOVE creating with wool felt. Whether it's an ornament, a pillow, a wall-hanging, or a penny rug - I just LOVE it.

I was introduced to penny rugs during a shopping trip with my Mom to Sturbridge many, many years ago. There were several wonderful primitives shops out there that we liked to visit who carried primitive doll kits, wool felt kits, punchneedle kits, and penny rug kits.

One store in particular specialized in wool fabric. And, boy, did they have wool fabric. Some of the most beautiful wool fabric you'd ever want to see. And, boy, was it EXPENSIVE.

This store, in particular, would put together wool fabric bundles, maybe 10-15 wool pieces per bundle. I just loved looking at the color combination's and would imagine what I could make out of them. Then, my Mother would snap me back to reality by turning the price tag over. YIKES! Beautiful wool is expensive. Alas, all I could do was dream and save my pennies.

Just How Many Cross-Stitch Kits Did You Buy!

You might have noticed in my previous post entitled "Cross-Stitch Kits I Bought This Spring" that I bought quite a few kits. What I didn't tell you in that post was I actually bought many, many more than that.

I can imagine what you're thinking (she's nuts!) but, I didn't buy them just because I'm obsessed with cross-stitch - I actually had a purpose in mind. The problem was I couldn't decide which cross-stitch kit I wanted for this particular purpose and then when I was looking at all the kits I found others that I just had to have.

So, I ended up buying nine other kits. Five were for the purpose I had in mind and four were because I just had to make them. Actually for the latter it's probably more because they were either Victorian, houses, or just plain cute.

By now you must be wondering what purpose I had in mind that would cause me to buy so many other cross-stitch kits. Well, I was trying to find a large Victorian cross-stitch picture that I could make to replace a large picture hubby and I had hanging in our bedroom. The large picture that is hanging there is a pressed flower collage I had created years ago.

As with everything I seem to do there is a story behind the collage. I have been in love with flowers and cut flowers since I was a little girl. My favorite flowers to plant and cut to make a floral arrangement were and still are dahlia's. The bigger the better. So, when it came time for me to decide what to plant in my perennial gardens I wanted to plant all sorts of flowers including dahlia's.

I've always been amazed by the sheer beauty of flowers and wanted to find a way to keep them forever. I decided I should try my hand at pressing them and then creating floral collages out of them. So, over a decade ago I decided to dry some of the beautiful flowers I had in my perennial gardens and embarked on pressing hundreds of them over the course of one summer.

To press them I used old telephone books, paper towels, and bricks. First I laid paper towel on the back pages of a phone book and then laid the flowers on top of the paper towel until the page was filled. Then I laid another paper towel on top of the flowers and then flipped several of the phone book pages on top of that.

Then I laid another paper towel on the new section, more flowers, another piece of paper towel, and flipped more pages of the phone book on that until I had completely filled the phone book up. Then I laid a brick on the front cover of the phone book and set it aside for the pressed flowers to dry.

When they were completely dry I arranged them into a dried floral collage which I glued to a large piece of press board. Then I matted it and framed it and hung it in my bedroom.

Well, several decades later some of the pressed flowers have browned and the color has faded from most of the flowers. Hubby thought it was time to change it and suggested that perhaps I might find a cross-stitch picture that would fit the bill.

So, I immediately thought of some of the beautiful Victorian scenes I had seen from time to time in several cross-stitch kits. Of course, my problem was I loved all of them and couldn't choose. Plus, I wasn't quite sure exactly which ones would be big enough for the picture. So, I bought all the ones I liked and thought might do the trick.

Here's what I bought for the Victorian picture I had in mind:


Dimensions 'A WALK ON THE BEACH' Cross-Stitch Kit
Dimensions Gold Collection In Her Garden Counted Cross-Stitch Kit
Gold Collection A Stroll In The Park Counted Cross-Stitch Kit - 16"X12"
Gold Collection A Treasured Time Counted Cross-Stitch Kit
Dimensions Counted Cross-Stitch Kit-M'Lady's Chateau

Of course, while I was out looking I found other cross-stitch kits that I liked. Now, if you're a follower of "The Book Review Corner" blog and my Linda's Blog you know that I love houses and that my house is filled with pictures of houses (and dolls). So, when I saw the following I just had to have them: 

Haunted Hotel - Cross-Stitch Kit


Queen Anne House


Victorian House


Girl Silhouette - Cross-Stitch Kit

The Victorian scenes will definitely take awhile to complete. The little houses should be fairly quick. I'll let you know what I think about each of the kits after I've finished them and I'll be sure to include pictures in my post so you can see how I've finished everything.

Needle-craft Picture From A Decade Ago - Or So!

I know that I've told you a million times that not only do I LOVE doll making, but I also LOVE floral crafts. Well, you can add needle crafts to my obsessions as well.

Now you might think that the needle crafts is a new interest as I've posted about my cross-stitch and punch needle crafts and shadowbox gifts during the last two years until, I'm sure, I've bored you to tears. Well, you'd be wrong about that.

A couple of weeks ago I was looking for some needlework frames to use for some of the Christmas gifts I'm currently working on for this year and ran across some really, really old needlepoint kits that are still WIP after 35 years in storage.

Thirty five years and they're still not done! YIKES!

And, to be honest, I know they're are many, many more around the house. Hiding in the corners - lurking there until I finally get a chance to finish them. That is, if they're lucky enough to get finished and not thrown away. Nah - thrown away - that would never happen! Part of my problem is that I just can't seem to throw anything away. But, that would fill up a whole blog or two and really, really bore you to tears.

In any event looking at the kits I decided that at the time I had to have been into historic scenes and buildings and must have thought it would be fun to do some needlepoint kits of Boston landscape scenes - like Trinity Church in Copley Square and Boston Gardens. The kits looked nice, but I must have gotten bored really quickly with them as one is 1/4 of the way done and the other I never started.  You can tell how old these kits are as yarn was used as the thread back then versus embroidery threads.

Thinking about these kits reminded me of another needlepoint kit I had done almost a decade ago and which currently resides in my dining room.

My mother and I had been craft shopping and I had seen this kit and she had spotted a Thomas Kinkade stamped cross-stitch scene she liked. The reason that I remember this shopping trip was I had found the Thomas Kinkade cross-stitch kit unfinished and unopened when I was packing away my Mother's things this past winter.

The kit I bought was a "Ribbons & Roses Wreath" Dimensions Gold Collection kit. I can recall that at the time I was doing the "Ribbons & Roses Wreath" kit that I thought I'd never finish it. It just seemed to get bigger and bigger with more to do each time I worked on it. I'd finish one section and think I'd made progress until I looked at what was still left to do. Then I'd groan!  If you've ever done needlepoint you know what I mean! LOL LOL Well, I finally did finish it and it is shown in the picture above.

Instead of framing it in a picture frame with a mat my husband and I decided to finish it with a wood shadowbox frame that he made and which I painted. What I really liked about the kit was it combined needlepoint with ribbon crafts. Once I had finished the needlepoint part of it I had to outline some of the flowers for affect and create ribbon flowers that were to be added for a three dimensional affect.  Once it was finished it really was stunning.  In fact, the picture really doesn't do it justice.

Sometimes I think my husband and I are so in sync that at times it's spooky.  Just as I was thinking of this needlepoint out of the blue he happened to mention to me that he really liked the wreath needlepoint we had hanging in the dining room and that maybe we should move it to a spot that had more visibility as it really was quite beautiful.  Unfortunately, there really isn't any other place to more it to so it will have to stay in the dining room.

In any event (I know, I say that A LOT) it was nice of him to mention it and thinking about it brought back wonderful memories of one of my many craft shopping trips with my Mom.  I'm thankful for that and thankful that I finally finished it - albeit almost a decade ago.

They say that time flies when you're having fun.  Well, that may be true but I'm not sure it does when you're working on a needlepoint project.  At least not for me.

More Punchneedle Kits Made And Reviewed In 2009

Like everything I do I never do anything in moderation. Instead of just creating a couple of punchneedle and cross-stitch kits to give as Christmas presents I created 30 or more. As a result I had more than I needed to give as presents. Was this intentional? Maybe!

Then again, maybe not! Maybe I'm so highly organized that I knew I would need some in the future. Anticipating the future? Maybe! Then again, maybe not!

In any event I ended up with more shadowboxes than I needed. The punch needle pine tree shown above was created based upon a "Pine Tree" pattern kit by Rachael T. Pellam of Rachael's of Greenfield that I added a dark green, burgundy and white sponge painted wood shadowbox frame to. This pattern included detailed instructions and tips for punchneedle as well as an iron-on transfer sheet that you had to iron on to the foundation cloth which was included in the kit.  It also included a piece of paper with the DMC floss numbers printed on it and each of the floss strands grouped by color tied to a punched out square next to it's respective DMC floss number.  It did not include a diagram with the detailed numbers on it but included a listing on the back of the pattern indicating which DMC floss numbers were to be used and where.

I also found a wonderful punch needle pattern by Linda Coleman of Jeremiah Junction called "Folksy Sheep" that I liked.  As with my other punchneedle projects I decided to add a sponged painted wood shadowbox frame.  I wanted the frame to appear like the sky so I sponge painted it royal blue, light blue, and white.

The pattern and instructions were easy to follow and the diagram was well laid out and easy to read. The pattern included the pre-printed weavers cloth.

What I also really liked about the Jeremiah Junction pattern was that it not only included a diagram with the colored DMC floss numbers but included a picture colored with the DMC floss colors and a table that included a small square of the DMC floss color and it's respective DMC, ANC, or JPC floss number.    The kit included reverse pre-printed fabric, DMC floss, and pattern with instructions.  The design was printed on the reverse side of the fabric and you work on the reverse side when punching to create the image on the front side.

Cross-Stitch and Punchneedle Kits That I Made As Gifts For Family - Christmas 2009

I just love surprising family members with handmade gifts for Christmas and did so again this year.  And, of course, almost all of the gifts were some of my cross-stitch and punchneedle shadow boxes that I've blogged about previously. I just had such a wonderful time finishing all the punchneedle  and cross-stitch kits that I had bought in the Spring. 

Several of my family members love birds and gardening and several are into primitive crafts and primitive decor. Luckily I was able to find some punchneedle kits and cross-stitch kits that fit the bill. And, of course, I enlisted the help of my younger brother and his astonishing workshop to help me build my shadowboxes.

In a previous post on my Linda's Blog I had mentioned that I had a lot of problems with the first cross-stitch I attempted to do and named it the "cross-stitch from hell!"  My sister loves cardinals and the Adirondacks and I had found the cross-stitch kit shown above which was "Christmas In The Adirondacks" from Dimensions The Gold Collection and thought she might love it.

It was the first cross-stitch I had tried in at least twenty years and probably should have started with something a little less difficult.  I have to admit I found it difficult to keep track of where I was stitching on the the blank fabric versus the chart.  The pattern includes a chart that has color coded symbols that refer back to the respective keys.

"Santa Ornaments" Mary Engelbreit #85310 Plaid From Bucilla

Besides all the punchneedle and cross-stitch shadowbox presents I created for Christmas 2009 I decided to create some wool felt ornaments and bought several wool felt kits to do so.

One of the wool felt ornaments kits I bought was Mary Engelbreit Santa Ornaments Felt Appliqué Kit (6-1/4" x 5") - Set Of 6. The "Santa Ornaments kit contained pre-printed felt, cotton floss, needles, beads abd embellishments,  and instructions to make six hand felted Santa ornaments.

What I loved about the pre-printed felt pieces was that each was sequentially numbered and this number was stamped on the felt pieces where it was to be sewn. So you could easily follow from the sequentially numbered pattern piece to the stamped felt piece it was to be sewn to and to the instructions.

The instructions were multi-lingual and were easy to follow. They also contained pictorial diagrams for creating the various stitched that were to be used to create the ornaments. The ornaments were completely handsewn.

Here's my results:

I Really Wanted To Try Needle Felting and Penny Rug Felting - I Loved It!

I decided last year that I wanted to try needle felting and penny rug felting  with wool felt as it seemed like everyone was having so much fun with it this year. I don't mean wet needle felting where you are actually creating a needle felted object from the wet felt. I'm just not that adventuresome!

Penny rug felting involves using pieces of wool felt hand-sewn in a decorative pattern using a blanket stitch or other embroidered stitch to create a miniature rug that is hung as a decoration or used as a tablecloth.

Needle felting is similar to penny rug felting only it also includes using roving that is punched into the wool felt to create part of the decoration. Decorative pieces created of this nature are usually primitive in design and created for a primitive decor.

Here you take a piece of wool felt and place it over a needle felt mat. Then you take a bunch of the roving and using the needle felt tool you keep punching the roving into the wool felt piece until you get the desired effect that you want.

Wool penny rugs started out as coin shaped decorations stitched together from scraps of fabric.  According to Wikipedia.com: In the 1800s, starting around the time of the Civil War, thrifty homemakers would use scraps of wool or felted wool from old clothing, blankets and hats to create designs for mats or rugs. Using coins as templates, they created circles and each piece was then stitched in blanket stitch fashion. (Thus, the name "penny" rug). Sometimes, the mats or rugs were backed with old burlap bags or feed sacks. Sometimes a penny was stitched inside the mat to make it lie flat.

Penny rugs and needle felted wool decorations are very popular with the "primitive" home decorating community.  They are no longer rugs for the floors but have developed into all sorts of decorations for ones home. 

I started with three wool felt kits where one was a penny rug type decoration that needed to have some sheep and tree decorations needle felted. The other two kits were more like wool felt embroidery kits to create primitive wool decorations which could be hung on a wall or placed on a table top.

Punchneedle Fun With Dimensions Holiday Friends Ornaments Kit #73244 and Dimensions Santa's Presents Kit #73410

I just love BRIGHT, COLORFUL creations like the punchneedle cubes that I made in the picture above. I made them this spring and summer with the hopes of giving them away as Christmas presents this year.

However, as with everything I make, I fell in love with them and my selfish side took over and decided not to give all of them away. Maybe I'll hold on to them for a little while and them give them away next year. Who knows?

I didn't keep all of them.  I did give the blue Santa in the left top cube and the turquoise blue Santa in the middle cube on the bottom row away.   My twin grandsons will get to enjoy them now.  Actually, it's my daughter-in-law who will really enjoy them.  She just loves handmade crafts.