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My Needle's Song – Neulani laulu

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Tag Archives: animal shelters

Input Needed!

My Needle's Song - Neulani laulu

Many of you know that I do make small gift items (like magnets) and Christmas ornaments for sale in my various shops. My husband and I decided that we will now be donating at least 50% of the sales price to no-kill animal shelters. I will be doing a couple of special sets that will have 100% of the sales price donated to these shelters. I cleared out all of the ornaments I had on hand and am starting fresh.

What kinds of items do you look for when buying small gifts? I do try to keep my prices down to between $5 and 10 before shipping so that it is always affordable. Some of my ideas have been refrigerator magnets, mug mats, bookmarks, blank greeting cards, and of course Christmas ornaments. I also have some designs for small pictures that would be a little more expensive, but not terribly.

But what to stitch? Just in Christmas ornaments alone, I have snowmen, Santas, angels, animals, primitives, folk-art, vintage… well, you get the idea. I do collect cat ornaments as well. I have fallen in love with the tonttu designs and begun collecting those as well.

I would love some feedback. Drop on over to my Facebook Page and leave me some ideas, please. (The ornaments above were done for family, but I would be happy to do them again and sell them for $6 each. The tonttu fits into a nice 5″ greeting card, but he can be finished as an ornament too. I like the idea of making him into a removable ornament so that you can take the ornament off the card and hang it on your tree year after year. Though I now have a die-cutter to make these cards, I also like attaching the ornament right to the card, so it becomes the design itself.)

Lots of ideas, and lots of directions we can go…

Posted in Orts | Tagged animal shelters, Christmas ornaments, ornaments

Why is it…

My Needle's Song - Neulani laulu

Why is it that we never seem to get as much done as we planned to do? The first weekend every month, I do a Facebook Event for Christmas ornaments or just about anything crafty that folks want to do. I always have so many things planned to do and never seem to have the time to dotonttu1 them. This month was no exception. The July event started on Thursday because of Canada Day and Independence Day. I figured a lot of people had a long weekend, so let’s do a long event, right? Right. I started this little guy on Thursday and figured he would be done by Friday. WRONG! He turned out to be quite a difficult little one. 2 reds, 3 white/grey, 2 blues, 2 greens. And all in a rather tiny 30x45ish piece. I got done backstitching him on SUNDAY. Yep. Sunday.

So, I moved on to the next one, knowing it was a more simple design and should not take me all that long to do.tonttu2 I know from past experience that an ornament this size with 8 to 10 colors takes me about 4 hours start to finish. So, if I started it on Sunday, I should be finished on Monday. Easy. Wrong. Somehow or another my precious stitching hours just never materialized this weekend.

These are both kits, which I normally hate. I love the designs though and have been known to buy kits just for that reason alone. I still substitute my own fabrics mainly because I like a little more working room. The fabrics included with these are just barely larger than the openings and I want a bit more so that I can finish these off as ornaments and *then* insert them into the cards. The first one I did was on 16 count Aida, the 2nd one is on 14 count. I like the one on 16 count a lot more. I prefer to have a little bit of white space around my stitching. Don’t be surprised if you see variants of these in my shops before too long.

I also managed to finish several pieces for the Canadian Honour Quilts project. cgeese4The geese I spoke of earlier are done. I am not sure if this will be on the quilt for the detachment or for the family. It’ an elegant, timeless design from Lynne Nicoletti. Lynne retired very recently, but her charts can still be found in a few places if you are lucky. She also has several suggestions for the colors on the silhouettes. I picked the soft greens as they remind me of spruce trees. This one was stitched on 18 count Aida, which means it takes a long time to see your progress. That is 18 tiny crosses per inch.

 

The other complex one is the Canada Quilt. I have seen this one used before on these memorial quilts and I fell in love with it. It’scanquiltdone a wonderful chart to stitch – using only whole stitches. BUT, it is a solid 98×106 stitches. The original chart did not call for the white blocks or stitching to be filled in. I added those because well, this is a square for a memorial quilt and not the time to cut corners. There are close to 11,000 stitches in this piece!! But, I am happy with it, and I know it will be a great addition to whatever quilt it ends up on.

monster2done
There are 2 children from this family that will be receiving quilts as well, both boys. I decided I was going to do the Monster Letters from Cross Stitch Wonders mainly because the designs are fun, happy, and bright. I have one done and will be starting the second one this evening.

The 8 point star I mentioned in an earlier post is also done. 8pointstarI didn’t want to use all black on the two black points so I used the darkest grey I had. It’s a very simple but effective design and I think the final quilt will be quite interesting. spiderangryI have a couple of others finished as well, so my queue is now down to a very reasonable 1-1/2 from the 6 I had to do in April. These are all headed to Canada, which has been warning people for several weeks of a postal strike. That event is finally happening this week, so it is watch and see time now. These guys will sit with me for just a bit longer rather than at the Post Office.

spiderman1I have a Spiderman in progress for a pillow. This one is on 16 count because of the size of the chart. I changed and brightened the colors up on this one and it still looks gloomy to me. I wasn’t liking it much until I realized this is the older classic Spiderman and not the red and blue version you see in the modern movies. I will return to this one later this month, and hopefully get it done by the beginning of September. This is about 25% done right now.

And of course, I need to get working on the ornaments for the shops. This year, we will be donating 50% of the sales price to Blind Cat Rescue to help them with their ongoing needs. Watch for those going up soon, I hope! The goal is September 1st. So, enough posting… time to get back to work!

 

minions

 

Just a Little Behind…

My Needle's Song - Neulani laulu

Yeah, I know. We are off our schedule already. I had really been hoping for a nice, sunny day to take pictures. Well, it is spring here in Western Finland. Spring means lots of rain showers and gloomy, cloudy days. Not good days for photos! But, we do have some sunny days coming up this week, so I am sure we will get them done.

In the meantime, you are welcome to click on the link for the Headquarters to see what items I have available. A full 50% of the sales price will be donated to a shelter you choose or to Blind Cat Rescue and Sanctuary. If you are here in Finland, of course, I will happily donate to a Finnish shelter or rescue, too. If you need to buy through Etsy, please let me know and I will relist the item for you.

I’ve always posted pictures of the pieces I do for the various charity groups on my personal Facebook timeline, and items for the shops on my Facebook Page. Why hide all the good stuff behind a logon? So, I am changing that up this week. I have a very busy roster of pieces to stitch right now…

8pointstar

First up is doing the outlines and “setting” the colors on this 8 point star that will be headed to Canada Stitches for an injured RCMP officer’s quilt. The colors have several meanings to the various First Nations tribes, and the officer that will receive this quilt is a member of the Mi’kmaqs. It isn’t a difficult design at all, but it will have a good amount of solid cross stitch. This is one of my own charts. It is being done on a 12″x12″ piece of white Aida, using 9 colors of DMC floss. This design can be done in so many color combinations. If you want the chart I am using for this, do feel free to post a message on my Facebook Page.

I do have this in progress as this is published, and will get progress pictures posted on the Facebook page in the next day or so.

cansI have an ongoing project I am working on to make hand cross stitched squares for fallen RCMP officers. Sadly, there always seems to be a need for this.

I’ve seen this one done up before and always loved it. It’s bright, colorful, and yet very appropriate for a memorial quilt, especially for a young, vibrant officer. You can get this chart as an almost instant download from Crosstitch.com (along with so very many others, including Ursula Michael). The design is from Marv Schier.

This one is kitted up, and ready to start. I will be doing this one on 14 count white Aida too. I do use a lot of that fabric!

canada-geeseMy other start this week is this lovely Canada Geese design from the recently retired Canadian designer Lynne Nicoletti. Although her website is now gone, you can still get these designs in many local shops. I ordered this one from Gitta’s in Ontario Canada. They have the best selection of her designs and outstanding service. i’ve always loved this design and have just the perfect place to send it.

I am doing this one on 18 count Aida with one strand of DMC floss. I went with soft blue-greens (think pine trees) for the geese in the background. So far, I have a good portion of the lightest background goose done. I will get scans posted on the Facebook page.

So, outside of that, you can tell it is crazy-busy around here. Is it really any wonder why we didn’t get the pictures done this week?

 

It’s Almost Here!

My Needle's Song - Neulani laulu

Next month (April, just a week away), I get to finally begin on the overhaul of my shops. It is also almost time to spill the beans on our new direction. I am so excited, and this is something I have wanted to do for a while now. I did drop a hint in the last post. My shops along with Jessie’s Jewels will be teaming up to help animal shelters. Every single sale on both sites will now help our furry friends. You will see more details very soon.

20161Here’s two of the new designs. These are from a perforated plastic kit that turns out big ornaments – almost 5″ at the largest dimension! Personally, I think those are too big and klutzy for a tree! I did these two on 16 count Aida which makes them smaller. They have 6 more friends too. These were done during my February ornament weekend. I rather like them, don’t you? I have an ornament weekend coming up here very soon too.

I really can’t wait to get started on all of this. I have just 3 more promised squares to do and then I can work on this project full time. So, watch for my event posting if you want to join in the fun next weekend, and definitely watch for the new My Needle’s Song shops over the next month!

Until next time, Happy Stitching!

Charity Stitching

My Needle's Song - Neulani laulu

Earlier I had posted the 4 panels I sent to California for a special quilt. Yesterday, I saw a picture of the completed quilt.

caliquiltThe lovely lady holding this quilt is the teacher who put this project together. Everyone was so happy, and everyone was crying over the love shown to this little girl by complete strangers. It’s a great feeling knowing that something so simple as a piece of needlework can make someone so happy…

Which brings me to today’s topic — Charity Stitching. We all have our own reasons for stitching these pieces. With the quilt above, I had the time, the materials, and the desire. When her teacher asked in a Facebook group for volunteers, I was happy to be able to help. I have a lot of Precious Moments designs here, so it was just a matter of picking out ones that fit the theme and size requirements. These panels weren’t stitched for money or for the thanks. They were stitched to show that we can care about others, even if we don’t know them. It’s really all about people helping each other.

My  go-to group is Canada Stitches. This mainly-Canadian group of stitchers creates unique and totally handmade quilts for First Responders dealing with PTSD/PTSI, or who have been injured in the line of duty. We also create awesome quilts for children dealing with life-long medical/mental issues. Very few groups out there help Canadians. I am so happy and proud to be with this group and know that I do make a difference.

Love Quilts also makes quilts for children facing challenges. They have active chapters in the US; UK, and Brazil.

The second group I love stitching for is Cole’s Quilts.  This is a much smaller, more focused group that makes quilts for children with Spinal Muscular Atrophy. This devastating disease usually strikes infants, and is fatal about 80% of the time. It’s heartbreaking for the families. The quilts are made with the child’s favorite characters and colors. Even if the child has passed away, the quilts are a precious keepsake of that young life.

Another great group is the Linus Project. They are all over the US, Canada, and the UK. They deliver brand new handmade security blankets to children in need. If these don’t suit you, there are so many other ways to help. Many many churches work to help the elderly and children with bits of handmade comfort and are excellent resources. A simple Google search will also turn up a lot of ideas.

The whole point is to take a short time out to help another person through a time of stress. You have no idea how much it will add to your pleasure by simply doing so.

***********
I will have more updates to the shops this week as I am just finishing off a group of magnets on linen.

Until then, Happy Stitching!!

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