Finishes and a new toy!

Yes, you read that right – finishes.  As in more than one.  Scary, isn’t it?

 

I spent this past weekend at the CreativFestival stitching my heart out.  It was wonderful to spend 4 days stitching and catching up with old friends.  I enjoyed every single class I took this year.

 

And believe it or not, I’ve already finished 3 projects from the Festival.  Granted, they’re small projects, but they’re actually finished.  Between the models I’ve been working on lately I almost can’t remember the last time I finished something….

 

First up – a Christmas ornament:

 

This is from a class I took from Jennifer Aikman-Smith from Dragon Dreams.  Actually it was a 3-part class – the first hour was spent doing some goldwork (with another instructor), the second doing some huck weaving (with yet another instructor) and the 3rd playing with this pretty ornament.  The worst part of this ornament was cutting the perforated paper, but I’ve mostly managed it.  Although, looking at the picture, I do see one tiny cutting error that I can easily fix (thankfully I didn’t cut off enough paper in one spot, rather than having cut off too much!)….

 

Next up, another DD piece:

 

Meet Jingle.  Isn’t he the cutest thing?  I didn’t actually get to take this class as I signed up for something else.  Luckily for me, Jen let me buy a kit so I could stitch him up.  I could make him up into a pin, but I might make him into an ornament.  I haven’t decided just yet.  for now, I can enjoy his cuteness.

 

And to round out  the finishes:

 

It’s (surprise!) another DD piece – a Dragon ornament (pardon the errant cat fur – I didn’t notice it when I took the photo).  The neatest thing about this guy is how dimensional he is.  His wings actually flap back from his body (I flattened them for the picture) and he’s holding the little Christmas ball.    To add some interest to this little guy, Jen let us all pick one Caron thread to use to fill in his wings and tummy.  Being shockingly true to form, I chose Caron Iris (well, actually Heather chose Iris, but considering how alike our colour preferences are, it may as well have been me doing the picking)….

 

We did have the choice to stitch the little ball or a candy cane or a gift.  I went for the ball.  I can’t explain why, I just did.  I’m quite happy with the result.  I just need to attach a hanger and I’ll be off to the races.

 

Now just so you don’t get any grand illusions about my stitching speed – I didn’t finish any of these ornaments in class (I am fast, but not *that* fast)….  I actually had yesterday off and I gave myself a very rare gift – an entire day to sit on my hiney and stitch only what I wanted.  Although I did stir myself long enough to go vote in our municipal election.  (I’m sad to say that my vote did no good as the folks in my town re-elected our current mayor whose motto seems to be – how high can I raise your taxes each year? and how stupidly can I spend the money?….but, I digress…..).

 

My pouch obsession has reared its head again and this evening I sewed this together:

 

Something cute for Halloween.  I admit that I didn’t really *need* to sew another pouch, but I really did want to.  You see, while I was at the Festival I made one really big purchase.  Thankfully my DH didn’t bean me over the head with it when I brought it home:

 

I finally caved and bought the sewing machine I’ve been lusting over for years.  It’s not fancy, but I didn’t want fancy.  I’m never going to be a terrific sewer, but the boat anchor I’ve been using for years now has driven me over the edge for the last time.  I decided I really did deserve a machine that didn’t make me want to tear my hair out every time I used it.  It’s pretty amazing – it threads itself with minimal fuss, it doesn’t make an ominous ‘clunk’ when you start sewing, when you hit reverse it backs up in a straight line and it doesn’t sound like someone released an enormous swarm of bees into the room.  Basically, it works!  (And if you really want to know it’s a Husqvarna-Viking Emerald 116).  So far I’m in love.

 

Well, I think that’s about it for tonight – I’m off to wrangle some more 8 year-olds in the morning so I’d better get some rest tonight….

 

Don’t forget to enter the 31 Days of Halloween giveaway over at Missy and Annette’s blogs.  I still can’t believe that I won one of their fantastic prizes.  I can’t wait for Canada Post to get it here.  I’ll be stalking the mailman for days and days……