Happy Halloween

Trick or treating is winding down but not over yet.  We had quite a few kids at our house, I think partially because it has been raining so much that people came here because we have sidewalks and some of the older neighborhoods do not.  In addition to children of various sizes we had at least 3 dogs come to the door.  I thought about putting some dog treats by the door with the candy, maybe next year.

I participated in a Halloween Exchange this year.  I chose to use a Secret Needle Night piece as the basis for my exchange and I made it into a bag using several colors of calico and some trims that I had.  I think it came out rather well.  I filled it with various treats -- some stitching and some not -- and sent it on to its new owner.  I hope she enjoyed her Halloween treats.

Various updates

I have been sewing, knitting, and even doing some stitching.  This has resulted in a nice looking Halloween bag for an exchange, a pair of socks, a beaded scissor fob and a lot of unfinished projects.  I can't show off the bag yet, it was just sent off to its new owner, so I am going to share my completed Golden Darner Scissor Fob by Fern Ridge.  I really enjoyed doing the peyote work, but got tired of the fringe at the bottom long before it was done.  It looks great though.  Now, I am working on the needle book to go with it. 

I am also going to share my Cookie A Summer Sox.  They are knitted out of Eat your Vegetables Claudia's Handpaints sock yarn.  I love the name of the yarn and the socks are beautiful and very comfortable.  I used slightly smaller needles than the pattern called for and the socks fit perfectly.  This is a wonderful thing because a lot of sock patterns come out too large for me when they are knitted up.  Since these socks went so well, I bought Cookie A's new book of sock patterns, Sock Innovation. 

New needlepoint project

I stopped at a local needlepoint shop, Needle Pointe in Palatine, on Friday and bought a new needlepoint canvas. The idea of working on a Christmas piece appealed to me on one of the first warm days of summer. The canvas is shown on its own and with the threads I pulled.

Next Banner Sections

Here are the four sections of the banner on the right side, from top to bottom. Starting with Friends. Some of Perry’s friends are pictured here. At school, Perry and her friends have created their own holiday, “Cupcake Day”. This year she missed it to go to Boston with the Affirmation class, but although they are very hard to see in the photograph, there cupcake ribbon on her banner.




Interests. Perry loves entertainment. Some of her favorite music, books, movies and television shows are represented in this section of the banner along with her favorite places to shop and her favorite clothing designer, Betsy Johnson. Her life would not be complete without Starbucks, her cell phone and ice cream. The tv shows reflect her varied interests ranging from CSI and the Secret Life of an American Teenager to American Idol and Pimp my Ride.






Travel. Perry loves to travel. The patches represent some of the places that she has been including Florida, Arizona, New Orleans, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Boston.










Animals. This area includes animals that we have (two dogs, two cats), animals that have lived at our house (a rabbit), a pig (Perry collects pigs and was born in the Year of the Pig), and a lizard (the pet she wants but that I would not let her have). I found patches of a blond shar pei and a black lab to represent our two mixed breed dogs, but could not find a black and calico cat. Instead I settled for two cats that are shaped like ours.