Another NOEL done, retriever fabric, and broken glasses

I spent last evening finishing the stitching on the red NOEL. I was feeling kind of crappy so I just sat in front of the space heater, watched TV and stitched.

My brother asked me to make a pillowcase for someone and he wanted golden retrievers on it. He found this fabric and had it mailed to me. I will get that made tonight so I can get it mailed to him.

One of the nosepieces on my glasses broke off this morning. Yesterday the glasses were sitting kind of weird on my nose but I never thought to look at them.  I have had these frames for a very long time. I hope they are still available. I can still wear them; they just sit a little crooked on my nose. LOL!!

Have a great weekend! I am feeling better so I have plans to get a lot done. Besides the pillowcase I need to get some project bags sewn together and stitch a couple more NOEL so I can get cards in the mail.

Project bags, thread beds, and another NOEL

I took as sick day yesterday. I hurt all over when I woke up and decided to burn one of my 17 sick days I had left for 2025. I gathered myself together, took some Excedrin and other OTC symptom relievers, and headed to the studio. I turned on the space heater, sat there for a while, and thought about what I could do. I decided to cut out project bags and thread beds. I need to get these done so I can get them mailed. I cut four project bags and two thread beads out of the Georgia fabric for my sister's friend. I had to think about how I cut these out since the fabric is a one way design.

Then I cut out four project bags and four thread beds out of this dragonfly fabric.

I would iron and cut a little then sit a bit. This picture shows the pieces needed for a project bag. The outside fabric, the inner fabric that is interfaced, a piece of vinyl, and two pieces for the zipper - one is folded in half and the other is pressed with each half folded to the center. The thread beds have one additional piece of fabric for lining the pocket. There is a lot of prep work that goes into these! The prep takes so much longer than sewing the bag together!

I also got half of another NOEL stitched.

I am feeling better today on day 7 of this cold. As long as I take the Coricidin pills, then I don't cough which for me is the worst part. Yesterday it was freezing rain and wind. The city was out spreading salt and the main and secondary roads were in good shape. We only got about a half inch of snow after the rain turned to snow.

The first NOEL and plants

I got the first Noel stitched last night. The letters are just the right size. Here is what it will look like in the frame card.

Wanda asked me about my other plants so I went around and took photos of them. I have three Norfolk Island Pines. I just bought these at the grocery store at Xmas time. I have had them for a number of years. This one is 20" tall

This one is about 10 inches tall. It has never grown very well.

and this one is two feet tall.

Here is the rubber tree that was a start off of the one at the office. It is about 3 feet tall.

I have several snake plants which I love. I remember my grandmother having big pots of snake plants.

I don't know the name of this succulent, but it is pretty cool.

These are all starts. They don't grow very fast and they have been in this container for a several years.

This jade plant is about 10" tall

an aloe vera plant that someone gave me a start

Here's my crazy plant that needs some TLC. Yes, it is growing across the floor!

Another succulent that I grew from a piece.

and then I was given a tiny little plant that I had to repot and now it looks like this. It sits in the bathroom window with that succulent. They both seem happy there

I don't have a lot of good windows to have plants and I would probably have more plants if I did. I recently picked up a piece of a Christmas cactus that been broken off. I am going to try and propagate it.

A little stitching and blooming African Violets

I felt lousy when I got home from work; Monday was day 4 of the cold. I just need to feel better by Friday! LOL!! I just wasn't up to cutting fabric, interfacing and vinyl for project bags last night. I decided I would do a little stitching. This will say NOEL and I will insert it into a frame card. I should have started these about a month ago!

I had bought this book full of cross stitch alphabets.

See the number at the top of the page? That is the stitch count for the height of the letters. This book has alphabets from 1 to 60 stitches. Here is the one I am using.

To make things easy for me, I copied the page, cut out the letters, taped them together, and enlarged them. So here is my chart. Once I get the first NOEL stitched, I will decide if I need to add a border.  I am simplifying the letters just a bit by not stitching some of curly bits. 

Both of my African violets are in bloom.

Another tote done and the second Advent box

I worked on the Georgia Bulldog tote most of the day on Sunday. I am happy the way it turned out. It is for a friend of my sister. It seems like it takes so long to make one of these! I take the time to top stitch two rows on the pocket panel seams and zippers so that is a lot of topstitching! I have plenty of fabric left for what comes next which are project bags. I will probably make a couple thread beds too. I also have some Alanta Braves fabric to make my sister some project bags and thread beds. Things are going to be humming in the studio this week!

This year I placed two orders with the Fat Quarter shop and I am calling it my self-curated Advent box. The second order came and here is what was in it. I needed a new point turner. I broke the end off of mine. To get free shipping I needed to add something small, so I bought a couple more of the door buster spools of thread.

I bought these three cross stitch charts

and I bought a gallon of Mary Ellen's Best Press. You can dilute this by half and it still works just as good. I kept my old Best Press jug just for that. It was on sale for 20% off, I got free shipping and with diluting it the price is affordable. This will last me several years.  I like it so much better than the spray stuff in the aerosol can.

My cold hasn't gotten any worse. The symptoms are manageable with the OTC drugs. Thanks for all your well wishes!

Green tote bag done, a cold, and the next bag

The green tote bag is done. This is a much fancier version than the ones I make for the merch booth. The ones for the merch booth are down and dirty simple.   I just don't like using plastic bags for our merch since an album would put holes in a plastic bag. Almost every piece is interfaced on my fancy tote bag version, and the bag is lined. I will be giving this to the person I made it for on Friday.

I started getting that feeling like I was getting a cold on Friday. I just kept feeling worse as the day went on.  Saturday morning, I needed to go get a few groceries and while I was there I picked up my usual OTC items that help me get thru a cold.

I felt pretty bad on Saturday, so I didn't get as much done as I wanted to get done. After I finished the green bag, I started cutting out another bag with some Georgia Bulldog fabric that my sister sent me. Her friend is a huge Bulldog fan so for Xmas I am making a tote bag and some project bags out of Georgia fabric. It took a couple hours (I was moving kind of slow LOL!) to get everything cut out and interfaced. I will try and get most of this made today.

Pieces A, C, and F done

The main body panels for the tote bag are all sewn together. Here is my little drawing showing the location of pieces A, C, and F

Here are the panels

I need to figure out how I did the contrasting piece at the bottom. I will have to study my bag a bit!

After that I will sew together the lining, and the final assembly will follow. This bag construction is a practice run for making another one of these for a friend of my sister out of that Georgia Bulldog fabric my sister sent me a couple months ago. I also need to make a couple project bags out of the same fabric so those are my marching orders for the weekend! Have a great weekend and stay warm! It was 7 when I got up this morning - burr!

Tote bag progress, my Advent box?, that's a tub of cream, and a Hibiscus flower!

I fell asleep after I got home from work for about 30 to 45 minutes. I haven't been sleeping very well because of the itching. After I woke up, I worked on the tote bag. The zippered pocket panels are done.

I placed two orders with the Fat Quarter Shop over the weekend. Everything was 20% off so it was time to buy a few things that are never on sale. I have been watching ladies on You Tube/Floss Tube open the Advent boxes they bought; I didn't buy any Advent boxes so I am calling this my first of two self-curated Advent boxes. I also bought enough I got free shipping.

I was able to snap a yard piece of Paperbark 32 count Fox & Rabbit cross stitch linen. This fabric is expensive, so getting it for 20% off is a win win!

I pulled out all my other Fox & Rabbit linen, and I have a nice collection to pick from for my stitching! I didn't realize I had so many different colors!

Also in my box was some of my favorite black and red Cosmo floss, a spool of white thread that was a doorbuster deal, and some Pony needles for cross stitching. I placed another order after I thought about one other item I needed. They had it in stock so my second self-curated Advent box will be here Friday or Saturday.

Here is my tub of cream. So much better than those little tubes I was getting. Some areas are much better, like my back, but now my legs seem to be broke out. Ugh!  I put the deodorant in the picture to give some size perspective to how big the tub of cream is!  

A new flower had opened this morning on the Hibiscus plant. It is 5 inches across!