Wha-bam!!!

DH claims that "wha-bam" can mean what ever I want it to mean.  Not quite sure what he means by that - he is pretty hard to read sometimes - but that is now today's official title and here we go:

Yesterday's finishes:
1)  I started out by loosing my focus immediately and jumped on to make some matching accessories for my brand new ironing board cover.  Here is a picture of my triangular "scrap sac" (thanks for the idea L-bug!), a long, heavy, emery-filled pin-cushion, and a couple of pin-boxes with magnetic bottoms.  I thought that the magnetic bottoms would work great to keep the pins in, or at least to be strong enough to find & suck up lost pins, but nope.  I found the boxes in Michaels' storage/organization department, where they are sold as accessories to magnetic wall strips.  They come two of the same kind in one pack.  My plan is still to cross-stitch something suitable and insert in the other couple of lids..... (Here is a link that shows you the brands, Studio Decor, and the how the package looks, if you would like to pick some for yourself.  The brand is owned by Michaels, so that is were you'll find them.  Not sure if they sell stuff on-line anywhere.)  This was the easiest finish, just iron on pellon on the back of the fabric, draw the contour of the shape on the pellon and cut out carefully with small, sharp scissors.

2)  Over to the real business at hand - the address book was something that I had to work on in steps over several days.  Lots of gluing going on, something that I am not too comfortable with by the way.  The book came with some plain paper to cover up the linen edges on the back of the front flap, but I upgraded to some scrap booking paper that I had lying around.  (See, this is why I tend to collect things while thinking to myself "you never know when you might need a pallet of assorted Mill Hill beads" or "a mound of assorted paper-clips" or whatever-it-is...  Not good!  Now that I have confirmed that this approach works great, I am more likely to continue squirreling things away.)  Recall how I mentioned DH's and my breakfast yesterday?  Does bacon ring a bell?  Well, as a bonus to-do, I got grease all over the back of the address book and had to cover that up with the scrap-booking paper too.  (I am working in the kitchen, since someone put pallets of Mill Hill beads and mounds of paper-clips in my stitching-room....)  Check out the letters on the address book.  Cool, huh!?

3)  The Halloween Pin Garden was the last finish of the day.  I did manage to squeeze in a small pin-cushion on the fabric.  I used the flowers from the main design and added a small crow or raven from Sandra Sullivan's (Homespun Elegance) free Halloween chart from last year.  This cutie can be found on her blog, here.  Since I ran out of all my emery while making the big ironing board pin-cushion earlier in the day, I shamelessly used a bag of cheap glass beads instead.  It does give the cushion a pretty neat feel.  I have added a pick of the backing fabbie too.  Speaking of shameless, I also "borrowed" some black silk thread from a completely different kit.  This is the second time I have borrowed floss from that particular kit, so I think that I may run into trouble the day that I actually start stitching on that one (a Scarlet Letter kit).

And, since we are on that theme, here is a snap of the "Box of Shame"....

It contains, I don't even know how many, unfinished ornaments, small pictures etc.  Here I have pulled a few out that I really want to finish within a reasonable time period (like 5 years or so...).  I would like to finish up the name sampler before going to the retreat next weekend.  (I'll write more about the retreat in my next post.)

Today, I am fit and ready to start finishing the Merry Cox class.  I do believe that it can be done  However, Sunday is the big bird-cage cleaning day around here.  DH and I spend about 4 hrs taking apart, cleaning, and putting back together 6 BIG bird cages.  Not especially fun at all.

Well, I'd better hop to it or it won't get started.  Talk with you in a bit and Happy Stitching,