Category Archives: Embroidery

The Week So Far

Here in northern Illinois we’ve had a rather warm week, until today… it’s sooo blustery, which makes it seem sooo COLD. My cold tolerance is pretty low right now, so I’ve been wearing my knee length down coat today. We’re expecting our first snowfall late Friday into Saturday. It seems too soon, but it really isn’t.

Today, even though it was blustery and cold, the sun shone brightly. I walked outside with my camera to photograph possibly one of our last “green grass” days for awhile.

These leaves were REALLY blowing when I snapped this photo.

The pachysandra still looks pretty; it stays green, but is covered with snow most of the winter.

Other news, my new Little Darling painted by Helen Skinner arrived on Monday! Ohhh, happy day!!! I waited approximately 30 seconds to open her. Ha ha, such discipline.

I asked my daughter to name her for me, and she picked Lucy. I do like the wig she arrived in, but for fun I tried lots of wigs on her and I like her best as a redhead. Did you ever notice how, even though we can change our dolls wigs, there seems to be a hair color that suits them the best? For Lucy it is auburn or carrot; Gina looks best as a brunette. Lucy is my second Little Darling and is the #3 sculpt. I love how she always seems so happy. It sounds silly, but seeing that smiling face makes me happier. Helen did a phenomenal job bringing her to life. I also really like the new arms on the Little Darlings; Lucy holds onto things such as dolls and stuffed animals very easily, too cute.

Here is a quick photo of what I was working on today. Lucy will be modeling this sweater dress for you all very soon. She can’t wait!

Thanks for spending some time visiting with me today. Bye for now!

“I’m a Santa Helper”

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“I’m a Santa Helper”, says my Little Darling, Gina. She is indeed wearing all of the jingle bells and whistles to get herself noticed by Santa Claus. Gina even has a tiny present to add to the pile for good little girls and boys.

Gina’s hand knit sweater dress is made from Peruvian Highland wool in winter white. The “fur” trim at the hemline is knit with mohair/silk. The asymmetrical waistline embroidery depicts holly, berries, and blue spruce branches. Of course, Gina cannot help Santa without a Santa hat. This one is in deep red wool with a hand made pom pom, jingle bell, organza bow, and a heart bead decorating the tip of the hat.

The red bell decorations continue on the bracelet, necklace and as a decoration on Gina’s tiny gift.

For more information on Gina’s “I’m a Santa Helper” ensemble, please visit the “Shop What’s New” page at cindyricedesigns.com.

Live and Learn When Things Go Wrong

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What do you do when you are working on something, putting your heart into what you are making, and then, something goes wrong?

I was really sad and oh, so disappointed. The hours I spent knitting and embroidering this sweater flashed through my mind as I looked at the stains that a new strand of beads had left behind around the buttonholes. I tried dabbing the worst stain out with water, then tried a tiny bit of Shout, the one stain didn’t budge, so I didn’t even try with the others.

Well, how bad are the stains? Not too bad, in my opinion, but the sweater is not perfect now. 😞 I know that I don’t have it in me to remake this sweater and the stains are very faint, so the sweater isn’t ruined. I removed the offending beads and replaced them with glass beads. If the sweater is buttoned, the stains are totally covered up. And, (ha ha) unbuttoned in a darkened room they are unnoticeable. Hey, I gotta laugh or I’d cry!

But seriously, see not too bad.

Here is the sweater with the new glass beads sewn on and the sweater buttoned up.

And, here is Talyssa during the photo shoot when everything was going perfectly, or so I thought. I liked Gina’s “Ivy and Holly” ensemble so much that I decided to make Talyssa one of her own.

Now, for the learning part and in case you were wondering about these beads. These beads were labeled as “Dyed Bamboo Coral”. I wanted to better understand how this happened and how I could test beads , so I took the strand and rubbed it on an old wool sweater and sure enough there was a faint pink stain left on the wool. Needless to say, I will be staying away from dyed beads.