Thank You

Thank you to the person who looked through all of my blog posts on the 17th. I happened to check the blog that day and it made my poor little blogging heart go pitter patter and swell three times it's normal size... Wait, I think that's a line from the Grinch... Anyways, it's true. It sent a little thrill down my spine and filled me with glee.

That being said, thank you whoever you are who is reading this and is not the person who looked at all my blog entries on the 17th. I appreciate your interest and I just want to let you know how important you are too. Even if this is the only entry you ever read of mine and you never visit my blog again, thank you. You've made my day too.

General update: My son is still sick so I took him back to the doctor today. The double ear infection is now just a single ear infection but since the one ear seems to not have reacted to the medication, they decided to go ahead and give him the next step up in antibiotics. While the other one could possibly give him diarrhea  this one is almost sure to. Poor baby bear.

Because I had been sick for nearly five days and I'm something like thirty weeks along, my father took me to the doctor on Friday. Turns out that right now it's just a bug. I was starting to do better over the weekend but then my husband had to go and take a severe chill on Tuesday. He started complaining about lack of energy, aching limbs, and a chill around lunch time at work when we spoke and by that night he was huddling up next to me in bed because he was literally shaking. He alternated between wracking shakes and burning up. Needless to say I made him stay home Wednesday because he was still running a temperature when he woke up.

And needless to say, I managed to get some version of his chill. He was fine after a day so we're guessing it was a twenty-four hour bug. My cough has returned and I've had body aches for a few days now but I seem to be recouperating again. Hopefully all three of us can get this stuff beat by Christmas or we're going to have some very miserable looking pictures for my son's first Christmas!

The other reason I haven't posted anything is because in the middle of all this madness - ailments, crafting, the end of the world, and general Christmas mayhem - my husband and I have been trying to buy a house. One house in particular. The only problem is that we keep smacking into hurdles. Hopefully we'll have a clear idea of where we're headed on the house later today but in the meantime, it's more than a little stressful.

That being said, I have completed one other hoop art - a felt Christmas tree with snow falling around it - and I'm in the middle of making another one - the same house from my Gingerbread House ornament from last year and a felt Christmas tree with snow falling around it. Hopefully I'll be able to post the process pictures of the former either tomorrow or sometime this weekend. I still have a lot of ideas and a lot to finish before Christmas but I'll get there somehow!

More Hoop Art Soon!

Well it's taken me nearly a week but I've acquired more embroidery hoops for my hoop art. I have six 8" hoops and six 6" hoops. I would have had them sooner but my son has been sick for over a week now. I finally broke down and took him to the doctor on Tuesday. Turns out that in addition to his runny nose, watery eyes, hacking cough, and itchy skin he also has a double ear infection. They've given us a broad spectrum antibiotic that will, hopefully, help and get this crud knocked out of his system.

In addition to that, I've managed to catch some kind of cold from him. Yay team!

So yesterday I broke down and asked my mother-in-law to run a few errands for me and she brought me back my hoops. I've already started sketching out ideas for all of them and I can't wait to get started on one later this afternoon. It's a toss up between starting with a reindeer silhouette, a cheerful snowman, or another (but very different) Christmas tree.

Stay tuned for the results!

Christmas Tree Embroidery Hoop DIY - 2

In case you missed the original post, here's a link to my first Christmas Tree Embroidery Hoop DIY. I realized after posting it that I didn't really show a good slideshow of each step but I was going to make another one tonight. Hopefully this will clear up any confusion there might have been from the first post!

You'll Need:

• 6" Wooden Embroidery Hoop
• Paint
• Fabric
• Felt
• Buttons
• Embroidery Floss
• Craft Glue
• Scissors
• Needle

How To:

Once again, I'm using burlap for my base. I stretched it between the hoops, laid out my green buttons to get a design in place. This is what I came up with:

Click to Enlarge!

I took off white felt like last time and cut out enough for the back, to anchor my stitches just like I did last time. The rest of the felt was used to make the snow, which was stitched with a blanket stitch to the burlap in off white embroidery floss. Here's a shot of the snow from the front and the back:

Next, I took the small brown buttons that I used on the last project to make a stump for my tree. This time I only used two by two buttons since the hoop and the tree are smaller this go around. To secure them down, I used matching brown floss and ran my needle through the buttons twice. Back and front shots:

Now we're back to the sticky part. I laid out the bottom row and worked my way up. When I was satisfied, I began gluing the bottom row and working my way back up, row by row. Here's a picture once I was finished:

After the glue dried, I began sewing the buttons down using a bright red embroidery floss. Just like the last one, I wanted there to be some contrasting to the finished piece. Here's an in progress shot:

When I finished sewing them all down, including the star, I trimmed the felt along the back. Front and back shots:

We're done with the sewing part of the project. I went ahead and prepped the ring, painting it red this time. Unlike last time, though, it did need two coats of paint. The first coat made the ring look pink so after it dried, I just added a second coat. Here's what it looks like:

After it dried, I cut out fabric for the backing.I wedged the burlap and the backing fabric between the two hoops, tightened it as much as I could, then pulled both fabrics taunt. As I mentioned in my last post, this takes patience and control. You  may pop the fabric out more than once. If you do, just try, try again. When you get it as taunt as you like it, tighten the screw of the hoop down as tight as you possibly can. Here's a picture of what it looks like with the fabric pieces not trimmed and glued down:

Here's some pictures of the fabric trimmed. Be sure to trim the backing fabric as close to the inside hoop as possible. This makes it easier when you glue the front fabric down along the edges.

Once you're ready to start gluing, glue along the top of the inside hoop as well as the sides to ensure that your fabric stays put. As I mentioned in my last post, the burlap will leave your fingers very very sticky. I also used glue on the snow along the front to make sure it didn't flip up since I decided not to sew down the sides or bottom of the snow on this project either. And here's the finished product, front and back:

 Hopefully this has helped! Let me know what you think about this tutorial in the comment section and I would love to see your versions. I look forward to hearing from you!