Tis not the season but...

                                                                              I stitched these cuties for my nephew last Christmas; having a nephew gives me the excuse to stitch some soppy stuff every now and again.  I used waste canvas for the first time and it was a lot easier than I anticipated although I still had to use some tweezers to pick out the threads after I soaked the felt.  It has made me want to use it again to stitch cross stitch patterns on fabrics other than aida or linen in the future.

I guess soluble canvas is even easier because you shouldn't need to pull the threads out from under the stitching as I assume they dissolve in the water hence the name.

Metallic threads are still a pain though; I can't figure out how to stop the terrible fraying >,<

Sew..Many..Babies...

Last year, four of my friends had babies, four of them, two of whom are younger than me! To someone who has never felt the lure of motherhood, it's baffling but they all seem happy enough which is the main thing I suppose.

So I've been stitching some baby gifts, a first for me, in one case I knew the gender of the child and in the other I didn't...

 The sampler was a request, they knew they wanted the basic information but gave no other direction so I looked though a punch of patterns I have stashed away and basically made something up.  I'm quite happy with the way it turned out, despite having to use colour equivalents as I didn't have the specified threads, (which appals my 'need to have everything perfect' sensibilities.)  I wanted something cute but not too cute and wanted to avoid gender stereotyping the little mite.

 

The fox was a baby shower present, (another first for me, going to a baby shower - scarred!) The baby's gender was unknown so I needed something neutral and animals jumped to the forefront again. I know next to nothing about shopping for babies and figured my friend would get lots of baby related paraphernalia and I wanted to give something that she would enjoy and which might look good on a nursery wall. I instinctively felt, (and turned out to be right,) that the baby would be a little girl but I thought this cute little fox cub would work either way.