Sampler Featuring Illustrated Salt Glazed Motifs

I do a bit of ceramics and I think I know what they are referring to when they say this sampler is about Salt Glazed items, but I think it must have been a vintage trend of certain salt glazed items.  Because you can get far more colors in a "salt glaze" kiln that just white and grey.

But what matters here is that it is a beautiful sampler!

Polar Bear Carousel Ride

Even though this beautiful Polar Bear was made into an ornament here, I imagine this pattern could be used for so many other items.

Handmade Tags For Your Handmade Gifts

This is pretty cool, I had forgotten all about these little patterns for cross stitching your own little tags for the items you make.  Even the things you make that aren't cross stitched!  There are samples all across both pages and lots of way to make one that is unique to you.

Give Me The Simple Life

What can I say?  Here is a another charming sampler for all of use who enjoy making them.  Give me the simple life.  Gardening, art, reading, and of course all forms of needlework!

Birth Announcement - Bunny Rabbit Family

This certainly isn't a simple birth announcement!  I love this little bunny rabbit family out in their farm with a brother and sister dancing for joy.  I imagine they are so happy about the new baby!

N is for Needlework

Okay, I am apologizing in advance for the fact that I do not have the next two in this series.  I had some water damage in a storage unit years ago and lost a lot of paper items.  But hey, at least I have the important one!  The N is for Needlework!

Floral Birds Nest

Beautiful patterns like these are one of the reasons I decided to start scanning my collection before the paper they are printed on become more brittle.  Especially the ones printed on plain paper and not the glossy paper.  I hope you enjoy this beautiful springtime birds nest!

Fresh Vegetable Sampler

Here is a sampler for all of us veggie lovers out there!  I am not a vegetarian, but I am a Celiac who cannot have any grains.  But I don't mind because fruits and vegetables come in such an amazing range of forms, colors, textures, and flavors.  And I grow a big vegetable garden every year.  Are you growing any vegetables? 

Floral Fan

Here is another one of those wonderful patterns that I would love to have the time to stitch.  Isn't this beautiful!?  The original worked special threads in, including the use of silk, but I am sure you could customize it with your favorite highlights and use your own collection of threads.

Country Menagerie

This is one of my favorite patterns!  And I used it for the bottom of one of my six foot measuring charts.  I always tried to put a cute scene at the bottom at the eye level or lower of the youngest people being measured so they'd be able to see it well.  I have fond memories of working on this one while riding to work in the commuter van.

I posted a photo of the one I did to the Pinterest Pin I made for this post on my Embroidery board in the Cross Stitch section.  I hope you take a look and save the pin for your boards!

Easter Floral Basket and Country Cottage

Okay, it is far too late to make these in time for Easter or even spring this year, but you can make them for next year!  And of course the cute little cottage would be delightful anytime of year.

Chinese Peonies

If you have ever seen real peonies, you know how beautiful they are with all of those layers of petals.  This is a relatively simple but sweet pattern.
Opps, the color chart is missing.  But this pattern really in one where you can make it your own with what ever colors you like.

Art Deco Birds

This illustration of birds on flowers and a vase in the Art Deco style would make a great pillow or footstool cover.  Maybe even an awesome sewing machine cover?  And I think I'd spruce up some of the colors a bit.

Nine Hearts

I am not sure, but I think these nine hearts were the winners of a competition to design a heart pattern.  They used to have these competitions all of the time, to design a small themed piece, and I always wanted to participate.  But was working too many hours back then to take the time.
These nine hearts are all winners in my mind and I have used several over the years to make small thank-you gifts.  I wish there had been a clear photo of all nine finished hearts, but there wasn't.

Taking it up a notch!

I may not be able to post every day for a while as we head into springtime.  Because my field of lavender needs my attention "stat!"  The weeds need to be knocked down before they harm this years crop by stealing nutrients and making the new branches weak from leaning on them. 
Plus, all this past week I have been working until the wee hours of the morning creating sets of my main lavender product, wrapping them in lavender tissue paper, and boxing them up!  I am sending a huge chunk of my inventory to Amazon Handmade so that my shop can go Prime.  To be Prime, your items have to be in an Amazon warehouse so they can ship your orders immediately.
So then all of those little boxes also all needed barcode labels!
Silly me, once I got that accomplished, I had divided my shipment up between to humongous boxes.  One for the smalls and one for the mediums.
But I wasn't thinking.  Because from Amazon's point of view, it was best to split the shipment up three ways and send them to three different locations for faster access depending on the location of the customer, of course!  So then I had to get different boxes and make sure each one had the exact barcoded "ingredients" as the lists provided by Amazon.
Whew!  Finally got the cases off to UPS yesterday.  Now I wait until they arrive at the warehouses and get scanned in.  Meanwhile, all of said inventory is shown as unavailable in my Amazon Handmade shop...
And this girl needs an income.
Super excited though!  This could be the year my little enterprise finally takes off!

Enough said.
Next post will be another vintage cross-stitch pattern!

Cacti and Lizards!

These days, cacti and succulents are all the rage.  Mostly because most of them don't require much care or water.  But trust me, most succulents would benefit from more water, better soil, and more fertilizer than cacti need.  In fact, a lot of them are from tropical areas where they would at least get a bit of mist once or more a day.  Especially those you want to have bloom.

Anyway, I do love lizards!  We have a lot of little lizards here and it is fun to watch them all scramble away while I am watering.

Golden Harvest

I really enjoy the gold and black used in this beautifully designed autumnal piece.  I suppose it could also be done in other colors, but I think I'd stick to the golds and maybe even work in some metallic gold thread.

Please help by sharing these posts and re-pinning on Pinterest.  Thanks!

Snowy Night Winter Scene

What do you think?  Making a winter scene on a warm spring day just might make it feel cooler?  Whereas, working on a winter scene during the winter would just make you feel colder?  Here is a winter scene to work on during a hot spell!

Fruits and Vegetables Set of Three - Set Three

And here is the third part of the set!  I love root vegetables, so I really enjoy the first and second parts of this set.  By the way, did you know you can cook radishes?  Yes, not only are radish greens yummy, but the cooked root tastes just like tiny turnips when they are cooked!  And I don't think I can cook a meal without onions in one form or another. 

Fruits and Vegetables Set of Three - Set Two

And here is the second portion of this three part series.  I love the rustic theme of this set.  I hand dry lots of herbs and I can see how hanging some fresh fruits and veggies just brought in from the garden and right before prep time for a meal, would be easy and convenient. 

All of these patterns can also be found and shared my Pinterest board, 

the links are on the right hand panel.