Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Anchors Away Nautical Pillow

 
Counted cross stitch on burlap creates these two nautical pillows. The red anchor and white stars are stitched on a natural burlap, while the yellow anchor and stars are stitched on a bright blue burlap. Both are surrounded by strips of coordinated color cotton to form a 'frame' around the burlap. These were very fun to make. The design is a quick stitch project.
 
This fun pattern and many others with a nautical theme are available through Annette Eriksson's Etsy shop here.

Anchors Away Nautical Pillow

 
Counted cross stitch on burlap creates these two nautical pillows. The red anchor and white stars are stitched on a natural burlap, while the yellow anchor and stars are stitched on a bright blue burlap. Both are surrounded by strips of coordinated color cotton to form a 'frame' around the burlap. These were very fun to make. The design is a quick stitch project.
 
This fun pattern and many others with a nautical theme are available through Annette Eriksson's Etsy shop here.

Monday, August 22, 2016

Driftwood Signs Beach and Lake

Every now and then I find a piece of driftwood that is just the perfect size and shape that is screaming to be a sign! That was the case with these two pieces of wood -- BEACH and LAKE.

I was able to order wood letters from this great Etsy shop in Arizona https://www.etsy.com/shop/azwoodlady. Last year for Christmas I bought a saw for my husband so he could cut letters for me....did I mention I ordered these from AZWOODLADY....never mind, that's another story for another time!

I used two colors of paint on these letters. For BEACH I used the blue as the base and covered it with an aqua, then sanded/distressed it to pull some of the blue forward. For LAKE, I did the opposite. I then added a paste wax and buffed it out.

I just love the color and depth of the signs. Just a fun little addition to any ones beach or lake house. See the signs in my Etsy store here.


Muskegon Sailboat Project

I love how this project turned out. See all the details below.


I received a note via Etsy asking if I could customize the head sail on a driftwood sailboat. I responded 'most likely send me a picture.' This is what I received!
 
Woo, that wasn't what I expected. I thought maybe the sail had a blue stripe on it or something. At first I thought 'no way' but then I started to study it a bit further. I was asked to make two. Luckily I had two pieces of driftwood nearly the same size but they faced opposite ways. So I started by drawing out the colors and then creating a mirror image of the drawing. I then cut out each of the pieces.

 
I was able to find batik fabric which I think looks a lot like water color painting in all of the colors I needed.
 
 
Then I drew the warrior facing both directions and cut him out of black fabric.
 
 
I fused and appliqued all of the colors on to the sail and here's the final product!
 

 
This was a very fun, challenging project. The sailboats are gifts to two children who lost their father. This was the head sail on his boat. It was a pleasure to be a part of preserving his memory.