My first finish of the third quarter.  Good grief, it took me three months to get this thing finished and framed, but just in time, because Autumn has arrived!  It is now proudly hung and displayed on my living room wall, I just love it!

This cross stitch pattern is by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery, and is the Autumn Sampler.  Twenty-five little boxes of Kawaii autumn goodness. I started this cross stitch about a year ago, and worked on and off for the better part of the year.  Apparently I am a really slow stitcher, extremely slow.  I loved every bit of it though, and can't wait to get really working on my next cross stitch project.  I find they are perfect for car rider line in the afternoons.

My first official finish of the 2014 Finish Along hosted by Katy of The Littlest Thistle.  You can see my third quarter finish along list HERE.  I'm currently working on finishing up 2 more things from my list, so wish me luck, I really want to knock some quilts off my list.

Hello everyone!  Welcome to my stop on the Craft Buds Craft Book Month Blog Hop, whew, that was a mouthful!  I was thrilled when Lindsay asked me back this year, as this is one of my favorite yearly events.  Nothing better than actually using those craft books you have purchased that are just sitting and collecting dust.  Last year I made a handbag and apparently I can not stray from that theme, as this year I have made another handbag!  Oh I love it so!

I dug through my collection of books for a while before settling on Anna Maria's Needleworks Notebook, written by Anna Maria Horner.  Have I ever mentioned that I am obsessed with her, like LOVE LOVE LOVE everything she creates and touches.  I can't wait to meet her next year at QuiltCon, hopefully I can muster up the courage to actually talk to her and not just stare at her like a freak.. Anyways, back to the point.  This book has so many lovely projects in it, it was really hard to pick just one, but in the end I settled on Star-Crossed Love found on pages 65-68.  You can see the project from the book below.  How cute is that and I really don't own many "dressy" clutches, so win, win.

One of the things I love about this book is the huge mixture of handwork projects, from cross stitch, needlework and crewel.  I chose this project because of time constraints, honestly I am a very slow stitcher, and thank goodness I did because I finished this project yesterday.  I literally stitched on this baby for well over a month, every evening, every car rider line, stitching and more stitching.  But I love it, so it was time well spent.

This project had a short list of supplies, crewel wool, metallic embroidery thread, Aida, backing fabric, a zipper, interfacing and lining fabric.  Easy enough!  I was able to find the crewel wool locally, along with everything else except for the right size Aida.  The pattern called for 11 count Aida, and all I could find in black was 14.  So I went with it.  Well if you are a stitcher, then you know that 14 is smaller than 11, 14 holes per inch vs. 11 holes per inch.  Thus the scale of my handbag changed immediately.  No big deal, I just had to stitch a lot more and I reduced the amount of threads I was using per pinwheel (I used 2 instead of 3.)  This stitch is called the Milanese Pinwheel, something I had never done before.  After two of them, I had the hang of it and didn't have to refer back to the book at all, just fun stitching all those pinwheels.  I chose crewel wool in jewel tones, just picked out what I liked and I am so pleased with the color scheme.

After the pinwheels were complete, I then took the metallic embroidery thread (I chose silver) and I stitched a running stitch behind and around every single pinwheel.  For some odd reason I thought this was going to be the easy quick part, well I was wrong, it took just as long or longer than the pinwheels.  But I have to say the effect was worth it, It shines!

Once the stitching was complete, all I had to do was make a pouch!  That was so easy, I sewed this thing up in 30 minutes, which was really nice compared to the hours and hours of hand stitching.  I found a black on black velvet like motif on a denim like substrate to use as the backing, it feels great.  I bought a "fashion" zipper from JoAnn's, which had metal teeth which is more durable than the plastic ones.  I used an older Laura Gunn print on the interior simply because I like it and felt like it added a little pizazz to the finished product.

Upon completion, my finished clutch measures 7" x 9" and is the perfect size for date night!  I had almost a whole skein of the metallic silver left over, so I made a simple tassel to hook onto the zipper pull.  Voila, finished!  I created a little slideshow below to show the various stages of the project, it is neat to remember the pinwheels before the metallic thread was added.  I can not wait to have an event where I can actually use this thing, I am really proud of it.

Now that I have dusted off my craft book, it is time for you to dust off yours!  You have the whole month of September to create something and enter it over at Craft Buds.  All details can be found below if you click on that little square button.  Thanks for joining me today on my stop of the blog hop!  Now go create something!