The JCS 2015 Ornament Preview issue arrived, and I was immediately drawn to "Peace" by Cathy Haberman of Hands On Design. It was shown in the chalkboard style that she has popularized lately, but my eyes just can't take stitching on black. I hoped that doing it on a blue fabric would work out and I do like the result. The photos are a bit blurry... rainy days and I kept missing my opportunities when the sun came out. I think it makes a cute holiday card with the rick-rack trim and a couple of sequins. The sequins are actually to hide my mistake in cutting the window... necessity and the mother of invention you know. I'm still on my quest to find the best way to finish the 6" ruler sleeve. I stitched another of Vavi's 'long' alphabets, "ABC Romantique" on Edingburgh dirty linen. This time I did not do a full lining, but used iron-on interfacing to back the stitching. The border fabric is doubled. I folded in a seam allowance on each side, then folded up from the bottom and used a blanket stitch to sew the side seams. Blanket stitch is really hard to do nicely so that the back looks as good as the front. I never seemed to get the hang of piercing the fabric at an exact 90 degree angle. Now I understand why quilters don't usually go for the 'stab' method that x-stitchers use. I also tried another one with just plain fabric and a quilt type binding. I added a crochet motif for interest. Not sure I like that one either. I think I may be giving up on this type of project. Sandy of San-Man Originals discovered a vintage item that crocheters use to make, something called a spool pin doily. These are used on old sewing machines as a decorative replacement for a circular felt pad that sits under the top spool of thread for stabilization purposes I guess. Here's a photo of one that is currently on sale on Etsy . Sandy was planning to make one for her old Singer treadle machine, but it looked like something quick and fun to do so I made three and sent them to her. Such cute little things. They are each about 2.5" in diameter. The first came from a flower pattern at this link: Kimberly's Coaster Patterns I used crochet cotton doubled (I had a ball of thread that came that way already) and a size 6 steel hook. That made the hole about the right size. It's 2.5" in diameter. This was an old motif from my stash. I think the pattern was from the "Harmony Guide to Crochet". The final one is the Dahlia Circle from the book "25 Floral Blocks to Crochet":
