First Finishes of 2010

Well, here it is.....the new year.....and I have finishes. Yea!! They are small, but finishes all the same.  :.)  The teddy bear was made from left-over border fabric from a UFO that I have been working on since the beginning of the new year. Really loved the fabric and just couldn't bring myself to toss out the scraps. Found a free pattern online.......little bit of cutting, some sewing.......and a teddy bear is born. He is a whopping 7" tall when standing. His head, arms, and legs all move. I really didn't have the proper "hardware" for him, so made due with what I had on hand. So button/string joints for the arms and legs. The head joint is actually an lock washer eye that I had left over from another project. I opted to do the cross-stitch on the seams to give it a more "folksy" look......for lack of a better word.

My other finished project was an embroidery one that I had started when I first got my "new" Pfaff. I coudn't wait to try out the larger hoops so I stitched out an embroidery that was already built into the machine using a variegated rayon thread. Loved the way it turned out. Then I decided to play with the mirror feature.....and stitched that out as well.  Ended up getting sidetracked with something else and both pieces were set aside. I'm sure at one time I had some wonderful project planned for these embroideries. What it was I have no idea.  :.) All I know is that an acquaintance had come over and the blocks had been pulled out for some reason. She really loved the blocks.....so I thought it would be nice if I did something to finish them up and then give the completed project to her as a gift. Well, I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with these blocks. Then it dawned on me. Why not frame them? Sounded good!! I could see them framed and hanging off-set on a wall looking pretty. Well, off to the store I went to get the "perfect" frames. I'm standing there, looking at frames, when this larger frame catches my eye.  What if I framed them as one piece instead of two? So the larger frame comes home with me. I find that I have the perfect fabric in my stash that will compliment the two embroideries very nicely. Sew it all together, then decide that a bit of quilting would look nice, too. The end piece is pictured below. It turned out so nicely that I decided to keep it for myself. My loving hubby found a wonderful place to hang it. The finished piece ended up being 14" x 11". I have a few other smaller embroidery blocks that I did (and don't know what to do with). I'm now thinking that they will look very nicely framed. I even saw the "perfect" frame. Sounds like yet another UFO will be finished.....which is always a good thing.  :.)