One day I had an idea....

I bought these little colorful wooden things at wal-mart

quite a while ago with intentions of doing something with

them. Who knows what - the idea escaped me.

Recently I thought about using them as a template for wrapping

floss. You can print out this page, enlarge it to the size you desire.

Then you can cut the design out of firm cardboard.

There are 2 ways to do this.

One way is to cover the

cardboard with aida cloth, scraps of cross stitch or just cloth.

Then glue 2 pieces together to make a front & a back in order

to hide all of the bad edges. or the other way is to just

take one piece of cardboard, cover it on both sides with fabric,

or you could paint & stencil it, then

at the seams or edges apply a braid.

Generally I try my ideas first before suggesting anything.

But in this case you could play around with it since I havent

had the time to do so. I would love to know if you

do try it. It would be great to see some photos of one.

Have some fune with it - personally your own

floss wrappers!

Have fun with this.

by Hopblogger

I can tell you HOW TO BEAT FREECELL #1941

The only way that I can tell you is to put it

into steps. Above the freecell game there is a place that the

Ace's collect. I call this the 'ACE AREA'. The other place where

you place your cards at - I call that area 'UPSTAIRS'. Where

you play your cards at - this I call 'DOWNSTAIRS'.

Here are my 38 steps for beating this game.

#1. Move the King of hearts upstairs.

#2. Move the 5 of clubs & 4 of hearts on top of the 6 of hearts.

#3. Move the 7 of hearts, King of diamond & King of clubs upstairs.

#4. Move 9 of clubs on top of 10 of diamonds.

#5. Move 8 of diamonds on top of 9 of clubs.

#6. Bring downstairs the King of clubs.

#7. Move the 9 of clubs & the 8 of diamonds & place it on top

of the 10 of hearts.

#8. Move the 10 of diamonds upstairs.

#9. Move the 3 of diamonds on the Ace area.

#10. Put the 6 of clubs on top of the 7 of diamonds.

#11. Put the 7 of clubs on top of the 8 of diamonds.

#12. Put the 5 of hearts on top of the 6 of clubs.

#13. Put the 4 of spades on top of the 5 of hearts.

#14. Put the 3 & 4 of hearts on top of the 2 of hearts in the Ace area.

#15. Put the 5 of clubs on top of the 6 of diamonds.

#16. Put the 6 of diamonds on top of the 7 of clubs.

#17. Put the 4 of diamonds on top of the 5 of clubs.

#18. Put the 3 of spades on top of the 4 of diamonds.

#19. Put the 5 of diamonds on the 6 of spades.

#20. Put the 4 of clubs on the 5 of diamonds.

#21. Put the 9 of hearts on the 10 of clubs.

#22. Put the 5,6&7 of hearts in the Ace area.

#23. Bring downstairs the 10 of diamonds.

#24. Take the 9,8&7 off of the 10 of hearts & put these on the 10 of diamonds.

#25. Put the 10 of hearts upstairs.

#26. Place the 8 of spades on the 9 of hearts.

#27. Put the 8 of clubs upstairs.

#28. Put the 7 of diamonds & the 6 of clubs on the 8 of spades.

#29. Put the Queen of hearts on the King of clubs.

#30. Bring downstairs the one of the red Kings & put the Queen of spades on top of it.

#31. Put the 5 of spades in the Ace area.

#32. Put the Queen of clubs upstairs.

(At this point you should be able to finish the game, if not continue with my steps).

#33. Bring downstairs the King & put the Queen on top.

#34. Put the 10 of hearts on the Jack of spades & place on a King & Queen.

#35. Put the Jack of clubs on the Queen of diamonds.

#36. Place the Jack of hearts on the King & Queen & put a 9 & 10 combination on top.

#37. Put the Queen & Jack in a new pile & put the 9 & 10 combination on top.

#38. Put black 10 & 9 on the red Jack & move to the King & Queen.

Finished.

Have fun!

by Hopblogger

A Friend is both a treasure

and a comfort. Well, I got it finished and this

one is for me. I dont know what happened to

the other one. Probably I gave it away. This

is a great pattern. The colors are pretty.

It was a joy to do it again after all of these years.

I could be wrong but it seems to me that when

you stitch a favortie pattern again, that it stitches up

faster the second time around.

Many stitching hugs

by Hopblogger

Stitch it up this week!

Here is the 'Buttons Forever' patterns.

The colors used for the front green side are DMC

#913 Nile Green & DMC #334 Baby Blue. This

Baby Blue color is used on both sides.

Colors used for the back or brown side are

DMC #938 Coffee Brown.

Feel free to change the colors.

Have fun.

by Hopblogger

Once upon a time....

there were many buttons. Yes, there was enough

green & brown buttons to stitch together

to form a biscornu. I hope that you like the

simpleness of it. It's really pretty. Maybe someone will stitch

one in pink - that would be lovely also. The brown

side stitches up really fast. The pattern will

be posted soon. Along with the pattern

I will include the colors used along

with the size. Enjoy stitching

"Buttons Everywhere".

Thank you for visiting me!

by Hopblogger

When I dragged

stuff out of my attic a while back - I came across

cross stitch patterns & books that were at least

13 years old. Back then both of my daughters

cross-stitched while we lived in Oklahoma. I only

made a few items & most of them were small except

for the sewing machine pieces. I love those items

that include sewing machines in them.

The pattern that I am showing you

today was in that box. I remembered

doing this but I gave it away - but not before I took a

photo of my work - which I will post when I finish

stitching this - just to compare my work then to now.

This is so cute! I started it about 2 weeks ago. I hope

to finish it in about 2 more weeks. This pattern is RARE.

It is called "A friend is a Treasure".

I hope you like it.

by Hopblogger

Let It Bee

I started "Let It Bee" by Dimensions a few months back.

Whew! I sure am glad

that its finally finished. It is a full time job just

trying to cross stitch all the things that

you want to do. I dont know yet what I am going to do

with it. Since I cannot mqake french knots look decent,

I thought that it would be best to leave them out. Maybe later

I will sew some beads on it.

I think the needle minder that I made looks

appropriate for this Bee project.

Thanks for visiting me.

by Hopblogger

To a stitcher in our group.

Kathy had knee surgery this past thursday. So, on wednesday

I gave her this. Its ok if she reframes it because I didnt do too good

of a job. I had to have something in a hurry.

But enjoy it Kathy.

by Hopblogger