Opus Gluei challenge - Where do you get your suntan?

Over at Opus Gluei, a fun craft challenge blog in which we come up with a theme every two weeks and post it with our creations and then challenge YOU to create something the theme inspires in YOU!  We love to see a range of artistic creations - from scrapbooking, paper crafting, wood, blogging, cooking, and yep - stitching!

This challenge (#135), created by the lovely Gini, is asking you where do you get your suntan?  Oooh la la....this could get cheeky eh?

Well, perhaps you are a gardener and you've got the farmer's tan to prove it!  Well, take some photos and write a blog post and then link it up.  Do you have some summer birthdays you are making cards for?  Perfect.  If you're a stitcher and like to make fingertip towels with a summer/beachy theme - let's see them!  Everything and anything that you're inspired to make, we want to see...pretty please?

Okay, for the challenge, I used a little quickie pattern that was included with the main project - from the Cross Eyed Cricket entitled "Sams and Stripes."  Look at those cute Uncle Sams.  That's another of my someday projects.  I stitched the little angel pictured on the cover at the bottom right.  she's an August Angel and I like to call her Aggie. 

Here's a little better look at her - uh oh, look out for the crab!!!!

She's got a cute little look about her that reminds me of motifs my Mom made on guest towels when she was in high school.  Kind of retro-ish and she's got that old timey swimsuit on and real glittery (water) wings, and I really don't have that many non-Independence Day summery decorating items so there you go.  Selected, stitched, finished, and displayed.  WHEW!  All in a week.  voila

So, after all this, you just have to check the Order of the Opus Gluei out and see if you feel inspired to create something stitchy for us to see!

Saturday Stitch Along - July!

Well, I actually got one of my Prairie Schoolers completed and fully finished/displayed.  (and before the month is over, no less!)

This is the July motif from the Prairie Schooler's Summer and Winter leaflet.  It is part of a stitch along that I'm participating in with Linda and Debbie. 

It also, happily, works for the Order of the Opus Gluei, the craft challenge blog that I host with dear friends.  The Opus Gluei theme is America, America, or wherever you hold allegiance (okay a little wordy but fun) and we're asking crafters to share (in whatever media they choose to work with) their national pride.  Which is perfect considering that there is Canada Day, Independence Day, Queen's Jubilee, and the Olympics to name but a few of the national and cultural celebrations taking place.  Now's the time to share your hard work and stitched projects.  I hope you click on the link and do just that!

So, here's the finish.  I have never handsewn piping into a project.  It was a little unwieldy and I was a novice but I pushed through to complete it.  Now, I need to go out searching for videos on piping....

the stitching itself was fun, colorful and very quickly pulled together, I didn't feel rushed and I actually worked on another project during the week as well, so this wasn't an exclusive stitching project.