good night and thank you!

nyc this weekend was a blast.
ron -- good times at coco as always.
dana and greg -- great party.
divine studios sale -- wonderful experience.
but now i'm tired -- i havent had much sleep in the past week -- i need to get some zzzzzz's; christmas-cookie-baking-day is tomorrow!
so now i'm all finished with this year's holiday craft fairs -- and i've just kicked off a last-minute procratinators' special sale in my etsy shop -- i'm ready to clear out my remaining inventory! get it -- here.
x's and o's to all of you, friends.
just so i have an image for this post:


aunt mary's cracked black pepper cookies! i made these for this weekend's holiday party. mmmmm, sweet and spicy.

by request -- here's the recipe, which i am thrilled to share, as long as when you make them and serve them, you call them Aunt Mary's Black Pepper Cookies, in honor of my late great aunt mary. my great aunt mary was one of my very very very favourite people. she was quirky as heck, and handy, too. she lived in a huge old farmhouse (which i STILL regret to this day that i did not somehow buy.. it was built in 1777 and it was torn down after her death and a stupid housing development was built on the property.... GRRRRRRRR!) where she housed her collection of gnomes, stored her completed jigsaw puzzles under the rugs, and made me rings of firefly glowers.
wear a witch hat when you bake these:

Aunt Mary's Black Pepper Cookies:
1 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1 c. sugar (3/4 for dough, 1/4 for tops of cookies)
1/2 t ground pepercorns
1/2 c. butter

blend the flour, baking powder, 3/4 c. of sugar, and crushed pepper in food processor. stir butter over medium heat until it browns. add to flour and process until dough forms compact ball. roll into small balls. dip bottom of glass in sugar and press each ball gently to 1/2" thick. bake at 300 degrees on lowest rack for 20 - 25 minutes.

full of kit(s)

okay - here's one more kit just added to the shop. and now i'm finished with new kits for a while and it's back to stitching for me.
i am so loving the colors of this one -- deep deep violet on a background of that platinum-colored aida cloth that i've been so fond of lately. my great aunt mary (of whom i've written many times in this here blog) loved the color purple. she had the most beautiful sheet set, printed with tiny little violets on white. oh my goodness, i wish i had those sheets.


check it out here.
(i've got several other posts in the works - just need to take some photos to accompany them! i hope to get to that soon soon soon!)


(ha! i just realized that i wrote about aunt mary and her sheets the last time i did a project in purple. see, aunt mary and her sheet set REALLY made an impression on me! she was so cool!)

american got sick

i've been awfully sick the past few days -- the kind of sick that leaves one rather incapacitated. those who know me know that i dont do well sitting idle... it's been driving me nuts.
so since i have no new work to show, i thought i'd share with you the painting that i spent two full days starting at: (i had to take it off the wall to get the photo.)


awesome, right? (erg -- now that i look, the photo i've taken doesn't do it justice -- i was too sick to try to set it up well!) i've loved this painting all my life, even before i knew that it was a parody of the great grant wood painting (though i think that someone explained it to me and maybe showed me a picture of the original when i was really young). it's my great aunt mary and great uncle frank and it used to hang in their big old farmhouse right above aunt mary's doll houses. i've written about my great aunt mary before (here) -- this is just further attestation of how darned cool she was.

excited for the outcome

i've been commissioned to stitch up an "owl love you always" piece in purple floss on a background of cream. given the range of purples to choose from, miss sarah chose this one, and i'm gonna stitch it up on the oatmeal colored aida cloth. i havent begun yet, but seeing these two colors together makes me excited.

this project made me think of this one, and it made me realize that i think i like purple/violet! it was my favourite color when i was a kid, but then i grew out of it, i guess. my great aunt mary loved purple, too -- i remember her sheet set - a beautiful print of tiny violets all over them - dang, i wish i had those sheets now.
okay - so i'll snap a photo of the piece once it's finished.
sorry for the lack of posts lately - i have been stitching and stitching and stitching SO much this past few days - i've made A LOT of totally brand-spankin' new pieces and i'm excited to show them, but i kinda want to wait until i've got just one or two or three more done and then i can photograph the whole new collection.

holiday wind up

little by little, i'm getting the shop ready for the holiday marketing/shopping season. yesterday i posted a new photo of my red striped monogram towels.

i wish i had time to bake for real, and not just make a baking-like set up for a photo!

related to baking, i (with a little layout help) designed a set of recipe cards (like the one in the photo) for you!

i hope that you will print them out and use them this holiday season. here's what to do: go to this link (googledocs), where you'll find the pdf. you can download and print from there - easy as that!

do you have a favourite recipe? i know i shared one of mine years ago -- great aunt mary's black pepper cookies. check it out, it's worth revisiting!

lately i've been more into bread-baking than sweet-making. i'm hoping to jump back into it next week and bake up a couple more baguettes -- they're so delicious (and not that difficult)!

happy weekend, everyone. remember, if you're in the philly area, to come on by the art star holiday bazaar!

what the f?

i also just listed this little guy:


it is tiny, but i think that this piece just has so much personality and punch. i gotta say, it is one of my favourite pieces i have ever made, but i just have no reason to hold on to it. i want to see it go to a good home.



this was one of the pieces that i stitched up for readymade magazine for the chez-sucre-chez how-to feature in the december 2008 issue. (see the details here.)


i used a satin stitch on a background fabric which comes from a piece i inherited from my late great aunt mary's fabric stash. i love this fabric so much that i only use little cuts of it from time to time, and only for very special little projects. see, this really is a very special little piece! the etsy listing is here.

marching on..

Friends! Again, it's been weeks since my last update, but this time, it's not because I haven't been doing work, or that I've lacked motivation -- this time, it's that I've been SO busy, and doing SO MANY projects that I'm super excited about, that I just haven't given myself the time to put down the stitches for taking photos and writing about all of the balls I've got in the air at the moment.
Here are some of the highlights...

January, February and the beginning of March were busy with a lot of custom orders. Of course, most of them I didn't photograph, usually because I finish and frame a piece at the end of a day and then it's dark and I have to wrap and pack the piece to go out in the mail the next morning.... But some did get


A collection of pieces for a nursery:



I'm sure they look much better in their new intended home; here I was just hanging them on nails that were already on the wall in my studio.



The clouds were lined with gold instead of silver, and all of the hoops were painted gold as well.



The little commissioned "dream" piece inspired me to stitch up another "dream" piece that I think would be darling for a nursery.



I'm holding onto that one for the spring/summer fairs...

I did a set of custom-stitched Smiths quotes:



And, something a little different; a Biggie Smalls quote:




Done with metallic champagne-colored floss -- I love that it has that bit of sparkle (though oh-my-goodness, that stuff is painful to work with; so much fraying and breaking of threads...)

I finally learned how to use a serger -- something I've been meaning to tackle for the last couple of years. My mama has one and she and I spent a couple of days together figuring it out, so now, I can finally (more easily) make my own hankies and pocket-squares, with neatly rolled/serged hems!

I made some for dudes:





And, using a bit of the vintage fabric from my great-aunt Mary's stash, I made some for the ladies:





I'm still not completely confident with the corners, so I'll be working on that next time I'm visiting with mama, and then, I'll make up a bunch for those spring/summer fairs.

Also in getting ready for that season, I've made up a bunch more cat pillows, including this one in that amazing super-special folk print vintage fabric that I've been hoarding.



I'm kind of excited about the market fair season this year. I've got a vision for a chez-sucre-chez "mercantile" as well as a new collection of stitched pieces and the diy kits.

Speaking of kits -- new designs are in the works!!! I have one almost all ready to go, but I'm just working out the colors and sourcing those materials. That'll be in the shop sometime next week.

I had an idea for one that didn't work out to be quite as cool as I expected.... I was envisioning a really simple piece with the idea of a bouquet of forget-me-nots scattered around the hoop.



I like the sweet simplicity of the design, but not enough to make it into a kit.....

But, if you like it, here's the pattern: (click on it to enlarge)



As with my other patterns, it was designed to be worked on 14 count aida. The hoop size is a little itty bitty 3" hoop, and I think painting or staining the hoop really helps to make it look more finished. I tried white paint and dark wood stain, but I'd bet that colors that match any of the stitching colors would be pretty, too. (Note: If you are going to paint or stain the hoop - let it dry FULLY before even attempting to finish/frame the piece. I've had a couple of very disappointing disasters come from stains left on my aida from not-yet-dry paint or stain. No fun.)

And, a note on the stitching -- since the little flowers are so small, I used 3 strands of floss (rather than 2, as I usually do) for the yellow centers and the flower petals, and then 2 strands for the leaves. I wanted the flowers to pop just a little more than the leaves. I don't remember what exact DMC colors I used, but I think you could vary this in a lot of ways that would look just as sweet; red flowers, flowers of different colors, or bright bright pinks or blues on a background of black....

If you do end up stitching the pattern, I'd love to see a photo!

Lastly, I finished up this piece:



It's from a vintage/antique pattern that I've been carrying around for over 5 years, meaning to complete. !!! It's one of the very very few pieces I've stitched directly from the pattern (the last one I can remember was here) and I think I love it so much that I've got more plans for this same pattern.... It just works out in the hoop so well!

I have several other pieces in the works - and sooo many ideas now. I'm really happy that Spring is in its way and with the lengthening days, so too does my inspiration continue to grow. Right now, however, I'm on a little vacation; spending a few days with good friends in sunny California. (!!!) My Etsy shop is closed right now, but I'll be opening it back up again a few days before I get back. And then, a few days after that, I expect to be stocking it with some brand new Spring goodies. Really, I have so many things in the works right now - I'm excited to share. Stay tuned!!