The living dead and a few Halloween projects

Dripping, drooling, moaning evil zombies have nothing on us this week. My husband and I are just getting over the flu and between the two of us coughing and wheezing, I don't know how we sleep. I normally make this chicken noodle soup with ginger (sunshine in a bowl), but today I'm going to make this chicken curry soup with coconut and lime as it is easy and flavourful. Hopefully normal breathing with resume tomorrow.

The flu may have slowed me down, but I've managed to have a bit of a clear out. Summer clothes are packed away, wardrobes have had a once over and now I've just finished off a few projects that have been lingering around. Remember this one?

Yes, I've finally found a decent frame for my "39 Squares" project. I mounted the fabric onto a canvas and then hung the canvas in a great shadow box from IKEA. I should have bought a bunch of these while I was there!

I also finished this off for my husband's birthday:

This was my husband's favourite t-shirt. He bought it while we were dating and last year I finally forced him to retire it. Rather than tossing it into the rag pile, I turned it into this banner for his office using directions for a placemat.

Then I came across this left unfinished from last year and went right into Halloween mode.

Not entirely sure what I'm going to do with it now, but it may end up on a felt trick or treat bag next week.

Now in the full Halloween spirit, I did this:

I've always wanted to try my hand at decoupage, so here's my first effort. This candy tin is decorated with images from The Graphics Fairy. I pestered my other half to punch two holes, strung it with a black velvet ribbon and stitched up the orange flower ribbon. Not too bad for a first effort, if I do say so myself. What am I going to do with it? Fill it with my favourite Halloween treats and hang it near my sewing seat.

This sunny, dry morning I started these soon to be Halloween lanterns, found here at Martha Stewart.

I also have plans for these, but I'm not telling yet. Maybe they'll be done for my next posting!

Back at square one..

Back at square one.., originally uploaded by Tea Potty.

I was going to wait until I had a few more squares done, but I'm too geeked about this to wait. I recently discovered 39 Squares. This project is so me! It is exactly what I was looking for when I started embroidering last summer -- something that I could learn on and practice on, but is still creative, meaningful and quick.

As I'm not terribly confident at freehand embroidery, I put some planning into my squares before starting. I've decided that I'm going to use this on a pillow and that the squares will be a bit bigger than an inch by an inch. I also decided that the squares should be about my family, so I made a list of symbols using the 39 Squares flickr group as inspiration.

Then I used the table function in Word to create a table of 5x5 squares at, or close to, full size. I sketched out my ideas on this table using coloured pencils (keeping in mind my chosen colours). I rearranged the squares a few times to balance out the colours, patterns and shapes as I wanted to avoid repitition. I know I won't stick exactly to the layout, especially as I'm sure to run into problems with my more difficult images. I do have a few back-up images in case.

So now I've sat down with my floss, buttons, beads, and trim and am busily stitching away!

I've also finally finished Mariana by Monica Dickens. It really shouldn't have taken me so long, but at the moment most of my evenings are dedicated to embroidery. The book was OK. It would've been a much better book with some harsh editing. The second half is much better than the first. My next book is Nightingale Wood by Stella Gibbons, who wrote Cold Comfort Farm.