Owlfghan Final--Just in Time for Christmas

Finally got the letter pattern I wanted to use from home. Helpful hint: Never throw any patterns away!

This came with an anniversary cross-stitch kit I made for my parents 25th.

I'm a very visual person so I need to see what her name would look like before I started stitching. Pull out the graph paper!

I played around with the "z" but for lack of space, I decided to stick with the one from the pattern. Knowing I had 42x42 squares to work with, I had to make sure I could fit Liliana's full name, so I mapped it out on graph paper. You can see all my notes and questionable math in the margins.

Liliana Elizabeth Juarez Dovey--gee, thanks, Mom.

I did have to manipulate the "L" and "E" so no letters would be touching.

And now to begin the actual stitching which is a combination of cross-stitch and back-stitch.

Whew! Just enough room.

And the final owlfghan….(drum roll please)…

MERRY CHRISTMAS, LILI!

Owl Birth Record

Owl-fghan

In September of this year, little Liliana Elizabeth Juarez was born to my best friend and her husband.

Awww

I took it upon myself to make a blanket for her when she was still in the womb. Her mother is very much into owls and the other gift I would bequeath this newborn is a cross-stitched Owl Birth Record to be framed with her name, birth date, and 3 owls that was picked out by Mommy. (It's almost finished, I swear!!)

Going along with this owl theme, I decided to buy a white afghan from Michael's and design an owl pattern to cross-stitch onto the afghan. I wish I were talented enough to make an afghan by stretch, but the baby is already 2 months old and I still haven't finished the cross-stitching.

I looked at some owl pictures online and then sketched out my design:

This is what the finished owl looked like:

I had 8 owls in 8 different colors with 25 squares to fill. We needed some hearts.

Sorry for the green discoloration

And owl with a heart:

And now the blanket with owls and hearts:

Last step:
The middle square will have Liliana's name cross-stitched.

Hopefully in time for Christmas!!

So It Begins...

All right, fans (and by fans, I mean you, Grandma)! Let's get started.

I always seem to have multiple creative projects going at the same time. And I love to share the end process with my friends and family. But why not the ENTIRE process? Watch me take issues of comic books and bind them into hardback copies. Follow me as I design baby blankets for my best friend's infant (it's almost finished, Lauren, I promise!!). See the miraculous final projects...and the inevitable mistakes (What do you mean trees don't grow horizontally?).

So, what's the purpose of this blog, you may be asking yourself. Well, it's to shamelessly show off the projects I'm currently working on. (And maybe get some credit for my epub class). And hopefully to inspire creativity and a community of sharing.

Enjoy.