January Cottage of the Month

I finished my January Cottage of the Month.  Even using 3 strands of floss, the snowflakes aren't really very visible.  I probably should have used a darker fabric but darn it if I didn't want that sparkle.  I didn't really do much finishing on it.  I just ironed under the edges and put it in a frame.  I'll probably finish it properly on foam core in the future, but for now just ironing it will do.  I found this 8x8 frame at Michaels and I'll be using the same frame and switching out the cottage every month.  I had so much fun getting back into cross stitching and I can't wait to stitch up February's Cottage!

January Pillow Exchange

My best friend, Stephanie, and I are doing a Pillow Cover Exchange every month this year.  Before she moved over the Rocky Mountains to Colorado, we used to sew together all the time.  Since we can't really do that anymore, we thought it would be fun to exchange a sewing project every month and since both really enjoy having seasonal pillow covers it was the perfect thing to exchange.  Our theme for January is Winter and Snow.  Here is what I came up with to make for Stephanie.

She said she really liked my September Pillow so I started her pillow the same way.  I used my machine to embroider a couple of snowflakes, one on gray cotton and on dark blue felt.  I used the letter stitch on my machine to stitch out her favorite Winter related poem.  I also added scraps of a super soft white fleece because she adores "touch me" fabrics.