Thompson Family-Life

Butterfly Cross-Stitch Pattern Freebie

Remember this pendant I stitched? I used some super cool wooden cross-stitch blanks that I bought here, but it looks like they're sold out. (boo!) The same size but with a scalloped border is available here. I can't seem to find them sold anywhere else.

Anyhoo... I have a free pattern for you in the same motif that I came up with for the pendant above! You can download it here. (for Personal Use Only, no Commercial Use. Thank-you!)

Unfortunately I don't know what DMC colors of floss I used (I'm not very organized with my floss), but you could of course use any palette you prefer.

You could also use the design for any number of items. I think I'm going to stitch it up on a thrifted throw pillow I found, large scale, maybe with yarn.

Hope you enjoy it!

P.S. Thank-you so much for your words of encouragement on my last post. Means a lot to me! I love hearing your experiences with a similar situation. Thank-you so much for sharing.

vintage bedspread crochet pattern progress

I made some more progress on my crochet bedspread on our vacation. I still have quite a lot to go (we have a king sized bed!) but it's nice to see it looking like a blanket finally. I've posted some progress photos over the past 6 months or so here and here. Here's the vintage pattern I've been using. I love it! I can't wait to add that pompom trim.

I took these pics at the beachhouse (hence the gross carpet and awful bedspread... I've been spoiled by having hardwoods throughout our home, I hate carpet! We've been house-hunting and I'm realizing I might not be able to avoid it in our next home since we're looking at a lot of homes built in the 70's and most don't have original hardwoods)...

This has been such a fun project. If I'm really ambitious, I might be able to finish this by the time it gets cold again around here. (crosses fingers) The yarn is pretty chunky so the octagons work up pretty fast and those little popcorn flowers are so much fun to make.

This blanket will replace this quilt (old pics below) I had custom-made a couple years ago. The back of the quilt started tearing apart because vintage sheets were used and one was a bit too used. (sad face) I hope to have it repaired one day, but it will be nice having something new on the bed. I can't help but dream about how I'll be decorating this room when we buy a new home. This room is one of the few rooms I think I'd keep pretty much the same. I've been happy with it. Now all the other rooms? That's a different story! I'm been doing lots of decorating dreaming.

Do you have any fun spring/summer crafts you're working on? I'd love to see! Share some links!

adventures in peyote beadwork with perler beads

I've been interested in doing some beadwork since last year when I proclaimed my Summer Crafty To-Do list, but as you know, I never got around to it! But when I saw this on one of my favorite blogs, Minieco, I knew I needed to try it. I LOVE the look of Perler beads (also known as Hama beads)... they just look like candy to me. They are also large-ish and I'd much rather work with larger beads than tiny sead beads.

I was also hugely inspired by these vintage beaded baskets that Elisabeth Dunker blogged a while back. What an incredible collection! I've searched high and low for these online and I can't find any. They were popular in Sweden in the 70's.

I also can't seem to find any patterns for making the baskets. I'm hoping one day I can figure something out on my own.

I searched online for some peyote patterns and stumbled onto this one (of which I tweaked a little). As you can see, butterflies seem to be popping up in my work a lot. While this one seems much more 70's, these below have a much more 60's feel to me with the colors and shape. I handpicked the individual bead colors on Amazon instead of buying one of those big containers at the craft store. I didn't want to have a lot of leftover colors I didn't want to use. I bought these in lots of 1,000.

It's a bit tricky starting out, but once you get past the first few rows, it goes easily. I completed this over a few nights of watching the first season of Game of Thrones. : )

I'm going to look for a small cylindrical vase or candle holder of some kind to wrap it around like she did on Minieco. I want to make something even larger at some point - trying to figure out what I want to do next.

If you'd like to try out peyote beading, you can check out this and this tutorial. I used the second one and it's very helpful. And you don't need a loom to do it!

Do you like doing beadwork? Any fun projects you want to share?

handmade gift

It was my good friend Heather's birthday last week and I knew I wanted to make her something. Of course, the first thing that came to mind was to stitch up one of these cute cross-stitch pendants! When I think of Heather, I think of 70's style (she rocks it) full of 70's motifs and colors. So I came up with this butterfly design in orange, mustard yellow, avocado & olive green, and brown.

I always have high hopes of handmaking gifts, but my spare time is so... spare. So these really are the perfect idea - still with that handmade touch, but it doesn't take you forever to complete. I backed it with mustard wool felt and attached a chain I found at Michaels Crafts. I'll be putting together a pattern for this butterfly if you'd like to stitch up one of your own. You can buy the pendants here. I'll have that posted soon!

Cross-Stitch Pendants

I bought some of these wooden laser cut cross-stitch pendants many months ago from The Workroom and when I came across this project on Pinterest this weekend, I remembered that I needed to stitch some up! This is what I worked on during my hotel holiday weekend I mentioned. Even though they are relatively fast projects (it's not like you're making a quilt!) the did take me many hours a piece, but I was entertained with movies. These two little guys were serious therapy for me. Isn't that funny what crafting can do for a creative soul? It's just what I needed this past weekend.

These pendants were screaming for something 60's or 70's inspired, so I went searching online for some inspiration. I had no patterns, so I needed to come up with something. I stumbled onto these Vintage Japanese Ondori patterns from Gina's Flickr (of Doe-c-Doe). She has the most incredible collection of all kinds of vintage things, especially vintage craft books.

These Ondori stitch books are hard to come by, but I have procured a couple from Ebay/Etsy in the past. I used her photos as a guide and then asked her if it was okay for me to post about these on my blog. The good news is that I ordered an Ondori stitch book this weekend off Ebay and both of these patterns ended up being in it, along with a ton of other fantastic, small patterns that will work perfectly for more of these pendants. I can see these becoming my go-to-gift-craft. They are easy and fast to finish and so satisfying for that reason. I have SO many unfinished huge projects lying around, it's nice to find something that can be finished in a weekend. I can see these becoming addictive!

I bought some 36" chains at Michaels for these. I like the idea of them being long necklaces. I already have ideas for the next one I make. I guess I need to buy some more blank pendants!

If you end up making some of these, my tip would be to use three threads of regular embroidery thread (instead of the entire six) or you can also use cotton thread. I used that as well. I also used a cross-stitch needle. It was small enough to fit through the small holes in the pendant.

credits: Background patterned paper courtesy American Crafts from Liz Kartchner's new line. Digital Ribbon in intro photo by Minitoko.