Raggedy Annie Rolling Pin & Prim Wooly Sheep Board

Just thought I would share with all of you the creations that I made for my two closest friends for their birthdays that are a week apart.

 This Raggedy Annie(a Twigs-n-Sprigs Pattern) was painted on an old vintage rolling pin that I picked up at a neighbor’s garage sale. At first, I had second thoughts about painting on a very old rolling pin, but I had seen one painted in one of my painting books and really liked it. So finally decided to just do it and I love the way it turned out. My friend Karen collects raggedy ann’s and gingerbreads, so this was perfect for her. She was so excited when I gave it to her last week and gave me the biggest hug. Needless to say, she loves it!

  The sheep(a Terrye French pattern) board sign I made for my friend Linda, who has recently been redoing her living room in primitive folk-art. A few months ago, I helped her put up a wallpaper border that had crows, sheep, saltbox houses, game boards, and band boxes. So when I saw the pattern for this, I knew it would be a great addition to her room. I gave it to her earlier today (“Happy Birthday” Linda) and she couldn’t wait to find that special place to put it. She had several places in her lliving room that she thought might be just the right place for it.

It gave me great joy to see their reactions when they opened their gifts and to know how much they really liked them. What a true blessing to have such good friends! 

 

Primitive Sampler Embroidery Designs

For those of you who know me, know that I love primitive country stuff and machine embroidery. For the past 24 years that I’ve been doing crafts shows, I’ve done country machine embroidery on blazers, sweater jackets, jumpers, & sweatshirts and painted seasonal pins to go with the clothing.

But recently, I have fallen in love with primitive sampler embroidery designs and painting primitive folk-art on old pieces that I find at thrift shops and garage sales .

Be sure to keep an eye on eBay and Etsy. I hope to have some of my new creations listed soon. I’ve still been working on what direction I want to take my business since I’m retiring from doing craft shows. I know I’m ready for a change after doing clothing and jewelry for so long but am having a hard time deciding what I want to do. Change is scary after 24 years! Should I specialize in one kind of item or offer a variety of different things?

I still love doing machine embroidery and love the look of samplers but it is hard to find primitive folk-art sampler designs in machine embroidery. I have found a few single primitive designs on embroiderydesigns.com, embroiderylibrary.com, and on eBay. But no samplers until on Etsy I discovered the shop of “The Mad Woman of Locke Street” and her wonderful primitive sampler designs. If you love country and machine embroidery, go check her shop out. She also has a web-site: www.madwomanembroidery.com. I have been having so much fun making up different samplers from all the designs that I purchased from her and can’t wait to see what other new designs she will have in the future. I know I will go back for more. Now all I have to do is start stitching my samplers out! I will post a few pictures when I get some of them done.