Projects, old and new

I met my goal!  I had Maddie's birth announcement picture in a frame by her birthday!  I still do not have a hanger on it, and it is propped up in her room instead of hanging, but that wasn't part of the original plan.  At least, that is what I'm telling myself!

Here it is:

I know it is not a great picture, but it is finished!

While I was framing her picture, I did this one too.  I had finished the stitching quite a long time ago, but didn't want to drag out the equipment to do just this small thing.

Framing this one really gave me fits.  I had originally cut the mats to be reversed:  with the orange mat on the inside and the white/black mat on the outside.  After some playing, we decided we liked it better the other way, so I recut them.  Then, I discovered that the tape I used to hold them all together was showing in the frame.  I took it apart to remove the tape and wound up ruining the orange mat.  Recut #2.  Sigh.  But it looks good, and is all ready for this Halloween.

Remember the little sewing box that I showed you the pieces of?  Here it is, all finished, literally!  I chose an oak finish, and it exactly matches our coffee table.  Kind of weird...I wasn't trying to do that.

Here is the inside, fully stocked!  It's not like I needed another pincusion or sewing box, but it is cute, and keeps everything handy.

Finally, while I had company here for Maddie's birthday, I had to find a project that I could work on in front of people.  I don't like to work on gifts for people in front of other people, and I certainly can't work on gifts in front of the recipients, so I went out to my "craft room" (part 3 of of our 3 car garage), and dug until I found this:

I started this counted cross stitch project some 20 years ago.  It has moved with me to 5 different houses.  When I found it on March 19th, all that was done on it was basically from the top of the center box up.  And a little bit of the outline.  It WILL be finished and framed in time for Christmas this year!