Surprise par Excellence

First of all a big Welcome to all of "my" new readers!
I actually would be on vacation now, in Austria, sippin' on a fresh orange juice, lying on a deck chair next to a well temperate pool, reading a good book......enjoying the vacation I was in desperate need of for more then two years now.
We actually where in Austria, in our hotel...for exactly ONE night, until Abby (our beloved dog) decided to bark because of every little sound. It started at five o'clock in the morning when the guys of the hotel kitchen started to prepare breakfast.
Our room was right next to the elevator, so Abby heard it every single time they used it and next to this, just about freaking everybody had to pass our door on the way to the elevator.

I don't think anybody heard her but only because I jumped out of the bed every time she was up to getting loud. I got one hour of sleep, just like Abby, and we both where letting my husband know that we are NOT going to take this another night. We packed up our things and left.

It was just too much for Abby and she really got crappy before we left. We rather have a happy dog than a fresh orange juice at the pool ;)

When we where back home I started my computer and wanted to check on everything and guess what: My Tin Milk Can made it to get featured on lovely Karen's blog "The Graphics Fairy"! Thank you big time for this Karen!
There where also a lot of orders and mails to check so it was a good thing to be back home and get things done.

Before I left for Austria I started on sewing hearts for the christmas market and this made me come up with this small sewing tutorial for today. Lace framed pictures.
For some of you this may be "an old hood" as we would say, but I've seen projects with the lace cut in four pieces and glued on with overlapping edges. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with handling it that way. I just wanted to provide an easy method how you also can handle it.

Lots of words, here are the facts:

Don't cut the lace before you know how much you will need. If you are not sure if the trim is long enough, you can wrap it around the picture and you'll see if it will fit.

Using pins is no disgrace! They help you, all the more if you're not an experienced sewer. 

Flip over the end vertically on the edge.....

....pin it, so you won't have to fix it with your fingers. It will get more accurate and easy...

....and flip it back, horizontal, or what ever direction your frame has to follow.

You can just flip over the end and cut it off. If you are happy with the precision you can start to sew on your trim. If you feel safer with the pins, just leave them in while sewing and take them off afterwards, just please (!) make sure you don't hit the pins with the sewing needle! I did once and was lucky enough to close my eyes before getting hit by the needle splitters...Be careful or take the pins out right before you are getting to that area.

And here is how the first few hearts look like:

(JOY and the bird image are from Karen's Blog "The Graphics Fairy". 

"Forget me not" picture from The Graphics Fairy

"Joy", made with typography from The Graphics Fairy

Hope you like them!

Love, Dina