Foxy Sweethearts (Embroidery)
29 Apr 2012 2 Comments
I bought a plain white tailored bedskirt to fill with embroidery, much like giddy99′s duvet cover project. But then I had “embroiderer’s block” when it came to choosing a design with which to start that project. So I put the bedskirt aside and opted to start a much smaller project instead: I’m embroidering a LOVE-themed pillowcase for me and my hubby.
This is the first design I’ve stitched up: Urban Threads’ “Foxy Sweethearts”.
The white parts of their coat aren’t contrasting much with the pillowcase fabric, so I may go back before I call the whole project “Finished” and outline the white parts with 1 or 2 strands of the floss used for the rest of their coats. But I’ll wait to make that decision until I’ve finished this whole side of the pillowcase.
Floss Notes: All flosses used are DMC stranded cotton. I used 4 strands for all except her scarf’s french knots and his scarf’s snowflakes. Colors used on her are 581, 604, 976, B5200, 48, and 310. Colors used on him are B5200, 975, 334, 602, and 581.
I have a total of six designs chosen, three for each side of the pillowcase. Five of those designs are of couples and the sixth design is a rendering of the word “LOVE”.
Wow, I just realized this is the first needlework project I’ve actually completed in 2012. I knew I’d been off my game, but . . . wow. So very different from years past!
Needlework Inspiration
05 Apr 2012 4 Comments
On the way to my mailbox via snail mail is Sew Lovely Embroidery’s Running with Scissors pattern set. I’m itching to stitch the cute gal who’s doing needlework in the tree . . . because if *I* could comfortably sit up in a tree and stitch, I totally would!!
Current needlework by others that’s inspiring me to pick up my needle again:
~ Snifferooski‘s take on the Running with Scissors pattern set — one design completed and a second design in progress (check out her satin stitching on the hair!). Snifferooski is setting the bar high on these patterns, y’all!!
~ Giddy99′s “Duvet Project” — I think this is such a cool idea!! It’d be a wonderful way to stitch up the bazillion freebie and purchased patterns that live in my laptop, that haven’t been stitched up yet because I don’t have an end project in mind for them. (I have a problem about not being able to stitch something up if I don’t know what I’m going to do with it once it’s stitched — I’m envious of people who can stitch things up and then store them away until they have a purpose for them! I’d like to BE one of those people someday.) Having an ongoing project like this one might be just the excuse I need to work on some of those languishing-inside-the-laptop patterns.
~ The “All Creatures Great & Small” projects by Emily of The Floss Box — I love the variety of textures and stitches Emily’s used in these projects.
~ The “Stitch Play” posts by Mary Corbet of Needle-n-Thread — I’m not especially creative with how I use stitches, so these posts help me look at stitches in a new way.
~ The “January Reflections” crazy quilt project by Susan Elliott of Plays With Needles — Susan’s projects never fail to have me ooh’ing and aah’ing at my computer monitor, and this project is no exception. There are some great tips on the Q&A post relating to this project. Susan really thinks outside the box in how she uses materials, and, as someone who tends to remain in the box creativity-wise, I glean so much from her creativity!
WIP: “April Showers”
03 Mar 2012 2 Comments
in applique, crayon-tinting, hand embroidery
I’m using Digital Misfit’s “April Showers” design to do some embroidery+applique+crayon-tinting. I’ve done the applique and crayon-tinting and am now starting on the embroidery.
I’d planned to use only black floss for the umbrella and the girl + her clothes (like xperimentl’s Valentine’s Girl), but that’s already feeling a little heavy to me so I’ll frog the outlining around the umbrella and bust out my containers of embroidery floss to choose some colors that I think will work better on this project.
While I’m stitching, I’m watching Firefly — I’ve come to the “sci-fi side” a bit later in life than most folks seem to, but better late than never, eh? ;-)
What Santa Brought Me!
28 Dec 2011 8 Comments
in cross-stitch, hand embroidery, photography
I had such a good time coming up with my Christmas wish list this year — it was full of stitchy goodies!! I made the list, sent it to Santa, and then promptly put out of my mind (ha! that seems to work much better at 46 than it would’ve at 26!) as many of the particular items as I could so that I’d be genuinely surprised by what I received. It worked pretty well, seeing as how I only remembered the specifics about one item by the time Christmas weekend rolled around ;-).
This was my biggest want:
Home Sweet Home: An Embroidered Workbox, by Carolyn Pearce (that link goes to a fantastically-detailed review on the Needle-n-Thread website, and that’s also from where I borrowed the photo)
Since this was a recent Australian publication, it was iffy as to whether Santa could procure this in time for Christmas. But thanks to the efforts of The Wooly Thread here in the U.S., Santa was able to get this lovely book ordered before Christmas. Unfortunately, however, the Elves known as the U.S. Postal Service have not managed to get the book to our house yet. I’m remaining optimistic it *will* get here, though (hopefully before 2011 rolls into 2012!)
I cannot wait to start stitching on this workbox!!! It will definitely be an all-year project, and a good way to help me become more comfortable with having WIPs around — I really have a hard time with the idea of not completing a project once I’ve started it, which is why I’ve yet to work on something time-intensive.
Next up is a lovely stash of cross-stitch patterns:
Lots of Christmas ornament patterns!! I missed having new handcrafted ornaments for our tree this year, and I missed making them for my family members as well. Between these patterns and the handful of Christmas-themed cross-stitch magazines I picked up this year, there will always be an ornament design ready to be stitched :-).
I also wanted to have a go at a long-term cross-stitch project and thought this was perfect:
Since I’ve never stitched anything on linen bigger than ornament-size, I’ve asked one of my fellow EGA members to help me set this up for stitching in a scroll frame, which we’ll do at some point in January (I still need to purchase a scroll frame, and maybe some more linen). This will be another project that will give me some practice at *not* finishing a project when I start it ;-).
And then that sneaky Santa surprised me with a gift . . . a gift I wouldn’t ask for, a gift I wouldn’t buy myself . . . a gift that will allow me to take good macro photos of my needlework:
When I objected to this being too much, Santa said he feels my needlework is amazing and that I need a camera that’s equally as amazing, one that will help me get some wonderful detail shots of the stitching. Isn’t that so “awwwwww”-worthy?!! I so love my Santa :-).
I’ve been adamant about not wanting anything fancier than a point-n-shoot, and I appreciate that Santa kept that in mind. (My Santa is a heckuva photographer, and I don’t mind leaving the fancy footwork up to him!) But, boy, did he score me one cool PNS! I’m looking forward to trying out the macro feature.
All in all, it was definitely one of my most fun Christmases as an adult, gift-wise :-).
What about y’all . . . any particular gift(s), store-bought or homemade, that brought a particularly big grin to your face this holiday season???
Legend of Zelda Pillowcase
22 Dec 2011 4 Comments
Last night I finished up my last remaining WIP for 2012, a very belated birthday gift for my teen. It’s ridiculous that I didn’t finish this back in the summer, but, well, health issues blah blah blah. My kiddo loved it when I showed it to him last night :-). (It needs a run through the washer and dryer today, before going on his pillow.)
My only quibble, and it’s a small one, is that the Link from “Windwaker” (the Link on the left side in this photo) could stand to have his eyes filled in with stitching . . . but, dang!, his eyes fall right exactly where the fabric is the thickest (it feels like three thicknesses of fabric in that little hem area) and it’s a booger to get the needle through there. I’m not gonna sweat it; Link can have a bit of a blank stare (literally!).
Besides that, I think it’s pretty neat and am glad I completed it for my teen. After I washed out the transfer marker, I was reminded what it is I love so much about hand embroidery — how customizable it can be! No one else will have a pillowcase that looks exactly like this one :-).
Now the WIP bag is empty, ready for whatever projects Santa brings me to work on in 2012!!
Swap Goodies for Gretchen
07 Dec 2011 10 Comments
in craft swap, cross-stitch, felt, hand embroidery
These are goodies I made for Gretchen (aka June at Noon) for a personal craft swap. When we originally agreed to the swap, it was back at the beginning of the year and the only rule was to complete the swap by year-end. At the time, I had no idea it really would be very nearly the end of the year before I completed my part of the swap. Yikes! Gretchen’s a sweetie for being so patient :-).
I wanted a change of pace from my typical embroidery projects, so opted to make several small-scale items rather than one larger item.
First up is a “Matroyshka” Tissue Cozy, made of felt and embellished with a bit of embroidery.
The design is a freebie (found here) offered up by Sew Sweet Stitches. I purchased the wool felt from Felt on the Fly — Janet has a kit available containing the felt colors called for in the tutorial, or you can do what I did and ask for Janet’s help in swapping out colors :-). This was my first time working with wool felt and, boy, is it lovely! I thoroughly enjoyed making the tissue cozy and will absolutely be doing more felt + embroidery crafting.
Next up is this “Autumn” needlekeeper.
The embroidery design was inspired by Gretchen’s love of trees and autumn. Adventures in Thread’s needlekeeper tutorial was the basis for my project. I used business-card sized magnetic sheets, which have an adhesive backing on one side. Individually, when wrapped in a piece of fabric, they didn’t have a very strong magnetic hold, so I adhered three of them together and that created a strong enough hold that the needles won’t fall off. Then I adhered those to a thin piece of matboard, to make the needlekeeper a little more stiff. I laced my embroidery over the top of the magnets, and covered the back with a piece of craft felt (applied with Elmer’s Spray Adhesive) so the lacing wouldn’t show.
The “Noel” mini-ornament was part of a holiday cross-stitch kit that came with an issue of Cross-Stitcher magazine (I love that magazine!). The original ornament was supposed to be bigger, but I had a “should’ve measured twice” moment and cut the Aida too small to complete the original ornament design, so I improvised and made a mini-ornament instead :-).
The buttons are vintage. I adhered little round magnets to the back, but used just the adhesive that was already on the magnets, rather than a heavy-duty adhesive, so that if Gretchen wants to pop the magnets off and use the buttons for another project it will be easy to do so.
(Included in the goodies Gretchen made for me was this beautiful “Under the Stars” illustration which I get to look at when I’m sitting on our living room couch, like I am right now!)
I have one last personal craft-swap to wrap up for 2012, for the also-very-sweet-and-very-patient Lisa :-), and am having a good time working on the goodies for that swap.
Victorian Heart Pincushion
01 Dec 2011 5 Comments
A little goodie I made for myself, for StitchMAP‘s November 2011 “Victorian Heart Pincushion” challenge.
The design is “French Script ‘G’”, which is a freebie on Kathy Shaw’s Shawkl blog. (Other letters of the alphabet, in the same French Script format, are also available on Kathy’s blog.)
I’d been itching to do a French Knot-heavy embroidery, but not one that would take months, and this “G” was the perfect opportunity to scratch that itch. It’s embroidered on a lime green quilter’s cotton (which photos lemon-lime-y, but in reality is quite green) — I’ve used the heck out of this lime-green fabric in recent months!
This was my first StitchMAP challenge, and I love the way their challenges are set up — rather than giving you the complete beginning-to-end instructions for a project in one fail swoop, they’re given piecemeal, to help nudge you along to actually completing the project. For example, for this project, the instructions came in three parts. After completing each of the first two parts, I sent in photos documenting my completion, and I received feedback about what I’d completed thus far, along with the next batch of instructions. Totally brilliant, IMO!
I learned how to do Ladder Stitch to close my seam after stuffing the heart, and how to use Loop Stitch for starting embroidery on an already-stuffed project (or any other project for which you can’t start the needle from the backside of the fabric). (Those links are both videos, by the way.)
Overall, I’m super happy with how this turned out, especially considering it required sewing, both machine-sewing and hand-sewing (to close the seam) — I really do love how the French-Knotted “G” turned out. My little nitpicks are: (a) I’ll replace the ribbon with a similar one that is much wider, so the project is more balanced scale-wise; (b) the bottom of the heart and the right “arm” need more stuffing, something to keep in mind next time I make one of these; and (c) my Feather Stitch along the seam is not as precise as I’d like. This was only my second time to do Feather Stitch, and stitching it on something stuffed, rounded, and squishable was a bit challenging for me — but I really like the stitch and plan to incorporate it into more of my embroidery projects.
Here’s where my pincushion lives now:
Well, That Was A Long Break!
21 Nov 2011 1 Comment
in hand embroidery, outreach, StitchMAP
Hey There, Stitchy Peeps!! (I borrowed that phrase from Kristi at Stitchy Stitcherson; love that phrase!) Let’s blow the dust off this here blog, shall we???
This year has seemed, to my guys and me, to go by at least twice as fast as any other year ever has. Does it feel that way for y’all, too? It’s been a rocky year for me healthwise, but I’m finally on an upswing with my health and anticipate that to continue as we barrel into 2012. For the past couple weeks, my energy level has noticeably increased and I’m beginning to feel like the “old me”, but a healthier version of “old me” ;-). One of the things about which I’m the happiest is that my crafting momentum is the best it’s been in at least a year’s time, which feels WONDERFUL!!
I recently stitched up some ornaments for a relief effort that’s happening for Bastrop, Texas, folks who lost their homes in a brutal wildfire this past September. (More info about that relief effort can be found at the K.N.A.S.S. blog.) I’ve already posted individual pictures of the ornaments on my Flickr photostream, but here’s a group shot:
Other members of my local Embroiderers Guild also contributed handmade ornaments, as well as some holiday fabric, a variety of needlework kits, and some snips:
Our donations are being combined with donations received from many other folks and will be distributed in early December. The purpose of this phase of the relief effort is to help families begin to rebuild their supply of handmade ornaments and stockings.
In other needlework news, tonight I started embroidering myself a Victorian Pin Cushion, as part of a needlework challenge to be completed by the end of this month. The pattern I’m using is a French Script “G”, which Kathy Shaw offered as a freebie on her blog. I’m filling in the “G” with all french knots, which I’m thoroughly enjoying!
I also have some stitchy goodies completed and some in-progress for a couple craft swaps I’ll be wrapping up in December, and will post pics of those goodies once the recipients have received them.
My mind is full of needlework ideas I want to try in 2012, and I look forward to sharing those with y’all. It’s good to be back, and to be stitching again!!
P.S. — If you’re reading this in a reader or by email subscription, click over and check out the new blog background — it’s very bright and cheery :-). I’m working on an About Me page, but don’t have it up yet. Soon!
