Stitching

May

02

Sock Sack pattern winner and a little review of Doodle Stitching- Embroidery & Beyond!

Stitching  Posted by / 38 comments

(bottom photo from Beth Sweet)

I can’t believe it’s already May! When did that happen? I feel like this year is FLYING by!

Lately I’ve been doing a bunch of cross stitching. Like, more than normal. I think right now I’m averaging 5-8 hrs per day because we have a ton of new patterns coming out (don’t forget that I co-own a cross stitch pattern company with my bff!). And then I sneak in a few hours of embroidery on the weekends.

I have this dream that when we buy a house next fall (yes! next fall is our goal! o m g!) my kitchen is going to be filled with hand embroidered linens. I want a ton of feed sack towels and then a bunch of indie silk screened ones too. It’s kind of become an obsession. I feel like I’m squirreling away all these handmade treasures for the future in little boxes.

A few months ago Beth from Lark contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in a copy of Aimee Ray’s new book, Doodle Stitching- Embroidery & Beyond. I said YES! Full disclosure: normally I don’t say yes because I’m not really the advertising sort but I said yes because I really enjoyed Aimee’s first book- Doodle Stitching! 

This book takes off where that one stops- it shows you different sorts of stitches from cross stitch to crewel, sashiko & cut work. It’s pretty neat! My favorite project in the book is called Canvas Cuckoo Clock- it’s literally a clock that you embroider! It’s super cute, I already traced the design onto a tea towel.

I think it’s a pretty cute book, I don’t really love the look of cut work & stump work but she presents them in an easy to understand and fun way! This book is definitely geared towards someone who wants to broaden their handwork repertoire and I like that! But there are also clear and concise directions with illustrations on how to do basic stitches as well.

If you’d like to win a copy of the book and embroidery floss, just leave me a comment! This is the last giveaway for a while, I have some books I read in March/April, plus a quilt to share with you! I’ll pick a winner on Sunday!!!

PS: The winner of the sock sack pattern is EMMA L! Emma, can you email me so I can forward your info along to Ramona?! thank you! I loved reading all your comments- I added so much stuff to my ravelry favorites which is great because I had to frog a pair of Hermoine socks…noooo! :( :)

Mar

15

Weekend Plans

Knitting / Quilting & Sewing / Stitching / The Farmer's Wife Quilt-a-Long  Posted by / 13 comments

Hey!

TGIF! TGIF! TGIF!!!!

I’m looking forward to this weekend. I don’t have anything giant planned but there is something about a Friday that makes me super excited. My only plan so far is to visit Kittle’s & look at shot guns. I heard a rumor of an early birthday gift. Not something that I normally do on a weekends but it’ll be fun. My dream right now is to own this. ;)

I got something fun in the mail, new sock yarn and new knitting needles. I saw this review of carbon needles, I wanted to give them a try in the future. I ordered the needles and the yarn from Jimmy Beans Wool on Wednesday with my JBWBucks and I was super excited that they came this morning. That’s speedy! The yarn is called Colinette Jitterbug in Paintbox, doesn’t it remind you of one of those sprinkle birthday cakes with all the bits of colored sugar inside? I sort of want to make one now! (ps: this cookbook has my favorite sprinkle cake recipe: Milk)

Isn’t that donkey knitting bag incredible? I received the most amazing pink themed package from the sweetest blog reader (Beth) who sent me things so perfect that I almost died. It was like she was in my brain. I only got a cell phone photo of the treats but I think I need to do a blog post of all the presents I’ve received lately because I have incredibly kind and generous friends. I need to figure out some things I can sew as thank you gifts. Any ideas?!

I’ve been cross stitching non stop but I’m still not any neater or faster, haha! I’ve been listening to The Discovery of Witches for the zillionth time and working on Woodland Sampler! That’s a pretty big sneak peek for April. I’ve also been working on Springtime Sampler for a few hours each morning. I’m thankful for the library’s selection of audiobooks for sure!

Actually, has anyone read Iced? I’ve recently been re-reading the Faefever series from start to finish and I’d purchased Iced when it first came out but I forgot how annoying I found Dani and only got a chapter in. Now I’m not sure if I should give it a second chance?! What did you think of it?

I found a new little storage bin at Target for my cross stitch supplies. Every Wednesday Ashleigh & I take a small business class, then afterwards sit at a local coffee shop & cross stitch. I’d been using a little gingerbread man tin I got from JoAnns but it kept exploding open in my bag. This plastic one has a lid that clamps in place. Not too shabby for $2.99! I right now carry floss for Springtime Sampler and Woodland Sampler, plus needles, scissors, highlighter tape, yada yada yada. It’s thinner than my gingerbread man tin too! If you cross stitch or craft on the go, check out Target for these. They came in gray, aqua and green. But they aren’t on Target.com :( I’d love to finish stitching week 2 of Springtime Sampler this weekend and April’s Woodland sampler this weekend!

I sadly lost my Smashbook this fall. I have no idea where it went. In February I got a new one, I went with hot pink this time. I’m hoping to add some things I’ve been collecting to it soon. Agnes sent me some Studio Calico wood veneer stars that are quite possibly the cutest things ever. Also: I love glue.

Do you notice anything pretty in these photos? A new quilt! Now I have my finished Farmer’s Wife, a scrap quilt (who’s name I can’t decide. Shoofly? Churn Dash? IDK) and now this quilt to show you! It’s not bound yet and I probably won’t bind it for a little bit, I managed to make the fun of binding a scrap quilt last over a week so I’m hoping to do the same with this one. Lindsay quilted for it and omggg. I took it out of the box and seriously almost died. I posted a photo on instagram but it doesn’t do her quilting job justice. She basically took a boring quilt and made it SING. It has this shiny pink thread that I can’t stop looking at. The wool batting is making it look extra sweet. I know, I know, all my quilts are starting to look the same. Lots of pink and neutrals. I don’t even care. As soon as I pulled it out of the box my second thought was…I WANT ANOTHER PINK QUILT FOR HER TO QUILT FOR ME. It’s an obsession.

Soooo what are you doing this weekend? Hanging out at home? Wearing leggings as pants? Eating candy? Cross stitching a new Ireland pattern? Drinking green beer? Reading a book? Gardening?!

Jan

22

Long Weekend Projects

Quilting & Sewing / Stitching / The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery / Tutorials & Patterns  Posted by / 6 comments

I started a little embroidery yesterday for a friend who’s having a baby. I’m super slow at embroidering so I figured I’d get a head start! I’m using this pattern, because mama-to-be is a Kurt Hasley fan. I don’t know if it’s going to be a boy or girl yet so I picked some constellation scraps for the background. Stars are gender neutral right?! ;) I super love iron on patterns, I’m the absolute worst at tracing and for some reason the whole “iron it and it’s magically on your fabric” is really magical to me. I’m a nerd. ;)

Porkchop made me a little scrap thread holder! It’s a piece of 4″ x 6″ wood that he wrapped fabric around and stapled down. Then he hammered a few nails in it and we sprayed it with a bit of glitter spray. I love it so much, I tend to just leave little piles of floss everywhere and now I have them all together with me!

I finished my Donut Quilt on Sunday night, it was the best weekend of sewing, relaxing and watching t.v. Those are the best kinds of weekends to me.

Also! Voting ended in our poll for the next patterns! We’ll be doing Japan, Australia and Ireland! Ashleigh is already designing and I’ve ordered new linen/evenweave for us this morning. I can’t wait to start stitching them and sharing sneak peeks! I was begging everyone I knew to vote for Japan, Ireland and Russia, but sadly Russia didn’t win! But once these patterns are done, we’ll have another round of voting! :):)

I hope you had a nice long weekend :)

Jan

15

DIY Glitter Linen

Stitching / The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery / Tutorials & Patterns  Posted by / 2 comments

Raise your hand if you love glitter!

Meee!!! I loooove glitter. Fierce. And I also love cross stitch. Combine the two and you get pure radness!

You can buy commercial glitter linen from sources like dovestitch.com but if you are like me and want the most glitter for your buck, try this!

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • Krylon Glitter Spray or Krylon Glitter Blast. I can only vouch for these two sprays, different brands may vary. I picked Glitter Blast in Diamond Dust & Glitter Spray in a Multicolor. The multicolor has bits of red, blue, silver, gold and green. I went with Krylon because these are acid free. I purchased these at Michael’s with a coupon. The small can is $5.99 and the large is $7.99 without a coupon. You could get a LOT of glitter linen out of each can. And they had a ton of colors, gold, silver, pink, green, etc.
  • Linen Scraps. Please try this project on scraps first, I’d hate for you to buy expensive linen and have it not work out!.
  • Either newspaper or paper bags. Or your front steps. Just a place to spray your fabric outside.

 

You really want to work on this project outside, it’s spray paint and it stinks.

I simply laid down my fabric and using even strokes, covered the fabric with the spray paint. Easy right?

Here are a few tips:

  • Let the fabric sit 24-48 hrs before you try to stitch on it. Not because it’s wet but because the fumes are crazy.
  • The fabric will be SUPER stiff. I found I liked it, but if you don’t want super stiff fabric, you probably don’t want to try this project.
  • I completed an entire project with minimal glitter shedding. Occasionally I’d look down and see a piece of glitter or two on my hands but it didn’t fall everywhere.
  • The fibers of the linen can be stuck together, meaning it’s a little easy to miscount but a few stitches in I figured it out.
  •  It WILL darken your fabric considerably. In the photo of the spray paint cans, the linen on the left has been glittered, the right hasn’t.

 

Here in this photo shows the original linen rolled up and then the glittered linens below it! Exact same one, Charles Craft Irish Linen Tea Dyed! See how light it is compared to the glittered ones?! Neat!

Look how awesome glitter floss looks with glitter linen?! This is Cosmo’s White (silver!) and it’s super dreamy looking. I’m working on a project today with this sparkle floss and I can’t wait!

See how nice the stitches pop?! This has been ironed on low with a dish towel between the iron and the linen. It is FLAT. Crisp even! Imagine the cutest bookmark ever and this could be it. Sometimes my regular projects I have to starch in order to get the crinkles out but this fabric is so stiff that the crinkles just fell out. Amazing!

Anyways, I hope you give it a try! Ashleigh & I will be releasing a line of brand new Valentine’s Day patterns on Friday, if you haven’t had a chance get, come visit us on facebook! We aren’t spammy (that’s just not our nature!), we share tips & tricks and post photos of things other folks have made from our patterns :)

Dec

08

Satisfaction in Mending

Stitching  Posted by / 1 comments

I love to mend.

I sometimes wish I had a time turner like Hermoine so I could occasionally  constantly punch my 18-24 year old self in the face.

Oh that torn garment? No biggie, I’ll just throw it out and buy charge a new one. Embarrassing behavior that when I mull over it becomes horrifying.

I was grabbing my winter sweaters and saw a favorite old  wool J.Crew number had some holes in it. I almost started to cry. It’s the perfect thinness that is great for layering, it has 3/4 length sleeves and is WARM. After realizing that I definitely can’t afford a new one, I sat down with myself and thought “self, you are a dummy. fix it.” It wasn’t just the finances of it, I really didn’t WANT a new one because this one is just perfectly cozy!

20 minutes later: glitter mending. cute sweater that isn’t falling apart. 20 minutes of day dreaming, relaxing and watching thread sparkle.

I’m not pro at mending by any stretch, I recently repaired my favorite set of sheets that became snagged in the dryer by embroidering a teeny peach over a hole. I guess I feel like mending can either be a chore or something cute. I’m going with cute. Always cute. And when in doubt: add glitter.

I used Cosmo embroidery floss and their sparkle floss. It’s SO smooth to stitch with, little to no snags and it’s more puffy than standard metallic floss. Also, not itchy!

Here are some inspiring mending links:

I secretly want a darning egg. And more glitter floss. I’d love to put patchwork elbow pads on a worn out sweater, how cute would that be?!

Aug

11

August Aurifil BOM

Stitching  Posted by / 0 comments

August’s Aurifil Block of the Month is BARI’S!!!

Bari’s pretty rad, I got to meet her at Sewing Summit last year and she’s pretty hilarious!

She has a really neat blog called We Love French Knots that is all about hand stitching, full of tutorials and neat links. Her main blog is here & she just finished all these really neat projects from her new line of fabric, LillyBelle! I’m totally out of the fabric loop and somehow missed this line (maybe I’m living under a rock?!), it’s BEAUTIFUL! I have my eye on some of these prints, especially the navy and mustard ones, just really pretty! And I really love Art Gallery’s base cloth, it’s quite nice!

She’s designed a cute block with a lily on it! Awesome!

If you stitch up Bari’s or any of the other Aurifil Designer’s Blocks, be sure to add them to the flickr group (which is BURSTING with cute stuff!) and if they pick your block, you can win thread! best!!!

I recently used the 12 wt cotton in my sewing machine for some free motion quilting, you can read about it here, so even if you don’t do a lot of hand work, it’s really versitile for both!

:):)

Aug

05

Patchwork Smash Book Cover

Quilting & Sewing / Stitching  Posted by / 5 comments

Yesterday I got a Smash Book! They seem to have been popular for a while now but I only learned about them yesterday when I saw them in a cute craft store in Grass Valley. I decided to get one because I *love* gluing and pasting and sticking things in books.

In college we had to keep sketchbooks, I remember seeing classmates frantically scribbling in a brand new book the morning of finals so they’d have something to turn in. Not me! I had multiple filled moleskines. I just love starting with a flat book and cramming so much stuff in it that it barely closes anymore.

I’ve kept up pretty well with Project Life, I stopped in Mid-May, I couldn’t seem to find a binder solution that worked for me and I realized…I’m kind of dull. My days are pretty similar and my cards started to get boring. Big time.

SO! I decided to get this Smash Book and give it a try. I tend to hang onto things, my purse is usually filled with little scraps of paper and torn magazine pages. I think this will be a really fun way to collect memories from this year. For some reason turning 30 is *really* exciting to me!

I used only scraps to make this, my scrap bin is out of control so I thought I’d better use what I have. I did one of my favorite blocks for the center, it’s called Friendship! I have bits of fabric that friends have given me in here, Lindsay, Karyn & Lizzy all contributed to this. I love sewing with bits from friends. The inside has a little pocket and I boxed the bottom corners so the bag will stand up on it’s own on my bedside table when filled with stuff. It closes with a fold over snap.

I decided to try something new to me, free motion quilting using Aurifil 12 wt cotton. The weight that folks usually use when sewing is 50 wt, it’s standard sewing thread. I’d say 12 wt cotton is similar to 2 strands of embroidery floss. Embroidery floss has 6 strands and most folks ply them down (pull them apart) to two for cross stitch or embroidery.

I’ve been knitting a pair of oak leaf socks and thought my book needed an oak leaf. I used a leather needle in my machine simply because it had the largest eye out of any of the needles I had on hand and then 50 wt cotton in the bobbin. You really want a large eye for the thread to go through, otherwise the thread will rub and break.

With the thicker thread, you really want to stitch SLOW. For some reason people free motion quilt with the idea that FASTER IS BETTER, I’m not sure why. This has never worked for me (I’m not an expert though ;)) Slow is much better with this thread, really let the machine take the time to place the stitches and the needle pull up the bobbin thread. I didn’t draw the leaf on the fabric before quilting, I’m rubbish at following lines.

I love that the 12 wt looks like hand embroidery, it’s has really neat stitch definition and the cotton has a really beautiful shine.

Did you guys know they make gray sharpies?! I died when I saw this yesterday!

:):)

Aug

04

Aurifil July BOM

Quilting & Sewing / Stitching / Tutorials & Patterns  Posted by / 2 comments

I’m totally bummed out that my blog didn’t post this right away because I super love Sarah! And I love this summer-y block. I started stitching it onto a tote bag for my library books, all summer long I’ve been obsessed with mysteries and visiting the library 3x a week! I guess summer is just a time for sitting outside and reading (and stitching!)

I’ve had a crush on this quilt for the past year or so, it’s seriously dreamy. My grandparents used to take me to a lot of antique stores in New England and I saw these very traditional & primitive eagles on things and I love them. But this! Wowzers. It’s so fresh & fantastic. I’m not sure it’s something I could ever sew, I *love* hand applique, but mostly because I don’t have very much of these colors in my stash. I think it’s one that I’d want to just drive to Sarah’s and steal. It just appeals to my traditional Yankee soul and my California boldness. Does that make sense?! I think this quilt is in her book Quilting from Little Things?! But I’m not 100% sure. Maybe I can ask for the book as an early birthday gift? *wink wink*

Don’t forget, you can post any of your completed blocks to the flickr group and you can win thread! Woo woo!

Jun

25

Kitschy Digitals & The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery

Stitching / The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery  Posted by / 1 comments

Eek!

We are so excited!

Danielle Thompson, who is an amazing creative force, designed/curated/worked her butt off on this incredible digital online marketplace. Imagine Ashleigh & my surprise when she invited us to take part!!!

You can find some of The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery’s patterns along with so many other super talented designers now all in one place!

Even better! A grand opening sale until Friday! Use code GRANDOPENING15 to score 15% off!

We have a super cute exclusive to Kitschy Digitals pattern called Drinks All Around that is soooo perfect for summer road trip & picnic stitching!

Yayayay! How’s that for a rad Monday?!

Apr

19

April Aurifil Designer BOM

Stitching  Posted by / 1 comments

Isn’t this pretty much the cutest block?

It’s for April’s Aurifil Designer Block of the Month! I had this post pending to post on April 7th but apparently it didn’t work. I’m so not blog savvy.

This block was designed and created by Gail, her blog is new to me & it’s super cute! She’s been traveling in Europe and it’s been fun reading about her adventures!

Don’t forget that if you stitch up ANY of the designer BOMs and put it in the flickr pool you can win thread! I honestly wish I could enter, I only have one spool of white left & I have a feeling once I finish this quilt that I’ll be threadless! Oi! I wish I had a thread fairy! ;)

Happy Stitching!