Early Bird Stitcher

Corks Heart Crochet

2012-01-19T06:00:00.000-08:00

Hi there!

I just wanted to share a quick project post with you this morning. Last Friday Darcy wasn't feeling too great due to stomach issues, so I wanted to make something to cheer her up. I know! A ninja should do the trick!

The ninja was a hit with Darcy, and Harper was interested in the new toy. But Darcy would not surrender the ninja, so I made a gnome for Harper.

Both of these patterns are free and courtesy of the LucyRavenscar blog. The gnome was a wee bit more challenging due to the color changes. But overall, I really enjoyed both of these patterns. LucyRavenscar also has a pattern for a knight cork, and Darcy put in a request for that guy. I thought of a couple of other characters to make using these patterns as a guideline. Wouldn't a Little Red Riding Hood and a Matryoshka / Babushka be cute? I'll be sure to share pictures if I make more.

I have a few different projects in progress at the moment including an embroidery custom order, granny squares, and I'm still trying to finish the hair on the little amigurumi I started a couple of weeks ago. New ideas are running through my head and anxiously waiting their turn. So many projects, so little time, right?

What are you working on?

Hugs and Stitches,
Amy

Lala Love

2012-01-10T07:14:00.000-08:00

Happy belated new year, friends! I'm hoping to blog more frequently in 2012, even if it's just short and sweet posts, like progress photos of projects. I've been flirting with the idea of renaming this blog or starting a new one that shares personal posts mixed with crafty ones. "Early Bird Special" was originally a collaboration with a friend 5 years ago, and I feel like the name and concept don't really apply to my life now. Also, I'm kind of sick of dealing with people using the EBS logo without my consent, to promote their company sales. But with a name like "Early Bird Special", what did I expect?

I'm kind of leaning towards, "Short & Scout." It would be a play on my girls' names. "Short" being for Harper and "Scout" for Darcy Scout. I admit, I'm a little apprehensive to change simply because I don't want to lose any readers or downplay the info here on the EBS blog. What do you think? Consider a blog name change / "re-branding", or leave it alone?

So I mentioned before that I started crocheting, and I've actually been doing a lot more crochet than embroidery lately. Today I'm ready to share a couple of crochet projects with you!

Darcy and I have been in love with Lalaloopsy dolls for a couple of years now, starting back with they were "Bitty Buttons" dolls. My friend Dana shares a love of Loopsies with me too, so it's fun to go ga-ga for Lala together. (Hi, Dana!)

Anyway, Allison Hoffman of Crafty is Cool came up with an amazing pattern for Lalaloopsy inspired amigurumi dolls. I wasn't confident enough in my amigurumi skills to try making the doll, but I did think I had the skills required to make the dolly dress. Darcy only had one Lalaloopsy doll, Pillow Featherbed. She's the one who wears pajamas, so I decided to make the dress to see if it would fit a real Lalaloopsy doll.

It does! Darcy and I were both very happy with how it turned out. Allison’s pattern suggests using a baby weight yarn, but I didn’t have any on hand, so I used a worsted weight yarn (Vanna's Choice) & an E hook. Since the worsted weight yarn made the dress a little bit bigger & bulkier than the original, I dropped 1 row on the sleeves and the bottom layer of the dress.

I definitely want to make more of these dresses, but try using a finer weight yarn next time. The worsted weight does seem to make the dress stiffer than I'd like. Darcy and Harper received a few new Loopsies for Christmas, so I have justification to make more dresses. ;-)

Over the weekend, I decided I wanted to try making an amigurumi doll, and used Allison's doll pattern as somewhat of a guide. I referred to her pattern for the head and the undies.

I wanted the scale of my doll to be considerably smaller than Allison's, so I made the arms and legs pretty tiny. I'm attempting to make an amigurumi Lalaloopsy Littles. They're the new little siblings of the bigger Lalaloopsy dolls.

Aren't they cute?! This week I'm working on getting the hair and face just right, then I'll start working on her outfit. I am very nervous about the hair, since I've never done it before. I worked on it quite a bit yesterday, and I was not happy with how things were looking. So today I'm probably going to remove the mess I made yesterday, and start over with the hair.

Maybe I'll come up with something I like by the end of the week, so I can share a new progress picture with you.

Happy Stitching!

Amy

New Sleepy Fox Embroidery Pattern!

2011-10-24T09:15:00.000-07:00

Hello, Friends!

First, thanks for the nice comments about the Halloween cross stitch wall hangings. For those of you requesting a tutorial, I don't think I'll be able to get it posted in time for Halloween. I can't believe this is the last week of October! There were several projects on my creative ideas list that just didn't happen this month, due to personal life issues. BUT luckily most of those ideas can be adapted to Christmas/holiday projects, including the cross stitch wall hangings! So making a Christmas cross stitch wall hanging tutorial is the new goal. ;-)

But I did manage to complete one of my creative goals last night. You remember my Sleepy Fox pillow, right?

Well now you can make your very own Sleepy Fox pillow! Or tote bag, pillowcase, jammies, onesie, you get the idea! I just listed the pattern in my shop last night, and it's only $4.00!

The PDF includes 2 versions of the pattern, one facing the "right way" and one is reversed. Also, this pattern version does not have the fur markings. I wanted to leave his (or her) body blank, so you can customize it to your own liking and skill level. But I am working on creating a new image with fur markings to add to the pattern. Anyone who buys the 1st pattern version will receive the updated version for free.

I hope you like it! For fun, how about we have a little giveaway?

I want to treat a reader to the new Sleepy Fox pattern for free!

Just leave me a comment! What are you or your kids dressing up as for Halloween? Any particular pattern designs you want to see? Seen any good movies lately? What's for dinner tonight? Just wanna say hi? Whatever you want to tell me, I want to hear it!

You can score extra entries if you mention this giveaway or my new pattern on your blog, twitter, pinterest, or write it on a bathroom stall. Just leave a new comment for each mention.

I'll leave comments open on this post until Friday, pick a winner at random, and announce it then.

**If you purchase the pattern and win the giveaway, I'll issue you a refund.

Good luck!

Hugs & Stitches,

Amy

Halloween Cross Stitch Wall Hangings

2011-09-22T11:39:00.000-07:00

Last week I noticed Heidi Kenney of My Paper Crane had listed a new cross stitch pattern in her Etsy shop. It's an adorable, vintage inspired Halloween design!

I already had another Halloween project planned, but I put that one to the side after I bought this pattern. I wanted to do something a little bit different, and focus on making new decorations for the house. So I decided to cross stitch a couple of the designs on plastic canvas with acrylic yarn. I l-o-v-e how they turned out!

I used 7 count plastic canvas, acrylic yarn, a blunt tapestry needle, and the Halloween Frenzy pattern for this project. I'm happy to post a tutorial or more detailed how-to instructions, if there are enough requests.

This is a really great weekend project. I was able to finish one pumpkin in an evening while watching Mad Men on Netflix Instant. I am so happy they added that and Breaking Bad to the Instant options! We haven't had cable for a couple of years, so I've been spoiling myself in the evenings. Speaking of spoiling, I just started Season 3, so no spoilers in the comments please!

Has anyone else started on Fall or Halloween decorating?

Needle & Thor

2011-09-12T12:27:00.000-07:00

I was going through some of my embroidery supplies over the weekend, and I found an uncompleted project I started in the summer of 2010. It was for a project called "Okie Stitch Along" organized by the ladies of Deluxe Indie Craft Bazaar. The idea was to embroider a portrait of a famous / well known Oklahoman, and all the finished pieces were on display at the 2010 Oklahoma State Fair.

I remembered that the writers of the newest run of Thor comics made Oklahoma Thor's new home. I thought it would be fun to embroider something comic book inspired, so Thor was my Okie. Unfortunately I didn't meet the deadline, so my project didn't make it to the fair.

For some reason, I hit a wall, thought the whole piece looked like shit, and realized I wasn't going to finish on time. So I took it out of the hoop, folded it up, and shoved it in a closet. Today was the first time in a year that I've really looked at it, and I thought I'd let you see it too.

Looking at it today, I love it again like I did before I put so much pressure on myself. I am the worst when it comes to being my own worst critic. Old habits die hard, right? But I'm inspired to work on Thor again soon. It's too pretty to be shoved away in a closet, don't you think?

xoxo,
Amy

Pattern Review: Sweet Little Dress by Leila & Ben

2011-09-06T13:49:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Ours was pretty great. We had 3 days off, the weather was perfect, I had dinner and played card games with friends, and I had 4 hours all to myself on Saturday, while John took the girls to the zoo. So I decided that would be a great time to work on a pattern I purchased last week.

I bought the Sweet Little Dress Pattern Package from Leila & Ben. I found out about these patterns through their ad on Sew Mama Sew. I've never sewn clothes before, and the only patterns I've ever used have always been for tote bags or purses. The dress was adorable, looked pretty versatile, and the pattern description said it was easy enough for beginner sewers. Perfect! The "Sweet Little Dress" pattern is offered in 3 different size sets for $6.00 each, but I bought the pattern package (linked above) for only $13.00.

The Leila & Ben patterns are offered in PDF format, which I really like, and the instructions were very well written and easy to understand. Step by step pictures are on the side of the pattern instructions, and I always appreciate that. I was pretty nervous about the sleeves, but after reading it through, it seemed easy. I worked on dress for 3 hours, and I had 90% of the dress finished by the time the family got home from the zoo.

I was hoping to be finished, but since this was my first time working with a clothing pattern, I was slower than average. This morning I added the elastic to the neckline and the sleeves and it was done! I love it and I can't help but feel some pride in myself for making my first garment.

Before I share pictures, I have to tell you that I did combine 2 different sizes of the pattern to make my dress. Originally this was being made for Darcy, who is almost 5, and for some reason has decided she doesn't like dresses so much anymore. So she asked if I could make a shirt instead. Sure thing. So the top and midsection are the 5T size, and for the hem line, I used the 12 month size.

Well, Darcy has had quite the growth spurt this summer, and when she put it on, I could tell the collar seemed a little tight. I should have gone with the size 6 neckline and sleeves. BUT, it looked promising as a dress for Harper, so I put it on her this morning. She is such a short girl, so the length seems a little long. These are all goofs on my part, and nothing at all to do with the pattern. Enough with all of that, here are some pictures!

I actually really love the pattern and I'm looking forward to making more dresses/tops for both girls. Leila & Ben also have a "Retro Apron Pattern" that looks super sweet and I'm sure I'll buy that one too. I posted it on Pinterest, and my friend Jaime actually said she has the apron pattern and recommends it.
I want to tell you that I wasn't asked to review this pattern. I just really loved it, and I think it's a great pattern to have.

Oh, and how do you like that fabric? It's SO OLD! It's called "Fairies of Goldenwood" by Alexander Henry. I bought it 8 or 9 years ago! I always thought it was really sweet and I'm glad I held on to it for so long.

xoxo,
Amy

Little Pocket

2011-09-01T14:32:00.000-07:00

In between snacks, meal prep, diaper changes, cleaning dirty little hands and faces, playing pretend, coloring, and letter practice, this is my pocket of happiness for today.

What's making you happy today?

Disappearing Act

2011-08-30T14:35:00.000-07:00

It's been a crazy long time since I've posted anything around here. To be honest, I wasn't sure it was actually going to happen again. I deleted this blog for a short time. But thanks to Blogger giving me 90 days to restore before permanent deletion, and several emails from readers and friends asking where my blog had gone, I decided to re-activate my blog. (Unfortunately, I also deleted my Twitter account and I can't get that one back. *sniff*)

I'm pretty sure I've fallen out of the swing of things around here because my embroidery switch has been turned off for a while now. Unicorn Girl was my last project and since coming out of the hoop, it's been folded up and sitting in my pile of finished projects. I have embroidery project ideas brewing, but for some reason I can't find the drive to implement them yet. Just another reason to come back to blogging. Your comments and your creations keep me motivated!

Or maybe it's because I've fallen in love with a new craft. A few months ago I taught myself how to crochet! I had hoped to learn the craft last year, but things didn't work out then. Then in January my friend Dana started an amazing and wonderfully ambitious 365 project: A Granny A Day. I couldn't get enough of all of her beautiful granny squares, and finally told myself I was going to learn how to crochet.

I found a couple of really great crochet tutorials, and referred to them exclusively for about a week. I flip-flopped between "Granny Squares 101" by Meet Me at Mikes, and "Crochet Basics" by The Purl Bee.
I highly recommend both of these tutorials for any one else who has been wanting to learn how to handle the hook. I won't lie though, I had some struggles and there were times when I wanted to give up. But then I would just spend a little bit of time on Pinterest looking at lots of beautiful crochet projects, and I was inspired to try again.

Speaking of Pinterest, I've been quite active over there during my blogging break. It's very easy for me to get lost in the sea of beautiful over there. If you're interested in seeing my boards, check 'em out and follow what you like. If you're not signed up yet, we need to remedy that immediately! I'm happy to send you an invitation.

Another reason for my disappearing act is because I'm not happy with my current blog look. If you're visiting the actual site, and not through Google Reader or the like, you'll notice it's pretty bare around here. I tried to update things on my own, and it was a failed effort. Pretty much everything was lost, I couldn't get it back, cried about it a few times, and then I just gave up because I was so bummed out. But I'm just going to put it behind me, hope it will look pretty again soon, and just keep blogging.

Sorry for the update flood, but it's been a while. More soon!

Unicorn Girl & The Floss Box

2011-05-26T13:53:00.000-07:00

Today I'd like to tell you about one of my favorite websites for embroidery and cross stitch designs, The Floss Box! Emily is the cute creator behind The Floss Box, and I never get tired of looking at all the designs and saying, "AWW!!"

She's been around for a while, and I remember hearing about her a couple of years ago from my pal Rachel of Average Jane Crafter. If you keep up to date with Rachel, then you're aware that she's not only a craft geek, but a space geek. I think Rachel mentioned "The Planets" embroidery patterns, and I remember thinking how cute and clever the entire series of Science embroidery patterns were.

I'm sure a lot of you have been loving and stitching tons of patterns from The Floss Box for a while now. But just in case you've never heard of her, I think you'll like what you see.

She has lots of embroidery and cross stitch designs, and last week this cross stitch design caught my eye on Pinterest.

Spring Unicorn Girl cross stitch by The Floss Box.

I quickly bought it after seeing it. But last week, she released the embroidery pattern! Yee-haw! I jumped on that project immediately. Darcy is pretty much obsessed with unicorns right now, and she was pretty excited.

The one below is the embroidered version stitched by me.

Darcy insisted on lots of pink and purple for the girl and the unicorn. I love the way it turned out & so does my little Unicorn Girl.

Come back tomorrow for another vintage pattern share, won't you?

xoxo,
Amy

Pretty Kitty

2011-05-24T14:03:00.000-07:00

First of all, great response on the Mystery Stitch! I think Sue May may have figured it out. She asked if it was a Peking Knot, and after doing an image search on Google, it certainly looks like it. She even posted a nice little photo tutorial on her blog on how to make a Peking Knot. I had never visited her blog before, and I'm glad she left a comment, because she's made some really cute stuff! Be sure to take a look when you have time.

It's been a while since I've posted a project, but today is "Sew & Tell!" This is the first of a few projects I've finished recently.

Project: Birthday project for Alina.

Pattern: Ryan Berkley Artist Series from Sublime Stitching.

Stitching Time: Approximately 4 hours.

Date Started: May 2011

Date Completed: May 2011

Well, OKC is in a tornado watch this afternoon, and I'm keeping things short and sweet around here. Wish us luck, and send lots of love to those in Joplin.

xoxo,

Amy

Mystery Stitch

2011-05-20T12:59:00.000-07:00

Hey-oh! I'm glad so many of you like the bike pattern. Your kind words, re-posts, and links to the pattern are encouraging. Be on the lookout for pattern shares to be a regular theme around here.

The other night my friend Alina came over for a crafty brainstorm session, and I brought out my Japanese embroidery books to share. These are always my favorite source for designs and inspiration. She reminded me of one of my favorite images in the book and asked what stitch was used. I told her I didn't know, but I've always admired it and wondered what it was.

So I'm asking you stitchy friends, can you name this stitch?

We played around with a few moves, and Alina almost had it. We think it's a really l-o-o-s-e French knot. But does it have a name? An official technique? I'd love to know more about it. It's too lovely not to incorporate it in to more projects, don't you think? I'm not giving up on figuring this one out.

xoxo,

Amy

Free Bicycle Embroidery Pattern

2011-05-16T06:22:00.000-07:00

The month of May is National Bike Month, and this week, May 16-20 is Bike to Work Week. Friday, May 20 is Bike to Work Day. Quite a few of you said you already ride your bikes to work as a way to lessen your carbon footprint. Good for you!

My husband rides his bike to work on a regular basis too. His ride is a little over 20 miles round trip each day, totaling over 100 miles in a typical work week. When he first started riding, I was nervous and concerned for his safety. Now a feeling of pride has replaced the fear I once had.

Sure he has come home late a few times, telling me about the stupidity and cruelness of some drivers. He's been spit at, yelled at, and "tailgated" by drivers, all for riding a bike. But most of the time he tells me about how beautiful, exhilarating, and amazing his bike rides are.

Recently I sketched a few bikes for embroidery patterns. I've been working on getting them cleaned up, and I'm happy to share this one with you today.

Just click on the image above or here to download the pdf. In return, I kindly ask that you use the design for personal projects only, and if you'd like to share this design with others, please share this blog post.

I was hoping to have this design stitched up already, but I haven't started it yet. Anyone up for a stitch-along?

xoxo,

Amy

Edit: Had to tinker with the image download options on this post. For some reason, Blogger wasn't allowing the image to be enlarged, so I created a .pdf for Scribed.

Free Embroidery Pattern - Lovely Lotus

2011-05-06T06:52:00.000-07:00

Hi there. A sweet reader emailed me a couple of weeks ago, telling me she had some vintage embroidery patterns that needed a home, and asked if she could send them to me. I told her I'd be happy to give them a home and put them to use. This is just one of the many beautiful patterns I received.

Just click on the image above, and you'll be able to save the jpg. I thought this could be lovely for Mother's Day, or any time at all really. If you reposition the scroll design, or embroider just the lotus, it would look really great in a hoop frame! Or transfer the design as it is on a tea towel or a tote bag. I'm hoping to stitch this design up for myself soon. I hope you enjoy it!

If you need tips or information on transferring the design, be sure to check out my post on Embroidery 101: Transfer Techniques.

Please note: I do not have a steady hand when it comes to tracing, and I am still learning the basics for making line drawings cleaner. So please forgive my wonky lines, stitchy friends.

Happy Stitching,

Amy

Giveaway Winner!

2011-04-25T05:07:00.000-07:00

Thank you to all who visited my blog last week for the giveaway! I truly enjoyed reading all of your comments briefly telling me how you're caring for the Earth. My free time this morning is quickly slipping away, since the Littles are awake, so I'll get right to it!

The winner is:

Commenter #10 - KATIE!

"I bike to work and try to walk or bike when I can. I also try to use reuseable bags, but after hearing this information, I'm even more motivated to do so! Thanks for the great giveaway!"

Katie, please send me an email with your shipping address so I can have reuseit.com ship your prize package to you right away!

Ok, I've really got to get going now. But I'll try to squeeze in a longer post either this afternoon or tonight.

Have a great day, everyone!

xo,

Amy

Earth Day Giveaway

2011-04-18T21:00:00.000-07:00

Hello Readers!

I'm happy to say that I'm back from my very long blog hiatus. You all know how it is with life changes taking place, right? Nothing major has happened, the girls are just getting bigger and demanding more attention and time. I've been trying to manage my time more wisely and I'm still learning how to juggle everything.

I'm pretty excited that my return to blogging is actually a giveaway post! I actually celebrated my 32nd birthday yesterday, but one of my lucky readers will be getting some great gifts.

One of my favorite people, Natalie Slater of Bake & Destroy fame, is also PR extraordinaire for reuseit.com. Reuseit.com is an online company passionate about helping customers live a life reducing, reusing, and saving. Natalie told me that reuseit.com is happy to offer a few prizes to Early Bird Special readers to celebrate Earth Day!

I got to do the fun part of shopping for the giveaway goodies, and I picked out a collection of eco-friendly bags with the stitcher/crafter in mind.

Reuseit Produce & Snack Bags made of Organic Cotton Muslin. Forget the single use plastic bags for your produce, and put your greens in these! These bags would be great for snacks, gift bags, or craft supplies! I would love to put current projects, floss, or hoops in these bags. For this prize I've selected: 1 Extra Large + 2 Large + 2 Small Bags = 5 Produce & Snack Bags.
Reuseit Workhorse in Hemp. This is the natural fiber version of one of Reuseit's best-selling bags. It can hold up to 25lbs, and it can be folded up and stored in a compact pouch attached inside the bag. I'm not sure how well the folding up and compact storage would go if you plan to embroider or cross-stitch on these bags. You don't want to hide your stitches away, now do you? For this prize I've selected: 1 Blue + 1 Natural + 1 Acorn + 1 Green = 4 Hemp Workhorse Bags.
Reuseit Hemp & Organic Cotton Napkins, Set of 4. Ahh yes, the classic cloth napkin. You can't go wrong here. Reuseit says this set is a blend of organic cotton and hemp, so they're soft and durable. Sounds perfect. For this prize I've selected: 1 Set of 4 Napkins in Natural.
Reuseit Dual Handled Tote in Hemp. I love embroidering on totes, don't you? However, my fingers don't always love the stiffness of canvas. Since this tote is made of a hemp and organic cotton blend, it's lightweight but strong. Did you know that hemp fabric is 4x stronger than cotton fabric of the same weight? Also, the more you use your hemp products, the softer they get. Learn more about nature's super fiber, hemp. Oh, and this tote gets extra points for sporting short and long handles. Score. For this prize I've selected: 2 Dual Handled Hemp Totes in Natural.

After writing about the prizes, I'm this close to buying all of this stuff for myself. I think it's that cool! I hope you like it too.

So what do you have to do? It's pretty easy really. I encourage you to read these fast facts about the plastic bag pandemic. Then in the comments, tell me the fact that hit you the hardest. For me it was hard to narrow it down to just one, but this one, "Every square mile of ocean has about 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in it." really packed a punch for me. Now I want to cry while embroidering a sampler of dolphins crying. Damn you, plastic bags.

Ok, so maybe you're not having a stellar day, and you don't want to be bummed out by plastic bag horror stories. Then leave a comment telling me what you're doing in your life to lessen your impact on the Earth. Are you a gardener? A second-hand clothing extraordinaire? Home Thrift Home? Got a tried and true natural cleaning method? Tell me all about it in the comments! Winner will be chosen at random on Earth Day - Friday April 22, 2011.

Good Luck!

UPDATE: I'll be leaving the comments open to allow for more entries until 11:59pm CST tonight! I'll email the winner, then post all about it this weekend. Again, good luck!

Handmade Owl Costume

2010-10-28T11:48:00.001-07:00

With just a few days left before Halloween, I thought I should get this posted before it's too late! Pretty much right after Darcy's birthday projects, I jumped in to Halloween and costume mode. For a few weeks she said she wanted to be a unicorn, then last week she changed gears and said she wanted to be a, "WOO! WOO! AN OWL!"

Honestly, crafting an owl costume sounded a lot more fun and exciting than a unicorn. Nothing against unicorn costumes, it just seemed like it was going to be another embellished hoodie costume.

I didn't wast anytime and jumped right on the owl costume production. Originally, I had one idea in mind, then the ideas just kept coming, and I just. couldn't. stop. But I did it! I finished Darcy's owl costume.

What you're about to see is actually a mish-mash of 3 different ideas I found online.

What do you think? Is it too much? Over the top? Or is it super great, OMG?

Unfortunately, my little model came down with a sickness last night, and is in no mood to try on her costume. She's way too busy today with sneezing, coughing, fever and napping. I sure hope she gets well by Saturday evening. We were hoping to take her to Haunt the Zoo at the OKC Zoo tonight. But maybe tomorrow or Sunday will be better for that.

So there are 3 elements to the costume: shirt, wings & mask.

The shirt idea came from a very cute last minute costume idea by Ellen Baker of The Long Thread. She posted this last year on Alpha Mom, and I fell in love with it then. I tried to get Darcy to be an owl last year, but she wasn't having it.

Ellen's owl costume tutorial also includes a mask. But since I'm an overachiever and I'm always looking for an excuse to embroider, I decided to make my mask out of felt. I tweaked her original design just a bit, added some inspirational ideas from Lori Marie, and came up with my own design.

I made the mask last night, and I'm still crushing on it. I still need to put a final top stitch on the inner right eye (for any of you attention to detail types), but that shouldn't take too long. I kind of want to make a larger size for me!

The wings. Oh, the wings. The wings came from an adorable owl costume idea from the Martha Stewart team.

See? Adorable, right? But the instructions are supposed to be suited for a baby. Reading some of the comments on the website, a lot of the people were saying the suggested template enlargement of 375% was way too huge for a baby. So I just decided to "wing" it (har!) and print wings #2 - #4 on to a regular sized sheet of paper. For the base wing, wing #1, I cut it in half and printed each half on to a piece of paper. Using those measurements, the wings are just the right size for Darcy.

The issue I ran in to was a color issue. When I purchased the felt, I bought light pink for the largest wing. But with only 4 wing layers, I just couldn't get it to look right. I decided it was the light pink that was throwing it off. But I'm stubborn, and didn't want to purchase more felt in a darker color, so I just added another wing in the chocolate brown. There. Problem solved.

The wings have strips of velcro underneath the shoulder, and they attach to the top of the shirt. I also added some elastic arm bands under the wings to help hold them in place, but I might end up adding more velcro. I think the elastic might end up being too tight or bothering Darcy after too long.

If you decide to use any of these ideas for an owl costume for your kiddo, hopefully my information will be helpful to you.

What are your kiddos dressing up as this year? Are YOU dressing up?

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

Hand Embroidered Pillows

2010-09-20T12:09:00.000-07:00

Just checking in with a couple of photos of a new project I started last week. I'm so in love with it, I just have to share it with you!

Isn't she sweet? I have 3 more all stitched up and I'm hoping to get them sewn and stuffed tonight. Hopefully I'll be able to put these in one of the local shops, along with some more new plush I've been working on. (This project was made with the Cute Little Heads pattern by Sublime Stitching.)

I have more to share with you, but I'm really short on time right now. I just wanted to pop in and say hi and tell you I miss you! *sniff*

Busy just never stops around here. ;-)

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

Handmade Father's Day

2010-07-19T07:38:00.000-07:00

Darcy has been on a drawing kick lately, and we're really enjoying it. It's so awesome watching her drawings evolve, and the different shapes and faces she comes up with for her people and animals. One of my favorite drawings she's created was a picture of John. I knew right away I wanted to embroider it and make it a snuggly for one of John's Father's Day gifts.

Ok, so a quick and funny story about the picture she drew of John. Darcy likes to pretend she is a pony named, "Honey Pie" & John is the bad guy named, "Licorice." Licorice hates lots of things and just about everything makes him angry. Especially ponies. So Licorice would capture Honey Pie and lock her up in an invisible cage and Honey Pie would kick the cage door open and gallop her way to freedom!

They would play this game for an hour at least every night when John got home from work. So much fun to watch. :-)

The picture she drew is John as Licorice, and it's the best thing ever.

All snuggled up:

John really loved this gift and I'm pretty sure he got a little misty eyed. I love it when that happens. You make something for someone and they're so overjoyed they get a wee tear in their eye. Best. Feeling. Ever.

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

Tote Bag Up for Charity Auction

2010-06-29T04:24:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! I feel like I've been living in a time warp this summer. I've been SO busy around here with family life, and having lazy summer days, blogging's taken a backseat to the daily routine. My 12 year old stepdaughter is visiting us for the summer, and it's been so much fun having an older kid around to help and have new conversations with. Plus my husband was on vacation last week, so we all enjoyed not being tied to a clock for a week. But he's back on the daily grind, and so are we. So I thought I'd try to take back the early morning hours for blogging, before I surrender myself to the kiddos.

My favorite food blogger and baker Natalie, of Bake and Destroy is on a new mission. She is determined to help those with cancer by any means necessary - through online auctions, bake sales, you name it. If you don't already read Natalie's blog, you're really missing out. She posts the most mouth watering cupcake recipes, she's hilarious, literally cute as a button, and she loves helping people who need it the most. This is really only a very small summary of Nat's amazing talents and accomplishments.

Natalie started an online auction appropriately called, "Bake and Destroy Cancer." When I heard about this, I wanted to help too, so I offered one of my embroidered items, and she happily accepted. So up for grabs in the Bake and Destroy Cancer auction is the Floral Fantasy tote bag I embroidered a while back!

I would L-O-V-E it if you would take the time to place a bid and help us donate money to Grind for Life. It's a win-win situation, really. You get a gorgeous new tote bag AND you're hard earned money is going to a great cause. 100% of the final sale price will support Grind for Life.

If you're on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or you want to post about this auction on your blog, that would be great. Be sure to bookmark Natalie's eBay account, as she will be listing more items periodically.

Spread the word and fight the fight!

Hand Embroidered Doll

2010-06-02T10:22:00.000-07:00

Keeping with my last post of embroidered snugglies, here's another one I made over the weekend.

For this doll, I used the Black Apple designs for Sublime Stitching. The artist series are not part of the licensing program, so I guess I'll just have to keep this cutie for myself, or give it away to someone special. ;-)

Guess what? Mr. Fox was purchased this morning, so he'll be headed to his new home tomorrow! The hedgehog is still available, though. ;-)

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

*Digital frames are from the "Fabric Covered Buttons" kit by Kitschy Digitals.*

Fox and Hedgehog Pillows

2010-06-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. I was busy with embroidery and taking care of two sick girls. If I can say one positive thing about the girls getting sick over the weekend, it's that I had John here to help me. Darcy is still fighting her bug, but Harper seems to be doing much better.

I'm not sure if you know this, but lately I've become obsessed with making embroidered pillows, cushions, snugglies, whatever you want to call them. What are the kids calling them these days, anyway? I like to refer to them as a snuggly. :-)

If you follow me on Twitter, then you may have already seen this first guy.

Isn't he cute? He's having fantastic dreams.
Maybe he's dreaming of traveling to a far away land?

He's listed here.

I just can't get enough of the adorable Forest Friends patterns. Here's my latest creation using them.

You can find this cutie listed here.

Why yes, I am planning on making more snugglies! Already in the works are an owl, squirrel, dogs and a bike! Plus more surprises to share with you soon. ;-)

xo,
Amy

Let Go Of My Logo

2010-05-18T03:57:00.001-07:00

Hello, readers! I know I still owe you one more stitching lesson, and I promise to get that posted this week.

Today's post really isn't embroidery related, but I feel like it's important. Two nights ago I googled "Early Bird Special" and this blog was the first return. That's pretty cool, right? But then I noticed image results with my logo were being displayed too. So I clicked on the image results to see what was going on.

I found 5 different companies using my logo without my permission to advertise for their "early bird special" sales. So yesterday I emailed each company, politely asking them to remove my logo, because I own the copyrights to this image, and I didn't want there to be any confusion as to where it belongs. I've had 3 responses. 2 willing, and 1 not so much.

I'm posting today to clarify, this logo is indeed mine. It was personally commissioned for me by David Bruehl in 2007. You can see that's when I uploaded this photo to my blog and to Flickr.

Logo with white background. This is the version I use most frequently.

With brownish background. This is the version others are currently using.

With blue background. Updated for Spring fun!

It does not matter what color the background is, the image above is mine and should not be used by anyone else without my permission. My concern is where are they finding the image with the brown background? I could only think of one place where it was visible with the brown background, on Indie Public. Before yesterday, I hadn't signed in to Indie Public for 2 years. Yesterday I deleted my account.

One of the people said she found it on a clip art site. I asked her if she could tell me what site she found it on, and she couldn't remember. She said she sometimes just pulls things from Google image search, and maybe that's where she found it. You can't just do an image search on Google and use whatever image you like.

Sorry to get all serious on you, but this is a serious issue to me. The issue I have has absolutely nothing to do with the phrase "early bird special" which is a common phrase and one people have every right to use. I am asking people to remove the COPYRIGHTED IMAGE that I OWN which they have used for their company's advertising.

If you have seen my logo being used by any other business or even being offered on a clip art website, please let me know. I can't police the entire internet, you know.

Next time I promise to have a happy and inspiring post all about embroidery.

xoxo,
Amy

Hand Embroidered Easter Gifts

2010-05-06T08:47:00.001-07:00

Brace yourself, because I'm finally posting pictures of the snugglies I made for the girls. I made these for their Easter gifts, and they were a total hit.

I started with the bunny, and when Darcy found out it was for her, she said she'd rather have an elephant. Well then. So Harper got the bunny and Harper loves the bunny.

I just love her hair, don't you? That's the fancy chain stitch, you know. Which just so happens to be our last lesson for the "Embroidery 101" series.

The bunny pattern was a generous freebie from Helen Dardik of Orange You Lucky. I love her website and her art work, and can easily spend a ridiculous amount of time admiring her talent.

Next up, the elephant. Darcy loves the elephant. How can she not?

The elephant embroidery pattern is from Alyssa Thomas of Penguin and Fish. She has an entire alphabet of animal embroidery patterns that I would love to get. It was a little bit too much for me to spend at one time, so I went with the choice of five option. Alyssa made a pillow using her hedgehog design, and I almost died from the cuteness. So I copycatted her idea, and used the elephant, since that's what Darcy wanted. The original patterns are not this large, just so you know. ;-)

They're both pretty wonderful, and I'm so happy that both girls love them so much. I think a new addiction has been born.

xoxo,
Amy

Lesson 5: French Knot

2010-04-30T12:59:00.000-07:00

Welcome back! Today I'm keeping things short and sweet, because that's pretty much the style of today's lesson, the French knot!

I l-o-v-e the French knot. It was one of the hardest stitches for me to figure out at first, but I hope that won't be the case for you after watching my video. Before you know it, you'll be going French knot crazy, just like me!

Made by me, for a personal swap with Stitchy Stitcherson.

Design: Sublime Stitching. Project: T-shirt for my daughter, Darcy.

For now, I'm only posting the video, because I need an assistant to take pictures for the step by step process. This is a two handed move, people. So this weekend, I'll get my bearded assistant to give me a hand, and update this post as soon as possible.

And to get you started, here's another free pattern for you to practice on!

Thank you so much for all your nice comments about the Country Mouse & the City Mouse embroidery patterns. I hope to eventually start selling pdf files in my Etsy shop, but until I get that worked out, my readers will reap the benefits of freebies from time to time. Luck you!

Now go, get knotty for the weekend!

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

Extra Credit

2010-04-28T06:50:00.000-07:00

Good Morning! I have a little something to share with you before posting the next lesson tomorrow. A free pattern!

I drew these mice a couple of weeks ago, and I've been stitching one of them up as an example. He's all finished, so I'm ready to share the pattern with you today.

Say hi to City Mouse and Country Mouse!

I think they're pretty darn cute, what do you think?

The pattern images are the flipped version, so if you'll be using the transfer paper technique, you'll want to flip the image.

I hope you like it!

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

Progress Report

2010-04-26T18:03:00.001-07:00

I just got a great email from my new gal pal Jaime of Sew She Sews. She wrote to tell me about a project she just finished, and she was able to incorporate the stem stitch, thanks to my tutorial!

I'm so proud of her! She's a natural.

Photo courtesy of Jaime Young.

I am seriously swooning over this piece. I adore her color selection, and the little violet sequins kill me. I haven't even covered the French knot, and she's already got it down. She even painted her wooden hoop a lovely shade of green to match the fern stitch. I die!

The pattern she used is one from Embroidered Effects, and she's done it justice.

Another progress report came in from reader m0relia. Here is what she made after watching my tutorials:

Photo courtesty of m0relia.

I love it! So sweet and pretty.

It really does make me happy to see your projects and to know that so many of you are benefiting from these tutorials. This is the information that fuels me to keep going, and the reason why I do this. :-)

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

Lesson 4: Split Stitch

2010-04-24T07:04:00.000-07:00

You're getting a double whammy of stitchy lessons this weekend, because you're all such fast learners and you've got projects to make! Let's keep things going today with the split stitch. :-)

I've blogged previously about my love / hate relationship with the split stitch. But since so many of you may have missed out on that post, I'll talk about it again.

The first stitch I ever learned was the split stitch, and I thought that was the stitch I had to use for embroidery projects. It seems like everything I made was adorned in split stitch. Now the split stitch is one of my least favorite stitches to work with.

Sure it has charm and beauty, but it's moody. (Just like me!) If you don't get the split just right, or if you go a little bit too far to the left or too far to the right when following your line, it can look wonky.

Oh split stitch, you're so unforgiving, but I forgive you, and we can still hang out sometimes.

I've come to accept the reality that I just don't get a clean and even split every time I make this stitch. You'll see that in the video. One stitch might only have 2 strands of thread on one side and 4 strands on the other. That's ok with me!

Remember, pictures & written instructions first, followed by the video.

Now the video!

See? Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Over time, I've developed little habits that seem to help with my split stitching. I find myself placing my fingers (of my hoop hand) very close to where I'm stitching, and holding the thread that hangs underneath in the direction that I'm stitching. You can kind of see what I'm talking about from the pictures and the video. Even though I'm actually pushing my fabric up a little bit when I do this, for some reason it seems to help keep the stitch straighter.

I feel like I should mention that it's totally normal for your fabric to get a little loose when you're stitching. Just take a minute to stop, pull the fabric, and tighten your hoop again.

So now you've learned over half the stitches on our 5 stitch lesson plan! You are awesome. If you're working on a project now, I would love to see your progress!

Next up: French knot. Ooh la la!

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

Lesson 3: Stem Stitch

2010-04-23T21:22:00.000-07:00

I know you're all ready to learn a new move, so let's get right to it! This lesson is all about the stem stitch. I avoided this stitch in my early days of embroidery because it seemed complicated, and my results never looked pretty like the pictures I admired. Mine just looked wonky and like I had been embroidering while wearing an eye patch AND dark sunglasses.

So I just gave up on it. I told myself, 'Nope. Can't use that stitch. It's too advanced for me.' Then I decided to brave it again, and thank goodness I did. I disregarded traditional instructions, because that's what was complicating me, and had a complete and total "A-ha!" moment.

If you can do the back stitch, you can do the stem stitch. The way I do it is just a slight variation of the back stitch.

Again, I'll post photos with written instructions, followed by a quick video.

Step 1: Basically, this step will always be the same. Pick a starting point, and poke your needle up from the back side of your fabric. You can see I've already started a line of stitches, so the last complete stitch you see behind my needle is where I'm starting the instructions from. ;-)

Step 2: When you bring your needle down, you want to insert it right next to the outer edge of your previous stitch. This is the move that I do that differs from traditional instructions, and my method is just a slight variation of the back stitch.

Step 3: Repeat step 1. This photo is just a visual reference for you to see the rhythm.

Step 4: Repeat step 2. Again, more visual reference. ;-)

And now for the video!
Disclaimer: I have the shakiest hands EVER, and sometimes you might hear little ones in the background. ;-)

For just a brief second, I demonstrate the alternate way to do a stem stitch, but for some reason, it just never clicked with me. I realize that my method uses up a little bit more floss, but that's the price I choose to pay for the beauty of a stem stitch.

Stem stitch is just lovely for well, stems, and other foliage, hair, animals with spiky or textured fur, and recently I've been using it when embroidering words / letters. If I'm using it for letters, I like to use only 3 or 4 strands of floss. I think this tends to give a more delicate appearance.

I hope you're inspired and ready to try the stem stitch! I just might surprise you and post another lesson this weekend, since I fell behind this week.

Next up: Split stitch.

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

Lesson 2: Back Stitch

2010-04-15T15:33:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Lesson 2 of Embroidery 101!

I apologize for posting this so late in the day, but it's been non stop crazy around here.

Enough of that, let's get on with the show, shall we?

Today it's all about the back stitch. In my opinion, this is the perfect starter stitch. It's very simple and beautiful. Don't underestimate the simple beauty of the back stitch. Some of my favorite projects have been those worked almost entirely in back stitch.

Pattern source: Krazy Kitchen transfers from Sublime Stitching.

Pattern source: Baby Bib Embroidery Kit by Jenny Hart

I'll post the written instructions, accompanied with step by step photos. Here we go!

Step 1: With your fabric hooped & ready to go, insert your needle, coming up from the underside of your fabric & pull your needle until the knot catches. (It's a matter of personal preference when it comes to knotting your thread. I prefer it.)

Step 2: Reinsert your needle about 1/4" ahead of where your needle came up previously.

Step 3: Again, coming up from the underside of your fabric, insert your needle about 1/4" ahead of the previous stitch.

Step 4: Reinsert your needle in the hole that meets the previous stitch.

Hopefully the photos help give you a clearer vision on how the moves are made. Again, let me know if you have any questions and comments are always appreciated. That's the only way I can learn to make things better for you.

Also, to make up for being so tardy today, I'm going to give you a bonus lesson Monday! Get ready for the stem stitch, and another exciting announcement!

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

Lesson 1: Transfer Techniques

2010-04-08T14:18:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Lesson 1 of Embroidery 101!

So you've taken the time to shop around & you've found the perfect pattern for your embroidery project, right? Great! Now let's figure out the right transfer technique.

If you're using an iron-on transfer pattern, like the one pictured below from Sublime Stitching, just follow the instructions that came with your pattern.

But just because I love you, I've taken a few photos to show you how to transfer a Sublime Stitching pattern.

Pattern example is from "Unicorn Believer."

When cutting out your pattern, be sure to leave enough room around the image, so you can hold it securely during the ironing process.

When you have the image cut out & you know where you want to place the image, PRE-HEAT YOUR FABRIC FIRST. This is a very important step & should not be skipped. This is almost always the first question I ask when troubleshooting, "Why didn't my pattern transfer?"

After pre-heating your fabric, put the transfer face down on the fabric, and iron. Hold on to your image securely, & press your iron on top of your image for about 10 seconds. Try not to move your iron, because you just might "ghost" or smudge the image, and that's not fun. The image will be permanent.

Be sure plenty of fabric still surrounds your image, so you can allow for hooping.

An embroidery hoop has 2 pieces. The adjustable ring will be the top piece.

Once your fabric is hooped & you've got the fabric tight like a drum head, you're ready to start embroidering! That's all there is to transferring an iron-on pattern. By far, this is the easiest way to go.

But perhaps you've found an embroidery pattern on Etsy, or you've found another image online, or you want to embroider one of your own drawings. That's what we'll talk about now.

Pictured above: various transfer tools.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Method 1: Carbon transfer paper

Materials:
*Pattern - freebie from Jenny Hart
* Carbon transfer paper
* Tracing stylus
* Ballpoint pen or pencil
*tape

If your design has lots of fine lines and details or if it's a large pattern, I would use the carbon transfer paper method.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Method 2: Iron-on Transfer Pen

Materials:
Pattern of your choice
Iron-on transfer pen

When you first get your Sulky transfer pen, the tip will be white. Each time you use the pen, you'll need to press the tip down about 3 times to get the ink to flow in to the tip. Don't over do it though, because sometimes the ink tends to pool up.

That's why I recommend testing your transfer pen on a different piece of paper before you start tracing your design.

Remember to pre-heat your fabric first, and hold on to your design, to prevent smudging. This method is also permanent.

You can see the Sulky transfer pen leaves chunkier lines, so you'll need to learn not to use a heavy hand when tracing your design. I use the transfer pen method A LOT. I really love this product, and highly recommend adding it to your embroidery toolbox.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Method 3: Transfer pencil

Materials:
Pattern of your choice
Transfer pencil (usually found at any craft store.)

I have to be honest, this is my least favorite transfer method. The lines are just too faint for me, and sometimes they don't transfer at all after ironing. But I will use it if I'm in a pinch.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The above photo shows all three of the transfer methods I just discussed. You'll have to play around and decide what works best for you!

Please feel free to leave your questions in the comments. If you do leave a question, be sure to leave your email address, or check back in the comments for my response.

I think I'm going to make Thursdays our lesson days. So be sure to come back next Thursday, April 15 for our first stitch lesson, the back stitch!

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

Get Your Stitch On

2010-04-07T06:40:00.000-07:00

I have a special and exciting announcement today. I've decided to host a virtual embroidery class right here on the Early Bird Special blog!

Basically what this will consist of is a series of posts covering five basic embroidery stitches to get you comfortable and started on your own embroidery projects.

I hosted a class in person a few months ago, and it was a lot of fun. But I want to share the knowledge with all of my out of town friends too.

Here's what you'll learn:

I will try to keep instructions as clear as possible as well as post a video of each of the stitches, to make it feel like I'm right there with you.

Don't worry, this is a free series, so all you need to do is show up to class with your supplies in hand!

Fabric: I recommend using a white cotton fabric for embroidery, but feel free to use what you like. Just make sure it's a quilting quality cotton.

Hoop: I like to use a hoop that is between 5" to 7" in diameter, simply because this is most comfortable for my hands.

Needle: I often get asked what size needle I use for embroidery. I think I use an embroidery size 5 or 6 most often. The main thing is to make sure that the package says it's especially for embroidery, because this means the eye of the needle will be large enough to accommodate all 6 strands of embroidery floss.

Floss: DMC floss or Presencia is what I like to use. Try not to buy the off brand cheap rainbow packages of floss. These really do tend to tangle and shred quite easily, only frustrating things. Go ahead and splurge on the good stuff.

Scissors: Embroidery scissors are preferred, but not required. There will be times when you might need to cut some stitches out, due to a mishap or if you want to change the stitch color or stitch style and tiny, sharp embroidery scissors are perfect for the job.

I'm going to show you the stitches on various projects, because I want you to have the freedom to choose what pattern you like.

Here are some resources for my favorite patterns for purchase:

Sublime Stitching
Kitschy Digitals
Follow the White Bunny
Penguin & Fish
Badbird
Wee Wonderfuls
September House
Wild Olive

And here's a list of my favorite free patterns:

Sublime Stitching
Follow the White Bunny
Badbird
doe-c-doe
Hoop Love Vintage Patterns
Vintage Transfer Finds

Take a look around, I'm sure you'll find more than enough patterns to keep you busy for a while.

You know what they say about assuming, right? I hate to assume that you already know the ins and outs of transfer techniques, so please tell me, do I need to cover this topic before getting started on the stitch lessons?

Who's ready to learn how to embroider or freshen up your skills?

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

**Update: I decided to add "Transfer Techniques" to the lesson list. Once this topic is covered, we'll get to stitching! ;-)

Chain Chain Chain

2010-04-01T19:53:00.000-07:00

Tonight while working on the bunny snuggly, I decided my favorite stitch right now is the good ol' chain stitch. I came to this realization while stitching the bunny's hair.

When stitching hair, I usually like to use either a stem stitch or a chain stitch.

Stem stitch hair:

Above photo: Tea towel made for The Urban Housewife.

Chain stitch hair:

Above photo: Floral fantasy tote bag.

You can see, both stitches create a great effect for hair, yet they each give such different textures.

The first stitch I learned was the split stitch, and I thought that was the stitch I had to use for every project, if I wanted to classify it as embroidery. Silly girl. That's SO 2002.

Now, the split stitch is one of my least favorite stitches. Sure, it still has charm and beauty, but it's very moody. If you don't get the split just right, or go too far to the left or too far to the right when following your line, it tends to look wonky. Oh split stitch, sometimes you're so unforgiving, but I forgive you, and we can still hang out sometimes.

I tweeted my love of the chain stitch, and my pal Dani asked, "What gives, Aims? They're practically twins." (Ok, so I'm paraphrasing her tweet.)

Yes, it is true. The split stitch and the chain stitch do look very similar. But I like to think of Chain as Split's chubby sister. They look a lot alike, but they are both so different. In my opinion, Chain is more forgiving with her curves, filling in more space and giving a little chunky appeal to your design.

Don't be fooled by their similarities though. The chain stitch and split stitch are acheived in two very different ways. You have to do a slightly fancier move with your needle to acheive the chain stitch, but it's not anything you can't handle. Sublime Stitching has a nice little diagram showing you how to create Chain & Split.

Hopefully this gets you in the mood to try some chain stitching for an upcoming project. Please let me know if you have any questions or need advice on making the right moves.

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

Makings of a Snuggly

2010-03-31T05:59:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty much an expert at waiting until the last minute to start making something for a gift.

Here's what I'm working on today for Darcy's Easter basket:

I'm using the free embroidery pattern Helen Dardik shared with her readers last year.

I thought it would make for a cute snuggly.

Are you making something special or did you find a sweet handmade lovely for your little one's Easter basket?

xoxo
Amy

Fruity Cutie!

2010-03-26T08:53:00.000-07:00

I'm so glad you all liked the cupcake topper tutorial. I felt silly posting it, since it's so easy, but that seemed to be a good thing! Yay!

I hope you're all smiling because it's Friday. But just in case you need a little mid-morning pick me up, Harper says, "Oh, hai!"

It's fun having a model for onesies now. I used Danielle's Kawaii Cute Fruits pattern set for this project. I actually enlarged the pattern just a bit, used a Sulky iron-on transfer pen, (Which you can now get here, through Sublime Stitching!) and transferred the image directly on to a piece of red felt.

I know I've shown several projects with embroidered felt patches before, and I'm just curious, would anyone be interested in an embroidered onesie or felt patch tutorial? Sometimes jersey material can be tricky to deal with, and I thought it might be nice to share some tips.

I have another project idea for Danielle's fruit patterns, but I need to work out a few of the kinks first.

While you're at it, be sure to check out Danielle's Eame's inspired coat rack tutorial!

What a great weekend project this would be. I love the colors she used!

Also, she's hosting a giveaway on her blog, so be sure to try your luck with that. Since I'm on the creative team now, I don't feel right about entering, but I would love for you to win!

Another great weekend project to consider? How about a crib mobile made from fabric dots?!

I'm kind of crazy in love with this project, made by Jaime of "Sew She Sews". Her blog and her Flickr stream are so inspiring, you should take a look.

I hope you all have a great weekend, and I'll see you next week!

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

Cupcake Toppers

2010-03-24T05:53:00.000-07:00

Today's project is so easy, it's ridonkulous. Let's be honest, I'm not sure it's even worth posting about. But it's so cute, I can't help myself.

Easter is pretty much all about the bunny and the celebration of Spring here at our house. So when I found a vintage copy of The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown at a yard sale last Summer, for only $1.00, I had a cute attack and knew I wanted to do something with the wonderful illustrations by Leonard Weisgard.

Cupcake toppers were the obvious answer.

Supplies:
Print out of images on cardstock.
White label stickers
Toothpicks

Cut out the images:

Attach a toothpick to the backside of each image, using a white label sticker:

Blam. You just made a cupcake topper:

Army of cuteness:

See what I mean? So easy. I originally started this project with the intention of sharing the cupcake topper file with you. But after considering the legalities and not knowing if I would be violating any copyright issues, I've decided not to share. Which really bums me out. So if anyone can shed some light on this issue, I would love to know about it.

Otherwise, I hope you're inspired and make some adorable cupcake toppers for your Spring or Easter celebration.

xoxo
Amy

Bird Helping Bird

2010-03-23T05:15:00.000-07:00

Last month I went to a "craft social" at a local business and spent some time visiting with my pal Jemellia.

I adore this lady. She is funny, refreshing, and crazy talented. She told me she would be attending Funky Finds Spring Fling, which has already taken place, and asked if I would make a credit card sign for her. The obvious answer was yes, so we decided to do a little trade, because I wanted one of her adorable toddler skirts for Darcy. I was *this* close to being selfish and trading for a gorgeous apron.

After brainstorming via text messaging, we decided a cross stitched pillow would be perfect for craft shows.

I should mention that Jemellia and our other friend Robin often team up at craft shows, operating under 2 Birds in a Pod. When they do this, you are hit with 2 times the amount of pretty, so you'd better have your pocketbook ready.

Jemellia & I met for dinner, to do our little trade, and of course I wasn't finished. At the last minute, I decided to add a little bit more to the design, had to go to my tattoo appointment, and ended up finishing the last bit of stitching at the dinner table.

She took the finished piece home and transformed it in to a pillow.

She even created a pocket on the backside of the pillow to hold their business cards. Brilliant!

She loved her item, and I loved mine. Darcy gave her skirt a big hug when she saw it, and she said she felt like a princess.

(Digital frame is from the fabric covered button kit by Kitschy Digitals.)

After this trade, and over the weekend, I decided crafting for profit just isn't for me. I am much happier making things as gifts, for my home, or for trades. Don't get me wrong, I admire those who can find the drive to craft for profit, and maintain an online shop and do craft shows throughout the year. But right now, that's just not for me.

Perhaps when the girls are older and in school I might change my mind, but for now crafting for bliss is what I love.

xoxo
Amy

Easy Makeover

2010-03-22T10:23:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday and happy spring! I am so happy it's officially spring, and from the look of our forecast this week, it will feel like it outside. Saturday was the first day of spring this year, but we actually had another snowstorm here in Oklahoma. We ended up with about 4 inches on Saturday, but thanks to the sunshine and warmer temperatures today, it's pretty much all melted.

In celebration of Spring, I have a few project ideas to share with you this week. Sunshine + coffee = creative fuel.

Today's project is so quick and easy but it adds such a pretty touch to a completed embroidered wall hanging.

You might remember, I shared this photo a couple of posts back, when I was "dreaming of spring."

(By the way, thank you Denise of Craft Gossip for sharing this with your readers. You're always so kind!)

I think the little blue bird is just lovely the way it is, but I got an idea over the weekend to incorporate one of the Woodgrain picture frames from Kitschy Digitals.

After a little resizing, and playing with the colors in photoshop, I printed my picture frame out on to cardstock, cut it out and glued it on top of the embroidery hoop.

What do you think?

I just love the charm it adds to the finished piece.

Here's another completed project:

If you're interested in trying this for your embroidery projects too, you can find the "Woodgrain Frames" digital kit here.

xoxo
Amy

Extra! Extra!

2010-03-17T13:29:00.000-07:00

Are you guys familiar with Danielle Thompson of Kitschy Digitals? You are? Yeah, she's pretty amazing, and I've had a wee bit of a crush on her and her amazing work for a while now.

Recently she had a call for submissions for her Creative Team, and I got a spot! My friend Dana and I are on the roster for embroidery!

I don't know squat about digital scrapbooking, but I wish I did! It's so cute and inspiring! I'm seriously thinking about taking this class for beginners, offered by Jessica Sprague.

If you are lucky enough to know a thing or two about digital scrapbooking, be sure to pick up Danielle's newest kit for only ONE BUCK!

Vintage cameras, yay!

Even if you're like me, and don't know anything about it, except that you like it, get it anyway. IT'S ONE BUCK. But only for today, so don't miss out!

She also has the vintage cameras available as embroidery patterns.

Yeah, she's easy to love, isn't she?

Be sure to take a look at her other embroidery patterns and get totally crushed out on those too.

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

Thumbelina

2010-03-10T05:08:00.001-08:00

Just a quick little post to share a picture of my newest tattoo! I told Dave I wanted a tattoo of Harper in a thimble, since she's our tiny Thumbelina baby.

Once again, he's exceeded my expectations and amazed me.

I love how the two tattoos play off of each other:

Eventually, I'd like to get the watercolor portrait of Darcy that Dave painted as a tattoo.

Chicago friends: Dave will be guest spotting at Deluxe Tattoos at the end of April. I hope you can make plans to visit him! I'll be sure to post the exact dates once I know for sure when he will be there. But if you think you might be interested, I recommend contacting him soon, as he tends to book quickly.

Now for a little stitching! I made this for Dave after the triceratops tattoo as a thank you / tip.

Some of you may be thinking, "Wha?" This is a play on the popular phrase, "All your base are belong to us." If this still doesn't make sense, click here for a more detailed explanation.

This sign is a huge hit and I've been convinced to make more of these. So if your tattooist is a hipster geek, I'll have more of these in my Etsy shop soon.

xoxo
Amy

Dreaming of Spring

2010-03-05T13:17:00.000-08:00

Today it's beautiful and full of sunshine. A sure sign that Spring is just weeks away.

I love you, Winter, but I'm ready for longer days, shorter nights, lots of sunshine, getting my hands dirty, having a house full of open windows, leaves on trees, homegrown food, birdsongs, and picnics. These are just a few of the things I love about the upcoming change in seasons.

Who else is ready for Spring?

xoxo
Amy

Triceratops Arm!

2010-02-11T04:19:00.001-08:00

Where's what I did yesterday:

I got a new triceratops skull tattoo on my "Darcy" arm! I am head over heels in love with it, and can't stop looking at it. My pupils are shaped like hearts.

My good friend David Bruehl did the work. He is absolutely amazing. If you're even considering a tattoo, you should try to book an appointment with him. He is based here in OK, but often travels for conventions and keeps his schedule pretty up to date.

I already booked another appointment with him for next month, and it just might be one of the top 10 cutest tattoos ever.

David & I talked about working on some things together this year, and I'm pretty excited about it. You'll be the first to know when things are in place.

xoxo
Amy

Free Pattern!

2010-02-04T06:38:00.000-08:00

My friend Dana over at Craftyminx is sharing the cutest little vintage Valentine embroidery pattern!

This a-deer-able sample was lovingly stitched by Dana.

I just might need to stitch this up for the girls, or go through my collection of vintage Valentines to make my own.

xoxo
Amy

Sugar Skull Onesie

2009-09-28T14:00:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for leaving such sweet words about Harper's arrival. Each one makes my heart swell with even more pride, which I didn't think was possible.

I told you I would share my last embroidery project before having Harper, and here it is!

I decided to stitch the Sugar Skull design from the wonderful new book, Embroidered Effects by Jenny Hart. If you don't have this book yet, get it ASAP! It is amazing and full of inspiration. I'm not kidding when I say I want to stitch everything in the book. And as it turns out, I did stitch 3 projects for the book! I just had to keep it a secret until the book was released. Be on the look out for the Fan Dancer Shower Curtain, the Bird Jeans, and the Tattoo Work Shirt, all stitched by yours truly!

So on to the Sugar Skull! (Which was stitched by my talented friend Floresita, for the book.) I absolutely LOVE this design. I fell in love with it in the preview photos, and I fell in love all over again when I saw the beautiful pictures in the book.

I had some black onesies, and I decided to dress one up by making a felt applique using the Sugar Skull design. Here's how it looks:

Unfortunately, this is a size 3 to 6 months, so Harper won't be able to wear it this year. I'm thinking about listing it in my Etsy shop, since I don't know of any other babies to gift it to at the moment. If any of my readers are interested, just email me and let me know!

Oh! If you haven't seen it already, take a look at my friend Kristi's stitched version of this Sugar Skull. It's BEE-YOO-TIFUL! Her macro embroidery shots are drool worthy.

xoxo
Amy

Brand New Love

2009-09-28T13:38:00.000-07:00

Well, I did it! I finally had my baby girl. She was born on 09/23/09 at 10:11pm.

I'd like you to meet Harper Grace:

She is a tiny little bundle of love, weighing in at 5 lbs, 2 oz and 18.5 inches long. But she is strong, healthy and perfect, and we're so glad she's finally here. We are all still amazed at her beautiful dark hair! It will be fun to see if it gets lighter as she grows.

Needless to say, blogging and stitching might be put on the back burner for a while, until I get the hang of juggling 2 kids. Luckily I managed to finish one last embroidery project before having Harper, and I hope to share that with you tomorrow. Stay tuned!

xoxo,
Amy

Dolly All Done

2009-08-31T05:14:00.001-07:00

Over the weekend, Darcy and I were invited to a birthday party for my good friend Susan's little girl, Ava. It was Ava's 3rd birthday, so I wanted to give her something extra special. The first plan was to go to Target and pick out a toy that I thought might appeal to her, but decided to make her something instead.

After brainstorming, I settled on making The Black Apple doll, pattern found here. I have been wanting to do this pattern since I saw Emily's appearance on the Martha Stewart show last year. I'm still pretty new to making dolls and softies, and this is a great pattern for beginners like me.

Knowing me, I just had to incorporate some sort of fancy pants stitching on the doll, and what better place to showcase stitches than the hair! I love stitching hair.

*Dearest Readers: Please don't unsubscribe to my blog after seeing the not so pretty pictures of my project. My camera is officially dead to me, so I had to use my phone to take pictures of this awesome project. Don't judge me.*

So on with the hair! This added a little bit of extra work time to the doll, but I really like how it turned out.

Time to sew and stuff!

When I looked at the pictures above online, I kept getting ideas of more details that I wanted to add. (The details are the best part, you know.) I did add a little skirt to my doll's body, giving it little pleats and topped it with the black lace. I've had those sparkly buttons in my collection for a few years, and I think this was the perfect project for them. See honey? It does make sense for me to horde a bunch of craft stuff for years at a time!!

After adding more details, like a black peter pan collar, fancy mary janes, and pigtails, and finally embroidering her face, she was finished!

I was so nervous about doing her little face, because I loved everything else so much. I guess that's why I put it off as the very last thing. I decided the safest and best option was to use the Cute Little Heads pattern. (So glad I did.) I just picked one of the faces in the pattern pack, and cut out each facial feature separately and placed them accordingly on the doll's face. I wondered if I needed to enlarge the features a bit, but honestly, I think it worked with the size they are.

The birthday girl and her Mama loved the doll, so I was very happy.

Darcy loved the doll too, and kept asking if she could snuggle her. I felt bad limiting her snuggle time with "Dolly", (that's what Darcy kept calling her) so I promised I would make one for her too. Her birthday is in October, so that gives me a little bit of time. But since Darcy is more of an animal lover, I'm thinking I will make her the Molly Monkey doll! Isn't she adorable?

I also have plans for a Little Red Riding Hood doll brewing in my head. Oh the cuteness!

xoxo
Amy

Chi Chi Love

2009-08-19T12:40:00.000-07:00

My good friend Laura told me that last weekend was her Grandma's birthday. Grandma loves chihuahuas, so I had the perfect project for her.

I know I've used the Chi Chi Fever patterns several times before, but I always enjoy recreating the design. Plus, I haven't made a pillow in a long time, so there.

Honestly, I love the way this turned out. I didn't expect to fall in love with it as much as I did. After embroidering the basic design of the dog and the hearts, I cut it out in the shape of an oval, and attached it to the fabric. (The fabric is an Alexander Henry print called "Calyx".)

I didn't have any fusible webbing, and going to the store wasn't an option at the time, so I just pinned it in place. Yes, I was worried about the fray factor, but luckily didn't have an issue. I put the fabric in the hoop, and anchored the image in place with a green split stitch all along the border. One just wasn't enough, so I added another round of green split stitch, giving it a nice cameo effect.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I also added a piece of quilt batting in between the embroidery and the fabric, to give it a slightly quilted look, and also to hide my travel stitches a bit.

It was looking nice after adding the double rounds of split stitch, but it still needed more. So I started freehanding the stitches in white, and added the sequins for the final, but perfect touch. Isn't she purdy?

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

The Stag

2009-08-07T08:34:00.001-07:00

I stitched this beautiful design a couple of weeks ago, and wanted to share it with you today.

I've had these patterns for a while now, and I'm not really sure why it took me so long to embroider this particular design. I'm glad I did though, because it's one of my favorites.

Want to make your own stag? Invite the Forest Friends to your place and cozy it up.

TGIF,
Amy

Afternoon Forecast

2009-08-05T13:25:00.001-07:00

Darcy calls this design, "Smiling Thunder."

This design came from the Julie West artist series, found here.

I stitched this last week while babysitting my niece and nephew. They came over and stayed with us every day last week. My niece is 11, soon to be 12 this weekend, and my nephew is 8. They both came armed with laptops, and the burning desire to play an online game called Perfect World.

I had never heard of this game before, but it consumed them both like little techno zombies. Some days they had to actually share a laptop, making their time limit 2 hours of play time, then they had to surrender the game to the other kid, and the time trade would continue all day. (This was the rule set by their parents, not me.)

On one of the days I asked my niece if she would like to learn to embroider for her 2 hours of "boredom." She said she would, so I gathered my patterns and let her look through them. She picked out the Julie West pack, and picked out the rain cloud design above as her choice. I decided to embroider the same design, because I thought that would make things a little bit easier for her.

She caught on very quickly, seeing how I kept things simple and only showed her the back stitch.
Luckily, our embroidery lesson happened during Darcy's naptime, so we didn't have any interruptions, and she finished her piece just minutes before it was her turn to get back on the computer.

Unfortunately, the little toot packed hers away in to her backpack before I had a chance to take a picture of her final creation. She seemed to enjoy herself and said, "This could be addicting!" only 10 minutes after we started. I laughed and said, "You are so right about that."

For more inspiring images of little ones learning the way of the stitch, be sure to check out Sublime Stitching's photo set of MakerKids: StitchingKids 2009.

Hugs & Stitches,
Aunt Amy

Who's Cute?

2009-08-04T08:54:00.000-07:00

Another cute onesie I made for my new baby girl. This sweet pattern is from the Sublime Stitching Baby Bib Kit.

Be sure to check out Claudia's cute pug embroidery for more inspiration!

The First Onesie

2009-07-31T03:53:00.000-07:00

Well I did it. I finally stitched a onesie for our new baby girl, due at the end of September. I think it's a little funny that it took me so long to start onesies for her, seeing how I'm 31 weeks pregnant this week.

I've had a little case of stitcher's block in the baby department, and I know that's why it took me so long to get things started. But on Tuesday, I received the cure to end all mom-to-be stitcher's block.

The new Sublime Stitching Baby Bib Embroidery Kit truly is as wonderful and adorable as people say it is. The baby started kicking and flipping just from me looking at the patterns! (Ok, maybe I made that last part up. But believe me, you will fall in love!)

The kit comes with six iron on transfers, two of which I think can be used on things other than bibs. Also included are two bibs, five skeins of floss, a needle and an instruction booklet.

I decided to start out with the 2 non foodie patterns and embroider onesies, since I'm out of stabilizer and decided I'd like to add stabilizer to the back of the bibs before I start stitching them. Although knowing me, I'll probably get impatient, and start embroidering the bibs before making it to the craft store for stabilizer.

I just love all of the patterns included in the kit, and I thought this one and the owl pattern would look super cute on onesies. (I should finish the owl onesie later today.)

I know I mentioned I'm out of stabilizer, and normally, I prefer to have stabilizer if I'm going to be embroidering on onesies or t-shirts. But I don't feel stabilizer is necessary when I am embroidering on the Gerber organic onesies, which is what I used.

If you love this pattern as much as I do, but you just can't wait for your own Baby Bib Kit to arrive before stitching it, you can download it for free, from this archived Craftzine Podcast!

Stay tuned for more projects made using patterns from this kit!

xoxo
Amy

Quiet Time is Happy Time

2009-07-01T12:48:00.000-07:00

Since becoming a Mother, I have never savored moments of silence as much as I do now. Most days I get my quiet time in during Darcy's naps and after she goes to bed. I consider myself very lucky to have a 2 year old who takes 2 or 3 hour naps. Sometimes I have to actually go wake her up because I think she's been sleeping too long. But then when she wakes up, it's on like gangbusters! I swear scientists need to figure out a way to bottle the energy of a toddler.

On days that have been a nonstop circus here at the house, John and Darcy are always kind enough to let me have some time to myself, and for that I am grateful. Being able to spend just a few minutes alone is a great way to recharge and emerge feeling like a new person.

Just last week I gifted a "Do Not Disturb" door hanger to Laura as payment for watching Darcy while John and I went to a movie. (Star Trek was totally great, by the way!) I started thinking about how I could use one here at the house for when the new baby is here. Then I really got on a roll and started making more thinking other people might benefit from them as well.

New Flower Girl "Do Not Disturb" hanger.

I decided to get a little bit fancier with this one and add the rick-rack trim. I like how it gives it a modern vintage feel.

"Quiet Please" Owl.

Don't you just love the wooden lettering?

These door hangers have been added to shop, as well as another like the one I made for Laura.

Don't forget, I do still have blank tea towels available for purchase!

What do you like to do for your quiet time?

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

Thank You Gift

2009-06-25T09:27:00.000-07:00

Thank you all so much for your sweet compliments on my Floral Fantasy tote, left here or on Flickr. That really means a lot to me. It makes me happy to know that my embroidery work inspires so many people.

My best friend Laura agreed to babysit for us sometime this weekend, so John and I can finally go watch the movie Star Trek. We haven't been to the theater together since Superbad! Good grief. I have been to the movies a few times since then, but it's been with Laura. In fact, just last weekend we went to the theater and watched The Hangover. Oh. Em. Gee. We both loved this movie so much! Seriously, the funniest movie I've seen in a long time.

Anywho, I decided to make a thank you gift for Laura for the upcoming adventures in babysitting.

It's a sweet little door hanger that reads "Do Not Disturb". I thought it would come in handy for her on a regular basis, not to mention when she goes home after babysitting, so she can get some rest and relaxation.

I just love the way this little project turned out, and I hope Laura loves it too.
(Oh, by the way, this design was generously gifted as a free pattern by Jenny Hart a couple of weeks ago. You can find the design here. )

I was thinking about making more door hangers for an upcoming craft show at the end of August. Do you think these would make a nice addition to my inventory? Perhaps in the style above as well as others?

xoxo,
Amy

Floral Fantasy

2009-06-22T07:45:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, a couple of months ago Sublime Stitching started offering a ready-to-stitch eco tote. It's my understanding that there will be more ready-to-stitch totes available in the future, perhaps by other artists! The first edition is a beautiful design called "Floral Fantasy" by Jenny Hart. The first cycle of these totes sold out rather quickly, but now they're back in stock!

This tote was so much fun to stitch. If you've ever stitched on a stiff canvas before, you know sometimes your fingers can get sore from pushing the needle in and out with a little extra force. You don't have to worry about that happening with this tote bag!

It's a good quality canvas bag, and very spacious, measuring in at approximately 15" by 12". Oh, and the straps? The perfect length! (But if you find the straps to be a bother while you're stitching, I recommend using Amanda Panda Pants brilliant idea for clipping them out of the way.)

I will let you know that the stitch work involved is a labor of love, and for most stitchers, this will be a project that should last longer than a weekend. I think this is a great project to start for the summer, if you haven't already stitched one, or if you're ready for your first BIG embroidery piece.

Finishing this bag kind of felt like finishing a really good book. But just like a good summer book list, I have a good summer craft list, so I'm looking forward to carrying my new projects in this beautiful bag.

What are you reading or crafting this summer?

Happy Stitching,
Amy

Carson Ellis Patterns

2009-06-21T08:57:00.000-07:00

Since the newest Sublime Stitching patterns have gone live, I wanted to share some close up shots of the beautiful bird I stitched for the new Carson Ellis patterns.

The banner has Russian lettering that reads, "Love".

xoxo,
Amy

Fawnly Finished

2009-05-22T11:52:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm finished with the stitching portion of the Mommy & baby deer piece. I just need to wash it and stretch it either on canvas or in a hoop. But here are some pictures for you to enjoy!

If you're interested in knowing more about the stitches I used and how many strands of floss, be sure to check the photo descriptions on my Flickr stream.

I hope you all have a happy and long weekend!

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

Mother Deer

2009-05-20T14:46:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd take a time out from my busy schedule to post a couple of pictures of what I'm currently embroidering.

A while back, doe-c-doe uploaded a beautiful scan of a mother and baby deer embroidery pattern, but unfortunately I can't find that original photo to link to. But I did manage to find another scan of the same pattern in the Flickr vintage embroidery pool. You can find the deer pattern here.

I'm not sure if you can tell by the picture, but I am using two slightly different shades of golden brown. I used all 6 strands of floss for the outline of the mother's body, and 4 strands of floss for the line detailing. For the baby, I used 4 strands all over.

I'm on a bit of a woodland creature kick right now, so don't be surprised if you see more woodland themed embroideries pop up in the future.

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

Sneak Peek: Mom's Day!

2009-05-05T13:47:00.000-07:00

Maybe you remember last year around Mother's Day I wrote a post saying how I thought it was safe to post a picture of my Mom's gift, since she wasn't internet savvy, and she wouldn't read my blog and ruin her surprise.

Well she surprised me by quoting that one afternoon, proving to me that she is indeed internet savvy, and she is now a blog reader here at EBS.

So Mom, if you're reading this, LOOK AWAY NOW! I wouldn't want you to ruin your surprise, you computer geek, you.

Assuming it's safe to continue, and Mom's not looking, I'll share a sneak peek at one of her gifts with you.

I fell in love with this pattern the minute I saw it, and knew I had to make it for Mom.

She loves horses, and gray horses are her favorite. You can see I still need to finish the mane and the straps, but that won't take long.

You can tell I worked mostly in back stitch, because I am pressed for time, and back stitch moves along quickly. Also, it's classic, chunky, and pretty perfect for this design. I used stem stitch for the mane, and most of the flowers. (The smaller ones are worked in split stitch.)

Because I'm a one trick pony, this is on a tea towel. However, I'm planning on fancying it up a bit by adding a quilt style back and rick rack trim. I'll be sure to post pictures again when it's all finished.

I'm planning a Mother's Day brunch on Sunday, so I need to start thinking of menu ideas.

What are your plans for Mother's Day?

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

Easter Bird

2009-04-13T12:44:00.000-07:00

I was going through some old photos this morning, and found one of me from Easter 1983. I was just a couple of weeks shy of being 4 years old.

Unfortunately, no one dressed this fancy yesterday, and no eggs were hunted, because it was a cold and rainy Easter. But I did manage to make something special for Darcy, using Molly Chicken's Easter birdy tutorial.

Darcy's favorite part is the baby. I finished the baby first, and she played with him all day and all night long.

The bottom of the baby is left open, so she can use it as a finger puppet. As you can see, she's already wearing him out.

Seriously, I had no idea this little toy was going to be such a hit with her. I had a feeling she would like it, because of the pocket, and the Mommy / baby combo. She loves anything that comes in a big and little pair and calls it the Mommy & baby.

I'm sure she won't always be as excited about everything I make for her, but when she is, it's truly heartwarming and makes it all worth while.

xoxo
Amy

Hansel & Gretel

2009-03-09T12:04:00.000-07:00

After doing lots of cleaning and packing, I've stumbled upon some incomplete embroidery projects. One of the projects was just too sweet to leave unfinished, so I finished the stitching this weekend.

This adorable pattern came from doe-c-doe a while back. Actually it's two different patterns combined. You can find the patterns here.

Mmm...just look at that house. I want to go to there.

I'm not quite sure what to do with this piece yet. Unfortunately, I can't stretch it in a hoop, because the left side has been cut too close to Gretel. So I'm debating between a pillow or a using it as a large quilt square.

Any suggestions?

xoxo
Amy

Stitchosaurus

2009-02-27T09:33:00.000-08:00

I don't know if I've mentioned this on my blog before, but my 2 year old daughter Darcy is obsessed with dinosaurs. She goes crazy anytime she sees anything about dinosaurs. She has approximately 30 different dino action figures and can correctly identify at least 10 different species. I never imagined my little girl would love dinosaurs this much. She makes our hearts swell with pride.

A few weeks ago I was browsing Etsy, and stumbled upon my new favorite cross stitch designer, andwabisabi. She had a Brontosaurus among her collection, so I bought it for Darcy.

I started this piece last night around 8pm and worked on it for about an hour, then finished it around 10am this morning. So it went pretty quick.

I also bought some cute dinosaur fabric from another Etsy seller, and I'm planning on using that as the main fabric in a quilt for Darcy.

She really goes bonkers for this fabric. When I pulled it out today for the cross stitch photo shoot, she squealed and said, "My dino covers! I just wub it so much!" Then she ran over and started counting all the dinos.

We're going to be moving to a bigger house (same city) next month, and I'm focusing on these colors and other dino goodies for her room.

What things are the kids in your life currently in love with?

xoxo
Amy

Spacegirl

2009-02-26T12:06:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I ordered the Spaceboy & Robot put-together book from Wee Wonderfuls' new Etsy shop.

I had never made a doll before, although I had purchased other doll patterns. This is such a great book, especially for beginners. The instructions are well written, and a doll can easily be made in a weekend. Also, I love how cute it is for boys!

But since I don't have a boy, and I loved the dolls so much, I adapted the Spaceboy to a Spacegirl for Darcy.

Besides choosing girly fabrics, the main alteration I made was making an apron style skirt instead of a belt that the pattern calls for. Easy peasy!

Darcy's response to the doll: "Oh my goodness! My Spacegirl is just so cute!" Now she wants a Robot, and I'm happy to oblige.

Valentine Card Tutorial!

2009-02-05T07:47:00.000-08:00

I got an idea for a handmade Valentine a couple of weeks ago, using one of Sublime Stitching's desgins, so I sent them an email asking if they'd like to do a collaboration for their blog.

They were sweet enough to let me take the lead on the tutorial and Jenny provided editing for the piece. They will be posting the tutorial on their blog too, along with a .jpg of the intestines image for you to make one for your loved one.

Now this is my first tutorial, so please be kind!

Materials

Decorative cardstock - 8 1/2" x 11", folded in half.
"I love your guts" image - available for download on the Sublime Stitching blog.
Transfer paper (or transfer pen/pencil)
White fabric (or your choice of color)
Embroidery floss in "gutsy" colors
Embroidery scissors, needle and hoop
Ruler
Craft glue or spray adhesive
Small paintbrush
Rick-Rack

Instructions!
x-x-x-x-x-x-x

1. Choose your transfer method. I am opting to use the transfer paper and stylus. (If you are not using the transfer paper method, skip ahead to step #5!)

2. Cut a piece of transfer paper slightly larger than the size of the intestines design. Tape the corners of the transfer paper to your fabric.

3. Now tape the inestines design to the transfer paper. All this taping is to ensure there is no shifting of the pattern, so you won't "ghost" your image.

4. All taped and ready to go? Good! Transfer the image by going over the design firmly with the stylus. No stylus? No problem! Just use another object with a dull point, such as a bamboo knitting needle. You can even use a pen or a pencil, just take care not to puncture through the paper and mark on your fabric.

Jenny says: If using a pen to trace the design, opt for another color so you can clearly see where you've already traced.

5. If you've decided to opt for the transfer pen or pencil method, you will need to follow the package instructions.

6. Now for the fun part: embroider them guts!

7. One and a half episodes of Grey's Anatomy & the intestines are successfully embroidered!

8. Un-hoop your fabric and give it a good, HOT ironing to remove the hoop marks. (You can use your steam setting now.)

9. Now measure half an inch outward from the farthest point of each side of your intestines.

10. Once you've measured around all 4 sides, cut out the design.

11. Decide the placement of the design on your card.

12. Turn your fabric square over on to the backside and apply a thin line of fabric glue along all 4 sides. Then stick it to your card front, in your placement choice. You could also use spray adhesive here, if you're fancy like that.

Jenny says: Just be aware that spray adhesive is not kind to fabrics over time and this
will not be an heirloom piece if you use it. I'm just saying!

13. Now open your card, and apply a thin layer of glue along the top edge of your card, and apply the rick-rack. Repeat for all 4 sides. (I found it easiest to use a paintbrush to apply my glue.)

14. Repeat the glue and rick-rack method to the front of the card to apply rick-rack around your embroidered image.

15. Cut out the "I love YOUR GUTS" text, and glue it to the inside of your card. You can be as simplistic as I was, or you can get fancy and add a different colored paper or even more rick-rack underneath or around the text.

16. Now you've got yourself one sick + twisted, handmade Valentine, sure to make any lover's stomach flip-flop.

I hope you like this Valentine idea! If you want to make one of your very own, head on over to the Sublime Stitching blog, and there you will find the .jpg to download the intestines image, so you can get started on this project this weekend! (The file for the image is towards the bottom of the page.)

If you're in the mood to make something a little bit sweeter for your honey, no problem! Sublime Stitching also has an adorable Itty Bitty Cupid Card kit.

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

Country Cool Apron

2008-12-18T10:56:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know everyone's been saying it, but I really can't believe Christmas is only ONE WEEK AWAY! *gulp*

I am still working on holiday gifts and I've decided that next year I will just have to start holiday crafting in June or July, so I won't feel like I'm running out of time.

However, I do have a finished non-holiday project to share with you! I hand embroidered a half apron from Sublime Stitching and used the Country Cool embroidery patterns.

I thought she needed some sparkle, so I used the Poppin Pink floss from the Metallic Pallette. I know working with metallic floss can sometimes be a pain in the tookus, but this floss was pretty easy to work with! If you're wanting to use metallics in an upcoming project, I highly recommend using this stuff.

Have you checked out the Sublime Stitching blog lately? If not, head over there straight away, as they have some really great freebie downloads. First are the ultra cute holiday gift tags & second is a stitchable gift tag tutorial!

Laughing all the way,
Amy

Cardi Revamp

2008-10-29T05:26:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned my girl Sarah was having a series of giveaways on her blog, and I was the lucky winner of giveaway #2!

This was my first blog giveaway win, and Sarah really spoiled me with a package full of vintage goodies. Most of it consisted of vintage embroidered linens, making me giddy with excitement.

One of the items was a set of napkins, and I decided to take a couple and try something different. I attached fusible webbing to the back of the napkins, cut around the design, and made appliques for a tired old cardigan.

It's hard to see from the pictures, but I added some whip stitches along the edge of the applique for added security. Some of the buttons were missing, so I went through my button collection and added a mix of jeweled pretties.

What do you think?

xoxo
Amy

Alice & Friends

2008-10-08T11:03:00.000-07:00

I ordered this adorable cross stitch kit from Superbuzzy last week, and I am so glad I did.

First off, this was my first order from Superbuzzy, and I will definitely be going back for more. They processed and shipped my order on the same day, so I got my 2 days later. Awe. Some.

Second, they included 2 little, yummy and cute pieces of Japanese candy as a bonus / thank you gift. Umm, hello? Fizzy taffy? Yes, please!

Third, just look at the cuteness I created!

The kit I ordered came with two patterns, and this is the smaller of the two. I'm working on the other one now.

All of their cross stitch kits including this one are designed by Japanese crafter Kyoko Maruoka of Gera!

Skimming through her blog, which is in Japanese, by the way, she has crafted some of the cutest items I have ever seen. It looks like Superbuzzy has most of her fairy tale designs in stock, as well as a Matryoshka kit. What I didn't see on Superbuzzy or Kyoko's site, but would love to find, are her Christmas designs.

I sent a love letter to Superbuzzy, asking if they plan on stocking these designs. I'll let you know what they say!

*Edited to add: I just got a reply from Kelly of Superbuzzy, and yes, she ordered the Christmas designs and hopes to have them in stock! YES!!*

xoxo
Amy

Pumkin Girl

2008-10-07T13:52:00.001-07:00

Now hanging in our living room. Thank you, Andrea for the free pattern.

xoxo
Amy

Little Things

2008-09-12T12:21:00.000-07:00

Good Friday to you all!

Sometimes it's the little things that can make a big difference. Take this tea towel I made a few months ago for instance:

It's a very cute design, but it was just too small for this tea towel, making it questionably cute.

So I finally decided to make the little change that this design has been so desperately needing. I put it in a picture frame!

There, that's better! Now it's undoubtedly cute, don't you think?

Do you love this design? It came from a Japanese embroidery book, ISBN: 4-8347-2498-0

xoxo
Amy

Swap Love, Part 2

2008-09-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

Now that my swap partner, Kristi received the package I sent to her, I can tell you about it. Be sure to also get the run down from Kristi, via her blog!
Note: I forgot to take pictures of my items before sending them off to Kristi, but she has mad photography skills, so the pictures below are courtesy of Kristi.

Remember, the purpose of this swap was to make something cute for the others' bathroom. Kristi had just finished remodeling her bathroom and she chose aqua as the new color base.

A while back, she embroidered this amazing lady for her bathroom, so I started thinking of "mod" style designs.

After brainstorming over 3 basic ideas: aqua, mod, and French knots, I embroidered this:

I decided to embroider on linen, with the original intention of stretching it over canvas. But with the design, it really looked best with some sort of frame / border surrounding it, so I put it in a pretty white frame.

This piece measures approximately 9" x 12", so it took a little while. Not to mention all the French knots! Kristi says there are over 300 French knots! Whew boy!

I also sent her other goodies including: embroidery books, a zippy pouch I made, and an embroidered tea towel. You can see the rest of her loot here.

I have participated in swaps before, but this was Kristi's first, and I have to say this was the best one yet!

xoxo
Amy

Oh, Deer!

2008-09-09T13:02:00.000-07:00

Last week, I gave you a little sneak peak at a squirrel tea towel I've been working on. Well I'm still not finished with that little squirrel, simply because I've been busy with other projects that take priority.

But I did complete a deer towel before starting the squirrel, so I will share that with you today!

These adorable patterns are courtesy of doe-c-doe. You can find the deer and the squirrel patterns in this post here.

For more inspiration, check out Flor's deer! I love that she did hers in baby pink, and it was hard not to follow her lead. Truthfully, I enjoyed this pattern so much, I just might do another one in Flor's color choices.

I'd like to wish a happy birthday to my girl Rachel!

Happy Birthday, pardner!

xoxo,
Amy

Swap Love, Part 1

2008-09-03T07:24:00.000-07:00

Dearest Readers,

Sorry for the long, unexpected hiatus. I fell into a bit of a funk, plus I've been ultra busy with stitch work. The funk is over, thank goodness, so I'm ready to come back for the occasional show and tell post.

Today I'm sharing stitches not by me, but by my friend Kristi of Stitchy Stitcherson. She is just the sweetest little thing that I've come to know online. A while back, we decided to do a personal swap, and the subject was to embroider something for the other person's bathroom.

I told her I'd like something played off of my shower curtain, which is cream colored, with a print of chocolate colored foliage, and blue birds. Anything nature themed is what I wanted.

I received Kristi's package a couple of weeks ago, and I was absolutely thrilled with what she sent.
I wasn't really prepared for the cuteness that she made. My heart swelled with joy and satisfaction, just like I knew it would, because Kristi is a very talented stitcher.

This little hedgehog is my favorite of the cute critters.

She sent extra swap goodies, delighting my joyful self even more.

That's a Golden book called Baby Animals that she sent for Darcy, (which she insisted on sleeping with for the first 2 days after she got it.) a cute little zipper pouch with a sassy lady on it, some fancy hand dyed embroidery floss, and a Q-Snap embroidery frame! (The squirrel towel inside the frame is a project I started just after receiving my swap package, and I will share it with you soon.)
With my recent obsession of variegated floss, this hand dyed skein is a real treat. It's just lovely. So much so, I think I'm going to hold on to it for a while, and save it for something extra special.

If you don't already read Kristi's blog, I recommend adding her to your blog subscriptions or bookmarks, because that girl can make a needle smoke!

Stay tuned for what I sent to Kristi.

xoxo
Amy

Pimp Cake

2008-08-13T08:30:00.000-07:00

Last week I received a surprise in the mail from my friend Floresita. She sent me one of the 1st edition Pimp Stitch kits, totally making my day.

All of the patterns are oh so cute, but I knew right away I wanted to stitch that little cupcake! I am such a sucker for cute baked goods. *swoon*

I decided to make a little wall hanging for Darcy's room, so I grabbed a 4" wooden hoop, and got to work. Isn't she sweet?

I added the frosting details and used variegated thread because I'm fancy like that. This was a fast and easy project, and I think I might make a few more as party favors for Darcy's birthday in October.

Good news and bad news. Let's do the bad news first: it looks like Pimp Stitch is all sold out of this 1st edition kit. Rats!

Good news: they have the cutest little HOLIDAY kits available now! Eee! Gimme, gimme!

xoxo
Amy

Pear Girl

2008-08-06T08:52:00.000-07:00

I finished Pear Girl last night. I adore the design, but I'm not sure I'm crazy about the colors. What do you think?

xoxo
Amy

Apple Girl

2008-08-05T07:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a little something I embroidered yesterday afternoon.

The pattern is from one of my Japanese embroidery books, and I just love her. There are actually 2 other girls with fruit shaped heads that I'm embroidering as well. I will share them as they are completed.

I can't decide if I want to put the girls in frames, or in wooden embroidery hoops. Any suggestions?

xoxo

Vintage Kitten Embroidery Pattern

2008-08-01T19:07:00.001-07:00

Thanks to everyone for such nice comments on the onesies last week. It seems a lot of you are fans of the kitten, so I wanted to share the pattern with you.

Just click the image to print or download. Let me know if you use the pattern, as I'd love to see what you make!

xoxo
Amy

Vintage Kitten Onesie

2008-07-24T07:39:00.000-07:00

Another onesie added to the shop this morning!

I think this little cutie is my favorite of the bunch. The pattern is from a set of vintage Tri-Chem patterns I purchased recently. There are so many cute patterns in there, and I'm in the process of learning how to clean up a vintage pattern, so I can share them with you. I'm hoping to have this particular pattern cleaned up and posted by next week.

Which onesie is your favorite so far?

xoxo

Pink Squirrel Onesie

2008-07-22T06:18:00.001-07:00

Just added this little cutie to the shop this morning!

Again, this is an organic cotton onesie, so it's super soft and perfect for the wee ones.

Thanks to everyone who took time out of their day to cast a vote for me!

Also, don't forget I am now selling blank tea towels in my shop. These are really great towels perfect for embroidery or screenprinting!

Tomorrow: Hedgehog Onesie

xoxo

This Just In!

2008-07-11T10:07:00.000-07:00

I finally added a new onesie to the shop, and it is so cute, you have no idea!

This onesie is actually an organic Gerber onesie. I was pleased to find organic onesies at Target. I highly recommend the organic to the regular Gerber onesies, if you can find them. There is a BIG difference! They are super soft, thick, and the stretch factor is minimal. In fact, I didn't even have to use a stabilizer! That's how much thicker they are. (Don't tell anyone, but I think they are just as good as American Apparel! Shh!)

I will be listing new onesies in my shop all this week, and blogging about them too. Coming this week: a pink squirrel, a hedgehog, the cutest little kitten, a French knot poodle and a helicopter onesie! I would love it if one of my lovely blog readers snagged one of the new onesies.

Hey, I forgot to tell you! My banner submission for the Feeling Stitchy contest was one of the 5 finalists. So be sure to cast your vote for your favorite! *ahem* Oh, and if you're interested, you can read a mini interview with me, here.

xoxo

Blank Tea Towels & Half Off Sale!

2008-07-09T07:30:00.000-07:00

I know how difficult and frustrating it can be finding a good quality tea towel to embroider on, so today I'm sharing the love!

This towel is a sturdy 100% cotton, and not too big, measuring in at approximately 17" x 31", polished off with stitched edges and is made in the USA, baby!

Also, I have discovered that these towels get softer every time I wash them, and that's a very good thing.

Trust me, these towels will put those purchased at the big box stores to shame.

So be sure to check out my shop and grab a couple of these towels for your next embroidery project. They're only $3.50 each!

Oh, and I wanted to let you know that all remaining embroidered tea towels are 50% off!

Aviation Love

2008-07-02T04:34:00.000-07:00

There is no doubt that my daughter loves transportation vehicles, especially ones of the aviation variety. Since she's under the age of 3, most airplane and helicopter toys have a choking hazard disclaimer on the package, so I just avoid them.

I've been on the lookout for an airplane or helicopter softie, but really haven't had much luck, so I decided to make one for her.

This was my Saturday night project, while watching Better Off Dead. We love that movie, and had not seen it in such a long time. There were two lines in particular that really cracked us up, and I jotted them down for a future embroidery project.

When I was finished with the embroidery, I thought it looked a little blank, so I decided to fill in the blank spaces with crayon. Yeah, if I ever do that again, I will be sure to color the spaces before stitching.

Saturday afternoon we went to one of the Asian markets and I found the cutest little transportation biscuits. They were under $2.00, so I decided if Darcy hated them, then it wasn't a big deal.

She really likes the little crackers, and is fascinated with the different pictures. They taste like a slightly sweetened rice cracker and have really cute names like, "Topless Car" for a convertible and "Shovel Truck" for an excavator.

Darcy loves her little helicopter and calls it, "Chopper." I actually caught her tickling it the other day. What a goober.

I have plans to draw an airplane and a rocket to go along with the helicopter, and I was thinking about offering these aviation designs as embroidery patterns in a pdf format. Would anyone be interested in that?

xoxo,
Amy

Feeling Stitchy Banner

2008-07-01T05:54:00.000-07:00

Today I want to share with you my entry for the Feeling Stitchy banner contest. The original deadline was actually June 30, but Flor is being extra generous for last minute crafters, giving a gracious 2 day extension. Thank you!
I decided to bust out some of my craft doodles for this project. I really love these little guys, and I hope you do too. If you haven't already, please take a look at all of the other gorgeous entries over at Feeling Stitchy. Everyone has done such a wonderful job, and I'm sure Jenny will have a tough time narrowing it down to 5 finalists.

I'm sorry, but I have to keep this post short, as I have a lot of stitching in my future, starting tonight.

xoxo,
Amy

Pimpin' New Patterns!

2008-06-24T05:35:00.000-07:00

I wanted to spread the word about Pimp Stitch's opening day, which was actually yesterday! The quad has released some really cute embroidery patterns for a totally affordable price of only $3.00! Oh, and there's no shipping, because they're emailed to you. EXTRA cool!

All of the patterns are so cute, and picking a favorite seems close to impossible. I was just going to pick one set from each designer, and save the rest for another week, but it's too hard to decide, so I bought them all! What can I say? I'm a sucker for cute and original hand embroidery patterns.

Head on over to Pimp Stitch, check out the patterns for yourself & show these girls some love.

xoxo

Puppy Name Update!

2008-06-24T03:38:00.000-07:00

We've decided to change the puppy's name from Polly to Pixie! Polly was sounding way to much like "potty", and it was confusing her for potty training. Plus, we all wanted to instinctively call her something else, so I guess that's a sign the name isn't right.

My 10 year old stepdaughter came up with the name Pixie, and we all loved it. I mean, The Pixies is one of our favorite bands, so of course we love it.

On the craft front, I'm planning on starting my submission for the Feeling Stitchy banner contest. I totally planned on starting it the week I read about it, but I am such a procrastinator, it's ridiculous. Nothing like the pressure of a time crunch to get you motivated.

More to come soon!

xoxo

NKOTB

2008-06-22T18:11:00.000-07:00

This morning we had a very early start, with Darcy waking us up at 5:30am. Toddlers have no regard to days of the week, so we just started the coffee pot extra early.

By 8:00am, we were at our favorite diner, Jimmy's Egg for breakfast. The portions were huge, so we all ate too much. One the way out I grabbed the Gazette, and immediately opened up to the classifieds with hopes of reading some cheesy and entertaining "missed connections." There were none to be found this week, so my eyes drifted over to the "Pets" section.

"Beagle / mini water spaniel puppies, 3 to 4 months old, wormed, 1st puppy shots, free to good home."

I don't know what came over me, but I gushed about the ad all the way home, and got the family pumped up about the prospect of a new puppy. I called the ad's number, and the woman who answered said they had 4 puppies left. 1 boy and 3 girls. I got her address, and we set out to meet some puppies.

Our final destination ended up being in the country, at a run down, dirty house. My first thought and I think my first words were, "OH, MY!" We parked the car, and to the right of the driveway were at least 6 pygmy goats. Half were on the ground, and half were on top of their "house." They were actually pretty cute, but the smell wasn't.

The lady I spoke with on the phone came out and said she'd be right back with the puppies. One by one they came out, and I wanted to take each one home. Not because it was love at first sight, but because my heart was breaking.

Two of the girl puppies were cowering the entire time we were there, with their tails tuck between their legs, and barely standing up at all. They were all skinny, and covered in fleas. The woman told us, "You can take 2 of 'em if you want to." I told her I wish we could, but we really only had enough room for one. It was like Sophie's Choice.

We picked the darkest puppy, with a white stripe on her chest, and headed straight to the dog wash to rid her of as many fleas as we could.

The poor thing was shaking for the next hour. We got her cleaned up, and I picked off more fleas than I could count. We've been free and clear of fleas for the past 2 years, but it's a small price to pay for helping this little girl. We're planning on taking her to the vet this week for a check up and to start a flea treatment.

She's been sleeping pretty much the entire day under the kitchen table and chairs. When she does finally get up to walk around, she's very cautious, keeps her tail tucked, and doesn't venture far away from her safe spot. This kind of behavior makes me think that she hasn't been treated kindly, and that breaks my heart. I'm so glad she's a part of our family now, because I know she will be loved and no one will be mean to her again.

She likes it when I sweet talk to her, because her tail starts wagging like crazy, and she loves to have her big Buddha belly rubbed. Once she warms up to you, she's as sweet as pie, and soft as silk. She's a real cuddle bug, and I'm sure the timid temperament will go away after a week or two.

We've thrown out several name options today: Lola, Willow, Evie, and Pepper, but I think we've finally settled on ~~Polly~~. We decided to change her name to Pixie! Polly was sound WAY too much like "potty" and it was getting confusing for her.

Pixie and Anna (eee! cute!) aren't the best of friends yet. Anna was a real toot and growled and barked really loud at Pixie when she was about 3 feet from a Greenies chew. I'm sure that will pass too.

Pixie is laying next to me on the couch as I type this. She'll be spoiled rotten in no time.

You can see more pictures of Pixie on my Flickr account. ♥

xoxo

Well, Cross My Stitch!

2008-06-19T17:45:00.000-07:00

Today I wanted to share with you two gifts I made for my husband for Father's Day. He works in tech support, so he's really turned in to quite the geek. He's always had that underlying male geekiness, with his love of Star Wars, video games, comics, sci-fi, kung fu movies, you know, all the stuff that make nerds H-O-T.

In the past couple of years he's really taken to computers, operating systems, and programming, opening a whole new realm of geeky. Let me tell you, it's awe. some.

I've been seeing a lot of really amazing cross stitch projects lately, ranging from cute to cool. Seeing these projects sparked a desire to try some new stitching. I knew I wanted the first project to be computer related, and something he could take to work.

I decided to cross stitch "DAD" in binary code. John had some old computer ram he wasn't planning on using, so I glued it to a frame, making a perfectly adorkable gift.

Now, keep in mind this was my first cross stitch project in over 15 years, and I pretty much jumped right in without a pattern. I was still in embroidery mode, and used 6 strands of floss, instead of the cross stitch 2 strand standard. With that said, I'm still proud of this little piece, and John really loved it.

Video games seem to be a popular subject in the world of cross stitch, especially the older games, since they are mostly pixel art. This just happens to be perfect, because one of John's all time favorite video games is Galaga. I searched for some Galaga patterns, and settled on one I found here.

Unfortunately I haven't framed this one yet, but John didn't seem to mind. He raved about both of his gifts, but I could tell the Galaga piece was his favorite.

I have to admit, I've been on a bit of a cross stitch obsession for the last week. By no means am I replacing embroidery, but with amazing new cross stitch kits just on the horizon, I would like to alternate between embroidery and cross stitch from time to time.

Next week I will share more cross stitch inspirations with you and possibly a new completed project!

xoxo

Here, Kitty Kitty!

2008-06-18T07:43:00.000-07:00

First off, thank you for all the compliments here and on Flickr about the poodle shirt I posted about yesterday.

Second, thanks to Rachel for letting me know that the poodle shirt was mentioned on Craft Gossip yesterday.

What fun! You can check it out here.

Third, I'd like to apologize for a typo in yesterday's post. I goofed and said the design was from the Julie West patterns, but they are actually from the Lisa Petrucci patterns.

Speaking of the Julie West patterns, I was flipping through the newest BUST magazine on Sunday, and noticed an advert for Sublime Stitching with a few of the example designs I stitched!

I don't remember the last time I was so excited to see an ad.

Ok, now let's take a look at that cute little kitty. I embroidered this one first, and was so inspired by the cuteness, I had to keep going, and stitched the poodle.

She's pretty cute, but the poodle steals my heart.

Next on the t-shirt agenda is embroidering an airplane for Darcy. She's really obsessed with airplanes and helicopters right now. They're her favorite things, and she tries to mention them in just about every conversation. When she says "airplane", it sounds pretty clear, but "helicopter" sounds more like, "ca-ca". Kids say the darndest things! (Oh yeah, I went there.)

Hey! Check out Rachel's blog for a sweet screen printed fabric giveaway! Deer, Obama, and E.T., oh my!

Tomorrow I'll share with you my Father's Day creations.

xoxo

French Knot Poodle

2008-06-17T04:06:00.000-07:00

I thought I would share with you a shirt I embroidered for my daughter. I finished this last week, but I'm lazy, I mean busy, and I'm just now posting a picture.

I don't know what my obsession with variegated floss is lately, but I think it was perfect for this project. My daughter really loves it too, and likes to rub her fingers against all the knots. When I showed it to her she said, "AWW, a dog! It's cute!" Well said.

If you're feeling inspired, I used the Lisa Petrucci patterns, by Sublime Stitching.

I also embroidered the kitten from the same pattern set on a yellow t-shirt, but I've been too "busy" to take pictures of that one. I'll try to remember to snap a few shots when I take photos of the Father's Day gift I made for my husband.

xoxo

ATC Update - or Spoiler Alert for sh.nava

2008-05-30T18:11:00.000-07:00

First off, I don't know if sh.nava reads my blog, but I did send her a personal message letting her know that pictures of her ATC were posted here, and if she would prefer a surprise she should skip reading this post. ♥

Last month I was browsing for birthday gifts I'd like to have, and sending my husband the links so he'd know that whatever he picked out would be a winner. Well, I stumbled upon a Japanese embroidery book that I didn't have yet, and I spied storybook characters inside. Be still my stitchy heart!

Of course he did the right thing, and gifted me the book. Thanks again, honey!

With the subject of this ATC swap being fairy tales, and me having a soft spot in my heart for THE WIZARD OF OZ, I now had the perfect pattern source.

This book wastes no time getting to the cuteness. Here's the first page:

There they are, the Wiz Kids. (Oh, don't think I'm not still swooning over Peter Pan and the gang!)

These patterns are small enough to accommodate the ATC, but they couldn't be spaced out so much. After a little tweaking, I got the placement just right.

Since the designs are so small, I only used 3 strands of floss, and primarily used the back stitch everywhere except for the occasional French knot or daisy stitch. In the book's photo, it looks like the designs were stitched using only 1 strand of floss. Wow.

I'm headed to the post office tomorrow to ship this off to Israel! My ATC will be coming from Australia and I'll be sure to share it with you when it arrives.

Which fairy tales do you love?

Recycled Ring

2008-05-29T12:45:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I spotted a very clever creation from a Flickr contact. She made a pin cushion ring out of a plastic pull tab that you can find on a carton of soy milk, juice, coffee creamer, etc.

I decided to give it a go, and I must say it's my new favorite sewing accessory. Not only is it totally functional, it's fashionable.

Ok, maybe not wear it to the Sex and the City premier fashionable, but pretty cute for sitting at home or riding in the car while stitching.

I decided to wrap the ring with some embroidery floss, and I added a felt circle on the bottom to hide the messy bunching.

Since this is the first time I made one of these, it has a few flaws, but I still love it. (Note to self: Use just a tad bit more stuffing next time.) It's up there with my organizer.

This is a really great way to put those tiny scraps of your favorite fabrics to use. Plus, you can feel all warm and crunchy for recycling. I like that it's small enough to go just about anywhere, and would be prefect for travel stitching. Not that I do a lot of traveling, but when the occasion arises, I'll be prepared.

xoxo

Stitched by Hand ATC

2008-05-22T08:01:00.000-07:00

I've decided to participate in my first ATC swap. I only recently found out what ATC stood for: Artist Trading Cards. It seems that the only real rule for the cards is that they must be 2.5" x 3.5", the size of a baseball card. This swap is organized through the Stitched by Hand group on Flickr, and here is the pool for the ATC swaps.

This is the second ATC swap for the group, and this time the theme is Fairy / Folk Tales. Fairy Tales are a favorite subject of mine, so I signed up. I started on mine yesterday, and it's almost finished! I hate not being able to post pictures until after my partner gets it, but I can't resist giving just a little sneak peak.

This little guy is just smaller than a quarter. It's a lot of fun working on such a small scale, and I'm loving all the tiny cuteness. I can't wait to show you the entire piece!

Any guesses?

xoxo

Stitched in Translation - Spoiler for Melisser

2008-05-12T07:38:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who let me know which bird was your favorite. I think the aqua bird has the popular vote. I really love them both and it's hard for me to pick a favorite.

I started a new embroidery project yesterday, and I had so much fun working on it. I've had ideas swimming around in my head for a few weeks on just what to stitch for Melisser's pay it forward gift. I knew I wanted to do something baking related, but wasn't really feeling any of the designs I had previously stitched. Even though she's loved every single one of my cupcake related embroideries.

I started looking through my saved clip art, and found this great image I had saved a while back.

This illustration was done by one of my favorite artists, Mizna Wada. She makes the cutest little gothic illustrations and dolls, as well as sideshow beauties and other goodies.

Anywho, I decided this would be the design for Melisser's tea towel. I really did have a lot of fun with this design. The hair was the best part.

(I sent Melisser an email this morning, warning her of the spoiler. I can never keep a gift secret!)

I think I might try stitching up another one of Mizna's illustrations soon. I think this one translated wonderfully to embroidery. What do you think?

xoxo

Naptime Stitching

2008-05-09T14:32:00.001-07:00

Here's what I made today while Darcy took her nap.

1, one pretty bird tea towel!

2, two pretty bird tea towels!

Which one is your favorite?

xoxo

Baker Got Back

2008-05-08T18:02:00.000-07:00

I'm combining two of my favorite things on today's post. Cupcakes and embroidery. I met up with my friend Kimmy earlier this week, and I decided to bake cupcakes for our visit. I went with a recipe I came up with last year for Almond Joyful Cupcakes. I posted the recipe on my old blog, but I will save you the search, and I'll post it here.

Once again, these cupcakes were wicked awesome. They're very easy to make, and the cake is moist and creamy. The frosting recipe makes just enough to modestly frost the cakes, so if you're a frosting fiend, you might want to double it.

Almond Joyful Cupcakes
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup coconut cream (or coconut milk)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons almond extract
1/2 cup shredded coconut

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, & line your muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder & salt.
3. In a larger bowl, mix together the coconut cream, sugar, & the extracts.
4. Add the flour mixture to your coconut mixture in batches, mixing well after each incorporation. Mix until smooth & then fold in the shredded coconut.
5. Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full. Bake for 24-26 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack & cool completely.

Coconut Frosting
1/4 cup nonhydrogenated shortening
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons coconut cream
1/2 cup shredded coconut

Directions
1. Beat the shortening until it's light and fluffy. Add the sugar and the coconut cream, mixing until smooth, about 3 minutes. Then stir in the shredded coconut by hand.

After I frosted these cupcakes, I put them in the fridge for about 15 minutes to let the frosting set. You could also top each cupcake with a chocolate covered almond if you have them on hand. Perfect!

Now for the embroidery! Floresita posted a vintage Vogart embroidery pattern a while back on Flickr, and I just loved it! For one thing, I'm a sucker for just about any pastry related pattern, but combine that with a big booty baker, and I'm all over it.

I decided to put this cutie on a tea towel. The shirt was a lot of fun to stitch, and I chose two different shades of blue. Overall, this pattern only took about 4 to 5 hours of stitch time. You can see more pictures here.

Ok, I'm off to watch Thursday night awesomeness. I've made my husband wait long enough.

xoxo

Gnome Sweet Gnome

2008-03-19T08:32:00.000-07:00

I'm sure most of you already know about the embroidery mastermind, Andrea Zuill, aka badbird. But if not, allow me to introduce you! She creates the most amazing quilts and embroidered pieces, often combining the cute with the creepy. My favorite combination!

She is also a great painter, and sells wonderful prints in her Etsy shop. You can also find original embroidery patterns for sale in her shop too. But just for funsies, and because she rocks, she's been posting free embroidery patterns on her blog. She aspires to post a new pattern every month and so far, she has not disappointed! I'm a little behind, but I finally got around to stitching up January's pattern.

It's an adorable, disgruntled gnome surrounded by mushrooms. I knew right away that I wanted to create a wall hanging with our family name on it. My machine sewing skills aren't the greatest, and it seems like one side is always a little wonky, but I really love it.

I ended up putting ours on the front door. I'm not sure that's where it will stay, because it's so cute, and I can only see it when the front door is open.

I think everyone needs to have this gnome somewhere in their home. Maybe a wall hanging or a pillow. I like the idea of a family name, or something cute like, "Gnome Sweet Gnome," "You Don't Gnome Me," or "Home Is Where The Gnome Is."

I'm sure this won't be the last pattern of Andrea's that you see me stitch. Next on the agenda of personal items is the pegasus and unicorn. I'm thinking patchwork pillow for Darcy.

So go, meet Andrea, fall in love, and get your stitch on.

Chinatown Revamp

2008-01-30T04:30:00.000-08:00

I was recently contacted by Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching to help out with stitching some of her designs for the Sublime Stitching website. I was thrilled and honored, so I gave her a big fat YES.

First on the agenda, Chinatown! Compared to the older version of the Chinatown patterns, the new ones have a revamped pagoda, lotus flower, & fortune cookie. The patterns also have new designs such as new lanterns, clouds, and Chinese symbols. These were a lot of fun to embroider, and definitely brought me good luck. Take a look at my pink pagoda and fortune cookie!

I hope you all give yourself good luck and add the new Chinatown patterns to your Sublime Stitching pattern collection!

Now, my lips are sealed until the next project/pattern review.

xoxo,
Amy

Feeling Squirrelly!

2007-11-15T08:56:00.000-08:00

Proof once again that I've been hit with seasonal inspiration, here are 3 new adorable squirrel onesies!

I know I've never seen a yellow squirrel before, but wouldn't they be cute? I think the one in the middle is most accurate in color for the types of squirrels that live in my area.

Each one is listed in my shop, and just waiting for the right baby! We all know babies can be a little squirrelly at times. Or is it just mine? Sometimes when Darcy was younger, I used to think she looked like a little squirrel, gnawing on her knuckles, like a squirrel devouring a nut. But now she just acts down right nutty at times!

I'd love to know, which one is your favorite?

Also, I'm curious what you think about iron on patches. I've been toying around with the idea of turning my felt patches in to iron ons, so people have the choice of what item to put them on. What do you think would be a decent/fair price? Keep in mind that most patches take about an hour to embroider. Your feedback fuels my designs!

xoxo

Frogs in Scarves

2007-11-14T13:15:00.000-08:00

I've been feeling inspired this week by the beautiful fall weather we've been having. I don't remember the weather being this perfect and seasonal last year. Perhaps it was because Darcy was one month old, and learning how to be a mom was all I could think about, and she was all I could see. I didn't have time for falling leaves, acorns, pine cones, or squirrels. But thank goodness I'm noticing the little things this year. It's all very inspiring, and I'm exciting about the cute new designs I've finished!

With a little help from a Japanese embroidery book, I recreated a new Frog in Scarf design. I stitched up the first one in bolder colors, thinking, 'Oh, this couldn't possibly get any cuter!' I was wrong. The second one was stitched in lighter colors and I love it just as much as the first. Maybe just a smidge more. But you tell me which one you like the best!

Both of these onesies are listed in my shop for a very reasonable price. The one with bolder colors is a size 6 to 12 months & the one with softer colors is 12 to 18 months. Both are short sleeved American Apparel onesies.

Stay tuned for tomorrow, because I've got more new designs to share!! They're really squirrely!