Always Love You

Whew! That was a lot of writing yesterday. I need a break. Bring on the photos! (And some more writing. I can't help myself.)


Here we have one of the little projects I just completed. It's a little pouch for keeping written memories for my daughter. The idea came from here.

The basic idea is that you cut up small cards (I did 3"x5") and decorate them (we have used watercolors and markers so far). Then you store them in the pouch for easy access when something happens that you want to remember. It's the type of stuff that doesn't usually end up in a baby book, the type of stuff you want to keep forever. And the bonus is that the memories are written on a piece of the child's artwork. Double nostalgia bonus! The cards can then be put into a scrapbook, made into their own little book, or stored in the pouch permanently.

The design was inspired by this photo:


While we were on a walk, my daughter picked these wildflowers, and when we got home she laid them out on the walkway like that. I took a photo thinking that would make a great embroidery project. I stitched them on linen and used stem stitch, some satin stitch, and some other ... I don't know, freedhand stitch. I just made it up as I went!


The lettering was done freehand and says, "I will always love you," which is a phrase I've always said to my little girl. I used some fabric that reminds me of vintage bedsheets to line the inside of the pouch.

The whole thing was meant to be a little more organic--rustic, for lack of a better word. It was a nice departure from some of the super detailed stitching I've done in the past, and I have to say I'm really pleased with the results. I'm thinking it might even translate well to some little pouches or cushions to be sold some day down the road....


In the near future I'll share photos of the pouch I made for my son's memory cards. Have a good day!

Honey, I Got You a Car!

At last! I have finally put the finishing touches on the big embroidery project I keep referring to. I am happy to present the BMW 325ci.

(The photos are not to my satisfaction. I am having lighting issues, but I was too excited to post this to wait for better light.)

It's a birthday gift for my husband, one of his favorite cars. When he was gone I stole the photo from his computer, turned it into a line drawing in Photoshop, and transferred it onto a piece of fabric cut out of an old bed sheet. I used two strands of black floss (1 strand in the BMW logo) and went to town. It's about 5.5 inches tall and 10 inches wide.


Then I made my life miserable by deciding halfway through the project that I didn't like my stitch choice (back stitch) and ripped it all out. It's taken almost two months to complete because of this (and the always-present fact that I never have as much time as I'd like).

I was really looking to achieve a certain style, a sort of hand drawn or sketched look, but I couldn't quite get it, and I knew it wasn't right. I asked for advice from the lovely crafter behind doe-c-doe (she's very inspiring; thank you!) and from Craftster member Sheeena (have you seen her Delftware piece?), both of whom have done pieces that had a look similar to what I wanted. I also consulted some embroidery books and online stitch dictionaries.


And what did I learn? That you really can achieve similar looks with several different types of stitches. It's just dependent on your stitching style and technique, really. Each "source" recommended a different method (outline stitch, stem stitch, split stitch), yet each had the end result that I was going for. Interesting.

After some experimentation, I decided that outline stitch was the best option for my stitching style. I didn't want the individual stitches to be too obvious, but rather to flow together as lines in a sketch, for a more seamless look.


I have to say, I think it was a success! (My husband agrees.) I think you'll see more outline stitch from me in the future. It's so "me."

This Is Love

Here's another simple embroidered card. It was put together to send along with a baby gift, and since I know my friend received it, I can post it here. From the front I think it looks a little plain since I just used a premade blank card, but when you see it with the scrapbooking paper inside it sort of flows nicely. At least I think so. :)


Some of the stitching is by machine, some by hand, and the photos are taken from when my daughter was a baby.



Ah, new babies and embroidered cards. Some of the things I love best!

It's in the Bag

Last fall we bought some new bedsheets, and they came packaged in cotton drawstring pouches. I held onto the pouches thinking they might have some other use, and during a recent reorganization of our play area, I realized they were the perfect thing to hold all the many loose toy pieces we seem to have floating around. It's so much easier to chuck them all in a bag than try to keep them together when they're not being used.



For the first pouch, I took a couple of puzzle pieces and traced them onto the bag, added some letters, and started stitching. I especially like the lettering, which is done with two strands of each color twisted together. Unfortunately you won't be able to see it very well in the photos because I couldn't be bothered to iron a bag that will just get wrinkled again the minute it's thrown into the toybox.


The second bag is my favorite. This one will hold lots of Little People bits. (Again, pardon the wrinkles.)


I found some coloring pages at the Fisher Price website, which I put into Photoshop for some reworking until they were set the way I wanted them. Then I printed the final picture and traced it onto the pouch. I thought about using their official lettering too, but decided I wanted to keep this quick and easy, so I stuck with easy-to-read (kid friendly) lettering instead.

I'm currently plugging away at a more involved wip, so these were nice little diversions for the times when I didn't have the focus to do the bigger project. And even though they were fast and easy, they were really enjoyable to do, and I find myself enjoying cleanup time more with something fun to use. :) When I showed them to my toddler, she said, "Good job, Mama!" I think she likes them too.

Mom's Day, Belated

I know I'm a little late with the sentiment, but Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas out there. It's hard work, all the face-wiping and boo boo-patching and diaper-changing and so on, but it's the best job in the world. I hope you got some extra kisses and cuddles and enjoyed your day.

I've been experimenting with new ways to use my interest in sewing and embroidery and have recently stitched up a few greeting cards. I'm really liking the result and decided that I wanted to make Mother's Day cards for the moms in our family. I kept the designs simple, using some 3x5" watercolor paintings done by my toddler and incorporating something that was unique to each person--a quilt design for the quilter, a flower for the gardener, a birdhouse for the bird watcher.


I think I'll be trying more of these in the future, using even more variety in the style and materials. It's really enjoyable to use a medium I already enjoy in a fresh way, and the possibilities are endless.


(As always, more photos on flickr.)

A Creative Spot?

Well, so, this rounds off my week of posting. Can you believe I actually did it? (Don't get too used to it. ;)) This may be a bit of a "cheater post," what with its brevity and lack of crafty anything, but it's the weekend, and after days of rain it's getting sunny and warm again, so I'm already on to lazier pursuits:


Surely I can get some creating done out here, right? Well, crafting or not, and weather permitting, we'll be spending our weekend planted right here. Happy weekend!

Time for Sushi

As I've mentioned before, I have a sister who is a big fan of sushi. Sometime last year I saw the Sublime Stitching Sushi Bar patterns and immediately thought, "Birthday gift!" I bought some plain white dinner napkins at Target with the intent to stitch them up in time for my sister's birthday. Unfortunately, I didn't leave myself much time to get them finished, and when I took a look at the SS pattern I realized I wouldn't be able to have it sent to me soon enough to get the gift done. So I just drew the pattern myself based on the SS version. I think I got pretty close.


My plan was to use black to outline parts of the drawings as in a sketch and then use some color to fill in a few parts. This was decided partly to save time and partly because I liked the look of it. You'll see lots of back stitch, some long and short stitch, some satin stitch, and a few french knots. I'm especially fond of the rice bowl. I made the rice by using six strands of ecru floss with tight, overlapping seed stitch.


I folded them up and put them back into the original packaging, then used the back side of the little cardboard inserts that came with the package to make a tag and some care instructions. I think they came out pretty nicely, and they were fun to stitch. There are lots more photos, including closeups, on my flickr page.


Stay tuned for an accompanying project tomorrow....

Freebie Alert! Snowflakes That Stay on My Gingham Eyelashes

[Note: This post has been edited to sound more like the usual me and less like the overtired, whiny me who wrote the original thoughts. It's still the same, just a little less 'tude. For those who read the first version, my apologies!]

Because I haven't gotten beyond merely glancing at my pile of projects-to-be and thinking about them late at night after choosing sleep over creative fulfillment (so not like me!), I've decided to encourage others in Blogland to craft so that I might live vicariously through them. Stitchers, I give you ... my original Chicken Scratch Snowflakes.

They took quite a few hours to work up in a readable format, and if I was wise I would attempt to sell them before carelessly tossing them into the wide world of Internets as a freebie, but I am feeling generous (and too tired to figure out how to sell things). It is probably not that hard to figure these out without the pattern. Nevertheless, some people like to take all the thinking right out of it so they can get down to the crafting, and this--this is for you.

I've tried to be as detailed as possible; please do let me know if there's something I could do to make the patterns better, as this is my first attempt. Because these are so simple, they are not drawn to scale; these patterns are more guidelines or instructions for where to place your stitches. You'll see what I mean.

Each of the snowflakes can be found in stitched form on my flickr page. I have drawn them up as if they are stitched on the traditional gingham background, and as a result they look a lot cleaner and more precise than they may turn out in actuality, depending on your foundation fabric. Most of my stitched versions are a lot more free form because I didn't use a gridded background. I like them that way, but do as you wish.

And now, enough babble. Enjoy! (Click to download a full-size image.)

Exploring Chicken Scratch

Ah. So. Here we are. January was a bust, in terms of crafting. It was for good reasons, of course, but I found my fingers itching to get back at it. Mustering up the energy to do so, however, was easier said than done.

Last year, knowing that I was going to find my time and energy more limited with the arrival of another wee one, I thought that a little monthly kick in the pants would be a good thing. Thank goodness for Stitch Explorer 2009! I signed up for it in the hopes that it would keep me motivated and accountable to my crafting once I hit the new year. It's just in the nick of time, but here I am, skating in at the last minute with my sample pieces.


The first challenge was chicken scratch, a stitch I, being pretty new to embroidery, had never heard of before. It uses a double cross stitch, a straight stitch, and lacing, and it's typically done on gingham. The challenge suggested taking the basic stitch and expanding on it by changing from the traditional foundation fabric, trying different stitches and colors, and so on. I've been working on variations for a couple weeks now, and I've found this pattern and its possibilities quite enjoyable. I also got a bit snowflake obsessed, as you'll see as you make your way to the end of this post.

First, I did the traditional version for practice, with some scrap gingham and white floss.

Then there was a brighter pattern with a different fabric that maintained the square idea but changed it up some ...

... another pattern on another fabric ...

... and the same pattern with different colors, done two different ways ...

... and another two pieces done with leftover colors and fabrics because I was too lazy to go upstairs for new materials.


And then there were the snowflakes. Oh, the snowflakes. We haven't had a lot of snow this winter, so I made my own. First the gingham ...


... and then the freehand versions that were sort of eyeballed for evenness and done on a charcoal muslin.

(Detail photos on my flickr page.)

These might have been a stretch in some ways, as I strayed a little more from the traditional method, but I really, really love this piece best of all.

There might be more chicken scratch to come--but I'm looking forward to the next challenge for something different. There also might be more posts and a snazzier site design to come--but I'm looking forward to the day when I once again get a good night's sleep, and the former is directly dependent on the latter. Ha!

Love's Labours

I hope you had a Happy Christmas. As previously mentioned, crafty activity has come to a temporary halt, hence no posting for me, but I have one project still up my sleeve to share. This is the last one I completed before Christmas.

I will preface by saying that normally I intend to keep this blog strictly craft-related and leave out the personal stuff. I'm not a huge fan of over-sharing on the web, and that's just not the purpose of this site for me. That being said, I'm going to break that rule this time because this project has a story to it.

First things first: It's a decorative piece for my brother-in-law, who is a ninth degree black belt in Isshinryu karate. He and my sister are very passionate about karate and Okinawa and have lots of related decorating in their home. I wanted to do a piece for him that reflected his interests, and this is what I came up with.


I started with the Japanese lettering, which says, literally, "Isshinryu" and means "One Heart Method." I found the lettering at a web site that sells embroidered karate gear specific to one's school of training. The fist you see on the right is called the Isshinryu fist, and this fist position is unique to their style of karate. I found this at an Isshinryu web site. Then, because it needed a little something more, I downloaded some lotus flowers after searching for "Japanese design" and sort of sprinkled them into the empty spaces. The idea behind Isshinryu, if I understand correctly, is that you strive for peace but are prepared to defend yourself if need be. I think the addition of the softer flowers represents this, and also represents Okinawa.


I arranged the design in Photoshop, printed it, and transferred it onto the fabic with a light board and a water soluble pen. I stitched this on plain off-white muslin with black thread. I was going for a very organic look and wanted to keep it simple. It's stretched over a piece of wood and stapled down, and my brother-in-law can now hang it or set it on a shelf or whatever he chooses.

The satin stitching on the Japanese calligraphy took the longest, and I started with it first. I was on-again, off-again with it while working on other projects, but finally finished it after a few days. The flowers and fist are mostly back stitch, and those came together quickly.


Now here's the story: At the time that I was working on this piece, I was, oh, 9 months pregnant or so. I was expecting Baby any day--my due date was a week earlier, in fact--and we joked that I wouldn't go into labor until I'd crossed everything off of my to do list. Ha. It turns out that my labor started to turn more "real" just as I was sitting down to work on the final section of this piece. I had had a false alarm before and was determined to keep working on my embroidery, so I just kept going even when the contractions started getting tougher to work through.

When I finished I took the piece downstairs to show my unwitting husband, who took one look at me and said, "We need to call the midwife." I went upstairs to rinse out the ink marks from the fabric, still certain the labor wasn't for real. When the midwife arrived, we learned that I had stitched myself right to 8 centimeters dilated! The project was done, and I had the baby a couple hours later. How's that for timing?


So now you know why my craft life is on hold. We're busy getting to know Baby and fighting yucky viruses. (I am flat on my back with a 103 degree fever.) Christmas was very busy, but everyone loved their gifts. My father-in-law immediately hung up his Frank Lloyd Wright piece and has placed it behind non-glare, archival glass so no one can touch it. Other responses were just as positive. The more I watched people open gifts, the more I realized just how much I'd tackled in less than 2 months and felt quite satisfied, but I also made a mental note to start earlier next year. And we'll be skipping the baby part next time 'round, too.

All in all, it was a successful holiday craft marathon, especially for someone so new to embroidery, and now it's time to rest. I hope you have a happy new year, and I'll see you again once crafting resumes.

Decking the Halls

Let me begin by saying, for the record, that I am actually working on my last big embroidery project/Christmas gift. See?


I'm just dragging it out by doing other things at the same time.

Ahem. Onward.

Every year for Christmas I put together a little gift box of goodies for our closest friends. It usually consists of a couple different kinds of candy, and I usually stick with quick, easy things. This year I've gone a little overboard. Not only did I make two kinds of candy (tiger fudge and peppermint bark), but I also made two different kinds of freezer jelly (strawberry and my favorite, grape) and a little felt ornament for each box.

All of these projects by themselves are pretty easy to do and don't take much time. In fact, I made the strawberry jelly in November so that I would have less to do now. But when you combine all of them and add to that the fact that I just realized what the date is and that I am running out of time to see these friends and deliver the gifts before we all get lost in the holiday rush, you have a bit of chaos. I spent a couple of days getting it all pulled together and have finally finished. I may have done a bit more than I needed to, but the boxes look lovely and full of Christmas cheer.

(Individual images on my Flickr page.)

So these ornaments are what I've been spending my recent time on. I kept them simple. I used craft felt and embroidery floss and just free-stitched a design on each of them. I made multiples of each one, too, so it went faster once I had the first of each design figured out. The little trees have a bit of batting stuffed in them, but the pointsettia and star looked funny with stuffing, so I skipped it. I really enjoyed this project because I was able to just be creative and enjoy the process, and they stitched up quickly so I had more instant gratification than usual. Next year I hope I have time to do more.

Now it's back to finishing the big project. Has anyone noticed the date? Christmas is on our heels. Eep!

Fancy up the Gift Card

While I've been taking a break from bigger projects (read: avoiding starting the last "major" Christmas gift), I've been working on simpler things, and it has been lovely being able to start and finish something quickly. We're giving away a few gift cards this Christmas, and I wanted to package them a little more personally than with those cardboard holders they come with, so I whipped up my own design. (I mentioned in the last post I was going to use some online tutorials. I had thought about doing a few paper crafts for card holders, but eventually decided to just stick with my own plans.)

Each one is a little different, and if you want to see all of them up close and personal, they're on my Flickr site. But for this blog I've decided to do a little tutorial for one of the designs. They're very simple to make, but I know some people really like the photos and written instructions, so here they are.

First, your supplies.


You'll need some craft felt, cutting implements of choice, a needle, and some embroidery floss. I personally like to use my rotary cutter to make the rectangular pieces and then use my shears or embroidery scissors to cut out an applique, if I'm using one.

You'll want to cut two rectangles approximately 2 1/2" x 3 5/8" (or just measure around a gift card). If you want to add an applique, cut that out too.


Next you're going to do your applique and/or embroidery. Now's the time to do as much or as little embellishing as you want. If you look at the individual card holders, you'll see that I chose to only embroider some of them, but the one in this tutorial makes use of an applique as well.

Use whatever colors and variety of stitches you desire to attach your applique and make your design on one of the rectangular pieces. (Set the other piece aside for now.) The felt is not going to fray, so you can be fairly decorative with your attaching stitches without worrying about making it super tight or folding under edges. Also, don't worry too much about perfection, with the stitching or the cutting that comes later. I think imperfections give the pieces a more "folksy," homemade appearance that is quirky and fun.


And there you have the finished embellishments:


Then the cutting begins. You'll still be working with just the front rectangular piece. You can choose to skip this part if you like (and you'll see that I did so with one of the designs), but I personally much prefer seeing a bit of the card peeking through.

I used my embroidery scissors with the teeniest points so that I could make smaller, more precise cuts. Whatever you use, cut carefully and be sure to leave pieces of the center design still attached to the outer edges of the holder. I learned as I went that it's better to make sure the attached pieces are reasonably thick; otherwise the felt could get strained or tear.

This is another area where you can get as creative as you like. My favorite design just involved cutting around the center design to look like a frame, but on another holder I used the scissors to free-form cut the design itself into the felt.


Once your cutting is done, it's time to attach the two rectangular pieces with your stitch of choice. I preferred whip stitch for most of them, but you can use a blanket stitch or a straight stitch or anything else that suits your fancy. When you get to the edges where you want your opening, simply stitch on each individual layer instead of going through both at once.

And then ...

Tada! Simple and sweet, it costs almost nothing, takes no time at all, and you've got an impressive way to present your gift. Enjoy!

If you think of something I could add or change to make this tutorial more usable, please feel free to let me know!

A Lovely Little Break

I've only one major embroidery project left to complete for Christmas, but I have yet to really figure out the design, so I've taken some time off to work on a few quick things while I think/procrastinate. These are two ATCs (artist trading cards) that I made for my sister-in-law, who has recently started making them herself. I needed to keep them simple, in the interest of time, but I'm happy to say I love them anyway and have learned that simplicity can be good for me sometimes.

This one is embroidered on cheapo craft felt. I just designed on the fly, stitching as I went, and using a variety of stitches. It's called "New Path." I attached it to a second piece of felt after sandwiching a piece of cardboard in between to make it a little more sturdy.


This one is a digital image that I created in Photoshop. It's called "Fresh Start." It's printed on photo paper and attached to a piece of cardboard.


I don't imagine I'll take a lot of time to make these in the future, as my bookmark folder of project ideas is overflowing, but it was fun to do something on a smaller scale, so I might throw in a few here and there.

Next I am going to attempt to make some gift card holders using online tutorials. And continue thinking about the big embroidery project to be. Maybe.

Become the Change

As promised (maybe a teeny bit late), this is the other big project that I recently completed.


It's for a family member who worked for AmeriCorps for two years. She has made strides to be more "green" and really likes the "Become the change ..." quote by Ghandi.

I used the Pupcat font and a downloaded image of the Americorps logo to create the design, printed it, and transferred it to the fabric (another piece of the recycled bed sheet), which I machine stitched to the tote when I was finished. All the lettering is done in satin stitch (whew!) and the logo is done in long and short stitch and back stitch.


This was another project in which I promised myself I wouldn't be so insane about perfection. I can see the flaws. The words aren't evenly spaced; the letters aren't always a consistent size or shape; the logo was too small to capture some of the detail well (such as the pointy borders around and inside the logo).

Nevertheless, after finishing it and taking a few days away, I can now look at it and say, "That's awesome!" I'm really proud of it and especially like how it looks with the dark blue fabric of the tote.


(Oh, and by the way, the tote is made using this pattern and with leftover twill that I had on hand. This project cost me nothing to make! Woohoo!)

I think it will be the perfect gift to be practical, "green," and reflective of the receiver's passions. Thanks for looking!



P.S. I realize my banner and design are sadly still fall-ish and not at all reflective of the season. It's bugging me, but it will have to wait until I come up for air. Christmas presents are almost done, and then I'll play with the blog some more. ;)