New Sleepy Fox Embroidery Pattern!

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

Pretty Kitty

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

Handmade Owl Costume

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

Fox and Hedgehog Pillows

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

Hand Embroidered Easter Gifts

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

Makings of a Snuggly

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

Cupcake Toppers

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

Free Pattern!

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

Chi Chi Love

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

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

Fawnly Finished

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

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!

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

Naptime Stitching

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