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

Needle & Thor

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

Unicorn Girl & The Floss Box

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

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

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

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

Hand Embroidered Pillows

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

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

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

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

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

Lesson 5: French Knot

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

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

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

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

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