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

Little Pocket

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?

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

Giveaway Winner!

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

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. 

1. 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.
2.  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.
3. 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.
4. 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!