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

Let Go Of My Logo

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

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