embroidered gifts

I'm back from my trip to Houston! My sister's wedding was really beautiful and since I was named the "official" photographer, I have plenty of pretty pictures to share. I haven't gone through and edited them all yet, so you'll just have to wait a few days. Instead, here are a couple of pictures of recent embroidery projects! These are both things I gave as gifts: now that all holidays and special events are over, I can freely post them here.


Above: I added some hedgehog excitement to a pair of place mats. That was my wedding present to Sarah and Tim. (You two better looove them!) And below is the Christmas present I made for Tim, my new brother-in-law. It's a combination stuffed animal / ornament thing. This was the gift I mailed off before photographing; I finally got my chance this past weekend. I had so much fun making the owl -- embroidering on felt is kind of neat! All patterns are from Sublime Stitching.


These last couple of months have been very busy with holidays and traveling, and I feel like my new year is just now getting started (even though January is almost halfway over)! I know I didn't make any resolutions, but I would like to start trying some new things with my blog. Specifically: widening it, using larger pictures, and also I'd like to make a watermark for my photos and start using it all the time. Anyone have any tips on how to go about doing those things?

Hope you're all having a wonderful week so far!

recent projects

Happy Friday, everyone! Do you realize that Christmas is exactly 2 weeks from today? I just noticed. There are so many things I need to do: self-imposed assignments like finishing up little creative projects and sending out cards! I still haven't finished those stockings that I mentioned making... but here's a peek:


Yeah, those are green strawberries. I like doing crafts with whatever I have on hand, and this seemed to be the only white-ish material that looked festive enough for the top of the stockings! It's an old feedsack print, so it gets historical points as well. Boy, I guess it's lucky that I also happened to have normal fabric for the rest of the project, or these might look particularly silly.

Hello, real camera.

In the sad news department, I sent my digital camera off to be repaired this week. I had a hard time boxing it up- I had to stop and take a few last pictures with it and then take pictures of it with my other camera... all sorts of parental things like that! Hopefully it will come back soon working better than ever.

The upside to all this is that I finally pulled out my regular old 35mm camera! I was slow to start taking pictures with it; all of the manual settings made me quite nervous. A few years ago I had the f/stops memorized and knew exactly what settings to use for certain lighting conditions, but I've had to relearn a lot of that this week. I've also had to relearn how to use the giant, external flash. It's so much fun to play with! I think with digital photography the main satisfaction is being able to automatically see your pictures and retake them if you're not happy. You can't do that with film, but you get the satisfaction of learning and understanding exactly what each component of the camera does*. It's a neat feeling!

*Not that you can't do that with a digital camera.. but digital makes it easier to go all-automatic and not worry about apertures and shutter speeds!

happy halloween!

Here's the project I was working on yesterday! I finished it and was able to hang it up just in time. Robert didn't even notice it when he came home, but when he did he thought it was something I bought! I'm going to choose to take that as a compliment.


This was an easy project that took probably 2 hours total. I wasn't planning to do anything like this yesterday, but when the creative mood strikes I like to go along with it! I won't go into too much detail, but to make this sort of thing you just need:

• bias tape (or any long strip of fabric)
• felt (any color you like)
• needle & thread

I finally got out my sewing machine-- I realized it hasn't been used since June! I also realized I'm not entirely sure what all the knobs do, and the settings definitely weren't right. However, I'd already started sewing and I figured it didn't really matter much, as long as the thing got sewn together! (I am definitely not a perfectionist.)


First, I cut out a bunch of black triangles from felt. I didn't use a template - to be honest, I just kept thinking they needed to be about the size of a small tortilla chip. Next thing I did was pin them all in a row in between the folds of the bias tape. Then came the part with the sewing machine! I suppose you could do that by hand as well, but for a long, straight line sewing machines are a time saver.

I cut out the letters and ghosts from felt, and sewed those on by hand. I was running low on time by then, so the ghosts are held on by their faces (used french knots for eyes and mouths), and I attached the letters with some big, loose stitches. I figured any messiness would only lend to its vague spookiness! It's fairly cute and it should last a long time! You could do the same sort of project with paper, but I like how cloth looks. I want to make a birthday banner as well, something that can be used over and over for anyone.


One other thing that must be mentioned: pumpkin cookies!! Robert introduced me to these last year, and they're soooo good! Somehow a combination of pumpkin, oats, and chocolate chips just works really well together. Add some simple vanilla icing... so perfect. And we like to decorate them with candy corn! But this is definitely the kind of thing that can only be eaten once a year.

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend! We've already started our scary movie marathon... just taking a break now. :)

five senses friday: pajama edition

I'm taking a pajama day - I'm going to relax and not feel guilty about it! I know that may sound ridiculous coming from someone who stays home all the time, but I do try to be very productive-- otherwise I feel like I'm wasting away. But... I just realized it's almost lunch time and I'm still in my pajamas, and I feel fine about that! I've had a really good week and completed a lot of things.

hot cocoa and story time, last night

Here are some sensations from this week!

See - falling leaves, Halloween decorations popping up everywhere

Hear - Robert and I have been taking turns reading The Neverending Story aloud to each other. It's very exciting, though sometimes Robert changes things to make me laugh and I have to take the book away from him to see if that's how it really reads.

Smell - I'm bad at remembering smells - the only thing I can think of is that when we went to the grocery store it smelled way too strongly of artificial cinnamon because of some holiday decorations they put out!

Touch - it's getting COLD; this morning I wanted to stay in bed forever (ah, the snuggly feeling)

Taste - homemade hot cocoa, butternut squash (love it but almost getting tired of it), candy corn (the only candy I am addicted to), yummy eggplant parmesan

work-in-progress embroidery project... wedding gift! more on that later.

Yesterday evening I remembered that it snows here [for anyone who doesn't know, I'm a Texas native] and I got really excited about the upcoming seasons!! Living somewhere that has 4 seasons is quite thrilling. In Texas there is basically only summer and winter, with a few transitional days between - I'm thoroughly enjoying all of the seasons in Tennessee!!

tips from a little blue bird

Hey everybody! I'm back with that tutorial post I promised yesterday. This is going to be somewhat picture-heavy, and I hope no one minds. I also apologize to anyone who's not interested in embroidery, but that's the topic for today!

I've been noticing embroidery everywhere lately, and thought it would be nice to share some tips and show a couple of basic stitches (in fact, the only 2 I know) for anyone who would like to try it. So this is just a very basic "how to start & finish an embroidery project" tutorial!

I mentioned before that I'm using the Stitch-It Kit, but as lovely and helpful as it is, there's no reason to buy a whole embroidery kit if you'd like to learn. You only need these materials:

• 1 Embroidery Needle (it's just a big sewing needle)
• some Embroidery Floss/Thread
  
• 1 Embroidery hoop (to keep your fabric in place while you work)
• Iron-On Embroidery Pattern (OPTIONAL - you can either freehand a design or draw something with pencil on the fabric)
• A hot iron (if you're going to use an iron-on pattern)
  
• Fabric to stitch on (your choice! Cotton is probably best - just make sure it's not something really stretchy where your stitches could become distorted)

You can see the iron-on pattern I was working with above. The bird was originally holding a banner, but I didn't like that so I cut it out!

The first step is to figure out what you're going to sew and where. I'd already chosen the bird, and I wanted it in a certain place on a dress. If you're using an iron-on, heat up your iron to the wool/cotton setting. Don't be scared - you're just transferring the picture; this is easy. Supposedly the ink transfers better if the fabric is hot, so warm up the fabric with the iron and then place the pattern face down where you want it. Now carefully press the iron over the pattern. Make sure you get each bit of the picture, or else you might have some missing pieces (though you can always improvise if that happens). Go over it a few times - the pattern might be too light otherwise. You can lift up an edge and peek, but be careful not to shift the pattern.

All done! Mine was a bit light, but I could see it so I was happy. The next thing you'll need to do is to get your fabric in the hoop. An embroidery hoop is a 2-piece creature which is pretty simple to use. You put the smaller hoop under your fabric, then lay the slightly larger one on top. After you've smoothed out the fabric, press down the top hoop and tighten it up. You don't want to stretch your fabric too tight, but that shouldn't really be a problem unless you have ridiculously strong hands. Not too tight, not too loose, but TAUT! I hate that word, but that's what you're going for.

See? Like that. You just need a nice little work space so your stitches can be consistent and even.

Time to work with the embroidery floss. Can I call it thread? I'll call it thread. You need to cut a length of thread to work with. The book that came with my kit had a very good suggestion: cut a strand about as long as the distance from your fingertips to your elbow. It'll go a long way! You need to put the needle on the thread - that's easy enough! I hope I'm not breaking any rules, but I just left the thread like that in the above picture... You'll tie a knot at the other end (below), but I was confused about what to do with this end of the thread. I left it open like this... Is that proper? I don't know, but it worked for me! When I'm using regular thread to sew, I knot both ends together, but I wasn't sure what was protocol with embroidery.

Tie a knot in the other end of the thread. If anybody needs help tying a knot, here's how I do it! Wrap the end around your forefinger (pointer finger?) and then roll it with your thumb. You should have the beginnings of a little knot that you can tighten up! I hope this isn't too obvious -- all I know is that when I'm learning something I like to see lots of pictures and have things thoroughly explained: if you're not familiar with something, it's very easy to get confused and lost in instructions!

Once you've got your thread all ready to go, make your first stitch! You can start anywhere, but you may want to think about your strategy (especially if you plan to use multiple colors). Just bring your needle up through the back of the fabric and then bring it back through again, staying on the line of your pattern. Easy!

But what next? There are a number of ways to make stitches, but here's my favorite: the Split Stitch. See the above picture. When you start your next stitch, bring the needle up through the middle of your previous stitch.

Then put the needle back through the fabric, making another stitch. Just like that!

Annnnnd.... bring it back up through your second stitch! It might look funny at first, but keep going. I like this stitch because it sort of makes the thread look like a little rope or a braid! Continue stitching like this.

Next thing you know, you've got something really cool looking! Just continue doing stitches like that, following the pattern you've made. Sometimes you'll need to start on a new line -- if it's not too far from your last stitch, just go ahead and pull the needle through the fabric wherever you want to start that line. See the above picture for an example. But if it's a completely different section, you may need to stop, tie off the thread in the back, and begin in a new place. We'll talk about that in a minute.

Once you get going, this is really addicting. Just make sure you've got good lighting and some nice music to listen to.

Here's what the back should sort of look like. When you start running out of thread or you want to change colors or start in a new place, it's time to tie off the thread and snip it! Give yourself at least a couple of inches, maybe more to work with.

There are a few ways to do this, but you basically just need to tie a knot in the thread. I like to put the needle in the open knot, and then as you tighten it, press down so that the knot will be as close to the fabric as possible. Whatever you're comfortable with! You can also separate the strands of thread and tie a knot like that.

Keep going and going, until you're nearly done! Or until you're completely done.

I wanted to use yellow for this guy's beak, and I wanted to use a different type of stitch! The best way to fill a solid area, in my amateur opinion, is the Satin Stitch.

You just go back and forth with your stitches, making them as big or small as you need to fill the area. I think it's supposed to look a lot nicer than this, but that's okay! I need to practice.

I used that same technique to fill in his eye, and then I was done! I think the finished result is really cute, and I can't wait to do even more embroidery!

I hope that was helpful to anyone who's interested in trying embroidery. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll see if I can answer them! I'm definitely no expert, but sometimes experts know too much and can't explain the simple stuff so well.

today is a good day

I've been ridiculously productive today, and I'm proud of myself! You might not believe it, but being home alone all day generally doesn't provide much motivation to get things done. Sometimes a lack of posts and pictures here means nothing inspiring is going on, but in the last couple of days, it's meant I'm keeping busy. And that's a good thing! But here are some pictures of things that have been going on lately, to try and win your favor back.

Pretty heirloom tomatoes!

After the last couple of weeks of birthday celebrations and good times in general, Robert and I are sort of dieting this week. When I say "sort of" I mean he's actually seriously dieting, and I usually end up going along with whatever he does because I'm like a child and can't make food.. haha. Anyhow, I took pictures of the dinner process last night, and whenever Robert writes the text to go along with them, there will be a new recipe on our food blog! I'll let you know when that happens.

I have a secret love for low-light photos.

Yesterday evening I started decorating with a few of my birthday presents. This is a little cabinet in our dining room where we store miscellaneous kitchen items which don't live in the kitchen. And you probably can't see the framed photo from this view, but remember this print I won? It's finally found its new home!

Ignore the wrinkles!

And finally, here's my first finished embroidery project!! I know steam isn't brown, but it made sense at the time! What do you think? I think I'm going to iron this and mail it to my mom. She'll appreciate it; moms love that sort of thing, right?

I especially enjoyed these little loopy sections!

So, that's what I've been up to. I was actually excited about doing laundry this morning so I would have some things to iron... specifically because I wanted to do an iron-on pattern and begin a new embroidery project! And that's exactly what I've been doing all afternoon. I think I may have reached a new level of housewivery. Do I get a reward?

With the new project, I've been taking pictures of each step. I was planning to do a tutorial post today, just a simple how-to about beginning a project and the easiest stitches... but I don't think I'll have enough time before Robert gets home. Do you know what's going to happen as soon as he gets home? The Beatles: Rock Band. YES! (Of course - he pre-ordered it and it was delivered today- If this game had come out when I was about 10 years old, I would have died from happiness. My sister and I had a major case of Beatlemania in the mid-90s.)

But expect a tutorial tomorrow! I promise I'll do it!

stitching into the future

I'm happy to announce that I'm completely addicted to embroidery! I finally got started with my Stitch-It Kit a couple of days ago, and I haven't looked back. I'm still working on my first project, a tea towel, but I'm already way past the point in the picture (which I took last night). It's an easy and relaxing activity that allows me to feel like I'm doing something creative and productive all at once -- those sorts of things are hard to come by for me, because I'm easily distracted and I don't like big projects.

I've also been thinking up more things I could do with my newfound-skill! It's sort of exciting. I'm considering expanding my shop beyond vintage, to include handmade items (or reworked/embellished vintage). To tell the truth, my shop was originally all handmade items, but I only ever sold 1 thing [to someone I knew, so I felt like it didn't count] before I realized that vintage was a much bigger seller. However, as you may have noticed, I'm sort of getting bored with my Etsy shop. I feel awful saying that, but I just haven't been enjoying the process as much lately! I think I'll keep it up, but the items going into my shop have definitely slowed down. I think I may be taking it in a new direction soon! Let me know if you have any thoughts on the subject; some of you readers have been customers and you're all lovely people so I totally value your feedback.

I hope everyone has an exciting weekend - we've got a long one coming up, and I'll be out of town for most of it so I may not post here for a few days!

the end of august

I went missing again! Don't worry, nothing exciting happened... which is exactly why I haven't updated here in a while. Here are some things I've been doing lately!

• Reading Harry Potter books. All of them for the first time. I'm almost done with the last one! [I just started the whole series a few months back. I wasn't going very quickly until they got exciting - now I've been speeding through them like a 12 year old.]
• Watching Harry Potter movies. I only ever saw 3 of them, so Robert has insisted we watch them all in a row. We watched 1-3 this weekend - we're really dorking out over here.
• Watching Coraline in 3D. Most of it just made my eyes feel blurry, but there were some really amazing parts with neat depth of field!
  
• Getting excited about embroidery. I found the Stitch-It Kit at Goodwill for $1 last week, and I've been thinking of projects that I can do. I don't think I've embroidered anything since I was about 7 years old - let's hope I'm somehow a master!
  

I also got a haircut! And ice cream!! Yum.

Also, Anna of much love gave me a little award that comes with an assignment! This should be interesting.

The Premium Meme Award

For this, I have to list seven traits about myself and then pass the award onto seven other bloggers who deserve recognition for the personality they share through their blog.

So, here are my 7 traits! I am... playful, easily distracted, slow moving, very particular, sometimes hysterical, skittish, and fairly optimistic! In other words, I am CRAZY LIKE A CAT. [Haha, sorry I'm bad at these kinds of things - at least I amused myself pretty well!]

I will pass this on to Ambika, Diane, Olivia, Andrea, Sam, Ana, and Amy. All such lovely bloggers with radiant personalities!

flora and fauna

Orange Zinnia!

Although this past week has been fairly rainy, the weather today is absolutely beautiful! It's cool and breezy, which made our weekly visit to the farmers market very pleasant. I already mentioned how much I like the Franklin Farmers Market, but I think I'm in love now. It's so nice to walk around and have a treat; this morning we snacked on an amazing lemon bar. Sometimes we get fresh chocolate milk or this amazing kettle corn... mmm! It's such a tasty place, and so many of the vendors there are fun to talk to - we're already making some new farmer friends, which is a nice: we miss a few people from the farmer's market in Houston.

I'm having a great weekend so far, and I hope everyone else is as well! My birthday is Monday, so I'm getting very special treatment around here. :) Robert just ordered a new computer monitor for me, which is GOOD NEWS because I've been using a big clunker from a thrift shop ever since my regular monitor went out a few months ago. That'll be a welcome change!

Oh, and let's not forget this little guy. I felt like making something yesterday afternoon, and this is what happened! I think he's a cross between a panda, a rabbit, a t-rex and a turtle. He was a welcome-home-from-work-HEY-it's-Friday!! surprise for Robert.

pop up shop

Ever wonder what I do with items that expire from my Etsy shop? Well, you probably don't, but I will tell you anyway! Sometimes I keep them. Sometimes I donate them to Goodwill. Recently, I boxed a bunch of things up and mailed them to my sister! Want to know why?

Because she's having a little vintage pop up shop this upcoming Sunday (and I wanted to contribute some things)! From 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, some nifty things will be for sale at Sew Crafty in Houston, Texas. I wish I could go! If you're in the area, maybe you can drop in and say hello. Sew Crafty is a sewing lounge - can you imagine? I wish I could hang out there and take classes. Too bad I'm so far away!

hand sewn cards

I know the date varies in some countries, but Mother's Day is coming up here in America: May 10th, don't forget! In the past, my family would just go out to lunch and my sister and I would pay for our mom's meal and give her a card or something. It's never really been a big deal, but this is my first time to live very far from my mom, so I figured I would send her something special! Robert and I decided to take care of our presents and mail them out yesterday, just so they're not late.


I made a card out of felt. You may notice that it's incredibly similar to this card I made for my grandma back in February. I'm lazy like that! But I knew my mom would really love it, and I was going for simplicity anyway.


It's an incredibly easy thing to do. I just took a square of felt, folded it in half and did a simple stitch along the edge to make it like a card. Cut out some circles, some leaf shapes... I think I was going for a pansy-ish flower.


The inside! In the past I've tried sewing [thick] paper into the card so I could write on it, but this time I thought a big heart would be enough. I wrote a little note separately. A hand-sewn message would have been cute, but I don't have the patience for things like that. I haven't been doing much sewing lately, and I guess it's because I get so distracted from projects! I like things that take 30 minutes at most. Any longer than that and I'm likely to give up.

I also included a soap dish that I hand painted at the pottery studio... It wasn't pretty enough to show around here, but I bet my mom will like it! And hopefully I'll get better at painting so I can show off my skills!

Of course, this morning I saw some really beautiful cards made of felt on Paper*Cakes Finds... Perhaps one day my patience will expand and I can think about doing things like that! Ha!

buttons and projects

Yesterday turned out to be pretty productive: I have a new license plate on my car and a different haircut! Today's goal is to buy some shelves to put in the kitchen because we don't have a pantry or much cabinet space. We're having company in a couple of days, and I need to make everything look a little less crazy. I'm very slow about projects, and very easily distracted... so you can imagine what it looks like around here. Half-unpacked boxes, too many shoes, little stacks of "I want to do something with these" things.

Anyway, I wanted to share a couple of pictures. I have a lot to blog about, but I'm going to save some things for future posts throughout the week!

Some new favorite buttons.

I received the cutest package from someone on swap-bot yesterday. Two aprons, two cookbooks, a neat necklace, and a bag of vintage buttons! It was exciting. While I was finishing dinner last night [I'm a slow eater and must give my husband activities to keep him at the table], Robert sorted through them and rated each button on a scale from 1 to 10. The fish was his definite favorite. That red round one above? It was very poorly rated. "This is a clown nose," he told me. I later agreed and removed it from my favorites pile. But I also added another button (unpictured) because I realized it had a unicorn on it.

Yes, this again.

Last night I also finished a sewing project. I wasn't sure what it was going to be, and then I realized it needed to be a purse. Too lazy to actually make a purse, I sewed it onto one that I've had for a while. I am somewhat pleased with the results and I'm going to send it to a friend. Happy Tuesday!

box of goodies

Fridays are officially Estate Sale days for me. We had a late start this morning, but did make it over to one sale. I only bought one thing! And it's all mine.

A big tin full of sewing supplies!

I seriously can't resist vintage buttons and sewing things. There were other sewing bits for sale (including a plastic orange thread kit EXACTLY like the one I have), but I thought this would be a good catch-all. I love looking through other people's sewing boxes.

Here are some of my favorite buttons.

Cute old seam rippers.

Lots of ways to measure things (check out that super old tape!)

I'm especially excited because last night (while not sleeping, again) I thought of some neat ways to make jewelry out of old fabric and buttons. I may give that a try this weekend.

spools of thread

Until I was packing up my craft stuff before the move, I didn't realize how many different sewing boxes and organizers I have. This one is specifically for thread. Let's get tiny and go inside it.





Here's a bird I made this morning. I think I got this awesome fabric from my grandma's ex-quilting-scrap-supply. I only have a little of it. I backed him with red felt so he has a tummy to show off. I'm considering sewing a little bit every day and putting together a little forest of sorts. We'll see!