Felt Christmas ornament

Kristin's blog and her book- Colorful Stitchery and Kid's Embroidery have been so inspiring to me. I made these at Christmas as little gifts for friends.
And some more hearts-

This wool heart was made from some wool from a wool suit, washed, then used...as an ornament for my son and daughter-in-law...

I hope to do lots more embroidery this year- I am inspired, and by the other posts I see on this Stitchalong blog!

Grace's Bear

I made this cute little bear today for little Grace, my friends one year old daughter. The idea came from Julia's Bears in Kristen's Colorful Stitchery book. The bear is super cute and an easy afternoon project.
Happy Stitching!

Little Monster

Another post for the "children's art" category. Sophie and I collaborated on this piece, a gift for our friend's baby girl. She drew the monster, cut out the pattern and then drew the features with a pen on the felt; I embroidered the face and then blanket stitched the doll together.

Apparently, the little girl already had an "Ugly Doll", so our toy was dubbed "Monster". Despite having a face you hate to love, little Anna adores her Monster.

25-Year Old Stitches

I had to chuckle when I suddenly remembered something I have in my 'saved treasures' closet to keep for grandchildren. This was a shirt I embroidered for my daughter (now 36) when she was about 7 years old. It was on chambray fabric and the enbroidery was done with DMC floss. I thought they were cute then, and I still think they are a really fun peek at childhood.

quirky cushion

Hello Stitchers! I've been meaning to share a couple of my projects for a while, and I'm finally making time to just do it :o) I am not super experianced at embroidery, but it sure is fun. I've done some cross stitch and a little ribbon embroidery and a little crewel. I recently completed one of Kristin's stitchery kits, and it was so fun to do! Here is my brilliant orange cushion on my purple-y blue couch. I love the way it came out, and it really wasn't as difficult as I was afraid it would be. I can definitely recommend her kits for all skill levels of stitchers. Next time I have a little project of my own design to share.

Keep on stitchin'!

Knitted foot warmer

Found this wool/nylon yarn on sale and thought it would make a great foot warmer for chilly nights and sitting quilting or sewing. It works up very randomly. The colors go well with the cushions in my wicker rocker in sewing room. I'll stop back with the finished product.

Crazy, Colorful Jean Jackets

My sister Lynn Nicholas has been embroidering only since last summer. I wrote about her on my blog here. She isn't too computer savvy so I am posting these photos for her. She draws a design freehand onto her jacket using either a pencil or a marker. The designs are little outlines of what she is planning. Then she takes her trusty box of floss, her thimble and needle and just goes wild with chain stitch building these colorful designs randomly as she goes. Here's a jacket in progress:


They remind me stitchery from Mexico although they are truly her own. Her simple line drawings become miniature works of art that she walks around in. She handsews colorful trims and ruffles to the cuffs and borders of the jackets too. You can read more about it here. I think they are a true inspiration and I'm so proud of what she's doing as I am of everyone who is participating in this fun Stitchalong. We've really got some good stuff happening, don't we. Thanks everyone!

Felted Sweater Potholders

These were actually a Christmas Gift for my sister, but I'm just now getting around to posting them! This was a fun project--I'm definitely going to have to make some for myself!

You can read more at my blog: Chef Messy

Heart Sachet

Here is my first stitch-a-long project. This heart sachet was inspired by the hearts embroidered on the Wedding Blanket on page 152 of Kristen's Colorful Stitchery. Really fun to make and very quick and easy. I added a bag of lavender tea to the stuffing to give this little pillow a wonderful scent. I am going to make a couple more of these in various colors to give to each of my daughters for Valentine's Day this year.
Happy Stitching everyone!

Felt Tree Ornaments

I finished a set of four tree ornaments this week. The inspiration for this project started with Sunshine's tutorial; I turned to Colorful Stitchery for specific stitch how-to.

Splitting the strands of embroidery floss hadn't occured to me until I read Kristin's text carefully; it made all the difference when I tried to execute small details like adding an '06 to the back of each ornament.

Special mention should be made regarding my capable daughter Sophie, age 6, who executed the angel ornament on her own, over the course of four hours. She was determined to complete the project without my help. I don't know where she gets her independent streak.

Butterfly Pillow

This isn't in Kristin's book, but her book was definately a tool of inspiration. I stopped at the store (JoAnn's) to look for fabric and found this linen/cotton remnant and the linen embroidery thread AND a cross stitch freebie pattern book. When I saw the butterfly I knew I could improvise the colors to go on my sofa, and so spent all the travel hours in the auto over Christmas composing and stitching. I did some edge stitching which isn't very visible but it really set it off to have that border.

When it came time to finish, I found some wine colored corduroy to cover the cording (remnant too) and as you can see - it works well on my sofa. Now, I'm already thinking about my next project (and quilting in between)!

Ready to begin

Well, it's a new year and I'm ready to begin. All the Christmas projects are completed, and there are no excuses ;-) I have decided on making my version of the overlapping circles cushion. It will be stitched with linen thread on a linen/cotton fabric, I think... I'm not quite sure about the thread - it might be too thin to give the kind of coverage I want, so I might replace it with wool, but at least this is what I'll start with.