Books: Heart-Felt Holidays

I have had Kathy Sheldon & Amanda Carestio's book, Heart-Felt Holidays: 40 Festive Felt Projects to Celebrate the Seasons on my wish list for quite some time. When I finally had the opportunity to check it out and try out some of the patterns, I found that it was well worth the wait.

Our friends at Lark Books were generous enough to share a copy with Feeling Stitchy for review. Instead of Tuesday's Tutorial, I am excited to share my new favorite book with you.

The book has 40 adorable projects and patterns, organized in a chronological format, with designs to celebrate the holidays and special occasions of each month. Beginning with New Year's Day and ending with Hanukkah and Christmas, the projects in between range from Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Groundhog Day to Earth Day and Teacher Appreciation Day. There are also birthday and baby shower gift and decoration ideas that are darling, and can be used throughout the year. Some projects require the use of a sewing machine, while some are completely hand-stitched.

One of my favorite elements about Heart-Felt Holidays is that the entire book is based on using felt, which is one of my preferred fabrics to work with. Felt doesn't fray and can be cut very easily, it's also inexpensive, which is always a major plus. I tend to keep felt in my fabric stash at all times, and while I didn't have the same colors that are listed for the projects in the book, the patterns looked just as great and had more of a personal touch when I used what I had available.

The patterns for each project are on the last pages of the book. I had to go to a print shop to enlarge some of the patterns, and I have to admit that I might have enlarged them more than the directions called for, but the projects still came out great. Very quickly, Heart-Felt Holidays has become a solid favorite. I can't wait to try out their projects for this Spring!

Sweating the Small Stuff.......

Will Mom Notice The Holes In My Sweaters

Actually Karna 1268 caught my eye on Etsy with her unusual doll sculptures she makes from sweater pieces. As usual, I am attracted by all the different techniques, colors and mediums used in one piece----sort of a three dimensional collage, if you will.

Desktop Forest Retreat

Dreamtree

Fungi Study 1

Lil Cardigan Two

I don't know about you, but this surely gives new inspiration to those old sweaters you couldn't quite throw away! I do agree that Karna is extremely talented and original, so perhaps she makes it easier than it truly is. I hope you enjoyed walking through the forest of her talent as I did. Check out all her wonderful creations in the links for her Etsy and Flickr photos.

It almost looks edible!

These are lovely coasters I found in Debra Gangelhoff's etsy store
and so I checked out her Flickr photos and found more delicious embroidery.


I love the combination of crochet and embroidery, wool and color choice. I want to get out my thread everytime I look at such beautiful pieces! Debra has many other pictures in the Feeling Stitchy Flickr pool.


Debra says she has been inspired since she was a child by the sight of a woman with needle and thread creating something beautiful. It really shows, Debra! Thanks for sharing your work with us!

There was love in the pool

Valentine's Day was not overlooked in the Embroidery Pool. Here's some of the love that people shared.


Felt hearts by ChicaCraft


'Perfect pairs' cushion by myweddedbliss



Sweet Valentine tea towel by Sweet Jessie

Love to everyone in blogland - especially our embroidery friends!

so this is Christmas

It's getting quite Christmassy in the Flickr Embroidery Pool.


Detail from a Christmas themed doiley stitched by Drewzel. The pattern was sourced from Floresita's embroidery transfers blog.


This gorgeous apron technically isn't a christmas apron, but coincidently the colours are just right! Krakencraft stitched this.


Christmas is so cold in some parts it's blue! This little felt tree has been embroidered by Sunny days here


Crafty Bean has been busy making these ornaments for a swap. Aren't they gorgeous!

Great inspiration - and there's still plenty of time to make things for Christmas!

Boo! ha ha ha

It's moments away from halloween here in Australia. There's some more scary halloween stitching being posted in the Flickr pool, so if you're too scared to go and have a look, just take a peak here.

This very scary black cat and white ghost have been posted by I am Susie. The black cat looks like a zombie with red eyes!


Pipstitch has been busy this halloween, with some really cute - I mean spooky - stitching. This cute little hanging ornament is just one thing she has posted.


How frightful is this 'drunk on ze blooood' bat stiched by Mooshee (drawn by her hubby)? I lerv it.


Binah06 is busy as well. Not only is she working on this cottage, she has a very cool halloween picture with crewel embroidery in her flickr photostream too. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished projects!


There's still time to post to the pool with your halloween embroidery projects, so please share your work!

Happy Halloween everyone! Anyone with left over chocolate can post it to me. We don't do the trick or treating thing much here in Australia, so there's no extra chocolate in my house. ;-(

showing off in the pool

There's a lot happening in the Flickr Embroidery Pool this week!

Buttons are popular at the moment - this little pumpkin button made by Cynrtst has got glow in the dark thread on the eyes and mouth.


Anuskaa is working on this project at the moment - if you follow her profile you can read about it on her blog. I just really liked this spiral. I hope you do too.

What's happening in the pool?

There are so many cute things, I don't know where to begin!

This lovely cherry blossom has been stiched by Melissa from binah06. She has heaps more cute embroidery on her profile, so go and take a look.


Rachel (also known as burb_mama) recently finished this cute little girl picture with a really sweet border.


Melissa (yes! another one!) from sunnydayshere is stitching this gorgeous little car on a tote for her nephew.