August Stitch-Along | Week 2

I'm excited to see so many enthusiastic stitchers joining me for the August stitch-along. For week 1 I asked you to simply find a piece of inspirational fabric that's just screaming to be embellished with stitches, and there were some GREAT photos added to our Flickr pool. Here are a few from some fellow stitchers:

Some fun chunky birds with black and white flowers, submitted by daisyeyes.

sewjenaissance also chose a print featuring a bird with some fun scroll-like detail to embellish.

knitsaholic posted this amazing shot of a work-in-progress that achieves exactly what we're shooting for this month! The design, the colors, the stitching ... perfect!

I think it's becoming abundantly clear that people love to stitch both flora & fauna -- and especially birds! -- as evidenced by the 2 fabric selections being considered by Savage Pink (above), and the hummingbird print seen below (by BohoIslandBaby).

Some folks haven't decided yet on their fabric.~PixieFey~ is still choosing between the Kate Spain print on the left and the fun & funky coral number on the right.

And Fiber Fairy has narrowed it down to the three prints below:

What do you think? Click on over and let them know which one you think they should choose!

The bold, rich colors of the floral pattern above (selected by amyhood21) are just perfect for this project. In contrast, milly and tilly is starting with a black and white print and adding soft colors with her floss selection.

Here's a beautiful color selection (and another bird!) from dixieniche:

I can't wait to see what Thread Wizard does with this amazing fabric selection!

And there are more! Unfortunately, due to permission restrictions, I wasn't able to post some of the photos here, but I've compiled them all in a Flickr gallery created especially for the stitch-along and that I invite you to check out.

It's certainly not too late to join in. (Shoot, I haven't even had a minute to make my first stitch!) Simply take a picture of your fabric and floss selection or your work-in-progress and add it to our Flickr pool. Be sure to tag your photos with "AugustStitchalong" to make it easy to find them all.

Next week: let's focus on starting our embellishment with some simple stitches. Think backstitching for outlines, seed stitching for fills, and maybe some French knots for flourish. I can't wait to see what you do with your fabric!

Where's Summer?

I know so many people across the US and abroad are experiencing heatwaves. In my neck of the woods, we are cold! We haven't even had a summer yet. Instead of getting depressed over my lack of heat, I found this beautiful embroidery by Gracie's Garden and instantly felt the summer breeze sweeping across my face, I could smell the fresh grass and hear the birds singing. Thank you so much Gracie for bringing summer to me.

Another first

Premier essai de broderie, originally uploaded by chabronico.

Gosh, I do love discovering first attempts at embroidery.

Like this one from chabronico.

Isn't it beautiful? Read more about it here (in French).


If you too have recently taken your first stitchy steps, do share them in the Feeling Stitchy Flickr group! Tag your images with ' first stitches ' - so I can find 'em. :-)

Patterns: Needle Power

 

 Needle Power stitched by xperimentl - pattern by Urban Threads

At the risk of repeating myself, as I blogged about another Urban Threads pattern last week, I just had to blog about this one, as xperimentl as produced such a unique twist to this, with the great choice of colours and oooh, that lovely appliqué! You can find the pattern, called Craft Revolution, here. How many different ways could you imagine doing this pattern?

A boy's best friend...

Stitched by poppet with a camera

So many of you liked this on our FB page, I had to share it here, too. :) Awesome, huh?

This got me thinking about how you guys read Feeling Stitchy, so I added another little poll in the sidebar (thanks for answering our poll about Stitchalongs!) If you don't mind, please click through and answer: What's the main way you read Feeling Stitchy?

If you answer "other", please leave a comment on this post as to what "other" way you read us. :)

Beautiful Birds

Stitched by Geninne

Wow. Isn't this incredible? And, perfect inspiration for John's printed fabric stitchalong this month...

We don't expect you to painstakingly print your own fabric like Geninne did. She's an amazing artist we've featured before on Feeling Stitchy. But hey, we'd love to see it if you try it! :)

Can't wait to see what everyone stitches! :)

July Stitchalong - Week 4

FS July 2011 Stitchalong, gallery of most of the stitched gnomes...

From daisyeyes

Howdy everyone, this is the 'official' end of the July Stitchalong here on Feeling Stitchy - but feel free to carry on stitchin' your gnome army!

Unfortunately, I haven't got any updates on my own gnome - must do better!

Thank you all for playing this month and thank you to MimiLove for supplying the pattern! :-)

August Stitch-Along | Week 1

Welcome to the August stitch-along here on the Feeling Stitchy blog. Due in large part to my undying love of fabric, I've decided to take the stitch-along in a slightly different direction this month. Rather than selecting an embroidery pattern for us all to stitch together, I'd like to lead us in a month of embellishing patterned fabric with floss and stitches. It's a technique I first mentioned in this post from a few weeks back.

I've already selected my fabric -- a gorgeous print from Valori Wells' recent fabric line, Nest -- and rounded up some coordinating DMC floss colors. Well, I haven't exactly decided yet -- I'm still waffling between these two different color variants of the same print.

And when we're done, there are several fun things we can do with the finished project. Besides simply hanging it in a hoop (of course), we can turn our embellished fabric into pillows, mini quilts, quilt blocks ... really, whatever you can imagine!

So, are you in? For this first week, let's just focus on selecting a fabric and floss palette. Simply find a fabric that you love -- large scale prints are best, and a fat quarter should be plenty. I scanned some of my favorite shops and found a few other prints that I thought would be fun for stitching:

Prince Charming Honey Frog Prince, found at the Fat Quarter Shop

(I almost went with this one myself!)

Just Wing It Water Flower Garden, found at the Fat Quarter Shop

Melissa Averinos Dazzle, Jewell Teal, found at Fabricworm

Helen Dardik Too Muchery in Steel, found at Fabricworm

Valori Wells Wrenly Wren Gypsy, found at Pink Chalk Fabrics

Erin McMorris Summersault Hide and Seek Turquoise, found at Pink Chalk Fabrics

Anna Maria Horner Loulouthi Summer Totem Struedel, found at Pink Chalk Fabrics

Amy Butler Soul Blossoms Moss Sari Blooms, found at the Fat Quarter Shop

Summer House Bright Blue Audrey, found at the Fat Quarter Shop

I sure hope you'll stitch along with me, and I can't wait to see what you pick. To share your photos, just tag your stitching "AugustStitchalong" and add it to our pool. Happy stitching!

Patterns: Steampunk Santa

Steampunk Santa WIP - stitched by sereniticat

It's never too early to get ready for Christmas it seems (I have to admit my to stitch list for Christmas is beginning to nag at me). Sereniticat has made an amazingly admirable start with the Steampunk Santa pattern from Urban Threads. I just adore the detailing on this, the little gold beads for buttons, the different textural stitches and of course the fluffy beard! I can't wait to see the finished piece!

Dala Horse crafty fun!

Do you love that Swedish icon the wooden Dala horse? If you do - or know someone who does - you should join this craftalong which I'm co-hosting! You know, if you're not too busy with the stitchalong here on Flickr! Although, the Dala Horse Craftalong isn't just for stitching - make anything you fancy!

We started the Dala Horse Craftalong on Monday and it continues for a month! So you've got time to join in! You can make pretty much anything as long as it features a Dala horse or is inspired by it.

Some of us have already started projects and have listed suggestions for things to make, like a softie, an embroidery pattern etc. We're also lucky that one of the co-hosts is from Sweden and she recently visited the place where they make the actual wooden Dala horses!

Here are links to the first post about the craftalong by myself and each of my co-hosts:
iHanna, Carina's Craftblog (hey, that's meee!), Gingerbread Snowflakes and The Pickled Herring.

Do check it out and join in on the fun - there's a Flickr group you can join and share what you make!

Oh and if you do join along, do check out my blog post up there, it's got buttons in different sizes which you can put on your blogs etc. :-)

Air balloon...

Hot air balloon embroidered, originally uploaded by Memi The Rainbow.

Isn't this a delightful little stitchery?

And such a cute combination with the background.

Memi, who stitched this, is completely new to embroidery - not bad, right? :-)

July Stitchalong - Week 3

Hey guys, here's the week 3 update of the July Stitchalong. This is my progress. A bit of satin stitching going on there on his booties. Fancy! :-)

How about you? Are you doing any stitching along this month? Don't forget to use the tag JulyStitchalong when adding your photos to the Feeling Stitchy group.

Miss Pixie Crafts

Speaking of satin stitch! Take a look at this beauty (can gnomes be beauties?!) - nice satin trousers. And the flowers too! I love how this gnome had been completely filled in - that's such a great texture.

snifferooski

Talk about texture! The hat on this gnome is absolutely awesome! That swirly-ness is really great. Looks like coils of chain stitch...

jamiebarks

How cute is this guy?! I'm happy to see that I'm not the only one who can't commit to filling the gnome - that's a lot of work! Look closer at this gnome, notice that tassle on his hat? That's inspired! Absolutely love it. :-)

Right, that's it for this week - I reckon you could finish a gnome for next week.. Why not give it a go? :-)

Tell us what you think about stitchalongs on Feeling Stitchy

Week 3 of the July Stitchalong is a bit delayed (will post it tomorrow).

In the meantime, maybe you would let us know what you think of the stitchalongs we've been doing the past few months..?

You can do so in two ways:

1: Take the poll over in the sidebar (it's only about the frequency of the stitchalongs)
2: Leave a comment with your thoughts (let us know anything that comes to mind regarding the stitchalongs.)

You're absolutely welcome to do both. Thanks! :-)

Patterns: Closet Monsters

Here at Feeling Stitchy, we were very kindly given a copy of Closet Monsters: Stitch Creatures You'll Love from Clothing You Don't by John Murphy to review. Closet Monsters takes clothes destined for the bin and turns them into softies. There is some opportunity for embroidery, particularly freehand machine embroidery, as you personalise your monster.

There are thirteen different monsters made with shirts, jackets, trousers, jumpers, pyjamas, suits and dresses. Each monster in the book, to some degree, takes advantage of the particular design of, say the pyjamas or the dress, so unless you have that exact same pyjamas or dress, it would be difficult to exactly replicate the same monster, specially as there are no patterns in the book, however there are quite detailed instructions on how to cut out your softy pieces. There are also detailed general instructions at the beginning of the book, as well as good construction instructions for each monster. I would say, however, that this is not a book for a beginner softy maker, you'd need a bit of experience before tackling the designs in this book. I'd also recommend reading through the instructions several times before starting.

For me personally, I've made softies in the past, although I've only recently started making them without a pattern. I decided to tackle Maureen McDoover, which in the book is made out of a pair of cord trousers, but on raiding my wardrobe, all I could find was a pair of too small jeans.

However they were similar to cords in that the fabric is different colour on each side. However they looked more tailored than the cords in the book and I think this is possibly why my Maureen McDoover's nose ended pointing up, instead of down.

I did like the opportunity to add machine embroidery along the nose and on the chest though. I also personalised mine more by adding some of the labels I had cut out of my jeans.

However, I found the denim a little tricky to work with compared to the normal felt or cotton I make softies with, so I decided to make my monster footless. I also didn't add teeth because I did not have much of the white pocket lining of the jeans left and didn't want to 'cheat' by finding fabric elsewhere.

Overall, this is an interesting book for hardcore softy makers or those looking to make softies cheaply.

I tried to think of the most harmless thing

I tried to think of the most harmless thing, originally uploaded by poppet with a camera.

Geez, how awesome is this?

Really awesome! :-)