August Stitch-Along | Week 3

I am SO glad to see so many wonderful (and diverse) contributions showing up in the Embroidery Flickr pool as part of our August stitch-along. I'm a bit relieved, too -- I wasn't sure if anyone would be as excited about this idea as I was. But it looks like you guys were excited, judging from both the number and quality of the embellished fabric projects that y'all are sharing.

Want to see some of the contributions? I thought so!

I absolutely love the bright and happy colors of the piece above, by Mom Walds Place. I love how she chose floss colors that are not present in the fabric itself for contrast.

bySaraLynn has made so much wonderful progress on her piece above. Her color palette is beautiful and her use of that contrasting bright pink really adds a new element to the fabric that wasn't there without it.

"Wow" is about all I can say about this fairy fabric embellishment, stitched by sewjenaissance. I can tell just by looking at it that it's a true labour of love.

I'm glad that so many of you are simply having fun with this project -- and nothing's more fun than the piece above. You've just gotta love these robots, stitched by fav_orite.things.

As of our last post, Savage Pink hadn't yet decided on a fabric. Well, she ultimately chose my vote, the animal print above, and has selected her floss colors. Can't wait to see this one come to life!

These birds, stitched by daisyeyes, are just adorable. I love the satin stitched detail on the red bird above!

Here are three more great starts -- and one impressive finished piece! -- submitted by (clockwise from top left): letscallitlove, Read the Book, DetroitMommy, and bob&be.

amyhood21 really understood and embraced this month's challenge, as evidenced by her gorgeous work-in-progress (above).

Finally, check out the fun direction in which Beadgirlj has taken her project. She started with the dotted fabric above -- a great choice for embellishment, really -- and thought way beyond just using floss.

She has completed four individual circle designs so far, which are shown in greater detail below.

I couldn't include all of the amazing pictures but have been collecting them in some Flickr galleries. Check out the links below to see all of the beautiful submissions thus far:

Week 1 Gallery
Week 2 Gallery
Week 3 Gallery

For next week's update I hope to start sharing some finished project ideas. Will you be framing yours in a hoop for hanging? Making it into a pillow? Quilt square? However you decide to finish your project, please let us know!

Muy caliente!

Photo by Aimee Ray

There's a cute free pattern over on the Lark site, designed by Aimee Ray! And you know I can't resist a little embroidered Spanish: Free Potholder Project. :)

Especially Awesome

I was so excited to find this wonderful embroidery made by Judith Pudden in the Embroidery Group on Flickr. The detail in this work is amazing and I especially love the silver skirt. This embroidery is based on an Edward Gorey illustration. His outstanding work translates well to embroidery as I found out myself recently.  I actually have another one in the (or rather a) hoop at the moment. Check out Judith's other embroidery work here (impressive satin stitching!).

Now... I was wondering if you all would like another Feeling Stitchy contest? I hope so, because we have one planned in about a months time! Actually, I just realised that today's featured work would fit the contest rather well. Are you curious yet what the theme is?

If you only knew the power of the Dark Side

Darth Vader embroidery, originally uploaded by color and pattern.

I love a nice bit of Star Wars stitch-geekery.

You do too, right? ;-)

Patterns: Smile for the camera (again)

Embroidered Diana Camera Skirt stitched by Sew Lovely

I don't know about anyone else but personally I struggle sometimes with what to do with my embroidery, my pieces usually end up on cushions and I think my husband would say that we now have way too many cushions! So I love this idea by Sew Lovely of making this gorgeous camera embroidery into a skirt pocket so much that I thought it was worth blogging about the Smile for the Camera pattern sheet again (originally blogged about here). I think if you know your way round a sewing machine reasonably well, this would be quite easy to do and would be a lovely way to personalise a skirt!

Cross Cross Cross Dot Dot Dot

These dotted butterflies are part of the Power Animal series designed by Amy (aka GirlFlamant). I absolutely love each and every pattern of that series! All animal silhouettes have their own pattern and include a fleur-de-lis owl and an houndstooth patterned Jackalope.  I'm about to start stitching a tartan Loch Ness monster! Find all Power animals (and other patterns as well) in her Etsy shop.

If you have not tried Counted Cross Stitch before (I'm very much a newbie myself) do check out the wonderful (and free!) downloadable Cross Stitch guides by Sophie of What Delilah Did. And don't forget to have a look in her shop with many gorgeous kits and patterns as well!

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!