Here's a set of three cute cross stitch freebies Christmas cards from Cross Stitcher magazine. I really like the bunny with the jingle bell.
Have a great weekend!
Here's a super cute So Very Thankful embroidery pattern that I must make this month. [Link via Craft Gossip]
Edited to add another embroidery pattern from Creative Kismet. This one says Give Thanks Every Day! I really like them both.
I just read this in the latest newsletter from the Toymaker:
"Then I had a thought that if I spent more time actually making and doing the things that I wanted instead of just looking at pictures then I would be a lot happier in the here and now. How about we take a deep breath and make the things we want to have and do the things that actually make us happy, even if it is in a small way?"
I love that. So from now on, there will be more making things and less drooling over pictures going on in my life. (I swear!) To get on the right track, I just ordered two embroidery patterns from Penguin & Fish. Remember the giant hedgehog pillow?* I am so going to make one. (You can get the normal sized version of the hedgehog pattern on Etsy and then just blow it up on a copy machine. I once asked Alyssa from Penguin & Fish if it was ok to do that and she said yes.)
large pillow versions of alligator and hedgehog embroidery patterns
Originally uploaded by Penguin & Fish
The other pattern I got is the Maltese puppy one. I love Alyssa's adorable patterns. I ordered the paper patterns but they're also available as pdf's.
While going through some pictures today, I found some of the mushroom needlebook I made back in February. I know I did something a little different than the tutorial but I have no idea what that was now. When you put the original together, you machine sew the spine of the needlebook. I did mine by hand so maybe I put it together in a way where you wouldn't see the back of a back stitched seam. Or something.
I just saw the link to this cute felt piece of pie from Aimee Ray on Craft Gossip's Facebook page. It's from the book "Heart Felt Holidays." (Must get it.)
And, yes, I did post twice in one night. You might want to buy a parka because I do believe hell will be freezing over.
A few stray links that I forgot to post earlier this year.
Tipnut shared another set of vintage embroidery patterns back in May. (Am I on top of things or what?) This one is kitchen themed so there's a pitcher, glasses, bowls, a frying pan, measuring cups, a cute cookie jar, a jam jar and more.
Kel over at Kincavel Krosses has a cross stitch design of two super cute foxes called Fergie and Fergus. I REALLY have to stitch this one. Thank you, Lady Kel, for all your great freebies!!
There's a cute owl cross stitch chart from LucyKate Crafts [link via My Owl Barn] and a fox one too. I saw a book called Countryside Softies in Michael's the other day and thought the cover seemed familiar, like I should know who made the fox on it. Turned out it was by Amy Adams who is the crafty blogger behind LucyKate Crafts. Congrats on your book, Amy! And, no, I did not buy it since I'm broke again.
Talking about being broke reminds me that I finally paid a visit to Needlepoints Ltd (an actual Local Needlework Shop, woo hoo) in back in July. I had been meaning to go there since 1957. Or maybe it was 1997. Whatever. It's been a long time. I think they have every make and model of floss you ever heard of. I drooled a lot while I was there. And, they didn't even ask me to leave! I liked it so much, I went back another time. Really I went twice because I forgot the list of floss that I wanted to get the first time. Since I wasn't broke either time, I got two Little House Needleworks charts and the floss for Wipe Your Paws from Glory Bee, a chart I have had forever.
Speaking of My Owl Barn, look to your left and you will see a widget for the Owl Lover 2013 calendar. Go make yourself one. It's free!
I love how I am always saying how I am getting back into blogging and then I never do. The thing is I REALLY do miss it. And, it's not like I don't have anything to write about. I can always find something. Even if it's just to post another dog picture. (I'll wait until the end to do that.).
Back in April, I made this bunny. Yeah, I know, it looks like a bear. And, the dress is not reversible like the one for the Fluffy*Stuffy Bunny Jenny made. (Get the bunny pattern here.) After I sewed the dress pieces together, turned them right side out, and then tried to sew the opening closed, you could totally see all the stitches. I can't do a blind stitch or a hidden stitch to save my life. So I just left it open. Then I didn't add a yoke because I couldn't hide those stitches either. So my bunny not only looks like a bear but she also can't show off her two sided dress and isn't fluffy like the original. She probably hates me. And, I just realized something after looking at Jenny's Fluffy*Stuffy Bunny on her blog: mine has no tail. Oh yeah, I am quite the crafter.
I just saw this project for a cute felt needle threader from Wild Olive linked on Craft Gossip's needlework blog (thanks, Denise!) and I swear a light bulb went off over my head when I realized I could post it here as well. Sometimes I really am a little slow.
This has nothing to do with crafting but missing dogs always get to me, and it's even worse if they're older and have special needs. This is Cleo, a deaf 12 yr old Cocker Spaniel, who was recently saved from a kill shelter and is now lost. He was last seen in the 92105 zip code, which is in San Diego. (Cleo is a boy.) Please feel free to post this on Facebook, your blog, or anywhere you think it might help. Thank you!
There's a new computer in my life and my old camera works just fine with it so I'm hoping to start blogging again, or at least post some pictures.
Since I haven't finished making anything lately, I don't have any photos to post today but thanks to Feeling Stitchy, I have a couple of links to share. First, check out Floresita's finished alphabet. which I just love. It's so pretty. She's included a link to the free pattern too. Look how her letters look perfectly centered on the fabric. My patterns never are. In fact, I just transferred a design on to a dishtowel and it was noticeably off to one side so I sprayed it with Resolve and washed it, and all the transfer pencil came out. I don't know if Resolve will work with other transfer methods, (like iron-on patterns), but I've had luck with lead and transfer pencils, especially if you get the Resolve on it soon after you realize your pattern is not where you want it to be on your dish towel.
There was a link on Feeling Stitchy to Kitschy Digitals and if you haven't been there before, you need to go now. Everything is cute and fun. They sell printables, fonts and things for digital crafting, but I especially love their sewing and needlework patterns. Thanks for the link, Floresita!
As I was reading through older posts on Feeling Stitchy, I realized two things: I finally got the Sublime Stitching book (yay!) and I bought two cute embroideries and a stitched potholder at the local antique store. Pictures to come soon.
Did you see the cute fox cross stitch pattern on Mollie Makes? So many cute patterns, so little time.
I am really in the mood to go make something but I wanted to share this cute embroidery pattern first. It was posted on a new-to-me blog called Mason Bee and it's called Little Home Planet and I think it's adorable. [Link via Craft Gossip's Needlework blog. Thanks, Denise!] And, thank you, Laura, for your cute freebie! (For some reason, I keep thinking it's called Little House on the Planet. I must have Laura Ingalls on the brain.)
P.S. They've opened a Hobby Lobby near me and I think I'll be going by tomorrow with my 40% off coupon in hand to check out their needle arts section. I hope they sell cute embroidery patterns.
Kel over at Kincavel Krosses is sharing a cross stitch design of two super cute foxes called Fergie and Fergus. I REALLY have to stitch this one.
And, check out Bunny and Clyde too (x-stitch bunnies)!
Thank you, Lady Kel, for all your great freebies!!
I know it's June but I haven't been able to post pictures for awhile so I have some catching up to do.
There was a tutorial for an adorable fabric Easter basket posted on Red Brolly back in March. I wanted to make it and only got as far as doing the embroidery, but hey, at least I did that. Now that I can upload my pictures again. I'll take a better one as soon as I iron this. And, thank you to Sarah and Mary for the floss. Other than the brown for the bunny and the white for his tail, everything else is the variegated stuff you both sent me -- Cosmo Seasons from Sarah and Janlynn from Mary. (Hard to see in the picture, I know.)
If you haven't seen the latest cross stitch freebies from Kincavel Crosses, you're missing out because they are really cute. There's a brown owl, a purple owl, a blue bird and a yellow & orange bird.
The brown owl made me want to do some cross stitching so I started on it one night last week and haven't touched it since. Maybe posting about it will inspire me to work on it tonight. I hope you're being more productive than I am. :)
Remember awhile ago when I was happy to find out that all I had to do was plug my old camera into the lap top I was using and Windows 7 immediately started downloading my photos? No driver or software or anything else was needed. Well, it's no longer working -- the downloading part, I mean. I plug in my camera and a light blinks on the lap top and I hear a whirring sound but nothing pops up to ask me if I want to import the files. So I can't post any pictures of all 197 things that I've made recently. Um, make that the one thing I've made recently. And, I can't post any pictures of my orts jar for the 2012 TUSAL or my progress for the 2012 WIPocalypse. Grrrr.
At least I can still post links.
Here's one for a free Strawberry Fields cross stitch chart from Sew News [via Daily Craft]. They show the strawberries stitched on a cosmetics case but you could do them on anything. The other night, my sister gave me a gingham pillowcase (long story) and I was thinking about embroidering something on it, but it might be fun to x-stitch the strawberries on it. Then again, it's gingham so maybe I'll put some chicken scratch on it since it's been ages since I did that. Oh yeah, I think I will do some chicken scratch. (I seriously hadn't thought about doing that until just now.) I'll save the strawberries for something else because I really like that chart.
I'll play around with the laptop later to see if I can figure out what's wrong but for now I am going to go check my chicken scratch pattern stash and pick something to put on the pillow case.
Check out the adorable little quilt over at Little Miss Shabby, complete with an embroidered bear and penguin. You can find the free pattern for the embroidery there too. I'm drooling over all the fabric she uses. I really need to start machine sewing!
I haven't been to Sentimental Stitches in quite awhile but I'm glad I checked it tonight because it has a new look (to me) and lots of free quilt patterns, plus a whole page with patterns for redwork of flowers, girls, and my favorite one, a cute little kitty (Block 115). Block 104 is bunnies under an umbrella and Block 114 is a duck, but you'll want to click them all.
I couldn't get my pictures to upload last night so I don't have one of my orts jar to share for the TUSAL. Hopefully, I can them uploaded soon. (I NEED A COMPUTER.)
Tipnut has a list of links to patterns and tutorials for making stuffed bunnies. It's amazing how many of them I already have printed out but haven't made yet. Story of my life. :)
Since I don't have any new bunnies to share, here's a bunny cross stitch I did back in 2009.
It's called Rabbit with Hyacinth and you can find the free chart at Ellen Maurer-Stroh.
Last summer, I stitched up a free chart called Little Blue Bungalow from Blue Ribbon Designs and did not like some of the colors of floss that I used. The original was done with floss from Weeks Dye Works but I only had a few colors of WDW (that I bought a few years ago for yet another project I never did) so I went with DMC instead. Picking out floss colors is always a big deal for me and I always second guess myself afterwards. This time, I wasn't totally happy with some of my choices and didn't feel like doing it over, so Little Blue Bungalow was stuck in one of the tote bags I have with all my other WIPs and UFOs and pretty much forgotten.
Enter the 2012 WIPocalypse. While looking in that tote bag for things to finish for the WIPocalypse, I discovered Little Blue Bungalow and decided to rip out what I didn't like about it and re-do it.
Here's the before picture:
Stitching Corp is a group that started out sending cross stitched Christmas ornaments to the troops and their families, and now they're accepting other handmade items (bookmarks, greeting cards, key rings, bags for wheelchairs & walkers) all year long. I heard about Stitching Corp via CyberStitchers.com, which has a list of charities that collect cross stitch projects. By the way, Stitching Corp, has a huge list of sites that offer free x-stitch patterns.
I have several ornaments started that I should add to my 2012 WIPocalypse list so I can finish them and send to Stitching Corp.
Why do I have a bunch of draft posts? Oh yeah. It's because I am really good at starting things and never finishing them.
Let's see what links are hanging out in my draft posts . . .
From the Make-It-For-Christmas-2012 file: Gingerbread Cottage has a super cute embroidery pattern. And here's a felt hedgehog ornament from Totally Stitchin' that I'm also going to add to my Hedgehogs-To-Make-Some-Day list.
Speaking of hedgehogs, this hedgehog cross stitch freebie from JB Cross Stitch is new-to-me thanks to the cross stitch blog at Craft Gossip. By the way, JB Cross Stitch has some cute charts for sale, in addition to more freebies.
I love, love, love this embroidered needlecase from Goosie Girl's and I've had the pattern for awhile but I don't think I ever linked to it before.
Over at Leslie's Art and Sew, there's a sewing pattern and tutorial for a mystery critter. You can sew one up and then make a face on it any way you want and add anything else too [link via The Toy Society blog].
How about a felt pincushion from Jenny of Elefantz? I like this one because it has appliqued fabric flowers on it. And, it's all hand sewn.
There's an embroidery pattern for a cute mini-sampler (with birds, flowers, alphabet) that's finished in a hoop at Patchwork Posse [link via Denise at Craft Gossip].
Did you know there's an embroidery section on about.com with stitch diagrams, free patterns and lots of information on tools, supplies and techniques? There is!
Major Cute Alert! Look at this adorable mushroom needlebook that my friend Loralynn at My Art, My So Called Life just linked to. She also had a link to the fun Random Tutorial Generator.
And, if you're like me and like to see classic movie stars and their four-legged friends, here are a couple of fun posts from I Can Has Cheezburger: part 1 and part 2.
Pardon me while I go make something!
