Won a GiveAway - Behind Stitching My Sampler.

Oh My Gosh! I won a giveaway! How awesome are these candy apple charms?!?!:





They're from the GUURRRL blog. FULL of goodness! She is a boutique sewer for Oliver and S (Childrens clothing pattern designer I am in love with.) and is WAY talented! So many adorable things in her Etsy shop. Looks like she has giveaways pretty often so click on over and enter. I'm bookmarking her crayon roll tutorial and adding it to my project list!



In other news - I am behind on the Stitchalong. Hopefully I can catch up and be on track to finish this week.



Here is the sampler so far.




You can see I started to stitch the Y and stopped to take the picture. Last night I abandoned the Y and decided to stitch the X. I couldn't think of anything really interesting to do with X that I could pull off.





With all this stitching lately, I had decided it was time to step away from the sewing machine and try crafting without needle and thread. Then this weekend, one of my lovely neighbors brought me a big bag FULL of old children's patterns.






See my helper carrying the bag? It's full of patterns. I picked out a couple and it would be rude not to use them, right?! Just being a good neighbor! (And yeah, that's a Popover Dress Delilah is wearing.)

Later Skaters!

Jan

StitchAlong - The Letter J

J is for JELLYFISH!



This stitchalong has been so much fun. This hand embroidery stuff is outside of my comfort zone. I never would have done this if it weren't a project put together in such a cool way. It's been neat to see other talented women's embroidery and I have discovered some groovy new blogs to follow through the project. Click over to the 39 squares blog and check it out!

A New Stitched Inch AND A New Blog AND a Lazy Days Skirt AND a Project Preview!

I'm falling behind on my embroidery for the stitchalong. I just got a bit stumped on what to do for some the remaining letters of the alphabet! So last night I skipped to the last square and did this:

Today I have some ideas for my remaining letters and hope to get back on track!

Recently I posted THIS tutorial as my entry into the $5 dollar store craft challenge. It's a knockoff of a pretty ribbon wreath I saw in a boutique.

Just last week I came across another tutorial over at Embellished Bayou who made a similiar knockoff wreath. She used some different supplies, like staples instead of hot glue. I think I like the colors of hers MUCH better.

Great minds think alike!

And of course, now I am LOVING her blog. Those fleur de lis shirts she appliqued are awesome. She's also made ruffle butt onesies, some gorgeous Easter decorations, adorable welcome signs, and just some overall interesting posts.

Gosh, all these awesome new blogs I keep discovering. There are some crazy talented chicas out there in blogland. I need to step up my game! In an effort to be original, I purchased a large men's Tshirt at Old Navy this past weekend on clearance for less than $2, with the plan to turn it into something for Delilah.

Here's the shirt. Stay tuned for the "after picture" outcome which I hope to post on Friday. (fingers crossed)

And, just one more thing, here is another Lazy Days skirt I made for Delilah. These skirts are ridiculously easy to sew up and I love them. One of these days I'll get her to model the Popover Dress, also a free pattern from Oliver and S that was so easy to follow.

Off to have a cup of tea now. Ta Ta!

K is for Kite! Stitchingalong

Still stitching along with some talented blogger babes! If you want to see some awesome creative embroidery, check out the 39 squares blog here.


Here is my K for Kite. Now as I am looking at this, this morning, I think I may have to add some grass at the bottom. I think it could use that bit more color. What do you think?

In other news, I have followed the free Popover Dress pattern from Oliver and S and I lurve it! I will post pics soon. Now that I have somehow managed to follow two of their patterns (the other was the Lazy Days Skirt -- easiest toddler skirt ever) I am going to purchase and try some of their other, a little more complicated patterns. I have been very intimidated about following patterns but these from Oliver and S have been so easy to follow and so clear.

Now I just need some warm weather so I can have my model wear the Popover Dress to show you.

T for Teapot.

T is for Teapot. Not that crazy about this one. I think the letter looks unfinished? I may have to go back and play with this square. And brush off that hair in the picture too!

$5 Craft Challenge Entry and Stitchalong square

First, here is my stitchalong square for the day. Also featured with U for Umbrella are a few stray dog hairs. Nice!

Next --- I have another entry in the $5 dollar store Spring Decor craft challenge!
Decorative decoupaged vase! Here it is on our fireplace mantel. I put little decorative flicker lights in it and with the lights off they glowed like candles inside the vase and it looks SO pretty. I thought about using pretty tissue paper with more pastel Easter like colors, since this is a "Spring Decor" item . But we don't celebrate Easter at our house. If you do, and like this craft, try it with different colors of tissue paper. I think it will be beautiful that way.

So here is the tutorial!

First, gather supplies:

Purchased with my $5 budget at the Dollar Store.

1 small glass vase.

1 package of patterned tissue paper

(optional) 1 package of fake candle lights

--- Other supplies I had on hand -- scissors, Mod Podge, paintbrush.

IF you don't have ModPodge glue on hand, you can purchase white craft glue, like Elmers, and water it down a bit. But then go buy some Mod Podge! It's awesome, seriously. There is a fantastic website featuring all things Mod Podge -- here's the link!

Next step, cut the tissue paper into small pieces. These ended up being tiny rectangles about 1' on the long side. Some were bigger, some smaller. Then I cut up several small squares about a half inch wide, to fill in gaps later. These pieces will overlap and don't require perfection.

Dip your brush into the Mod Podge (Hey, there's the Spring wreath in the background!)

(My vase is on top of an old magazine to protect my table)

And paint the glule on the vase, slightly larger than the size of the tissue paper.

Stick a piece of tissue onto the glue.

And brush out any wrinkles with the brush. Adding more Mod Podge over the top of the square.

Paint more glue next to that piece, to prepare for the next piece of tissue paper.

And stick!

This one I decided to overlap the top a bit. So I smoothed it over with my fingers then back to using the paintbrush to smooth out wrinkles and add more Mod Podge.

Keep adding and overlapping.

I decided it was important to make sure the top rim was covered, so placed my tissue paper slightly over the edge, made sure there was Mod Podge to stick well, and smooth down with my finger and the brush.

Leave to dry.

After completely dry, add another coat of Mod podge if you wish.

Drop in your fake tealight candles and you're done! I wish I could get a shot of the neat glow from the lights.

There you go, a Spring Decor item crafted spending less than $5 at the Dollar Store. Hope you liked it!

S is for SNAKE

Still stitching - here is the letter S. I rather like this little guy.

P is for Purple Paint

Still stitchingalong, but I missed a few days. That's ok, because my plan is to sew 30 squares and the stitchalong is for 39 days, so I have some leeway. I need it!

Anyway, here is P Purple Paint.

StitchAlong Square OWL

The letter O.

My husband says this one is his favorite.

H is for HAT!

Hanging in there on the stitchalong! H is for HAT!

As soon as I figure out how to get more time into my days, I will post stuff other than these squares!!

M is for MMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Who would have thought finding the time to stitch one little square each day would be so hard?! Despite the time challenge, this is SO much fun.

Anyway, here's the M:

I am very happy with how this turned out. I watched the videos on the stitchalong home page and tried a new stitch for the outline. One of these days I will try my hand at my very first french knot. I am SUCH a rookie at this. The other women are blowing me away with their awesome stitching.

Sooo...if you are talented woman from the stitchalong who came in here ---- if you have any suggestions for my letters please post them. I got the idea for a kite for k from the stitchalong, and think an ice cream for i might be good (if I can pull it off) but I could use some HELP!!

In other news....I finished my entry into the $5 dollar store Spring Decor challenge. I took a bunch of pictures and hope to post my tutorial this week. On March 25th (the day of the challenge) I must remember to link the post to enter the contest. I am so excited to see what people come up with! How will I ever have the time to look at all the entries!?!

Square SIX - GREEN means GO!

Here is square 6 for the Stitchalong:


(For those not in the know, there's a group of us stitching one little 1 inch square each day and posting our results daily. I am a total novice. If you check out the other ladies samplers, you are sure to be blown away! Check them out here)


Now, you tell me, should I add an exclamation point after the o? for Go! Just not sure.


I will try to make it by the store to purchase actual embroidery needles and floss. I have NEVER embroidered before. I had floss on hand from using it with wool felt to make Delilah stuff. The 6 strand skein kind. And with my teeny regular old needles, I haven't been able to do anything but two strands thick. For my future letters I could use some better supplies.


That also means I may go BACK over the borders of some of my already finished squares with the thicker threads. Maybe. We'll see.

Square 5 and FIX

Square number 5 is here for the StitchAlong!






I'm pretty happy with this one. I used a teeny scrap of wool felt.


And...I was NOT happy with my B before. I hadn't planned ahead and just had this plain orange B. I added some stitches last night, and, ta-dah!









Thanks to the other lovely samplers being created, I now have some good ideas for my other letters.



Coming soon -- more tote bags, my $5 dollar store craft challenge, a TShirt turned toddler dress, and a collection of felt food!

StitchingAlong and a Classic Tote

Here is square number 4 for the stitchalong (see pictures from folks who are really good at this here)







For this square, I used the shiny embroidery thread that I use with my embroidery machine. (Mainly because I haven't had the time to buy new materials for the stitchingalong and my floss stash is weak. Off to the store this weekend!) For the L, I used a dark and light pink threaded together. It gives it a little shimmery effect, that I am not quite sure shows up well here but I am pretty satisfied with in person. The L is, of course, for love. But also, my dear sweet husband's (Hi honey!) first initial is L and I lurrrve him. XO. (And, I think I figured out how to fix my B square and make it look purtier.)


I have been doing other stuff besides the stitchingalong.


I made this bag for a co-irker's birthday using THIS tutorial from Sew Mama Sew:

I added her name to the pocket, and although you can't see it well here, it looks pretty cute in person.

If you can sew a straight line, you can make this totebag. The hardest part was cutting and ironing the pieces! I had to lower the tension going over the the seams, but once I figured that out, these bags are a breeze. Yeah, I said bagS. Plural. I've started making more. I went kinda nuts in the decorator fabric sale at Hancocks and have gone totebag crazy! I hope with the other fabrics I chose, the embroidered pocket will POP more.
Later skaters!