For the Star Wars Fanatic

I had this guy in our family gift exchange this year.

That's my brother-in-law and he is a Star wars fan, if you can't tell. 

(He actually hand made that costume he is wearing! Impressive right?!)

I follow Pixel Power on facebook and he puts out some great character cross stitch patterns. I have been wanting to do one of his designs up for awhile. He even has a list of some free patterns. That is where I found this awesome Luke, I Am Your Father pattern as well as the Darth Vader quote which I thought would work in the BIL's office. You might recognize the same type of style as the Jack Sparrow perler bead craft I did using another one of Pixel Powers patterns.

Happy Thursday!

.....And Happy New Year!

Cross stitch

A couple of weeks ago I finished the cross stitch project I had been working on since Christmas. 

I absolutely love the colors!

The pattern I used is from the book Anna Maria's Needleworks Notebook.

Allison of Little Lovelies is also doing a piece from this book, check out her progress here.

As the finishing touch I painted the hoop purple.

 P.S. Happy Valentine's Day!

Alternative to the Owl

I needed a quick project to do the other day, so I whipped up another Iphone case.

It is nice to have an alternate to switch it up a bit, although I do still love my Owl Case!

I'm really liking the pattern. The stitching isn't perfect...fine with me, it adds character!

And I'm loving the color combination.

Happy Friday!

P.S. Can you believe it's already September tomorrow? ...crazy.

linking to:
Sugar and Dots

Dutch Girls, Finished.

 Remember way back in January when I shared with you that I had started a Dutch Girl embroidery piece. Well I finally finished it!

It feels so good to have this done. The piece of fabric the embroidery is on is perfect to cover up my bread dough while it rises. It is a huge piece of cloth and can cover all four loaves. Having the cute embroidery on it is just a sweet bonus!

Speaking of embroidery, you may have seen these vintage iron-on embroidery patterns in amongst my garage sale finds from this post.

 

 I have been keeping my eye out for some these and I was so excited when I spotted them in amongst old craft supplies. At ten cents a piece, they were mine!

Swapping some Stitchery

You may have noticed the button on my sidebar about the Stitch Swap happening over at Wild Olive. Well I finished my piece just the other day and I am going to be sending it off to the lucky recipient on Monday, with some extra goodies. 

It isn't perfect but I'm happy with how it turned out!

I wrapped fabric around the edge to finish it off, 

thanks to Allison over at Little Lovelies for that fab idea!

I had this pattern in my embroidery folder on my computer (.... before I signed up for Pinterest) so I have no idea who the designer is or who to give credit to, so if you know please send me a note so I can give credit where credit is due!

On another note....
I've had to remove my Owl Iphone Tutorial, click on the link for more info.

Mr. Darcy

I stitched up this little piece for a friend of mine who is obsessed  likes Pride and Prejudice. Seriously she has the movie memorized word for word, and she will quote it while you're watching ! .... no lie.

I saw this quote on pinterest and I instantly thought of her and wanted to do it in stitching. I didn't want to do it too big and when I remembered that I had some small frames (like the one I used in this tutorial) I got right on it! The inside measures about 2 inches by 3 inches. 

 I was almost tempted to keep it for myself but I did end up sending it to her and I hope she likes it!

linked to:
sugar and dots

Candy Heart Valentine's Shirts

 

 Valentine's shirts...what's the point?

They are cute.

...plus hearts can be worn year round right??

I wanted to make these as easy and as inexpensive as possible, so I raided the girls closets looking for shirts that could be revamped. And I was successful!

A turtle neck that S has never worn and would be much more useful cut up and made into a ruffle shirt with a cute heart applique...And for T a cute colorful undershirt that has really never been seen because it has been just that, an undershirt. I went and bought a fat quarter in a simple print that would match the pink in the onesie.

 And because I couldn't help myself I did a bit of stitchery making the hearts more of a candy heart idea with sayings on them.

 Cut out the heart shapes and used heat n' bond to attach to the shirts...done!

 Of course it took me a little more time to transform the turtle neck into the ruffle shirt, but I think it was worth it!

Here are my little sweeties!

 

 

My attempt at taking a pic of the girls together....

T is screaming and S is being bribed by daddy (with candy) to smile

.....and it's blurry

......I tried.

Happy Valentine's Day !

linked to:
Let Birds Fly
The Grant Life
Tatertots and Jello 
Sugar and Dots

Vintage Dutch Girls

When I was sick a week ago I really wanted to do some projects, but all I felt like doing was laying on the couch.  So I decided to do a low key, relaxing project.... embroidery.

I had bought this piece of cloth this past summer at a garage sale for .25 cents! It had vintage embroidery patterns on all four corners. The little dutch girls are so adorable!

 

These shoes are on two of the corners.

I actually put this embroidery piece aside recently to work on some Valentines projects but I'll be sure to show you when it is completed.

sidenote: I was thinking about making the second little girl a free pdf pattern for anyone who might want it... not exactly sure how to do that though so if you are computer savvy and want to help me out that would be fab!

More Cup Cozies

Another Homemade gift, cup cozzies paired with a coffee giftcard (in this case Tim Hortons).

This is the second time I've made coffee cozies (check out my first post) and I've found they are a fun/cute little project. Of course I wouldn't have to embroider on them, but I enjoy it, so I do!

Free Gnome embroidery pattern Here.

 

Free Teacup embroidery pattern Here. 

You may recognize him from this post.   

Here are the backs:

Just in case you found those quite feminine here is my male version....but I'm still not sure.... Do you think a man would use a cup cozzie?

I figured in the chinese gift exchange that the Gift Card would entice the men to go for my gift..... since the make-up bags were gender specific, this was considered my gender neutral gift...... any thoughts?

p.s. I just free handed all the writing, the large writing I wrote on with pencil first.

linked to:
Sugar and Dots

A Little Penguin

 I whipped up this embroidery piece for the Chinese Gift Exchange that would be happening at a Church Ladies Banquet  that I attend every year. 

I don't know about you, but I am always hesitant to make something homemade for these kind of exchanges because they can be traded off if someone doesn't really like it ..... you hate to be the dud gift after all the work you put in! 

Anyways....Don't you think the lil penguin is cute? 

You can get the free embroidery pattern for him HERE.

For the lettering I free-hand stitched the small writing. 

I wrote the bigger words in pencil, then I tried my hand at the stem stitch. 

I thought it worked out pretty well and I like how the words stand out more!

I grabbed an empty wooden frame, added some cheery red ribbon....

...And here is the finished product:

Linking to:
Let Bird's Fly