Join Me For A Free Style Sew Along!!!

Exciting news!!! I recently posted some photos on Instagram, of some DMC floss I recently bought (at the new DMC display at my local Walmart, of all places!) without a specific project in mind. I was so surprised and excited to find the new display that I just couldn't help myself, and picked up a handful of bright, cheerful colours 🎨 Fellow Instagram stitcher Marianne Matthews (@mariannemathewsxx) messaged me with a great idea. She asked if I seen any of those pretty free style floral embroideries that are popular right now, and I knew exactly the style she was thinking of!

Projects like Mary Corbet's Voided Floral Monogram:

Ever since she posted this beautiful project on her Needle N' Thread website, I have been very intrigued by the idea of spontaneously stitching flowers! Mary has three great posts about this project that are well worth reading: Embroidering a Voided Floral-Themed Monogram, A is for Almost Finished, and Hairy Edges, Knobby Bits & The Back of the Hoop. She goes through her stitch process from start to finish!

Inspired by that idea, Marianne and I have decided on a simple Double Heart pattern:

We are flipping the voided part though, filling inside the outline instead of outside of it.

There are no rules or set dates for the SAL, it's totally stitch-at-your-own-pace 😃 The only requirement is to use a simple motif and fill it with spontaneously stitched flowers! You are welcome to use the double heart. Other suggestions: a simple five petal flower outline (a flower of flowers!), a geometric shape (diamond, circle, square, triangle, rhombus, star), an initial or monogram, a name, a short word (joy, hope, love)...the possibilities are many, and if you search "outline clipart" you may find some inspiration!

To create the heart, I found a free use clipart design I liked and then I shrunk the same design to make the cutout in the middle. Both Marianne and I are stitching a lattice in the center, but you could leave it blank, or stitch a single large flower or little bouquet. Anything you like!

This is my VERY tentative little doodle of what I'm thinking of stitching - proof that you don't need to be an artist to be an embroiderer 😂 I'd like to do a trio of Stem Stitch roses on the top left hand curve, with leaves on either side, and a slanted lattice in the middle. The squiggles are roses, lazy daisies and straight-stitch aster type flowers 🌸

For colours, I am going to try to stick mainly to the brights I bought, perhaps adding a few others:

Floss colours from left to right: 3846 (turquoise), 907 (green), 3607 (pink), 3837 (purple) and 444 (yellow). They are a little brighter than I would usually choose, but it's nice to try something different. And they are very cheerful! For fabric, I'm using some of my favourite turquoise that I had left over from my Joyful Jester project, which is very fitting because that was my first truly spontaneously stitched project 😃

Please excuse the streaky windows; the bright sunlight was not kind!

I did a quick window transfer, taping first the pattern and then the fabric to the glass. I used a fine black Pilot FriXion pen to trace the design:

I'm expecting to stitch over the lines, but in case I don't, if you blast this ink with a hair dryer (or any heat) it will disappear. I know there have been concerns about the ink reappearing when it gets cold, but this is a fun, fast project and I don't mind taking that chance. I wouldn't recommend using this pen for heirloom quality work though, just in case! I added some dots as guidelines for the spoke placement on the roses, using coins (a quarter for the large, a nickel for the small ones) as a template.

I'm also excited about using my brand new 8" Anchor Sparkles embroidery hoop, which I lucked into at Walmart on the same trip where I bought my floss! They have recently redone the embroidery section at my local store and I really hope that this will be maintained. I have sized my heart to print at about 5.5" in size but you can adjust it as needed. If you have any trouble downloading the pattern, please let me know!

Here's a picture of the Anchors Sparkles hoop; they are supposed to be available 6", 8" and 10" and in yellow and purple too. They also have a lip on the inner hoop to grip the fabric tightly, very much like my favourite Susan Bates Hooplas:

I really love the silver glitter embedded in the translucent blue plastic:

So that is the stitchy news from here!

I'd love it if you joined in and stitched along with me! You can join us on Instagram, or share your pictures on your own blog. You can also send me photos to post here, if you aren't online elsewhere. Please use the hashtag #freestylesewalong to share, so I can find you, and tag me! I'm @aureliaeglantine on Instagram 😊

The Return of Stitchy News!!!

Lots of exciting news this time! There's more tidbits to read than usual since this is the first edition of SN that I've done in a while. When I was looking back through the Archives, I couldn't believe the last SN was in August 2010! My, how time does fly. The most obvious change you might note is the new graphics. I hope you like them :)

Hippity Hippity Hop - Summer Blogging Fun with Lots of Stops!

Jo at Serendipitous Stitching has started her Summer Blog Hop! The theme for 2013 is "There's No Place Like Home", which is very true indeed :) Jo hosts a number of Blog Hops throughout the year, and you can read more about them here.

This particular one goes all Summer, right up until the end of August, and the first "Postcards" (stitching pictures) have already been exchanged. Although I've never participated in a Hop, I hear that they are a great way to meet new bloggers, and if I can find a themed piece to share I'll be joining in the fun ;)

A Great Giveaway - Closing Soon!

Speaking of Jo, thanks to one of her posts last month I discovered a beautiful blog: Meggie's Cross Stitch Cottage! Meggie does lovely stitching and finishing work, and is also hosting a very generous 200 Followers Giveaway right on the heels of her 100 Followers Giveaway! And at 299 now and counting, she's going to be surpassing 300 very soon :) The Giveaway is open to new Followers too, and closes on July 31st, 2013! Meggie will also adding new items as she goes along. I've entered ;)

Yearning for New Floss? Dye Your Own!

EDIT: The DAB site is currently moving and these links are broken; I'll be updating this item with the new links when they are available:

The blog is currently down but is being attended to. So sorry for any inconveniece. #movingtowordpress
— Allison Murray (@AllieBigDreamer) July 31, 2013

EDIT: The Links and Photo Have Been Updated! August 5th, 2013 :)

Emma Broidery over at the DMC Threads Blog has compiled three very interesting tutorials on Tie Dying Floss! The process is a little labour intensive, but the results are so cool! The second part of the tutorial at lifestyle blog Dream A Little Bigger includes a FREE Embroidery pattern, a fun swirly paisley floral design:

I think this pattern, which is worked entirely in Backstitch, would look wonderful with variegated or overdyed floss too, for those (like me!) who aren't ready to try dying floss yet :) This is a great project for some quick Summer stitching!

A Fantastic Felt Needlebook and The Cutest Little Book Ever!

Speaking of embroidery, Mollie at Wild Olive took inspiration from a vintage souvenir needlebook and designed a super-cute felt version! It has a crossed felt pin and needle on the cover and holds a rainbow of felt pages with easy pinked edges. Best of all, there's a comprehensive FREE tutorial and downloadable template too!

Also, Mollie has declared that July is "Book Month", and is putting up free projects like these very cute FREE book plate printables :) When I first saw the little book on her calendar printable, I thought it would look adorable stitched. So imagine my excitement when I learned that Mollie has kindly made that cute little book not only into a FREE embroidery pattern, but also offers a fantastic tutorial for turning it into a bookmark too! This is definitely a project I'm going to try, hopefully soon! :)

Inspiration: Quilting and Embroidery

In more embroidery news, the blog &Stitches recently ran a guest post by Allegory at A Thousand Needles showing how to make a quick and funky sampler out of a single Dresden Plate quilt block! There's a nice close-up of one of the seams in this post.

I've been intrigued with quilting, especially paper piecing lately, which I blame on both Emma's hexagons - like this cute bag! - and Imaginesque's FREE pattern series! But I can't imagine committing to a quilt, even a small lap one. So the idea of taking a single block and making it the basis for some stitchery is very interesting to me!

Another great idea I came across a while ago is a the lovely FREE embroidery design by blogger Amy at Nana Company that uses the "petals" of a Dresden Plate block to effectively frame a lovely little saying - "Do Small Things With Great Love". It's actually a quote from Mother Teresa, one I'd not heard before :)

The template for the block isn't given, but there are a *ton* of tutorials online, most of which use special quilter's templates and are sewn by machine. This great photo step-by-step hand-sewing tutorial by Liesl Made (part of her Mini Patchwork Quilt Tutorial Series) shows how to make your own template out of paper!

Quilting is definitely intriguing to me, and just within the realm of patchwork and paper piercing there are so many different styles it makes my head spin! I'm not ready to commit yet but I am *very* curious so we'll see what happens :)

A Fun New Monthly Embroidery Stitch Along (SAL)

In yet more exciting embroidery news, Julie from Button, Button (who also writes for &Stitches) recently wrote a very thoughtful and inspiring post about starting a monthly small sampler project to help her to try out new techniques and keep motivated. I think this is a fabulous idea! Happily, she has decided to open her new stitching adventure to others! Here's what she has to say:

"I doubt I could manage to lead a formal stitch-along for a whole year, but I will do everything I can to informally make sure you can follow along if you’d like. I’ll share resources, links, materials needed for each samplers, patterns if applicable, etc. Which sounds a lot like a stitch-along, now that I think about it — but less organized and step-by-step-y."

Sounds great to me! This quote comes from the start of Julie's first sampler post on Huck Weaving, where she stitches a test piece to try out her threads. While I likely won't be trying out Huck Weaving since you need a special fabric, I'll definitely be watching the SAL as it progresses and hopefully I may be able to join in for a month!

An Amazing Embroidered Heirloom Wedding Gift!

For some lovely embroidery, check out Moonsilk Stitches' beautiful wedding gift - a strawberry ring pillow! MS has chronicled the project from her hand-drawn design to the stitching (here and here) and the stretching right to her amazing finish! It's really inspiring to see the entire "life cycle" of a project like that, and her gorgeous work is sure to become a heirloom piece that will be treasured for many years to come!

Getting the Vintage Look with Variegated Floss!

My friend Karen, of Karen's Colourful Creations, recently revisited her first stitching style and finished an inherited stamped cross-stitch kit! The final finish is *amazing*, and has a truly vintage (what I always think of as "happily loved" LOL) feel due to Karen's truly *genius* creative decision to use variegated floss! It has the very pretty gently faded look but the modern threads will give some new life to the old fabric :)

Designer Spotlight: Brooke Nolan of Brooks Books

Thanks to a recent profile at DMC Threads, I have discovered a designer that is completely new to me, who is producing lovely, intricate and unusual works! The designer is Brooke Nolan, and her company is Brooke's Books Publishing.

I have never seen anything like her cute dimensional designs! They are meant to be worked on perforated paper, but the kits state that there is an extra chart included for fabric stitching too! I've tried working with paper in the past, with horrid results. So I think it's wonderful that there is a fabric option included! Brooke's Books' Spirit Angels collection is just *gorgeous* and includes some lovely crafty Spirit Angels:

The three Cross-Stitching Spirit Angels:

And the three Angels of Crochet, Knitting and Quilting:

It's well worth clicking on the photos for the larger image, because it is the little tiny details that make these works so amazing. The wings on Knitting, for example, are white cable stitches! And each Angel carries all the tools of her craft strung along the ribbon she's holding between her hands, from little tiny scissors to itsy bitsy tomato pincushions studded with microscopic pins! They are really charming :)

The other good news is that Brooke's Books has a number of FREE designs available as .PDFs, including a Stitcher's Alphabet series which has just concluded with the letter "Z"! Several of the blocks or motifs (like the cute C for Crochet, and the K for Knitting) could be stitched on their own, and would make lovely needlebook covers!

There are also a number of seasonal projects, including this lovely trio (all maples!) of green, red and gold Sparkling Autumn Leaves (direct PDF link) that is particularly timely for stitchers who want to look ahead to Fall-themed projects :)

FREE Cross-Stitch Design: Blanket Biscornu

Over at Unnumbered Stitches (formerly Tintock Tap), Lesley turned an upsetting event - someone charting one of her patterns and sharing it without her knowledge on a forum - into a positive achievement by releasing her own official version of the design and sharing it for FREE! Both sides of the biscornu are charted :)

Important and Helpful Information for Bloggers!

I'm always on the lookout for new blogging tips and tricks, and I have two really great tutorials to share that are useful for anyone who deals with images online:

Carina (of Carina's Craftblog, also co-founder of &Stitches and designer of Polka & Bloom) recently ran a wonderful three-part tutorial showing how to watermark blog photos. This is something that I've been thinking about doing for a while but keep putting off. Often, watermarks can be very in-your-face and intrusive, but Carina's see-through watermarks are much more elegant and seem amazingly easy to make!

The tutorial uses the free downloadable image editor Gimp (Note: Gimp was made for Macs and although it can be run on Windows there are known issues), but the idea could be used with free online editors like the Pixlr Editor. I'll be experimenting in Pixlr myself :) Here are the posts in order - Part 1: Four Reasons You Should Use Watermarks; Part 2: Adding Watermarks in One Easy Step; and Part 3: Making a Transparent Watermark File. Here's a good example of Carina's technique:

This is a pretty picture of a new crochet project from a recent post. When I look at this photo, I actually see the yarn first! The watermark is faint but visible to anyone looking for it. Carina's series gives lots of great food for thought :)

And Pardalote Makes has an excellent tutorial on how to search online for an image's original source - using the image itself!!! This completely stunned me, as I've done *tons* of sifting through links trying to follow things back to the source over the years. Honestly, I'm pretty good at tracking things down. Or at least I *thought* I was, LOL! And I had no idea that it was possible to *use the image itself* as your search term in Google Images! Well worth reading. I'll definitely be trying this out!

And as Pardalote points out, with easy sharing on agrgregator sites (like Tumblr and Pinterest) and social media (like Facebook), most images lose all context. Not only is it important to credit the original creator, but I like reading more about a project - discovering how it came about - and, of course, finding more pictures :)

Another Tassel Tutorial: Stitched & Tied Scissor Fob

Over at Feeling Stitchy, the Bobbypin Bandit has posted an unusual scissors fob that consists of not one but *two* tassels: one embroidered on a little rectangle of felt, and a coordinating simple tied floss tassel. The combination is quirky and cute!

Announcing "Stitchy Stationery"!

And finally, I'm very excited to share some very happy news: My friend Crazy Cross-stitcher (aka CS) has opened her first Etsy store, Stitchy Stationery!!! Right now, she's focusing on hand-stitched greeting cards, using lovely Kreinik metallic threads, but hopes to branch out to other products in future. You can read all about it in her official Announcement post! I suggested the name and helped with the graphics :) Head on over and visit, I'm sure she would love to know what you think!

Whew! That's it for this edition. I'm hoping to make Stitchy News a semi-regular (i.e. whenever the mood strikes, LOL) feature again, so please let me know if you'd be interested! And if you have an idea for a future SN post, please e-mail me :)

SAL: Update & Choosing My Colours!

If you're just learning about the SAL, please visit the announcement post for more information (or click the banner at right >)! You're welcome to join in anytime :)

Sorry I'm accidentally a day behind, LOL! I meant to post yesterday, but time just got away from me. That really goes to show - this is a very relaxed SAL, and you can stitch and post at your own pace :) I'm going to try and put up a progress post at least once a week for the duration, but you can post whenever and however you feel like!

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who has joined in! Your support and enthusiasm mean so much to me, and I honestly (and obviously, LOL) can't do this without you. As CS mentioned in her post, hosting a SAL has been something I wanted to do even before I started ES, and so in a real way this is a dream come true for me :)

Karen also wrote a wonderful post about the SAL too! Both Karen and CS have been my major cheerleaders behind the scenes on this adventure, and are in effect my co-hosts, or rather my stitchy co-conspirators in crime! If you have any questions or problems though, please direct them to me, okay? That's why ES is on the banner ;)

Currently, we have six stitchers, including myself, who are stitching for sure (I've written these in the order of joining, so I can add new stitchers on the end if needed):

1. Aurelia @ Eglantine Stitchery (me!)
2. CrazyStitcher (CS) @ Crazy Cross-stitcher
3. Karen @ Karen's Colourful Creations
4. Emma @ EveningEmma
5. Jeanne @ Byrd's Nest
6. Erica @ Erica's Stitches

This is amazing, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what you all create!

Over the weekend, I took my time and thought hard about what colourway I wanted to use, but after playing around with a few ideas, I kept coming back to the Original Colourway! This surprised me greatly, since I was fully intending to sparkle it up with some metallics as usual, but I think it will be more serviceable this way.

My poor bookmarks do get a LOT of use, LOL, so they need to be sturdy :)

However, I'm going to try something I have never done and use a pretty pastel Aida for my fabric! I found a lovely and really cute lemony yellow in my stash:

Like most of my coloured Aida, this was inherited from my Stitchy Guru Mother, and the brand - Regency Mills - is one I've worked with before. I really like their fabrics, they came in lovely colours including a very pretty Copenhagen blue, which you can see in this active E-bay listing. Unfortunately, they've been out of business for years.

As you can see, I cut off a little snippet and stitched my first Rhodes Heart! I was anxious to see how the adaptation I had designed for the bookmark pattern would stitch up, and I'm pretty pleased with it :) I used three strands, like I did for my original Spring Garden Square, but two strands would give a finer look!

Proper Rhodes Hearts, from what I can find, usually don't have borders, but the outline fits in with all the other elements really well. I think it adds more shape too!

Here's the little snippet with the skeins from my colourway (the original colours):

That poor little card of dark green isn't very photogenic, LOL, as you can see I'm getting low on the 699 :) I actually almost didn't take the photos because it looks so sad, but hey, partial skeins are a stitchy fact of life right?

This will actually likely be enough to get me through the bookmark, but I'll pick up an extra skein just in case ASAP. I'm hoping to make it to the fabric store sometime this week to pick out my backing fabric! And maybe some ribbon for the marker.

I had a fabric in mind from my stash - a gardening print with little itty bitty gloves, trowels, potted plants and watering cans - but (wouldn't you know it? argh!) almost everything matched except the greens. And I wasn't inclined to stitch teal leaves ;)

While we're talking about project set-up, here's how I keep my working threads:

Fancy, it is not, LOL. But it works. I keep that nice white cardboard from various things (this one is, I must confess, from the box of the most delicious Lindt Lindor chocolate bars, which never touch the food since the bars are wrapped in foil).

I use a hole punch to put in as many "parking spaces" for my thread as I need (and often a few extra) and then use my fine-point Sharpie marker to label the top with the project info and the sides with the thread numbers. I cut off lengths as I need them, and I store the bobbins for the colours I'm using on binder rings until I'm finished with them. Then I put them back in my floss boxes until the next project!

This one is actually from my Spring Garden Square, but since I'm using the same colours I'm not going to bother to make a new one. I'm lazy like that, LOL ;)

Here's another view of it, with all my supplies so far:

The wonderful news is that if this method appeals to you at all, Mollie at the Wild Olive embroidery blog has just offered a free colour printable of the cutest Thread Organizers ever! They're shaped like floss bobbins with Mollie's trademark smiley faces, and happen to match her free printable floss bobbins from a while back!

If I had coloured ink right now, I'd totally have these printed off :) While not really practical for large projects, they're a really cute way to perk up small little stitching projects like the SAL bookmark! There's also some cute lovebirds and a kitty cat in this set of printables. If nothing else, they'd be a great conversation starter.

While looking around online, I found some other interesting bobbins: meant for the fridge, these clever magnetic floss bobbins would work wonderfully with magnetic pattern boards. And with this tutorial, you can make your own fancy bobbins out of scrapbook paper! These Flossy wooden animals sold at Etsy are super cute too :)

And since we're on the topic, this is a simple but genius way to label plastic thread bobbins (or even cardboard ones really), and this is a great tip about cutting a plastic drinking straw as protection for the sharp edges of plastic bobbins. I have a set of them that I was given as a gift, but the edges were very sharp and so I haven't used them much. I don't think it's great for long-term storage, but it might work in a pinch!

But enough about bobbins :) Here's some REALLY interesting news that I should've saved for the next Stitchy News but just couldn't wait to share: Over the last several months Sublime Stitching, the embroidery company run by Jenny Hart, has released several interesting floss collections, including colour-blended "Mingles" and a truly neon Glow-in-Darks. And now SS has just introduced Reflective Thread!!!

This was pretty much my reaction, LOL: Ooh -

There's also an interesting blog post on how to use it. The post states that "it's the stuff that glows like crazy in the dark when light hits it", like safety patches on clothing, and it will require special care to use. But how neat is that?! It's only in silver right now, but wouldn't it be great if there were different colours available?

Unfortunately, I'm not likely to get my claws into any Reflective Thread soon, but I do think it's such a neat idea. So that's my exciting news for today :) I'm hoping that The Great Fabric Search will commence tomorrow, I'll let you know how it goes!

More Silliness, For Stitchy Friends :)

This is not the post I meant to write today. But, seeing as it's officially Hallowe'en now, I have come bearing some treats instead of tricks for the three special ladies who happened, by chance, to all leave kind comments encouraging the insanity of my own Funky Finishing Fedora, which was the subject of my last post.

And so, I present: *starts flinging colourful confetti around*

Rainy Day Crafter's Funky Finishing Fedora:

RD said: My Funky Finishing Fedora would be as sparkly as it could possibly be, lol, and would be covered in sequins in shades of blue and green so that it would shimmer like the sea whenever I moved!! ;D

So I tried to capture that sort of oceanic feel with the seashells and the charms, and the "sequins" whose shine you will have to imagine, I'm afraid. Also, I have, for many years, imagined that if mermaids were really out stringing pearl necklaces on the sea rocks, that they'd have a helpful oyster or two to hold the pearls-to-be-strung in place. Hence, the Oyster Pearl Holder at the very front of the hat :)

Karen's Funky Finishing Fedora:

Karen said: My Finishing Fedora would be decked out with a huge assortment of ribbons all weaved together. There would also be tons of bows, and threads and a ruler stuck out like a feather for good measure. It would have beads tacked on randomly to make it sparkle and maybe a few strung and dangling from the brim. :)

For the sake of the embellishments, I was forced to tone down the woven ribbon background a little bit. But I know well Karen's love of all things vintage, and that inspired me to add random groups of buttons as well as beads along with the small bows. And this was also the impetus behind the Treasure Chest, the stitchy catch-all along the brim that I imagine would indeed be shaped like a little sea chest, rounded top and all, with a miniature lock at the front. Something precious and pretty to keep all of Karen's favourite flosses and sundry bits and bobs near at hand ;)

CrazyStitcher's Funky Finishing Fedora:

CS said: My Funky Finishing Fedora would include red (obviously) metallic floss and seed beads, along with other colours that I like. There would also be white and yellow roses. Having seen your Fedora, I would definitely want to include some floss bobbin 'corks'. As for the colour of the fedora itself, I'm undecided. x

I joked with CS that her Fedora would have to be be amethyst velvet, suitable for royalty, and I liked the idea so much that I ran with it :) The round embellishments are not meant to be beads but rather polished gemstone cabochons. Those are also inset in the middle of each bead strand "scallop" on the brim trim. The bedraggled butterfly is supposed to be made of the same gemstones, and therefore have a bright translucent stained-glass like look. You'll have to use your imagination there I fear! CS also loves birds, and has a hummingbird on the background of her site. So the little Bluebird of Happiness holding all her floss and tools serves to bring her luck! :)

So there you have it; three very Special Hats for three very Spectacular Ladies! I hope that these are close to what you all had in mind, in spirit, if not actual design! *stops throwing confetti about and curtsies*

I apologize for the dull colours, which are a direct result of the absence of Mr. Sun, and of the dents of erased scribbles that should not have shown up that nevertheless managed to show up where they shouldn't have been! I actually wasn't even going to post the pictures because of that when I saw what the camera had picked up (it must have had something to do with the angle?) but it's all in fun after all :)

Happy Hallowe'en! Be as spooky as you like, but be safe in doing so ;)

Vintage Cartoon Card - Don't You Love Their Expressions?!