Comments are fixed!

If you tried to comment before, but couldn't get the pop-up box to well, pop up, it's been fixed thanks to Craft Assasins for letting me know about the issue over on flickr, where I am gonestitchin.

I have several projects that I have done in the mean time that I haven't posted about, I'll get those posted soon!

Sorry about the comments being busted!

Crayon Tinting

I read a great tutorial about crayon tinting at Urban Threads.  I decided to try it out for The Fairy, my current work in progress.  I believe she is in the Craft Pad by Jenny Hart.

It's easy.  Go on!  Try it out for yourself.  All you need is your fabric with a pattern, crayons, a couple sheets of paper, and an iron.

The stitching is in progress at the moment.  I've found that I like more contrast in the colors of the tinting and stitching.  So for instance, the dark green shoes are lined with dark purple, instead of forest green.  It just gives it that something extra special.

In the mean time, I've got a couple of birthdays, a visit from my baby niece, and Easter coming up around the corner.  I've got lots of things cooking, so check back.

Two WIPS down!

Two WIPS down!  Many more to come.

I've got some plans floating around in my brain - too many to mention.  But here are a couple of finished Works In Progress.

The Eyes from Jenny Hart's Sublime Stitching.

This is the very first transfer I ever did after the Samplers.  Isn't she beautiful?!  I love her!  I'm stunned by her beauty every single time.  I knew the moment that I saw the eyes in the Sublime Stitching book that I wanted to do this one.

She was a toughie.  It may have been a mistake to start with such a realistic pattern.  One false stitch and it's clearly not right.  I tore out the stitches in her eyes more than a few times.  I finally just had to forge ahead because I was liable to end up with just one a couple of large holes where the eyes should have been.

I started with the lips, then eyebrows.  The eyebrows are a mix of two different shades of brown.  I tried a seed stitch in the brow, but it looked ridiculous, so I ripped that out too.  I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever finish anything. 

Next, I began the black satin stitch of the eye.  I set it aside when I didn't have the white floss to continue.


I'm so glad that I did.  See how much that little bit adds?  While at the craft store for white floss, I picked up flesh tone for the eyelids and more greens. Next was the green of the eye, the iris. I used four different shades of green to make up the satin stitch and it turned out much better than I expected.  I finished it up with a few scalloped chain-like stitches for the eye lashes. and a split stitching of black eyeliner.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

The Fan Dancer from Jenny Hart's Emroidered Effects.

I like her very much, too.  In fact, I may like her slightly better than the eyes in person.  She fun and kitchy and I'm quite pleased with how she turned out.

The feathers stitched up in a breeze.  I redid her hair several times.  I need just the right mix of black, purple and dark brown to satisfy my creative yearnings.  I used a stem stitch for her hair.  It was tricky to get used to, and I ended up back peddling quite frequently.

I was scared stiff to do her face.  One misplaced stitch, and it wasn't so attractive.  I redid this over and over, as well.  The transfer was very light in some places - especially her eyes and lips.  Very important to getting her expression across!  It turned out, though.  I really love the way her lips appear pouty and botox-infused up close.

I'm quite thrilled with the sequins and french knots at the eye of the feather that mimics a peacock feather quite nicely in person.  I used on strand each of the electric blue, turquoise, purple, and fuchsia in the feather with a iridescent sequins to back it.

Hello Darling wits done with a back stitch in a pinkish-red that compliments the raspberry walls of our kitchen.  It's a bit rough, but looks, well - darling from a distance.

Baby Bibs

I'm currently working on two baby bibs for lil man.  One is a Valentine's Day inspired creation of tattoo-like hearts inscribed with Mom and Dad.

The other is a nod to his UFC-loving Daddy - a skull with the words TAP OUT using Jenny Hart's Tattoo Alphabet .

I love them both separately but equally.

The Tap Out bib was relatively easy to transfer and stitch.  I've got some learning to do in stitching letters, but overall I'm happy with this design.  I'd love a smoother satin stitch, I think it will come with more practice and experience.  I've learned that one or two strands at a time make a much smoother satin stitch.

The Tattooed Hearts bib was much more trouble, but in the end is proving to be worth the pain.  I first tried to transfer the patterns manually.  Using Jenny Hart's Tattoo Your Towels patterns, I thought I could just cut and lay them out to create what I saw in my own mind's eye.  The result was not pretty.

But I was not to be discouraged.

I had previously scanned the transfers into pdf format before I began working with them.  I used Adobe Photoshop to arrange on the computer what I had dreamed up.

I was in love.

I then took some time to trace the design with colors, outlining my pattern and arranging a color scheme.

I printed the pattern, scaled it to the right size for the bib.  I bought some transfer paper and a hot iron transfer pencil.

I traced the pattern on the translucent paper, then flipped the paper over and used the hot iron transfer pencil to retrace the design on the back.

This worked okay, but the transfer was still not dark or clear.  The fabric is a very thick terry cloth material, so it is the best it's going to get, I believe.

The bibs are a very good, absorbent quality I bought at Toys-R-Us.  I stitched them with a full six strand, so that the floss did not get lost in the terry cloth, except for the lettering and satin stitches.  I used 2 strands for that.  The clothe was sometimes hard to poke the needle through, but overall I am happy with the bibs. 

I do like that I can now reuse this pattern over and over again.  All I need to do is retrace the design with the hot iron transfer pencils before reusing it for a new project.  I also like that I have scraps left from the paper I cut the pattern from to use for smaller designs.

I don't care for the red transfer which ends up being a light pink on the fabric as I work, but there was no black available.

I'm hoping to finish the hearts design tonight so that I can have it ready for lil man this weekend when we go make the trek to Minnesota.

Update:

And it's done.  Finished it last night around 10:30, washed, dried, snapped a quick pic this morning.

Works in Progress

Okay, long time no post.  I have some works in progress, though I haven't posted anything new in a while.

I finished the first sampler, and felt an inexplicable pride.  I was very happy with my color choices, and that I was able to learn the stitches and finish it in about one week.  It is not perfect, of course, but that's not what this is supposed to be about anyway.

It's about creating.  A creative outlet for me that I can do at home or carry anywhere else with me.  It's about adding that little something extra to our white kitchen towels.  It's about giving hand made gifts.

After that, I started on the second sampler, which I am very happy with.  I've learned a couple of new techniques.  Splitting the floss.  What a huge difference this can make in your stitches!  Blending floss.  Oh, how I love this effect.

Apparently, it is Very Important to get dark, uniform lines when transferring.  I thought at the time that it would be okay, even though they were slightly lighter, I thought I could make it work.  Except!  That now I can't see those little x-x-x's for the cross stitches, which I would just eyeball, but a) I'm not much for eyeballing things, and b) with the left side mirroring those same x-x-x's it will be obvious and ruin all my hard work and my beautiful sampler.  So, I've decided to put that aside until I can figure out a way to transfer the pattern directly over top of where the old transfer.  A light box would come in handy.  Hubs tried to help me transfer using or shoji lamp, but the fabric lampshade did not lend itself well.  We've derided to try it on a sunny day over a window with sunlight exposure.

Which left me with nothing to stitch.

*Sigh*

So, I got out some new towels.  And set out to make some new transfers.  I love each and every one of them.

The Eyes.

The Fan Dancer.

The Fairy.

Tweeny's bird cage and curious kitty.  She did not much care for her sampler.  But, I thought she may have more interest in her own design.  She did like the idea of stitching, but didn't get very far.

We also got some more floss colors specifically for our new towel transfers.  I hope I finish one of these WIPs at some point.  Otherwise, I'm just doomed to a life of *oh look!  something new and shiny to stich!*  Which will just not be the same.....

Ooooh! Niiiiice.

Just when you have begun to wonder if this is some sort of weird shrine to Sublime Stitching.....

I was out browsing around today.  Ya know, window shopping.  Oh no, not Out.  In.  Online window shopping.  It's the best kind, really.

I found some real gems on Urban Threads.  And the pdfs are only $1.00! 

I can not wait to try some of these out.  There are so many great ones.  You'll have to check them out for yourself.

While you are there, stop by the Tutorial Section for some lessons in Crayon Tinting.  So that's how you do that!

Oooooh La La!

Sunday evening I resumed the stitching lesson sampler.

I worked on some split stitching and the dreaded french knots.

Let me just say ~

I did it!  The french knot is easy fun with Jenny Hart's instructions and diagram in Sublime Stitching and Embroidered Effects.

Just go nice and easy.  Patience, my dear, patience.  Use two hands.

Magnifique, No?

Oui?!!

Merci très beaucoup!

Stitchin 101

After getting my transfer on and then tidying up the house of it's usual chores and weekly debris, I settled in with my sampler from Sublime Stitching.

First, I broke out the scrap threads tin from my mom's house.

Came up with a color scheme.

Aaaaand...started stitching.

Ahhh... I'm already a big fan of this twinkle stitch.

I'm in lurv with the split stitch.  So fancy looking.  So easy!

Satin stitch.  You are gorgeous.  And yet, I think we are not all the way there yet.  I stiched, and pulled it out, and restarted this three times already.  Unfortunately, I think maybe the cloth was too tight in the hoop?  I have a lot of extra thread here.  In fact, I think I could make a pocket out of you.

Hmmmmm.....

I'm not quite as friendly with the daisy stitch, but we are on speaking terms.  I think she'll grow on me.

The fern stitch scares the bee-jeez out of me.  And the chain stitch.   What is with you, anyway, Chain Stitch?  What is your point?  I can make your beautiful little loops with the split stitch.  And we are in love.  In fact, we are going to run away together.

The French knots.  I'm hiding from them....

Hello, my old friend cross stitch.

After a full day's stitchin' for a few hours here and there.

Prep

Saturday morning.  Ahhhh.

Fresh piping hot coffee from the Kuerig.  With vanilla creamer.

New books from Sublime Stitching.

Virginal white dish towels.

What to do, what to do?

I had my first projects all planned out.  But after receiving my order, I thought it would probably be a good idea to oh, i don't know, learn the stitches first.

There are so many great patterns I didn't know what I wanted to start with, which designs were worthy of my most awesome tea towel, at the same time wouldn't take so long that I'd become flustered and give up.

I decided to start out with the stitching samplers on flour sack dish towels.  I made one for myself and one for Tweeny.

First, Launder the towels.  Get out your supplies.

Ironing Board

Iron

scrap fabric

patterns

scissors

straight pins

fabric pen

This looks suspiciously like work.  Hmph.

Take a moment to relax.  Sip your coffee.  Day dream about your gorgeously bitchin tattooed towels.  The oohs and aaaahs from your friends.  The wonderfully coveted gifts that you will give your loved ones with tags that say Hand Made with Love for You by Me.....

Okay, now.

Fold the towel in the way that you will hang it for every day use.  I pinned the pattern on and hung it on the stove to be sure that I was happy with the placement.  Then I marked the corners with a water soluble pen for use on fabric.

Lay the scrap fabric down to protect your ironing board pad from overzealous transfer ink.

Remove the pattern and pins from your practice run.

Iron the towel to remove the wrinkles and prep the fabric.  Make sure the steam setting is off (steam does not play nicely with the transferable ink), double check and that the iron is hot.  After a couple of passes of the iron test the fabric with your hand to makes sure the cloth is very warm to the touch.  Quickly place the pattern face-down just so on the fabric using your aforementioned corner marks.

I found it best at this point to just sort of press, or stamp with the iron.  When I made a couple of passes over the pattern I found that either the pattern, the fabric or both tend to shift around just enough to blur the pattern.

On the 4th try I got the best results.

I pinned the fabric and scrap to the iron board cover so that both were securely in place.

I pressed down with the iron, leaving it in place for several seconds and then lifting it up, repositioning the iron  and stamping it down again. Rinse and Repeat.  Paying special attention to the corners and outlying edges, which tend to be the faintest lines because anything in the middle had been overlapped several times.

Try not to peak.  I mean, you kind of have to at first.  'Cuz if you don't you may not get it dark enough.  But once you peak, by very carefully lifting the corner of the transfer, pressing your face down next to the board, meticulously replace it, it's already been shifted just a hair.  It's maddening.

Once you have done a practice transfer on a scrap cloth, you'll have an idea of how long it will take to get the lines darkened to your liking.  You want them just dark enough to see, but not so dark that they are very thick or you'll be wasting the ink.  Remember, these transfers are reusable, so don't over do it.  You will most likely want to use them again and again.

Try it several times before you mark on your 'perfect' canvas with the 'one perfect' pattern.

This would be a great use for those patterns included in the book that you don't want or think you've got no use for.  There was a lot of comments in the reviews about not wanting or having any use for the baby patterns.  But there are so many good ones.  I can hardly see how anyone could get to using them all.  Anyway, my point is if there are a couple of patterns that fall into this category for you, use them by practicing your transferring skills.  This is an important step along your path.

Can you see all of the overzealous transfer marks?  That could be on your ironing board.  Fair warning.

The samplers are a little tricky just because they are bigger patterns to begin with, so keep that in mind. Don't get too frustrated.  Patience is a virtue, my friends.  It won't be perfect the very first time.  So just go with it.  Remember that this is a hobby, and supposed to be fun, so don't stress.

Once you free yourself from the idea that it should be just-so, it's really quite satisfying to see your trasfer appear where just minutes ago, there was nothing.  Viola!

Getting in the Groove

After ripping open my packages from UPS, and leafing through the patterns and pages of my books I had some decisions to make.  What did I want to do first?  Which pattern was worthy of my Most Awesome Tea Towel?  Would I even be able do the stitching?  How should the patterns be arranged to get the optimal design?

It was almost paralyzing.  I couldn't decide where to start.

Hmmmmm...

How about the stationary?  I could start on that while the towel was being laundered.  Get used to the feel of the needle in my hand, get the creative juices flowing.

 Ladies and Gentleman, start your engines.

Beautiful.

Hey, what do you think I'm supposed to do with this?

It's the back of the card. 

But if I stitch it, both flaps will look like this on the inside.

 

Where would I write?  Do I paste note cards over the backside of the stitching to write on?

Please advise....

Special Delivery!

When I cam home from work Friday night there were boxes, boxes everywhere.  It turns out that  all of my books from Barnes and Nobel and my stuff from Sublime arrived on the same night that all of hub's mark-down specials motorcycle gear came in.  So it looked a little bit like Christmas at our place.

Either that or the back of the UPS truck had come unlatched.  I'm not sure which.

Here's my new stash.

"Tonight's gonna be a good night....Tonight's gonna be a real good night."

Still Waiting.....

I'm still waiting for my stuff.  See Me.  See Me waiting very patiently?

I did track my book order from Barnes & Noble.  I believe I should be getting those today.

I have no idea when my order from Sublime Stitching will be here.  I ordered it last Wed and it has now been ~foreva~ since then.  But they did send it out that Friday, the 15th, so it's been 7 days en route via snail mail.

Note to Self:  Order stuff from Sublime waaaaaay in advance.  Just because you fall in love with something on Monday, and order on Wednesday, does not mean that you will be able to stitch on Saturday.  Who would have thunk?

I think I've been spoiled by Fed Ex and UPS big-box-1-to-3-day-shipping.  My next order from Sublime will be for transfer paper and a stylus.  Because they do have their patterns available in pdf format.  And that rocks.  Because I will be able to arrange my designs using Adobe Photoshop, and then trace right on to the textile at hand, and that will be awesome.  And - no waiting!  But, alas, they are sold out right now.  Which is fine, really, 'cuz how much stuff do I really think I need to get started?!

But for now, I'm just waiting for my kit to arrive so that I can practice some stitches....

And for some books to drool pour over.  Hopefully I'll be able to pass an entire Saturday morning sipping coffee and daydreaming up some projects.  Even better would be if both orders arrive and I can get started with my stitchin'.

Inspire Me!

If you are in need of inspiration you must check out this flickr pool for sublime stitching.  No really.  The projects on here are incredible!  I only hope I can live up to the inspiration.  But, I need to get my stuff first.  Still no stuff!  It's making me crazy!  And we are in the middle of ice storms.

Which means:


*  Slower Snail Mail

* It's a great time to stay home and start on a new project!  Ugh!

Patience is a virtue, my friends.  One that I do not posess.

Numero Uno

For my first trick I will be making a tattooed towel.  I love this idea, and I think it's the perfect project to jump into and use as a so-called scratch pad.

Inspirations:

Tattoo Your Towels Patterns by Sublime Stitching

Mary's Doodle cloth

Imacutie's Tote

I have no idea how it will turn out or if it's too big of a chunk to bite off, but I love the random coverage of these pieces.  Also, I would love to make a tote like this for me and for Tweeny (12 year old daughter).

While looking for these images again I found this awesome baby onsie that I must make for the wee ones in my life.  So I'm adding this for inspiration, as well.  Perhaps Projects 2 and 3? idk. mybffjill.

Onsie Last Name

Bitchin' Books

So for days I have been pinning over these incredible books by Jenny Hart at Sublime Stitching. 

To get started in any new hobby you need some sort of start-up cash.  I'm a little tight on the budget.  Actually, I'm just a little tight all together.  Spending money is not my idea of a good time.

But I am so in love with these books.  And I just know if I had them I could be well on my way to making great things.  There are so many patterns to choose from at Sublime Stitching and I love them all.  I can't very well buy them all right off the bat.  (What if....gasp!  I'm no good at this?)

Anyway, I can't stitch them all at the same time anyhow.

But I want those books, dammit.  And they are chock-full of awesome design transferable patterns!

And that's when it hit me.  I have two unused gift cards to Barnes & Noble!

I love to read.  Anyone who knows me knows that I love to read.  But I don't buy a lot of books.

1. I'm tight like that.

2. I never ever read the same book twice, so I use the library and friends' copies if I'm goin to read anything.

3. I'm a saver.  I save even my gift cards for a rainy day.  How sick is that?

Except!  Now is a rainy day!  I want those books and I'm going to Barnes & Nobles online to buy them right now!

......Just as soon as I grab my umbrellas.

Sublime Stitching Order

Last week I ordered the Ultimate Stitching Kit, Tattoo your Towels and the Tattoo alphabet patterns from Sublime Stitching.

I'm anxiously awaiting the goods to come in.

I've been browsing on flickr.  Wow!  Some really exciting things out there.  I'm chompin' at the bit to get started.

My first project will, of course, be a tattoed towel.  An Awesome Tea Towel at that.

I've got all kinds of glorious projects bouncing around in my head.  Tattoed Tea towels.  Something special for my grand baby.  (Yes, my Grandbaby.  My eldest stepson's first born.  No, I'm not old enough to be a Grandma.  And "this is not your Gramma's embroidery!"  I am not your typical Granny. )

Some bloomers for my baby niece.

A tattooed baby doll.  Check out this Gallery from the Tattoo Baby Doll Project!

A tattooed tote for my daughter, now 12.  Perhaps one for me.

A seat belt cozy perhaps?

How about a rockin' denim jacket for the lil guy?

Or a precious blankie for the sweet lil princess?

Maybe some pillow cases for my older niece and nephew.

Some tea towels for my female family members and friends.

Perhaps some card stock book marks for my fellow divas in Literary Diversions Book & Wine Club.

So many possibilities!  Endless options.