Go make a Honey Bunny

     Picture by Orange you Lucky

Here is a fun project for a sweet Sunday, "honey bunny", a free pattern to embroider just in time for Easter.  How cute is that! Thanks to Helen, who is quite a talented gal.  In addition to her blog, Orange you Lucky, she has her own website, One Lucky Helen, which features her illustration, pattern design, paintings, and her toys! She even has published her own book, Embroidery for Little Miss Crafty: Projects and patterns to create and embellish which is out this month.  It looks pretty sweet!

I think I might stitch up my own honey bunny a little later, after I finish cleaning up my garden. Luckily, it won't take too long, since I have a great little honey of a helper.  My very own honey bunny.  He is really an English angora rabbit.  I spin his fur into snuggly soft yarn! I put him to work mowing the grass, since my dh isn't around to do it (like he said he would!).

  

I hope you have a great Sunday!  Here is a little heart for you.  It greeted me in one of my tulips this morning. My flowers have a lot of heart!

Follow me while I blog hop!

little girl freehand machine embroidery, originally uploaded by poketypatch.

Does this happen ever happen to you...You start visiting the blogs you "follow" and one link leads to another which leads to another and then your head feels like it will burst because there is so much inspiration and ideas on your journey?  It happens to me a lot.

This happened to me last week, starting at the blog, Pimp Stitch.  This blog focuses on crafts, sewing and embroidery; and, it often has links to fun tutorials.  I am trying to work on my embroidery skills, so I was enticed by a new entry on Friday, "Boy + Girl Pocket Pillows".  What are pocket pillows you ask.  Well, they are toddler sized pillows that can fit into toddler sized pockets!  And, they are really cute.  Since I love really cute kiddy stuff, I decided to hop over to Lauren's blog, goody-goody, for little girl and boy pocket pillows free PDF pattern.

With my new pattern printing out below, I decised to check out Another website I love,  Illustration Friday.  This is one of those sites where a member suggests a topic and then everyone who reads can submit an illustration in the medium of their choice on the topic.  I love it because many talented artists submit each week and there are links to their blogs which are full of inspiration!  The topic for this week was "poise".  Interesting, I thought, and I began to look at what artists were submitting.

I started with Golly Bard, who suggested the topic.  I headed over the her blog, Golly Bard's Drawing Room, and was blown away by her wonderful drawings! What talent!  She has her entry for Poise, "A Voracious Appetite", available in her ETSY Shop.  

So, I ask myself, what inpires Golly Bard; and, I click on the first name atthe top of her list "Visual Feast".  And, that would be, Cathy Cullis's Etsy Shop.  When I arrived at Cathy's shop, I realized that I had been there before.  Cathy is a talented mixed media and textile artist.  Her work evokes classic simplicity, and I had been awed by it when I happened upon her in another of my blog hopping episodes.  

So, with my head full of ideas and images, I decided to try and machine embroider the little girl PDF that I had gotten from Lauren.  The first picture above is what I came up with.  It is really cute, and I am going to make it into a pocket pillow for a little girl I know.  

Then, I decided to take it one step further.  I remembered some silhouettes that were posted by a contact of mine, Suzee Que, on flickr.  Suzee Que often posts vintage artwork to share for use in art projects.  She had posted this silhouette

Some are Vintage..some are not, originally uploaded by Suzee Que.

Here is my interpretation of it:

Pin Cushion Swap

I signed up for a pincushion swap on Swap-bot today. That sounds like fun. I have a hoard of pincushions already made, so I won't have to put too much added work into the mix.  Here is a simple one I made from a bottle cap

I did a quick search for pin cushion tutorials and found this quick sampling  for those who are interested:

How About Orange's Tiny Pin Cushion Tutorial

paper.string.cloth patchwork pincushion

Martha Stewart's strawberry pincushions

a wrist pin cushion from the Green Kitchen

a pincushion sewing kit from the Monkey Room

If you love pincushions, you might want to splurge on this gift for yourself  Pretty Little Pincushions (Pretty Little Series).  Or, you could go to the Pretty Little Pincushion Flickr group for more inspiration!

Embroidery 101

I have been trying to get better at my embroidery stitches.  Awhile back I made a first attempt at this on some tea towels that I had been saving.  I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy of Sublime Stitching: Hundreds of Hip Embroidery Patterns and How-To.  Since I have a little schnauzer, Snappy, I decided to try the scottie pattern in the book (it sort of looks like a schnauzer).  I made two of them and gave one to my mother.  We have been using the one I kept in my downstairs powder room/laundry room.  It has been washed multiple times, and still looks good!  That says a lot for a simple towel from the Dollar Tree and my novice handiwork!

Since it turned out so well, I am constantly trying to find appropriate but cost efficient towels to embroider on.  Unfortunately, Dollar Tree doesn't have anymore of the cute style above.  I looked at Walmart and found some plain white terrycloth bar towels.  They are suitable for patchwork applique but not really for embroidery.  I am wondering if there are any resources out there that I don't know about???  I suppose I could just break down and make the towel myself.  

I need to do something because I landed at the nicest blog today, Nini Makes.  It is the kind of blog that really appeals to me because showcases lots of different things like crafts and cooking and family life.  It also has lots of tutorials which is just what I need!  There was a wonderful PDF of a little happy Christmas tree scene perfect for embroidering on a tea towel.  I left a comment and was pleasantly surprised to find an email from Joan with the PDF attached. This design would perfectly embellish a little towel or pillow for a holiday hostess or teacher gift.  Thanks so much to Joan!  

Little House Ornament

little house front, originally uploaded by poketypatch.

I decided it was time to start thinking about making some ornaments since I signed up for the Ornament Swap again this year. I received my list of swap partners yesterday. The group is being administered by swap-bot.  This is a pretty cool site, especially if you like to participate in swaps.  I signed up for another swap that is swapping ribbon!  I think it is interesting and awesome that most of my swapping partners in the ornament swap are from the opposite parts of the USA than me, and two are from other countries! Last year my whole family got into the excitement of receiving the different ornaments. I hoping that this year will be just as much fun. 

To get in the mood, I did a quick GOOGLE search of handmade ornaments. The first site that popped up was Pimp Stitch. I was a little taken back by the name, but clicked anyways. Well, I hit the motherload - not only was there the absolute best tutorial here for a wee little house ornament, but there were tutorials for lots of embroidery related crafts!

The most recent post on the blog chronicled an interview with Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching: Hundreds of Hip Embroidery Patterns and How-To. Do you ever think that things just are supposed to happen, like clicking to a blog on a whim, and finding just exactly what you are currently interested in? During a recent surgical recuperation, I used the book Sublime Stitching to start learning how to embroider with it's great projects and patterns.

So, last night I took the plunge and made one of the little house ornaments. I have to say it was a fun, easy project. The only change I would make to the order of putting the ornament together would be to embroider the decorative elements before I sewed it together. It is probably just me and my inexperience at embroidery (don't look too closely at my stitches!), but I had a hard time with the embroidery with the bottom already sewn on the ornament. Despite this lack of experience, I think that the final product was pretty sweet!  It definitely brightened my day to see this cute little cottage sitting on my bedside table when I woke up this morning!

Old Magazines and Old Buttons

button flower, originally uploaded by poketypatch.

Does anyone else hate to throw away old magazines? A few weeks back, I was cleaning out the bookshelves in my bedroom and came across a stack of old magazines. I decided to pick out one magazine, look through it, and if I didn't find anything of interest, I was going to throw it out. Good try! The magazine I chose was the February 2000 issue of Country Living. Since Valentine's Day was on my mind, I found it uncanny that I would randomly pick out a Valentine issue!

Besides wonderful articles on "Flea Market Makovers" and "Collect it Now", there was one article in particular that caught my eye. "Button it Up!" chronicles the art of folk artist Mary Teeter who makes one-of-a-kind mosaics out of old fabrics, buttons and embroidery. A google search came up with a couple of galleries that feature Ms. Teeter's buttonwork which is awsome. And, since I have a sewing box fully of old buttons, I was inspired to start using them!

Valentine Needlecase Project

My creation, originally uploaded by poketypatch.

As I was rumaging through the attic this weekend, I found some old patterns I had printed out at least a year ago. One was a Valentine Needlecase. Since I have been trying to improve on my embroidery of late, I decided to use some of the felt I have been collecting each time I travel to Michael's, and whip up this little project. I am really pleased with the way that these turned out. They will be perfect for someone special on Valentine's Day!

Attempts at Embroidery

Sewing, knitting, crocheting, spinning, sewing, scrap booking are all things that I can do pretty well. But, when it comes to embellishing with simple embroidery stitches, I am at a loss. This weekend, I attempted to work on this skill with some simple projects I found on the Internet.

Getting prepared, I pulled out my cross stitch thread from the attic (it has been a while since I did any cross stitch). I also rooted through a wonderful sewing box my mother-in-law gave me a few years back full of vintage mending wool. There was wool in many different colors; and, it was bug-free. Amazing!



This wool is so awesome. It sold for only 4 cents in its day!

I tried one of the tutorials here starting simple with the Heart Tag and then moving on to more complex with the Tea Tag. What I love about tutorials is that they are just a starting point that get your crafty juices rolling. I ended up learning how to do a french knot and the blanket stitch. I am sure that there are a lot of sites to offer instruction on stitches like Rissa's Pieces Stitch Dictionary.

I am going to use these as tags for Christmas gifts. The "Tea Tag" will adorn a mason jar full of tea bags for a teach who just loves tea! I had a lot of fun with these, but my embroidery skills still need a lot of work.