Maude and the Super Long Post

Hey there stitchy peeps! I have a lot to share with you today, and I am so excited!

Last time I posted, I mentioned that I had to stitch a birthday shirt for my baby, who celebrated his first birthday recently. I made a shirt for my four-year-old's birthday last month, so it only seemed fair to make one for the baby, too. Unfortunately, I spaced it until the day before his birthday, so I was pressed for time. But I already had the shirt and the pattern, so no biggie. All I needed to do was trace the pattern with my Sulky, iron it to the shirt (which, by the way, was an adorable little white ribbed tank I'd found for a mere dollar...perfect for summertime and my budget!), and stitch stitch stitch! The pattern I selected was a cute, simple one that I knew I could complete in a short amount of time.

Here, take a look, you'll see what I mean:


This adorable little party owl is from Pimp Stitch, a cool new online embroidery company who recently celebrated their grand opening. Be sure to check out their blog for this sweet owl and other cool freebies.

So, anywho...

Sigh. I hate to tell you this, but that picture up there is as good as it gets. There is no shirt, no adorable completed stitchy piece to show you. Because things went wrong. Very very wrong. You know what happens when you try to stitch on a ribbed tank without any stabilizer?

Bad things. Very bad things. *shudder*

The whole thing was a bust. The shirt was super stretchy and pretty much impossible to stitch on, even though I had it secured in my trusty & beloved Q-snaps. The whole darn thing ended up in the trash.

The trash? you might be thinking. Why not just rip out what you did and try again with stabilizer?

Well...

When I was poking around at my stitches, trying to undo them, I may have ripped a teensy little hole in the shirt. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I was angry, tired, frustrated, and ripping out those stitches rather furiously. Whoopsies.

Anywho, enough about that. I will make a shirt for the baby soon, I promise. But in the meantime, I have more to share with you! I am so pleased and excited to announce that (drum roll please) Bathroom Stitching is complete!!!

Ta-da!!!


Oh my gosh, you guys, I am sooooooo in love with her! I colored her in a bit with colored pencils, 'cause the fabric was oh-so-very white and made her look a bit pale and ghost-like. I had originally tried to add some stripes to the dress, but that didn't pan out. I love this version, stitched by a fellow Flickr-ite. Very cool, don'tcha think? I am LOVING that dress. :)

Anywho, the pencils I used are meant for memory books, so they are acid-free, lightfast, archival quality, fade proof, and waterproof, so they shouldn't ruin the fabby over time.

I debated on whether I should make her shoes aqua to match her purse, or brown to tie the piece into my new bathroom decor. I obviously chose the brown, though I think it looks like black in the pic. Oh well. Anywho, here's a pic of Maude (oh, by the way, did I tell you I named her?) against the shower curtain.

This is pre-ironing, so please don't mind the wrinkles.


Here she is again:


And again:


And again:


Now I have to frame her and hang her on the wall. I found a frame today that I think will work, so keep your fingers crossed for me.

I also plan to frame & hang this page from my current wall calendar:


I think these two lovely ladies will make quite a stunning pair in my bathroom, don't you? :-D

Ok, I'm almost done with this super long post, I promise! There's just one more thing I wanna share with you today. One of my fav-o-rite embroidery blogs is Feeling Stitchy. If you love embroidery and haven't checked this blog out, you need to. It is jam-packed with great tutorials, links, info, pics, interviews and articles, all related to--of course--stitching! This blog is one of my daily reads, so I was thrilled to find that one of my pics made it into a post! Tee hee! (My humble little pic is #8, "vitamin parade", which you've seen featured here on my blog.)

Whew! I think that about does it for today!

Happy Stitching, everyone. :)

Short on Words, Long on Pics

Hey there, stitchy peeps! I'm short on time today but I have some stuff I wanna share with you. I finished the french knot 'fro on Bathroom Stitching! Yea!! Now the whole thing is almost complete. I just gotta stitch her legs and shoes.

Here, check it out:




I like to take pictures of my stuff at crazy angles. Here, lookee:


Here she is, with the 'fro almost done. The little bald spot is kinda cute.


And here she is, almost complete:


I really do love that 'fro.

That's all for now, for I have a birthday party to plan! My baby turns 1 year old tomorrow. And I realized this morning that I haven't even begun the preparations for stitching his bday shirt. Oooops, bad mommy! So I gots to get on it! More on that soon. But in the meantime...

Happy Stitching!!

(If you wanna see any of these pics close up, just click on 'em and it will take to you to my Flickr, where you can view them larger. I ♥ Flickr. *dreamy sigh*)

Potty Swap

Well...

Unfortunately, Teacher has yet to receive Teacher Gift. My poor son has a NASTY sinus infection and allergies, so he missed the last day of preschool and graduation. Poor little guy, he's on antibiotics for two weeks, on top of an antihistamine. But worst of all is he just doesn't understand that school is out for the summer. :(

So, I guess now is as good a time as any to tell you about The Swap, which I have decided to call Potty Swap. ('Cause a swap needs a name, ya know.) I am so so excited about this. It's my first one. :) Amy from Early Bird Special and I are in need of some cute new embroidery for our powder rooms, and what better way to attain them than to swap? Yea!! She is such a talented stitcher, I cannot wait to see what she has in store for me!

Here's a little sneak peek of what I have been working on:


I know it's not much, but I don't want to give away too much! These are the colors I am using on her piece. Amy requested something with a wildlife theme, and the pattern I chose fits the bill. :) I actually had quite a difficult time deciding on something. I searched in vain but kept coming up empty-handed. I tried two other things out before I found the right pattern. Option #1 was cute, but waaaaaaay too detailed. It didn't seem so bad at first, but once I started stitching, I quickly realized I was in over my head. Option #2 never even made it onto fabric. I tried 3 times to trace it onto transfer paper with my beloved Sulky pen, but I just couldn't get it right. So back to the drawing board. (Figuratively, of course, for my drawing skills are poor.) Option #3, the one I am stitching right now, is so cute and perfect, I just know Amy is gonna love it. While it's not the super-detailed piece I originally had in mind, I really feel it is the right choice for Amy. And have I mentioned how freakin' cute it is???

I may post another sneak peek-y picture soon, but not without making sure it's ok with Amy. I don't want to spoil the surprise. The super cute surprise. :-D

Stay tuned!

Teacher Gift

So, I totally procrastinated on making my older son's Teacher Gift. I started it yesterday, finished it today, and will be giving it to her tomorrow. It was a very easy project to stitch, thank goodness. The directions called for back stitching, lazy daisies, and french knots. Super simple stuff. I couldn't help but to throw in some split stitches and stem stitches, however. Gotta make it fun!

So here's how it started out:


This is how it ended up looking:


The lighting is lousy so the pic doesn't really do the piece justice. It's pretty cute in person...Not my style, but cute none-the-less. I know Teacher will like it, and that's what counts, right? :)

I used the dreaded metallic floss for the halo, but didn't have any troubles at all. Yea! It was the kind on the spool, not the skein. The skein has given me trouble in the past, but the spool was an angel to work with. (Get it? Angel? 'Cause I used it to stitch a halo...Ok, ok, I know, it's a lousy pun.)

Anywho...

Last time I blogged, I promised to tell you a bit more about the swap I am doing with Amy from Early Bird Special. And I will, I promise...but not tonight. All that stitching on the Teacher Gift has worn me out and I am a sleepy little chicky who needs to get her tired little heinie to bed. I gots to get up early tomorrow! Ick.

So, until next time (which I hope is soon, 'cause I really want to tell you about this swap project I am doing, it is so cute)...Happy Stitching!

Where Did This Week Go?

Wow! I can't believe it's already Thursday evening. This week absolutely flew by. I have been a diligent little stitcher, lemme tell ya! Top Secret Project #1 is coming along quite nicely. More on that later. ;) Top Secret Project #2, however, has been put on hold so I can work on Not So Secret Project #3. The end of the school year is just around the corner, and I am making a gift for Teacher. Yup! I am excited about it, but I only have six days to finish it, and I have yet to actually start it. Well, I guess you could say that technically I've started it. I transferred the pattern a couple nights ago. Here, I'll show you:


But unfortunately, that's all I've done. And it didn't transfer particularly well. Ick. (The pattern is the white one on the right; the one on the left is the muslin with the transfer image. Hard to see, I know. Ugh.) I need to do a floss toss tonight to figure out the colors. This particular pattern isn't really my style or taste, but I know Teacher will like it, so I think I will enjoy stitching it. I can't wait to get it done, though, so I can resume work on Top Secret Project #1 and Bathroom Stitching. I haven't touched bathroom Stitching since I last blogged about it nearly a week ago, and I really want to get back to that french knot 'fro. And my Top Secret Projects.

Ok, that's it for tonight! I am devoting the rest of this evening to stitching!! Wish me luck with the floss toss. :)