Rainbow of tags

Embroidery back originally uploaded by wardi

Have you entered the Rainbow of Stitches contest yet? There's still a wee bit of time! So get out those hoops and needles!

I want to just throw this out there: for the purpose of the contest would you make sure your entries are tagged properly?

For example, if you are stitching with yellow on a pink background, please only tag it with 'yellow'. Otherwise it will show up under both tags, making it harder to sort through the entries for each colour. We look at the colour of the stitching, not the background! :-)

If your entry has lots of colours and you just can't decide which one fits best, use 'rainbow'. Although it's not an 'official' category, atleast that way those entries will be easier to keep track of than having them pop up under yellow, green, pink, blue etc! ;-)

Don't forget, you have until midnight 31st of May to enter. The contest pool will be closed at midnight Honolulu time so everyone has a chance to add their entries. Check this blog post to figure out when that is in your own time zone.


P.S. If you have entered the contest, why not leave a comment on this post and let us know which country you are in? Would be cool to see how international our stitching is. :-)

Patterns: Summer Flowers

I love this new summery pattern called Summer Flowers from Carina of Polka & Bloom. I particularly like the colours she's used, as she says in her blog, they remind her of an ice lolly, perfect for a cooling spot of embroidery!

Unicorns everywhere

Once upon a time... unicorns were quite rare but not anymore. This week I spotted not one but two lovely embroidered examples of this specimen!

This winged unicorn is from a free pattern by Aimee Ray and is perfectly stitched on a pillowcase by Georgia McDonald. Fabric designer Melissa Averinos treats us to a free unicorn pattern as well. Take a look here and make yourself a cute (embroidered) unicorn pillow!

Mirrors and stitches

WIP: shisha sampler, originally uploaded by Erratic Needle.

Shisha embroidery is one thing I have never tried, but looking at this beautiful sampler I think I may just have to!

Isn't it lovely? I really like the combination of all the different stitches and the colours. So fresh!

Nerine's Machine Embroidery

(I like how "Nerine's Machine" rhymes.) To my inbox: a nice note from Nerine about her free-hand machine embroidery on handmade skirts. I especially like this embroidered flour-sack skirt she has for sale on Etsy.

Link to Nerine's blog

Rainbow of Stitches contest - less than a week left!

Right! There are 5-6 days (depending on your timezone!) left of the Rainbow of Stitches Contest! Are you busy stitching away? If you haven't started yet, I thought I'd just point out some stats on what has been submitted so far. As you probably know, entries have to have a dominant colour, as you can see in the image above.

RED - 153 

ORANGE - 50

YELLOW - 49

GREEN - 117

BLUE - 124

VIOLET/PURPLE - 36/31

PINK - 81

BLACK - 90

WHITE - 70

If you haven't submitted anything yet, here's a tip: do your stitching in one of the colours that aren't so popular, like yellow, violet/purple or orange!

Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Don't forget, May 31st is the last day to submit!

Edit: The contest ends when every timezone has passed from May 31st to June 1st. Anything else would be unfair, right? ;-) To find out when that is, please follow this link to timeanddate.com and put Honolulu in the top spot and your own timezone in the bottom one.

Oh my, greens!

Knotty Weeds, originally uploaded by JammySage.

Or, OMG if you like. ;-)

I love (love, love) when stitches are used and shown off to their very best. Different stitches are so beautiful in themselves and it is great to see pieces that let the stitches play the leading role in stead of being the supporting act. This is an excellent example of that.

And it's green!

Fill Stitches

Just an amazing Frenched Bear by Bustle & Sew.

I love a coloured piece.

I've made a little gallery of lovely filled stitcheries recently added to the flickr group & I thought you might enjoy it.

My fillers of choice are chain stitch & french knots. I'm terrible at satin stitch & not much better at long & short. I think it's got something to do with my persistent refusal to use a hoop.

What's your filler of choice?

Patterns: Fur

1. Bunny & Balloons 1, 2. Forty Winks Fox

There have been two great patterns recently released using fantastic embroidered fur. Both .pdf patterns; Bunny and Balloons by Bustle and Sew and Forty Winks Fox by Follow the White Bunny, come with detailed how-tos to embroider the fur. I think they both look very sweet.

Real People, Real Stories

I came across Art in Stitches yesterday and was completely blown away. Susan Lenz is amazing. Her latest art piece is called "Decisions" and she is asking real people about their decision and stitching up their portrait for the world to see. Be prepared for a mix range of emotions from laughing to tears. The stories, the stitching and the images will move you.

Lost polar bear

Stitched by peppersprouts & upstatefancy

I don't watch Lost, but I'm loving this. Love how so many of you are inspired by TV shows. Makes me feel less guilty for watching so many.

VWroooooom!

VW embroidery, pattern from pepperstitches, originally uploaded by chunkychooky.

hey, isn't this great?!

I think it is! There needs to be more stitched cars in the world.

I would also be very interested in seeing stitching ON cars - how cool would that be?

Surprise Prize for the Rainbow of Stitches Contest!

Let me guess, you like embroidery floss? And, if you're anything like the rest of us, you've probably stared at the DMC embroidery floss display, wondering what it might be like to own every single color. Well, the winner of this contest will wonder no more. Wanna know why?

Our winner will receive a complete set of DMC embroidery floss. 454 colors. One person. Every color of the rainbow. And then some. Have you fainted yet? I almost did.

Thanks to the wonderful peeps at DMC for contributing this amazing prize to our contest!

http://www.dmc-threads.com/

Oh, and look - their badge is even looking a little Feeling Stitchy-inspired, as a tie-in to our contest! Our original banner design is by Kirsty Neale, who won our 2008 banner contest. Thanks, DMC, for being so generous and supporting this community of stitchers!

And to all of you - have you entered the contest yet? If not, what are you waiting for? Because, if nobody wins this prize, I might have to keep it myself. Ha ha, I kid, I kid. Maybe.

Stumpwork?

Do you use Flickr to its full potential?

I don't - I'm shocking with tags. I rarely (if ever) use them at all. Am I short changing fellow stitchers?

My search for stumpwork examples this week left me wondering if other people are as slack as me.

Has stumpwork flown under the modern embroiderer's radar?

Maybe...maybe not. Alien Ted didn't let me down. Very cool stumpwork.

Patterns: The Bee

What Delilah Did has recently opened her own pattern shop and I love her bee design. This looks quite complex but I can imagine the feeling of satisfaction once this is stitched up. It looks amazing in gold and as lovely as this photo is, I bet it doesn't do the gold thread justice.

For further insect love check out this vintage pattern in Flickr's Hoop Love Vintage Transfer pool.

One color works

Stitched by valr

I'm really loving these gorgeous, one-color works by artist Valerie Roybal. I love the delicate and unusual intricacy of her stitches, and the beauty she achieves using just one color, on white.

See more in her Embroidery Set. Beautiful, Valerie!

Stitching n Junk - The Official Mr X Stitch Podcast!

Hi there everyone! Just a quick note to let you know about the latest stitchy endeavor over at Mr X Stitch - we've got a podcast! Called Stitching n Junk! Hurrah!



In the first episode Mr X Stitch and I chat about stitching and have a lovely conversation with Julie Jackson of Subversive Cross Stitch fame. It was a pretty amazing moment for me, I promise you. :) If you'd like to listen in, check out the podcast here. You can also subscribe on iTunes by clicking here. We'd love for you to listen and join in on our conversation as well!

Stitch Therapy

I've always used cross stitch to express myself in a way that I've never been able to do before. I'm not what I would call an artistic person. I can't draw - in fact I can barely write legibly - but there is something about this medium that just works for me. Most of the time I use it to make jokes, but more recently I was grateful to use it in a more therapeutic way.



This is something Alexandra J Walters calls Self-Guided Art Therapy, and you can see all kinds of examples of it at her blog of the same name.



This is just one of the many amazing pieces Alexandra has shared there. Each one has meaning. Each one has its own story that work together to tell Alex's story, whether it is a military themed piece like the above, or an ode to and everyday object like the spoon below.



I could try to tell you more about her and what motivates her, but Penny Nickels recent interview with her is probably the best way to gain that insight.

If you have ever dabbled in self-guided art therapy and would like to share your work in a supportive environment, I definitely recommend checking out Alexandra's blog for details on how to submit a project. You'll be glad you did.

Interview with Matt, who I met amongst the chili cheese dogs

So Matt, before we met and ate chili cheese dogs on the night of May 7, 2010, at approximately 11:20 PM, had you ever heard of a blog called Feeling Stitchy?

I haven’t heard of the blog but after looking through it today, I’ve decided to make it a part of my daily internetting. I’m way intimidated now! I’m still very new to embroidering and there is so much great work!!

Uh-huh. So you weren't trying to give me a heart attack with your embroidery (just look at those stitches!) while I was at my most vulnerable state, eating chili cheese dogs. I'm not buying it.

You were wearing a bowtie. With owls on it. Please elaborate.

It’s my first bow tie! Did you like it? I went to a strange Martha Stewart craft fair thing last year and fell in love. My sister was with me and she made me leave that booth for 5 minutes. Christmas day, santa brought me the owl tie!

Did I like it? If I hearted it any harder, I might have had a heart attack. In addition to the first one, caused by your embroidery. 




Do you sell your work? Or, could I trade you for a vegetarian cheese dog?

I do sell my embroideries! I’m selling them with my friend Veronica at Renegade this year in McCarren park. June 5th+6th baby! Although I am totally down for a barter! Make it two veggie cheese dogs and we’ll talk...

Can you tell me what else you do? Aside from carry the most amazing cameras and books on your person, at all times.

What else do I do eh? I’ve been gallery hopping a bunch! Gallery Hanahou has a really good show up right now that you should definitely go check out. Last night I went to the Parsons senior thesis show which was real inspiring. Although that free wine did me in yet again!

Where can we find you? Etsy? Flickr? Twitter?

Ah! I don’t have any work up online yet. I’m going to get a Flickr account going once I’ve wrangled all my embroideries together. Veronica and I will have an Etsy too starting the day of Renegade. I don’t want to sell something before being able to show it off!

Our Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/VeronicaAndMatt
Be sure to check it out in June when we fill it up with fun fun stuff.

I have a few fun blogs though like http://mattmatt.tumblr.com/ and http://mybestworknoonecaresabout.blogspot.com/
Oh I'm a part of this illustration blog: http://xtrapulp.com/blog/

Matt, thank you for letting me pry through your camera bag, invade your manga book, and photograph your shirt, bow tie, and embroidery. You were a wonderful good sport about it.

Some more of Matt's work:




Isn't Matt's stitching amazing? Visit his blog to see more, and definitely check him out at Renegade Craft Fair, or his Etsy (in June)!

French Knot Highlights

Having now completed countless mini & doll quilt swaps over on Flickr, I can still look back and point to the single piece of inspiration that got me interested in joining my very first swap. It was this little lovely, created by Jennifer (who also blogs at Mama Urchin):


I coveted this quilt something fierce! The emphasis here is definitely more on the quilting side than the embroidery side, but look at how much just little touches of brilliant embroidery adds to the overall design of this mini:


The small french knot discs in a perfectly coordinated color are subtle, but manage to take this quilt from great to WOW WOW WOW! It helps that this was made from one of my all-time favorite fabric lines. Check out the little buttons, too.

Sigh. Three years later and I still covet this quilt.

Swirly Whirly

I was taking a peek-ola at Gigglymama's Etsy store, and this bit of frenetic and beautiful brown stitching caught my eye! I will refrain from snagging it out from under you. Go- you get it.

Link

Patterns: Little Redcap

I had such fun stitching this one up! I think it looks so delicate and sweet. The pattern is called Into The Wood: Little Redcap the Youngest and is by Cathy Gaubert. I love the text at the bottom of the piece, which reads 'her roots held fast to the forest floor and she was content'.

This embroidery will stay in it's hoop and have pride of place on my bedroom wall but I also have a feeling I'll be stitching it up again as I think it would also look great on a simple white or blue knee length skirt, but oh this could look good on so many things!

Create

There are so many things I love about this embroidery by What Katie Does :the straight lines with the squiggly ends that look a bit like grape vines to me, the pink letters and most of all the white floss on black fabric. Awesome job!

Floss Porn: Rainbow

Photo by bigB

Oh, I am drooling here. Want to drool harder? Try looking at this large. ;)

I love how bigB has taken pictures of all the projects she's planning for the Rainbow of Stitches contest. Let me tell you, I am loving all of 'em. Like this one, and this one and this one. Keep the inspiration coming!!! :)

Black stitching

My take on blackwork embroidery: 1, originally uploaded by JammySage.

Isn't this lovely? Definitely goes to show that using just one colour doesn't have to be boring but can be rather spectacular. Very inspiring, I think!

Rainbow of Stitches Contest!

So, just in case you hadn't figured it out by now, with my rather obvious hinting... we're having a contest! Pam received a complimentary copy of Rainbow of Stitches and we are dying to share it with you. :)

Instead of just giving it away randomly, we decided to celebrate the rainbow of colors and create a contest you can enter in 9 different categories!



The Prizes
We'll select a winner in each of the 9 categories - which means... 9 prizes!

9 Category Winners:

• Each category pick will get a sweet prize that could include: embroidery floss, pdf patterns, vintage patterns, fat quarters, blank tea towels or pillowcases.
• Also, each of the 9 winners will be featured here on Feeling Stitchy with a brief interview.

Finally, YOU get to vote to choose the Grand Prize winner, who will receive:

• Rainbow of Stitches book
• Complete set of DMC floss (454 colors - thank you, DMC!)

How To Enter
Want to enter? It's easy! Join the Rainbow of Stitches Contest Group, and add your entries.
You can enter in as many categories, as many times as you like!

The Rules
Entries must be hand-embroidered by you.
Can be any size and on anything - handkerchief, pillowcase, clothing, quilt, pillow, atc, etc.
Works don't have to be all one color, but they should have one dominant color or theme. Have fun with it!

May 1 - 31: We'll accept submissions
June 5 - 13: 9 category winners featured on Feeling Stitchy
June 13 - 15: You vote for Grand Prize Winner
June 16: Winner announced!

Are you ready to get stitching? Can't wait to see what you create!!!

Embroidery Supplies - - - aquasol or water soluable plastic

My stitching life just wouldn't be the same without it. It's a "must have" for the stitching kit.

I always buy my "magic disolving stuff" from Bustle & Bows in Melbourne. They know what I mean when I ask for that but you might want to call it Aquasol or water soluble plastic if you're asking for it in store.

Do you use this product or maybe you have some other favourite for embroidery on dark fabric? Do share.

This is not only useful for embroidery but I imagine many other crafty pursuits. I saw a similar product used to create a super fluffy critter on a blanket recently.

How To - Embroidery On Dark Fabric

View more presentations from kootoyoo.

Patterns: Two different kind of faces

Two patterns today, first up is some more lovely work from September House, who has recently released a set of patterns called Wig Wonderful. This is my favourite one but I think the whole set would look great framed on a bedroom wall. I think faces can be hard to do in embroidery sometimes but these are just right.

And for this week's featured free pattern, I love this guy Roy G. Biv by Cate Anevski who has a wonderful blog called Bee's Knees Activities. Roy G. Biv is here on her site but also check out her 2009 embroidery patterns, I particularly love her November pattern 'Eat Me'.