Winner Time!

 We have a winner! And whoa, you guys have been scarred by many, many, many weird crafts. Creepiest on our list, as one of our commenters so succinctly summarized, is "anything involving tampons, taxidermy and toilet paper rolls..."

Also on the weird shortlist were crocheted genitalia, embroidered human hair, and things made with pet hair (dead or otherwise.) Sheesh! For the full list of weirdest craft sightings ever, check the comments on our post. For pictures, try Regretsy.


And our random winner is.....
Starling said...

Oooh! I love Amy Sedaris!

The weirdest craft/art project I have ever seen is a stuffed animal tree. It's a tree stump in my neighborhood to which a woman has stapled (yes, stapled) hundreds of stuffed animals. I thought it was really creepy at first, but then our local paper explained the story behind it (https://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/274037). Still a little weird, but more weird-kooky-fun than weird-creepy-psychotic when you know the story.

January 28, 2011 10:13 AM

Okay Starling, you know the drill, email me at unfloresita AT gmail DOT com and we'll get your free copy of Simple Times mailed out to you! Thanks everybody - stay weird! :)

Patterns: Cuckoo Clock

Cuckoo Clock Close Up stitched by Aimee Ray

Aimee Ray has done it again with this cute woodland themed cuckoo clock pattern. You can purchase the pattern in her shop here. The .pdf pattern comes with an additional sheet of clock hands you can embroider onto the clock if you want to or if you wanted to you could follow Aimee's free tutorial on her blog to add real clock hands!

What's This? Another Giveaway!

Yup, that's right Feeling Stitchy readers. Apparently, we haven't given you enough stuff this month. Thanks to the good people at Hachette Books, we're giving away one free copy of Amy Sedaris' thoroughly bizarre and hilarious Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People!

Make no mistake - this isn't exactly a craft book - I mean if you're looking for instructions and patterns and anything to explain how to actually put things together, you won't find it here. But if you are looking for a thoroughly irreverent, strange book full of laugh-out-loud weirdness, this is the book for you. With headings like: How to roast hot dogs on a rake (p.228), Chorizo neck warmer (p. 262), a chapter entitled "The Joy of Poverty" and a special Crafting Under the Influence section, it's clear that this is not your average craft book. :)

Hilarious weirdness notwithstanding, this book is beautifully photographed and filled with wonderful embroidered details by artist Megan Whitmarsh. You know, I couldn't help but be inspired by this book - maybe next time it can include a few actual patterns for us crafters? That's my only suggestion. :)

So here are the rules for this giveaway:
-Only residents of the U.S. or Canada are eligible to win
-No P.O. Boxes, please.
-Winners will be subject to the one copy per household rule, so if they win the same title in two or more contests, they will receive only one copy of the title (or one set in the case of grouped giveaways) in the mail.

Edit: 1/31/11, 9 AM - Comments closed - winner announced soon!!!! So, leave a comment here by Monday morning, 9 AM Central time, if you'd like to win a free copy of Amy Sedaris' Simple Times! And, for fun, why not tell us about the weirdest craft you've ever seen? :)

Feeling Stitchy Poll winners!

Some of my own stitches! French knots and back stitches on patterned fabric.

Many thanks to all the Feeling Stitchy readers who took the time to comment in last weeks Feeling Stitchy Poll! As promised we have drawn two winners from the 65 entries. The Castle Peeps Sampler will be send to Emily (Flossbox) and Linda J. wins the Sweet Posy Pattern. Please contact me at followthewhitebunny [at] e-tropolis [dot] nl for your home address (Emily) and your email address (Linda).

It was great to read all your ideas and suggestions to make our blog (even) more awesome. Stitch-a-longs, free patterns, interviews and tutorials for stitches were mentioned often. The Feeling Stitchy team is  discussing all your comments (which is quite a challenge as we are on different continents and in different time zones) and I'm pretty sure you will soon notice some new features on the blog!

Your project in a book? Maybe! Read on!

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to throw this out there for anyone who may have some examples of creative mending you have done. It could be in a book! Did that get your attention? Kristin Roach of Craft Leftovers is writing a book about creative mending and she's looking for great examples and techniques to possibly be in the book.

From Craft Leftovers:
To submit your best example of a creative mending technique, please send: a close-up photo jpeg of your finished work (a scrap piece of fabric is fine—it doesn’t need to be a full piece of clothing or finished object) along with the submission form by January 26. Multiple examples of interesting work are very welcome!

Short notice, so get your skates on! Head over to Craft Leftovers and check out exactly what you have to do.

Patterns: Water Penny

Mushrooms knitting by DanaK~WaterPenny

This very cute, free pattern of some knitting mushrooms (which you can download on the Water Penny blog here) got me into investigating some more of Dana's patterns in her Etsy shop and I totally fell in love with her repeating cast of characters of a unicorn, a cat and their various friends. I think her designs would be perfect for kids' rooms and those who are still happily young at heart. They prompted me to stitch this particular Water Penny pattern for my daughter.

It was a very fun pattern to stitch, although as I was using a thinner white fabric than I usually use I really should have embroidered through two pieces of fabric instead of one, to stop those pesky black threads from showing through!

Schoolgirl Embroidery

This is a bit of a break away from the colorful, non-traditional and whimsical stitching we all love here on Feeling Stitchy, but I thought this would be of interest.

The Florence Griswold Museum is currently displaying (only until January 30th!) an exhibition called "With Needle and Brush: Schoolgirl Embroidery of the Connecticut River Valley"

The Connecticut River Valley was one of the most important centers in America for the teaching and production of embroidered pictures by girls and young women in private academies during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. As the first exhibition to examine the subject of Connecticut River Valley needlework in depth, With Needle and Brush contributes to the understanding of the traditions of needlework and provides insight into the nature of women’s schooling before the advent of widespread public education. Guest-curated by needlework experts Carol and Stephen Huber, this exhibition of approximately seventy embroideries, watercolor sketches, and portraits will draw extensively on works from private collections, many never before shown publicly.

I love the example above- which I think is a "mourning embroidery". If any of our readers are in Old Lyme, Connecticut and have a chance to see this, let us know about it!

Link

Antler-ed Bunny (and a bit about Embroidery Needles too)

What a wonderful fresh and cute design Katie has made. I especially love the abundance of running stitches and the different coloured French Knots on top of Bunny's Antlers!

Many thanks for all your kind comments in the Feeling Stitch Poll (see post below). It's a lot to take in for us but we hear you! There is still time to comment by the way.

Also, a couple of readers mentioned they were wondering about Embroidery Needles. For my own embroideries I generally prefer a needle that is quite sharp, not too large but with a big enough eye so you can thread it easily. A needle that is too blunt or big will leave holes in you fabric. An eye that is too small for the number of strands you use will damage your floss. Buy a pack with various sizes embroidery needles and try and see what works best for you. However... I saw this Needle Magnet (with Needles) on Sublime Stitching the other day and these look exactly like my kind of needle! If you want to know more about needles, there's was a wonderful guest  post written about Embroidery Needles a couple of years ago, you can find it here on our blog.

Feeling Stitchy Poll

The wonderful work that you all upload to the Flickr Embroidery group continues to amaze me! Every time I take a peek in the pool there is something that catches my eye. Take this excellent Dr. Seuss piece stitched by June at Noon. These are actually 2 complete embroidered pages, including the words. Do take a look at the other photos here.

O.k. so we already know how awesome you all are but we also want to hear what you think of us. Let us know what you would like to see more (or less) of on the Feeling Stitchy blog. Do you have an amazing idea for this blog? You can share that with us too! Just be honest and be nice. :)  The Poll ends Tuesday the 25th of January, one comment per person please.

Because we appreciate your cooperation a lot, there are some prizes for (randomly chosen) winners!  There is one Royal Castle Peep Embroidery Sampler designed by me, Nicole for Lizzy House.

 

And Carina offers her adorable new PDF pattern Sweet Posy. 

So what are you waiting for, share your Feeling Stitchy Feelings with us now! 

We have a winner!

And our random winner is.... Chaotic Jupiter, who, true to good form left a one word comment as follows:

Chaotic Jupiter said...

Gnomes!

January 13, 2011 8:34 AM

Okay Miss Jupiter, email me your name and address to unfloresita AT gmail DOT com and the good people at Lark books will send you Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection!

And, as luck would have it - in the lively melee I created by posing the question gnomes vs. squirrels - gnomes won, too! Gnomes won by a hair, a mere 59 to 53 votes! (A few of you were cleverly non-committal on the subject, saying hilarious things like "gnome atop a squirrel", etc, in which case both sides got a vote.) Are you satisfied now? Gnomes it is! :)

Feeling Stitchy in Stitch Magazine!

We were SO excited to see the Feeling Stitchy blog featured in the latest issue of the popular sewing magazine Stitch.

Thanks so much to our friends at Stitch for the lovely write-up!

Tiny Embroidery Hoop

This just in: a tweet from @worthygoods1 pointing me to the tiniest embroidery hoop I ever did see! Offered by Becka Rahn in her etsy shop:

Made from laser cut bamboo plywood, a tiny bit of wire and little bits of stitched fabric. The outside of the hoop is just 1 inch!

Link

Got thread? Share it!

_DSC0212, originally uploaded by Fiber Addict.

Gosh, look at all that thread - it's enough to make you dribble a little bit on your keyboard, eh..?

I love embroidery thread and I love looking at pictures of it almost as much. So the logical thing to do was make a Flickr group to share pictures of embroidery thread.

If you have some pretty pictures of embroidery thread/floss, why not join the Embroidery Thread Lovers group?

It can be any kind of embroidery thread, crewel, satin, six-strand etc. As long as you took the picture it's all good.

Oh and, the thread in your photos doesn't have to be all organised and stuff - tangles are great too! ;-)

Patterns: Button embroidery

Embroidered button display hoop - originally uploaded by doe-c-doe - inspired by Haylie Waring for Design*Sponge

Buttons and blackwork are possibly a perfect combination. doe-c-doe, who stitched this beautiful piece, was inspired by an original piece of artwork by Haylie Waring for Design*Sponge. The original piece of artwork was for a rectangular frame and was a print out on card, as opposed to doe-c-doe's embroidery. I think both versions are beautiful, you can download Haylie Waring's here and doe-c-doe's here.

Shimmering beauty

Luminous Jellyfish, originally uploaded by Fishmouse Embroidery.

Beautiful, right?!

And so very tactile. I like that!

A world of stitches

From India..., originally uploaded by meaganileana.

Don't know the story behind this piece, but it is pretty darn awesome!

Yes, sir!

Doodle Stitchalong Giveaway

There's an awesome stitchalong going on this month to promote Aimee Ray's new embroidery book, Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection - she's giving away a free embroidery pattern every week for the next 4 weeks! First up is that adorable gnome. I'd love to see the other creative things you guys do with her patterns - be sure to join the Stitchalong flickr group so we can all see your work!

Giveaways!
Lark Crafts is doing a giveaway of Doodle Stitching and an embroidery kit, all you have to do is leave a comment on their blog by 11 PM today, Thursday, Jan 13.

But.... here's the best part - Lark is also giving away one free copy of Doodle Stitching to Feeling Stitchy readers! This giveaway is also open to our International readers (yay!)

How To Win The Book
To win a free copy of  Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection, just leave a comment here by Tuesday morning, 9 AM, Central Time. Comments will be closed and we'll select 1 random winner!

To make this giveaway a bit more fun, let's do a random poll: Gnomes vs. squirrels! So include in your comment 1 word - gnomes or squirrels. Okay.... go! :)

Edit: 1/18/11 - Comments closed - winner announced soon!

Celebrate Good Times

 
It's time to get stitchy with Odile Bailloeul's Celebration Transfers for Embroidery. This book is chock full of great embroidery patterns! You can mix and match them to create great stitching for just about any holiday-even the ones that you want to make up. I am extra fond of Pam "Kittykill" day, just in case you are looking for something new to celebrate. I have to admit that some of the patterns are a little too grandma-ish for me, but I can definitely alter them to suit my taste (you know how I roll). This book is worth the price of admission and I don't think you will be disappointed.  Keep the floss-a-flying - 'til next time! 

What Delilah Did - FS reader discount!

Sophie has just designed a line of cross-stitch patterns for her shop, What Delilah Did. She was also sweet enough to set up a special discount code for readers of Feeling Stitchy - 10% off any order from her shop! So if you've been itching to purchase any of her lovely creations, maybe you should pop on over and have a look. Thanks Sophie!

Visit Her Store

How to get the discount:
To get the discount, just quote "FEELINGSTITCHY" (all in caps with no spaces) in the discount code box when you check out. This discount code will be valid for the next 7 days. Shop listings are in British Pounds, but people can shop from anywhere in the world (just like Etsy for example) - Paypal will just convert the currency when the payment goes through.

Patterns: Spring Always Comes

Spring Embroidery by Septemberhouse

How's this for an embroidery to bring some optimism into the dark, dreary, post Christmas winter days before Spring? And something to cheer you up even more, this lovely pattern is free, thank you Septemberhouse! You can read about why Septemberhouse designed this piece and download the pattern here.

PS I just thought I'd mention one more piece of pattern news this week, Aimee Ray and Lark Crafts have just started hosting the Doodle Stitch Along, where every Friday for four weeks they will be releasing one of their woodland motifs from Aimee's newest book, Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection, on the Lark Crafts website (which unfortunately at time of blogging seems to be down, hopefully it'll be back up again soon). It certainly looks a fun stitch along!

Cheerful rain

It's Raining Rainbows!, originally uploaded by Wendi Gratz.

I'm telling ya, it's been raining round these parts for days and days. If only the rain was like this, it wouldn't be so bad!

Polar Bear Pattern

January's Free Embroidery Pattern - Polar Bear, originally uploaded by badbird.

Eep! Can you stand the cuteness of this polar bear? And what's even better, it's a free pattern from badbird! Yay!

Embroidery Companion, Your Stitchy Friend.

Has everyone recovered from the holidays? All the decorations are put away at our house and we are hunkering in for the rest of the winter. There is nothing better than a nice fire, a warm drink, my favorite blanket and stitching up something wonderful for a friend or (gasp!) even myself. There are a lot of amazing books out there right now and being the smart cookie I am, I asked for all of them for Christmas. One book in particular that I am in love with is Embroidery Companion: Classic Designs for Modern Living by Alicia Paulson. The projects range from easy to slightly difficult and the directions are well written and easy to follow. I love the feel of this book, it makes me want to jump into Alicia Paulson's world, have a cup of tea and stitch for awhile.

Funky fungi

Flora & Fungi Redwork, originally uploaded by crafty bean.

This is lovely and cute and pretty and red and funky and I love it.

Right!? :-)

Patterns: Pin up girl

Pinup WIP by Sara Chung

I love this pin up girl wip by Sara Chung, it's an adaptation of one of Sew Lovely's pin up girls. You can read about the alterations Sara made to the pattern on her blog here (scroll down to the bottom of the post), I love the use of the lace!