March Stitch Along - the final post!

Here's my finished piece, the Feeling Stitchy octopus now sits proudly on a bag.

(The bag, by the way, is the Everything Tote from Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing.)

I've had such fun stitching this and even more fun seeing what you guys have come up with. We've had some fantastic bags. I love in particular the fantastic stitching of the poem on the other side of fav orite.things pool bag for her grandson (top right photo).

1. Grandson's Pool Tote, side 1, 2. Grandson's Pool Tote, side 2, 3. Feeling Stitchy March Stitch Along, 4. March Stitch Along - finished!

There has been some great choices of background material.

1. feelingstitchy octopus full, 2. March Octopus far, 3. octopuses garden?, 4. March Stitch Along: In It's New Home

And some great ways of making the pattern your own.

1. the finished sampler, 2. Gentleman Octopus- March Stitch Along, 3. March stitch along!, 4. Paul the Octopus, 5. March stitch along, 6. MarchStitchAlong

There has been such fantastic work, so my huge apologies if I've managed to miss anyone out, I'm beginning to see octopuses swim in front of my eyes! And a big thank you to Corvus Tristis for providing us with such a lovely pattern set to work with.

Meanwhile it is never too late to stitch an octopus, I personally can't wait to see how Feeling Stitchy's Floresita does with her T-shirt embroidery, as you can see she's been busy with the white transfer paper recently.

Ready to Stitch by Floresita

Patterns: Cate Anevski

1. The Duchess, 2. Sunburst Lion, 3. Lion all by Cate Anevski

Cate Anevski has been stitching her way through some of her patterns for an upcoming show and it's been lovely to see how lovely her patterns look on patterned backgrounds. You can find The Duchess and the Lion in Cate's Etsy shop here and the Sunburst Lion in her lovely selection of free patterns here.

The Stitch and Craft Show

Last weekend me and fellow Feeling Stitchy blogger Carina went to investigate The Stitch and Craft Show at London's Olympia. The Stitch and Craft show covered three floors, with stitching (mainly cross stitch) on the ground floor, knitting in the basement and paper-crafting on the top floor. There was a wide selection of workshops and talks as well. Me and Carina arrived there early(ish) to catch a workshop from Emily Peacock, who is famous for her Hug and Kiss needlepoint kits, as well as a beautiful selection of other designs. It was fantastic hearing Emily talk about how she chooses colour and what it's like to run such a successful craft business. We got to have a go at stitching up a simple design of a key, thinking about how the colours we chose went together.

The lovely Emily Peacock - photo by Carina

We then later went to see another talk by Emily on how to do a selection of canvas stitches.

We then got to explore the rest of the show and we both came away with mixed feelings about it. It was fantastic seeing Emily Peacock and we also got to see Mr. X Stitch's brilliant display of contemporary embroidery, where we got to stay and stitch a while (and eat chocolate biscuits).

Mr. X Stitch and some of the wonderful work on display - photo by Carina

The opportunity to get to stitch with both Emily Peacock and Mr. X Stitch was fantastic, there's a really nice communal feel to being able to sit down, have a stitch and have a natter. There were also opportunities to stitch at tables run by The Cross Stitcher magazine. However the rest of the show was a little disappointing, the embroidery tended to be on the more traditional side, so we may not have really been the people the show was intended for. The show was certainly busy and there were lots of other people who seemed to love the stalls on offer. I can't really comment on the knitting and paper-crafting floors (although we did go and have a look) but it would have been nice to have had a bit more space in the stitching demo area like the knitters and the paper-crafters had in their demo areas.

In summary, if you are a hard core contemporary stitcher, The Stitch and Craft Show, which is an annual event may not be for you, however the organisers have provided some examples of contemporary stitching (for example Mr. X Stitch) and I am forever the optimist and only hope that as time progresses, contemporary stitching will feature more and more in the show, so you'll probably see me there visiting next year!

March Stitch Along - week 3

Here's a shot of me satin stitching those letters!

Elsewhere in the pool there have been octopuses on the most amazing background fabric.

Uploaded by mimiwilborn

And there has been gentleman octopus.

Uploaded by oztheawesomewarewolf

And footballing octopus (I love the applique footballs - you can read why the octopus is called Paul here, it's very apt!)

Uploaded by Nicky- The Stitchy Life

It's not too late to still join in with this month's stitch along, you can find the patterns (and other great examples of this pattern stitched up) if you search under the tag MarchStitchAlong on Flickr and if you'd like to have a go at satin stitching the letters like me and oztheawesomewarewolf, there is a great, very comprehensive satin stitching tutorial here from Sublime Stitching.

I will do a full round up of this month's Stitch Along next Thursday, happy stitching!

Delightful blues

embroidery flowers, originally uploaded by elsy965.

This is lovely, isn't it?

The colour combinations is really fresh and spring-like.

Also... the stitching is pretty perfect...

Patterns: Winding Wool

Winding Wool by June at Noon

I think my heart stopped for a second when I saw this one, isn't it beautiful? I love June at Noon's choice of two different colours for each girl's hair and the directional satin stitching. And of course I love the ball of wool and how it winds over the girl's arms. Oh and the appliqued tops to! I could gush for ages! But I'll stop now and say that this actual piece of work is available as a mini-quilt here or if you want to stitch your own embroidery of this pattern, you can buy that here.

March Stitch Along - week 2

This week I've been thinking about choosing colour for my stitch along stitching, personally I think blue is one of the obvious colours, but as you can see I've got lots of blues to choose from!

However blue is not the only colour choice and there have been some lovely colourful examples of the March Stitch Along pattern appearing in the Embroidery pool. I particularly like ticklepea's take on this month's pattern, as she's used the alphabet Corvus provided, as a basis for a sampler.

Stitched by Ticklepea

And talking of colourful, how's this for a colourful octopus? (And I love the phrase stitched out).

Stitched by WithWhimsy

Some great work is beginning to appear in the embroidery pool and I'll be doing a full round up at the end of the month. Meanwhile it is not too late to have a go at this pattern, you can find the pattern link in this post here or if you search on Flickr under the tag MarchStitchAlong.

I Love Books

Me too! But sometimes I forget how much fun it is to read. I probably should stitch this pattern and hang it on the wall as a gentle reminder to spend less time with my computer and  more time reading! Pattern is from a rather wonderful and just released pattern set called 'Booksmart' by Corinne of  Septemberhouse.

Give Me A Little Kiss

Stumpwork is rocking Craftster. Inspired by last month's featured project by Jemimah, Supervelma put her own twist on the classic stumpwork. It makes me want to rock n' roll all night and party everyday! Don't laugh! I could totally do it, if I wanted to.

Tell us a little bit about yourself
I call myself a scientist without the white coat... or degree... or job - I've always been interested in experimenting, whether it's experimenting with food or writing or roller derby or paint or photography or needles and thread, trying to translate what's in my head into whatever medium with which I'm working. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it's a big old mess, I mean learning experience.


Tell us a little bit about the project
I love art with different textures and have always been fascinated by the concept of stumpwork. After seeing Jemimah's amazing stumpwork tentacle, I couldn't get it out of my head, so I decided to finally try my hand at it - I couldn't think of anything that deserved to be in 3-D more than Gene Simmons' impressively ridiculous tongue. I liked that his makeup design is relatively simple and would be recognizable in silk stitching, and that a giant 3-D tongue would be more than a little creepy.


Any plans for more stumpwork or stitching?
Abso-freaking-lutely - I'm a very tactile person and I love the idea of art not being constrained to two dimensions. I'm considering maybe some Moulin Rouge can-can dancers if I can figure out how to do the legs.


What/who inspires you?
my friend, Shannon (GigglyMama) inspired me to get into embroidery, by showing me that needlework could be cool and edgy and artistic. And seeing all the ideas and talent on Craftster always encourages me to go further. And I can't walk out of a craft store without a bag full of stuff and a head full of ideas.


Any advice for a newbie?
Don't think you have to be constrained by specific patterns or fabrics, embroidery floss is cheap, buy a bunch and see what you come up with. Also, needles are sharp, so try to make sure you haven't lost one on the couch cushion you're about to sit on... not that anything like that has ever happened to me.

BONUS QUESTION:

Favorite KISS song
I should say "Lick it up" to stay in the vein of the project, but I've gotta go with "Strutter" or "Rock N Roll All Night"

The Scrappy { Hoops } - A Modern Swap

In case you don't know by now, Flickr is a hotbed of crafty swaps. I've participated in many, many great sewing and quilting swaps over there, and it seems like embroidery swaps are really gaining in popularity and momentum.

If you've read my other posts here on Feeling Stitchy, you know that I love to blur the lines between fabric, sewing, quilting, and embroidery. And if you want to see some examples of how these different elements can come together to create wonderful works of art -- all framed in a simple embroidery hoop -- look no further than the Scrappy { Hoops } swap.

The Scrappy { Hoops } a group "dedicated to creating and receiving the coolest modern and urban fabric hoops for their homes!" The insanely talented swappers in the group combine different materials and techniques to bring their visions to life.

But enough words. I've compiled a collection of beautiful & inspirational photos to give some flavor of what you can find in the group. Click on each photo to learn more about both the maker and the recipient of each piece.

Want to get involved? The group recently wrapped up round 1 of the swap, and I've heard some buzz about a potential round 2 ...

Photo courtesy of sandy (paperpoppies) on Flickr
Made by JenniferLGB

Photo courtesy of Sarah @ pingsandneedles on Flickr



Photo courtesy of Miss-Print on Flickr



Photo courtesy of Angela - fussycut on Flickr



Photo courtesy of Poppyprint on Flickr



Photo courtesy of stitches&scissors on Flickr
Made by asquared(w)



Photo courtesy of Miss-Print on Flickr
Made by {safieh}



Photo courtesy of rosaechocolat on Flickr



Photo courtesy of bearpawandbearpaw on Flickr



Photo courtesy of Aneela Hoey on Flickr
Made by sewdeerlyloved



Photo courtesy of sewdeerlyloved on Flickr
Made by yearofhandmade



Photo courtesy of badskirt - amy on Flickr
Made by creationsbyrachel



Photo courtesy of verykerryberry on Flickr
Made by safischer1



Photo courtesy of daveandsusi on Flickr
Made by verykerryberry



Photo courtesy of suzettra on Flickr



Photo courtesy of amandaquilts on Flickr



Photo courtesy of mccuisti on Flickr



Photo courtesy of sandy (paperpoppies) on Flickr



Photo courtesy of stitches&scissors on Flickr

Vintage Needle Books

collection of J. Megan Mays - image via See Saw

Vintage needlebooks always have such fun, colorful images of women gathering to stitch and sew. This one's a bit unusual because it depicts a group of women embroidering. You know I love that. But I especially love this super swank, modern illustration:

collection of J. Megan Mays - image via See Saw

There's a whole bunch of these to be seen in this blog post at See Saw.

Patterns: one for the girls and one for the boys

I play with dolls by Aimee Ray

Aimee Ray recently created this free pattern, 'I play with dolls' to celebrate Girl's Day in Japan*, which was on 3 March. You can find out more about Girl's Day and download the pattern, on Aimee's blog, here.

And not to exclude the boys (although of course there's nothing wrong with boys playing with dolls ;) ), I thought I'd also mention this other great free pattern I've noticed recently, this one from September House.

Real Live Boy Embroidery by Septemberhouse

Corinne from September House made this free pattern for Celebrate the Boy 2011, a great series of blog posts over on Made and Made by Rae, you can find this lovely Pinocchio pattern over on the September House blog, here.

*My thoughts are still very much with the people of Japan right now.

Granito Stitch

I just found out last week that the stitch I have been using for a while now actually already existed and has a name: the Granito Stitch. It looks a bit similar to the Satin Stitch. You can find out how to make one here, it's really easy! Often the Granito Stitch is used for flower petals, like in the wonderful example in the photo, embroidered by Ana.

I frequently use the Granito Stitch,  sometimes in a somewhat rounder form, to embroider eyes on furry creatures instead of using a more bulky French knot. Like here on a White Rabbit.

March Stitch Along - week 1

Wow, this has been a fun pattern to start, although a little tricky, although I do like to make life complicated for myself! I'm making a bag, so the material I happen to be using hasn't been the best for my usual pattern transfer method, I also wanted to applique the octopus and although I did manage to do it, put it this way, the octopus you see there in my hoop, that's octopus number 2. So if you're new to applique, personally I wouldn't try appliquing this pattern, you may end up lopping a few tentacles off, like I did with octopus number 1! If I were using a different material than this slightly embroidery unfriendly blue material I'm using, to make the octopus a different colour I would have probably have used crayon tinting (see here for a great crayon tinting tutorial from Aimee Ray).

Anyway, as you can probably see if you squint real hard at the picture, I'm using backstitch to embroider my octopus, if you're new to backstitch you can find a great video tutorial on how to do the stitch, by Mary Corbet here.

Meanwhile, fellow octopi are slowly swimming there way into the Embroidery pool, birdseyedavis gets top marks for getting in there first, with the plan for a new addition to the collection of sea-themed creatures in her kids' bathroom.

and then there's lynnefloor, who is wondering what word to stitch under her octopus.

I'm looking forward to seeing more octopi in the pool over the coming month, don't forget, you can find this lovely pattern by Corvus Tristis in this post here.