birdsandtrees

Quick and Easy

I've been thinking and talking about embroidery a lot lately, or at least it feels like a lot.  I know it's nothing new, but it is one of those crafts that I can always come back to and never tire of.  This past weekend some friends were learning and working on some embroidery projects, and I wanted something quick and easy to work on.  So I decided on this project from Sew, Mama, Sew! that I just recently posted about.  I'm so glad I did, because it was just what I needed. 

I decided to go for a tone-on-tone look, with chocolate brown thread on a khaki pillowcase.  I feel like James has to put up with a lot of flowery and girly things in our house (like my previous embroidered pillowcase I made), so I tried to make this one as man-friendly as possible.  I was trying to think of what I could do so I wouldn't hear that, "Oh, Steph.  Really?  More flowers?"  [Insert eye rolling.] 
If you're looking for a simple but gratifying embroidery project, I highly recommend this one - I made it even simpler by not worrying with tracing the pattern, but just drawing it myself.  And then I just did the backstitch for the entire thing.  So simple and I'm really happy with it.  I even made a matching one last night for my side of the bed.  And I know this sounds selfish, but it's nice to make something and then keep it for myself!
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If you're new to embroidery, this website is great to help you learn the basic stitches.  And if you're an 'ole pro, I stumbled upon this etsy store with beautiful patterns. 

Mother's Day Gifts

Mother's Day always presents a dilemma for a teacher- what are you going to have the kids make to give to their mothers?  When I used to have a class of 20, my options were limited, especially since I usually waited until the week before to get started.  But now that I only have 5 students, I have more options and time to make something for their moms.  Last year, we made bookmarks with pressed flowers.  I wanted to stay with the bookmark theme and found this great idea from Soulemama(this is one of the crafts that will be coming out in her new book, but you can download the instructions for just this project here). 

Basically, I had the kids draw a picture of themselves and write their name on a piece of linen, using a disappearing marker from the craft store.  Then, I just used the backstitch to embroider over their drawing- I stuck with just one color, since it's faster and I like the look of it.  Then I cut the fabric to size (8" x 4") and set it aside.  Then I chose a fabric for the backside and cut it to size (8" x 4"), and also cut a piece of interfacing the same size. 

Next, I ironed the interfacing to the wrong side of the back fabric.  The interfacing makes the fabric sturdier and not so floppy.  So then, I put the right sides together, sewed them together leaving a hole in the top to turn them inside out.  Insert a ribbon folded in half, sew up the opening, and you're done! 

 

I love this idea because now it's something their moms will have forever, with their child's drawing, like Henry's above- he wanted to draw himself holding a sword, which I thought was great!  Where else can you get that kind of gift? 

Handmade gifts are the best. 

Ribbon Embroidery, Finale

While I was home last week, I realized that I never showed the finished ribbon embroidery project that I first wrote about here.  I made them for my mom and gave them to her for Christmas, so it was nice to see them hanging up in their house!
 Here are some pictures of each frame (I did three different frames with a different flower in each):

and some close-ups:







Yay for projects that I actually finish! 

Quilt Frames Part 2

This school year, I wanted the kids to give their families something handmade, and I decided to take the idea from the quilt frame I made (using Posie's instructions from her new book).  Instead of using a photograph, I had the kids draw a portrait of their family.  I put it on fabric using iron-on transfer paper.  Then they added some detail with embroidery (they've been learning some basic stitches at school- straight stitch, backstitch, split stitch, and satin stitch).  After that, I framed it with fabric and added two loops on the back to hang it.  And voila!  Many hours of sewing later, here's what we ended up with:

 


 (apparantly they taste good)





 

I'm so happy with how they came out!

Ribbon Embroidery

Sorry (again) for the lack of blogging...I have been working on some different craft projects, but they're all presents for Christmas, so it's not like I can really show them on here.  But I am going to show you one that I'm really excited about.  I was looking through my craft binder (of all the clippings and articles I've kept from magazines over the past few years) and found an article from Martha on embroidery that uses ribbon instead of embroidery thread/floss.  If you know how to embroider using basic stitches, you can embroider with ribbon.  So don't think you can't do it!
In the article, she/they showed you the stitches and some example flowers you could embroider:

And then, they hit you with this picture:

I instantly knew I wanted to make my mom something like this.  I'm not going to do all eight- I think four might be good, and probably not that big.  There are tons of sites where you can buy silk ribbon for embroidery (and it's cheap, too!).  I've been buying mine from Cam Creations and so far, it's working for me.  I think I like ribbon embroidery because it seems just a teeny bit fancier than regular embroidery, but just as easy...maybe even easier.  I just won't tell anyone that.  Except you.  So don't tell anyone, k?

A stitch at a time

So there wasn't a "Walk/Run" this weekend...James and I felt pretty bad Friday night, and he continued to get worse over the weekend (while I felt better on Saturday). He said that it was like our bodies were telling us, "Nuh-uh...the only 5K I'm doing is a deposit in a bank."  We pretty much stayed at home the entire weekend, except for a quick run to Kmart where I found perfect flour sacks for this embroidery project.
Speaking of embroidery, since we were pretty much laying around all weekend, it gave me time to get some done.  I did a really simple project with a pillowcase- I ironed on transfer pictures from Sublime Stitching.  Of course I picked some birds.   And I thought the theme of it was fitting since Valentine's Day is coming up this week. 
I really like embroidery and I'm excited to do more.  It definitely takes patience, but it's nice because you can just work on little pieces, bit by bit. I found this website helpful- it's got the basic stitches that you need...there are plenty of other stitches out there, but these were just what I needed.  I mean, the possibilities are endless- for me, it's just trying to come up with ideas.  Like these, and these, and good gosh- this. And all these.  Okay, I think  that's plenty for now.