Big Stitch Swap Signups Are Open

That's right!  In invite you to join into a swap that myself and my friend Sarah are organizing.  The Big Stitch Swap.  Sarah had the super idea of doing a swap where hand stitching of some variety is a significant contribution to the swapped item.  It can be embroidery, hand quilting, cross stitch...what ever floats your boat!

What to make, what to make?  Well, our suggestions would be something along the scale of a iPad cover, a zippy pouch, a fancy notebook cover or a tote bag.  I am in the mood to make a mini quilt.  You get the idea.  The only guideline is that your hand stitching has to be a significant portion of the item's design.  

Want to join in?  The swap is open to 40 people.  The only catch is you need to have participated in two other swaps before joining into this one.  If you have, just click here and complete our entry form.  We will then secretly assign partners.  Know that your partner is not necessarily making an item for you.  While you are waiting for your partner assignment, join into our Flickr group and start thinking about an inspirational mosaic like the one I have below.  I used Big Huge Labs for mine, but you can use what ever works for you.

1. Link 2. Link 3. Link 4. Link 5. Link 6. Link 7. Link 8. Link 9. Link 10. Link
11. Link 12. Link 13. Link 14. Link 15. Link 16. Link

The swap timeline is as follows:

- Signups open today (19 June) and will close on 27 June or when we reach 40 participants.

- Partner assignments will be distributed on 4 July (before my celebratory BBQ!)

- Posting dates are from 4-8 August depending on your postal system and where your partner lives.  

As usual, we ask that everyone actively participate in Flickr conversation threads, drop hints on photo comments for your partner, etc.   If you have any questions before you sign up, please do ask!  Better to ask before you sign up than after...it only makes my life more difficult to find a substitute if you drop out.

I do hope you join us!  This will be so very fun!

Make a button for your blog with this HTML:

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/thebigstitchswap" title="The Big Stitch Swap"><img src="http://i1085.photobucket.com/albums/j433/FairyFaceDesigns/5600ba67-e53c-4907-a8cd-8e06785ccc6b.jpg" alt="The Big Stitch Swap" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Birdie Stitches: December

Since I am traveling this holiday, I brought along a little embroidery to keep my hands busy.

Finished off my Birdie Stitches for December just in time!  I really enjoyed stitching this when we settled down for the evening.  Now I wish I brought my empty June block to finish off too. 

I finaly (FINALLY) have an idea for a June scene, thank goodness.  I am getting a little tired of this Birdie Stitches project, so finishing off that last block would be fantastic.  Looking forward to a finished top in no time :)

Caroline's All Heart Appeal for Cancer Research UK

If you are looking for the Goodie Swap Sign Up post, click here.

My friend Caroline, from The Contented Quilter, is creating a quilt or two to raise money for Cancer Research UK.  I wanted to contribute, so I made two heart blocks for her creations.  This is my first time trying applique, so be kind.  I have a lot to learn, but it was an OK start. 

I wanted to embellish a bit, as you don't often get that chance.  So, I did a bit of embroidery.  In this heart, I filled in the center of each flower with a little yellow french knot and stitched around the edge with a running stitch.  It is a little hard to see, but it is there.  Honest.

Here I just used little french knots in white floss along the edge of the heart.  I liked this one best, I think.

It only takes 10-15 minutes for a block and they give you the freedom to create anything you'd like.  It's a great way to spend half an hour, for a great cause.  I hope you join in too! Here, in Caroline's words, are the details: 

I'm aiming to raise money for Cancer Research UK by selling raffle tickets for a quilt I will make with donated hearts. At the moment I am still at the 'heart' gathering stage - I need as many blocks as possible of 8" squares of red or pink fabric with a heart/hearts sewn into the centre. The hearts can be any size, any shape (just heart-like), embroidered, appliqued or pieced I really don't mind . I'm hoping to make more than one quilt to raffle off as a prize. There is no time limit but I would like to have made a quilt by September. More info on my blog thecontentedquilter.blogspot.com.

yours gratefully
Caroline xxx

Birdie Stitches: August

And here it is....the eagerly anticipated (well, by me anyway) August Birdie Stitches block.  The normal down-loadable August template just did not speak to me, so I wanted to take the opportunity to an August scene that often reflects my own holiday and insert my personality into this project.   I am so pleased!

I am nearly on schedule with this stitch along, but still have June to sketch and stitch.  It's going to be a camping birdie :)

Birdie Stitches: July

I did not sew much this weekend because we had visors from Friday to Sunday.  Although it is always nice to see your friends and have a jam-packed weekend, it does not always lend itself to quilting, does it?  I did have one finish, though!

Ta da!  I finished my July Birdie Stitches block this weekend.  This certainly is more American-themed than my other blocks, but it makes me happy.  The 4th is one of my favorite holidays. 

I am still running a bit behind this stitch-a-long (hosted by Little Miss Shabby) because I joined in several months late.  My January and June blocks remain on the to-do list, so I will start one of those cuties this week.

As usual on Tuesday, I'm linking up with Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday.

Birdie Stitches: May

This weekend was spectacular - the sun was out and it was warm!  We went camping with friends at a traditional Irish music festival and had a tons of fun.  The camp site was great - a lovely field of hay next to three beautiful horses with a view of the sea and cliffs.  Spectacular.  It was the perfect way to enjoy the weather with good friends. 

Onto stitching: I finished my May Birdie Stitches block this weekend.  I really like this block because of the flowers, so I truly enjoyed the time  I spent stitching away.  I did use two shades of green for the flower stems and I think that worked out just fine. 

The July block was just posted, so I will hop onto that this week. It is cute too with fireworks and sparklers, which should also be fun.  I still have to stitch January and June, but they will come in time.

As on any other Monday, I am linking up with Canoe Ridge and Sew Happy Geek linky parties.

Hope you enjoyed your weekend too!

One, Two, Three Little Birdies

Briefly, I picked out my fabric for the Japanese Import Fabric Swap!  It's pretty cute :) You can page down to yesterday's post for more information on the swap if you'd like to join in. 

Over the weekend I found blue and green embroidery floss!  I dove right in to finish my February and March Birdie Stitches blocks.  I'm very happy with how they turned out.  Embroidery is new to me, so I am still learning. I am confident with larger pieces like the birds and the rainbow, but need practice on the little hearts and flowers - really on anything small and round.  It will come with time.     So, here is February....

 And March....

I was pretty happy with my progress, so I started (and finished) April too.  It's fully stitched, but I still need to rinse off the water soluble marker, dry it and press.  You get the idea, though.

So fun!  I will print out January and May this week and I will be caught up in no time!

Head over to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story. There is always something inspirational there....

Wednesday Progress

It was a good week.  A weekend in the garden, dinner with friends and a little sewing.  Who could ask for more?  This week was especially filled with some really great starts.

In General Interest

Have you seen this article in the Daily Mail entitled Why Quilting Improves Your Health In Ways Even Exercise Can't Manage?  Its your best excuse for skipping the gym this week. 

As announced yesterday, I am starting a Japanese Import Fabric Swap.  This is a swap modeled on that by Anne Marie of Gen X Quilters with her permission, but for folks in Ireland and the UK.  About half of the placements are full, so sign up quickly if you are interested!  Just page down to yesterday's post and leave a comment to join.  Click quickly as spaces are filling rapidly! 

Currently In Progress

Birdie Stitches (hosted by Little Miss Shabby) has captured my heart and time this week.  I have been stitching the February and March blocks to get started.  They are adorable!  I am missing a blue, green and taupe floss to finish them off, but hopefully that will work out by next WIP Wednesday.  I may start the April block today...I am sorry they are so wrinkly, but I do not want to iron them for fear the water soluble marker becomes permanent.

The Community Quilt has not progressed hugely this week. I have to cut the background fabric, a task for my Friday Night Sew In. I have a good number of little 2 inch squares cut, so I have started to sort them to ensure one scrappy fabric is not over represented in the quilt.  It's little stacks of two on the left and singles on the right.  Do you see your fabric in there?  If not, it's in the next bin that I am sorting and cutting...don't fret :)

You would not notice a huge change in Lattice Illusions, but I have been making more blocks and ironing to ensure the points are sharp at each block junction. I had a mile-high stack of individual blocks on my sewing table, so I decided to start piecing the center of the top even though I still need to make 12-15 center blocks to finish.  I just had to see something move forward instead of repeating myself again...and again...and again.  I love this quilt.  It will be the focus of my next Friday Night Sew In.

Projects Starting Up

I have not touched the Irish Chain, Tetris or Fresh Flowers this week to keep myself focused.  They are all so bright and colorful I am dying to jump in, but really I need to get another project finished before starting these.  They are the carrots (or Oreos really) at the end of my long, long stick.

As usual on a Wednesday, I am linking up with Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday, and Someday Crafts Whatever Goes Wednesday.  Have a look at these sites.  You are bound to find something new!

Birdie Stitches: February and March

Friday was hair day.  We all love hair day, don't we?  A nice little trim and a new color will make anyone happy.  As looking this nice takes quite a long time sitting in a chair, I thought I would bring my Birdie Stitches blocks to embroider.  I ran to the fabric store (a generic blah chain) to pick out my floss, but could only find a pink, orange, yellow and brown to match the block fabric.  You have to start somewhere, right?

As a side note, the lovely woman who makes me pretty at the hair shop claims to have seen people do homework, hem pants, eat lunch, paint their nails, etc while getting a hair cut, but my embroidery was a first for her.  Maybe I will turn her into a quilter yet!

Anyway....Over the weekend I managed to finish what I could of the March block and get a good start on the February block.  I need green, blue and taupe/gray/brown floss to really finish them off. 

In case you can not see the markings, the February block (on the left) has two little love birds smooching.  The March block has a little birdie under a rainbow.  They are really adorable.   Once they are finished, I will remove the water soluble marking pen, iron them to really make them crisp and post close-up photos.

Today I am linking up with Canoe Ridge Creations' Sew Modern Monday and Sew Happy Geek's Manic Monday.  Have a look at the other blogs linking up!  There is always something there to brighten your day!

Back on Track!

I am finished with my Birdie Stitches blocks!  No, I have not embroidered them, but I have made the 12 blocks required for the quilt.  Now I can start embroidering once I choose my floss.  I am 6 months late in jumping into this project, but I am so very happy to participate.  As I mentioned in my Fairy Face Designs Summer Sewing Plans post, I would like to have the June, July and August blocks finished before the end of the summer along with 2 from January to May.  Fingers crossed! 

I have also been cutting up the generously donated Community Quilt fabric.  Its a great way to kind-of quilt while watching a movie.  I have never seen so many 2 inch squares!  I have a good number cut now, so I hope to start piecing soon.  This is so very exciting!

I am participating in Fabric Tuesday over at Quilt Story, and Sew Cute Tuesday at Creative Itch so hop over there to see what other bloggers are doing today.  You will certainly find something inspirational!

Birdie Stitches Block of the Month

I am SO excited! Although this started several months ago, I have found a quilt along/block of the month that I am completely excited about!  Hosted by Little Miss Shabby, this BOM offers the chance to combine my two current favorite crafts: quilting and embroidery.

Do you want to join in with me?  We are going to have to get running pretty quickly.  The links we'll need are posted on the Little Miss Shabby site, but I've included them here too:

1. The supply list  is pretty basic. I am sure its stuff you already have in your stash, but my stash is pretty small. I am going to have to get a fabric order in over the next few days.

2. The quilt layout.  It is pretty cute, huh?  Maybe it would be a nice baby quilt.

3. And the block embroidery patterns. They are themed for the month they are released:
January: a little chick-a-dee with a snowman friend

February: love birds
March: a perfectly appropriate spring rainbow
April: our little birdie enjoying the budding trees
May: my favorite with a little bird surrounded by spring flowers
We can join in the BOM any time. Just hop over to Corey's site at Little Miss Shabby and you can find all of the links on her side bar. Just look for the little Birdie icon (above) and the links are listed below.  I hope you will join me!

Running A Little Late

Monday is usually embroidery update day, but I was just so excited about the give away (and confounded by my binding mistakes) that I was distracted yesterday. So, here we are a day late.

I recently started to embroider plain linen with a design by Carina of Polka & Bloom that caught my eye.  This pattern is called Tree of Life and I think it's absolutely beautiful.  If you look at Carina's blog, it's the heading design with stitching that will far surpass mine. 

I love Polka & Bloom designs, but have realized that I need to interpret them my way.  By that, I mean Carina's stitching is beautiful and precise and mine is not.  She provides patterns that can be directly placed on transfer paper and that may be the wise way to go as you can directly follow the lines.  Recently that seems like too much work and my iron transfer patterns have been sitting unused in a pile.  I have not been stitching if there is too much prep time, so I have to give up some precision in the transfer.

Lately I hold the pattern to the window on a sunny day and draw on the fabric with a water soluble pen. With that, you loose the exactness of the pattern, and therefore I can't follow the lines when stitching.  I am sure I'll get better at the transfer process, but for now I need to be happy with the colorful thread, the pretty design and the content-ness of having something handy to do when watching TV at night. 

I am embarrassed to show you my progress thus far as it's really spotty.  Maybe in tomorrow's update?  A cliff hanger ;)

Camping Time

The nice weather has arrived, so I have started to plan camping trips for the summer.  I started making a tea towel for our camper.  I know it is completely impractical being white and all, but what could be better than a campfire, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows on a stick at my little camper sink?  On this end of the towel I stitched a shiny lantern, a tent and moon, and a campfire with a percolator, steaming hot dog and toasty marshmallows on a stick.  They're all so happy!

On the other side (a future Monday report) will be a camper, a canoe with fish and fishing rod and another happy camp fire. 

I found this pattern (and the towel) at Sublime Stitching. There is a great selection of more modern patterns, most of them being iron on.   Although I do like several of their patterns, does anyone have another source of young/modern/fun patterns?  Please leave a note below to expand my search a bit.

Another favorite spot of mine for patterns is Polka & Bloom. Over the weekend I started one of their patterns, but didn’t get too far. Carina has beautiful patterns and has been a great source of inspiration for me.  I am just not ready to show you quite yet ;)

Happy stitching!  Please do leave a note if you have another source of fun patterns.

Happy Tree

I thought this may make you as happy as it does me!  I recently finished this little embroidered tree.  This was from a pattern of three trees (six inch) trees that I bought from ETSY's Septemberhouse. I have changed the colors a bit.  I did indeed like their suggested colors, but was excited to start on the project ASAP so I used what I had handy.  I am a good way through my second tree already!

Eventually the three trees will be framed in embroidery hoops and hung over my quilting space each spring.  Spring has officially sprung! 

A Teaser

Today is a spectacularly beautiful day in Ireland and I can not wait to get out to enjoy it!  I will be heading out to shop a bit in town - a few embroidery hoops, ribbons for the wine bags, etc.  That counts as crafty, right? 

I started this little piece last night, but its not finished yet. It is a set of three, so I will post photos when they are done.  What to guess what it will be?  It's not too cryptic...

Hope its sunny where you are too - enjoy the spring weather!

A First Try

Although I love to quilt, I am primarily a machine quilter and that does not travel well.  I was looking for something crafty to do while watching a movie or traveling.   It seems most quilters use knitting for this sort of thing, but knitting and crocheting are not for me.  I tried them briefly but tend to pull the knots too tight, which makes me more frustrated, which make me pull tighter.  You see the problem. 

On the surface embroidery is not at all interesting to me.  I am not a sewer, really.  But then I heard several podcasters talking about using embroidery as their movie-watching craft and I was curious.  I found a few non-granny patterns from Sublime Stitching, Wild Olive and Carina's Craftblog or Feeling Stitchy and I was blown away! 

I purchased a few patterns from Sublime Stitching (which I am still working on) and this one called HappyScape from Carina's Craftblog.  I am very happy with it as my first attempt!  I still need to frame it and hang it over my quilting space, but for now lives here on my coffee table where it makes me smile.

Do you have favorite embroidery website for inspiration or patterns?  I am always looking for a new suggestion or blog to follow!

Why not me too?

I love spending a bit of time each evening having a quick look at my favorite crafty blogs. Often in the evening I am too tired to craft myself (except for a little embroidery while watching TV) but I love the color, creativity and happiness of crafting each day.  So, I have a peek to see what others have been up to!  Since I find inspiration in viewing your blogs, I thought maybe hosting my own site may motivate me to craft more regularly on the weekend.  We'll give this a try anyway :)

I have always been attracted to color and crafting, but I would not classify myself as creative or artistic.  I know my saying that will bother some of you.  What I mean to say is I am happiest coloring in the picture that someone else drew; I would rather follow a published quilting pattern instead of crating my own; I like to trace an embroidery pattern and then try as best I can to follow the guide. 

That being said, I still love to craft.  I like bold colors and geometric or nature-inspired patterns.  I am primarily a process person, but am certainly happiest when I have a good product at the end of an afternoon.

Hopefully with time I will have a few good stories to share and pretty pictures to post.  Please let's make this an interactive blog - I am curious to hear your thoughts and suggestions on what is posted here, so please do leave comments.  It would be really nice to be part of a community of crafters via this blog, so I will try to post photos and updates often here and I will be peeking at your blogs each evening!

Do you have a blog too?  What made you start writing?  Please leave your link so I can peek at your page too!