Friday, December 20, 2013

Last minute ideas

Time is running so short and I went looking for the kids' Santa sacks yesterday to get them ready for Santa's visit on Christmas eve. These are filled with many memories of Christmases past.

When our son was born I made a traditional Christmas stocking but most of Santa's gifts wouldn't fit! So for the next Christmas I set about making a Santa Sack better suited to Santa's visit.
My sewing at the time had a disc that stitched out holly leaves. I stitched Santa Sack free hand onto a piece of the fabric and appliqued it with the holly stitch.
When our daughter came along, another Santa Sack had to be made.


A few years later I was writing for a craft magazine and created another version in Black Watch miniature fabric, French Val lace insertion appliqued for the letters, red buttons for holly berries and appliqued white padded holly leaves.


Lastly we became babysitters for our daughter's two cats one year while she was moving across the province. So the cats got Santa Sacks for Christmas too - for their Santa treats. I re purposed two velveteen bags and embroidered their names in red and green Pearle cotton using the Magic chain stitch.



Hope these are of some inspiration - they are so easy....
Wishing you all a very happy holiday season!!
Till next time, keep stitching!


Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Christmas gift idea

Look at what I made for a fairly quick gift for my grown children.

All three of them love to cook. Our daughter is the baker and her husband the 'from scratch' king in the kitchen. My son is still practising but catching on fast and eager to always try new things.

I needed something for each of them as they will be sharing a kitchen for a while. So I went hunting for plain aprons and found then in 100% cotton in the very style I was hoping to find - at the Hudson's Bay Company store. There were even three perfect colours - what luck.

I knew what I wanted to write on two and brainstormed for a week to come up with the third saying with which I was happy.



Then I wrote each out on the computer. I played with fonts and sizes until I was happy. The final results were in "Celebrity" in a very large size. But of course you can choose any font that appeals and lends itself to embroidery - what ever type of embroidery you love to do.

I chose to work the script in the common chain stitch in #5 pearl cotton.  But if you have time, you could do shadow embroidery or split stitch or any number of stitches or techniques.

If you are not a hand embroidery person you can work the font free hand on your machine or if you have an embroidery machine just program your script as you want it and do a test of course before you tackle your aprons.

I used a light table and water soluble pen for the beige and red aprons. The black fabric was a challenge and I ended up using a white chalk pencil and writing the lettering out by hand. There are loads of other ways you could do a dark fabric.

I spent three relaxing evenings stitching love into each apron. Now I just hope they use them!

So next I am considering doing up some tea towels if I can fine nice plain woven linen or cotton for their kitchens - maybe next year as time is getting short already! Here are some ideas for you if you like this idea....

Coffee or Tea
Cream or Sugar
Oil or Vinegar
Salt & Pepper
and so on....

Have fun with this and do keep on stitching!
Judith


Sunday, December 1, 2013

Where in the world.....


Where have I been? Well it's a long story but I hope I am back again. I know I am hard at work.


My mother-in-law had a heart attack back in July and I was gone the month of September to assist with closing down her apartment and getting her set up in a nursing/assisted living home. Since then it has been a bit of a catch up while tending to "business" and working on a new pattern.

Meet Buckleberry, my tribute to Little Baby Prince George, the new little son of Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton. This, my newest pattern, Buckleberry, will be available soon. But to whet your sewing appetites. Here is a quick view of the pattern cover.


This little bear, sitting about 8" tall or standing about 12", can be made in most any fabric for a child or just yourself. You can embellish him in most any needle art or leave him plain and let the fabric do the talking. I hope you will find this little fellow a charm to make and a charm to give!
 
I received a note from Kathy F with a photo of Summer Breeze which she finished after a class with me at SAGA. Great work Kathy!!
 
 
 
Kathy made Summer Breeze 'her own'.  She chose "Liberty cloth for the gown and changed the top insertion to one with butterflies! As soft as the fabric is, I decided to add the embroidery in Madeira silk thread with feather stitch and French Knots and fly stitch stems and leaves in the insertion at the bottom of the front panel." She says she is "delighted with my finished gown and can't wait to take it to Show and Share". What a treat to see someone take a pattern and 'run with it' so to speak.

And look at the photo Sr. Sarah J. sent. Her interpretation of  Little Snowdrift. Not sure if you can see it but she's added bead accents. Beautiful!


So hopefully I'm back to blogging and will continue to work on some additional zipper installations. There is so much to catch up on and Christmas is just around the corner!

TTFN, Judith