Coffee-themed Bookmarks

I finished the coffee-themed bookmarks.  Yay!  I plan to sell them.  I'm not sure what I should ask for them.  I still have to get them laminated.  I get them laminated at Staples for a few bucks. Hopefully I can do that on Saturday or Monday.  They turned out very nicely, I think.  I just picked some floss colors I wanted to work with and matched the cardstock to them.  Unlike regular embroidery you just use one strand of floss in Dutch Embroidery.  They don't cost much to make, just the time involved.  These are the first 8.  I will probably make 8 more.  I tape the front to the back with double-sided tape.  You have to do something like that to cover up the thread and the tape in back.  I'm really happy with these, even if there are a few mistakes.

Coffee Themed Apron Update!

Last weekend while watching episode after episode of Smallville, I had plenty of time to embroider.  I have all three big motifs on the coffee themed apron done and I've started on the little motifs.  The funny thing is, when I'm stressed I love to embroider, but when I'm relaxed, like I have been the last few days, I find other things to do.  Not one person commented on the blue musical tote on my creativity websites. :(  I guess they are used to me posting embroidery by now. I'd like to embroider one of those long half aprons that waiters wear for my brother.  Does anyone know where I can get one, not online?  I'm thinking maybe the Cash & Carry in Olympia might have some aprons.  So here are the pics!

And ice cream cones, in progress:

Musical Tote

I finished my friend Janet's musical tote bag!

 I also ordered 1000 yards of DMC thread from Herrschner's. It came unsorted.  Not sure what I will do with the colors.  It was kind of an experiment.

Hat for Mary

Here are pictures of a purple hat with variegated floss roses on it that I made for my friend, Mary.  She is a member of Coach Creative Space, the site is one of the main reasons I'm a creative person.  You can visit CCS at: http://coachcreativespace.ning.com/

Tattoo Inspiration

I found a lot of inspiration tonight on a site dedicated to tattoos, tattoo art and body art.  Be warned, you'll have to look through a lot of body art and pictures of tattoos before you get to the flash tattoos. http://tattoo-art-designs-gallery.blogspot.com

Here are a couple "inspirational" tattoo flash design collections.

I'm thinking about drawing my own designs, using some of the tattoos I found as a base.  Or something along those lines!  Pretty cool design ideas! 

New Embroidery Books and a Finished Coffee Pot

I got two new embroidery books in the mail today.  Yay!  The first one is "Doodle Stitching" by Aimee Ray which is full of cool project ideas, tips, and encouragement to make your own designs.  Nice!  The second one is "Embroidered Effects" by Jenny Hart.  This one is heavier on the tips, has project ideas, and all-around general encouragement to do your own thing.  Plus iron-on transfers!  Sweet!  They both have stitch diagrams as well.  Aimee Ray has a new book, but it's not coming out until October.  I'll probably get that one too.  Here they are on my kitchen table.

I've been getting really jazzed up about embroidery.  I read most of the two books this afternoon.  I finished the coffee/tea pot tonight.  I think it looks like a fancy coffee pot.  My brother thinks it looks like a teapot.  What do you think?  I guess it doesn't matter.  I used a split stitch on the handle, spout and top knob of the coffee pot.  I haven't used that much before this project.  I only know about 5 stitches anyway that I have no trouble doing, satin, stem, split, back, cross, fern.  I can make those little stars too. So much fun!  OK, here is the coffee pot, finished.  It is all in shades of pink:  hot pink, med. light pink, and very light pink for the steam coming out of the pot.

Big Ideas

My crafty friend, Fiona, suggested I use rice paper to print out patterns on.  I guess it is a lighter weight paper, but heavier than tracing paper.  I found some on Dick Blick and also found colored pencils and crayons.  That brings me to my next big idea.  I've been reading tutorials and discussions about doing shadings on light colored fabric with colored pencils or crayons and then ironing them so the colors blend well.  You need a hot iron on Cotton. After shading you then embroider.  Here is a beautiful one done with colored pencils by Sew Lovely Embroidery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sewlovely/4647711421/

Here is a tutorial at Urban Threads for using crayons to make adorable shaded pears: http://www.urbanthreads.com/pages?id=448

I want to try this shading some time.  I'm thinking of doing a pumpkin design for Halloween.  Haven't decided if I'll embroider it or embroider on paper.  I wonder if you could melt crayons into paper...

Sea Star/Starfish Project

I'm looking for a good lightweight paper I can print out embroidery designs on.  I'm using Sulky Solvy stabilizer right now, which you can dissolve with water.  It actually works better if you just rip it out from the threads, carefully, of course.  I tried tracing paper and regular copy paper, the first ripped too easily, the second was too heavy. Any ideas for something in between those two? Sulky Solvy is $8 plus tax for 12 sheets, so not very economical.

Here is the very start of a tote bag project for my best friend, Kari.  I guess this will have to be a secret blog, for awhile at least, cause I want to surprise her.  I printed out some free starfish stencil patterns on the Solvy paper.  I had to do it a couple times because I need paper around each starfish to hoop with the embroidery hoop.  Her nickname is Starfish.  I chose purple thread because it goes nicely with the hot pink. I think I'm just going to use stem stitch for all the starfish. I probably won't get started on this for awhile.

I just found out the proper name for a Starfish is Sea Star.  I like that too!

Hello!

I got interested in embroidery in January of 2010.  Yep, last January! I've really taken to it, so decided to start a blog about my adventures in embroidery.  I've done Dutch Embroidery for a few years now, which is just embroidery on paper, a wildly different medium than fabric.  I do other crafts as well and may post pictures of those as well.  Enjoy!

I'm embroidering an apron for my friend, Beth.  I hope to have it done by the second week in July or sooner.  She is having a Grand Opening of her coffee shop and bakery around then.  The apron was dyed with liquid Rit dye and I ironed on Aunt Martha's "Java Break" patterns and cupcake and ice cream patterns from Jenny Hart's "Sublime Stitching" book.  Already started the coffee pot.  It will be embroidered in coffee and pink floss colors.

I don't have any holiday embroideries planned at the moment.  I expect I'll do them far ahead of the holiday in question.  At least I hope so!  I'm going to include my Dutch Embroidery projects on this blog too.