Oh no. Just no.
Summer is not over! But even when that time comes, the weather turns non-sweaty, cool, and brisk which is perfect for hiking, camping, relaxing by the lake, and having the beach to yourself.
Personally, I'm a indoorsy gal. But I do love driving the countryside and taking in the vistas that only being out of town can bring on.
Embroider these adventure themes and express your wish for wanderlust. Use the finished stitching to make sew-on patches for backpacks, jackets, and caps. Or do what I did and make refrigerator magnets to remind you that a vacation is a necessity, not a luxury.
The set includes a mountain, tree, feather, and compass.
What you need:
free downloadable adventure pattern
small scraps of linen or cotton fabric
small scraps of cotton batting or flannel fabric
embroidery thread in white and a darker color (brown/ black)
embroidery needle
sewing machine or hand sewing needle and thread
iron
Optional supplies to make refrigerator magnets:
strong magnets
scrap cotton fabric
1) Download and transfer the pattern to the right side of the scraps you'll be using for the front of the embroidery.
2) Pin a piece of batting to the wrong side of the embroidery fabric.
3) Working through both the fabric and the batting, embroider the designs using back stitch, straight stitch, and french knots (compass letters).
4) Place the embroidered work right sides together with a backing piece of fabric. Stitch around the design leaving a small opening for turning.
5) Trim the excess fabric down to within 5mm of the stitching and trim the batting further to reduce bulkiness. Turn right side out and press with a iron.
6) If you will be making fridge magnets, cut circles of fabric larger than the magnets. Sandwich a magnet between the two circles and hand stitch around the magnet edges. This traps the magnet and provides an insert that won't slide around and mess up the shape of the magnet. Place one magnet in each adventure pocket.
7) Hand stitch the opening closed.
IDEAS FOR USE:
Brooch: Sew a pin back to the back of the work.
Patch: Place the work on a jacket, your passport wallet, or your backpack and sew it on using a straight stitch or blanket stitch.
Tote: Enlarge the pattern and stitch four squares. Place them on a tote bag to make a patchwork of four pieces and stitch them on.
The designs are very simple and versatile. Have fun and with all the best intentions I say - go take a hike!
Did you know there is a new digital craft magazine in town? Stitch Cafe is a monthly magazine with 4-6 original patterns, plus tutorials, articles, and printable recipe cards.
Issues 1 and 2 are available now and Issue 3 will be out at the end of August. Want to know when these issues are available? Keep in touch via the weekly newsletter.
Need a gift for your favorite chef? How about a cookbook bookmark?
The free downloadable pattern is provided in both forward and reverse images so you can choose your favorite method for transfer.
Work this design on any color cotton you like and then sew it to a back and add a ribbon at the top.
I am so honored that my country Raggedy Ann doll pattern is not only in the Country Christmas Crafts of Handmade magazine, but it also made the cover! Look for Issue 35 No 4 at newsagents.
To share my love of rag dolls, here's a free downloadable embroidery pattern to celebrate.
Use these on a baby quilt, or a toddler outfit, or across a crib bumper pad. Or embroider both the Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy on a bit of cotton fabric and turn them into little playdolls.
Floral embroidery patterns from between 1915 and 1935 intrigue me. I find them simple, almost primitive, and yet elegant.
Here's a redesign of a 1930s vintage embroidery pattern along with a little saying that suggests that flowers cannot be judged by our appreciation alone.
Download this pattern.
There is a happy place right in-between buying an embroidery pattern which you need to transfer onto your fabric and buying a kit with everything you need but no choice of thread colors.
That happy medium is the pre-printed embroidery fabric panel. Sometimes called stamped embroidery, pre-printed panels are ready for the hoop. You get to choose hoop you love best and the colors you'd like to use to create your own stitchery masterpiece.
I carry pre-printed embroidery fabric panels in my Etsy shop and also have them in local shops such as here in the Caloundra Sewing Centre on the Sunshine Coast.
Margaret, who owns and runs the shop, ran from the camera, but this is a great place for not only embroidery needs, but quilting and general sewing. She runs quilting classes and teaches how to use sewing machines and overlockers/sergers.
Yes, that's me. Not only is my hair a mess, but I'm braving the process of letting my grey grow out. I've been all grey for lots and lots of years. I colored my hair back in 2007 and once you go color, it's hard to stop. It has grown out enough to be a bit punky and in a few more months will look like I dipped the ends in color on purpose. I am looking forward to that stage.
If you like one of my patterns but don't see a pre-printed panel for it, just email me and ask. I print them at home and that's how I transfer most of my patterns now - just print them! It's a breeze.
If you want to print embroidery patterns yourself, I have a handy dandy guide available in the shop. (Although, it IS part of the free pattern ebook you can download when you subscribe to the newsletter - sign-up at the top right of this page.)
And if you're happy to transfer your patterns yourself, Lesson Two of Embroidery School (here on the blog) will teach you how.
Whichever way you go, just GO! Get yourself some fabric, needle, and threads and go for it!
The Garden Girls embroidery pattern is here! Cute as a button. These little girls live and breathe the garden. Do they dream of seeing the flower fairies or dancing among them? Do they climb the trees and get mud on their dresses?
Prim or mischievous, they will work their way into your heart as you work up this hand embroidery.
The pattern PDF comes with a color photo, stitch and color guide, instructions for six methods for transferring the pattern to fabric, and the pattern in two views: straight on and reverse.
Will you be taking some YOU time in the garden with hoop and threads?
This is a humble view of maker-inner-peace.
It is brought to you by a move to a half house in which Mr. True Love and I rent several rooms of delicious empty space in an adorable old country house and the culmination of much research and invaluable advice and support of online designer/maker friends who have been trying to help me figure out the best way to bring pre-printed embroidery fabric panels and kits to my shop.
The original plan was to hire out to print on fabric because I simply did not have even a tiny bit more space for setting up a printer at home which happens to be one of the methods I explain for transferring my PDF patterns onto fabric when you buy my patterns. We have been living in shares and caretaking situations with just a bedroom for us and our stuff for five years.
But, oh! oh! Lookit! Lookit me now! I have a table and a workcounter and, of course, all this floor to work on. And so the printer became a reality, the freezer paper was purchased, and it's all Let The Games Begin in my house.
As long as we're on the subject of printing PDF patterns onto fabric, I'll let you in one some tests I did and what I liked best.
First things first: wash the fabric or not? I used a lovely white homespun cotton I bought at Caloundra Sewing Centre. It's great for embroidery with a nice even weave but a natural linen-like quality. The piece on the left was washed and then ironed and on the right, the piece was just sprayed with a bit of filtered water and ironed. But the washed piece came out a bit more relaxed than I preferred for a hoop art piece.
Why wash it at all? Some blogs report sizing can interfere with printing. I did not find that to be true but the cotton I used didn't seem to have much if any sizing in it anyway. I found that both pieces printed well, but the one I washed also absorbed the ink a bit more and the lines were thicker. Not a desired outcome. I want to be able to cover those lines easily with my embroidery floss.
But the end result is pretty awesome. I can print fabric panels ready to go in the hoop.
Last discovery of the day. I am playing around with an abstract roses geometric I wanted to stitch up.
Problem? My settings for the new printer defaulted to print at 97% instead of 100% so this pattern did not print to fill the 6 inch hoop to the edges as intended. Still I'm stitching it up as a sample because I love the black on the natural calico/muslin fabric and I don't like to waste stuff. You can see this fabric is also washed and the cotton relaxes on the surface. This is natural and can only be seen when looking really closely.
I love working on these designs. I have a strong affinity for art deco and arts and crafts movement styles as well as early 20th century folk Scandinavian design. And the Big Eyes paintings of the 1960s. Okay, I like a lot of stuff you could cram between 1890 and 1975.
No matter where and no matter when, there's no place like home when you're fortunate enough to have one. I am grateful to be settling in.
In honor of lovers worldwide, I've taken a cue from my grandmother's era of youthful frivolity and freedom and embroidered a little boudior mini-pillow.
The embroidery is done here on red linen, upcycled from a women's shirt, and stitched using backstitch, stab stitch, and open lazy daisy in black and white embroidery floss.
The design lends itself to being cut as a heart shape and made into a Valentine's Day present or wedding or anniversary keepsake.
Rather than use a pom pom edging, I lightly rolled bits of wool into soft balls and tucked them inside a strip of chiffon handkerchief which is whipstitched along the edge between the balls.
The embroidery pattern is for sale here in my Etsy shop.
The file for sale is just the embroidery pattern. The full-size pattern fits into a 6" hoop, but it can be enlarged or reduced.
Here's how I made the mini-pillow:
Stack the pillow-to-be fabric in this order: backing right side up then embroidered heart wrong side up.
In this case I used a vintage handkerchief which is very thin fabric so I have an extra layer of white calico muslin behind that.
Stitch around the heart shape, leaving a small opening along one side. Turn right side out and push the edges out with a chopstick. Press gently on the back side with a warm iron.
Using cotton balls or wool fleece, make enough little balls to edge the heart.
Using a strip of fabric 1 1/2 times the circumference of the heart, stitch around the heart, capturing a little fluffy ball inside. Use a whip stitch around the ball edges and the edging will start to look like fabric beads.
