Robotic

Last week Sarah came over for some crafting. I helped her make a few tokens and took up my own little project once she got the hang of it.

I especially like this little guy.

It was nice to pick up the needle and thread again.

Pattern is "Robots and Spaceships" from Tigerpup Embroidery. I just noticed her free patterns page. Love them.

Christmas Stitching

Have I mentioned my Hump Day dinner group before? Every Tuesday a few friends and I gather for delicious food at one of our homes. This past week we had our Hump Day: Christmas Edition, and I was so excited to pass out the little secret project I had been working on (and staying up way too late to finish).

Like I hinted before, my amazingly talented friend Julia designed me 6 unique embroidery patterns. It had been awhile since my last stitching, but I fell back into the habit fairly quickly.

I didn't have much of a choice for the tea towels, but I like how each color turned out. The plaid cloths were especially difficult to stitch. I traced the design onto thin paper, stitched right through, and carefully ripped the paper off. A few of the stitches went wonky as a result... but it was my best solution with my resources on hand.

Happily, each design matched perfectly to a recipient:
... Shera made us delicious hot chocolate so the mug went to her
... the loaf of bread to Molly for her creative vegetarian "beef" wellington
... Hannah bakes pies frequently so the pie goes to her

... Sarah baked chocolate cupcakes last year (that Molly sat on in the back seat of my car, which I still find hilarious)
... Jen's strawberry dump cake made her the obvious choice for the strawberry
... and the veggie for me, the veggie of the bunch!

Oh, and in case you're slightly confused... our work week falls Sunday to Thursday, that's why we call Tuesday "Hump Day" and not Wednesday!

Merry Christmas, Hump Day Ladies!

Embroidered Pouches

This past spring I had a lovely surprise package of fabric show up in my post box. Two sweet friends from home drove all the way out to the mighty Fabric Depot and picked out fabric in my honor. I was incredibly excited to open that package!

I just had to sew them a little something to say "Thank you!" for their thoughtfulness. I decided to make these pleated pouches from Skip to My Lou. Very simple but still offered a step up in skill from the pouches I made last summer.

Darby picked out the light pastel fabrics.

And Nikki picked these bold prints.

To add more texture and make it all a bit more interesting, I embroidered the design on one side of the pouch.

Thanks again, ladies!

Take a Sick Day, Fly a Kite

This past week I spent two days home from work... sick. I used a bit of my time to stitch up a little sketch I drew a week or two ago. It's a kite.

I wasn't going to use satin stitch for the kite itself, but a simple outline didn't seem appropriate. I'm glad I filled it in. I'm also thrilled with the mustardy yellow bows.

I'm hoping to continue with a series of wind propelled "things that fly" ... we'll see.

I can't see squirrels and not think of Taune.

A few weeks ago she thoughtfully sent me a little gift of embroidery floss. Only days before that Badbird released her January embroidery pattern... squirrels! How could I not stitch it up and send it Taune's way?

Insh'Allah

Every Western expat's least favorite word. It means "God willing" and if you're living in the Middle East, you will hear it a lot.

It's definitely an adjustment to hear Insh'Allah in reference to anything future tense. It's like how we'd say "Hopefully" before something we want to happen, except Insh'Allah is all the time. It's especially annoying when you get the impression that it really means, "Yeah yeah, I'll get to it when I get to it." You can let it drive you crazy, or you can add it to your own vocabulary.

In an effort to fully embrace the Insh'Allah expat lifestyle, I embroidered a friend a little bit of Insh'Allah to keep nearby in her kitchen.

Pinwheel Purse

Carly thought her purse needed a little something extra... and I agree.

It needed a pinwheel!

(Pattern from Wild Olive)

Saucy Mermaids

I'm still having a hard time purchasing items off of registries. I totally understand the concept... but it's just not very fun! For my friend Liz's bridal shower, I told her in advance not to expect a registry gift. Luckily, that was ok with her (at least she said so!).

But really, she received some saucy mermaid dish towels... and that's just not something you can find at Macy's!

These were really fun to embroider but took FOREVER! Luckily, I had 30 Rock on Netlix Instant Play to get me through. Originally the plan was to make 7 towels, one of each day of the week. However, it turned out I only had enough material for 5 towels (I made those too!) ... and only actually liked 5 of the transfers.

My favorite is the little lady trapped in the net.

Spring Stitching

In life, if you're really really lucky, you can get in your car, drive for four hours and feel like you're coming home. There's one little house, on one little street, in one little town that gives me that feeling. A place where I know for certain I'll be greeted with the warmest hug, lots of smiles, and maybe even some beans and rice cookin'. It's not often as a house guest that your friend's roommates actually want you to stay longer...

Last week I decided to send a little bit of spring to that little house on that little street in that little town that always makes me feel welcome.

Each tea towel was stitched with lots of love and care, and a decent amount of freehand. The patterns are vintage from Knitting-and.com dating from the 1930s and '40s.

Birds for Dickey

It's pretty easy to form a friendship in high school with someone when both your last names are phallic references. It takes a little more work to keep the friendship alive when one of you uproots and resettles states away.

I made these little twirly bird tea towels for a friend to complement her (what I imagine to be) darling 1920s studio apartment. I stitched the birds facing opposite directions so they can look at each other and chat while hanging. I also had to free hand much of the purple bird. That led to slight wonkiness, but overall, not bad. Pattern here.

Happy Birthday, Dickey!

Gnomes

All of my dishtowel embroidery gifting left me with a single dishtowel left over. I was planning on stashing it with all my crafting supplies when I realized that I could make myself something! I came across a cute little pattern of a gnome from Badbird's. I figured I needed about four of them to be truly happy.

My dishtowel is now a little gnome village.

Arctic Blasted Embroidery

After I had finished all of my handmade holiday gifts but was still trapped in the house due to snow... I attempted to keep my sanity by making Arctic Blast 2008 gifts.

I decided to customize hankies for a couple of friends based on their interests. One likes to dress up as Link from the Legend of Zelda and has high hopes for convincing a tattoo artist to inscribe a triforce on his hand. (I know, he's a lot cooler than he sounds). It was kinda obvious what type of hankie to make him.

The other likes really insane movies that basically freak me out yet nonetheless intrigue me. Like, nunsploitation...this stuff is for real? Wanting to keep with the idea of nuns but not wanting to do any horrific embroidery, I decided to go with a G-rated angle.

As far as I could tell, they were excited by the product of my nerdiness celebrating their nerdiness.

Squirrels!

Taune, a friend to all woodland creatures, knows that if she sees a black squirrel in the morning, she'll have a good day. I couldn't help but try to increase her chances when I was thinking up a Christmas gift to give her.

A little black squirrel dish towel:

A little brown squirrel dish towel:

Friends:

Embroidered Veggies

Inspired by my mom, embroidery was a major theme in the holiday gifts this year. For my dad's wife I embroidered a set of dish towels with vegetable motifs courtesy of Aunt Martha. After awhile it started to feel like a chore, but what else was I going to do while snowed in?

Beets

Onions

Radishes

Carrots...I couldn't really see this transfer, so it's a bit free hand.

Hankies

In addition to the granola, I embroidered my dad a set of hankies for Christmas. This is something I did when I was a little girl and one of my dad's favorite gifts to receive. I like to think my embroidery has improved over the years but I'm too hesitant to dig up the evidence to know for sure.