Song lyric embroidery #2

One of the few things my sister and I have in common, apart from the same parents, vegetarianism and the belief that my niece is the best child in the entire world, is that our favourite band is The Doors.  I made this little set of embroideries for her birthday, using a line from her favourite Doors song:

I did them totally freehand and although they're a wee bit wonky, I think this adds to the homemade look rather than detracts from their appearance.  I used chain stitch which I hadn't done before but I'm now hooked on the way it looks.  My stitches could be a bit neater and I definitely improved a lot towards the end, but as a first attempt, I'm pretty pleased.  

Now, shall we have a gratuitous picture of Jim Morrison to round off this mini-post? 

Jenny

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Tea + Embroidery

This time last year, I had just completed my first ever embroidery.  It was done freehand, featured applique, was a present for my mum's birthday and had a tea theme.  Never one to push the boundaries too far, I have once again completed a tea-themed, freehand embroidery featuring applique for my mum's birthday.  She asked me for a teapot and some nice teacups so I though this would be a nice accompaniment to her pretty new crockery.

And get this, it's BACKED so it looks all neat and pleasing.  I don't know why the back pleases me almost as much as the front but it does.

I love embroidering by hand - there is something very soothing and mindless about it - but I am itching to try freehand machine embroidery.  I didn't think a birthday present needed at short notice (my mum's birthday is on Sunday) was the best place to practise this but I will be frantically seeking advice on here and Twitter when I do have a go!

Jenny

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Betty's Birthday Embroidery

My Gran (Betty) turned 92 the other day and I wanted to give her something handmade alongside the other gifts I'd bought her.  I usually give her jewellery I've made especially for her but as her jewellery box is overflowing these days, I thought I'd give her a little embroidery this time. 

This was a super-quick job, with the stitching completed in an evening and then the petals filled in with watered-down acrylic paint the next morning as I was in a rush to finish it!  I'd love to do something similar but with the petals entirely stitched...although I have just found two forgotten and half-finished embroideries in a cupboard, plus I've just started working on a new one tonight so that might be a while off...

My Mum, Gran and niece

Anyway, most importantly, the birthday girl loved it and had a great lunch at her favourite restaurant, surrounded by family, delicious food and copious amounts of wine!  

Jenny

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Embroi-deer-y and a crafty giveaway!

Welcome to the first ever giveaway on my brand new blog!  The lovely people at Homecrafts recently sent me two papier mache reindeer to decorate as I pleased, along with two more to give away.  I was planning on decorating mine as reindeer and using them as festive ornaments but as they arrived right before Christmas and time was tight, I decided to make them into generic deer instead so they had year-round appeal.

I've been getting a little addicted to embroidering paper and card lately so after much dithering over how best to decorate my two cute deer, I decided embroidery was the way to go.  I painted the little deer with white acrylic paint then cut out its exact shape from sturdy card.  I doodled a little design, stitched away, glued the card to the deer, et voila:

I'm really pleased with the finished result and my little deer is now settled in his new home on my mantelpiece (which was looking very miserable and bare without its Christmassy decor).  The larger deer was going to be decoupaged but I like my embroidered one so much, I might change my mind and make him into a buddy for this one.

Here they are in their unaltered state. The larger reindeer is 25 x 22.5cm and the smaller 20 x 17cm.

Now for the giveaway...

To be in with a chance of winning a set of two reindeer to dress up to your heart's content, all you have to do is the following two things:

1. Follow this blog either via Google Friend Connect or Bloglovin'

2. Leave a comment on this post with your reindeer-decorating ideas and telling me what name you're using to follow my blog.

And that's it!  

*The winner will be chosen at random at 8pm Thursday 10th January.  The prize will be sent by First Class post, so only UK residents are eligible to enter.*

If you'd like to purchase the deer yourself, here they are on the Homecrafts website.  

Good luck :-)

Jenny

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Song lyric embroidery

I'm currently gathering together a load of prints and pictures to complete a gallery wall in my living room and wanted to add a few bits of embroidery in there.  I've been intending to do a song lyric embroidery for a while but couldn't decide what song/line to use.

The one I've gone with for the living room wall isn't the most profound lyric and I can't say it's one which particularly speaks to me, but The Doors are one of my favourite bands ever and Light My Fire has been one of my favourite songs since I was about 12 so I thought I'd just go with it!

This embroidery only took an hour or so to do which made it the perfect project for last week's Creatives Unite (Creatives Unite is the brainchild of Anna at Miss Beatrix.  If you need a creative outlet to stay happy and help you function properly, check it out!).

I've got a couple more embroideries to finish and I need to find a couple more prints before I have enough for my gallery wall but in the meantime, I'm getting lots and lots of inspiration from Pinterest.

My first blog post in aaaaaaaaages and it's probably better suited to tumblr but thought I'd ease myself back in gently :-)

Jenny

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What I made when I was ill

I've been feeling a bit flu-ish this week, not real, full-on flu, but bad enough to have to take it easy for a few days and drink lots of hot lemon and honey.  

Lying on the sofa, surrounded by tissues and boxsets of Sex and the City, I had a flick through an, as yet, unused present, The Busy Girl's Guide To Sewing by Carrie Maclennan. It's a good little book, more useful to a sewing novice like myself, I imagine, than someone who knows what they're doing already.  It's filled with supposedly quick little projects and I was suddenly filled with an urge to make the Keep-It-Neat Pattern Sleeve to store my embroidery in when I'm not working on it.  I'm new to embroidery (you can see my first completed project here) but have already found that two big fluffy black cats and white cotton fabric do not mix.  In an attempt to store my embroidery safely away from cat hair and busy paws, this is what I made:

I'm pleased with how it turned out, although even as a novice, I'm sure I could have easily winged it and made it myself without the book.  My sewing machine has only just come out of a three year long hibernation though, so I thought I'd play it safe for my first project!  According to the book, this should have taken me around 30 minutes to make...if that's so, then they were the longest 30 minutes of my life.  I think this is actually the first time I've made anything from scratch with my machine though, so I'm quite happy :-)

Finally, I just wanted to show you my cute little Cath Kidston needle holder which was a gift from a friend:

Isn't he cute!?

Jenny

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