love me some linen

Look what arrived in my Mexican P.O. box today! Amber and I did a bit of an exchange - a few sewing patterns for some of her knock-em-dead handwork. I'm hoping that having this lovely piece of Amber's in my home will help filter some of her embroidery mojo my way! You never know.

At the moment, I'm pleasantly paralyzed (creatively) due to the 10 yards of beautiful linen that I can finally call my own. I've waited literally years to find affordable linen. Now that I have it, I'm overwhelmed. There are SO many ideas floating about in my head, but I can't seem to lasso any idea in particular. Part of me is fighting the perfectionist that lurks beneath my more nonchalant surface ... why would I feel like I need to create a masterpiece as soon as the needle hits this wonder-fabric? Silly. So I decided to start with a pattern - a pleasant warm-up of sorts.

You already know how much I admire Hillary's work, and this "Quilting Bee" stitchette is just another testament to all that is wonderful about Wee Wonderfuls. I can already see the finished embroidery hanging on the wall of my new studio once we move to North Carolina!

I'm confident that once I'm done with the Quilting Bee I will be able to skip intrepidly into a future filled with original designs. Do you ever get this perfectionist-induced creativity block?

xo,
Meg

the secret joy of giving

sneak peek of a wonderful someone's gift

'Tis the season of occult crafting. Little snippets of WIPs are shown, but not the project in its full glory, out of fear that the recipient might be lurking around blog land - eager to shake the virtual gift box and discover what might be waiting underneath the tree. ;)

I am a box shaker. Are you? Thus, being naturally on guard against other box shakers, I have several wonderful handmade gifts in the works that I'll be keeping under wraps for the time being.

Meanwhile, I'm busy gathering goodies for the Holiday Traditions Exchange and sewing up little ice skates for the ornament exchange.

And, like many of you, I have pledged to buy handmade this holiday season. This has translated into an inordinate amount of time spent wandering around Etsy. I leave you with some of my favorites:

JCasa's baby quilt
The Wreath Lady
Marmee Craft's Wee Felted Snowmen
Matryoshka wrapping paper
Bombo by littlellama
The Black Apple
Coyote Craft's embroidered cupcake ornaments
AntiGenre
Treehouse 28

favorite things

First of all, I need to thank all of your who have purchased my sewing patterns. Thank you for your dear notes of encouragement, for supporting the hand-made movement, and for helping us save some money in preparation for starting a family. I really hope that you and your loved ones find joy in both making and using your creations.

Remember this tree pillow? Now it has a companion.

These past few days I've been enjoying some hand stitching. Hand appliqué and embroidery - a few of my favorite things (aside from raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.) It's portable and relaxing. The needle pricks on the tips of the fingers add an element of surprise (okay, and pain ... but it's all worth it in the end.)

I'm loving the polka dot ties on the back:

And did you see that Hillary just put her hand sewing pattern cards up for sale? I already bought mine. Can't wait to make the snail and the butterfly (which goes through metamorphosis ... caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly!) Oh, I can't wait to have my own children! In the meantime, these toys might find their way into my nieces' little hands!

By the way, don't forget to take your blankets outside tonight and tomorrow night to watch the meteor shower. What a way to spark your child's interest in astronomy! This year there’s no moonlight to interfere. The best time to watch is from 11 p.m. August 12 until dawn the next morning. If you have a dark sky, you may see a meteor once a minute on average. Cross your fingers for cloudless skies!

Happy stargazing/meteor marveling,
Meg

corduroy embroidered pillow

Before leaving on our trip, I threw together some scrap fabric and embroidery floss for an easy traveling project.

I cut out the shapes and adhered them to the corduroy with Steam-A-Seam sticky back fusible web, threw it in a bag with some rick-rack and thread, and then embroidered with leisure during my outbound journey. The return journey was dedicated to Harry Potter, of course. I finished yesterday! My lips are zipped.

Also, shimmy on over to my new Flickr photos. A big thanks to Reese and Wendy for giving me some invaluable tips. I am now able to download with ease. The only bummer is that the medium size on Flickr doesn't fit in my template. I tried shrinking it proportionally to the necessary dimensions in the HTML code, but it ended up really reducing the quality - I could see the pixels! So, I'll have to figure out a way to remove the border around the photo and just deal with the fact that part of the right side will be cut off. Oh well. You can always click on the photo and it will take you to the un-cut version in Flickr.