Eye: "Brown paper packages tied up with string..."

...quickly becoming one of my favorite things!

Y'know, I never took much stock in that silly song, especially since "whiskers on kittens" make me sneeze and mittens just annoy the hell out of me. But there is something a little magical about getting a brown paper package tied with pretty string, especially when it's coming from Coo-koo-ri-koo.



I love how she packaged the little embroidered "granny bobbies" I ordered on a vintage flash card. Not to mention, the tiny sweet that's almost too pretty to unwrap and eat was a lovely surprise, as was the coupon for future purchases, of which there will be more, for sure!



If you're into vintage button jewelry and darling felted birds, I highly recommend you stop by her shop and peruse her wares!

Hand: More Monkeys!

Monkeys, monkeys, monkeys!




Square #2 for my Monkey Quilt is now complete!



This little guy was also made using Sublime Stitching's "Monkey Love" pattern, like his older brother was. I tried something a little different with his face, which I'm not sure I'm happy with, but overall, I think he came out pretty well.

At this point, the plan is to make three more squares from the pattern, then pack the whole kit and caboodle down to SoCal to enlist the help of the best quilter I know, my Mama. She can do some seriously magical things with fabric, whereas I'm still using Stitch Witchery to hold together my projects!

(To be fair, she did sit down with me to help me sew not only my senior homecoming outfit, but some awesome school clothes when I was in high school. I was the one who went and forgot everything in college!)

I also finally scored the first bit of background fabric:



Before I started this project, I didn't realize how hard it was going to be to find yellow, cotton, monkey-themed fabric! So if anyone out there has come across some cute monkey or banana fabric, please send me the info!

On a side note, I've recently embarked on one of the more detailed embroidery projects I've attempted, made with a semi-original design. Hopefully, I'll have some pictures to share soon...it's coming right along! I also need to start working on my entry for the Craftster.org Fall Needlework Challenge, which I already have the pattern drawn up for. It's another quote cross stitch, and though not really geeky, I think it sums up what the season means to me pretty well!

Hand: Leftover Lanterns

As I mentioned yesterday when posting my Chinese Dragon wall hanging, I lopped the lanterns off the top of the original design, since I wasn't happy with the overall layout. Not one to waste good embroidery, I decided to give the little guys the same treatment I gave the bigger piece:



I made mini-wall hangings! Honestly, I think I might like these even more than the bigger piece, but maybe that's because they were so much fun to make. I got to paw through my vintage button collection (which I got at a garage sale back in high school) and go buy some pretty fabric to go with the ones I didn't have matching fabric for.

This little round one is my favorite one. Turquoise and chocolate brown is quickly becoming one of my favorite color combinations:



This one reminds me of a sundress my Mama used to have:



This one...I got a little button-happy on. But I still like it!



As with the dragon, these were all stitched using Sublime Stitching's "China Town" pattern. They're all roughly two and a half inches wide, so they're fairly small!

Now all I need to do is add some pretty ribbon loops to the back, and I can hang 'em up! I was thinking of doing each design again in each different color, so they can be hung in a more coordinated display...but maybe I'll wait to try that with a different pattern. After looking at this one for so long, I'm kind of ready to move on!

Hand: Chinese Dragon wall hanging

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. We went out of town for Labor Day last weekend to visit an old friend of ours, and this past week was busy, busy, busy. This weekend has been blissfully uneventful...except for a yucky, achy ear infection that's been plaguing me since Friday. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, but until then, it's been lots of Advil and crafting to distract me from the discomfort.

I've been having a lot of fun with Sublime Stitching patterns these days, and have either made progress or finished some long term-projects. The one I'm most proud of is this Chinese Dragon wall hanging I've been working on for a few months on and off:



I played with lots of different types of stitches and colors, and in the end, I'm really pleased with the embroidery.

Detail of the dragon:



Detail of one of the pagodas:


However, in the end, I didn't like how the lanterns looked above the dragon...soooo, I decided to do something a little different:



I cut off the lanterns, and made a hanging of just the dragon and the pagodas. I actually did this "no-sew," with my new best friend, Stitch Wichery, red scaled fabric, ribbon, and vintage buttons. I'm really happy with it, and now all I need is a dowel to hang it off of.

Next time, what I did with the little lanterns...