Stitching & a tutorial

Hi! How are ya?

I promised that I'd share an embroidery project with ya. Feeling REALLY good about the fact that I snapped enough pix of the steps that I can actually give you a fairly decent tutorial! *LOL* Ready? Here we go!!!

Step 1: Decide on image you wish to stitch. Inspiration can come from anywhere (just ask my kids)...in this case, Middle Child and Youngest Child both wanted me to stitch one of their favorite cartoon characters, Gir, from Invader Zim. So, after a brief Google search on the WWW, I came up with 2 images - one of Gir in his regular form and one of him in his "disguise." The boys decided they each liked BOTH images, so double-sided pillows were the call. I printed off the images...

Step #2: Get your basic outline for stitching by laying tracing paper over the original design.
Step #3: Using a light source (light table or tape the images & blank fabric to your sunniest window), trace the designs onto your material. You can use a fabric pen, pencil, or an ultra fine point sharpie (test the fabric in an inconspicuous spot to make sure your pen isn't going to bleed).

Step #4: Stitch. I used 3 strands of DMC rayon floss for each image, with warm n natural batting behind the fabric for some quilted dimension (optional). At this point, I'm not worried about the wrinkles in the fabric.

Step #5: Grab your kids box of crayons, or, if you're like me, you've got your own private stash. Stretch the fabric with your hands & color the fabric till you get the look you're going for. On mine, I used the original printed images (step #1) as my color guide.

Step #6: Grab waxed paper, plain news print or printer paper, and your iron. Set your iron to COTTON. Pull off enough waxed paper to cover the image.
Step #7: Lay your news or printer paper OVER the waxed paper...
Step #8: Using a fairly firm pressure, iron over your image. The waxed paper & heat from the iron help to seal the color into the fabric.
Step #9: Repeat steps 6-8 for each image you're setting into fabric. This time around, I had to do it FOUR TIMES.
Step #10: Using your machine, set on straight & normal length stitches, sew 3 sides of your pillow together, leaving one side open for stuffing (I leave the bottom).

Step #11: Stuff pillow to a fullness of your preference.

Step #12: Blind stitch pillow shut or use machine to close seam.

And you have two of the cutest, not-your-normal-kind-of-embroidery-project, pillows EVAH!

The boys really love their little pillows & I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Any questions? Leave me a comment & I'll do my best to get back to ya ASAP. If you make a project using today's lesson, leave me some love & let me know where to find you or send me an e-mail with pix - I'd love to see!

Gotta have a "Gir Moment"

I'm linking this post to ~~

Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!!

Better Late Than Never (long)

Finally! Life around here has settled down enough that I can share some things with y'all that I crafted around Christmas. I still wasn't at 100%, with all of the "bugs" going around if you recall, so doing the all-out Christmas decorating thing wasn't an appealing option for me, but I did want to do some little SOMETHING to pretty up the house for the holiday.

I had a tree made from distressed book pages that Lori sent me last summer during our annual Christmas In July party that became my jumping off point. So, with a trip to $Tree for some foam cones & other goodies, a quick dig through stash that turned up some paper mache cones, a visit to the DI and the Rescue Mission for candle holders, I ended up with a lovely winter forest.

{remember to right click & open in a new tab to view the pix better}

I'll break this into groups for ya. Group #1 (to the left of the little red bench) - ruffle tree, feather tree, green bottle brush tree, glittered glass, rose petal tree, aqua glass star tealite holder, & "sitting stump" (there's a cute, quick story with that one!). Group #2 (on top & in front of red bench) - pink mercury glass, white bottle brush, glass, Lori's paper tree, pearl tree & antique jar of "faux" snow. Group #3 (right side of bench) - bottle brush tree, ruffled crepe paper tree, twine tree with glitter "Hope" ornament, ruffled eyelet tree.

Details on the ruffle tree: Using 2 different shades of burlap, muslin strips, tea-stained 1 inch wide twill tape, sandcastle fabric, a bit of warm n natural batting, & lace, I basted the fabric strips, pulling the top threads to create ruffles, then tied knots to keep the ruffles in place. I started at the bottom of a foam cone layering the ruffles & trimmed the top with a bit of gimp to close the slight gap between the top ruffle & the finial. The finial was picked up from Lowe's & painted in Rustoleum's "Chrome" for the silver finish. Glass candlestick came from the DI.

The feather tree is a small maribou boa glued & wrapped around a paper mache cone. The rose petal tree base is a candle cup from an old sconce that I picked up from the Rescue Mission. The rose petals are from the wedding section of $Tree and hot glued (one.petal.at.a.time) onto a foam cone base. The little glass tree was a12¢ score from the Rescue Mission - I sprayed some adhesive inside and sprinkled poly "fairy dust" for the sparkle. A narrow pompom trim adhered with 1/4 inch double-sided tape to the edge of the plastic "lid" on the bottom of the tree finishes the look. The green bottle brush tree was purchased at the DI for 25¢ and the "sitting stump" was something that Devin brought me after going out for a walk one day. Said he just looked down at the gutter & couldn't figure out what it was. When we got it washed off, it was so stinkin cute that I couldn't not include it in my forest. *LOL*

For the grouping in the middle - with the exception of the paper tree from Lori, those are all store bought. The white bottle brush came from JoAnn's (79¢ in the Christmas clearance section); the pink mercury glass was a tree topper from Michaels ($1.99); and the small glass tree from the DI (15¢) & trimmed with double-sided tape and 1/4 inch pompom trim, like it's bigger brother (I left it clear but may attempt a faux mercury glass technique on it - haven't decided).

On this right end- kinda hard to see, but there's a tree that I glued hand-ruffled crepe paper to a foam core from $Tree, then added "Icicle" Stickles and dew drops for a bit of sparkle; the one with the aqua glittered "Hope" ornament is a foam core with creamy white twine glued and wrapped (bottom to top), then I did one of my little muslin strip rosettes for the top, the ornie came from the DI (10¢); the antique jar is also from the DI (5¢) & I filled it with faux snow that I used for candle jars a couple years ago; the eyelet tree base is a votive holder from the DI (25¢), a foam core from $Tree, 2yds of eyelet trim from the Rescue Mission (75¢) and the finial is from Lowe's, just painted with some white paint that I had on hand.

That darling little snowflake you see hanging from the weather vane was crocheted by my dear friend, Myrna, and traveled to Utah from Oklahoma with no issues (I just LOVE that snowflake!). Thanks, Miss Myrna!

You missed one, Nora. What? You missed a tree. Actually, no, I didn't. You're thinking about that "pearl" tree. Well, I took photos of the steps to make it and thought I'd share them with you. You'll need:
One bag, color of your choice, of Decorative Container Fill. I got the cream color from $Tree. They also carry a really pretty red and a soft, sage-y green. You can get other colors from JoAnn's for a bit more, but for a buck, you really can't go wrong. If you work it right, you'll have enough pearls for future projects.

I grabbed a cheap foil baking tray, a tv table, my Scotch quick drying tacky glue, another $Tree foam core (I'm telling ya for $10, I had PLENTY of these lil babies lying around!), a paper towel, & a bowl to hold my pearls (the bag is too static-y to keep them in while you're working).
Work in sections. I would put a bit of glue onto the foam, spread it kinda thick with my fingers, then place the pearls into the glue. Work down toward the bottom & make sure you don't go past the edge of the foam, especially if you're not going to give your tree a trunk. Allow time to dry between sections - I gave an hour to overnight. Don't worry if the glue shows through just a bit, because it will dry clear.
When it was finished, I took a wooden candle cup that I had in my stash, painted it with a vintage cream acrylic to match the pearls. Added it to the collection, and VOILA! A winter wonderland that can stay out till the first thaw.
I did find an angel, holding a cream bottle brush tree, that I'll add to this menagerie next winter. AND, I still have some paper mache cones, so there may even be more trees! *LOL* Hope you enjoyed looking at my new collection and maybe got a little inspiration for your next year's decorating ideas.

ETA: I'm linking this to ~~

Tomorrow's share - an embroidery project. Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!!

*Sigh*

I've missed y'all!! Can I just start out by saying that November and December of 2010 SUCKED ROCKS?!? Almost 4 full weeks of being sick from Thanksgiving till just a day or so before Christmas has completely drained me of wanting to do anything except blog surf the last week or so. More than that, and I'm just exhausted. Special thanks to the hubby for sharing a flu bug (24hrs for him, 4 DAYS for me) and for the youngest child for bringing home whatever that was from school ~~ holy guacamole, it was the WORST! Felt like I had a flippin elephant sitting in the middle of my chest for 3 of those weeks I was down. YUCK! The only thing that got me through was resting (whenever I was allowed & that wasn't much), ginger tea, odorless garlic capsules, and cranberry capsules.

I did manage a bit of thrifting and to create a few things in December...a small winter forest (was too "bleh" to decorate for Christmas & the forest was the best I could do)...MIGHT have a few pics that I can share over the next week or so.

I'm also in the middle of a two pillow embroidery project that is not my normal style that you might be interested in - when they're complete (hopefully by Wednesday or Thursday), I'll share those, too.

Till then, stay warm (for those in the Northern Hemisphere) & I'll see you soon. Thanks for stopping by!!