No More Stepping on Needles in the Middle of the Night...

So, I have a problem of dropping needles around my sewing area while I'm sewing.. and I forget I dropped them or just never even realized it. I keep pincushionis by the sewing machine, but it still happens. And of course, where there's a needle on the floor.. your bare foot will always find it. There's just no helping it.. unless....
You make a pincushion that's attached to your sewing machine so that every single need that's on that piece of fabric you're sewing you can automatically stick it there.. without even thinking about it. So, I whipped up this little flower. Let me tell you.. it comes in handy so much! I have noticed a huge drop in the amount of needles I find on my floor in the craft area and not to mention it's realllllllly cute, isn't it?!




Now.. what to do about needles near my couch.. where I always embroider.. hmmmm....

The Cutest Pink Poodle Pincushion EVER!

Sewsew_a_gogo crafted this pink poodle pincushion for me during the Needlework swap on Craftster. This girl knows me so well! Although, when I received a huge box full of goodies.. I stopped all of my rummaging and shrieked out loud the moment I got my hands on this adorable little guy. I mean.. come on! Is he not the cutest thing?!

I'm so impressed by him I just had to show off every angle lol.. and also notice in one pic the matching needlebook in the shape of a poodle head.... Adorable!







Did you check out the detail on him? Amazing, right? I don't know how she managed to find the patience to make him. I know I couldn't do it. I would have thrown him across the room about five minutes in lol

So Yummy even the pots are sweating!

Yeah.. corny title.. I know. lol
In the recent needlework swap on Craftster I made this set for my partner. The tea towel has four different pots embroidered on it.. and of course some fabulous pink rickrack.. nothing's complete without rickrack!
The apron I just freehanded.. no pattern. On it I embroidered a cute little sugar and creamer set which matches the embroidery on the tea towel.
I just can't get enough of the cute little retro animated inanimate objects. You know you love them, too! How can you not?!

I Heart Sunny Buick

So, I embroidered this for Kittykill during the Tea Towel Tour swap on Craftster. Sunny Buick dreamed up and created this gorgeous image. I knew it was right up Kittykill's ally.. especially since it was in her Wists. So, I set out to embroider her.. and let me tell you.. it was a job! But I think the end result was well worth the effort.

Born To Stitch

Everytime I type that phrase I get the song "Born to be Wild" stuck in my head.. I can't help it lol
Recently I was involved in the tattoo swap on Craftster and I was blessed with getting the hippest of all chicks.. Kittykill.. as my swap partner. She truly spoiled me people.. truly. But I tried my best to spoil her, too. My favorite thing I made for her is this sampler... which I actually copied from one that Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching made. It's made using all Sublime Stitching patterns from the new Tattoo Letters set.. I'm really proud of how it turned out. I hope ya'll enjoy!







And of course I have to show ya'll what else I made Kittykill.
Truly, this next piece is one of my favorite things I have ever made. It turned out so cute!
It's a framed embroidery.. I painted the frame.. of a pimped out little bluebird created by the one and the only Mitch O'Connell! Thank you Mr. O'Connell for being so brilliant that you would think to pimp out a sweet little bluebird.





And then lastly I threw in another little Dreamcatcher.. just for fun. This one's more my taste than the first one I made. I really wanted to keep it myself. In fact, every single thing I made for Kittykill during this swap I wanted to keep for myself!



I hope you liked it all Kittykill!

Sweet Aprony Goodness!

So, I got my completed apron back from the Tea Towel Tour on Craftster several weeks ago now, but I'm just now getting around to posting pics on my blog. Unfortunately, my work now blocks all blogs.. and I don't have internet at home right now. So, it's rare for me to get a chance to get on here and update. Anyhow, my apron turned out sooo beautifully. The ruffle all along the bottom was just that.. a ruffle. I didn't intend for everybody to stitch on it.. but the amazingly creative Iamsusie stitched on my apron first and got the incredible idea of stitching on that ruffle. Well, luckily for me everyone followed suit. I couldn't have asked for it to turn out any better than it did. Everyone stitched adorable things on it. I gotta say, though, that I think the little pink deer is my favorite. I love my apron so much there's no way I'm ever going to use.. I don't want to risk messing it up! So, I hung it up on my wall for everyone to see. I love looking at it everyday. It matches my kitchen perfectly!
Enough blabbing.. here's a pic of it up on the wall.

They've flown the coop!

So, here is another goody that I made for the bird swap. They've all flown the coop and are now at their new home with ollieorange on Craftster!
This piece of wall art is just a canvas covered in this gorgeous fabric that I got from SewMamaSew and then I appliqued some adorable little songbirds along with some embroidery of the sweet music they are making!
I also made a pillow that matches but I failed to take pics of it on my camera.. just my camera phone.. and believe me, those pics are not blogworthy!

Sweet Dreams

So, I know it's been a while since I've posted on here.. it seems like it's been forever! I've been very busy crafting, though.

I just finished up the bird swap on craftster .. as in, I dropped my package off at the post office yesterday! Yay! I'm so happy to be finished with it! It was really fun, though, crafting things for my partner for the swap.. and some of the things I made were really hard to give up!

Among the creations I crafted were a pillow, a pincushion, a piece of wall art and a dreamcatcher.
The dreamcatcher was really one of my favorite things and I even found a couple more birdies so that I can make one for myself and one for my mother. I know she would love one! So, here's my simple little dreamcatcher. People say if you hang it by your bed, it will filter out all of your bad dreams and capture your good ones.. so as long as you have a dreamcatcher hanging by your bed you should only have Sweet Dreams.

Sweet Dreams, everyone!

Bambi Who???

So, this has got to be one of my favorite things I've ever made.. if not my favorite! I really adore this.. I mean absolutely completely adore it! I used the Forest Friends pattern from Sublime stitching to embroider the deer. The fabric I got from Sewmamasew. I covered the canvas with the fabric and then appliqued the embroidered deer on to the entire thing. I then adorned it with some vintage buttons I got from my Grandma's button stash that she gave me. I really think it turned out beautifully. I'm going to mount it in my living room near my desk. I really hope ya'll enjoy it as much as I do!

I love you, Allison!!!

... for making such adorable things for me!

These are the adorable things I received from Alli_Lucy on Craftster in my most recent swap. I am head-over-heels in love with all of it! Really, I can't find enough words to describe how much I love everything.

First up is the gorgeous camisole. It's actually altered.. it started out as a simple white camisole if you can believe it.. I know it's hard to! Everything on it is so sweet from the embroidery to the fabric-covered buttons!




Next is the most adorable little pincushion. I have been wanting one of these for ages! In fact, I just recently printed out a tutorial on how to make one. I'm so happy Alli_Lucy made it for me, though. I don't think mine would have come out half as cute!




And last but definetly not least is the adorable needlebook. I have been wanting one of these for the longest, too! It's so cute. Inside it has roseprint fabric and the needle pages are made out of light and dark pink felt. I can't believe how well made it is!



Thank you again, Alli_Lucy! In case you haven't figured it out yet, I really do love it all!

Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, I love you!

I just finished up a swap with the fantastic Alli_Lucy on Craftster. She is really amazing. I can't believe the gorgeous things that she made me for this swap.

I made a few things for her including an embroidery arm-rest organizer and a sewing machine mat, but one of my favorites is this cute little embroidered fabric collage. I painted the frame beforehand and then used the new Lisa Petrucci embroidery patterns from Sublime Stitching. I just thought they were so cute!

Tea Towel Tour 3 Round 1

So, I've finished my first round on the tea towel tour. The towel belongs to Fruitloops. She stitched the cute little moth, and I stitched the squirrel with the acorns. I used the new Sublime Stitching pattern, Forest Friends. I ordered it pretty much the day it came out and I have been waiting on pins and needles for it to come in. Finally, yesterday it made it in; and I couldn't help myself - I started.. and finished.. my design on Fruitloops towel, despite the fact that I had to get up crazy early for work today. Needless to say I've been rubbing my eyes a lot.
Anyhow, here are a couple of pics of my design.

Stunning

I just recently finished a petswap with an extremely talented lady on Craftster. Her username is ericav. If you have a chance you should really check out her artwork. It is absolutely amazing. She's a pet portrait artist. I can't imagine how I got to be so lucky as to get her as my swap partner. Today I received the portrait in the mail.. and I'm still just stunned by how beautiful it is. See for yourselves.



Thank you so much, Erica!!!!
I will truly treasure this all of my life!

And they call it Puppy Love

Angel is my baby.. my one and only.. my true love.. lol
No, really, she is so sweet and I just adore her from her head down to her little paws.



I mean, really, who couldn't love that sweet face??
Even, Isky, my mom's bratty little yorky loves her!



I made this pillow not too long ago to commemorate all of our dogs that we have right now. The poodle obviously is for Angel, and the two yorkies below her are for Isky and Kooty, the coolest dude I've ever known!



This pillow was actually one of my very first things to embroider. Of course, I used my beloved Sublime Stitching patterns for it. It was also one of the very first things I ever used a sewing machine for.. I did kind of a hackjob on it, too. Be thankful the picture isn't very upclose and personal!

Not Quite Vintage

Here's a pillow that I made quite a while back.. almost a year ago, actually. It took me a couple of weeks to do between work and school. I used all Sublime Stitching patterns except for the lettering which I just used a font from Microsoft word for. I really love how it turned out. I wanted something cute for my new apartment which I've been in for 6 months or so now. It sets on my couch for everyone to see. I think that it's a great conversation piece.



Here are some more detailed pics






"Not Quite Vintage" just seemed like the perfect title for my style, what I like.. it just seemed like Me! I like vintage with a twist!

Tea Towel Tour 3

For my first post I decided to start with my most recent project that I'm working on. I'm currently involved in the third Tea Towel Tour on Craftster. I was in the second one as well. This time around I decided I wanted to make a very girly, sweet, retro-inspired apron for myself. I've been so involved in swaps on Craftster lately that I haven't had a chance to make anything for myself in a long while. So, I was extremely excited and went a little wild on this project lol. The white part of the apron, the part which my fellow craftsters will stitch on, is muslin; and the ruffles, waistband, and ties are pink and white gingham.



On the pocket I just stitched the title of the tour.. sort of as a commemorative marking, and I added some sweet little vintage buttons.



Then, I decided I wasn't quite finished until I added another personal touch to it. I've been looking at this towel from Antrhopologie for ages now and I've wanted it so badly but I just never am able to make it out to the store. So, I decided to do something like it on my apron. I think it turned it really well. I was so nervous about doing appliques using the iron-on adhesive. I'd never done it before and it scared the living daylights out of me!



I'm really happy with my apron so far! I'll be sure to post a final pic of it once everyone has had a chance to stitch on it.