A Winner and a Sale

We hope the title got your attention! We would like to thank all of you who shared your stitching projects with us, and for all the kind birthday wishes, as well. With such a strong community of stitching friends, it is easier to feel surrounded than to feel alone, though we may be miles apart. May we continue to create beauty during this time of isolation, being calmed by the needle and thread, and to feel the companionship of our fellow stitchers. And for your friends and family who aren't acquainted with the calming effects of hand stitching, call them and say hello! We do not need to be alone while we are in isolation.

Without further ado, we would like to announce the winner of our birthday giveaway. She shared what she is stitching during her "Stay Home" time:

Happy Anniversary! Similar to a previous comment, I find it difficult to stay focused on a chosen project each time I go to my craft room! My BOM quilt is ready to be trimmed, stitched & quilted but I dare not proceed without my BOM friends so I am working on some UFOs alternating between cross stitch, knitting, crewel and wool applique. What a fabulous collection of items in your giveaway! 

And the winner is...

Darlene Laboeuf

Congratulations, Darlene! Please email us to let us know if you would like the spring or autumn Woodland Reverie pattern. And I (Teri) would like to share that the BOM quilt she is referring to is our own In the Garden Block of the Month quilt, so I was pretty excited to see her response. I know that she and her "BOM friends" will find a way to stitch together, even if it is through a computer screen! And Kara and I can't wait to see their finished quilts!

Speaking of computer screens, I have spent a fair amount of hours looking at mine this past week. Our website (needleseyestories.com) got a much-needed update. Scheduling is pretty much on hold right now, but several new items have been listed in our online store! We have added several patterns and kits from classes we have previously taught at the Academy of Appliqué. All kits include any ribbon or special materials needed to complete the blocks. Availability is limited and they will not be restocked, so if you think you might want to create these blocks or quilts, don't ponder for too long!

 

Woodland Reverie Spring block

 

Woodland Reverie Autumn block

Botanical Beauties includes patterns for four small blocks, which can be combined as a four-block wall hanging or used as cornerstones in our Lovely Botanicals quilt design. 

The Lovely Vase block would be beautiful framed, or could be part of a larger quilt. We used it as the center medallion of our Lovely Botanicals quilt.

Lovely Botanicals complete quilt set includes patterns and kits for the entire quilt, with assembly instructions.

We have a few Secret Garden block kits left. A pattern for a complete quilt is coming in the future, so keep watching.

We have only a couple of our popular Zierblumen kits still available.

 To continue our birthday celebration:

...we decided to have a sale!

All of our digital downloaded patterns are on sale for 30% off for the next week. While our In the Garden blocks and quilt sets are available in hard copy which include ribbon, you can also download just the pattern with the convenience of hitting a button on your computer. Just use the code STAYHOME30 when you check out. Pictured below are the digital patterns that are available. 

 Complete In the Garden quilt pattern set, as well as each individual block.

Individual block patterns for the Cardinals and Holly, Acorns and Oak Leaves, Monarch and Butterfly Bush, and Hydrangeas, . . . 

 . . . Hummingbird and Fuchsia, Cornflowers, Rose, Robin and Forsythia, . . . 

. . .  Dragonfly and Fern, Violets, . . .

. . . Garden Gate, . . .

. . . and Wheelbarrow of Flowers.

Our Christmas Cottage Stocking and Crazy Mittens patterns will help you prepare for our next holiday season.

Our first pattern, Marcia's Flowers, and our newest, a Ribbon and Embroidery Sampler Booklet for your stitching practice work, round out our digital offerings.

So, if you think you might need to bolster your pattern supply to get you through your quarantine time, this is the week to order your digital patterns to receive a 30% discount. Remember to use the code STAYHOME30 at checkout. Enjoy!

On our end, Kara and I are busy writing patterns for our Houses, which have garnered a lot of interest. You will be seeing more about these fun abodes soon! In fact, they have been so popular that we are working on a second series. More fun to come!

What about you? Have you moved onto other projects? We would still love to hear about your creative endeavors. What are you stitching?

Stay home, if you can, and thank you to those who have to venture out to work. Stay safe, everyone! 💝 

Marcia's Flowers: A Thursday Throwback

So it's one of those weeks. Kara just got home from traveling to a family wedding and is dealing with jet lag, and I (Teri) am preparing to travel to Long Island to lecture and teach for a guild. So when we touched base this morning about what we should write, we thought it might be a perfect week to do a throwback to our most popular post. That post would be Marcia's Flowers—by far! 

This was our very first pattern, and it continues to be a popular one. We are still teaching the class, and even occasionally getting to see some finished projects—always a real treat for us. Seeing projects based on our classes and patterns gives us great joy!

Last week at a workshop, Pat H. shared her Marcia's Flowers mat.
The beads add a nice touch, and I love how she finished it with the scalloped edge!

Thanks primarily to Pinterest, we are still getting lots of traffic on this original post. In light of our busy week creating writer's block, we thought we might make it easier for you to review. Enjoy!

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Thursday, September 15, 2016

Marcia's Flowers

In July, Kara shared The Story of an Inspiring Jacket with you. Today, I (Teri) will show you what we have each done with the design created from that jacket. These projects have been such fun, and we hope to share the joy with you. We are excited to teach this class at Primitive Homespuns Wool & Needleworks in October, in Frederick, MD. 

When we first met Kathy, the owner of the shop, she asked if we could design a wool appliqué piece that could be used to top a wooden box. Kara had already started working on this pattern in bright colors by Shakerwood Woolens, and we took it in to show to her. Kathy thought that the design would be perfect, so I selected a palette of colors from her shop to stitch my model. As I love warm colors, my model has a very different look from Kara's. Our two examples show how the same pattern, with the same embroidery stitches, can look so very different! 

Here are a few side-by-side detail shots for you to compare. 

  

Sometimes a different look is achieved because of different thread choices, or even because of the density and weave of the wool. The purple wool on the outer petal of the above flower, left, held the scalloped cut. The teal, on the right, however, was a looser weave, so I chose to fray it with the back of my needle, so it would look more feathery.

For our class at Primitive Homespuns, we will be using the warmer palette and making a lovely box that would be perfect for storing sewing supplies, threads, or even used as a project box for appliqué or embroidery pieces. I went to the shop yesterday to work with Kathy to secure the finished piece on the top of the box, which she had painted a lovely brick red. First, I backed the finished piece with muslin, using SoftFuse Premium™ as my fusible. Then I trimmed it to size, and we backed it with Shurtape® double-sided carpet tape. Kathy has this process down to an art; I was impressed watching her trim the tape to the size of the appliqué, and methodically remove one strip of backing paper at a time to carefully secure it to the box with proper placement.

 

We auditioned several examples of trim, including discussing a blanket stitch around the edge of the block, but we settled on a lovely vintage chenille yarn, which we glued down using Aleene's® Original Tacky Glue®. The color matched the pale yellow used in the block and gave it a nice, finished look without distracting the eye from the design.

   

While I was stitching up my model, I put a photo of my embroidery on a Facebook group and was astonished by the number of requests there were for the pattern. So we decided that it only made sense to write up directions and create a formal pattern. We have been working hard to get it ready, and it should be up on our website by October. But in the meantime, if you live in the Frederick area of Maryland, come join us for some Saturday fun! (For more information about the class, please check our website, by clicking here.)* 

We thought it would be fun to put our two projects together for a photo session; here they are sitting on a chair together in the shop. You can see that Kara decided to stitch hers into a pillow, and she just happened to have the perfect fabric to match her appliqué! What would we do without such an extensive fabric stash?!

Marcia's Flowers

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*NOTE: We don't happen to currently have a class scheduled for this block, but if there is interest, we can always add one! And, for the record, the patterns ARE now available on our website, in both digital and hard copy!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!

Throwback Thursday

Sometimes it's fun to take a look at the past and remember the different steps in a journey. The first pattern we listed on our website, Marcia's Flowers, came about through the inspiration of a friend's jacket. From that same inspiration, we also created a needle book that we gave to the owner of the inspirational jacket. This Friday, I (Kara) am going to be teaching a class in Germany, using that same needle book pattern. I could never have imagined, when stitching the first needle book, that two years later, I would be sharing it and teaching wool appliqué on a different continent!

As I put together this second needle book, I knew that I wanted to create a more earthy palette than the previous one. Kelly, at DKW outside of Munich, provided some lovely wool from which to choose, and the second version of the needle book was finished.

Wool appliqué is not much of a thing in our area of Germany, so I am on a quest to create a few more converts. With that in mind, my friend Karen, has offered to host a mini-class in her home, and we have  five ladies ready to learn. Because some people prefer a bright palette, I have put together two different kits.

Earthy palette

Bright palette

The kit all ready to go!

Hopefully the ladies will fall in love with wool and the wonderful things you can do with it. We thought it might be fun to re-post the original story about the jacket and its inspiration. While the  needle book pattern is no longer free, you can still find the motifs in our original Marcia's Flowers Pattern

Teri and I have had a wealth of experiences since we began Through the Needle's Eye and hopefully you have enjoyed reading about them. Please enjoy our little trip down memory lane!

The Story of an Inspiring Jacket