New Pattern—A Cottage Christmas Stocking

Christmas will be here before we know it! The stores everywhere (on this continent and across the pond) are laden with all sorts of holiday items.  We thought we'd join them with a new pattern that you can make to grace your Christmas fireplace mantel.  

Introducing our Cottage Christmas Stocking!

This stocking pattern came about as I (Kara) found out that my guild, the Black Forest Quilt Guild, has a yearly stocking exchange. The Christmas style here in Germany tends to be a little bit more subdued, so I decided to make a stocking out of wool and in a limited palette. The inspiration for the cottages came from the lace curtains hanging in our sunroom. 

This wasn't your run of the mill exchange; they do it in a white elephant/yankee swap style. I was warned that I needed to wear good running shoes because it could get a little crazy. They weren't kidding! Ladies were running everywhere and the stockings were changing hands faster than you could blink.  When it was all said and done, my good friend Lisa came away with my stocking, and I couldn't have been happier!

Lisa with her hard-fought-for stocking!

You can purchase the pattern on our website as either a paper copy or a digital one. As with all our patterns, each one comes with a detailed set of instructions, including the threads we used. When I put together the first stocking, I didn't take pictures of how I assembled it once the appliqué and embroidery were finished. There are written assembly instructions in the pattern, but we thought it would be good to show you how in pictures. 

Once your appliqué is finished, pin your wool pieces, right sides together.
(This is a demo stocking for assembly purposes)

Sew together starting at one side going down and then back up the other side.
Do not sew across the top and do not turn.

Sew the two lining pieces (right sides together) in the same way,
but leave a 3" opening between the heel and toe.

Wool and lining pieces sewn.

Once both are sewn, clip the curve above the toe.

Turn the lining fabric so the right side is out.

Fold the velvet ribbon in half, wrong sides together, and pin
inside the wool stocking at right seam with the two ends at the top.

Put the lining inside the wool stocking, right sides together,
match the edges and pin. 

Sew completely around the top.

Once sewn, pull out the lining.

Find the opening and turn the whole stocking right sides out.

Slip stitch the lining closed, tuck back inside the wool stocking,
and poke out the edges.

Ready to hang!

Hopefully our assembly instructions will be helpful to you as you put together your stocking. The pattern is now available on our website, www.needleseyestories.com.

We may not be ready for Christmas music yet, but it is fun to stitch Christmasy things at this time of year. Even though the holidays are fast approaching, it's not too late to stitch a little bit of Christmas!

Let It Snow (...One Flake More)!

I (Teri) love snow—the beauty of it blanketing the ground, as well as the uniqueness of each individual flake. Indeed, the embroidery and embellishment Kara used on the two snowflakes she made using the same pattern (see Snowflakes for Free!) gave each its own special "personality." Both started with the same cream wool, but the variation in threads, beads, ribbon, and even the background created two unique flakes, much like the snowflakes of nature. 

Of course, I knew that I would have to try one of my own. My mind's eye saw something even different: a free-falling snowflake that I could hang on my tree. My tree is done all in gold and white, so I collected materials that I thought might work to create a fitting snowflake for my ornament.

Collecting materials

I settled on just the small, flat sugar beads and the Kreinik Very Fine #4 Braid in gold. First, I cut out the pattern and traced it onto the wool—twice. Because I would not have a background on which to stitch the embroidery outside the flake, I added the small diamond between the points of the snowflake. I used fly stitches to embroider the center spokes of the snowflake with the gold thread on one of the flakes. I added a bead to the center, just to reflect a bit of light. Then I put the two snowflakes together and used a knotted blanket stitch to secure the edges, using the gold braid and adding a bead between each stitch. I went around the outside first, and then did the inner diamonds. Initially, I envisioned adding the extra stitches around the snowflake with beads, but I quickly realized that they weren't really needed. (And I had beaded quite enough, thank you!)

I truly wasn't sure I was going to love this version of the snowflake pattern until I was finished. I didn't back my wool, so I had to be careful with my stitching so that the edges didn't unravel. So you may wish to consider adding a light fusible interfacing to the back of the one you embroider. However, I will say that no matter how carefully I traced and cut, my two wool snowflakes did not match. But since wool is so forgiving (and giving), I was able to stitch it into submission and make them match. I'm not sure that would have been as easy had I backed them with interfacing. If anyone tries it, let me know how it works!

All that being said, when I was finished, I gave it a pressing with some steam, which flattened it out nicely. And guess what? I loved it! Those beads catch the light just perfectly. And I think it fits rather nicely with my tree decor.

You can find the free pattern for this snowflake on the post Snowflakes for Free! And you have until Monday night (12/12 at 12) to enter the giveaway for a kit, described in that post. We hope you enjoy making your own unique versions of this flake. We would LOVE to see your results! Please share your stitched snowflakes with us on our Facebook, Instagram, or Google+ pages!

LET IT SNOW!!

Snowflakes for Free!

Technically, all "real" snowflakes are free, and sometimes we even have to pay someone to get rid of too many of those free snowflakes. However, today's free snowflake is a pattern! We wanted to give a little holiday gift to our readers, and given the season, we thought a snowflake was appropriate.

This lovely piece of silk, herringbone fabric has been sitting on my (Kara's) shelf waiting for the perfect project, and the creamy wool was a perfect complement to the neutral silk. Throw in some silk ribbon, bugle beads, Weeks hand-dyed pearl cotton, and some vintage buttons, and the project was ready to go. The seam binding was the right shade, but in the end, I decided not to use it.

First, I printed two copies of the pattern; one to look at and trace, and one to cut. Then I cut out the star portion of the pattern, sprayed a little temporary spray adhesive (505) on the back, and then traced my star onto the wool using a grey gel pen. This is the first time I had used spray adhesive on a pattern for a wool project, and I loved how it worked. Once it was traced, I cut out the wool star with some very pointy and sharp scissors to get the little star cutouts. The point of the scissors went right through the wool, making it very easy to get a clean cut.

Next, I stitched the star to the background using one strand of embroidery floss. 

Press and Seal plastic wrap is one of my favorite tools for transferring a design onto wool. I placed a piece of Press and Seal over the uncut pattern, and using my white, roller-ball gel pen, I traced the snowflake portion of the design. Since the embroidery is mostly straight lines, you could probably eyeball it easily enough.

Using the pearl cotton, I stem-stitched the six, straight, snowflake arms that were on the wool. The bugle beads were used for the little, straight, lines off those arms. After that, I used the 4mm, cream silk ribbon to make fly stitches and straight stitches that completed the arms. The final touch was two buttons—one mother of pearl and the other a metal one that I scavenged off of a thrift store sweater.

The completed snowflake

'

As I was looking for threads and background for this project, I found another piece of silk in light blue that would give a "cooler" tone to my snowflake. I was looking for some sparkle, when I came across this glittery, variegated, thread in tones of blue.

Because the background was thin, I backed the fabric with a piece of flannel before I began to stitch. This also allowed me to stitch without using a hoop.

There were a few little puckers after the embroidery was done, but those went away with a little bit of steam from the iron on the back of the project.

I didn't have any buttons that would work but I did have quite a few Swarovski crystals left over from my Irish dance, dressmaking days. Voila! A sparkly, snowflake with a totally different look than the one in the neutral palette.

An icier snowflake

Bring on the bling!

 An 8" frame with a 5.5" opening was the perfect size to highlight both snowflakes.

To get the free pattern please click HERE.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all our readers! 

It's Giveaway Time!!

Snowblowing the first two feet of snow.

This past weekend, we experienced a huge blizzard, with high winds and over 30 inches of snow. Depending on where you live, that might not be such a big deal, but here in Maryland, that much snow can be a bit paralyzing. It takes quite a while for all the roads to get plowed, and ours was among the last to be cleared, so we were snowed in for four days. Both Kara and I (Teri) got a lot of stitching done though, when we weren't shoveling our respective driveways and sidewalks. Kara was working on some baby quilts and a wool project. I finished a model for a beginning appliqué class we will be teaching and worked on the appliquéd baby blanket for my new granddaughter.

Blizzard stitching: model for our beginning appliqué class

Fortunately, we experienced no power outages, so our time was pretty productive. I can be perfectly happy staying home for several days, unless I CAN'T go out, and then that is all I want to do. Instead, I enjoyed the beauty of the snow falling outside my window, and I watched movies, stitched, made soup, and read. And shoveled the front porch and sidewalk. Twice. But I digress.

For the past two weeks, we have written about a Baltimore album-style quilt that we helped to make for a dear friend. (See Here's the Story of a Lovely Lady... and Zooming in for a Closer Look.) We love Baltimore album-style appliqué, and we hope you have been inspired by some of the blocks from that quilt. To further inspire you, we thought it would be fun to do our first giveaway. We would like to offer you a copy of Elly Sienkiewicz's 30th Anniversary Revised Edition of Spoken Without a Word. 

Book cover, with cover pattern stitched by Bette Augustine

Remember the pineapple block from last week's post? Its pattern was also included in Elly's first book, printed in 1983. It is one of 25 patterns included in the book, most of which were drafted from antique Baltimore album quilts. (The butterfly pattern on the cover was drawn by Elly's mother.) The original book has been reprinted within this edition, along with many pictures of contemporary models of the patterns.

I worked as Publication Manager with Elly on this book. The best part of the job was communicating with so many of the lovely ladies who stitched blocks or quilts using these patterns. I was blessed to have "met" stitchers from Australia, Canada, and many states in the U.S., learning some of the stories of their quilts. The needlework is stunning and inspiring. And we'd like for you to have a copy! If you already own the book, it would make a great gift, so we hope you will still enter.

Kara and I teach a couple of classes using patterns from the book. The blocks we've made are pictured below.

Eight-Pointed Star With Sprigs of Berries, by Kara

Eight-Pointed Star With Sprigs of Berries, by Teri

Rose of Sharon, by Kara

To enter for a chance to win this book, Spoken Without a Word:

1. Leave a comment on the blog. (If you are reading this in email, just click on the title to head to the blog site.)
2. In your comment, tell us what your favorite fairy tale is.
3. To be entered in the drawing, your comment must be in by Monday, February 1, at 12 noon, EST. 

We will be choosing a name from the entries at random and announce the winner next week. Please be sure that we have enough information about you to identify you. For instance, if you don't want to include your last name, tell where you are from so we know which "Mary" likes Cinderella, such as Mary from Timbuktu.

Thanks for visiting! It's always a pleasure to hear from you, and we can't wait to learn what your favorite fairy tales are. And just so you know, there is more to come about fairy tales in the future. Stay tuned!