Springtime Inspiration and Happy Easter!

This time of year is so beautiful here in Germany. After a long, cold, winter, each flower that pops out is a welcome feast for these eyes that have seen nothing but grey. Those blooms provide so much inspiration for the type of stitching we do, and each year, both Teri and I (Kara) take a plethora of pictures as reference for future projects. Here is a little bit of our German inspiration.

 

Spring isn't the only source of inspiration over here. Since we will be leaving Germany in May, I have been actively trying to purchase some European antique treasures that have been on my must-have list. The first was a Bavarian painted armoire, or Bayerisch bemalter Schrank. The one I found has been re-painted, but the cabinet itself is from 1854. I fell in love with the bright colors and authentic paint style and knew that I had found my treasure—I even named her Elsa because that is how much I love it!

Another "unicorn" that I was searching for was a set of Mason china. My mother had purchased a Mason coffee set back in the 70s, long before she knew her daughter would marry a Mason. My mother-in-law also possessed a set of Mason china for her everyday, so owning my own set was my destiny (at least that is what I told my husband). I fell in love with this particular pattern because of the colors—you will probably see a version of it in a future design.

Easter is celebrated with enthusiasm here in Germany. Many homes will have eggs hung on the shrubs and their windows decorated. Collecting decorated eggs is also a hobby here as well. You can read about my visit with one such collector in a Spring "Egg"stravaganza.

Wanting to have a memory of the beautiful egg decorations, I found a lovely lady from Glasgow who was selling her collection of Ukranian painted eggs. The colors and designs on these eggs are so lovely that I may just leave them out all year long!

Teri actually made Ukranian painted eggs with a neighbor

Aren't they beautiful?

Inspiration comes from many places and we hope that we have brought a little to you with our images of what inspires us. May you have a lovely Easter even in these somewhat challenging times, and may the beauty of this season bring you hope and inspiration.

Celebrating Five Years—With a Giveaway!

About a week ago, Kara and I (Teri) celebrated the fifth birthday of our small creative company, Through the Needle's Eye. And by celebrating, I mean we were busy working on new patterns and designs, because that's what we do! 

Since our trip to Williamsburg and Kara's return to Germany, we have both been working to complete our fourth blocks of the Woodland Reverie quilt. We are itching to get to our next blocks, but a few other projects are taking precedence.

Woodland Reverie blocks, displayed at the Academy of Appliqué

Beginning to gather materials for a new design—such yummy textures!

Around the world, as we face the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are sheltering in place, practicing social distancing, and living life at a slower-than-normal pace, being told to "stay home." Although we are stuck in our houses during this trying time, there is peace to be found in a needle and thread. We continue to create, for isn't that what we stitchers do? So many of us will look back on this challenging time of quarantine and sickness, and remember the beauty we stitched in the midst of the trials. I've heard stories of people sewing masks for healthcare workers, and of quilters who are raiding their stashes to create—some to keep busy, and some for the sheer enjoyment of having the forced at-home time to sew.

With all of that in mind, we thought the best way to celebrate our "birthday" would be to give away a big birthday gift to one of our lucky readers. Let's have a birthday party! 

This is what is in our birthday gift:

Your choice of either the spring or autumn Woodland Reverie pattern with ribbon kit, which includes all special materials to make the block 

A Violets pattern from our In the Garden series, complete with wired ribbon for the flowers.

 

Our six-skein Botanical Beauty set of Pearl 12 Valdani threads, and a package of milliners needles—perfect for making knots, bullions, or any wrapped stitch

A skein of River Silks over-dyed 4mm ribbon, a 6-inch ruler, and chenille needles—ideal for stitching with the ribbon

A lovely pair of embroidery scissors by Famoré

Two patterns with ribbon, a skein of ribbon, two packages of needles, ruler, scissors, and six balls of pearl cotton thread—happy birthday to us!

So how can you have a chance to win this birthday present? All you have to do is answer this question in the comments below: 

What stitching projects are you working on to make the best use of your time while you stay home?

Those who are reading this in email must click on this link to leave your comment on the blog. If you want to hop on over to Instagram or Facebook and leave a comment there as well, you can be entered for each comment, for multiple chances. All comments must be made by Tuesday night (3/31) at midnight. The winner will be announced next week, and we may have another surprise to announce then. 

Please join us in our virtual birthday stitching party! We would love to sew along with you!

Kara and Teri

NOTE: We would like to take this opportunity to recognize those of you who are not afforded this time to stay home and stitch: health care workers, food providers, and those with essential positions who are working tirelessly to help us through this time. If that is you, please tell us what you would like to be stitching! 

We wish you a heartfelt THANK YOU!!

A Creative Trial and Error

When Teri and I (Kara) began our In the Garden quilt, the plan was for Teri to make the whole quilt since she would be teaching it in the states, and I would make individual block projects and/or shop samples. The quilt is finished and you can read about it here, but I am slowly chipping away at the individual blocks. The most recent one that I have finished is the violet block.

Having just a block is not as attractive as a finished project when it is on display in a store, so I wanted to create a little wall hanging out of this sweet set of violets. Deciding on a wall hanging was the easy part, but figuring out how to do it and what materials to use? Now that was the challenge. What I started with was not what became the end result, so I thought I would show you some of the ideas and trial layouts that I had before I was happy with the outcome.

My first idea was a mix of patchwork with a little crazy quilt embellishment. I gathered fabrics and trims in purples and greens.

I had a surprising amount of different trims
in these two colors.

A selection of coordinating fabrics.

Checking to see if the colors are good.

Idea #1

Idea #2

Idea #3

Idea #4

Idea #5

I was just not liking my original plan and everything I tried wasn't turning out the way I thought it would. Walking away from it was the best choice since I wanted to chuck it all out the window. My thinking time is when I walk the hounds so while we were walking, my vintage lace collection came to mind and I decided to give that a try when we got back.

"Try the lace Mom!"

This crocheted trim seemed like it had potential. In the end it didn't make the cut, but I liked the green velvet frame.

With the velvet frame, but not sure where to go from here.

This lace seemed like a better fit along with a yarn-dyed piece of fabric.

And the winner is...

A different lace and even a different purple fabric than any of the ones I had originally chosen,
but I was finally happy with the look.

The challenge with this block was to do something that would highlight not detract. Everything I had tried was just too much competition for the simplicity of the violets. The green velvet ribbon makes a nice frame and the lace is a good, texture contrast with the cream-colored wool. I felt that they all played nicely together and would make a really, sweet wall hanging. In a perfect world, it would be quilted, bound, and hanging on my wall, but Christmas and our daughter's wedding at the beginning of the new year have made sure that hasn't happened. At least it is a lot closer to being completed and hopefully you have enjoyed seeing the process from start to almost finished. 

How do you decide what works and what doesn't when you are creating? Do you draw out a plan or just start cutting? Do you have a tried and true method? We'd love to hear about your creative process and maybe your process will help someone else!

If you would like to make your own set of violets please click HERE to purchase the pattern.

The Great Garden Giveaway!

Kara and I have been having such a wonderful time on our journey together with you, telling stories through our needles' eyes. We are amazed by the number of subscribers to our blog, as well as those who follow us on social media. What a community we quilters are! There is no better way to learn than to share, and we have heard many inspiring ideas from you over these past few years. Almost three, already! Wow.

We thought it might be fun to do a bit of celebrating over on our Facebook page. Just click the link and hop on over to our page to leave a comment for a chance to win the first four patterns of our In the Garden BOM series. Yes—all four patterns, with ribbon needed to make the flowers—will be given to one random winner!

The four patterns thus far are Cornflowers, Oak Leaves and Acorns, Violets, and Cardinals and Holly. All are pictured with a detail below.

Cornflowers detail 

Cornflowers

Acorn detail

Oak Leaves and Acorns 

Violets detail

Violets

Cardinals and Holly detail

Cardinals and Holly

Our In the Garden patterns are wool appliqué patterns, embellished with embroidery, ribbon, and beads. What could be more fun? We are just a week or so away from our fifth block, which will be a perfect garden block for Valentine's Day! I'm sure you can guess...

So help us celebrate by joining the party over on Facebook. Like our page (if you haven't yet), and leave a comment telling us what garden flower or critter you might like to see stitched, and you'll be entered for our giveaway package. Tag a friend or share our page, and you'll get an extra entry! Easy peasy!!

We will announce the winner next week on Facebook...and right here. See you over on our page! (Click here to get to our Facebook page, Through the Needle's Eye.) We are having a garden party!