&Stitches

Tutorial: Pattern transfer with water soluble pen

2012-03-02T01:52:00.000-08:00

We're working on some tutorials on the basics and we'd love to know: how can we help? What would you like to know? Please leave a comment with any questions or suggestions. Or email us if you like!

Here's the first in that series: pattern transfer using a water soluble pen

This is the method both Nicole and I use the most, it's easy to do, you don't really need any special equipment and you don't need to remember to flip patterns and such.

What you need:
• a print of the pattern you want to stitch
• fabric
• a water soluble pen (comes out when you rinse the piece in cold water)
• sticky tape - Japanese masking tape is good, it won't leave any marks
• a window or light box
- you can buy light boxes or make one from a clear storage crate with a bright light placed inside (but no so bright that it'll melt the box!)

Tape the pattern to the window or light box, then tape the fabric on top of the pattern and then you simply trace it with the water soluble pen. And that's it! If you do want a reversed version of the pattern, simply flip the printed pattern before you you tape it to the window.

If you use a window, then obviously you'll have to do the pattern transfer during daylight!

Remember to rinse out the markings before you iron your piece! Ironing can set the markings on the fabric permanently.

Here's another view of the materials I used. You should be able to find this type of pen in most embroidery or sewing shops whether online or brick&mortar. My pen is from Hemline, Clover makes a similar one.

Online search for: water soluble pen, water erasable pen - sometimes it's called a marker instead of a pen.

Found on Flickr, February 29

2012-02-29T10:11:00.000-08:00

Stitch Love #2, a gallery on Flickr.

A few delicious stitchy things found on Flickr lately. Some found in the &Stitches group and some found by searching for 'embroidery'. It's amazing what you can find! It never ceases to amaze me the variety of stitching that people do!

Do click on the thumbnails to see the larger image on Flickr. And do join the &Stitches group and share what you're making - we'd love to see it!

Proto type for Issue 2

2012-02-27T10:22:00.000-08:00

This is a very sneaky peek at a proto type for a pattern which will be in the next issue of &Stitches! It's going to be pretty cool, we think! Completely different colours from what you see here. Using a stitch which isn't that commonly used but which is really quite awesome. We can't wait to share!

Fab VW vans

2012-02-24T09:35:00.000-08:00

I spotted yet another fabulous free pattern from Hancock's house of Happy in our &Stitches group on Flickr! You can download the pattern for these groovy vans here.

New winner of Lucky Giveaway!

2012-02-22T12:54:00.000-08:00

We have drawn a new winner for the Lucky Jackson Giveaway!

Congratulations Lewmew, you have won a Lucky Jackson Vintage Dress Love pattern! Please contact us at hello@andstitches.com within the next seven days to claim your prize!

Book review: Colour Confidence in Embroidery

2012-02-21T12:57:00.001-08:00

Just as we were finishing the first issue of &Stitches with colour as theme, Colour confidence in Embroidery by Trish Burr was published so we couldn't review it in the e-zine. But this book is too good not to share! There are over 250 pages with information about using colour in your embroidery work and 12 well documented projects as well.

The first half of the book has lots of information about techniques and how to use colour effectively. Beginners and more advanced embroiderers alike will certainly find something (or more likely a lot) in these pages to learn from and I couldn't help but feel very much inspired to try new things.

The book covers embroidery basics, including information about floss and what fabric to use. There is an abundance of helpful photos of stitched colour combinations (about 40 pages in total!) all presented in a petal shape and with DMC colour key. One of my favourite parts of the book is the chapter about shading: the effect particular stitches have and how to make a 'perfect blend' with the long-short stitch.

The second part of the book contains 12 patterns, flowers, fruits and birds. Each pattern is an exponent of a certain colour. The patterns are exceptionally well documented. There's a (long) list of DMC flosses needed for each project, fabric, needles etc and the pattern itself is explained very minutely. The patterns are aimed at stitching a quite traditional very realistic looking flower or bird. If that is what appeals to you the book is worth buying just for the patterns alone. Now if that isn't exactly your style, you could consider the patterns as further study material on how to apply colour blending and other techniques to your own work. If you are interested in this subject the book a must-have anyway. For me the best way to really get the most from this book, is to make at least one of the patterns though. I quite fancy the Tufted Flycatcher or the Lilac-breasted Roller pictured above!

Trish Burr/Colour confidence in Embroidery/Milner Craft Series

ISBN: 9781863514262

We were not paid for this review in money or goods. Santa gave me this book (he has such good taste!) last Christmas. :)

The Birds (part 2)

2012-02-19T04:54:00.000-08:00

There are just too many great bird stitcheries on Flickr. So after The Birds (part 1) it's now time for the Birds (part 2)! A Bird Portrait Gallery this time...First up is Theodore, a wonderfully stitched Peewit-portrait made by Valerie. I especially love the delicate stitching of the white feathers on Theodore's head.

Sachi has made many, many awesome bird embroideries. From a Turkey Vulture to this cute little songbird known as Ovenbird. The fill stitching is just so wonderful!

Crystal shows that a bird portrait (pattern by Ryan Berkley can be found here) without lots of fill stitching can turn out pretty awesome too!

I hope you enjoyed this little tour of Bird portraits. If there's any other theme you'd like to see featured here, let us know!

Give away winners

2012-02-17T06:44:00.000-08:00

Winners of the thread have been picked - using the very scientific method of asking my husband to say two random numbers!

Congrats to Flaming Nora and Anne!

And thank you to everyone who entered!

Found on Flickr, February 15

2012-02-15T10:13:00.000-08:00

Stitch Love #1, a gallery on Flickr.

A few of the gems I've come across over on Flickr lately. Do click over to see them large on Flickr!

And do add your own stitchy creations to the &Stitches group, we'd love to see what you're making!

Embroidery thread give away!

2012-02-13T11:32:00.000-08:00

As Nicole mentioned earlier, we've got another give away today! It's a colourful one. And a very essential one too: embroidery thread!

Two sets of DMC perle cotton (size 8) to be more specific.

If you'd like a chance at winning some thread, simply leave a comment on this post telling us which set you'd like, pastels or brights.

This give away ends on Thursday, Feb. 16, at midnight (CET). Please leave an email address so we can contact you if you're the winner.

Lucky pattern winners!

2012-02-13T04:49:00.000-08:00

The Random Generator has randomly generated 3 Lucky winners!

Congratulations to Jeanne E. (Boot Love pattern), Annika (Polaroid Love pattern) and Lewmew (Vintage Dress Love pattern)! Please contact us at hello@andstitches.com sometime this week for your e-mail address. If we don't hear from you before next Monday a new winner will be picked.

Many thanks to Lucky Jackson for sponsoring this awesome giveaway. All these patterns (and more) are available in her shop. And if you haven't won this time, don't be sad because we have another very interesting giveaway coming up later today!

A Lucky Pattern Giveaway!

2012-02-09T01:04:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited about this giveaway, the very talented Lucky Jackson had kindly offered us three of her patterns to give away on our blog (see end of the post for details)!

September last year Lucky decided to make one stitched piece of art every day. You can find all the pieces she made so far on her blog about her 365 day project. You will find that Lucky depicts anything from celebrity mugshots to new years resolutions, in her own unique way.

And now you can stitch your own Lucky embroideries! There are three different PDF patterns available in her shop: Polaroid Love (of which you see a finished version pictured above), Vintage Dress Love (pictured below) and Boot Love (pictured above).

~~If you would like a chance to win of one these awesome patterns, be sure to leave a comment on this blogpost before Monday the 13th of February 12 pm (CET).~~ Three winners will be picked with ye olde Random Generator and the Lucky winners will receive one PDF pattern each (our choice). Do make sure to check back to see if you have won so we don't have to pick a new winner! Good luck everyone!
Comments are closed, winners will be announced later today!

How to: the Open Wave Stitch

2012-02-07T04:39:00.000-08:00

While writing my post about Bird embroideries (see post below) the other day I came across a stitch called the Open Wave. Abi had used it to stitch feathers on a wing. The Open Wave Stitch is what I call a 'semi' fill stitch: it fills an area in your embroidered piece without completely covering the fabric. The stitch was new to me and I'm pretty sure it's not often covered in modern Embroidery handbooks so I thought I'd share this fun and decorative stitch here with you all! (Note: I am left handed but the stitch can be easily worked from all directions)

Start by stitching a row of straight stitches (like the ones on the right in the photo).

Start the second row a little to the left of the straight stitch.

Carefully put your needle underneath the straight stitch in the first row and enter the needle into the fabric again, evenly spaced from the starting point of your 'wave'.

Make sure there is a little bit of space between your 'waves' so exit your needle a little to the right (or left, depending from which direction your are coming) of your finished wave to start a new wave'.

For your third row, instead of putting your needle under the one straight stitch in the row above, you take the outer 'legs' of the stitches of row 2 to form a new 'wave'. And a couple of rows look something like this...

I am trying the Open Wave Stitch on a Koi fish I quickly sketched (and it shows) with a water-erasable marker on a scrap of fabric. This is actually my second try because the curves of the fish made it a bit trickier to stitch. I hope you all have fun with this stitch too!

Something else now. We were very flattered to find out that Sewphie had honoured our brand new blog with an award. And while we are not passing the award on, we would like to recommend Sewhpie's blog Threadhead to all, to read and follow. We love to discover new (at least new to us) blogs, so if you have a Stitchy blog, be sure to share it in our Flickr group and we will certainly drop by at some point!

The Birds (part 1)

2012-02-03T10:19:00.000-08:00

Today I bring you a wonderful flock of birds flown in from the &Stitches Flickr group! The first couple of birds anyway because there are many great bird embroideries I want to feature.

First up is the little birdy you see pictured above, stitched by Abi (based on a Andrea Zuill pattern). Abi used a variety of stitches, including a very appropriate fly stitch for the tail feathers! I learned from Abi that the fill stitch she used on the wing is an open wave stitch. I will be posting a 'how to' on that particular stitch soon on this blog because it's such a neat fill stitch!

Birds are a recurring theme in Sami Teasdale's work too. 2011 was the year of her Birdseeker project and this Golden Oriole is the last bird stitched in the series. I especially love Sami's use of the Holbein stitch. (I must admit I have never used that stitch, must try it soon!)

And how about this Sea Gull stitched by Jo (Peace of Pi)? Her free style fill stitching really brings this Sea Gull to life.

Look out for more Birds next week!

Love, Love, Love

2012-02-02T12:05:00.000-08:00

The other day I was watching "Love, Actually" while sorting through some of my embroidery thread and those two things combined to inspire this little piece. I found some Memory Thread from DMC and thought I really *should* do something with that.

As for "Love, Actually", I totally get goose bumps whenever I see that scene in the church, after the ceremony, when the surprise music starts playing. "Love, love, love". So that's the inspiration! And Valentine's is just around the corner, so quite fitting too. Although I'm not such a big fan of that particular 'holiday', so I made it a little less lovey-dovey with a bit of blue.

I didn't use a pattern for this, I just wrote the words and drew the hearts and then stitched along those lines. I think stitching over my handwriting has actually improved how it looks! :-)

Feel free to borrow the idea. It worked up pretty quickly - you should be able to do it in an afternoon.

Maybe you're wondering what Memory Thread is? It's a thin copper wire wrapped with thread and you can use it just like you would if doing couching. And you can use it on paper too. It's pretty nifty! You can read more about it here.

Here are some places you can buy Memory Thread: UK, US and Australia. For other countries, try looking it up with your favourite internet seach site. Or maybe check your local craft or sewing shop. Even if they don't have it in stock they may be persuaded to order some for you. :-)

Here's a close-up. As you can see, you don't actually stitch with the Memory Thread. You just push a bit through to the back to secure it and then you simply shape and stitch it in place on the front. When you get to the end, you push the end through the fabric and secure it if necessary. It's best to use this thread on fabric that's fairly open, because otherwise it can be a bit difficult to push it through the fabric.

SeptemberHouse - Issue 1 featured designer

2012-02-01T12:02:00.000-08:00

1 :: 2 :: 3 :: 4

Time to get to know a bit more about Corinne who is our feature designer in Issue 1 of &Stitches.

We we're super excited that Corinne said yes to be our very first guest designer, because we just love her work! And if you've seen the design she made for &Stitches, A Splash of Colour, it's absolutely fabulous!

Corinne has a blog called So September where she shows the things she's making, sewing tutorials and even some free patterns.

In her shop, SeptemberHouse, you can find lots of fun stitchy goods: embroidery patterns, printed panels ready to stitch on, pendants and more. All with Corinne's quirky , stitchy signature. Clicking on the numbers on each image in the mosaics will take you over to Corinne's shop where you can check out the details.

Thank you, Corinne!

5 :: 6 :: 7 :: 8

Flickr inspiration - January 30

2012-01-30T14:02:00.000-08:00

Stitchy and Nice #4, a gallery on Flickr.

Flickr is definitely a fantastic place to find inspiration, just look at this selection. And the thing I love the most about the embroideries on Flickr is how different they are. All types of imagery, different skill levels, traditional, non-traditional - it's all there!

Do add your stitchy creations, whether embroidery or anything else hand stitched, to the &Stitches Flickr group - we'd love to see what you make!

Best Valentine Freebie Patterns

2012-01-25T13:02:00.000-08:00

photo by Even-Star

There are many Valentines patterns about, but some are just a little more special than others. I found a couple of cool free patterns for you that are lovely for Valentines day but don't 'expire' after the 14th of February. On the Hancock's House of Happy blog you can find this awesome free-bee cross stitch sampler.

Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching has a fun 'Secret Message how to' . It isn't specifically meant for Valentines day but it sure is a great way to make your Valentines message both personal and intriguing!

From the Badbird Flickr group stitched by Louise

On the blog of Andrea Zuill you can find this lovely birds and heart pattern. I think it would look pretty amazing on a pillowcase too! But why stop at one pillowcase when you have an excuse to stitch two? Find the downloadable pattern for this matching set on the Lazy May blog.

Happy Valentines stitching!

Give away winners!

2012-01-21T09:27:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Alwayssunnyinmyworld, Krislovesfabric and Lee Ann, you all won a Three Kitchen Fairies 'Sharing is good' PDF embroidery pattern! Mail us at: hello@andstitches.com to tell us your email addresses! Thank you Paloma of Three Kitchen Fairies for offering these adorable patterns to us to give away.

Many thanks as well to all the nice stitchy peeps who took the time to share with us what features they'd like to see in &Stitches e-zine. Carina and I are in the middle of planning the next few issues (yay!) and we will certainly take your tips into account.

Ideas and suggestions for future issues are always welcome so if you have something to share with us, drop us a line at hello@andstitches.com. And if you have a craft/craft supply business, ask us about our super affordable advertising spaces (available in the next issues and on the blog).

Sharing is good: a pattern giveaway!

2012-01-18T01:48:00.000-08:00

Photo by Paloma Nunez Regueiro

If you have seen the first issue of &Stitches you surely noticed Paloma Nunez Regueiro's sweet embroideries. Some even may have thought her cute 'Sharing is good' pattern was included in the e-zine. It isn't, but you can purchase one here in Paloma's Threekitchenfairies shop or....leave a comment for a chance to win the 'Sharing is good' pdf pattern! You could also do both or buy one of Paloma's other beautiful patterns. This is my personal favourite. Thank you Paloma for making this neat giveaway possible!

We are giving away three 'Sharing is good' pdf patterns! And because Sharing *is* good, we would love you to share with us in your comment what features you'd like to see in &Stitches e-zine!

~~Comments close this Friday the 20th of January, 20.00 CET. Be sure to leave an email address, if we are not able to contact you we will draw a new winner. Good luck everyone!~~

Comments are now closed, winners will be announced later today!

Give away winner + thank you!

2012-01-13T12:33:00.000-08:00

The winner of a copy of &stitches is Rachel - congratulations!

Rachel Jan 12, 2012 12:00 PM
Awesome! I've been waiting with excitement for this ever since the first sneak peek! :)

We also want to say a big big thank you for all your sweet comments and congratulations on our new adventure. Your support means a lot to us!

Wishing you a lovely weekend!

Love &stitches

&Stitches: first issue is available now!

2012-01-12T07:01:00.000-08:00

Woohoo! We are so excited to announce that the first Issue of &Stitches is available here as of today! And for the early birds: if you use the code RAINBOW on checkout between now and Monday the 16th of January 2012 you will receive 15% off the first Issue (normal price is 4.50 GBP, about 7$)* Please note that this discount is no longer usable.

You could win a copy of &Stitches too! See the bottom of the post for details!

Late 2010 we started talking (well not really talking more...mailing) about doing something together. An Embroidery Pattern was the idea at first. However, the project was put 'in the fridge' until the summer of 2011 and then we thought we might just do a little bit more than a pattern. It was at that moment that &Stitches really started to take form. And now, six months later the first issue called 'Colour &Stitches' is here!

So what can you expect to find in our e-zine? A lot of stitchy goodness of course! To name a few things: the current issue has patterns by Corrine McHie of Septemberhouse (embroidery- A Splash of Colour, pictured above) Carina (felt-Gulspurv, pictured above) and Nicole (embroidery-Spring). Several prolific stitchers talk about their colour inspiration. And if you are very sensitive to gorgeous pictures of embroidery floss you might better not read Carina's article 'A bit of Colour Theory'. :)

So head over to the shop and get yourself a copy and don't forget to let us know what you think!

To enter the giveaway to win a copy of &Stitches, simply leave a comment on this post. The giveaway closes tomorrow at noon UK time. Make sure to leave your email address or some other way to contact you if you win. Good luck! Thank you for entering - the give away is now closed. Winner will be announced in the next post!

Love &Stitches,
Nicole and Carina

*Mention RAINBOW in the message to seller when you check out with Paypal and 15% will be refunded to your Paypal account after your purchase!

One Fish, Two Fish...

2012-01-05T08:19:00.000-08:00

I could not help but to make a reference to the famous Dr. Seuss book when I started writing this post! You will find this lovely colourful Fish Pattern, designed by the very talented Corinne of Septemberhouse, in our first issue. We were absolutely delighted to have Corinne as our very first &Stitches guest designer!

At the moment we are putting some final touches to our e-zine and it's available for purchase on this site (here to be exactly) on Thursday January 12th! Woohoo! More details in a couple of days time.

Another Sneak Peek!

2011-12-27T01:50:00.000-08:00

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas! Did Santa get you get any craft related goodies? I received a wonderful book about embroidery, but more about that in another post...Anyway, here's another sneak peek at the first Issue of &Stitches e-zine. Hope you like Stitched Lettering as much as we do?

Issue 1 sneak peek

2011-12-20T09:56:00.000-08:00

We're working hard on the first issue of &Stitches, but here is a very sneaky sneak peek. Yes, felt is involved in this project! It's one of the patterns in Issue 1. And that's about all I'm going to reveal right now.... :-)

Hello and Welcome to &Stitches!

2011-12-12T02:48:00.001-08:00

Carina (of Polka & Bloom) and I (Nicole of Follow the White Bunny) are very excited to announce a new ezine called &Stitches! It launches in January 2012 and will be filled with Stitchy goodness!

There will be patterns (and not just from us...) reviews, and interviews. We will share more details as the launch date approaches! If you want to keep up to date with what we are doing you can follow this blog and we will spread Happy Stitchy News through our Twitter account (we are the Stitchygeeks !) as well!