Category — Gifts

I was able to be with a few of the calendar recipients at Christmas when they opened their gift. I wish I could’ve seen everyone in person.

For Christmas gifts this year I made a dozen pre-printed embroidery calendars. Each calendar had a unique embroidery design and bias edge. The pre-printed calendar fabric I ordered from September House on Etsy.

Because there were so many I’m going to break them up into multiple posts. Here are the final 4 calendars.

Quote – This one went to Paul’s Cousin in North Carolina.

Blackwork – This one went to Paul’s Mom in North Carolina. This was my first attempt at blackwork. I used the patterns from Blackwork (Essential Stitch Guide) by Becky Hogg.

Whale – This one went to Paul’s Aunt in North Carolina. The pattern is Deep Blue Sea from Sew Lovely Embroidery.

Owl – This one went to Paul’s Aunt in North Carolina. The pattern is Forest Friends from Sublime Stitching.

For Christmas gifts this year I made a dozen pre-printed embroidery calendars. Each calendar had a unique embroidery design and bias edge. The pre-printed calendar fabric I ordered from September House on Etsy.

Because there were so many I’m going to break them up into multiple posts. Here are the next 4 calendars.

Deer – This one went to Paul’s Aunt and Uncle in South Carolina. The pattern is Forest Friends from Sublime Stitching.

Blue Bird – This one went to my Mom in Pennsylvania. The pattern is a free pattern available from Doe-c-Doe.

Squirrel – This one went to Paul’s Cousin in Pennsylvania. (It’s my favorite one. I love the edge fabric and the pattern.) The pattern is Forest Friends from Sublime Stitching.

Fox – This one went to Paul’s Sister in North Carolina. The pattern is a free pattern available from Lauren Reeser’s Sketch Blog.

For Christmas gifts this year I made a dozen pre-printed embroidery calendars. Each calendar had a unique embroidery design and bias edge. The pre-printed calendar fabric I ordered from September House on Etsy.

Because there were so many I’m going to break them up into multiple posts. Here are the first 4 calendars.

Peacock – This one went to my Aunt Jerri in Arkansas. The pattern is a free pattern available from Doe-c-Doe.

Geninne Bird – This one went to Paul’s cousin Lynne in Colorado. The pattern is a free pattern available on Geninne’s Art Blog.

Owl – This one went to Paul’s Aunt and Uncle in Delaware. The pattern is a free pattern available from Lauren Reeser’s Sketch Blog.

Purple Bird – This one went to my Sister in Pennsylvania. The pattern is a free pattern available from Doe-c-Doe.

I spent 3 and a half months this Fall lifting weights with my super strong friend Jessica. Because of her many feats of strength and her ahem barbell manners I dubbed her Princess Barbell. I thought she deserved a shirt displaying the name for all to see.

Here’s a closeup of the embroidery. My favorite detail is the tiara on top of the barbell.

Here’s Jess graciously wearing the shirt, but looking a little startled.

Over the summer I stitched up this reversible beach hat based on a pattern from Martha Stewart. I don’t know why I keep picking circular sewing projects. They are much harder than a simple straight line. This was my first time trying to follow a pattern and I did find it difficult, but it might have been the pattern and not me.

This weekend we celebrated my brother-in-law’s birthday. For his gift I found a set of 6 handkerchiefs and embroidered each one with a unique pattern.

Simple initial

Simple initial

A car that kind of looks like their mini-cooper

A dog that kind of looks like their dog

The police call box from Doctor Who

Wonder Mom

These last two are references to books written by my brother-in-law. He has written a fan’s guide to Doctor Who and a novel titled The Singular Exploits of Wonder Mom and Party Girl.

I picked up this cute flower pattern from Feeling Sitchy for the February Vintage Pattern Stitchalong, but I didn’t finish it until this weekend. Mostly because I wasn’t focused, but also those lazy daisy’s are more work than they seem.

I stitched each of the four corners and kept to a simple color palette.

pink – DMC 3687
green – DMC 987
light blue – DMC 3753
dark blue – DMC 334

I’ve been wanting to try my hand at sewing for a while now. My mom has lent me her sewing machine so that I can see how I like it. My sister also gave me this great book for Christmas, One-Yard Wonders. It has over a hundred projects that each require one yard or less of fabric.

For my first project I wanted to make my niece Anna a cute bag with some embroidery on it. The bag I picked ended up being quite a challenge for a beginner like me, but in the end I managed to finish it and I think it came out really nice.

Inside the bag, there are ribbon loops for keeping smaller items organized.

One of my sister’s favorite foods is lamb, so I thought it’d be cute to embroider the butcher cuts onto a tea towel. I did all of the lettering free-hand, so it’s not perfect, but I think it came out cute.

“Beste Lam” is Dutch for “Best Lamb”. The reason for that is a long story. Here’s a picture of my sister with her Beste Lam tea towel on Christmas.