Gift-bearing with…

... style! Here is the gift baby brought to her pal’s birthday party.

Seriously, at this point in her life, baby has no say she thought the gift was hip enough to bring to her pal’s birthday party. But Mom (aka yours truly) thought it a rather sweet gift:

All of my pillow gifts (you can view here, and here) are made from scraps from my scrap heap! And I have quite a heap. It’s always fun to see what scraps I can dig up for my gift pillow projects!

By the way, baby wore her smocked Gingerbear outfit to the party after I finally found a pair of tights that would go with the outfit. Who would have thunk it would be so hard to find good quality tights?! Back to the birthday party, a grand time was had by all. The babies present were the entertainment! The womenfolk enjoyed just sitting and watching the babies and their antics.

Have a grand week, everyone! Thanks for popping by. I shall catch up with you later!

Advertisement

Creative Machine Embroidery (November/December 2009)

As much as I try to slow down the ticking of time, I have found that it is to no avail! :) So, here we are, ticking closer and closer to Christmas.

I have a jewelry pouch project featured in the latest issue of Creative Machine Embroidery:

I rarely change out the basic gold pieces I wear to suit my outfits. So, I think I am actually going to use this as a needle case for all the different needles I use for different projects:

My husband informed me that a certain young member of our family had “read” the magazine. He was very proud that this little member knew how to flip the pages. Here is the condition of one of the pages after it was being “read”!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a lovely day.

P is for…

… pals!  I met Natima earlier this year through the Quilt Festival online.  I was excited to make her acquaintance because of our shared South-east Asian heritage and love of quilting:

I embroidered this little tea towel and sent it over to Natima in Oz-land for her birthday:

Earlier, Natima has sent me the pattern for the Civil War Bride Quilt.  She will be my quilting buddy in this endeavor.  I am going to try doing this quilt by hand.  I haven’t started on it yet, but am in the process of starting a practice project before I jump into the CWB project because I want my CWB quilt to be perfect:

from Threadbear Patchwork & Quilting

It truly is nice to have pals in one’s life, is it not?  Thanks for stopping by and being my pals!  I wish you a very beautiful day.

A little gift from the heart

I was running behind, as always! But I was more than happy to take a few hours out to work on a birthday gift for my little friend:

She is not merely the daughter of one of my closest friends; she is my little friend. Growing up, I recall being a young person of barely ten years of age and had many OLD people (in their twenties) befriending me at church. So, over the years, I have made sure to include in my circle little friends as well.

The design is from OESD’s Alpha Bears. I have use this collection a whole lot as you can see from the quilt on which the pillow lays.

This little gift from the heart, though simple and unpretentious, was made with many sweet thoughts of and prayers for my little friend!

Thank you for coming by to visit! I wish you a sweet sweet day.

Machine Embroidery: Soft Pink

This is a sneak peek of an heirloom pillow project I worked on for Creative Machine Embroidery.  The soft pink look conveys such a sweet sense of childhood innocence:

Here are some close-ups.  You would probably be surprised, but this was done on a piece of sheer Victorian batiste, on top of a cotton print quilt fabric (for a shadow textured effect), on top of a piece of heavy linen, and on top of a heat fusible tearaway stabilizer:

Thank you for popping by.  I always enjoy your visit.  Please leave me a comment so that I can visit you back.  Meanwhile, I wish you a sweet sweet day!

The glow of candles…

… always warms my heart:

This is a preview of a Christmas embroidery project I am doing for Creative Machine Embroidery. I love how the gold metallic thread really brings out the glow:

I know it’s way too early for us to think about Christmas, but not the hardworking magazine folks!

Thanks for stopping by. I always appreciate your kind comments. I am running a little behind in getting back with you, but I will visit you back and respond to every comment. Take care!

Custom made Pink Dainties

Remember these?

I have been working with a local paper craft artisan to produce some custom- made birth announcements:

Hours were invested in planning and designing these dainties:

More hours were spent in the final assembly:

But the hours and hours of work are well worth the final product, I think! :)

Have a LOVELY Monday, Everyone!

[Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in these custom made baby stationery.]

Creative Machine Embroidery (May/June 2009) – please scroll down for new posts!

The new issue of Creative Machine Embroidery is out!

My cafe curtain project with a primitive Americana look is featured in the magazine:

The cafe tier window treatments are not hard to make, so you can quickly whip them up and jump right into some machine embroidery fun! :)

I don’t have a place to use these in my house, so I am using the bottom tier as a bed scarf. I added some lavender sprigs in a basket to add to the primitive country look. Doesn’t look too bad, does it?

Thanks for visiting. I hope my little project here gave you a lil’ bit of inspiration. Have a great weekend. I will see you Monday!

Celtic Cutwork – Creative Machine Embroidery (March/April 2009)

Happy Monday, Everyone! I hope you had a great “love” weekend.

Remember this from months ago? I was doing a machine embroidery cutwork project, and now, it is officially published in the latest issue (March/April 2009) of Creative Machine Embroidery:

The cutwork was done on Irish Linen. It turned out to be a table runner project made for St. Patrick’s Day with a touch of spring! I wanted to make a project that would not longer be perfect for St. Patrick’s Day, and would also last through the Spring Season:

TIP: Cutwork by machine embroidery is an intense stitching process, changing out needles often will ensure good stitch quality.

Updated 3/17/2014:

Hearts: OESD, Cutwork & Crewel by Iris Lee (#771), design #26 (small heart wreath in green), design #41 (large heart cutwork) and design #43 (small heart motif on the sides).

Leaves: Bernina, Linen Closet Design Collection (Studio Bernina Exclusive Vol. 2), design #BE10223

Trying something new…

I have been trying out a new background quilting stitch on one of the quilts I am finishing up for “The Quilter” — it is in a much larger scale than what I am normally used to. I think it’s worked out so far except I am not quite sure what to call it — slippery eels, flaming tongues…?

I got a call this morning from “Quiltmaker” that the sweetheart swag feather motif that I had designed for my quilt which appeared in Quiltmaker’s “Quilting & Embroidery” (Summer 2009) Ivory Spring will be included in the Quiltmaker’s Quilting Motif Vol. 7 coming out in November this year. Woo hoo!!!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a splendid day! Till next time! :)

“Count Your Blessings” Baby Quilt

This is a girly baby quilt I made using machine embroidered applique motifs on scrappily pieced background:

The bear motifs are from a collection called Alpha Bears.  My favorite part is being able to use my own colors to “dress up” these girly bears in their favorite outfits!

I hope you all have a very blessed week ahead of you!!  It’s always wonderful to have you stop by.  Do drop me a line so that I can visit you too.

A color for everyone!

If your favorite color is green, I have quite a few shades!

If your favorite color is lavender, I’ve got that too!

If your favorite color is pink, wait, let me check — yup, got that!

If your favorite color is apricot/peach, no problem!

If your favorite color is yellow, I’ve got you covered.

If your favorite color is red, urm, maybe some other time.

I said all that to show you another cutwork sample I did today. The frayed edge problem is now solved (or at least greatly minimized), but the colors turned out to be sort of a hodgepodge-y combination because I was trying to achieve a certain color scheme that I can’t reveal presently. But at least the technical issues aren’t there anymore:

Can you believe the design above has more than 24,000 stitches?! That poor needle has put in a lot of work today:

Hey, I appreciate you for stopping by, my bloggy friends — I hope you have a great Thursday! Don’t work too hard now! ;)