End of year things...

I have been doing a lot of cocooning (is that still a word?) in the last couple of days. Exploring my new Apple gadget Santa (aka my husband Erik) gave me with a very special inscription.  We have also been playing quite a lot of board games with the girls. I could write a whole post about board games I love, maybe I will do that next year.... I've also been doing a little bit of embroidery and I'm almost almost finished with hand sewing the binding on the quilt I was planning as a gift.

I'm very content with the dark binding but I'm not so sure about the straight line quilting here. I really should try to learn how to do nice squiggly and loopy free motion quilting. The straight lines are beginning to bore me a bit!

If you feel like starting (or ending) the year with a new project you might want to check out my End of Year Sale in my Etsy shop.  If you use the coupon code BunnyEYOS2010 at check out you get a 20% discount! If you are wondering what EYOS stands for: it's End Year Of Sale instead of End of Year Sale. I entered the wrong coupon code by accident...be sure to enter the wrong code though because that's the right one! Sale ends in 24 hours!

Wishing you all a safe New Year and hope to see you all back in 2011!

So this is Christmas...

It's almost Christmas but the festive mood has left us a bit in the last couple of days. On Monday our guinea pig Pippin died. He was a very sweet and friendly animal and I already miss this small furry creature and the funny high pitched noises he made every time I opened the fridge. I couldn't bring myself to post a photo of him here because it would make me cry every time I look at my own blog.

Anyway, blog posts need a picture I think so I have included a 'happier' picture instead: my 'new' Art Deco cabinet. I'm going to store lots of my embroidery stuff in this cabinet. I have a large basket where I keep most of my WIP's and such in but a basket isn't so great to keep books and boxes of floss in. I bought this on a Dutch site which I guess is similar to Craigslist in the US.

Have you seen the poll results of the 'what 5 stitches should newbies learn first' poll? (It's in the side bar on the right) I was surprised by the Satin Stitch coming in third! But it is a lovely stitch. I did a lot of satin stitching last week which I can't show because it was for a  commission but I will share it when I can.

O.k. This will very likely be my last post before Christmas so I'd like to wish all  of you  a Merry Christmas and a wonderful, healthy and crafty 2011! Thanks for reading my blog, commenting & entering my giveaways (or contributing to them!) in 2010!

Mini Peep Boot Ornament!

It was fun making this Mini Peep Boot if not a bit fiddly. I used felt, a small piece of Lizzy House Duck fabric, pink pom pom and pink ric rac. And I added some simple embroidery stitches too. I thought the vintage trim suited this Mini Peep Boot well.  I love working with felt and it's so easy to embroider on. You can still enter the Mini Peep Boot contest till tomorrow I think. There are not many entries yet and the prizes are really great. Also make sure to check out the giveaway on Mary Corbet's Needle 'n Thread. You can win some awesome embroidery books!  It ends tomorrow so hurry.

Snowy Trees & a skating heron

There was a lot of snow here today. And even though it's now melting more is coming tonight. This morning, while the kids had their last day of school before the Winter Break, me and my husband went out by foot and with a small sleigh to get our Christmas Tree. It was quite surreal. The not so good looking parts of the city suddenly looked not so bad at all. And the better looking streets and the park looked very pretty and fairytale like.

And last week when I was visiting the Zoo near our house we saw not a skating hedgehog but a skating heron. It was very amusing to watch.

Have you voted in the poll yet? It's in the sidebar on the left. Hope you all have a great weekend! I'm going to make a Mini Peep Boot tomorrow. :)

Essential Stitches & Mini Peep Boot Contest

Detail of Castle Peeps sampler: there are quite a few different stitches here!

Just this afternoon I posted a question on my Facebook page (and through that on Twitter) about what people think the 5 most important stitches to learn are for a newbie embroiderer. I was surprised by some of the comments and clearly there is a difference of opinion on what should be in the top 5 of essential stitches. So I thought it would be fun to do a poll, it's in the left side bar. Also if you choose 'other', please leave a comment on this post on what stitch(es) you think is essential but not in the list. You can choose several answers.

I would also like to use this opportunity to write something about the fun Mini Peep Boot Contest that Lizzy House started today. You can find a template of a Peep Mini Boot on Lizzy's blog, make your own version of a Peep Mini Boot, join the Mini Peep Boot Contest Flickr Group and win awesome prizes. Contest is open until the 20th so hurry! I'm certainly making one, or maybe even a pair of Peep Mini Boots!

Just a small sketch....

Sunday Stash #37 Scraps wonderful scraps!

Recently I did two scrap-swaps. I love scraps and receiving an envelope full of unknown scrappy goodness makes me happy! One of the envelopes, put together by Chelley (thanks!) contained the fabrics you see in the photo. I think I get more excited about this than over a well coordinated fabric bundle. Are you a scrappy person too?

p.s. thank you for all the sweet comments on my pattern in progress!
p.s. p.s. I didn't get around to make a new header yet. My scanner refused to cooperate. I made two very sweet drawings for the new header though!

And what do you think?

I am not even sure when I started on this pattern but it surely is months ago and now I think I'm nearly finished..  The over all design hasn't changed that much from when I started. But I think the little changes I did make are so important. Stitching my patterns is an important step in the process, it allows me to refine them and finding out what works and what doesn't. What didn't work out quite as I imagined beforehand was the fur stitching on the Big Bear (I call him Bruun). I spent hours and hours on it but decided to start over and only used fur accents on my new version. It is never my intention to stitch very 'real' looking animals so I'm very happy with just these 'hints' of fur.

Detail of bear paw hints of fur

I didn't want to create a particularly autumnal feel with this pattern either which is why I chose these vibrant non natural colours for the circle of leaves and foliage around the Bruun & Squiirrel. And I so love the subtle pink lightly checked linen I'm embroidering on. Anyway I hope you liked this little insight in what I have been doing with this pattern. Would love to hear your opinion about it! :) As I try to take it easy the next couple of weeks and I have fun commission to finish as well it could take a couple of weeks before this pattern hits the shop.

Have you noticed that I used quite a lot of Bullion knots in this embroidery? I can do them quite quickly now and while some look better than others I'm  glad I added this stitch to my 'stitch repetoire'. Which brings me on this weeks 'Embroidery Stitch Challenge'. Last weeks Cable Chain Stitch was a disaster so I'm trying quite a different chain stitch this week: the Rosette Chain Stitch!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I'm going to try and make a new header for this blog now. The black header suddenly is depressing me!

Japanese cute: quilt label

Remember the quilt top I made a couple of weeks ago? Well I need to finish it within the next two weeks so it was time I started on the quilt label. I chose a cute design from one of the Japanese Embroidery Books I have. I changed the design a bit, made it a bit larger and added a date. Rather than stitching the Quilt label on the back of the quilt I'm going to make it a part of the quilt backing.

I think a warning is in place now: if you like photos of pretty embroidery stitches LOOK AWAY NOW! Because me and the Cable Chain Stitch didn't get along very well. I even ended up stitching my sampler piece to my skirt, not on purpose I might add. It's one of those stitches for which you ideally have the use of three hands not two!

I'm still here...

but I'm bit overwhelmed by... well everything really. Snow, children, December festivities, unfinished projects and just daily stuff like cooking, washing and feeding the birds! But when I have an hour or two and I have a little energy left, I'm spending my time working on a new quilt from Elizabeth Hartman's book 'The practical guide to patchwork'.

This book was actually a Christmas present for myself but it's so great I couldn't put it aside for another month! For me, having made only a few quilts, it's the perfect book. Lots of info on the basics of quilting and many great projects for both newbies and more confident quilters. I'm doing the 'Small Plates' pattern now using a fabric bundle of mixed fabric designs I bought a while ago and some fabrics from my stash too. Lots of grassy greens, sky blues, white, grey and a few red accents added for good measure.

If you were thinking of doing some embroidery this winter you might want to look at my December Special Package Deal I have in the shop now. Also, because I'm near to my 1000th Etsy sale, I'm going to draw one winner from. Sales 981 through to number 1000. The prize is a PDF Pattern of choice from my Etsy shop.