Pepernoten

While most of you are probably in Christmas mode already, over here in the Netherlands we first got to deal with the feast of Sinterklaas. On the evening of the 5th of December Sinterklaas brings presents to the Dutch children (and some German and Belgian kids too) much like Santa does a few weeks later! In the weeks before the 5th of December children can put their shoe in front of the fireplace (or in our case: the not quite so romantic central heating radiator) and during the night Sinterklaas and his helpers fill the shoe with a small gift and typical Sinterklaas sweets and snacks.

The tiny cookies you see pictured above are called Pepernoten (literally 'Pepper nuts'), well actually they are not called Pepernoten but that is what most people call them anyway. I made lots of them yesterday with the kids and these crunchy 'nuts' have a nice sweet ginger/cinnamon taste. It's a great December snack! If you would like to bake them you could try this recipe. It's not the recipe I used (I buy my spices ready mixed) but I'm sure the result will be equally tasty!

SALE!

I'm having a little Sale this weekend, it's the last one of the year! Use code BLACKBUNNYFRIDAY and receive 20% off all my patterns available in the shop (alas this does not include the Tweet Pillow pattern) Visit my Follow the White Bunny Shop  (where you can download my patterns immediately after purchase, woohoo!) or my Etsy shop. Sale starts...now and ends November 27th 12.00 AM.

Beach in the Mist

Yesterday we went for a walk on the beach, in the mist and it was wonderful! Too bad I can't insert the muffled sound of the waves rolling in towards the shore in this post. Or the calling of the Raven. I'm pretty certain it was looking for another Raven!

Tweet Pillow Pattern in the shop now!

I'm very excited about this new Tweet Pillow pattern; it's an embroidery pattern and sewing pattern all in one! As you probably know this pillow is the result of my collaboration with the very awesome Thomas Knauer. Once the embroidery bit is done (colour and stitch instructions are included in the pattern) , the pillow can be quickly whipped up. The sweet fabric you see in the photo is Thomas' new line of fabric called Pear Tree.

You can purchase the Tweet Pillow Pattern in my shop (and in Thomas' shop too). Pear Tree fabric is available in quilt shops and fabric stores.

Bear & Vote

I found this lovely Hardly Bear pattern by Penelope Waits (via Mrs. Lacer on Feeling Stitchy) a little while ago and just had to buy it. The text reads "You're so....I can hardly bear it". Not sure yet what I will fill in on the dots (awesome, cute, sweet, smelly?). As usual my cross stitching is a bit wonky. Or should I say 'dodgey' (yes that is spelled incorrectly) as someone called Anonymous kindly commented on my post about the Lazy Daisy Peacock Feather Stitch?  ;)

Now onto the 'vote' part of this post. I have been rather busy the last few days with preparing the public vote for the Feeling Stitchy 'Covered in Stitches' Contest. It was incredibly difficult to choose from all the contest entries. If you have taken a look in the Contest Group in the last couple of weeks you will know that there were a lot of awesome pieces posted. I think (at least I hope) this contest inspired stitchers to do more than they thought they were capable of and I know that in turn their works will inspire other embroiderers too.

So...six Feeling Stitchy bloggers (including myself) made individual top 10's of our favourite entries, awarding points from 1 to 10. I think we ended up with a pretty awesome selection. Read all about it in my post on Feeling Stitchy here, and vote for your favourite embroidered book cover!

P.s.  I even spotted one of the pieces from our top 10 on Etsy. It's an incredible bargain for such an amazing  piece!

Piece, Stitch & Love part two

I have some exciting news for you, at least I think it's exciting! I have contributed to a lovely new book called  Pretty in Patchwork Holidays by the Big Friendly Quilting Giant John Adams. You can view one (or actually two) of my projects in the sneak peek here. And there's another project from me in the book as well (it's on the cover, can you guess which one it is?)  I think the book will first be released as an e book (in time for this season if you are a real quick crafter) and next year in the printed version!

The first book in the Pretty in Patchwork series, by the very talented and lovely Cathy Gaubert, is about Doll Quilts. It actually only has been released a couple of weeks ago, just in time to put it on your Christmas wishlist! :)

Free Hedgehog Embroidery Pattern

I promise, no more hedgehogs after this one. At least not for a bit....maybe...;)  You can download this little guy from Bari J.'s We Love French Knots website. I was a featured stitcher there a couple of days ago and contributed this small pattern. I think I will try and stitch this hedgehog on some felt to make a Christmas Ornament!

Transferring an image onto felt is always a bit tricky. I usually draw free hand with a water soluble marker but if free hand drawing is not your thing you might want to try this tutorial  by Futuregirl.  Happy Stitching everyone!

Outsider looking in

Usually when I make embroideries that are not based on existing patterns, like this Doubtful Guest embroidery there is a moment about halfway when I'm not sure whether it will turn out all that well. The project looks rather hopeless and at that point I simply need to persevere. I think I'm just past that point with this embroidery and I"m pretty confident that it'll be a rather nice piece when it's done...

Tomorrow is the last day of the Feeling Stitchy's Covered in Stitches contest and I'm blown away by the submissions so far. You can check them out in the Covered in Stitches Flickr Group. Clearly many talented embroiderers are also into books and reading! We will have a hard time choosing a winner.

Currently I'm reading Erin Morgenstern's Night Circus and I'd love to make an Embroidered Cover design for that book. It's a great read so far: magical and delightfully odd and I'm a bit sorry that I have nearly finished  reading it! But maybe you have some great book recommendations for me? Do let me know your favourite reads!

He he it's a Crafty Spunky Sock Monkey!

Detail of the Crafty Spunky Monkey Pattern

Many thanks to all the peeps who left a comment on the previous post! I'm calling this the Crafty Spunky Monkey pattern. So h3xkitten if you let me know your email address, I will send you a Crafty Spunky Monkey pattern!

Crafty Spunky Monkey is a PDF Hand Embroidery Pattern, perfect for beginning stitchers too. It comes with a stitch and colour guide and would make a great gift for crafty friends. I have included a banner in the pattern so you can add a quote or name of your choice. :) You can purchase the pattern here !