Princess and the Pea Pattern winners!!!

Wow, what a great response to my Princess and the Pea Pattern Giveaway! Sixty entries (not counting 'doubles' and my own replies etc) in only a few days...I love reading your comments about your favourite fairytales, thank you all so much for commenting! Personally I like the tale of Snow-White and Rose-Red a lot. I even made a little drawing based on the fairy tale a couple of years ago (see picture above, I used the name Polkadotbunny then) which eventually led to my Hibernating Bear pattern! 

So I did the Random.org thing (and messed up with making a screenshot of the winning numbers so you have to trust me on this) and it randomly generated the following numbers: 24 (Amy), 25 (Deb_in_Oz) and 40 (Jodi). Congratulations! Please send me an email at followthewhitebunny [at] e-tropolis.nl and let me know whether you would like to receive the Princess pattern or another pattern.

Granny Squares

Surely it's not a coincidence that my Flea Market Fancy Charm pack (and some fat quarters) arrived in the same week that I noticed this tutorial for a Granny Square Quilt block (again via the inspiring blog of the lovely Katy). This is exactly my kind of quilt block: not to too difficult (actually quite easy) to assemble and it looks great.  I'm using a combination of modern and retro fabrics and crisp white borders which give these blocks a fresh and nostalgic feel at the same time. At least I think so.

I also like scrappy quilts a lot and this is an excellent block to use up scraps or smaller cuts of fabric. Besides the Flea Market Fancy charm pack I have used what little Katie Jump Rope I had left in my scrap baskets (I only have quite a lot of the Blue bow left now) and also some (of the nicer) squares I had from my Scrap Vomit Quilt adventure (on the last block now!). I think my favourite block of the granny squares I made so far, is the red and white one.

If you haven't entered for my Princess and the Pea Giveaway yet, you better hurry as it ends tonight.  I loved reading through the comments so far!  And (unrelated) for all cat paw lovers a close up of Tijger's lovely white paws. :)

A small giveaway to celebrate!

Well guess who turned three this month? My Princess and the Pea pattern! I sold my first copy of this pattern on the 19th of March 2009 and I am happy (and grateful) that I have sold quite a few more patterns after that. Part of the success must be the lovely example piece my embroidery pal Georgia made of this pattern! We never met 'in person' because I live in the Netherlands and Georgia lives in Australia but it shows how through internet friendships (and long distance collaborations) lovely things can be made!

I'm giving away three Princess and the Pea PDF Hand embroidery patterns (or if you already have one, one of my other patterns of your choice) to three lucky blog readers! You don't have to jump through hoops to enter, just leave a comment (a nice one preferably) and tell me your favourite (fairy)tale! Giveaway ends this Sunday 12 a.m. Amsterdam time. Be sure to check back to find out if you have won or leave an email address so I can find you. If I can't find you I will have to re-draw.

Good luck everyone!


Giveaway has ended, winners will be announced later today!

A bit of fabric fun...Spring Forest

Just this morning my friend Katy (from the Monkey Do blog) launched a fun contest where you have to put together a bundle of fabrics from this store to have a chance to win your very own bundle! Well it's easier to make fabric combo's from your stash than from an online store but I think I managed to make a rather attractive bundle of fabrics. I call it Spring Forest.
(From top left)
1. Cross Hatch in Green
2. 30's yellow
3. Bella Turquoise
4. Wing Study in Meadow
5. Herringbone in Berry
6. Forest in Off-White
7. Woodgrain in Vintage yellow
8. Sundae Strip in Lime
9. Pearl Bracelet in Turquoise
10. Basket Weave in Blue
11. Annies Big Dot in yellow
12. Mono Pez in Brown

Find details of the contest here.

Bullion Knot Tutorial (my way)

The Bullion Knot is a fun stitch to have in your stitch repertoire. I especially like to make cute (slightly kitschy) roses with them. Now the Bullion Knot is feared by some stitchers but it's really not an incredibly complicated stitch to learn. I'm not claiming that my Bullion Knots are perfect, and I'm the first one to admit that the way I make them is a bit awkward but I hope this 'how to' will help one or two stitchers out there to overcome their fear of Bullion Knots! In a next tutorial I will show you how I make my Bullion Knot roses.

Milliners needles will make it easier for you to make a Bullion Knot (and French Knots as well). The eye of a Milliners needle is just as narrow as the shaft which makes it easier to pull through when you are making the actual 'knot'. Milliners needles are also longer than regular needles which makes wrapping your thread around the needle easy peasy. Now if you don't have a Milliners needle at hand, don't worry I have made Bullion knots with other types of needles too. Just make sure the needle isn't too short or has a 'bulky' eye.

So here's how you make a Bullion Knot.  I used the (hopefully) best photos from different Bullion Knots I made, hence the different floss colours. Hope it's not too confusing! I'm also a left-handed stitcher but as far as I can tell that really has no impact on how to perform this particular stitch. :)

Let the thread come up at A. The next step is to insert the needle at B ( and let it come up again at C.  Hold the eye-end of the needle down with your thumb so the upper bit of the needle comes up and start wrapping the thread (that comes up at A) around the needle 4-6 times (to start with) clockwise.

You can see that the Bullion Knot is already taking shape. It is now time to pull the needle through. Try to keep some tension on the thread that is on the right of your needle but not too much or you will have trouble pulling your needle through. Not enough tension and you may end up with something like this...

Eeeep! Where is my Bullion Knot? Don't worry,  keep on pulling the needle through gently and when you are nearly done, ease down the loops with your thumb and index finger....

...and it should then end up looking something like this. To secure the knot insert the needle at B again.

Here are some Bullion Knots I made earlier...

Now if you want to make a curved Bullion Knot (which is handy if you want to make Bullion Knot roses for example) you need to increase the number of wraps around the needle while keeping the distance from A to B (or B to C) the same as with the regular Bullion Knot.

Mmm in yellow they look a bit like maggots to me!

The more wraps the curvier your Bullion Knot will be! I exaggerated a little bit to show a really curvy Bullion Knot and wrapped the thread about 15 times around the needle. To make a Bullion Knot Rose you will probably be better off with a little less curvy Bullion Knot.  I will show you how to make Bullion Knot Rose in a next tutorial!

Let me know how you get on the with the Bullion Knot! 

From the Stash

No not from the Floss Stash this time...it's from the (also ever growing) fabric Stash. See that ueber gorgeous Heron Fabric (from Cloud 9 fabrics)? I received that from Brie in the Secret Santa Swap. I love Herons! Anyway I pulled some fabrics from my stash that, in my opinion, coordinate wonderfully with the Heron Fabric. There are some Denyse Schmidt fabrics there (have you seen the re-print of  Flea Market Fancy fabrics yet? Eeep!), some lovely dandelion fabric (for an instant summery feel, forgot the designer could be Patty Young) and a lovely turquoise gingham I received from Sarah Jane ( I think it's from her Children at Play line of fabrics, it reminds me of a summer pick nick).  I think I'm going to make a (quilted) pillow (or cushion depending on where you live) for the couch with these. :)

P.s. I am still working on the Bullion Knot tutorial. Hope to post it tomorrow!

More Bullion Knot musings...

I thought it would be fun to incorporate some Bullion Knots in the pattern I'm working on. I know some people find Bullion Knots kind of scary, almost as scary as the French Knot.  And to be honest my Bullion Knots look pretty hopeless when I'm halfway making one, but when finished they look o.k. (at least I think so) So I'm planning to post a 'how to' on Bullion Knots soon, including a shocking photo of the hopeless phase. :)

Boss of Floss (Sorting part two)

After reading all the encouraging comments to my Sorting post yesterday (thank you!), I  immediately felt motivated to do something about The Floss Situation.  So yesterday evening and this morning I spent a total of about 3 hours sorting floss that wasn't already more or less organized in one of my floss boxes. I found floss in other boxes, baskets, project bags, my wip basket and cabinets.  Pictured above is just the white and cream floss I found. Clearly I'm worried about running out of white floss because I found about 6 new skeins of DMC Blanc!

Judging from yesterday's comments, zip lock bags are the best choice for holding your stash.  These were just ones I had on hand, not clever ones with a hole in so I can put them on a ring, but it's a start! And while I was sorting my floss I also found many many WIP's (some really nice ones too!), about ten needles, all the parts of my two Q-snap frames and three embroidery scissors. :)

Surely I deserve to wear this pin now?

Sorting

I was reading a post on BariJ's blog yesterday about organizing your embroidery stuff. I'd love to be organized (I want to write that word with an 's' instead of a 'z' but Blogger doesn't let me!) but I'm pretty hopeless at it, as the photo shows. Even the cat looks a bit lost...And this is just one of my craft hang outs in the house. The books, patterns and the hoops are not the biggest problem. The Floss is...My Floss stash continues to grow and I'm kind of fed up with winding all the skeins on bobbins. I'm also a very messy stitcher and don't want to worry too much about numbers and bobbins while I'm creating. So I'm thinking of just sorting skeins on colour (roughly) and put them in little baskets or zip locks, would that work?  I actually would love to own one of those awesome vintage DMC cabinets (like this one) to store my floss but the prices for those on Ebay are just way too high! I guess for now I will just invest in a pack of zip locks instead. ;)

Snow Bunny

Guess where this Bunny was hiding for the past couple of days? We were enjoying a short break in the snowy Bavarian Alps! Even though it was a little too warm, the youngest bunnies enjoyed their ski-lessons and are becoming quite advanced skiers now. Unlike me...I'm still scared of skiing and only tried it for one day on a nearly flat practice slope. ;)

If you are from the Low Countries, this really is a change of scenery!

And of course we didn't travel alone. A whole bunch of cuddly animals and snuggly blankets were taken along as well. :)

So now it's 'back to business'! The second issue of &Stitches is beginning to take shape but there is still lots to be done. It will be a good one though so keep your eyes peeled for some sneak peeks of featured projects in the next couple of weeks!