Stitched Blooms Blog Tour & Giveaway

My embroidery friend Carina has a book out soon (early October) called Stitched Blooms and I'm very happy to take part in the Stitched Blooms blog tour!* Stitched Blooms has 300 floral motifs to embroider: floral borders and corners, folk art flowers, leaves, nature's blooms etc etc. all in Carina's admirable signature style. A lovely alliance of pretty colour combinations and Scandinavian folk design.

In addition to the motifs, the book also features 20 projects, some require (easy) sewing and in other cases store bought items were embellished with Carina's lovely designs. These will give you lots of ideas of how to use the motifs.

One of my favourite projects is this embroidered duvet cover, so simple and elegant!

And who can resist a Dala horse?

The 'basics' part of the book covers everything you need to start stitching; from information about scissors, hoops and ways to transfer a pattern to an overview of different types of knots to start your embroidery. The stitch glossary includes the basic stitches but also a few others like the Maidenhair stitch (which I happen to like a lot).

Carina shares some great content about the use of colour in this book, with tips on how to explore use of colour in your own embroidery work. For example by getting out of your colour 'comfort zone'. Something I should do more often too!

Stitched Blooms comes with a cd with all the project templates and motifs featured in the book. You can import motifs into an image manipulating program (such as GIMP) change their size, flip them and combine the motifs to make your unique design. The possibilities are endless. I added my daughter's name (lettering is from the program not the cd) and I think this would make a lovely design for a hand stitched personalized gym bag!

I think this book is a great resource of 'scandi' floral motifs for stitchers of all skill levels. The informative 'basics' part of the book makes it an excellent starting point for beginning embroiderers and many stitchers can benefit from the wonderful pages about the use of colour. Find more information about the book, the blog tour, reviews and places to get your copy here.

I'm very happy to be able to share a copy of Stitched Blooms and 7 skeins of fabulous embroidery floss with one of my readers in my Stitched Blooms Giveaway! Leave a comment on this post before the 1st of October 2013 and tell me what item you would love to embellish with Carina's motifs.  Comments are closed, winner will be announced later today 2/10/13 Be sure to leave a 'trail' (e-mail, link to profile with e-mail etc) or check back here on the 2nd of October so I can get in contact with you should you be the lucky winner.

The floss colours the lucky winner receives could be different from those on the photo above but will definitely be among Carina's favourites.  Good luck everyone!




*The publisher Lark Crafts sent me a copy for review and lets me share the book and floss with you. 

Christmas Stitches Giveaway!

It's not too early to think about stitching things for Christmas is it? At least not if you are as slow as I am in finishing projects! My stitchy pal Carina of Polka and Bloom is way better prepared than I am for these events and has put together a lovely e-book full of Christmas projects called Christmas Stitches.

There are tutorials for making fabric Christmas trees (small ones!), a mini sewing tin, a Christmas stocking and much more. Most of the projects involve a little bit of sewing but it's all very beginner friendly.  

The second half of the e-book is dedicated to embroidery tools and techniques (needles, transferring etc) and some lovely illustrated 'how to's' for embroidery stitches as well.  Here you will also find all the patterns you need to whip up those fabulous Christmas projects.

This week I"m giving away one copy (PDF) of Christmas Stitches! Be sure to leave a comment before this Saturday, the 23rd of June and let me know what's in your hoop right now! (I'm just curious that's all) Be sure to leave some kind of trail so I can trace you if you are the lucky winner.  Comments are closed now! Winner will be announced shortly.

Carina also has a great offer just for readers of this blog. If you use the code CHRISTMASBUNNY when you purchase Christmas Stitches, you get 15% off the regular price of $18.50. The offer ends this Sunday so hurry!

p.s. we have a fun giveaway over at the &Stitches blog of the 'New Crewel' book at the moment, do check that out as well!

Giveaway week 1: Pattern Parade!

In a few posts time my 300 th blog post will be up on this blog. To celebrate this small milestone and to thank you as a reader of this blog for your visits and comments I'm having a rather marvelous giveaway for the next three weeks. Yay!

I will have a different giveaway each week and of course you are free to enter them all. If you are not a blog follower already I  would appreciate it very much if you would become one! (update: just to be clear there's no need to follow, only if you like!) You can also find me regularly on my Facebook Fan page. All you need to do this week is to comment on this post and let me know your thoughts about my little blog. :) Any ideas for new stuff are very welcome too!  Please make sure you leave some kind of trail (email address, blog) so I can contact you in case you are one of the four lucky winners. You can enter this giveaway until Sunday the 7th of November 12 am CET. (update: by which I mean Central European Time) The winners will be announced later that day. Because I believe it's more fun to have multiple winners I'm drawing four winners (one prize each) from the infamous Stroop Waffle Jar. It is not possible to give preference to one of the prizes.

This week I'm giving away a wonderful selection of PDF patterns and an e-book, kindly provided by a couple of crafty and generous friends! I'm so happy to give these away because if have all of these myself and they are all truly fabulous!  Please make sure you stop by their shops for more beautiful patterns and items! Here are this weeks prizes (in no particular order):

Prize #1 a Fantastic Embroidery  E-book by Carina!

A little while ago my Feeling Stitchy mate Carina, of Polka & Bloom fame, released this awesome e-book called Stitching Borders and Beyond. I own a copy and it's absolutely delightful. The book has clear diagrams, fun stitches and the most amazing, pretty and stylish borders. This e-book is available in a version for left handed stitchers too. :)

Prize #2 Sew your own Mr. Fox with this fun Bird and Little Bird PDF pattern

If you have been following my blog you may have seen my half finished version of the semi-Fantastic Mr. Fox. Well, Annie of Bird and Little Bird offers not only the totally Fantastic semi-Fantastic Mr. Fox PDF sewing pattern but also the equally cute Mostly Ms. Marvelous Bunny PDF Pattern!

Prize #3 How about sewing your own stylish (Follow the White) Bunny with this adorable Bird and Little Bird Pattern?

Magpie Patterns has a wonderful selection of sewing, knitting and embroidery patterns. One lucky winner can choose any PDF Pattern from the shop!

Take your pick from the many Magpie PDF Patterns available.Like this cute felt cookie project by Sweetie Pie Bakery!

Good luck everyone! Please spread the happy Giveway news with your crafty friends. There are several buttons under this post which makes sharing on Twitter and Facebook etc. super easy! :)