Curiouser & curiouser: a very special offer!

I have just started reading Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland again (or rather Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) and what a curious story it is! If you haven't read it yet, you can find free downloadable e-books in various stores and apps. The book is 150 years old this year and, because my 'pen name'  (or rather 'needle name') obviously was inspired by Alice's White Rabbit, I felt it was appropriate to celebrate with a special offer. You can now purchase all my patterns with a 25% discount. Just like the White Rabbit you need to hurry a bit, because the offer ends this Friday. On your way out, use code ALICE.  A good opportunity to stock up on patterns to stitch for Holiday Gifts, I think! 

Roses and rabbits (and a cat too)

I regularly take photos of my embroideries when I'm working on them.  Mostly to see if I'm on the right track with my colours etc. The obvious spot for taking these photos is near a window, where there's plenty of natural light. A bright, slightly cloudy day is best for taking pictures.

Rain or shine, I always have a trusty assistent helping me out with these photos. ;)

Today I was taking photos of this Rabbit & Roses piece. I'm quite happy with the overall look of this embroidery so far. I did unpick some of the stitching this morning (you can still see some stray floss-fluff on the fabric) as parts of the stitching just were not good enough in my opinion. In the process I managed to push the tip of the seam ripper I used for unpicking, under my nail which wasn't a very pleasant experience. Luckily it was my right hand (I'm left handed) and with lots of band aids on the injured finger, it doesn't stop me from continuing to work on my Rabbit & Roses piece. :)

Rabbit on a dress

Just a few days ago I wrote about Michele Carragher and the embroidery work she did for the Game of Thrones series. It really inspired me to try and embellish my own clothing with embroidery. I have had this black 'baby cord' (really fine cord) dress for at least 6 years and I thought the plain, soft and not too thin fabric was the perfect candidate for my experiment!

First I traced the rabbit on some tissue paper (the wrapping kind of tissue paper, not the other type of tissue paper). I then stitched the outline of the rabbit on the fabric by stitching a kind of running stitch through the paper. It wasn't perfect but I covered the wonky looking stitches later when I started stitching the fur and it was the only method I could think of with the materials I had on hand.

I then continued to embroider like I usually do, except it's a little less subtle. I used two strands instead of one for example and while the cord is not too bad to stitch on, it's not like the very fine cotton satin I usually stitch my furry creatures on, so I shouldn't expect the same result, right? I'm not quite finished with this rabbit but it's nearly done I think...and after that I plan to add flowers, or branches, leaves that kind of stuff.

p.s. Luna made the first photo, where I'm wearing the dress as it's kind of hard making a photo of yourself wearing something and I think she did great. Yay Luna!

Pattern Parade: Mostly Marvelous Ms Rabbit Sewing Pattern Giveaway

Have you met the Mostly Marvelous Ms. Rabbit yet? No? Well then it's about time you did! This fabulous Ms. Rabbit Sewing Pattern is designed by my friend Annie. Annie has a lovely blog named  Bird and Little Bird  and makes an inspiring e-zine called Alphabet Glue  (if you & your kids love books and reading related activities you must check Alphabet Glue out!)

I had the pleasure of making Ms. Rabbit's pal the Semi-Fantastic Mr. Fox a while ago (see photo below) and it was so much fun! The instructions were very easy to follow so you will not need any previous 'plush' making experience.

It's quite possible you don't want to stop at just one rabbit either....

If you want a chance to win this Mostly Marvelous Ms. Rabbit PDF Sewing Pattern, leave a comment on this blog post and tell me what the name of your favourite plush toy was (or is!). Mine was a teddy bear called Lappie which means something like 'small cloth'  :)

Again, be sure to leave an e-mail address or some kind of trail so I'll be able to find you. Giveaway ends this Monday the 12th of November at noon, Central European Time. Good luck everyone! Comments are closed, winner will be announced later today! 

Traveling Threads

Totally ready to move on from this shading experiment to another crazy one thread only project! I think I need one or two more sessions to put some final touches to this piece and than it should be done. Today I filled in some more of the clouds in the background and added two light pink flowery things in the foreground and a pink flower too.

The back of this piece is a bit uhm..chaotic.. I'm sure some people get shivers when they see this:

But then I'd rather pay more attention to the front of the embroidery and less to the back of it. As most of this embroidery is covered with fill stitches you can't see the 'traveling' threads going from one place to another. Obviously you need to be more careful when you do an outline only embroidery. :)

Rabbit: progress in pictures from start till now

So...it started with a few simple stitches and then evolved over the months into something that is already quite special to me.  Even though progress is slow and I'm not quite finished yet, I think this is my favourite piece so far! (click on the photo to enlarge if you want to study some cat hairs  the details)

Furry update and a new quilt book!

I've been spending some quality time with my furry friend in the past few days, a couple of dozen minutes here and there...Somehow the photo makes him look much more textured than he really is. The 'real' rabbit looks much smoother and I must try and capture that in a photo for my next update! While I was stitching I kind of went back to my own 'crazy fur stitching' technique but it's looking pretty ok so far so that's fine. :) I think for a next project it would be better to get my colour pencils out before I start my embroidery and plan the shading a bit more thorough than I did with this piece.

I'm a little biased when it comes to all things Fat Quarterly, the e-zine about quilting. Katy of FQ has been an online buddy for years and years, every since I won a giveaway on her blog. (I still have the Cath Kidston Tesco Christmas shopping bag I won!) 'T was in the days that giveaways were more rare and (lucky for me) not many people entered either, haha. I think I first stumbled upon John of FQ when we were both contributing blocks for the Bushfire Quilt Project (also quite a few years ago now) and we exchanged embroideries in the Hoop Up Swap etc etc. Can't wait to meet both John and Katy (and a lot of other quilters too) on the Fat Quarterly Sewing Retreat in London early June! Anyway, naturally I just had to buy the new book they wrote with FQ colleagues Tacha Bruecher and Brioni Greenberg.

I'm having a great time browsing Shape Workshop for Quilters. I love that it's not only got great projects but a lot of individual blocks as well. Some blocks are basic, some are traditional with a modern twist, there is really something for every quilter in here. Beginners will find all the basic information about quilting in this book and easy blocks to start with and gain confidence in quilting. More advanced quilters will find  much inspiration in this book. Shape Workshop for Quilters is available here (and in many other places I'm sure..)

This reminds me that I must do a post about all the quilts I have in progress right now!

Some progress on the Tiny Circus Rabbit

After finishing my Phat Quarter swap embroidery piece (which I will share with you once my partner has received it) I thought I'd do a little more work on the Tiny Circus Rabbit. Tiny because the whole embroidery fits in a 3 inch hoop. I'm quite pleased with how the sky and clouds turned out. I'm using lots of colours from my box with odd Anchor floss colours.  They are perfect for this embroidery. I tried to scan the embroidery because somehow photos don't do the embroidery justice. And neither do scanned images of it actually. In real life it looks far more subtle and smooth!

I'm also working on the second Beetle Bug design and Saffron and I are hoping to have the Beetle Bug patterns available for you in a couple of weeks time. Read Saffron's account of our cooperation here! Saffron also has an awesome new fabric line called Imaginary Flowers.

White Rabbit WIP

Still working on my White Rabbit! The stitch on the jacket is clearly a long-short stitch, but I'm not sure what to call the stitch I used on the White Rabbit fur. I tried to make it look more furry, lively and textured by making stitches that go with the shape of the head, or the paw or the leg. I thought a normal long-short stitch would make Rabbit look very static and that's not good for a Rabbit in a hurry! :)