2017 Stitch Recap

Happy New Year!

I know it's almost already February - but I thought I would take the time to do my yearly recap.

Where to begin??

2017 was not my best year for stitching - in fact, I wasn't going to do a year recap on the blog because, well, I barely stitched anything! But I thought I would still do a quick recap and give an update for my 2018 stitching plan.

So let's begin.

* As for this blog - I sadly only posted THREE times. They included a quick roundup post with photos of all my embroidered flower necklaces, I celebrated the Take a Stitch Tuesday 10 year anniversary by completing the Magic Chain Stitch, and finally my 2016 Stitch Recap post. That was it!!

* Other things I stitched this year that were not posted on the blog: lots of wool woven picot flowers
that I added to my Etsy shop.

* As a Feeling Stitchy contributor, I also only posted 3 times last year (which is ironic since one of my goals was to post more frequently there - and will continue to be a goal for 2018).  Here they are if you wanna check them out!

1. My Stitchable Mesh Project

2. Interlaced Cable Chain Stitch

3. Kamal Kadai Stitch (2 color with Pearl Cotton)

I am not sure how much I will continue to post here in 2018. But that's ok. I want to post a lot more over on Feeling Stitchy this year and already have some projects started including a goldwork kit.

For more up to date posts of what I am stitching you can always  follow me on Instagram - since it seems that's the place to be now instead of regular blogs. But still check out my MooshieStitch Monday posts on Feeling Stitchy - because that is an awesome embroidery blog! :)

Previous year recaps: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016

And if you have made it this far - thank you and happy stitching!

Embroidered Flower Necklaces

Just sharing some photos of the latest flower necklaces I have stitched up recently.

I have switched it up from my usual woven picot stitch flowers for most of these necklaces.

Here is one little woven picot stitch flower...

All of these are in my Etsy shop :)

Now that I have all these necklaces done, I can concentrate on some bigger projects - specifically a wedding anniversary project for my friend that I hope to start and finish by April!!

Take A Stitch Tuesday #69 - Magic Chain Stitch

Yesterday I posted on Feeling Stitchy about the Take A Stitch Tuesday 10 year anniversary and worked the Interlaced Cable Chain Stitch.

To celebrate here, I am completing TAST stitch #69 - the Magic Chain Stitch!

When I chose the red and white thread for this, I was originally going for a "Valentine" color theme, but after I was done all I see is "Christmas" candy cane colors!!

Oh well, I will have to remember this stitch for next Christmas!

Check out Sharon's tutorial for the Magic Chain Stitch also.

More information on the TAST challenge, guidelines, and stitch list can be found here.

Its been a looooong time since I my last TAST stitch.

My TAST sampler recap is the most viewed post on the blog.

Find all my previous Take A Stitch Tuesday stitch posts on my TAST page.

2016 Stitch Recap

Happy New Year!

It's that time again where I like to look back at what I stitched the past year.

So what happened in 2016??

* One of my goals every year is to post more often. Well, I think I accomplished that for the most part. Although I only posted 17 times in 2016 here on this blog, I did also post 17 times as a contributor on Feeling Stitchy, so I am satisfied with those numbers.

* Speaking of being a contributor ... some of my most favorite stitching from the year was for Feeling Stitchy: I got to do two book reviews (here and here), stitched a woven basket with flowers, experimented with plushwork, and the woven picot stitch with wool.

* As for the woven picot stitch, I think 2016 may have been my "year of the woven picot stitch flower". I may have become slightly obsessed with them...

* Most viewed post of 2016 was this little French Knot sheep 

* My favorite embroidery project of the year was this embroidered flower lady

Now on to my 2017 goals for embroidery. I only have two for myself this year:

1. Post as often as possible on Feeling Stitchy. I know I should probably post more on my own blog, but honestly, Feeling Stitchy has more readers and it feels good to share my embroidery to an audience I know exists. HA!

2. That being said, I know there may be some people that actually look at this blog and that is AWESOME!! Thank you for taking the time to check out my stitching here!! I am still going to post here, but as my second goal, it will be mostly about completing my WIPs.

What I mean  is, I have so many projects that I have started just for fun or for myself or even old projects that I want to finish and take better photos of. That is going to be my goal for this year: have fun with my embroidery and finish all those old projects that I have put on the back burner and share them here!

All right - if you made it this far, I wish you a Happy New Year and Happy Stitching!!

Previous year recaps: 2013, 2014, 2015

Christmas Embroidery Ideas

• Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

I stitched a bunch of these Rudolphs many years ago. I attached them to some felt, made them into little decorative hangings and gave them to my friends as gifts. Here is a link to the website where I found the Rudolph to trace - it's actually a website for printable coloring book pages, and I think they make great embroidery patterns also.

• Winter Woven Trees

Stitch this winter-themed project I posted on Feeling Stitchy last year. The trees are woven trellis stitch and if you don't know that stitch, you can learn it here.

• Couched Candy Canes

I recently posted about these cute little couched candy canes and had to include them in this list. They could be stitched on anything - you could make them different sizes with different types of thread!

• Needle Weave Plaid

And finally, a tutorial I posted on Feeling Stitchy on how to needle weave plaid. The colors remind me of Christmas :)

Happy Holiday Stitching!

Mini Couched Candy Canes

Here is a really easy holiday embroidery project - couched candy canes!

I created these with DMC embroidery thread using all six strands.

If you need to learn the couching stitch, check out this great video tutorial from Needle n Thread.

I free hand drew little canes with a water soluble pen.

I started with red as the foundation thread and white as my working thread - or my "stripes" of the candy cane.

Continue couching white stripes and then bring your red thread through the fabric to finish the cane.

My second candy cane is white with red stripes.

I drew some more  - but then decided on stopping at three candy canes :)

I rinsed the ink off my fabric and let dry.

To show you how small these candy canes are - here is a dime for size comparison.

A simple little embroidery design for the holidays! If you try this out, comment below!

Vote 2016 Embroidery

Step 1. Get your free Vote Pattern on Feeling Stitchy!

Step 2. Stitch it up!

Step 3. Get out and Vote next week!

Autumn Tree Embroidery

A few months ago, I did a book review on Feeling Stitchy for the embroidery book: Simply Stitched by Yumiko Higuchi.

It opened my embroidery world to the concept of stitching with wool and cotton. (I had never stitched with wool prior)

I love Yumiko's design style and have wanted to go back and stitch up some more from the book - so I decided on these cute trees.

In the book, her project has you stitch the tree motif in all white, but I switched it up and stitched them in color for fall!

FYI: If you look at the photos in my book review post, you can see the white tree motif to compare.

I traced the pattern with a water soluble pen, stitched the trunks with satin stitch in cotton embroidery floss. The yellow leaves are single straight stitches with yellow DMC tapestry wool.

For the second tree, I stitched the leaves with red cotton floss instead of wool.

After looking at it, I felt it needed more leaves, so I added orange.

P.S. - I finally created an Instagram account and will be posting there also.