Floss Love Vol. 6: Messy Floss Organization

I always like seeing how other stitchers store and organize their floss.

I have a plastic three-drawer organizer that I use to keep my DMC floss in. 

The drawers originally started out very neat and tidy, but I gave that up years ago.

Here are photos of each drawer.

We have the greens and blues.

Reds/Purples/Yellows/Oranges/Pinks

Black/Browns/Greys/Whites

How do you store your floss??

Something Old: Stitched Birds

I stitched these birds back in 2009 (I think) as a gift for my Mother-In-Law.

The pattern was found in the Hoop Love Vintage Transfers Flickr Group - which is one of my favorite Flickr groups to browse through.

Here is a direct link to the pattern .

I added  some straight stitches and french knots around the edges of the hoop.

"Something Old" is when I post photos of older embroidery projects that I stitched before I started this blog. 

Check out my previous "Something Old" posts here.

2014 - What did I embroider??

Happy New Year!

Looking back at 2014, I was surprised at my lack of embroidery. Just from reviewing this blog, my posts went down from 50 total posts in 2013 to a mere 18 total posts in 2014!!

So one of my goals for 2015 is to amp up my stitching and post much more on the blog. 

But just for my own amusement, let's look at some 2014 embroidery highlights anyways.

* The most viewed blog post from 2014 was my Furry Nice Embroidery Class Review.

This class was amazing. I also stitched a cute beetle from the techniques I learned from the class.

* The second most viewed post was the Take a Stitch Tuesday # 15 French Knot . 

I did my best to continue with the Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge - although sadly, I only completed 3 new stitches the entire year. I do enjoy this challenge and plan on continuing it this year. 

* I participated in one swap - The Bestiary Swap - from the website Weave (previously the swap from the Phat Quarter Flickr embroidery group)

My goals for 2015 in embroidery:

- stumpwork

- continue with TAST

- review some embroidery books

Ok, enough. I should start stitching...

Happy Holidays!

Experimenting with Couching Stitch

I had two embroidery projects on my to do list in August…

1. work on the stitch along I started in my google+ community

2. continue the Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge

… and I ended up not accomplishing either!

But instead I did finish a project that has been on my mind ever since I learned the couching stitch.

Years ago, I asked my husband to draw me something to embroider for Valentine’s Day and he drew me this girl with a heart.

She has sort of become my “avatar” over the years for MooshieStitch – she's on my Flickr, Google+, Tumblr, Etsy profile, etc.

When I learned the couching stitch for TAST, I thought it would look cool to embroider hair with it, so I decided to re-do this girl with new couched hair!

I removed the heart and eye makeup.

With the couching stitch, it was so easy to stitch up the hair very quick – I may do another girl with different colored hair and fill it all in completely.

Up close just because.

Finished hair ... what color for the lips?

Red of course!

If you notice the difference in lighting from the above photos - that's because I took them at different times of the day. What a difference! I am still learning my natural lighting when taking photos...

What do you think? Which version do you like better? Couched hair or the black and grey stem stitch version?

I think my next version may be green and black hair.

Little Tree Drawing Mini Embroidery

My nine year old niece drew me a cute little tree and I wanted to embroider it.

I thought it would be fun to take her drawing, stitch it, frame it, and give it to her as a little gift.

Here is a photo of the original drawing.

Here it is transferred onto the fabric ready to stitch.

I used all stem stitch, since it's my favorite.

A long time ago I bought these little canvases with frames at a craft store which I thought would be perfect to finish the tree.

I stapled the fabric to the canvas (which I have written about previously here – it is my favorite way to finish my embroidery now).

Staple around all edges - pulling the fabric tight around the canvas.

Staple the corners - similiar to wrapping a present and staple.

All stapled!

Here it is all finished inside the frame and ready to send in the mail!

Miscellaneous

Just a random post of miscellaneous things to share today.

Back when I was working on my Furry Nice Polar Bear, I took this photo of my work area just for fun. I thought it was funny the amount of floss everywhere. The polar bear is even making a cameo!

This is my embroidery chair. I actually bought it specifically to sit on for when I embroider - back in 2010 or so. It has been my trusty chair - it even moved across the US from Minnesota to Seattle because I didn't want to part with it.

I snapped the picture below because they were my color choices for the Furry Nice polar bear and I liked how they all looked together. :)

I have two projects I want to start this week. One is a beetle pattern that was included from the Furry Nice Embroidery class and one that is a birthday gift for my niece. I will post more on both when I get my colors chosen. 

Later!

Something Old: Fairy Tea Towel

Embroidery flashback to 2009.

I stitched this fairy on a tea towel for a birthday gift for my friend.

I've always liked how it turned out.

The fairy pattern is from the Sublime Stitching Craft Pad and I think the tea towel was also from Sublime Stitching.

Merchant & Mills Scissors and Floss Love

I love embroidery scissors. I buy myself a new pair of scissors every so often as a treat for myself.

I've shared about my scissors in a previous post here.

So when I found these cute little Baby Bow Scissors, I just had to get them.

Maybe I live under a rock, but have you ever heard of Merchant & Mills before? I had not. So I took a look at their website. I love all they have to offer!

Look at the cute little "M" stamped on the scissors.

Just to give you an idea of how small these are - here is a photo next to "normal" sized embroidery scissors.

Now that I have discovered Merchant & Mills, I keep looking at their shop and want to buy everything! 

I mean, how awesome is their pin selection!?!

In other new, it's been a long time since I did a "Floss Love" post so thought these photos would be great for one! 

I am taking the Furry Nice Embroidery class that Nicole from Follow the White Bunny is teaching and our assignment was to gather our floss for the project. 

Here are my floss colors I have chosen. I will definitely post more about the embroidery projects once we start stitching. I am really excited about this class!

Please let me know if you are familiar with Merchant & Mills! Have you bought anything from their shop?

Bunnies

Here are my Easter bunnies that I cannot believe I finished with plenty of time before Easter!

The bunny was drawn by my husband. I stitched them on tea towels and I am giving them as gifts.

Here is the first bunny finished.

Up close.

For the second bunny, I decided to fill in the ears, feet, and eyes with satin stitch and I like how it turned out.

Up close.

Finished!