Boho Stitch Along. Week no. 20

May 14, 2017 | wildboho

Welcome back for Week no. 20! If you are just beginning a piece for the #BohoSAL, check out my previous posts here. And if you are new to embroidery and want to learn the basics, check out my embroidery book, Boho Embroidery for everything you need to get started!

This week, I am working with this beautiful-beyond-words barkcloth from Gertrude Made‘s first fabric line, “Outback Wife.” This fabric is seriously gorgeous.

I have been following along with Cathi’s Instagram feed for ages now. You can find her @gertrudemade on Instagram. Her beautiful floral dresses first caught my eye, and then when I saw she was coming out with her very own fabric line, I was just ecstatic! I love the stories behind Outback Wife and I can’t wait for her next line of fabric!!

So, anyway, I have several pieces from this line and I have had them sitting in a pile, just waiting for time to work with them! Well, it’s time. I have had ideas swirling around for this fabric and my fingers are just itching to throw some stitches on this hoop!

Because I have been waiting so long to work with this fabric, i’m not rushing the process. This is a true Boho Stitch Along piece, because there is no deadline and i’m working on this one little by little and letting the ideas gradually fall into place.

This past week was Teacher Appreciation Week and we love our teachers around here! I’ve had hoop ideas in my head for them and this week, after I sent off all of my Quilt Market hoops, I was able to focus on these hoops!

Here are the hoops I stitched up:

And that’s a wrap!

Have a great week stitching!

Boho Stitch Along. Week no. 19

May 7, 2017May 7, 2017 | wildboho

Welcome back for Week no. 19! If you are just beginning a piece for the #BohoSAL, check out my previous posts here. And if you are new to embroidery and want to learn the basics, check out my embroidery book, Boho Embroidery for everything you need to get started!

My stitch Along piece this week is a hoop that I am making as a gift for one of my boy’s teachers…a little late for teacher appreciation week, but it will be done soon!

How cool is this fabric from Free Spirit Fabrics from the line, “Neptune and the Mermaid”?!

There’s a story behind this one, though…

I saw this fabulous fabric online and just had to buy it immediately (from Circa 15 Fabric Studio). When I buy fabrics, I don’t typically buy large quantities…usually a fat quarter or a 1/2 yard works for most of my projects. Not checking the size of this octopus, I quickly added a 1/4 yard to my cart and then added a few other things and then checked out.

I couldn’t wait to open the fabric when it arrived. Sadly, I realized that, with this particular fabric, I should have ordered a larger cut because I didn’t get one complete octopus. SO…if you like this one and want a complete octopus, don’t make my mistake and think you can get by with a 1/4 yard!

Here’s how I’ve made lemonade out of my lemon-ish purchase! I’ve been using the Lion Brand bonbons and seed beads to add swirly octopus legs around the flowers on the fabric.

I think it’s a pretty good fix, right?!

And speaking of Octopi (because we were, right?!), here’s another one I’ve been stitching. This one required lots and lots and LOTS of fussy cutting and another Free Spirit Fabric this one from Heather Bailey‘s “Hello Love” line. You’ll be seeing lots more from this one as I finish it off to send to Sue Spargo for Quilt Market this week!

Speaking of purchases (because we were, right?!), look at this beautiful trim! I have no particular project in mind for these, but I saw them and knew I had to have them for something!

And speaking of Quilt Market (because we were, right?!) Here’s a detail shot of one of the hoops i’ve been making for Robert Kaufman’s booth with the upcoming Jennifer Sampou “Shimmer On” fabrics (coming out in August).

Remember how I told you I love these Sulky 12 Wt. Cotton Petites? Well, this is what I love them for…they are brilliant for adding beads to my embroidery! They do not break (like when I tried to use just plain sewing machine thread) and you don’t have to separate threads (like when you use floss).

I’ll post more pics of these hoops around Quilt Market time!

And speaking of sneak peeks (because we were, right?!) Here’s a peek at a mini quilt made with my Fractured Color Wheel Embroidery Pattern. I used some of my favorite Anna Maria Horner fabrics combined with so beautiful You and Me batiks. My mom (even though she told me not to give her any credit!) did the quilting and binding and everything else for me!) It turned out better than I was picturing!! How about that butterfly in the center?!

So that’s this week all wrapped up! Hopefully your week was less jumbly and jam-packed than mine was (!) and that you have plenty of time for stitching in the coming week!

Happy stitching!

Boho Stitch Along. Week no. 18

April 25, 2017April 30, 2017 | wildboho

Welcome back for Week no. 18! If you are just beginning a piece for the #BohoSAL, check out my previous posts here. And if you are new to embroidery and want to learn the basics, check out my embroidery book, Boho Embroidery for everything you need to get started!

My stitch Along piece this week went from just a simple (very pretty!) piece of fabric to a completely embellished piece of art in the span of just 5 days… much quicker than I normally stitch a project like this!

Here’s how I began, just one week ago:

And here’s the back, or the #hoopguts (!) and I promise I will show you the completed front very, very soon!

The month of May feels like a blur and it hasn’t even started yet, but I have several projects on the horizon that I can’t wait to share with you!

Enjoy these last days of April and Happy Stitching!

Boho Stitch Along. Week no. 17

April 23, 2017April 24, 2017 | wildboho

Welcome back for Week no. 17! If you are just beginning a piece for the #BohoSAL, check out my previous posts here. And if you are new to embroidery and want to learn the basics, check out my embroidery book, Boho Embroidery for everything you need to get started!

My stitch along piece for the week is going to be stitched at a slightly rapider pace than I normally choose to work at for a project like this, but it is only because I am up against several deadlines. That doesn’t take away (too much!) from my enjoyment of a project, but you are going to see a quicker turnaround from start to finish on this hoop!

The fabric that I am using is by Cori Dantini, who has been one of my favorite artists for several years now. I have prints of her work (which you can buy in her etsy shop) and her fabric was what I used to make some of my very first hoops! You can see some of the projects that i’ve made here and here and here and my very first one here! I love to see the progression of my stitching!

Here is a picture of the fabric before I have stitched anything. I have had lots of requests that I show a complete before and after and i’m doing that with this one! So here she is along with several threads I plan on using: the mohair spools and sea grass are from The Thread Gatherer and the Eleganza Perle Cotton are from Sue Spargo.

After a day of stitching, here is what I have:

She needed some purple Mohair strands in her backstitched hair and I used the Sea grass in the flowers to the left of her and running through the blanket stitch along the border. I also added beads added a whip stitch alongside of the blanket stitch.

There are so many awesome hoops in the #Bohosal pool and I decided to share several of the close ups that i’ve been loving! But first, I had to share this one…

I’m pretty sure @codycindy wins the award for best Boho Stitch Along location! Maybe we need to make that be a thing! This is just beautiful and i’m always a fan of anything Alison Glass and bees! And seriously, that backdrop gets all the heart eyes from me!

How much fun is this piece from @judith_b_richardson …such intricate detailing on each lady! Check out her feed too for lots of fun bead/embroidery combos!

I just love the simplicity of a backstitch and @craftingwithoutkids shows just how beautiful it can be added as an outline on the leaf.

Ok, seriously?! @mamacesare is adding the tiniest of details to these little tiny squares and i’m just smitten with both the colors she chose and the details themselves!

Look at the beautiful detail in the center of this flower that @quilterathart has been adding. I just love the teal/brown/gold combo alongside the purples and pinks!

@swoodsonsay has been adding such little details to these butterflies and I think they are just too sweet!

In case you missed it, Abby Glassenberg of While She Naps had me as a guest on her podcast. You can listen to the podcast here or on iTunes. And while you are at it, check her out on Instagram. We talked Boho Embroidery, Etsy, Instagram and lots of other great stuff!

Enjoy looking through the Stitch Along posts and i’ll see you back here next week!

Happy stitching!

Boho Stitch Along. Week no. 16

April 16, 2017April 17, 2017 | wildboho

Welcome back for Week no. 16! If you are just beginning a piece for the #BohoSAL, check out my previous posts here. And if you are new to embroidery and want to learn the basics, check out my embroidery book, Boho Embroidery for everything you need to get started!

Well, the stomach bug has hit our house hard this week, which means I did a whole lot of cleaning and disinfecting and then some more cleaning and disinfecting and not as much stitching as I had hoped!!!

I did have wits enough to put together this Tula Pink piece that is slightly larger than I normally work with, though, and I am considering it my Boho Stitch Along piece for the week!

This citron color is from Tula Pink’s Prince Charming line, which might just be one of my all-time favorites…I still have decent cuts of all of the color ways from this one! I also added elements from Acacia, Bumble and Slow and Steady.

I found this lap embroidery hoop for a whopping $2.50 at the thrift store and picked it up even though I wasn’t sure if I would like using it. Let me tell you….I definitely like this hoop! For large pieces of embroidery, it is so handy to not have to hold the hoop while i’m stitching. I feel like I can stitch faster than if I were wrangling a large 14″ hoop while trying to stitch!

In non-Boho Stitch Along related posts, I want to tell you about a new (to me) thread that I have been using for the past week or so. Sulky sent me a few things to try out and these Cotton Petites were among the samples.

I am always game to try a new thread and I discovered that these threads work really great when I am adding beads to my embroidery. In the past, whenever I added beads, I just used sewing machine thread because I wanted something thin that wouldn’t take away from the embroidery. I would inevitably have to deal with tangles and it just never worked great. So when Sulky sent me this, a lightbulb went off and I was excited to use it with beads.

Each spool has about 50 yards and is the thickness of about 2 strands of floss, but you don’t have to separate it…you heard me right! You can use it directly from the spool!!! I love when I can use a thread that doesn’t need to be separated because it lets me stitch more and work less!!

I haven’t seen these in any craft stores that are local to me, but you can check them out at Sulky and they come in both solid and variegated (or bendable) colors.

Have a great week stitching!!

-nichole

Boho Stitch Along. Week no. 15

April 10, 2017 | wildboho

Welcome back for Week no. 15! If you are just beginning a piece for the #BohoSAL, check out my previous posts here. And if you are new to embroidery and want to learn the basics, check out my embroidery book, Boho Embroidery for everything you need to get started!

You may have noticed that I tend to jump around a lot with my #Bohosal piece!! It’s really just to keep you on your toes and not at all because I have too many ideas to contain to just one piece!!!
This week I started and finished a project. When I have lots of deadlines and projects going, I find it works best to introduce yet another project, just to really make my week tricky!

I like to move around the art on my walls fairly regularly, which means that I sometimes end up with pieces that just don’t work anymore. I had a canvas picture of a bike and I just couldn’t make it fit anymore. So I decided to pull a piece of fabric that I really liked and embroider that and then staple it over the canvas picture. This is one of my favorite ways to change up art!

I chose a print from the Shiny Objects collection by Flaurie and Finch. I’ve worked with their fabrics a lot in the past and love the details that are included in each of the fabrics. This collection has metallic bits sprinkled throughout, which is so much fun!

I began with a running stitch in several varieties of thread: Eleganza Perle cotton, Silk Thread and even some yarn. Next up I added beads to the running stitch. I finished up with satin stitching around the flower and a neon leaf or two to really make the flower pop off of the fabric.

I’m thrilled with how it turned out!

Next week i’ll share some of my favorite #BohoSAL posts from our ever-growing pool! How exciting to look through all of the pictures and see so many hoops in progress!

Have a great week and Happy Stitching!

-nichole

Boho Stitch Along. Week no. 14

April 3, 2017April 3, 2017 | wildboho

Welcome back for Week no. 14! If you are just beginning a piece for the #BohoSAL, check out my previous posts here. And if you are new to embroidery and want to learn the basics, check out my embroidery book, Boho Embroidery for everything you need to get started!

Happy April! I think Spring might finally be headed our way!

For my stitch along piece this week, I picked up my Anna Maria Horner “Fibs and Fables” hoop again. I’m thoroughly enjoying the slow pace of stitching this large hoop. I am in no rush to finish, like I am many of my projects, so I can take my time deciding where to go next with the embroidery!

This week I decided to add texture in the form of beads to this tree.

I just love how it turned out and I’m debating on whether I want to add more beads to this hoop or leave this as a stand alone piece of texture. The brilliant thing?? I don’t have to decide right away, do I?!

I hope you are all enjoying the slow pace of stitching your Boho Stitch Along hoop too!

I spent time at Pennington Quilt Works in Pennington, NJ this weekend teaching a Boho Embroidery workshop and had such a nice time with a really fun group of ladies! I love that everyone comes to a workshop with completely different crafting backgrounds: some have never embroidered while others have an embroidery background but dabbled in so many other things that embroidery was pushed out of the way for a while. I really enjoy watching each person form a connection with embroidery.

Have a great week stitching!

-nichole

Boho Stitch Along. Week no. 13

March 26, 2017March 27, 2017 | wildboho

Welcome back for Week no. 13! If you are just beginning a piece for the #BohoSAL, check out my previous posts here. And if you are new to embroidery and want to learn the basics, check out my embroidery book, Boho Embroidery for everything you need to get started!

For my stitch along piece this week, i’m back to my Urban Artifacts hoop. Earlier this week, I came across a packet of beads that I had tucked away and they just so happened to match the colors on this hoop! So on a whim, I added them.

I also wanted to mix and match the Sue Spargo Ellana Wool thread alongside of the Eleganza Perle Cotton thread so that you could see the side by side differences. In this pic, the Ellana threads are on the white/tan spools and the Eleganza are on the green spools.

You can see below, that the Ellana Wool is slightly thicker with a matte finish (I doubled up the strand here because I wanted it to stand out) while the Eleganza has a slightly shinier look. I love mixing and matching threads to get a variety of textures!

And here’s a full shot of this little section. Kind of 70’s mod vibes, right?! This might be one of my favorite sections on this hoop!

There have been some beautiful detail shots added to the #BohoSAL pool on Instagram recently!

P.S. If you have added your pics with that hashtag but you have a private account, I won’t be able to see them. For a chance to be featured, you can direct message your pics to me through Instagram.

So let’s see what our Stitch Along friends have been up to lately, shall we?!

I just love the Chain Stitch and Lazy Daisy combination that @quilterathart has been stitching! Aren’t these great colors?!

The quilts scrappiness of this piece that @mamacesare has been stitching is just awesome! The dense stitching (especially on those flowers!) is all kinds of gorgeous!

The addition of navy thread (if my detective skills are on par, it looks like it’s a limited edition color from The Thread Gatherer!) that @belladar58 is adding to her fabric. I love the texture that this is adding and can’t wait to keep watching this one grow!

@little_girl_pearl is working wonders on this Anna Maria Horner fabric. I mean, it’s Anna Maria Horner….do I need to say anything else?!

That’s a wrap for this week! Keep being awesome all you stitch along-ers!

If you are in the Doylestown, PA area and want the chance to check out what I have officially dubbed my “favorite art exhibit of all time,” the Charles Sheeler: Fashion, Photography and Sculptural Form exhibit at the Michener Art Museum, then you have until July 9th to make your way there.

I was blown away by the combination of large murals, photography and fashion from the twenties and thirties. An incredible mix of industrial settings from the Machine Age combined with (always a favorite!) geometric patterns and the fashion from the 1920s…it was awesome and I can highly recommend it!

Here’s a little sneak peak:

And catching a glimpse of my book in the wild, at the Doylestown Bookshop, never gets old!

And lastly, if you are in the PA/NJ area, don’t forget that i’ll be teaching a Boho Embroidery workshop at Pennington Quilt Works this week. You can check their class schedule for dates and availability!

Have a great week and happy stitching!

-nichole

Boho Stitch Along. Week no. 11

March 12, 2017March 13, 2017 | wildboho

Welcome back for Week no. 11! If you are just beginning a piece for the #BohoSAL, check out my previous posts here. And if you are new to embroidery and want to learn the basics, check out my embroidery book, Boho Embroidery for everything you need to get started!

I think by now you know that I love to switch between projects a lot! I have several #BohoSAL hoops going and I work on them depending on what mood i’m in and what other projects I have going for the week!!

This week, I started on a piece of fabric from Flaurie & Finch. I met the ladies of Flaurie and Finch at Quilt Market in October and, besides being super nice, they haven’t designed a fabric yet that I don’t love!

I also really wanted to try out this stunning Silk ‘n Colors thread from The Thread Gatherer. This is a 12-ply thread which means you can use anywhere from 1-12 strands of it in your project. I chose to use all 12 strands just to see how well I could stitch with it. Let me tell you, this thread is amazing. I had no trouble with tangles, the thread easily went through my fabric and the end result was a noticeable raised stitch.

This particular deep purple fabric is from Flaurie and Finch’s Shiny Objects collection and it is called “Menagerie.” I love a fabric that has a healthy dose of metallic shimmer! Butterflies are always a bonus!

So there’s my #BohoSAL for the week. Here’s what else i’ve been up to…

I was excited to be featured on Sue Spargo’s site last week…you can check out the feature here as well as check out the thread pack that I curated in my favorite colors! P.S. You can also find my book on her site now too!

If you’ve been wanting to try Eleganza thread but aren’t sure where to start, the colors that I picked for the Wildboho Eleganza thread pack are a great mix of saturated colors that I use for just about everything!

It goes especially well with the brand new upcoming Alison Glass line, Chroma Handcrafted. Seriously, these colors!!!

Speaking of colors, I’ve had the chance to work with another gorgeous fabric line from Dana Willard (on instagram at @made_everyday) for Angles which is a new-ish division of Art Gallery Fabrics. Dana’s fabrics are just beautiful and colorful and everything you want as a base for embroidery! (P.S. you Boho Stitch Along-ers…any of these fabrics would be really fun if you are looking for a new #BohoSAL piece!)

Her line is called Fiesta Fun and you’ve seen peeks of the hoop I’ve been creating this past week on Instagram.

First off, check out some of these colorful prints! (These are just a few of the prints from this line. For more fabrics and some gorgeous inspiration, check out Dana’s page describing this new line here.)

These bright colors are just what I wanted to be stitching as winter winds down!

For this hoop, I began with the blue and white fabric and then added the first bit of color from flowers that I cut from the colorful version of the same fabric.

Now, I know some of you are all about fussy cutting and will see nothing wrong with what I’ve done here, but others will look at this cut fabric and see nothing but waste!!! It had to be done, though!!!