Boho Stitch Along. Week 3

April 27, 2018 | wildboho

To catch up, you can check out each week of the Boho Stitch Along right here!

Before I show you what I’ve been working on for my Boho Stitch Along this week, I wanted to share my upcoming classes for the summer! If you’ll be on the East Coast from June-September, you just might be able to catch a Boho Embroidery class!

Here is my summer schedule:

June 16, 2018: Finch Knitting and Sewing Studio, Leesburg, VA

July 6, 2018: (Just for TEENS!), Pennington Quilt Works, Pennington, NJ

July 6, 2018: Pennington Quilt Works, Pennington NJ

August 5, 2018: Sew Inspired Quilt Shop & Studio, Simsbury, CT

August 11, 2018: Alewives Fabrics, Damariscotta, ME

September 29, 2018: The Old Country Store, Lancaster, PA

So this week, besides a mad cleaning of my studio (more on that below), I focused on the center medallion of my project.

Using a combination of straight stitches and beads, I have almost completed this medallion!

The center of the center is a small mirror that I attached with a variation of the Shisha Stitch (I cover this stitch in my upcoming book!)

For next week, I plan on finishing up the center and then moving on to the feathers above the center medallion.

I’ll also be stitching some projects for Quilt Market and so i’m not sure how much i’ll be able to tackle…maybe it’s overly ambitious to think i’ll be moving onto the feathers! We’ll just have to see what the week brings!

The thread that I love to use for beading and embroidery is from Sulky and is called Sulky Petites. It is a 12 wt thread, which is about the thickness of 2 strands of a dividable floss would be. I love the variety of colors that it comes in and I can always find a match to the beads and fabric that i’m working with!

The beads that I used on the center are size 11 seed beads and are smaller than the size 8 beads that I used on the words “Magpie Dreams” from last week. I find my beads online and my favorite shop is Fusion Beads.

The adorable bird needle minder is from Alison Glass.

I have a tiny stitching studio in my home and the size forces me to constantly stay on top of how organized my projects are! When I finished writing my second book in the Fall, I transitioned right into Quilt Con prep and then in the February, attended Quilt Con. Before I knew it, Spring had arrived and I had a lot of chaos to deal with in my studio.

This week I decided I needed to tackle my space before starting on the next big project. Today finds me feeling much more organized and with room to breathe and work in my area!

I was also super excited to set up my brand new Daylight Company Slim Line LED Table Lamp. I have great afternoon lighting in my space, but morning and evening is a different story! I’ve been working with an Ott-Lite bulb in an ordinary desk lamp from Target. I have gone through 3 different Ott-Lites, each covered by warranties, and this bulb has been temporary solution until I found a lamp that I loved and that wouldn’t die on me when I needed it most!

Enter the Slim Line LED Table Lamp. I finished the Great Studio Clean-Up of 2018 yesterday and that was when my new lamp arrived. Hello perfect timing!

By last night, I was all set up and wanted to document just how awesome the light is and how i’ve probably been killing my eyes with my previous lamp!

Here’s the before (notice the Ott-Lite bulb sticks out further than the lamp shade?!):

And just look at the after with my new Daylight Company lamp!

I can clearly see every single thread color now!

A special thanks to Sariditty and Daylight Company for this lamp and if you want a coupon to save 20% off of your lamp purchase, use SARIDITTY18 at checkout!

Coloring with Thread Book Showcase

November 29, 2017 | wildboho

Photo courtesy of The Quilting Company

Late last year, I was excited to work on a stitching project based on a pattern by Tula Pink that was going to be included in her new embroidery book, Coloring with Thread: Stitching a Whimsical World with Hand Embroidery.

Check out that center Octopus hoop in the picture up there (maybe, just maybe, it was stitched by yours truly!)

If you love Tula Pink’s fabric, then, no doubt, you will be excited to get your hands on a book full of her embroidery patterns!

When I was asked to stitch up another pattern from her book as part of the Coloring with Thread blog tour, I couldn’t wait to try Boho-ing up one of her designs: the Double Bunny.

I feel like I need to add this disclaimer before going any further: for my sanity (and yours!), I highly recommend enlarging your chosen patterns before you try this method for yourself. Seriously. Tula Pink designs are gorgeously intricate but cutting so many teeny, tiny fabric pieces might just be enough to push the most patient of fussy cutters to the brink of frustration!

I began with enlarging the Double Bunny pattern.

Enlarging a pattern is incredibly easy if you have an office supply store nearby. Take your pattern in and ask them to make an engineering print in whatever size you need. I enlarged the Double Bunny pattern to 14″ and it fits perfectly in a 14″ hoop.

Once I had my copy of the pattern, I used the techniques outlined in my book, Boho Embroidery to transfer the pattern to a selection of my favorite Tula Pink fabrics.

Here’s what I ended up with once I ironed all of the fabric pieces in place.

Using Madeline Tosh Unicorn Tails yarns and the Stem Stitch, I outlined all of the pieces. You can see what a difference it makes when each piece has been outlined:

And then I just kept on embroidering! I added sequins and beads and finished it up just in the nick of time so that I could share it with all of you! Here’s how it looks all stitched up:

And how about some up close and personal detail shots, because it’s all about the details!

The sequins make these feel like Disco Bunnies, don’t they?!

And there you have it!

If you want to try your hand at an embroidery project like this, here are the specialty Threads and beads that I used:

This yarn is really fun to embroider with….I mean, check out those colors! You can find these “Unicorn Tails” at Mad Tosh.

If you’ve been following along for awhile now, you already know how much I love the Eleganza Perle Cotton from Sue Spargo and Wonderfil Specialty Threads! I used the size #8 and in some cases doubled it up so that my stitches stood out next to the Unicorn Tails. I could have just used a size #5 or #3, which are both thicker, except I was gifted this box of threads and the colors matched perfectly!

Another one of my favorite threads (especially to use when working with beads and sequins) is Sulky Petites. These threads are approximately the weight of 2-strands of a floss like DMC that gets separated, except you can use these right off the spool without separating strands.

And speaking of beads, my favorite seed bead source is Fusion Beads. (How about that neon pink?!) I used size 8 seed beads for this project.

And if all of this seems completely overwhelming and you just want to stitch a pattern, look how completely different this project can be if it is simply embroidered using the Tula Pink color guides and her pattern from the book!

photo courtesy of The Quilting Company and stitched by Elise Baek

Please be sure to check out all of the other amazing embroidery projects on this Book Showcase!

Here’s the full schedule:

Monday, November 27th — The Quilting Company

Tuesday, November 28th — Minki Kim, Minki’s Worktable

Wednesday, November 29th — Nichole Vogelsinger, Wildboho

Thursday, November 30th — Amanda Carestio, Sew Daily

Friday, December 1st — Nydia Kehnle, Nydia Kehnle Design

Monday, December 4th — Sharon Burgess, Lilabelle Lane Creations

Tuesday, December 5th — Cindy Guch, Raspberry Sunshine

Wednesday, December 6th — Sandi Sawa Hazlewood, Crafty Planner

Thursday, December 7th — Wynn Tann, zakkaArt

Friday, December 8th — Elise Baek, Elise & Emelie

Monday, December 11th — Ann Blalock, Coats & Clark Sewing Secrets

Tuesday, December 12th — Sara Lawson, Sew Sweetness * Watch the Facebook Live video at 7pm CST

Wednesday, December 13th — Nancy Jewell, Free Spirit Fabrics

Thursday, December 14th —Annette Allison Millard, The Sewful Life

Friday, December 15th — Brenna Riley Gates, The Quilting Company

Cricut Maker

November 24, 2017 | wildboho

Recently, I discovered the brand new Maker machine from Cricut and I can’t wait to tell you how easy it was to make this hoop with the machine!

If i’m being completely transparent, i’d have to say that I never even looked at Cricut machines for my own use, because my focus is on fabric crafting rather than paper crafting and I thought Cricut machines were just for paper. Well, not so with the Maker machine…yes it can cut paper but also fabric, vinyl and even thin wood!

I was sold!

So, I received and unboxed my machine, set it up and then sat down to learn how to use Cricut’s Design Space app for the iPad (which can also be used on your computer and that’s actually where I set up my first project).

Since this was going to be my very first project ever, I wanted to keep it simple in case I really messed it up!!

I chose images from the design library: a pair of scissors and a swirly ribbon. This video shows a snippet of what the cutting process looks like:

I have the fabric backed with Heat ‘n Bond and that is being held in place on the pink Cricut adhesive fabric mat.

Once the cuts were made, I had three separate pieces that I then assembled onto my background fabric.

And then my favorite part, of course, the embroidery!

The fabrics that I used are from Alison Glass.

The threads that I used are Eleganza from Sue Spargo. This is the size 8 thread, but I doubled it up for stitching this piece.

And finally, I am asked all the time about the beads that I use…these are size 8 Japanese seed beads from Fusion Beads.

I stitched it up and have the perfect hoop for my stitching studio space! (say that three times fast!)

I’m thrilled with how simple it was to use the Maker machine and how quickly I was able to put together all of the pieces for this project. I’m thinking that for my next project, I might use my own design for a hoop. So, stay tuned, i’ll be sure to share it with you here!

And in the meantime, you can check out how others have been using their machines on Cricut’s Instagram page!

The Maker machine and supplies have been provided to me by Cricut. The opinions, photos and videos above have been provided by me.

AGF Rayon Blog Tour

October 16, 2017 | wildboho

Welcome to week 2 of the Art Gallery Fabrics Rayon Blog Tour! Check out the hashtag #agfrayonbloghop for the beautiful projects made from these soft and buttery rayons!

Buttery?! Can that really describe a fabric?! It can! In fact, its the only way I can describe how absolutely soft and smooth these rayons are! If I were a maker of clothing instead of embroiderer of fabric, these would absolutely be a staple of my fabric stash!

Being thinner than a quilting cotton, which is what I’m used to using for embroidery, I wasn’t sure what I was in for when I began this project.

Note: It’s a really good idea when you’re not sure how your fabric will react to adhesives and the high heat of an iron, to test a swatch and make sure your fabric is not at risk of being ruined.

I’m excited to share what I made with my April Rhodes rayons, not having worked with rayons much before this. I loved the challenge of straying from the comfortable world of quilting cottons and venturing into the sleek world of rayons! And, you didn’t expect me to whip up a skirt or dress, right?! Okay, good, because I didn’t!

Fabric designs from April Rhodes make me feel like a world traveler. To me, they embody the spirit and colors and visuals of exploration and adventure. I wanted to capture that sense of adventure in my project, the Polaroid Photo hoop.

Combining the rayons with quilting weight cotton worked really, really well. If anything, stitching though layers of fabric (when one of those layers is a rayon!), went better than I had planned. Working delicate stitches on several layers of cotton can be tedious at times, but the thinner weight of the rayon worked great with the stitches and beads and sequins that I layered onto the fabric.

Here’s a closeup of each Polaroid picture:

I love how photos, and especially Polaroid photos, capture a moment in time. These “photos” of fabric have a vintage vibe that captures the essence of exploration.

Working with the patterns of the fabric, I embellished with like colors in my favorite Eleganza Threads and with one of the brand new seed bead palettes from Fusion Beads. I love using seed beads and jumped at the chance to try out a hand selected palette of bead colors! This one is Autumn Colors and went perfectly with my fabrics.

*Note: these are size 8 seed beads. If you are new to using beads in your embroidery, I would suggest starting with a size 8 or the slightly larger size 6 seed beads.

I hope you enjoyed my stop on the rayon blog tour! Be sure to check out the links below to see the beautiful variety of projects created with Art Gallery Fabrics Rayon!

MONDAY, OCTOBER 9 – CRISTY @LOVEYOUSEW_ | Blog here

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10– NICOLE @MODERNHANDCRAFT | Blog here

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11 – SARAH @SARIDITTY | Blog here

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12 – JESY @NEEDLE_INK_AND_THREAD | Blog here

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13 – DANYELLA @MADESEWMODERN | Guest Blog here

MONDAY, OCTOBER 16 – NICHOLE @WILDBOHO | Blog here

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17 – CYNTHIA @CNYTZ51 | Guest blog here

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18 – VICKI @ORCHIDOWLQUILTS | Blog here

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19 – AMANDA @PINKMANDARIN.HANDMADE | Guest Blog here

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20 – JENN @JENNROSSOTTI | Blog here

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: