RJR Fabrics

Boho Stitch Along. Week no. 23

| wildboho

Welcome back for Week no. 23! 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 picked up my Urban Artifacts hoop again this week after not stitching it for awhile. It’s like coming back to a comfortable old friend! I haven’t shown a full view of this hoop since I started stitching it back in January, so here is where I am so far:
I worked a little bit of couching this week and added some beads to coordinate with the variegated thread that I used.

This thread is beautiful. It is called “Fly a Kite” and is a mix of buttercup, spearmint, ice and bluejay blue colors and is from a Limited Edition color pack (which, P.S. it looks like is still available!) from Sue Spargo. I typically do not use much size 3, the largest perle cotton size, but I don’t know….i’m really liking the thickness of this size to stitch with.

As far as other stitchy happenings this week, if you checked out my Instagram stories, you’ll remember I was stitching up a Liberty pincushion from a kit that I bought from Nicole at Modern Handcraft. Have you seen her Hexie pincushions yet?! If not, check them out! I love, love everything that she makes!

I bought this kit ages ago and am so proud of myself for finally finishing this thing! And, bonus, it is just adorable in my workspace!

And lastly, I was really excited to attend Book Expo America, the largest book fair in North America, this week. I was there for a Boho Embroidery book signing. It was great to meet so many librarians who will be using my embroidery book as part of their summer program series and giveaways at their libraries.

My color/texture loving self could not get enough of this display! Made from recycled paper, each round of paper was hand lettered and illustrated by both artists and visitors to the booth. It was truly stunning and this picture only captures a small section of the display!

Between fan-girling at Book Expo (I saw Mo Willems from a distance!) and my book signing, I had a small window of time to run over to Purl Soho and geek out over the displays of Liberty fabrics and wall of yarns.

And spotted some wool Ellana in action too!

What a whirlwind day in the city!

Hope your week went well and don’t forget to check out the beautiful hoops being stitched up in the #Bohosal pool!

 

Boho Stitch Along. Week no. 13

| 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

| 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!!!

Once I cut out the flowers that I needed and attached them to the fabric, I could begin adding even more texture and color with my embroidery.

And here’s the finished hoop…I just love how this turned out!!!

I’ll leave you with all that color inspiration for today!

Have a great week of stitching!

-nichole

Boho Stitch Along. Week no. 1

| wildboho

I don’t know about you, but I’m incredibly excited to dive in to a project that does not have deadlines, rules or requirements! The Boho Stitch Along (or #BohoSAL on social media) is just that sort of project. In my previous Stitch Along post, you’ll see the Cotton + Steel hoop that I was stitching in 2016. This was my in-between-projects-in between-deadlines-car-stitching-day-tripping-mind-relaxing embroidery piece.

As 2016 drew to a close, I thought it would be fun to begin a new piece and add stitches to it every week. And I thought it would be even more fun to invite others to stitch along with me. This is the perfect project for a beginning embroiderer who is just learning to stitch or an experienced embroiderer who is looking to add new stitches to an existing stitch repertoire.

Now on to my fabric reveal!

I will be working on two hoops. My first hoop will be a large, 12″ sized project using a print from Leslie Tucker Jenison’s upcoming line, “Urban Artifacts” for RJR Fabrics. When I first saw this fabric line at Quilt Market in October, I was just blown away. Hearing Leslie talk about how she created each design in the fabric made me love it even more. Her creativity is inspiring. And any fabric that uses bees in the selvage is a winner in my book!


My second hoop is much smaller (for portability, because car stitching!) I chose a Cotton + Steel print by Melody Miller because my 2016 C+S hoop could use some company!

My thread choices will be mostly Sue Spargo Eleganza Perle Cotton in sizes 8, 5 and 3. And check out my newest favorite stitching accessories in the above picture: Alison Glass Needleminders and Tula Pink Micro Tip Snips.

I’m excited to start stitching and I can’t wait to check out all of your fabric choices!

As the Boho Stitch Along goes along, I will be posting more of my favorite stitching accessories, tips, stitching videos and other how-tos.

Share your pictures with the #BohoSAL and enjoy this collaborative and creative environment!

Scandinavian Inspired Hoop

| wildboho


Several weeks ago, I was asked by RJR Fabrics if I would like to participate in the #whatshaderu blog hop for their Cotton Supreme Solids. I was excited but also realized this would be a challenge as I normally choose to work with patterned fabric over solids. A huge fan of Cotton and Steel, which is a division of RJR Fabrics (as you see noted on every keep-worthy bit of selvage!), I decided to choose 12 colors that would stand out on an assortment of grey Cotton and Steel Basics. I also knew that my design would be Scandinavian-inspired, just because. I drew up a pattern for a straight row of brightly colored houses, a funky floral design and, as pictured below, a geometric heart made of 54 diamond and half-diamond pieces. Time consuming? Absolutely! But well worth the effort to have solids like red, coral, pink and purple playing nicely together!

Check out RJR Fabrics Quilt with love blog for my entry and read on to see what others have done with Cotton Supreme Solids!

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