Archive for the ‘Make It Yours’ Category
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
The arrows point to Becca's clever bookmark personalization.
What’s better than a hand-embroidered bookmark made especially for you? A hand-embroidered bookmark
with your name on it!
Becca, from New Mexico, personalizes a Reads-a-Story Ambigram bookmark by stitching the recipient’s name on the spine of a book above the word “Reads.” Then, turning the bookmark upside down, she stitches the word “a” on a book spine above “Story.” The end result is “Sam Reads (turn the bookmark over) a Story.”
Lucky Sam! I’ll bet she reads loads of stories with this bookmark. (Yes, Sam’s a “she.”)
Is this great, or what? I can’t wait to do the same!
Monday, March 7th, 2011
Joyce's Alaska memories.
Check out the story behind
Joyce’s stitchery. She purchased three of the
Portraits of the Wild Life kits–moose, grizzly, caribou–from
The Status Thimble in Burlingame, CA.
My husband and I visited Alaska last summer and I wanted some memories of the wildlife we saw.
I changed the background color of the caribou (was fuschia background in the kit) to match the moose background. I had to really hunt to find a color green that coordinated with both the bright green in the grizzly piece and the much deeper and darker green in the caribou and moose pieces.
I think the green works perfectly! I know how hard it can be to find just the right one. This is a wonderful piece of membroidery. I hope it inspires memories of Alaska for years to come.
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
Linda, from Jefferson, SC, “reverse stitches” the Night Howl Stitchling.
No, “reverse stitching” doesn’t mean “frogging” or ripping out in this case. It means that rather than stitching with white floss on black fabric, Linda stitches with black floss on white fabric.
Is this great, or what? If you don’t like working on dark fabric, give this a shot!
Another alternative would be to stitch the squares without symbols with the black fiber rather than the squares with symbols. Has anyone done it this way?
Edited to include Shelly’s excellent suggestion. Here are the two side-by-side:
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
Pamela from Dayton, OH, used letters from The Great Outdoors pattern to spell her sister’s last name. She had to adjust border elements, including the saw that cuts the log O, to fit around the name.
Yee-ha, Pamela! Thanks heaps for sharing; we love seeing how you stitchers adapt a pattern to Make It Yours—or your sister’s.
I like the fabric used to finish the wall hanging. Excellent choice.
Now who’s going to stitch one that says “Funk & Weber”?
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011
Dawn from AR stitched our Colorful Critters Tree Frog pattern for her son, Mac. She hand-dyed her own needlework fabric (how cool is that?), and Mac chose the finishing fabric for the box (cooler still!).
Boxes are a great way to get your needlework off the wall and into your life. I wonder what Mac will keep in his box?
What have you done to a pattern to Make It Yours?
Jan teaches Riley to stitch a bookmark during a Stitching for Literacy outreach program at an Anchorage Public Library.
