Baby presents from Sublime Stitching Patterns

 A close friend recently had her first baby I wanted to include something stitched in with the gift I sent her. I used patterns from sublime stitching (Black Apple and Kurt Halsey). They are embroidered on muslin cloths which was slightly tricky as they are a fairly loose weave so I had to be careful with the thread tension- also they are quite see through so these embroideries had super neat backs- a first for me!!
I'm glad I chose muslin cloths though- I used muslins loads with both of my babies and I think I'd have liked some cheerful ones. If you zoom in you'll see I used quite a lot of split stitch and tiny chain stitch as these seemed to work best on this fabric. I used the cloths to wrap the baby clothes I bought and tied it up with some ribbon- it looked very sweet. Another nice idea might be to dye some muslins or add applique, I think most new mums would appreciate some pretty muslins to cheer them up when they are mopping up dribble and milk!

And I just want to share this, the other day my robot-obsessed son (nearly 4-eeek!) was quietly crafting in the dining room so I went to see what he was up to and was greeted by this;

:D

Fox embroidery

This little guy is stitched using a pattern by Erin Paisley for Sublime Stitching. You can buy the pattern here : http://www.sublimestitching.com/collections/patterns-all-mix/products/erin-paisley-embroidery-patterns

It is one of a set of four and the plan is to stitch them all and then make a patchwork wallhanging using them. I love these patterns- they are cute but not typically cute. I think this fox looks quite sneaky!
I was bold with the colours - the pinky orange was a risk and I wasn't sure as i was stitching but now it's done I like these colours together. Using a pattern was great as I instantly have four designs that go together and I still get to have fun deciding how to stitch them. Much as I love coming up with new ideas for things to embroider it is so nice sometimes just to grab a pattern and get stitching without having to plan beforehand!

Do you use embroidery patterns or design your own or both?
 Has anyone else stitched the Erin Paisley designs? If you have leave me a link in the comments!!

yes sir, I love to fill stitch

A little baby vest embroidered with the Lucha Libre wrestler from the Sublime Stitching craft pad. There was much deliberation over whether the nose piece should be orange or green, in the end I agreed with my fella and I think that maybe, just this once, he was right ;)

Oh and there absolutely has to be an action shot, right?

Regaining my stitching mojo

Well things have been a little quiet around here (by which I mean here on my blog, my homelife has been anything but quiet as you can imagine)

Since having Jake it has taken me a while to get back into the swing of things craft-wise. For a few months he seemed to be in my arms 24/7 (when you are breastfeeding you never seem to put your baby down!) so there really was no time for crafting. Then things started to calm down a bit and I found I had my evenings back.

So where have I been?

.... well there was the small issue of motivation; I just didn't have any, after a day of looking after Jake I was tending to flake out in front of the telly with a large glass of wine . Until one day I was on Facebook (probably whilst breastfeeding, again) and I clicked into a link Mr X-stitch had posted to his blog, I spent a bit of time there and then revisited all my usual haunts in the crafty blogosphere. I realised how much I missed it and that, cheesy as this sounds, it was time to be 'me' as well as 'mum'.

So I picked up a UFO that had been languishing in the bottom of my craft box for ages- this Mitch O'Connell pattern from Sublime Stitching (I'd stitched the outline a long time ago and then lost interest). It might not be the best thing I've ever done but boy, does it feel nice to be stitching again! Crafty mates- I have missed you- it's good to be back :)