Crafty Friends

 

Take it to the moon, Rachel! Sublime Stitching good buddy, Rachel Hobson, aka Average Jane Crafter recently won the NASA/Etsy craft contest in the 2D original category for her embroidered moon! Rachel's passionate interest in space exploration has become more and more apparent in recent years, so I'm sure she's thrilled to bits that her piece might travel with the shuttle on one of its final flights. She has a wonderfully extensive blog post outlining the stitches she used in the piece. Congratulations, Rachel!

I looove these pillows Amy Bindel has been making with my Cute Little Heads patterns! She's enlarged them, stitched them, and sewn them into sweet cushions. They're also for sale in her etsy shop!

Amy Bindel of Early Bird Special did a great job with my hedgehog from Forest Friends, blew it up (you know what I mean) and made this cuddly uddly snuggly snugglerzth! She's a bona-fide Sublime Stitching licensee, and has lots of other super-extra cute embroidered-to-order goods in her shop!

Link

(Interested in becoming a licensee yourself?)

Oooh! I lovelovelove this. This stitched cardigan has something to do with those clever gals over at Red Velvet Art and their plans for something called Style School that sounds like something ♫pret-ty ♪ greEaAAT♪!

Since my digital camera has about five billion photos on it that I still need to download, I'm just going to resort to using my laptop's built-in to show you a couple of gifts I got this season...and from the designer herself, no less. While I was at Bazaar Bizarre in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago, I got to meet Rita Chu of Mochi Studios who gave me these handmade gifts! The gnome has a wonderfully embroidered hat and the mushroom (well, it deserves a better photo). Look closer... 

The mushroom (I think it would make a perfect pincushion) is actually a champagne cork with a crocheted underside, hand-stitched face and the tiniest, most wee little pom-pom fringe all around. Gush! You can adopt a Mochi shroom of your very own on her website: www.MochiStudios.com Thanks, Rita!

Will wonders never cease? While I was in Minneapolis last month at Crafty Planet, I was excited not only to get to see my friends Trish and Rebecca, but also to see their spiffy new book, One Yard Wonders! It's soooo pretty, and inspiring an' easy an' the perfect solution for that shameful pile of pretty fabrics I have that are too small to make a skirt from but too big to discard. Yes, I have a pile of gorgeous, languishing fabric like that (and I don't even know how to sew) and I know you doOoO tooOoOOo!

I've been stockpiling yummy looking Thanksgiving recipes and crafty turkey-day cuteness, and I thought I'd share my finds. The countdown to pumpkin pie (with cinnamon whipped cream) has begun!

Crafty Stuff:

Turkey redwork from The Little Red Hen

Badbird's Turkey embroidery pattern

Homemade pumpkin pie play-dough

KnitaLatte's Crochet Acorn Tutorial  

Turkey Boy Amigurumi Pattern

Abraham Lincoln Embroideries from Lasassone and IamSusie and Stitchin.Thyme

Wild Olive's Recipe Cards, Autumn Coasters, and Tired Turkey Embroidery

My Paper Crane's Turkey Hand Cookies (Brilliant!)

Upcycled Napkin Ring How-2

Grocery Shopping List Print-out

Yummy Stuff:

Buying a Turkey: Tips 

Mashed Potatoes with Brown Butter, Goat Cheese, and Sage

Cranberry-Apricot Chutney

Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Carrot Flowers (Cute!)

Pull-Apart Rolls

Carmel Pumpkin Cheesecake 

Individual Pie Pops

Jennifer Perkin's Pumpkin Ice Cream

Jenny's take on giblet gravy. 

Vegan Thanksgiving recipies. (via Counter Culture) 

Other Fun Stuff:

Vintage Cookbook Illustrations

Vintage "Kitchens of the Future"

Scratch and Sniff Holiday Cards (love these)

In case you were wondering if there was a supercute (that's one word, isn't it?) diy-type store in Paris, I can tell you: OUI. It's true, there are not as many indie shops that stock crafty and handmade goods as there are in the good ol' USofA, but they're starting to get the big idea over here. By far, my favorite is Pop Market run by warm and friendly (who said Parisians were icy?) Céline and Marion. They just might offer you un café to sip on, served from a bubble-gum pink plastic tray, while you peruse their excellent selection of handmade goods, housewares and craft kits. Chee...do these craft kits look familar to you?

I nearly fainted from excitement seeing my very own patterns and kits displayed in their store! Knowing they came directly from our tiny office to this very cool store in Paris made this small-town midwestern gal swell up with pride and disbelief. I am discussing doing a workshop at their boutique next time I'm in Paris (which I hope will be as soon as possible)! I do need to brush up on my French for "don't poke yourself with the needle". And Marion did a wonderful thing and translated all my instructions into French so there is no need for people to scratch their heads. We are all doing our best for international indie-diy-handmade relations!

If you are lucky enough to be in Paris, do yourself a grand favor and check out their shop:

Pop Market
50, rue Bichat
Paris 75010
Metro: Jacques Bonsergent or Château Landon

Our wonderful friend down-under, Pip, of Meet Me At Mike's tweeted me to say she'd stitched up one of Maurice Sendak's illustrations from Where the Wild Things Are. She even posted a step-by-step how to. Good on ya, Pip!

ETA: Jinx! Feeling Stitchy friends posted this too!

Link