Succulent stitching

It's a fun challenge to take isolated stitches and use them to create unusual filler stitch patterns. I did this in my popular Birds on a Wire and Cats on a Wall patterns, as well as a few others.

Although succulents are everywhere at the moment, embroidered or otherwise, they were a good choice for this design technique. And so the look and name of the pattern is in keeping with the birds and the cats.

I've used several different stitches to create the filler stitch patterns - including a few different knots - and some more for the pots, so there's plenty to keep you entertained while embroidering.

It's a fun, quick and easy pattern that can be stitched as is or split up into individual potted succulents. 

The digital PDF pattern is available on Etsy and Craftsy.

Monster Leaves, a new leaf for the new year

The design for this pattern came about last year and was modified to create Monster Leaves, a hand embroidery pattern to kick off 2017. 

My mom asked me to come up with two embroidered leaves for her to frame and hang above the bed in her spare room. Delicious monster leaves are nice and chunky, making them ideal to fill with stitches, and we matched the thread colours to the decor. 

The design stuck with me and I decided to adapt it - making the leaves smaller to create a single design and reducing the number of colours to a few bold, juicy greens - to create a pattern.

The leaves are filled with a number of different stitches, making this a good pattern for either learning new stitches or practising ones you may already know. A new one for me was petal stitch, which I suspect may be cropping up again sometime as I thoroughly enjoyed doing it.

The pattern is available on Etsy and Craftsy. 

4 ways to gift a PDF pattern + printable embroidered gift tags

Patterns are ideal gifts for embroiderers, but PDFs aren’t the most obviously giftable items. They can be, though.

Here are four ways to wrap printed PDF patterns to make a thoughtful gift for embroidery friends and family members a good-looking one, too. You'll have to forward this post to potential gift givers if you're the embroiderer, or just enjoy making the embroidered gift tags.

1.    Get creative with a simple white envelope

Print your PDF pattern purchase and seal it in a white envelope. Then get creative with cord, braid, string, lace, washi tape… whatever you have to hand. I dug into my haberdashery box, but anything that can be tied around the envelope, stuck to it or used to draw on it can be used as decoration. Add a tag to the string before you knot it or stick one to the front of the envelope.

2.    Roll up a pattern as a stocking filler

Cut a strip of paper – plain, patterned or to match your wrapping paper. Print your PDF pattern and roll it up fairly tightly so you have a long, thin tube that'll slide easily into a Christmas stocking. Wrap the strip of paper around the rolled up pattern and secure it with a piece of cellotape to help the tube keep its shape. Cut a rectangle of wrapping paper and wrap it around the rolled up pattern; push the excess at either end inside the pattern tube and tie a piece of cord, thread, braid or whatever you’ve chosen around the tube to hold it closed. Thread a tag on to the string before you knot it. 

3.    Add threads and wrap as a Christmas cracker

Roll your printed PDF pattern up and use a strip of paper and a piece of cellotape to hold it in place; it should be about the same circumference as a Christmas cracker. Place skeins of embroidery thread (check the pattern for which colours are required) inside the rolled up pattern. Cut a rectangle of wrapping paper and roll the pattern up inside it. Then scrunch the ends closed and tie with braid so the gift resembles a cracker. Either thread a tag on to the braid at one end before tying it or attach one to the centre of the "cracker". 

4.    Create a kit with fabric, threads, needles and a hoop

Look for a flat box – preferably one big enough that you only have to fold the pattern once, if at all. Place the printed PDF pattern in the bottom of the box and add a piece of fabric, skeins of thread, needles and an embroidery hoop. Check the pattern requirements for the type and size of fabric, thread colours and needle requirements. A four or five-inch embroidery hoop is a good option. The nice thing about making a kit out of a PDF pattern is that the recipient can start on the project right away. 

The gift tags are available to download as a printable in four different colourways – green, red, yellow and B&W – with the option to add the embroidery or leave the tags plain. The download includes instructions for the embroidery.

Cyber Monday sale: 25% off everything in my Etsy shop

Cyber Monday is around the corner and I’ll be running my 25% off sale again this year. That’s 25% off everything in my Etsy shop.

The sale starts on the evening of Sunday 27 November and ends on the morning of Tuesday 29 November (South Africa time, GMT+2). This’ll give everyone a chance to shop on Monday, irrespective of time zone.

Add all the embroidery patterns you want to your cart and then use the coupon code KFNDCYBERMONDAY2016 when you checkout to redeem your discount. 

That’s it. Happy shopping!

Christmas greetings: Festive Noel and Ho Ho Ho embroidery patterns

My workspace over the past year or so has been filled with scribbled letters, sketched alphabets and pencilled stitch ideas. These slowly but surely morphed into embroidered hand lettering and typography, monograms and alphabets, which in turn became patterns for my online shops.

So it didn’t surprise me when I was drawn to an idea from a few years back that involved festive words filled with cheer for this year’s Christmas patterns. 

There are two patterns: Noel and Ho Ho Ho. 

Noel is slightly more traditional with its red, green, silver-grey and white embroidery. But I’ve used fresh, crisp shades of these Christmassy colours to keep the look contemporary. The stitches making up the details inside each letter are interesting, if slightly more involved, but the design doesn’t take all that long to embroider, with just four filled letters.

Ho Ho Ho was designed with beginner embroiderers in mind, but it’s also a good pattern for those looking for a quick project to finish in a day. There are fewer stitches, although enough of a variety to keep the embroidery interesting to do. And I’ve gone with less conventional thread colours for a different spin on Christmas.

Noel would look good framed on a mantelpiece alongside carved wooden reindeer or pinecones and I can picture Ho Ho Ho embroidered on a Christmas stocking. The patterns are available on Etsy and Craftsy.