I've Been Bad

So, I've been a very bad blogger, and I'm sorry. I haven't posted in two months and it makes me sad. It all started because I wasn't feeling well and wasn't really getting anything done that would be worthy of writing about. As you probably know, when you don't feel well, it's hard to get the motivation to do things.

I'm working on a lot of projects and will have a lot to write about, but things might get a little crazy in March . . . because I'm pregnant! We're expecting a little girl this time, and I am so excited!

I've been feeling better (although I still get really tired on most days), and I have been getting a lot more crafting done.

I have only really progressed on one of the projects I last updated you on, my Woodland Sampler:

Woodland Sampler

Since my last update, I stitched up my September and October frames. I am currently working on the November frame and hope to finish it this week.

Wild Olive's Summer Stitching Club

My top is finished (expect for trimming it), but I still don't know exactly how I want to finish it. I have so many projects going right now, that I'm not going to worry about it until next year.

Wild Olive's Autumn Stitching Club

It's still going on right now (I think this is the last month), but I haven't started working on it. I know that once I get started, I'll probably fly through stitching up the designs. At least, that's what happened with the Summer Stitching Club. I may end up waiting to start this until I finish up all the handmade Christmas gifts I have planned.

ABC Quilt

This project has been on hold for too long. Maybe I can get in gear and finish it in time to give it to my son for Christmas. The timing would be good because we recently switched him to a toddler bed, and he doesn't have a nice blanket for it yet. It might be too much work to finish in a month, but I'm going try.

NEW PROJECTS IN THE WORKS

Eloise Baby Sweater

My first handmade item for the new baby is the Eloise Baby Sweater from MooglyBlog. It's adorable, and I am almost finished. I need to finish 1 1/2 sleeves and the neckline. Then, I get to weave in a million ends. That part won't be fun, but I'll be excited to have it all done and waiting for my little girl. Here is my last progress picture:

Countdown to Christmas Advent Calendar

BetterOffThread is running a Quilt-Along for this advent calendar designed by Elizabeth from Oh, Fransson! for SewMamaSew. The Quilt-Along started at the beginning of September, but I didn't hear about it until today! They are working on their binding this week, and I am just getting started.

Their final link up, which enters you to win some nice prizes, is on Monday, November 25th. I'm hoping I can get mine done in time to join in the link party.

So far, I have chosen my fabrics. I had a ton of fabric set aside for Christmas projects that will match/complement the family Christmas stockings I made two years ago, so that will make things a lot easier - no running to the fabric store before I can get started! I may have to trek to JoAnn's to get some white fabric for the sashing, but I'm hoping I can scrounge up enough from my stash to make it work.

Here are the fabrics I'll be working with:

Heartmade Holidays Ornament Swap

I'm participating in a handmade ornament swap hosted by Ashley from Heartmade Life. I have two ornaments to make and send to my swap partner by this coming Monday, November 18th. I think I finally know what I am going to make. Now, I just need to get them done!

My Sister's Birthday Present!

My sister's birthday is this Friday, and I have had a handmade gift idea for her for a LONG time. I have had everything I need to make it for a LONG time. I need to get it DONE! I'll be visiting her for her birthday, and I want to have it in hand, ready for her to open, when I get there. She might be reading this, so I'll post about her gift next week. :)

Work In Progress Updates

It's been awhile since I posted updates about the projects I'm working on. I have three long term projects going, all at once, but I forget to post blog updates because the changes happen so slowly (although, I have been posting progress pics on Instagram). Since it has been a while, there has been A LOT of change!

Summer Stitching Club

The Wild Olive Summer Stitching Club is coming to an end, but many participants are still working on the project - me included! I had a few weeks where I didn't work on this project because I was also trying to get caught up on another stitch-along, the Woodland Sampler. Once I got started on it again, I plowed right through the rest of the embroidery designs. I finished making hexies and piecing the top yesterday.

Now I just need to decide how I want to finish it. I changed the orientation of my hexies because I was thinking I might make it into a pillow cover instead of a mini quilt or wall hanging. But, now that I've gotten the top done, I might end up just finishing it as the original idea after all. I also need to decide if I am going to hand quilt or machine quilt it together.

 

Woodland Sampler

It took a lot of time, but I managed to get caught up on my Woodland Sampler. Each month's pattern comes out on the first of the month. I didn't sign up or start stitching until June, so I had a lot to do. It took me until August 7th, but all that stitching paid off. I think it looks great! I can't wait for the September pattern email!

My scroll frame isn't quite big enough to show you the whole thing, so the top of the January and February frames can't be seen, but this is what it looks like so far.

ABC Quilt

Sadly, this project has been on hold for a while. I originally wanted to have it completed in time for my son's 2nd birthday (May 23rd), but that didn't happen. I don't know why I thought I could pull it off in just slightly over a month, especially with my crazy over-planning tendencies.

I was on quite a roll with the project (even though it was late), but I got stuck on some of the embroider designs I was trying to draw up. I really wasn't expecting to have such a tough time drawing an octopus! Then, I started working on the two stitch-alongs I wrote about above, and I got wrapped up in them. There is something really special and fun about working on the same project at the same time as a ton of other people, but I would like to finish this quilt for my little guy in the near future!

 

New Projects Coming Up:

Autumn Stitching Club

I had so much fun with Wild Olive's Summer Stitching Club, that I signed up for the Autumn on too! The new Autumn Stitching Club stitch-along starts on Monday (Sept 2nd), and it only costs $5 for the whole thing right now. You should join in!

Pin Cushion Ring

I'll share this project when it's done. Hopefully it'll be up in the next few days because I really need one now.

Summer Stitching Club with Mollie Johanson | Wild Olive

Last month, I wrote about a stitch-a-long that I was really excited about. The Wild Olive Summer Stitching Club with Mollie Johanson started at the beginning of June, and now I'm hooked on mini-embroideries and hexies!

Fabric & Floss for Summer Stitching Club

When I last posted about the SSC, I had picked out my fabrics and embroidery floss but hadn't gotten started yet. While at the fabric store, I found myself stuck trying to figure out what fabrics I wanted to use. I saw the same blue that Mollie is using, and tried to resist getting it, but it was so cute, I had to copy her! After I had the blue selected, it was easy to pick the rest. This picture shows a yellow fabric with white circles, which is similar to another fabric that Mollie is using, but I don't think I'll be using that one after all.






When the second week of the SSC began, I still hadn't started cutting fabric or stitching the designs. I was really worried that I would be behind the entire summer, but once I got started, there was no stopping. I was a stitching machine! I even have most of my non-embroidered hexies made, waiting to be stitched together.

2013 Summer Stitching Club - Week 1-3

At the end of the summer, all the hexies can be stitched up together to make a mini-quilt or placemat or whatever else you can imagine. I think I might make mine into a pillow, so I changed the orientation of the hexies. I have a tendency to change my mind, a lot, so who know what it will actually become in the end. I'm excited to find out!

I'm loving making hexies!

I've spent way too much time checking out everyone's projects on Instagram and in the Wild Olive Flickr group, but it's a lot of fun to be creating something right along with people from all over. It's also neat to see how people tweak the project and make it their own. The summer just got started; it's not too late to join us!

Coming Soon: Monthly Newsletter & Stitching Videos

Monthly Newsletter

Yay! I'm really excited about this.

I've been thinking about setting up a monthly newsletter for a while now, and decided to finally take the plunge! I blog about my everyday "acts of craftiness" - my personal crafting, recipes I love, fun things I make for my toddler, things that inspire me, etc. - and not much about my cross stitch and embroidery.

I'm planning to include behind-the-scenes insight into my pattern development, new patterns and kits that have been added to the shop, awesome stitching resources and tutorials I've found or made, special sales and giveaway info, and free patterns. I have patterns I design that don't make it into the shop for whatever reason, and I wanted a way to share them as free patterns. I know I could just add them to a tab on the blog, but I thought it would be nice to share them with the people that support me most first.

I set up the subscription box up on my blog yesterday, and have already gotten some subscribers! Thanks so much to everyone that's already signed up.

Stitching Videos / Tutorials

As a teacher, I know that not everyone learns in the same way. I tend to be a visual and kinesthetic learner, so I need to see how to do something or do it myself before I really know how to do it. All of my cross stitch patterns and kits come with basic cross stitch instructions with diagrams, but sometimes seeing things in action is better. No one I knew growing up did embroidery or cross stitch, so I taught myself. I'd love to help out others, so I'm working on putting together some stitching how-to videos. I'll make sure to let you know when new videos are available so you can check them out.

What do you like to read about in newsletters? What stitching tutorials would you like to see?

Playing Catch Up

How has it been a week since my last post? Time seems to be flying by, but at least I'm having fun.

Here are some projects I've been working on:

My "Garden"

My son and I planted some Black Cherry tomatoes and basil in containers on our front deck, and they have been doing really well. Little Man and I go out every morning and water everything. He has his own elephant watering can, and loves it. I think I have an "awww moment" pretty much every morning when he uses it.

Yesterday I made some bamboo tomato cages for the plants. This video gave me the idea to use bamboo poles, but I changed the design a bit. I need to fix the spacing of the horizontal bars and add one more row at the top, but I think I did a decent job in just an hour and with the "help" of a two-year-old.

Gardening with Little Man

Wild Olive's Summer Stitching Club

Wild Olive's Summer Stitching Club started on Monday, and I'm already behind! I've had the welcome info for a few weeks, which included the fabric requirements, floss colors needed, and the hexie templates. I originally planned to have my fabric cut, and maybe a few hexies made, before the first pattern arrived in my inbox. Wishful thinking I guess. So far, I've purchased my fabric and floss and printed out the first pattern.

The fabric and floss colors make me happy. I can't wait to get started!

Fabric & floss for Wild Olive's Summer Stitching Club

ABC Quilt

I just finished stitching block #14 of my son's ABC Quilt this morning. I'm almost halfway done with the embroidery part of the project; only 16 more blocks to go!

I've been posting photos of the blocks on Instagram and Flickr as I finish them. Check them out and let me know what you think!

N is for Night ABC Quilt block

Me

I started working out again at the end of January, and as of this morning, I'm down 20 pounds! Finding the time to work out each day when I have a very energetic toddler and there are SO MANY other things I'd rather be doing is a challenge. I haven't been perfect about working out every time I am supposed to and I've let myself indulge on bad food a few times, but I'm glad I've stuck with it.

What have you been up to?

ABC Quilt Progress - Still Stitching & A Realization

When I first started stitching, it was going by pretty quickly. I really thought that I might be able to finish Little Man's ABC Quilt before his birthday party on Saturday. Then, I hit a few snags. First, I had a few ABC blocks that seemed to just take forever to get stitched up. Second, Little Man decided that he needed hugs and cuddles all day long, every day. I tried, but I found that it's impossible to do any stitching while cuddling with him. Third, my shop had a nice influx of orders, and most were customized patterns and kits which take a while to put together. I love cuddling with my son, and having a busy shop is a good thing, so I didn't mind the lack of stitching.

I realized this morning that I haven't been able to do any stitching in two days. Today is Little Man's birthday, and my husband and I spent all day completely focused on him. So, no stitching again. I knew before today that there was no way I'd be able to finish this quilt by Little Man's birthday party, and that's probably why I avoided blogging for a week, but I'm finally okay with it. I'd rather take the extra time now to do a good job and make it awesome. Hopefully not having a deadline for finishing the quilt doesn't lead me to procrastinate.

I've finished 8 of the 30 embroidered blocks so far, and I'm going to try to get a few more done each day. Here are a few of the ones I've finished:

A, B, C, and D blocks for ABC Quilt

I'll be sharing more ABC Quilt progress photos as I go. You can check them out here:

Flickr

Instagram

ABC Quilt Progress - Gettin' to Stitchin'

I'm finally stitching! It has taken far too long to get to this point in my ABC Quilt progress.

ABC Block Stack

I cut out all 30 of the squares I need for the ABC blocks, and the stack made me so happy! I cut them to 7"x7"so I have a little wiggle room. After they are all stitched up, I'll cut down the ABC blocks to 4.5"x4.5".

I transferred a few of my designs to the blocks using my mini light box/table thingy I had in the craft closet from when I hand-embossed all of our wedding thank you cards (it took forever!). The set up was not ideal; the very small size and slanted nature of the table made the whole process a little difficult. It takes a long time and hurts my hand after a while, so I'll probably transfer a few designs at a time and then stitch them up. I might also try to make my own flat light table or use the window the next time I transfer designs.

I tried out a technique that Kristyne Czepuryk discussed on her blog and in her book, S is for Stitch. You transfer the design onto your fabric using small dots to show where the stitching lines are. She uses fine point permanent markers in the same color she will be stitching in, but I did it with a fine point water-soluble marking pen. It's a little hard to see the light blue on my tan fabric, so I might need to switch to a permanent pen or a purple Mark-B-Gone. I couldn't get a good picture of the dot method, but I here is one of the designs I transferred used solid lines.

D is for Dinosaur

I haven't planned out all the floss colors I will use for each design, but I did go through my stash and pulled colors that I thought would look nice with the fabrics I chose and the designs I've drawn. Here's a peek at the palette.

I only have 8 1/2 days left! It's going to be a very busy week trying to get this quilt done in time for Little Mister's birthday party.

ABC Quilt Progress - Prepping My Fabric

In my last post, I told you to yell at me if I didn't discuss actually stitching something in my next ABC Quilt progress update. I'm not going to write about stitching in this post, but don't yell at me just yet.

As excited as I am to start stitching, I needed to make sure my fabric was prepared before I could whip out the needles and embroidery floss. I know that whether or not you wash your fabric before sewing or quilting with it is a contentious subject - some always pre-wash their fabric while others never do - but ultimately it comes down to personal preference.

I'm not a quilting maven, so I was hoping I could get away with not pre-washing my fabric. Accurate cutting and sewing will be easier with crisp fabric. Common worries are fabric shrinkage and color-bleeding. I don't think I'll mind if the fabric shrinks a little after the quilt is all put together; it'll give it a lived-in look. I've read that most quilting cotton fabrics won't bleed, but to be on the safe side, I decided to check my fabrics to see if they are colorfast. I'd hate to spend hours cutting, embroidering, sewing, and quilting just to have the finished quilt get ruined when I wash it.

To check my fabrics for colorfastness, I cut a small piece from each fabric, soaked the fabric pieces in very hot water, rubbed the fabric pieces to get rid of the fabric processing chemicals, and then laid the pieces out to dry on a paper towel. When I checked to see if any color transferred from the fabric to the paper towel, I was happy to see there was none. So, I'm planning to get started on my quilt without pre-washing my fabric. Since I am still a bit of a worry-wart, I bought some Shout Color Catchers to use in the quilt's first wash - just in case.

Checking fabric for colorfastness

Next up, I'll be cutting my ABC block squares, transferring my embroidery designs to the blocks, and will start stitching! I only have 11 days left.

ABC Quilt Progress - Choosing My Fabrics

So, the last time I wrote about my ABC Quilt progress, I set a few goals for myself. By the weekend, I wanted to:

1. Have my alphabet designs all sketched out
2. Have my quilt layout finalized
3. Have my fabric purchased

Well, my weekend deadline came and went, and I succeeded in one of the three. It's sad, but that's not bad for me, Ms. Procrastinator. But, as usual, I have excuses for not completing them! One good excuse was an influx of orders in the shop for custom patterns and stitched items. The other excuses are discussed below.  :)

#1: All Alphabet Designs Sketched Out - In Progress
I was on track for finishing all my alphabet designs by the end of the week, but as I was sketching out Letter L, I realized that I hadn't left enough blank space around the edges of my block. After measuring and re-measuring, I confirmed that if I kept the current margins, my quilting stitches would go over my embroidery, which isn't what I want.

I spent a lot of Friday tweaking my block layout, trying to make all the text look even and leave space for the quilting stitches. After getting it all worked out, I decided that I needed to reprint all of my blocks and check to make sure the sketches I've already done will fit inside the new blocks. I plan to do this today. Originally, I wanted to have everything drawn out before I started stitching, but I realized that it's not really necessary. I can sketch the new designs as I go. Whew! It's nice to give myself a break sometimes.

#2: Quilt Layout Finalized - In Progress
I started out by sketching in a notebook and eventually graduated to the computer. I made a couple of mock ups for quilt layouts. Although I thought I knew what I wanted before started to put my layout together, I couldn't decide what I want to do with the border portion of the quilt. I was really stressing about having a "finalized" layout so I could calculate how much of each fabric I would need, but I decided to give myself another break here. I have a tendency to plan, plan, plan each little detail and that feeds into my procrastination - "I can't possibly start making X because I haven't planned out every possible detail in the project yet!"

I realized that this is crazy and the biggest reason why it takes me so long to finish (or ever start) my projects. To solve the problem of not knowing what to do about my borders, I decided to buy a little extra of each fabric so I can figure it out later. The extra fabric won't go to waste; I'll use it to make Little Man a matching pillow case. Damn! The decision to make the planning freak in me relax a bit felt so good!

Initial Layout Scribbles

Possible Layout

#3: Fabric Purchased - DONE!  :)
Before our house was our house, the old owners painted what would eventually be Little Man's room green and blue (two walls of each). When we found out we were having a boy, we decided to keep the colors. We like dark wood, so all of his furniture is espresso stained. When picking all our "baby stuff," we went with the colors that were already going to be in his room: green, blue, and brown. I still really like these colors, so I knew I wanted the same color scheme for LM's quilt. Colors, done.

I do not understand how to pick fabrics for a quilt - color value, scale of print, saturation of color, etc. - The thought of picking "the right fabrics" was starting to stress me out. I spent some time looking at pictures of quilts with similar colors to see if I could get some ideas, but I didn't really find anything. I went back through the quilts I've pinned to my quilting board on Pinterest, and I realized that I am really drawn to modern quilts. I love solid colors with bold stitching. After this realization, picking my fabric was easy. I decided that I would get solids. It took me a while at the store, but I eventually found the right colors. LM even helped pick them! He insisted on the blue I chose, and that led me to the one print I bought for the binding. I'm hoping the solid fabrics will let the embroidery be the star while still being interesting.

ABC Quilt Fabrics

I have a lot of work to do on this quilt to get it done in time; there are only 17 days left between now and his birthday party! Having the fabrics purchased really makes the whole project feel more "real" and takes away some of the excuses I could have for delaying more. My next progress post should include some actual stitching. If not, please yell at me!

ABC Quilt Progress - Choosing My Alphabet

I can't believe it's already May! I knew that taking on a big birthday project for Little Mister was a little crazy, but since it was still the beginning of April when I got the idea, I figured I'd have plenty of time if I didn't procrastinate too much.

Well, now it's May, and I haven't gotten nearly enough done on my ABC Quilt. Little Mister's birthday is on the 23rd, and his party will be on the 25th. Even though I plan to keep the layout/blocks pretty simple and will be doing straight line quilting, I have lots of hand embroidery to do for the alphabet letters. So, I need to get my butt in gear to get this quilt done in time!

I took the Process Pledge and am excited to write about and share the process I go through in creating this ABC Quilt for my son. It'll be awesome to have a chronicle of the project from start to finish.

My Process Update:
I planned to make an ABC Quilt for Little Mister's birthday. I knew I wanted to hand embroider an image for each letter of the alphabet, and had already made my alphabet list, but I was a little stuck on how I wanted it all to come together. While researching ideas, I found the book S is for Stitch by Kristine Czepuryk from Pretty By Hand. Her alphabet designs were exactly what I was picturing in my head, so I was excited to see what her alphabet list looked like and how she put her quilt together.

After sifting through S is for Stitch, I had a much clearer picture of what I wanted. I liked my alphabet list better than Kristine's. Since I made it with Little Mister in mind, it has alphabet items that I know he likes (a lot of vehicles and animals). I also decided to make my alphabet quilt blocks a little larger than Kristine's. I knew this meant that I would have to make my own embroidery designs, with larger text, but I really like the idea that I am designing and stitching this entire project on my own.

Alphabet Block

I played around in Word to make my alphabet block templates and set up each block with the block's letter (upper and lowercase) and the name of the item I plan to embroider on the block. I chose a simple font to make the text easier to embroider. I'm fairly savvy with computers and basic office programs, but I couldn't manage to get the block size right without the top getting cut off when I print the blocks out. What I ended up with isn't perfect, but it works for me.

I'm still working on sketching my alphabet designs. So far, I've gotten through the letter I (although I plan to redo the letter H), and my goal is to have the whole alphabet sketched out by the weekend. I also want to have my final quilt layout chosen so I can go buy fabric. The embroidery is going to take a while, so I really need to get it started.

Embroidery Designs A-D (Letter C is unfinished)

Weekend Wrap-Up

It's been busy at our house the last few days, but I've managed to squeeze in a little time to stitch here and there. I thought I had finished all of my samples for my newest QR Code items, but I may have to stitch up a new one in blue.

After spending hours trying to match up embroidery floss colors with the colors of the ribbon I plan to use, I discovered that I didn't have enough of the blue ribbon I found in my stash. It's a fairly common brand, but after visiting both craft stores in my area, I came up empty. Both stores carry the brand, but they had three other blues - one is too light, one is too dark, and the other is more of a teal instead of a blue.

I was super excited about having the perfect colors chosen, but now I have to figure something else out. In the meantime, the next step for these little guys is to get them stretched and framed in hoops and finish the backs. I'll post pictures when they're done.  :)

Some new QR Code cross stitch pieces

My blue ribbon saga of sadness:

Still searching for the perfect blue ribbon

Weekend Wrap-Up

I've been slightly more productive since my last WIP post. Besides the regular shop stuff, I reorganized my supplies (in a haphazard sort of way, so I'll have to do a better job next time) and finished two custom patterns. I've also made a teeny, tiny dent in the huge "Patterns To Be Finished" list and managed to squeeze in a little stitching.

Here's what I'm working on now:

A little QR Code love  :)

Weekend Work In Progress

I keep finding myself getting stuck on new cross stitch patterns. I get an idea, start charting it out, and inevitably get stuck on a minor detail (How big should this part be? What color combo looks best? Where should I put this thingy? etc.). All work stops on that pattern and I end up starting work on another new idea so I can feel productive.

This has been going on since I opened my shop in February. So, four months later, I was looking through my in progress pattern files and realized that I have upwards of twenty patterns I have started but haven't finished.

I'd love for my shop to keep growing, so it would really be nice to get more patterns finished and listed. I am always thinking about how to improve and add to my shop, but the saddest part of this work-halting routine I have gotten myself into is that with so many unfinished patterns, I haven't been able to do the thing I enjoy the most, actually stitching up new pieces.

So, I vow to buckle down and finally finish some of my in progress patterns. I finished charting one yesterday and started stitching it up last night. Here is a sneak peek at my work in progress: