Another Embroidered Patch

One day these pants will be one solid patch.  

And on That Day...they will have maximum awesome-ness.

Basil says, "Why are you taking a picture of these jeans Mom?"

Close up of the patch:

 I found the image here.  It was far too large and detailed for what I wanted, so I cropped, reversed and rearranged several of the scissors.

The stitches used on this design were mainly backstitch and running stitch with some satin and chain stitches thrown in for fillers.

So why is the patch so huge?

The hole that this patch covers was fairly small, but the fabric in the whole section under the patch was quite thin.

These jeans will need at least two more patches in the not too distant future.  The fabric above the patches, below the front pockets, is wearing thin.  I can wear two pairs of long underwear under these jeans so they are getting a lot of wear this winter for work!

June Cross Stitches

I completed four small projects this month. Not too shabby considering all the books I read as well.

The design below didn't photograph well.  It's actually done on Navy Aida with this funky fluorescent yellow.  I wanted to do it in glow in the dark thread, but they didn't have any at the craft store by me. 

The Crafty Companion: Lumos

I actually started this cross stitch over a year ago.  It was my travel project for the plane when we went to Disney World last spring.    For some reason poor Tink was abandoned, only half finished.  This came as part of a kit.  I didn't like the stiff Aida that it came with, so I switched it to an evenweave with a higher count.  The design is stitched over two threads.

Janlynn: Tinkerbell Giggle Sketch

The next two designs I bought back when Blockette was just a baby.  They are both stitched with hand dyed threads.  I had to change a few of the colors, as I didn't have all the suggested ones in my stitching stash.

Bent Creek: Spooky Row

I wound up outlining the skeleton because I felt he didn't stand out enough against the light colored linen fabric.

I'm pretty bummed out that the cat between the "e" and "f" doesn't show up well.  I might outline that one as well.

Bent Creek: Kitty Row

I particularly like this design as the two cats sitting together remind me of my own crazy kitties.

As usual, I have no idea/plans for any of these cross stitches.  I just did them for fun! 

More patchy pants!

Yes. The patchy pants party never stops. Remember here where I said I was working on another patch?

Well here it is!  A funky little peacock feather.

Stubborn peacock feather who didn't want to smile for the camera. At least that's my reason for why the pic looks a bit on the blurry side.  (Best to blame the subject or the camera, not the photographer and her lack of photographic skills.)

Here it is for placement reference on my jeans. I think it looks like lil miss croc-a-gator is waiving at it.

And wouldn't you know it?  My other pair of patchy pants are nearly worn through in another location.  So I've got to start working on yet another patch!

The party really never stops.

And you know what else I've discovered?

It's not all that fun to stitch on denim.  I'm just a glutton for punishment.

Crock-a-gators and Alli-giles

In December I applied a premade fish patch to one of my favorite pair of jeans.  A few weeks ago the other knee sprung another leak!  So I covered it with this cutie pie.

I'm pretty sure she's a lady lizard.

And here's what the jeans look like as a whole.  There is a part just above where the fish patch is that is getting threadbare as well.  I'm working on another patch as we speak.  Maybe this time I'll get it patched before I wear another hole through the fabric!

11' Happy Dance #23: Bias tape on Embroidery Hoop

I have been wrangling with this embroidery hoop for probably 15 years. I had heard a while ago that you get a much nicer tension on your fabric if you wrap the hoop with bias tape.  I finally up and did this after being reminded of this (again) on Stitching Away.

How sad is it that it's taken me years and years of fighting with the hoop, and 15 minutes of wrapping the hoop to solve the problem?  Sheesh. 

I used this weird looking Christmas themed bias tape my mom gave me a while ago.  I know she had it for years and years.  I'm not sure what it has originally been purchased for, but I had no clue what I was going create from it.  It's nice to know that I found a use for at least part of it.

Project #18: Blockette's Stocking

Tada! I am so happy I finished this..and with almost 2 weeks to spare. This stocking is for Blockette and I managed to sew it without her knowing! I'm so sneaky.

This is going to be one of Blockette's Christmas presents. We have a tradition where we open presents on Christmas Eve night from our family, and presents from Santa on Christmas morning. This way she can open her stocking present and then hang it up before she goes off to bed on Christmas Eve.The Fairy on the stocking is a one of Tinkerbell's fairy friends. A garden talent fairy to be specific. Those of you familiar with the Disney fairies from the Pixie Hollow books will be scratching their heads as to which fairy this one is. It is supposed to be Lily. Yeah, I know. Her skin color is off. I think they had to make it a lighter color so the facial details show up.

And that face...it is all embroidered. I was a bit worried as my embroidery skills are not the best. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. You can tell it is supposed to be a face and not blobs of yuck.

When I ordered the kit I did not realize that the whole thing was made of felt. I assumed that the applique would be felt. I had no idea that the background fabric was felt as well. I couldn't replace the felt with another fabric because there were placement lines for the applique stamped on the back ground felt. Oh well. I will just have to stress to Blockette that she has to be extra careful with the stocking. I'm pretty sure she will love it enough to handle it delicately.

Project #9: Blackwork Bookmark

Many moons ago I cross stitched a beautiful Celtic knotwork bookmark for Mrblocko. It had hand dyed variegated silk and metallic threads and everything. Then, sometime this winter the big lug went and lost it. I told him that he was fired and that I was never ever EVER going to make him a new one.

Well I'm just a sucker cause clearly I've gone and made him another bookmark. He's been moaning and lamenting about not having a bookmark. He's even gone so far as to not use any bookmark to make his point about wanting another bookmark. He promised to try to try not to lose it if I was so kind enough to make him another one. Then he said he was going to keep asking for a new bookmark at every gift giving occasion until I made him one. So yeah, I guess you could say I made him this bookmark just to get him to shut up about it.This bookmark isn't nearly as fancy or labor intensive as the one Mrblocko lost. I figure he has to prove he's not going to lose this one before I spend weeks stitching something fancy. This bookmark is done in a stitch that is called blackwork. It's basically a straight stitch outline sort of embroidery. Blackwork is a lot quicker to sew per inch than cross stitch. At least it is for me.

I stitched this up mostly at my best friend, MrsThunder's house, in attempts to be sneaky and surprise Mrblocko for Father's Day. MrsThunder gasped when she saw that I was using 14 count Aida fabric to stitch on. (The count means how many stitches there are per inch. So 14 count means 14 stitches in an inch.) I believe her actual words were, "You can actually see the holes in the fabric!!"

Normally I use a much finer fabric like linen in 28 or 32 count. Linen in a fine count is much more expensive than aida. I didn't want to waste good fabric if it was going wind up mysteriously misplaced. Blackwork looks decent on a lower count fabric compared to cross stitch. If you sew cross stitch on the lower count fabrics the designs start to look more and more pixelated. I am not a fan of the pixelated look.

I used two different shades of green DMC thread. The design would have looked cool in an ombre or variegated thread of some sort but those threads are $$. I might have used them if I already had a color I liked left over from another project. Going to buy fancy thread involves going to a specialty store, and the closest one of those is over an hour away. It's also not the type of place I'd bring Blockette too. Too easy for her to get into too many different kinds of mischief. Yeah, I could have bought some on line, but I hate doing that for thread. You never know if the color on your computer is calibrated correctly. So plain Jane thread it was.

I found this design online as a freebie from a company called Stitchin'spiration. The pattern is called "Pocket garden of 4 leaf clover." You can click here for the chart if you like the design.

So Mrblocko, now you know the horrible truth about your Father's Day Bookmark. You'd still better not loose it!!! (Plbbbt.)

Irony

I've got an old pair of jeans that are falling apart, but they are just so comfy that I've just decided to add embroidered patches to cover the holes. Here is the latest patch.

I found the pattern on flickr in the hoop love pool. Everytime I look at it I giggle, because the way the horseshoe is pointing is bad luck. Strangely enough I'm having bad luck actually sewing the patch on the jeans. I've done so twice now and the darn thing just won't lay properly. Hopefully, third time is a charm.