Untangling Threads

I have a horrid cold. Ugh.

So yesterday I took the day off and watched lots of murder mysteries (and a vampire movie) and made a start on sorting through my stash of embroidery thread, untangling it all and winding it neatly onto little cardboard bobbins.

So neat! It's taking a while to work my way through all my threads, but it will be totally worth it :)

Oak Leaves, Magazines, a Whodunnit & a Corgi

This week I've been sewing some oak leaves in the evenings...

... when they're finished the leaves will be headbands, lovely for springtime! Here's one I made earlier:

On the way back from the Post Office on Friday, I popped into our local branch of WHSMITH's to buy boring things like blank address labels and white card, and had a browse in the craft magazine section while I was there. I was rather thrilled to find two magazines featuring my work!

Woman's Weekly's "Craft Special" magazine features the pansy hair clip tutorial from my book, Super-Cute Felt. My publisher's PR department handle the press stuff for my book, so I usually only know when it's been featured / reviewed somewhere if somebody mentions they've seen it or if I happen upon it by chance.

And Making magazine has reviewed my blog and said some very lovely things (click here if you want a closer look).

I'm very much looking forward to curling up with these magazines & a nice cup of tea this weekend. It's been so chilly here this week, I am spending lots of time on the sofa under a cosy blanket!

The snow does look lovely (and it seems to have brought with it a very charming flock of redwings to our garden, which we've never seen before) but I'm definitely starting to daydream about spring flowers and being able to go outside without wearing (what feels like) all of my clothes simultaneously.

To help banish the cold-weather inspired gloom I treated myself to a couple of awesome things this week...

.... a copy of John Allison's wonderful whodunnit comic Murder She Writes, which I hugely enjoyed reading online in the run up to Christmas and am very much looking forward to re-reading all in one go (probably curled up under a blanket, with another nice cup of tea).

... and an awesome corgi brooch from Finest Imaginary (so adorable!)

Cherry Blossoms and Forget-Me-Nots

I added a couple of new felt flower brooches to my Etsy shop this week. Each brooch features a mini "bouquet" of flowers - all hand cut and hand stitched (as always!) with seed bead centres.

Pink cherry blossoms:

And blue forget-me-nots:

You can find them in the felt flower brooches section of my Etsy shop.

How To: Embroidered Heart Hoop

Time for one last heart-themed tutorial before Valentine's Day rolls round next week...

Today's project is a simple embroidery pattern (based on my felt heart brooch design from a couple of years ago) you can personalise with initials. Stitch it as a Valentine's or anniversary gift for the one you love, or as a wedding present for a special couple.

I've framed my heart inside one of the mini 3inch embroidery hoops (available from my shops) and I'll be adding a loop of red ribbon to the top so it can be hung as an ornament - it's actually going to be a house-warming gift for a couple who hopefully don't read my blog! But you can, of course, stitch your heart onto anything you fancy.

To make the embroidered felt hoop pictured...

1) Print the heart pattern at the bottom of this post, and draw on the initials you want. Then trace the pattern onto greaseproof/baking paper with a marker pen.

2) Stretch your felt in an embroidery hoop (I used a 5inch hoop for this step). Pin the baking paper in position in the centre of the hoop, tack it in place with long stitches and remove the pins.

3) Stitch the design. I used backstitch and half the number of strands in stranded white embroidery thread / floss.

4) Remove the tacking stitches and carefully tear away the paper from the stitched design, using a pin to remove any small or fiddly pieces. Then remove the felt from the hoop.

5) Carefully position the felt in a smaller (3inch) embroidery hoop, ensuring you get the heart as central as possible, then tighten the hoop

6) Trim the excess felt from around the edge of the hoop, leaving some to fold over in the next step.

7) Gradually fold and glue the felt into the back of the hoop. For extra neatness, cut out a circle the same size as the inner hoop and glue this to the back to hide your workings.

8) Place a small, clean jar inside the hoop to hold everything in place while the glue dries...

... and you're done!

Click here to view the pattern in another window/tab, and print it at 100%.

This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it to embroider as many hearts as you want for yourself or as gifts, but please don't make any for sale. You may borrow a few photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial on your site. Thanks!

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