I am totally in love with Christina Perri at the moment, and after hearing her song Jar of Hearts, I just had to stitch up a version.  I starting drawing the design up in May, and it is now finally finished!



For the hearts I have used varying mediums: buttons, sequins, satin stitch, felt applique, back stitch, and crayon tinting.  The jar outline has been done in backstitch.



The text is stitched in back stitch and french knots.  This took forever to do.  I highlighted some of the words in red and blue.  The little hearts at the side are done in back and satin stitch.



I wrapped the hoop in some pretty see through ribbon.  I can't remember what size the hoop actually is, but it was the biggest one I could find in my craft shop!

So happy it's finally finished, now to hang it on my hoopla wall

Thanks guys!  That Iron Man phone case was seriously hard to part with!!  Think I'll be making myself one of them too!

Well, I received my swap parcel from LolaEden this morning,and I totally love it all THANK YOU!!

Here be pictures of the awesomeness



I was TOTALLY spoilt!! Thank you so much LolaEden!  How awesome are those?!



My amazing Thor mini tote bag!! I love this bag so much!!  It will be great for carrying around my current projects )  It's also got the little Thor and Iron Man badges she made for me, as well as the pretty red and gold earrings she surprised me with.  Oh, and the bag has got the Avenger's logo stencilled onto the back too.



When we first started asking for idea's I said I'd like a cushion for my new craft room, and this awesome Loki cushion is what she made I love it!! Loki <3  The stencil pattern is so awesome!



Did I say I loved this stencil pattern?!   She made this awesome little pouch, which my DS has already claimed for a home   You can see the little Loki badge she made as well.



Next up is this Thor hoop that I can actually store stuff in the front of which is pretty darn cool.



And a little Loki hoop to add to my hoopla wall



And finally, she surprised my with this AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME Castle keyring!!   I think some stalking may have been carried out for this   I LOVE IT!! I was so surprised to see it in the little pouch she made, squee!!

THANK YOU LOLAEDEN!!  I loved everything   I hope you've enjoyed your first swap

I've been on a bit of a mission recently to make more hoops to go up on my hoopla wall!



Viking inspired hoop.  An awesome Urban Threads pattern. The Viking is worked in 1 strand of brown and 1 strand of green thread.  I then drew the runes around the edge on freehand, stitched then up and then added some little green seed beads.



Gotta Catch Em All!!!! Because Pokemon is awesome!  Mostly made from felt, with a black ribbon band across the centre.



And another awesome Urban threads pattern.  Stitched in two strands of thread and the crayon tinted for more colour.

Thanks for looking, V x

[Something Wicked This Way Comes...]

YAY!!!!!!!!!  My parcel from the awesome bekibutton arrived this morning and wow! It is one totally awesome package!  I finally managed to reign in the excitement and take some pictures!

My list of interests on my questionnaire was pretty long and very varied.  Bekibutton had said she had chosen one main theme and then ran that theme through others on my list.  She'd wrapped them up individually with a title on each package.



How awesome are they!!!!!  I absolutely love mermaids so this was an excellent choice!!


Something Wicked This Way Comes...



I am a huge Harry Potter fan and this dude has to be one of the merpeople from the fourth film.  The photo really doesn't do all the detail on him justice.  The hair is awesome and I love all the detail on the bottom of his fin and all the beading.


I wanna be where the people are...



Squeeeee!! I love her!!  This hoop is just so beautiful  I am a massive Disney lover, to be honest, working in the Disney Store and being around Disney all the time means it sort of takes over your life!!  This hoop is just so perfect!! The Little Mermaid has always been my all time favourite Disney movie and Ariel my favourite Princess.   I love that she has her very own dinglehopper, and the beaded flowers at the bottom are awesome. And where do I start on the awesomeness of that hair.  


Something about, baby, You and I...



LADY GAGA MERMAID!!!!! Oh my gosh!! Seriously I was like a little kid at Christmas opening these hoops!! I'm surprised I didn't wake up everyone in the house this morning haha!!  Lady Gaga is awesome, and so is this fabulous hoop!!  I  love the sparkly felt on her tail, and just well everything about it!!

Becki, thank you so so so so sooo very much!! They are absolutely fantastic.  You've done such an awesome job, and I love how you fit in so many things on my list!!  You are awesome!!  Ahh they're so amazing!!  I think I managed to guess all their themes right  

I am off to find a hammer so I can get them up on my hoopla wall pronto!!!  I shall post a pick of them in their new home later on

Thank you bekibutton for an amazing first swap experience

I recently took part in my first ever swap, and as my partner has received her parcel thought I'd post them here.  My partner said she loved embroidery hoops so it was pretty easy to decide what sort of thing to make for her, as I have a major hoopla obsession at the moment!


This is a copy of an art print that was in her Etsy favourites.  I fell in love with the print as soon as I saw it.  I drew my version out on paper, cut out all the felt shapes and got sewing! The questionnaire said she loved buttons, so I had to make it into a button moon.  The little stars are french knots.


In the questionairre my partner said she was volunteering at the Olympics this year.  Thought it would be nice to have a sort of reminder of this so came up with this hoop.  Mostly done in some frustratingly small satin stitch, the hoop outline and writing is done in back stitch.  I wrapped the hoop in some bright blue ribbon for a bit more colour.

Close up of the satin stitch -


As my partner said she loved bright colours and birds I came up with this hoop -


I've used felt for the tree branch and the eggs in the nest, the rest is either back or satin stitch.  Again I wrapped the hoop in ribbon.

To finish them off nicely on the back I covered the reverse side with a piece of felt and added a little card -



Really loved my first swap, and these hoops were so much fun to make

I have wanted to sort out some authentic Viking clothing for aaaages, and I finally got around to making, and (mostly) completing my first outfit!!  It's been a work in progress pretty much since January, and I wore it for the first time at an event at the start of May.  I'm so pleased with how it turned out.  (Please note - the brown linen underdress was one I bought as I am absolutely rubbish with dealing with sleeves )





So the many layers are -

Khaki green linen underskirt.
Brown linen underdress.(Not made by me)
Blue woollen apron dress, lined with linen.
Tablet woven belt from natural dyed wool.
Brown woollen hood, lined with linen, and with silk embroidered patch.
Embroidered linen Jorvik hood.  All the embroidery has been done in silk.  (You can see more info and pics here on the needlework board - http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=405364.msg4773843#msg4773843)
Green woollen cloak with fur trim.
Green linen bag.

2 bronze brooches.
Silver mjolner necklace.
2 strings of handmade glass beads, with pendants.   Which can all be seen in the picture below.  As usual, I am pulling a ridiculous face, but is the only photo were you can see the Viking bling



All the many many visible seams were hand stitched with linen thread and took several days to complete!!!



And here's a close up of the embroidery on the woollen hood -


There is more info and pics for this on the needlework board here - http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=407714.msg4809006#msg4809006

This outfit was so much fun to wear, and so so comfortable!! It was an absolutely freezing cold wet weekend at the event, and this outfit did keep me nice and warm.  Much warmer than my modern clothes did anyway.  I do want to add an embroidered band to the top of the apron dress, but totally ran out of time before the event and it is still half finished.  Hopefully I'll get it completed and stitched on before my next event

Thanks for looking, V x

I was recently commissioned by an artist to add embroidery to some of her silk prints.  She told me what colours she would like and gave me images of the sort of stitching she wanted used and the rest was up to me!  It was a really exciting project to do, and something I had never done before.  I was sent three different prints which were all done on silk.  The embroidery was then also stitched in silk as well.  For anyone interested all the silks were from the Silk Mill - www.thesilkmill.com, I am totally in love with all their awesome shades of silk!!

Here's some pics -

Print #1:


This one was definitely my favourite of the bunch.

Print #2:





Print #3:



And the set:



For the stitching I have used - stem stitch, back stitch, long and short stitch, satin stitch and french knots, and it has been stitched in mostly two strands of silk.

They took the best part of three weeks to stitch up, whilst trying to move house, so it was all a bit mental!! But I had so much fun doing them.  Really looking forward to seeing how the artist (Emma Blacklock) finishes them off now

Thanks for looking, V x

So the end is nearly in sight for my viking garb, yippee!!  I still have some embroidery to finish but here is the finished embroidery for my woolen hood.  I love these endless knot patterns.
It's stitched on linen with silk embroidery thread, and then appliqued onto the woolen hood which is also lined with linen.  I think I'm just a bit in love with the gold silk I've used on this.




(It's now got all the visible seams stitched all the way around)

Shiny silk is shiny.


Oh how I love pretty Viking things

After seeing all the awesome negative space themed hoops some of the awesome craftster's on here came up with I was inspired to make a similar themed one for my hoopla wall.

This one is based on Christina Perri's awesome and beautiful song The Lonely - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO4e4nCYBEo .  I am totally obsessed with her album at the moment and I thought some of the lyrics fitted the negative space them quite well.

Its stitched on cotton and framed in an 8 inch hoop which has been wrapped in ribbon.

So, at the moment I am currently putting together all the pieces for a Viking costume for an event in May.  (Costume isn't finished yet so thought I'd post some of the embroidery here, until I get around to doing a big post for the whole outfit )

This was pretty easy to put together and is made entirely for linen and all hand stitched.  The embroidery is done using silk embroidery thread.  I think I worked my way through two 6.5 metres skeins of gold thread on this one.  The embroidery is 24 inches long, and is based on the acanthus vine pattern.  I love how shiny the silk is!





And on -



V