Hey! You! Smile! Embroidery

Happy Thursday, everyone! Sometimes when things are a bit difficult and we are feeling down we just need someone to remind us to smile. This little reminder can sometimes do wonders, so I decided to use some of the ‘notebook paper’ fabric I made and embroider up this thought.

 This really is a little piece, it hangs in a 2.5″ embroidery hoop. The hoop was thrifted, and a flexi-hoop with a wood grain. I love when I’m actually able to find flexi-hoops, I wish you could buy them at the craft store!

I think it turned out pretty cute and simple. You can check out more in my shop, where it is up for sale!

xoxo.

ps. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for this month!

The X-Files Notebook Paper Embroidery

A couple of years ago I made a few “notebook” embroideries. I always really liked them and had been meaning to make more, I just never got around to it. Recently I made a few more finally, one of which was an ode to The X-Files (I naturally love the X-Files).
I sewed the notebook paper lines on with the sewing machine, and hand embroidered the rest. It is The X-Files slogan “I want to believe” with a flying saucer above it.

A little fun fact: Gillian Anderson (who plays Scully) went to the High School that is just a mile down the road from my house!

 This piece is also up for sale for all of you fellow Mulder and Scully fans, you can check it out on etsy where you can see more photos!

xoxo.

Diamond Crewel Embroidery

It’s been a couple weeks since I’ve done any crewel embroidery, I’d like to say I had a good excuse…but really I’ve just been lazy. The pieces take a bit longer as you usually fill the entire piece in, but the result is usually much more favorable than an outline (in my opinion). If I didn’t have such a short attention span I’d probably do a lot more crewel work.

Last week I made this diamond:

I decided to do every section a different color to make it a little more interesting, and less traditional. I also wrapped the embroidery hoop in fabric to finish it.

You can see more photos on etsy, where the piece is also up for sale.

xoxo.

Blerg. Embroidery

One of my favorite ladies in comedy is Tina Fey, so naturally I’m a big fan of 30 Rock. It was just a matter of time until I made an embroidery to show this (aside from the commissioned pillow I made this past Christmas). I decided on Liz Lemon’s (Tina Fey) catch phrase ‘blerg.’

 
This is done in a 4 inch embroidery hoop that I painted black. The fabric is more of the hand dyed fabric I had leftover, and used gold embroidery floss. I used crewel stitches to fill in the lettering.

You can see more of this piece in the shop, where it is now for sale.

xoxo.

Commission Pieces

Since November I have been working on a bunch of commission pieces, most of which are embroidered portraits.Now that I am caught up on all of these pieces I am taking a break from portrait commission’s until May (at which point I will start taking new orders if anyone is interested), so I have time to work on new pieces for my shop, friends, family, and myself. I need to take some time to get my creative juices flowing again and find some new inspiration.

 In the meantime though, I thought I’d share a few of my favorites so you guys could see what I’ve been busy working on the past few months.

This one was a gift a couple purchased for their friends who recently were married.
This one was a Christmas present a wife gave to her husband. It is them, and their dogs, in their Halloween costumes from one year. This one was fun to do because I tried something a little different.I made two of these, one for the boyfriend and one for the girlfriend. They were embroidered wearing ‘ugly Christmas sweaters,’ and wore the shirts to an ugly sweater Christmas party.  This customer had me embroider her sisters dog. He was the cutest puppy. This family used images of this embroidery for their family Christmas card.   This is the backside of another couple that I did an embroidery of for Valentines day. I really liked that she made the back just as special as the front for her boyfriend.   This one took a long time to finish, but it was well worth it. I’m very happy with the way this family turned out!

xoxo.

Winnie the Pooh Embroidery No. 2

Last week I shared the first Winnie the Pooh quote I embroidered, and today I have a second one.

It states:
“Someone people care too much. I think it’s called love.”

 The fabric was a grey cotton that I hand dyed with tea (I’ve been doing a lot of this lately). The hoop is a wooden one painted black.

 This piece is also up for sale in the shop.

xoxo.

Winnie the Pooh Quote Embroidery

A couple of weeks ago I randomly ended up reading a bunch of Winnie the Pooh quotes online, and I found quite a few that I really loved. 

 This quote by the wise bear states:

“I think we dream so we don’t have to be apart for so long. If we’re in each other’s dreams, we can be together all the time.”

So sweet, right?

 I used some of my favorite colors at the moment on this piece. Gold (for the hoop), rust, pea green, lavender, plum, and white.

 This piece is now for sale in Too Crewel’s shop, as well!

xoxo.

Best Friend Lockets

A couple of years ago my best friend (since the second grade!) Melissa moved to Texas, and last week she came back for her first visit since moving. It was so nice to see her and it gave me a little boost of energy, sometimes a girl just has to see her best friend.

I knew I wanted to give her something when she came so I went the cheesy route and bought us a pair of best friend lockets from the Etsy shop fancypop .

Melissa and I have an inside joke that is a twist off of the internet sideways heart (<3). Neither one of us remember where it came from, or even why- but we still do it to this day. So for the inside of our necklaces I did a mini embroidery of it for the inside. It says ‘<321.’

I did the embroidery in teal on a piece of felt. I hot glued it in- it was a really easy way to add a personal touch to it. Giving gifts are nice, but they always mean more when there is extra thought put into it.  A photo of Melissa and I where she is rockin’ the necklace.

xoxo.

New Year, New Giveaway! NOW CLOSED!

Happy Monday! I hope everyone enjoyed their weekends.

 

I realized recently that it has been a very long time since I’ve hosted a giveaway, so today a new one is opening up!

I’m giving away a $15.00 store credit to Too Crewel’s Etsy Shop*! With it being almost Valentines day you could use it to get something for your sweetheart, or yourself

Here is how to enter:

• Comment on this post just saying hello! (Mandatory Entry)
• ‘Follow’ Too Crewel on Twitter (1 Extra Entry)
• ‘Like’ Too Crewel on Facebook (1 Extra Entry)
• Subscribe to Too Crewel’s Blog (1 Extra Entry)

So that my friends, is 4 ways to enter! Just be sure you do each entry in a separate comment so they are all counted!

The giveaway is open January 14-21st. Giveaway now closed!

  *$15.00 store credit can only be used towards pre-made pieces- no custom work.

xoxo.

Embroidered Skeleton Hand

Happy Thursday, everyone!

The third piece that I have to share on my hand dyed fabric (using tea) is a skeleton hand. This piece is pretty dainty- it is done in a 4″ hoop, using three stands of embroidery floss. Usually floss comes in six strands, but you can peel away strands to make thinner lines. Since this piece was so small, I decided to do three stands for the entire hand.

Just like the last two pieces I posted this week (the skeleton, and the teeth) the wooden embroidery hoop is painted gold.

 This piece is also up for sale in the shop!

I’d like to do more body/anatomy pieces. I was thinking of doing an image of a full eye- from the side. Any thoughts on what else I should do?

xoxo.