Embroidered Clutch Collaboration Piece and Giveaway

A while back I was contacted by Beth of the wonderful DIY design blog Lula Louise. She is amazing with the sewing machine, and has tons of tutorials on her blog for anything from jewelry to dresses. I was pretty excited when she asked me to do a collaboration piece when I checked out her blog and was able to see how talented she is.

We ended up deciding on a clutch, and after sending photos of our sketches and discussing color palettes via email this is what we came up with:
I did the embroidery on the outside of the clutch, and Beth did the construction and the running stitch on the inside. It turned out pretty cute, right?

In honor of our collaboration we are giving this clutch away to one winner! You can find out how to enter over on Beth’s blog (Lula Louise). This giveaway is open today (May 1st, 2013) through May 15, 2013.

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.

Orange Cat Embroidery

Last month I finished one of my favorite pieces I’ve done so far. I’m not really a cat person, or even an animal person (I know I’m weird), but this piece was really fun to do.

It is of an orange Maine Coon, and it hangs in an 8 inch wooden hoop painted purple. Filling in the entire piece seemed intimidating at first–it takes a looong time to do– but the end result is so much better than just outlining it with a single stitch.

 It says the cat’s name, Isabel, underneath it also in purple.

I think my favorite part to do was the “M” on the forehead (that all Maine Coon cats have), and the green eyes.

xoxo.

California Pillow: Completed

Remember that California pillow I was commissioned to make? I shared a few sneak peaks a couple of weeks ago, but now I have some final photos to share!

    I really loved the way this one turned out!…and now I want to take a trip to California!

With the holiday’s coming up these custom pieces made however you’d like make a great gift! If you are interested check out the custom pieces tab up top, and shoot me an email at toocrewel@gmail.com!

xoxo.

Warm Up Embroidery

I’ve been so busy lately working on commissions, working at my day job, and with school, that I haven’t been able to find much time to embroider anything for myself lately. This week I decided to do a little “warm up” piece so I could use some of my favorite fall colors, and embroider just because.

  Pretty simple piece, but it was relaxing to do. I used back stitch, chain stitch, french knot, and a stem stitch in it. It was good practice to use some of the stitches that I rarely use these days.

xoxo.

Embroidered Goodness: California Pillow in Progress

TGIF! TGIF! TGIF! I’m so happy it is Friday.
I’ve got a bunch of embroidery projects to catch up on this weekend, and one of the pieces I have to finish is an embroidery of California that I’m making for one of my awesome customers. The embroidery is going to be turned into a cute little throw pillow. Here are a couple of sneak peeks for you!

It’s been such a fun piece to work on, and I haven’t made anything like this since my Florida and Michigan pillows that are for sale over in the etsy shop.

If you are interested in getting your own custom pillow check out the custom work page!

Have a great weekend, all!

xoxo.

Embroidered Goodness: Moonrise Kingdom

Have you guys seen the Wes Anderson film Moonrise Kingdom yet? Wes Anderson movies are always my favorite, and Moonrise Kingdom was no exception. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to embroider it. I found this movie poster, and thought it’d be perfect to embroider.
(source)

   

If you haven’t seen this little gem of a film yet, get out and see it!

xoxo.

Embroidered Characters: Daria

Lalalalala, time for a new embroidered character! Yesterday I finished my crewel embroidery of Daria! I had a little bump in the road, I ran out of the color green for her jacket, so I had to change up my design a little bit. I think I wound up liking it better this way, though.  I did the piece on white/pinkish fabric, cut it out and, used the sewing machine to put it on a piece of olive green fabric.
Now all I want to do is watch Daria!
What did you guys make this weekend?

xoxo.

Crewel Embroidery: Let’s Ride Bicycle

Lately I have been going back to my roots and creating more creweled pieces. I love the way the finished pieces look so much more than ‘plain’ embroidery pieces (which I love too!), but creweled pieces just take sooo long. This is not so good for me because once I start a piece I tend to not stop working on it until it is done. My back does not like that, considering I slouch the entire time. Yesterday I spent majority of my day (seven episodes of Ugly Betty to be more specific) creating this creweled bicycle.
 It is done on a medium weight linen fabric, and in a wooden frame which I painted white.
This piece is also up for sale in the etsy shop, you can see more of it here.

Just a reminder, tonight at midnight this giveaway ends!

Now I’m off to ride my bike to work! Happy Monday, all!

xoxo.