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Stitch Love: A One Year Celebration! With Free Embroidery Patterns

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Please note: This post contains affiliate links as indicated by an asterisk.* One year ago today Mollie from Wild Olive had the book Stitch Love: Sweet Creatures Big & Small: Cute Kitties and Cows and Cubs and More...and a Yeti* released. I reviewed the book and made an adorable whale purse. I also participated in the Stitch Love Valentine's blog hop last year and the Stitch Love-Along. I am very lucky to call Mollie a friend and was so excited when she asked if I wanted to stitch up some new free patterns to go along with her book's one year anniversary. ... Read More

Pouches for Everyone!

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Pouches were one of the first things I started sewing when I got my machine and zippers terrified me for a really long time. I always had trouble with the way everything went together and always ended up putting the lining upside down and there was a lot of seam ripping. However, I am proud to say that after rapidly making 8 pouches for gifts, I can finally construct a lined zipper pouch on the first try. Late last year I split an order of zippers from ZipIt on Etsy with a friend. I got 12 of them thinking they would last me forever but I am already figuring out ... Read More

Free Cross Stitch Patterns – Tsum Tsum

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Last year I made a whole bunch of Tsum Tsum cross stitch patterns for a swap. I've been meaning to release the patterns for awhile and this week I got a message giving me the push to finally do it. (Please note: Affiliate links are indicated by an asterisk*) The finished Tsum Tsum is 2 'x 2.5" when stitched on 14 ct Aida. I used the DMC Water Soluble Cross Stitch Canvas* so I could stitch it on quilting cotton. Download the PDF here – Tsum Tsum Cross Stitch Patterns There are more free patterns to download here, and patterns to purchase here at my ... Read More

Cross Stitch With a Purpose – How to Make a Pattern in Photoshop

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I haven't been cross stitching as much lately and I realized one of the reasons is because I just have so many cross stitches and a limited amount of places to put them. So this year I wanted to do a monthly series on how to cross stitch and then explore alternative ways you can use your cross stitches besides just framing them or displaying them in a hoop. So first I thought I would show you how I make my patterns in case you wanted to make your own. I use Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. These screenshots are from the Creative Cloud version but this ... Read More

&Stitches Secret Santa Exchange with Free EPP Pattern

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Among all the Christmas craziness I realized I never posted about the &stitches secret Santa exchange I did! Please note, this post contains affiliate links as indicated by an asterisk.* My partner was Aimee from Daisy Eyes and I embraced a tea theme for her package and included a reusable mug and sleeve, octopus tea infuser*, and a mug rug. My tea cup cross stitch pattern is consistently my most visited post and I wanted to play around with it a bit. I made the pattern into an EPP pattern and made a mug rug for it. I know it probably would have lent itself really ... Read More

Death Star Mini Quilt!

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All the way back in September I started two mini quilts for Josh. The first was the Batman EPP quilt I gave him for his birthday and the second was the Death Star from Quirky Granola Girl. Please note: This post contains affiliate links as indicated by an asterisk.* I figured I would start both and hopefully finish one by his birthday in October and the other for Christmas. Mollie from Wild Olive made her own Death Star mini quilt earlier last year and gave me some of the gray scraps she had leftover. Piecing it was a lot more intimidating than I expected. ... Read More

Project Starters Anonymous – Free Pattern

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Kristy from Simply this Life started Project Starters Anonymous as a hashtag on Instagram and I absolutely love it. I enthusiastically joined along because I am the worst about starting new projects before finishing others (need proof? Check out my current UFO list...) Some people have started joining in and this is my official invitation for you to join Project Starters Anonymous. Post on Instagram with the hashtag #projectstartersanonymous when you start something new. And I've also put together a few embroidery patterns that you can stitch (because I assume ... Read More

Bookshelf Tote Bag

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I made a lot of Christmas gifts this year, way more than I normally do. Part of the reason is because I can finish a lot more when I'm sewing than when I'm cross stitching. A made quite a few smaller gifts but this was one of the bigger ones I did and I am so proud of how it turned out. Please note: This post contains affiliate links as indicated by an asterisk*. This project comes from the book Fat Quarters: Small Fabrics, More Than 50 Big Ideas and I modified it a bit. For the bottom of the bag, instead of doing a thin bookshelf and then white again, I ... Read More