The 75th Marin County Fair took place last weekend.  I entered five different projects into four different categories, and every single entry won some sort of award.  Both my ram and ewe (pattern by Abby Glassenberg, surface embroidery based on a process I created) were submitted in the Handmade Animals category.  The ram won first place and Best in Show!  The ewe won second place, which means I took the top two spots in the category.  My Little Red Riding Hood doll was submitted in the Soft Sculpture and Cloth Dolls category.  She won first place and a special award from the Marin Needle Arts Guild.  My Goen's First Year book was submitted in the Embroidered Clothing and Textiles category.  It took second place and also won the Marin Golden Threads Award.  My final entry was my Upcycled Food Pouch, which was submitted in the Trash to Treasure category.  This entry received an honorable mention.

This was the first time I ever submitted anything to a fair, and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.  Have you ever entered, or thought about entering, some handmade items to a fair?  I'm already looking forward to next time.

I finished off my third Artist Trading Card swap this week.  The card I send has an improvisationally pieced background using scraps of light blue and aqua fabric (some you may remember from past projects).  Over that I embroidered a short poem I wrote myself just for this ATC.  There is not as much contrast between the background and thread as I had hoped, but you can still read it if you look closely.  In case you can't read it, it says "Sewing and sewing/With needle and thread/Sewing and sewing/Till I sleep in my bed."  I chose to make one "sewing" in a darker teal color, which looks so neat.  It infuses a bit of myself in the card.  The back of the card has my name, the topic of the swap, and the date I finished it.  It's simpler than my other two cards (here and here), but I love it.  And I hope the recipient does, too.
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And here is the ATC I received.  The background fabric is a fuzzy on-point square print.  Embroidered over it is a pair of lips with daggers flying from them.  On the back is written a quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet in gold pen.  It says "I will speak daggers to her, but use none."  Given the theatrical nature of the quote, I love the choice of fabric, which looks like something a jester would wear.  And the chain stitch for the daggers gives a great texture and feeling of movement.  
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I love that you can get two so very different cards from the same theme of "Say Something."  Art is full of interpretation, and perhaps that's one of my favorite things about this swap.  Have you done a swap?  What's your favorite part?

Goen's third birthday is officially today, though we won't have a party until next Sunday.  Even so, I figured it would be fun to have his crown ready in case we decide to have some cake and blow out candles today, too.  For his first birthday I made a felt crown using a pattern I designed (which you can purchase through my Etsy shop).  In the center of the crown is a tree on which I plan to stitch a leaf for every one of his birthdays.  You can see pictures from his first year here and his second year here.  Each leaf is added with a simple backstitch to outline and stabilize the felt and to add texture.  I'm currently drawing up these designs and more to include with the pattern I have for sale, including a fully-photographed tutorial.  That means I'll be making another crown, which might make it into my shop.  I'll let you know when that happens.  Sign up for my newsletter near the top right if you'd like first access to the updated pattern, as well as a coupon code.

I've still got lots to do before party day next week.  I'll have at least one more party-themed tutorial to share, so stay tuned for that.  And I'll definitely have pictures of his party and all the decorations in action.  I can't wait!

My little guy's birthday is creeping ever closer, and there is still so much left to do.  I gotta figure out what cake to bake, some favors to give to the guests, and a gift to sew for him.  For that last one I was thinking about "big boy" underwear using some really soft knit fabric I've got in my closet.  Any pattern suggestions?  Tips?  I don't sew with knit very often, so I'm a bit worried about how it will go.  I'll just have to decide on a backup in case it goes badly.

My tutorial is all about creating signage to direct guests to the celebration.  We're just doing the party at our local park, but some guests have never been there before and I want to make sure they find the right spot.  The supplies are pretty simple and the options for design are limitless and open to your imagination.  I went with a simple, two-word phrase and three arrows that can point any direction I want.  Here's what you'll need.


Materials:

 - Cardboard (I used cereal and cracker boxes)
 - Craft paint (acrylic, washable kid paint, etc)
 - Large paint brush
 - Pencil
 - Awl (or other strong pointed tool for poking holes)
 - Tapestry needle
 - Yarn
 - Scissors
 - Tape (optional)


Directions:

Gather all your supplies first.  Cut pieces of cardboard to the size you want.  It's best to cut out the creased sections and only use smooth, flat pieces.

Paint a base layer on your cardboard.  Mine warped from the wet paint, but it dried pretty flat so don't worry too much if it happens to yours too.  After the first layer dries, add any additional layers until you get the effect you want.

Use a pencil to sketch your chosen design on the painted side of cardboard.  Avoid touching the pencil lines because they can smudge onto your hands and across the painted surface.  Do this for all your pieces.

Use you awl to poke evenly-spaced holes along the pencil lines.  The distance between holes depends on the size of your letters or shapes.  Mine are 1/4" to 1/2" apart.  You may want to space holes closer along curved sections to get a smoother line.  Make the holes big enough to fit the eye of the needle through without hurting your fingers (trust me on this).  Also, try to poke holes along parallel lines at about the same level to achieve a more symmetrical look.

Once all the holes are poked you're ready to embroider

Thread a length of yarn onto your tapestry needle.

Push the needle up from the back to the front of the cardboard and pull the yarn through, leaving a 3" tail.  You can either knot the tail or tape it down to keep it in place.

To create fill lines, cross the yarn to the other side of the shape or letter and put the needle down through the appropriate hole.

Bring the needle back up through the next hole where you want a stitch to begin on the front.  Continue until all your fill stitches are complete.

As you can see, you may not use all the holes you made for your fill stitches.  Don't worry about that, though, because they can be covered up with a border stitch.  For the border stitch, you can use every hole or skip several.  Either way, try to keep the distance of each stitch under about 2" to help the yarn lay flush with the surface.

Continue the border stitch all around the shape alternating straight stitches and back stitches. 

For large letters with only an outline, the easiest thing to do is to go around once with a running stitch and then around a second time with a running stitch to fill in the gaps.  To end a length of yarn and begin another, take the yarn to the back side and tape or knot it.  Begin a new length in the same way as before.

Once all your embroidering is done, your signs are ready to lead your guests to the right place.  You can display them on steps, pin them to a wall, or use another length of yarn to hang them on a fence post.  No matter which way you show them off, your guests will be able to find the way.  Unless, of course, a wily toddler decides to flip the arrows around...

The town I grew up in is just a few miles from the city of Oxnard, a place with some of the deepest topsoil in the world, which makes it an ideal place for food production.  And one of their biggest crops is strawberries.  We all looked forward to the day when a flat of strawberries came home.  Everyone would happily pick through the plastic crates looking for the biggest, juiciest red berries.  I have many vivid memories of driving to one of the many farm stands to buy strawberries.  They were always a part of any event or celebration, even if we had to trek across several state lines to have them there.  So strawberries will always have a special place in my heart.  

Last month, hen I heard that the &Stitches blog was looking for guest posts for their Summer Blogging event, I jumped at the chance.  Now, you may be wondering what this has to do with my story about strawberries.  Well, after giving quite a bit of thought to what I wanted to write about for my guest post, I hit on the idea to write a tutorial on yarn embroidery.  The design I chose is a strawberry.  Although similar to the embroidered starfish patch I made a year ago, this patch is embellished with some three-dimensional woven embroidery.  Here are a couple pictures of the finished project, but you can hop on over to the tutorial post to find out how to make one of your own.

Last week marked the end of the second round of the Itty Bitty Beginner Swap.  This time everyone was assigned to make a mini quilt for their swap partner.  Based on the likes and dislikes I was given from my partner, I chose the Swoon quilt block by  Thimbleblossoms, pink as the central fabric color, and some bright green to kick it off.  I was a little apprehensive about my color choices as I cut out the pieces because it's a bit outside my comfort zone.  When the top was all sewn together, though, I started to like it more, and the dark pink binding really brought it all together and finished it off nicely.

I learned a lot about making quilts.  Even though I've made a couple before, I'm a bit rusty.  Plus, the pattern I chose has a lot more seams to manage.  There are some spots that are a bit bulky because I pressed the seams the wrong way.  On the plus side, I got to use my flannel design board for the first time.  It really helped by keeping me organized and allowed me to see what the block would look like.  When it came to the binding, I really wanted to make sure it looked professional, so I went looking for the perfect tutorial.  The one I found, which you can read here, is well-written and clear, with good pictures as well.  It's the best one I've seen, and explains how to bind a quilt where the beginning/end is impossible to find.

Here are a few closeups of the quilting.  I gave machine quilting a couple attempts, but it was a complete failure.  So I did the whole thing by hand, using two strands of embroidery floss.  I used matching pink and orange to make it mostly invisible, though it does add a nice bit of texture.