_ _ _Running_ _Stitch_ _ _

Incentive: Apron

A friend of mine has been trying to lose her "baby weight".  After 2 kids, the female body just doesn't like to go back to the way it was.  Unless, that is, you're Heidi Klum.  In THAT case, you walk in the Victoria's Secret fashion show only four MONTHS after giving birth.  I didn't make that up... she really did just do all that.  

Anyway, back on track.  My friend wanted to lose 20 pounds.  She was having trouble losing the last couple of pounds so I told her I'd make her an apron if she did it.  Well guess what?  She totally did it!  

Keeping my word, I made her an apron in her favorite colors: pink, black and green.

I think she loved it.

I hope she uses it to make things like fancy salads and grilled chicken with low-fat marinade and not... oh... crisco covered cake with donuts on top.  That would be counterproductive.  That wasn't my goal.  

This apron is so fun to make!  Who wants one??

Tea-Stained Bag & The Five Year Journal

This past Christmas, I got a 5 Year Journal for my Mom.  I also got one for myself so that we could both write for a year and then switch on the 2nd year, etc.  So every other year we'd get our own back and get to read what the other wrote the previous year.

I was decidedly bored with every other unfinished project I have going on so I yanked out some white cotton and some old tea and put them together - with the journal in mind.

I love a nice hot tea fabric drink.  Mmm.

Just give it a stir and let it sit long enough to stain it.  I gave it about 15-20 minutes while I ate dinner.  It could need more, or less.  I'm no expert with tea!

Hand wash it to get the extra tea outta there.

And toss it in the dryer!  Look at that color.  That's the good stuff right there.

The stuff dreams are made of.  No, really.

And now with terribly yellowed lighting - I plan out the chopping up of the fabric, to turn it into a little bag for the journal.  Nothing fancy - just a little drawstring bad-boy oughta do.

And maybe a stripey drawstring?  Yes, that'll do too.

Finish it up with a nice running stitch for that handmade touch.  That's where the love is at folks!

 

And scrunch.

Mom - this one's for you!

Slowly But Surely

I have been slowly and steadily working on a new project.

I did mention, a long time ago really, that I was going to get an Etsy shop up and running.  I do mean it and I really AM going to - but it's not a fast and easy process, considering all the hours I work at my "real" job.  I have a hundred different ideas of things I could make but there has been one idea that I just can not get out of my head and so this is the one I am going to start with.  

I won't give it all away but I can give a little sneak preview.  If anything - to push myself to keep going.  It's hard to get home from an 11 hour work day and then pick back up on a project but that is what I have been doing for a few weeks now and I hope that by Fall I can have enough product to put into my shop officially!

Princess Lasertron Felt Flower Kits

Have you ever heard of

  Princess Lasertron?

She is Megan Hunt from Omaha, Nebraska. 

One of her more popular products are her felt flower & button bouquets that she makes for weddings.

She always uses really interesting color combinations and her collection of unique vintage buttons add a special touch and charm to the bouquets.

She has started selling kits so people can make their own bouquets - and not just for weddings - you could make one to put in a pretty vase in your bedroom, give as a gift or make as a group with friends.  

They are fun and easy to make and I have had the pleasure of being one of the first to try out her kits for myself!  She had a giveaway on her blog a little while ago for felt flower Mini-Kits so that she could get some feedback and I was one of the lucky winners :)

They are really cute and are fun to make - you can find 

the kits in her Etsy shop!

To see more of her work -

  check her out on Flickr!

Sew to Speak

I am so excited for the weekend!!  

Duh.  Okayyyy sorry that was an obvious and pointless statement. 

Who is not excited for the weekend?

What I meant to say was... This weekend, we are going to be checking out the new cute little fabric shoppe in town!  This little shop is something that I just discovered a couple of days ago and then found out that it has only been in Columbus for a year (although I'm sad I didn't know about it from day ONE!). 

It is called Sew to Speak.  Check out their blog!

I was whining about how there are no good fabric stores around here to get amazing prints... all we have is Jo-Anns.  Everyone has Jo-Anns.  Jo-Anns only inspires me to a certain degree.  

I want to walk into a fabric store and I want my HEAD TO EXPLODE.  You know??

My head exploded when I walked into MOOD in New York but that is another obvious statement.  

Sew To Speak is full of vibrant fabrics by many of the very bestest print designers that I admire.

Anna Maria Horner

Heather Bailey

Alexander Henry

Amy Butler

Tina Givens

To name a few.

I told Evan that we should think of a budget before walking into the store.  At the same time we both shouted out a number.  He said $30 and I said $600.  Well there ya go.

So does that mean the compromise would be $315?  Meeting in the middle!  

Isn't that what marriage is all about?   

I will definitely have to restrain myself.  Kid in a candy store will not even describe it.

Money does not buy happiness... but money buys fabric which brings happiness.  

So I guess it's an enabler to happiness.

See you soon - Sew to Speak!!

All photos were taken by April Rhodes on behalf of Sew to Speak.

www.sewtospeak.blogspot.com

Patchwork Addiction!

Any fellow crafters and quilters should be excited to know that there's a lot of patchwork in the runway shows lately.  

*Isabel Marant*

 

Quilting and patchwork is not something that is looked at as a trend but more as traditional and timeless handcraft.  But at the moment, it's definitely trending and it's fun to see the way the designers are using it.  

I've been wanting to try to make a patchwork/quilted something but I've found it so hard to decide on what to make and what prints to use!  There are just way too many options.  The library books that I just recently picked up have a zillion ideas in them.  

Last night, I decided to just go for it and make a simple patchwork quilt with the Lizzy Dish fabric that I got from Lizzy House when I won her giveaway!  The prints are so cute and are all in the theme of cooking/eating things like cutlery, plates, tea kettles, etc.

I just cut it all up into 3 inch squares and started sewing random pieces together.  I wanted to go for the jumbled vintage look - but with these crisp modern prints.

I was surprised at how fast it started to come together.  It takes longer to cut the pieces (and press the seams!) than it does to put it all together.  I'm not done with it - right now it's about the size of a pillowcase.

I don't know how big it's going to turn out because I didn't feel like doing any math.  I had 12 fat quarters and cut them all up into 3 inch squares.  I used a 1/4 inch seam allowance.  How big will the quilt be if I use all the fabric?  Anyone like word problems?

Patchwork Pippi

This week Evan and I went to the eye doctor to pick up his new glasses, which happens to be right by the library.  I realized that I have not been into a library or checked out books since.. well, I guess since college 2 years ago - but even then it was only because I had to.  I haven't done it because I wanted to since I was REALLY young!   I have had this craving to buy new books lately but I've also been on this "saving money" kick.  So I thought *duhh* I should see what the library has to offer!

It turns out that they had a ton of awesome crafty books!!!  Aaaaaahhh!!

I left with a few.  One of them is this:

This book is so simply designed and so full of inspiration.  

I wish I could show you every single page of it and all the cool things there are to make!  

But that would take forever so instead I'll show you the first thing I decided to make.

A stuffed elephant!  Haha!!

This is their version:

I love the print they used.  It's so cute and works so well in the design.

I didn't have anything like it so my elephant makes a different statement :)

The book divides projects into how long they take to make.  This was in the 4-8 hour section.

It ended up only taking me 2 and a half hours!

I guess I'm super speedy!

I named her Pippi.

Here she is... the guardian of the sewing machine!

I plan to make many more projects from these library books - and I will share them as I go!!

I'm so excited to learn more new things!!!

2008 Rewind!

On the last day of the year, in my personal journal, I always write out a list of all the things that happened in the past year.  The main things that stand out as being fun or unique or challenging or rewarding in that year.  It's a really good way to easily look on one page and see how far I've come in a year... which then helps me to see where I'd like to go with the next year!

What happened to me in 2008?

We rang in the New Year with an awesome visit from Astrid!  We went into downtown Columbus to do some celebrating!

This one might sound weird to you. 
Evan got that giant bag of grosgrain ribbons from work for free.  They were going to throw them away at work... and we can NOT sit back and watch that happen.  We are totally against wasting perfectly good materials!!!
We find all sorts of creative uses for them (they keep our curtains tied open, they're cat toys, they hold wires from video game systems in place, and they look beautiful wrapped around all of our Christmas presents this year!)

 

In February, we drove up to Saginaw, Michigan to celebrate Evan's 23rd Birthday with our friend Megan!  And we surprised him with a visit from Sarah & Charlie!

 

We moved into our new apartment that is closer to work and has 2 bedrooms instead of 1 and 2 bathrooms instead of 1!

 

I got a promotion!  Associate Textile Designer here I come!

 

That was the same day that Peter came into our lives!  He was here for an interview!  *he got the job*

 

We took a 7 hour trip up to Alpena, Michigan for my friend Ashley's bridal shower and bachelorette party.

In March we headed back up to Michigan for another visit.  This time, to Grand Rapids to see Melanie and Corey!

 

We came home to what was known as "The Blizzard of 2008".
There was so much snow on, around and behind Evan's car that he had to call in sick to work in the  morning because he couldn't get it out!
And we don't own a shovel... and all the stores were sold out!

 

In April, it was Peter's 23rd birthday!  We had a night of adventures which involved eating dinner, getting drinks, going to another bar, trying not to get dragged on stage by a drag queen, finding a random party and then waking up with flat tummies from drinking too much vodka!

 

We also went to Michigan to see Sarah & Charlie in their new apartment!

 

AND we got a new cat!  We named him Tiny Tim because of his sickly demeanor.  Turns out... he WAS VERY SICK and we had to take him back a week later.
Dahlia didn't like him anyway...

In May, Ashley & Fred got married! 
It was also my first experience being in a wedding!

My boss, Amanda, had a birthday party and got a bouncy castle for her backyard!!  Those things were so fun as a kid... but jumping in them at twentysomething years old with a belly full of snacks and wine... ughhhhh.....

 

Earlier that day, we made out like bandits at the Sample Sale!!  Our second one and we felt like seasoned professionals... attacking it with a strategy.

 

At the end of the month, we went back to Michigan yet again!  We wanted to make a trip to see some family in Grand Rapids.
We went to the mall and did some shopping and rock wall climbing! 

 

I learned a bit about planting from Aunt Molly while visiting - and went home and planted some flowers of my own for the first time! 

*can I just say that it is now late December and the spikey plant is still alive!!*

   

In June, Sarah & Charlie came down to visit us and see our new apartment!  We did a lot of karaoke singing and wandered downtown Columbus for a bit as well.

 

Summer is official by June and we make it a goal to have as many perfect weekends as we can.  The first one I like to call
"Perfect Day at the Pool with Peter".  He will remember it too.

What happened next in June?  OH YES.  Evan's Mom and sister came down to visit us for a few days.  We went to the zoo.
AND Evan proposed!!

 

A few days later, on the 20th, I turned 24!
Turns out, 24 isn't so bad and I happen to like it a lot.
My mom is an amazing and beautiful soul and she totally spoiled me on this day even though she is so far away.

And then I got spoiled at work, too!!

 

The next weekend we went on a vacation!  We drove up to Michigan and stayed in a little cabin for a week with Mom & family!  We sat by the lake, boated, feasted and played for days and days.

The weekend after our vacation, my boss got married!

  

Heidi and Peter took me to try on some wedding dresses so we could get an idea of what looks good or not so good on me.
We're designing it and making it ourselves so we definitely didn't go to buy and I think the lady "helping" us got the hint real fast.  She didn't help at all!!

  
*David's Bridal has the ugliest dresses I've ever seen.*
  

On July 2nd... this blog - Running Stitch -  was born!!
I had just really discovered what blogging actually WAS and decided that it was something I should've been doing a long time ago.

Running Stitch is named after the most simple and primitive of stitches.  It is so simple yet so beautiful and attractive and perfect.  It can look crafty  but is versatile enough to be used in a very high-end way.
The blog is meant to be a vault of all things I want to capture, talk about, revisit and share that have to do with living, loving and of course... stitching.

   

Thanks for joining me on my journey!!!

We spent Independence Day with Heidi and Peter and his friend Gabby.
Oh yes I never mentioned the day that Heidi got a job here and joined us in Columbus!!  I believe that was in June.  That was VERY exciting!

   

We took a trip up to Cleveland to see Ashley & Fred and their new place.  We did fun things like sweat a lot in their house without any AC, made yummy dinner on the grill, played around in the Great Lakes Science Center, learned about Egypt in the Omni Theater, and Evan got a tattoo!

 

I got a new camera.  It takes BEAUTIFUL pictures!
It literally makes me have hate for my old crappy 4.1 megapixel piece of junk.  I had no idea how deprived of nice photos I was until this new 12.1 megapixel borderline affordable camera came along.
Someday, I will get a professional camera and have the ultimate in deliciously beautiful photographs.

 

In August, Heidi and I begin designing my wedding dress.

 

Astrid & Jane came to Columbus for our annual reunion!!
We had 5 days of AMJ madness!!

I started to push myself into the "handmade" lifestyle as much as possible.  Gifts, cards, grocery bags, etc.  I want it to become a habit.  Why go buy it when I can make it?  Why throw it away when I can re-use it?

  

My cousin Eric got married!!  Congrats Eric & Megan :)

While in Alpena, Evan and I decided to drive around and take pictures of some memorable places.  This is the house where I spent some of my childhood.
I practiced cartwheels in that little front lawn.

  

In September, I went on a work trip to Brimfield.  This is my second time going there for work.  I LOVE it and would go there every year if I could!  (even though I did get sick both times I went... allergies??).

  

I discovered... Artful Blogging.  Another one of those things that I said "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?!?!" as soon as I saw it (and then realized that I said it out loud and looked around to see who heard me).

  

We did an Engagement Photo Shoot in September with Peter as our photographer, my new camera as the workhorse, Heidi as the moral support and that 1950's dress from Brimfield as the shining star.

  

Sarah & Charlie got engaged and asked us both to be in their wedding!

  

We went up to Michigan to visit Sarah & Charlie to celebrate their engagement and Charlie's 25th Birthday!!  We had a fun day at the apple orchard and a fun night at Buffalo Wild Wings!

    

We got our rings custom made.

  

I had my first give-away on my blog!

 

I had a successful Halloween as an Aberzombie. 
I scared people.  It was good.

  

In November, I played with new ideas.

I also had my first sale!!

Our old TV broke so we got a new one!

  

We got our wedding rings!

 

Evan and I decided to get married in our apartment complex Clubhouse.  We decided to have a small intimate wedding on January 17th, 2009.

  

We met Kelli Martin and saw her fashion show at her boutique, Black Market.

  

Thanksgiving on the floor with friends is quite possibly the best idea, ever.

  

In December we rocked out with Girl Talk at the company Christmas Party!

  

And then celebrated Christmas together.

The only thing left to do is ring in the new year!....
 

Inspiring Christmas

This Christmas has been inspiring.
I feel like I'm on the brink of a whole new life that is ahead of me.

Only a couple more weeks until Evan and I make it super official that we're sharing our lives together and it feels like a fresh start.
The beginning of our life story.
The kind that starts with "Once upon a time..." and I will refer to him as "my Prince" just like my Grandmother did about my Grandfather when writing the story of her own life.

I think this time I'll just share some photos of things that made me happy this Christmas.

 

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!!

Soap Eye

This morning I woke up and got in the shower.  Sleepily I washed. 

As I snapped the lid shut on my liquid body wash... a gob of it sprayed directly into my EYE.  HAVE YOU EVER GOT A GOB OF LIQUID SOAP IN YOUR EYE?! 

I screamed in instant pain and turned the water to cold to rinse out the soap as quickly as possible to stop the burning.  I rinsed it and rinsed it for about 10 minutes until I had to give up.  I got out and looked at my eye in the mirror and it was blood red and crazy watery.  Ughhh!  Evan ran to Walgreen's to get me an Eye Wash and also some Visine.. to "get the red out" which both actually really helped and now my eye looks normal again (although still kinda hurts). 

Seriously... be careful with soap.  Ow.

Aside from that - another good weekend was had!

I headed out to the mailing office to send out a special package on Saturday.  It was for Kelley, the winner of little Chloe the felt flower.  I added a bit more to it to make it more special... so she wasn't just getting a singular flower.

 

After shipping the package, we went to the Diamond Cellar to see our wedding rings in wax form one last time before they're casted into the white gold!  Duncan (our ring man) also had CAD images to show me what my ring will look like.

Now I'm SOOOO excited to finally wear it!!

 

Then I came back home and made an apron!  A prototype for a design to go into my soon-coming Etsy shop! 

 

 

Saturday night we had friends over for an annual viewing of Hocus Pocus (one of the best Halloween movies ever!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsda4GJuzcQ

 

We drank mugs of apple cider out of a cauldron (it's a well known fact that it's the best way to drink cider).  Indulged in Halloween cupcakes, dug into a bowl of candy and even had some Oreo pie!  Yes, junk junk and more junk!

Peter brought a pumpkin and carved it so we could make the seeds for another snack!  Here he is:

 

 

 

And then later that night while we were putting in another movie - an old vampire movie from the 60's... the TV... BROKE!  It started to get kinda fuzzy/wiggly and now it just won't even turn on!  Well, it turns on but then turns itself off about 5 seconds later.  Dude... ugh.  I do not want to buy a new tv.  I am looking on craigslist for a cheap one - but then, what do I do with this tv?  It's huge, and it's not that old so it may be fixable and still worth some money.  I just don't wanna deal with it!  Darn it.

And now it's time for another workweek.

At least Halloween is next weekend!!  That, and also... another SAMPLE SALE! 

We have a winner!

Kelley from Dragonfly Reflections!!

I picked her name out of the cauldron and now she's going to be the proud owner of a Running Stitch flower of her choice :)

Yay Kelley!!

 

Felt Flower Give-Away!

I realized that I promised a Felt Flower give-away in my last post... but never announced a date for the drawing of the winner! 

Oh silly me!

I've decided to give plenty of time to people still wandering in from the Halloween Party over at A Fanciful Twist.  So I'll do a name drawing out of a black witches cauldron on Wednesday, October 22nd at 9:00 p.m. 

Remember - you must post a comment on the "Autumn Asks Questions" post or THIS post to enter the drawing! 

I made one more since the Halloween Party post - so here they all are again:

 

  

 

Side Project: Felt Embellished Cards

I've been busy.  I had two days off of work to go to a wedding in Alpena, MI.  Now I'm back and we're even busier than ever at work.  I worked from 9-8 yesterday and it feels like I barely scratched the surface of finishing what I need to get finished! 

After work and on the weekends here and there, I've been working too... but with something more fun :)

I have much bigger, cooler side projects going on too but I can't post on those yet until they're finished!!

Me, playing with felt - for cards!

What do you think?  Fun, right?  I like playing with the color combinations (82 felt color choices!!).  Also, they really come to life the most once interesting stitch techniques are added.

These will be for sale soon when I open up my Etsy shop - as soon as fall arrives and things start to calm down a little more.  Then I'll hibernate all winter, creating fun and beautiful things to share with the world.

I can't wait :)

Happy Independence Day

There is nothing more glorious than a DAY OFF!!

With that said, I'd like to note that I fill my day off with many important things;  Including a successful trip to Jo-Anns.  What did I buy?

COLOR! 
Super saturated colorful felt, and some soft colored embroidery threads. 

They're going to turn into some beautiful, fanciful flowers!  Here is the first one:

So cute, right?!  I have a lot more ideas for some much crazier designs... this was just me experimenting with something on the simple side.  It's about the size of the palm of my hand.  I was thinking for the next flowers... they should be much bigger - for DRAMA's sake! 

Evan also picked something up.  He wants to "build" me a dress, as he says :)!  He picked out two!  I'm so excited to see how they end up turning out!

Dahlia had an eventful day as well...
She started out on the first floor (kitty condo!)...

And then moved on up to the 2nd floor...

Hahaha. 

In about an hour we're heading down to the fireworks!  It's super wet out from all the rain - but the sky is now blue so the fireworks are going to be great - even if we do have wet butts by the end!!