I just bought some organic sheets for the girls’ beds, but wanted to add something sweet to the plain white. So I used a freezer paper stencil and some embroidery to make these cheerful daisies. I’ve been inspired a lot lately by Vera Neumann prints. Here’s what you’ll need:

• daisy template
• painter’s tape
• craft knife
• cutting mat
• pillowcases
• freezer paper (found at the grocery store)
• iron
• fabric paint
• foam or stencil brush (I use the end of a foam roller)
• scrap cardboard or plastic
• embroidery floss in yellow and green
• embroidery needle

If you’ve never made a freezer paper stencil before, you’ll find that they couldn’t be easier. Just print out the template, cut into two rows and tape it on top of the freezer paper on the cutting mat. Cut out the design with a craft knife, as shown below. Press the shiny side of your freezer paper to the pillowcase edge with a hot iron (no steam). Place scrap cardboard or plastic inside your pillowcase so that your paint doesn’t bleed through. Then paint your design, wait a minute, then carefully peel off the freezer paper.

Allow the paint to dry for at least 24 hours, then start the embroidery. I used a lazy daisy stitch, french knots and a simple cross stitch. If you aren’t familiar with these easy stitches, there are lots of video tutorials for the stitching available on YouTube (here and here). I made my daisies a bit wonky to match the stencil design. You could also use this stencil for curtains, bags, skirt hems, dish towels, aprons or whatever you can imagine.

I’m taking a blog break so I can get some work done on my book. See you next week!

I made this little mini-quilt from one of my six-year-old’s drawings.  She found a Monopoly car and started making roads for the car on her magnetic drawing board.  I particularly liked this drawing, so I scanned it in, traced it in Illustrator and digitized it for machine embroidery.  She also wanted to make coloring pages for her friends from the line drawing, so we printed some out and sent them to school.

Congratulations to #48 – Marilyn!  Thanks for all of your comments about embroidery.  You should all get stitching!  Sublime Stitching is a great place to start.  If you’re interested in cross stitch, take a look at these wonderful designs.  The matryoshka doll pictured above, plus others, can be found at Superbuzzy.   I haven’t done cross stitch since I was a kid, but I find these designs to be nostalgic and inspiring.

Thanks to Deborah from Whipstitch for sponsoring the giveaway!  Be sure to check out her fabric shop here.

Want to try your hand at embroidery?  Well, this is your chance.  Deborah from Whipstitch Fabrics is giving away some tools to help you get started.  Including in this giveaway is an embroidery hoop, 10 skeins of embroidery floss, a set of needles, a stitch guide, sample pattern and a blank kitchen towel, as seen in the image below.

If you live in the Atlanta area and need some instruction, stop by Deborah’s Welcome to Embroidery! class on Wednesday, September 16 from 7-10pm at the Whipstitch Sewing Lounge inside Beehive Co-op.  More information about the class schedule can be found here.

To win this embroidery starter kit, simply tell us about your past experience with hand embroidery or why you’d like to get started.  If you’d like to see other classes offered at Whipstitch, tell us about it. This giveaway is open to residents of U.S. and Canada only.  Please submit your comment by Monday night, September 7 at midnight eastern.  The winner will be selected by the random number generator and I’ll announce on Tuesday.

And be sure to visit Deborah’s Etsy shop for all kinds of fabric goodness, like these Monaluna prints below. Whipstitch also has a fabric shop in Atlanta’s Beehive Co-op, so if you’re looking for an intown source for interesting fabric, be sure to check it out.

A very cool way to make a flip doll with legs from We Wilsons (link via Luv in the Mommyhood).

And over at Meet me at Mike’s, Pip has posted some great links: 25 Adorable Amigurumi Critters to Crochet and25 Super Cute Totes to Make (that’s my kid’s artwork tote pictured).

Print this handy Pocket Stitch Book from Cassi of The Crafty Crow for Sew, Mama, Sew.

Make this Table Runner from Betz White for Craft.

Pincushion from A Stitch in Dye (link via Whip Up).  And look, she has a new book available for pre-order.

Find some sandwich inspiration for your kid’s lunchbox from Funky Lunch (link via Craft Gossip).

Log Cabin washcloths from The Purl Bee.

Make it Do shows you how she made these school bags (she used my squirrel appliqué design that you can find here).

This one’s for those of you with an embroidery machine.  I designed these happy little apples last year, but never got around to sewing them out.  Just stumbled across the file this morning and thought I’d share.  The design is 4.8″x3.1″ with a quick and easy stitch count of 1460.  I’m attaching it here in several formats.  I think it would be sweet on a little tee, a tote bag, or my drawstring backpack from last week.  Happy Sewing!

happy-apples-pes

happy-apples-hus

happy-apples-dst

Oh, and I have to mention that this design is for personal use only.  Please don’t sell stuff made from this without my permission.  Thanks!

I took the little elephants that I made for baby shower printables over at Alpha Mom and made them into an embroidery design for machine embroidery.  Oh, and look — the design is available in my Etsy shop (in two sizes).  I think this would be sweet on baby things.

I cranked up the embroidery machine this afternoon to monogram these organic cotton pillowcases for my mother-in-law.  I haven’t been very interested in machine embroidery lately, but it always makes a nice gift.

I’ve been coming across some hand embroidery projects that I love, so here they are:

Julie West embroidery designs, $5 for pattern from Sublime Stitching.

Roses Hand Towels, $30 for set of 2 towels from chex sucre chez (link via Modish).

Amanda Blake Soule’s Portrait Bookmarks, instructions at Mothering magazine.

Pint-Sized Pocket Pillows from Goody-Goody (link via Craft).

Here is a little gift for a one-year-old.  Not very exciting to her as she can’t chew it, but I think it turned out to be sweet.  I’m planning to make more of these wall hangings and might sell them.  My daughter has a project that she’s been working on that has pushed me to try to do some local selling with her.  I can’t squash a six-year-old’s entrepreneurial spirit!  More details soon.

I made last week’s Valentine’s card project into an appliqué design for the shop.  Here it is on a little tee for my four-year-old.