What a Year!

Hi Angel! Happy Solstice!! I've been hunkering down and not posting much this week. I know you're busy too, getting ready for your Winter Solstice and Christmas celebrations and starting to pack up the house for the big remodel. How exciting!

As I type this, everyone is asleep in the house, aside from our little Christmas tree still bright and shiny in the dark night. I've been a crazed little elf every night for the past week or two. Since we're both so busy and in need to focus on our families during this lovely holiday season, let's take a little blog vacation. We'll be back the first week of January with regular posts!


But before I go, I wanted to recap some of my personal favorite moments and projects on the blog in 2011. It was an exciting year, full of fun events and so much growth, both as a blog and as individual crafters. If you're new to Stumbles & Stitches, this should be a fun little intro to what we're up to around here.

Teacher Gifts

Happy Friday! Yesterday was the last day of preschool for Ben before the holidays. I had volunteered to present a "holiday tradition" to the class, so I talked about Winter Solstice and made pine cone bird feeders with the kids. Yesterday was also the day we brought teacher gifts to school. I had great plans to hand make a special gift for each of Ben's awesome teachers, but a couple of days ago, I realized this was just not going to happen.

Instead, I whipped up a little Scrappy Stocking Ornament for each of them, except bigger so it could fit a gift card. Obviously it is open at the top, and also lined.

Holiday Burlap Art

Hi Angel! I hope you're well and keeping your head above water as we enter the final stretch toward Christmas. I am officially Overwhelmed, with a capital O. I have been so busy making gifts as well as items for my Etsy shop and custom orders, along with the regular routine of raising 2 small children and running a household, plus all the typical holiday craziness. You know how it goes. But can I just say: AAAHH!!!!!!

All right, deep breaths. Since I can't show you the handmade gifts I've been working on, because recipients might be reading, I am going to show you a custom project I worked on last month. I thought it might be fun to share, since it's a holiday project. (Apologies if you visit my personal website, as I already posted photos there!)


I was contacted by a lovely lady named Christina back in early November to create 4 holiday pieces for her family members. They exchange unique holiday gifts at Thanksgiving and she wanted to wow them. After some back and forth with sketches and ideas, we settled on 4 burlap art pieces: 2 with stockings and 2 with snowflakes. Along with the grey snowflakes above, here are the other 3 pieces I made for her.

Sponsor Giveaway: Fat Quarter Shop

It's giveaway day on Sew Mama Sew and we are participating with a very generous giveaway by our sponsor Fat Quarter Shop: a $50 gift certificate! That's right! That is $50 to spend on beautiful fabrics, patterns and more.


How to enter: For a chance to win this fabulous prize, simply write us a comment. If you'd like, tell us about the best handmade gift you've ever received or your favorite handmade item to have ever given. One entry per person, please.

Please make sure and leave an email address so we can contact you if you win. We'll keep comments open until Friday, December 16 at 5 p.m. PST. We'll choose a random winner, will announce the name here, and will email this lucky person. (Void where prohibited.)

This giveaway is now closed. Thank you to everyone who participated! The lucky winner is Maya of redzshadow. Congratulations, Maya! We've sent you an email.

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If you're new to Stumbles & Stitches, a very warm welcome! We are so glad you're here! We hope you'll stick around, browse a little and subscribe. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter. And let's not forget Flickr and Pinterest.

A huge thank you to Fat Quarter Shop for this awesome giveaway, and to Sew Mama Sew for organizing giveaway day! Make sure and go check out all the lovely people giving away supplies and handmade goodness all over the blogosphere.



Pssst... For giveaway day, I'm also having my first giveaway of a Jenny Bartoy original! Go check out the details and enter the giveaway here for a chance to win one of my Wonky Stripe Christmas Table Runner, or a custom Wonky Stripe Table Runner -- your choice!

100 Pretty Little Projects: Book Review and Giveaway

How is it Thursday already? AAH! Slow down the countdown to Christmas puh-lease! Anyone else freaking out that it's less than 3 weeks until the big day? I did complete a Christmas gift yesterday, but more on that in a second.

A couple of months ago, our friends at Lark Crafts sent us the book 100 Pretty Little Projects to check out. I am excited to share my review with you guys today and show you the fun project I made from it. If you'd like a copy of 100 Pretty Little Projects for yourself, make sure and enter the giveaway at the end of this post for a chance to win one!



100 Pretty Little Projects
Pincushions, Potholders, Purses, Pillows & More

100 Pretty Little Projects is a compilation of favorite projects from the popular Pretty Little series. It features cute and practical projects from fabulous designers and crafty bloggers including adorable pincushions, coasters, patchwork potholders, doll quilts, pretty pillows, trendy clutches and much, much more. The book is organized in four loose categories: Enjoy, Use, Hold and Give.

Kid Craft: Stocking Advent Garland

Hello Angel! I loved your little Christmas wrap-up yesterday and wanted to share the ONE Christmas decoration we have put up so far: a stocking Advent garland made by Ben (with a little help from me).

I was so determined to make a beautiful Advent calendar this year but have been so busy and overwhelmed, it didn't happen. Ben has been asking about a calendar for weeks, begging me to purchase the cheap chocolate kind at the grocery store, so I decided it was time to make one, even if it is temporary!


Last week, Ben noticed the template for my Scrappy Stocking Ornament lying around my desk and asked me if he could color it. That's when a little light went off in my head. I created a coloring page for him on card stock by tracing 6 stockings. 4 pages of stockings make 24, perfect for Advent!


While I was sewing, Ben sat at the table next to me with his markers. We talked about all the special things we do during December and he drew them. Our family celebrates Winter Solstice, so several of the pictures focus on that -- making bird feeders, lighting the candle, eating mushrooms for dinner (husband's traditional Solstice recipe!). We also celebrate Christmas and many of Ben's drawings depict the magic of that holiday for him: decorating the tree, Santa and his reindeer, opening gifts with his little brother. We also talked about winter and what's special about it so he drew a lot of snow- and ice-related things.

Tutorial: Scrappy Stocking Christmas Ornament

Welcome to all our new friends visiting from Sew Mama Sew, Pinterest, FaveQuilts or other spots! We hope you'll enjoy yourself, subscribe and like us on Facebook for updates. Happy browsing!

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I'm so excited to have a tutorial to share today!! I was inspired by a custom project I did recently for a lovely customer (more on that soon) to create some patchwork stocking ornaments. This is an awesome scrap-busting project. It is simple and pretty quick: you can sew half a dozen ornaments in an afternoon. And the result is so cute! (At least I think so, I hope you do too!)




I decided to leave the edges raw, so they fray a little bit. I think that's part of the charm of this scrappy stocking, but if you don't like that style, you can use that fray spray, or sew the stocking right sides together and turn it inside out. My tutorial will show you how to make the raw-edges top-stitched wrong-sides-together version shown in the above photo.

Here we go with the tutorial (if my kids let me focus long enough, oy).

Scrappy Stocking Christmas Ornament




For this project you will need:
- fabric scraps (I used quilting cotton and natural linen)
- batting scraps
- lightweight interfacing (optional)
- felt scraps for the cuff (optional)
- ribbon, yarn or twine for the hanging loop
- scissors, sewing machine, thread, pins, washable fabric marker

Cyber Monday

Happy Monday! I hope you enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. We had a wonderful, cozy few days with family, celebrating turkey day and Henry's 1st birthday. I can't believe my baby is ONE! I've been so busy with projects that my little lovebug didn't get anything homemade for his birthday, aside from cupcakes which he really enjoyed! (Here's a gratuitous photo of the birthday boy.)


But let's get to business...

Today is CYBER MONDAY! So many shops and companies are offering great deals for doing your holiday shopping online today. How about a little round-up of our sponsors and their special deals?




Drygoods Design Online is offering 40% off (that's right FORTY) your fabric order of $40 or more with the discount code HOLIDAY40 (good through Dec 14). This shop is a fabulous source of modern fabrics. Owner Keli's handmade goods shop Bread & Salt is full of beautiful gift items too.

Fat Quarter Shop is offering 25% your order to celebrate Cyber Monday. Use the code MONDAY11 at checkout (good through Dec 1). We love this shop for quilting fabrics, patterns and pre-cut bundles. Tons of great stuff!

A Child's Dream Come True is offering $5 off your order over $50 with the code JOY (good today only). A Child's Dream is our favorite place to purchase wool felt, wool roving and other natural crafting supplies. They have a wonderful selection of children's toys and art supplies too!

Fashionable Fabrics is offering 5% off orders over $50 with the code BF5 and 10% off orders over $100 with the code BF10 (good through Dec 5). Fashionable Fabrics is a great spot to find unique novelty fabrics. You can always find great deals in their Sales and Remnants sections.


Happy online shopping! We hope you score lots of great deals.

Some Finished, Some In Progress

Hello Angel and friends! I'm popping by today to quickly share a few projects. Some completed, some still in progress.

First off, I finished two Christmas table runners. Here's a glimpse of one below. If you're curious, I shared more photos as well as my original sketch on my website, since these were made for my shop. I've already sold one, whee! The other one is still available. I really like how these came out with the large wonky stripes and the contrast with the textured linen. I have more in the works, that are not Christmas-themed, including one for our own dining room table!!


And now for the works in progress... Some of these are gifts, so I won't divulge any details. I'll just let the pictures do the talking! As you can tell, I am completely unashamedly obsessed with linen at this point.

Surfacing... And Some Button Pouches

Well hello there! Sorry I've been M.I.A. this week. There has been sickness in the house, and for once, I've been sicker than everyone else, which has sucked! There has also been craziness in the house: I had a big custom holiday order due in the mail yesterday (I washed my hands a lot, don't worry). Throw in the usual amount of sleep deprivation and two-small-children-in-need-of-attention shenanigans. Stir. And you get one overwhelmed, pooped out mama!

I've missed this place though and have so many things to share! I've been cranking out a bunch of stuff for the Etsy shop, both because the holidays are coming and I would like it somewhat stocked, and because I am on inspiration overload lately. Too. Many. Ideas. But, I should backtrack a little and show you the birthday gift I finally finished for my mom.


My mom's birthday is on July 26. I'm a little bit late, ahem. Originally, I wanted to make her a pocket pouch, using jute upholstery tape as an embellishment somehow. I got stuck on that idea and couldn't figure out how to make it work. I shelved it for a while, then decided to use linen instead and to round up the bottom and add some darts, a little bit like that clutch.

Fab Felt Holiday Crafts with Betz White: Felty Fir Trees

I have long been a fan of Betz White's blog, books and wonderful upcycling projects. She is the green queen in the world of sewing and crafting! When she contacted us to participate in the blog tour for her new Fab Felt Holiday Crafts workshop on Craftsy, Angel and I were thrilled! I am so excited to share the project I've made from the workshop today. Angel will be sharing hers next week.


In the Fab Felt Holiday Crafts course, Betz shows you the basics of felting wool sweaters, and then takes you through the steps to make 7 beautiful felt projects, from a tabletop village to ornaments, bottle sleeves, slippers and more. Perfect for holiday decorations and gifts!

French Press Cozy

Good morning! I hope you had a lovely weekend. Angel, I hope you had fun selling your needle-felted beauties at the Elves Faire. I know you've been working hard on your soon-to-open Etsy shop. Can't wait to see it!!

I ended up sewing, sewing, sewing -- both personal projects and items for my Etsy shop. Can't wait to share them all soon! Let's start with one thing I finished this weekend: a French press cozy!


The pattern is from Stash Happy: Felt by Amanda Carestio that we just reviewed last week. This book is seriously awesome. I love so many of the projects and couldn't decide what to make first. However, the constant frustration at pouring cold coffee in my mug made the decision for me! French press cozy it was!

Birch

Hello there and happy Friday! I've been working away, as time (and kids!) allow, on new things for my Etsy shop. Time is flying and the holidays are a-comin'. It would be nice to create and finish a few things that have been living in my head before then.

Yesterday I finished a new piece of burlap art inspired by the leaves turning yellow on the birch trees in my neighborhood. The light playing in the foliage was just gorgeous when we took a walk the other day. Here it is. (And it's now listed in the shop here!)


Embroidering the bark onto the trunk fabric made me want to research interpretations of birch trees in the arts. And that led to my creating a "Birch" treasury on Etsy. There's such beautiful stuff out there!! Here it is, after the jump. Enjoy!

Rainbow Lizard (Happy Halloween!)

Happy Halloween!! I hope you are enjoying the day so far with happy kiddos, fun costumes and too much candy.

Ben's preschool's Halloween Party was last Thursday and (shocker!) I was up until way too late Wednesday night finishing up his Rainbow Lizard costume while swearing at my sewing machine. But, it got done on time and my little dude was SO happy. He was so very proud of his costume and had fun explaining during the show and tell that he drew the "dee-zign" for it.


I am pretty happy with the final result but it's a good thing Halloween only comes once a year. That was a lot of work! You can see my previous posts about this project here and here.

Here's a little recap and comparison between the original drawing by Ben, and sketches by me, and the finished costume (we added the spikes on the tail after the sketches):

Jack O Lantern Garland: Kid Craft!

Friday was a gross rainy day for us. I was busy cleaning the house and doing laundry, getting ready for friends visiting over the weekend. Ben was getting antsy and asking me for an "activity". Inspired by a little jack o lantern foam craft sent by my mom, I pulled out our craft felt, some scissors and some white glue and let him have some fun.


He cut out a bunch of shapes and glued them into ghosts and small pumpkins. I then cut out various pumpkin shapes and a bunch of mouths and triangles, and let him assemble some jack o lanterns.

Birds

Happy Tuesday! I hope this week is going well for you so far. I am running on way too little sleep between a baby who's working on his two front teeth and shipping my first few orders for the Etsy shop. Man, this Etsy business is not for wimps. I guess the good thing is I've made some sales, yay! But the amount of work required to make it all happen is a bit overwhelming. It's all good and exciting though, and I'm sure I'll get into a groove soon enough.

Moving on... Sew Mama Sew shared a Salon article on their Facebook page yesterday, called “Put a Bird on It”: The aftermath. The article discusses how the Portlandia sketch "Put a Bird on It", which poked fun at the ubiquitous bird in today's design and craft products, affected crafters and hipsters -- or not.

Here's the sketch if you've never seen it:


I love that skit, it's hilarious and silly and kind of right on. Disclaimer, I read the article quickly, but it made me think a lot. The essence of my reaction was: I don't care. I like birds and I'm going to keep putting them in my projects when I feel like it. If people like birds too, then they'll like my project. If not, well, that's okay.

Guest Post on Whip Up!

I'm so excited to be featured on Whip Up today with a guest post: a tutorial for making your own birdie burlap wall art!

I know, I know, it's all about the burlap art for me lately with the launch of my Etsy shop. What can I say? I'm a little obsessed. But isn't it pretty? I love how this project turned out!


This burlap art is made from an upcycled coffee bag and a mix of colorful fabric scraps. It features two birdies having a conversation across the woods at sunset. It was inspired by my neighbors, who found each other and fell in love despite hailing from Alaska and Mexico respectively. They told me their story in our backyard in Seattle on a lovely day at sunset.

Pumpkin Burlap Art

I don't know about where you are, but here in Seattle, autumn has firmly landed. Rain is back, there's a chill in the air, leaves everywhere and the light has changed. As much as this weather doesn't thrill me (especially after a much too short summer), I love the wealth of activities this season brings with it (Leaf collecting! Acorn gathering! Pumpkin picking! Pie baking! Cider drinking!) and the anticipation of the nearby holidays.

As I was creating items for my new Etsy shop, I decided to try out a few seasonal things. I love the shape and color of pumpkins. I always get a kick out of seeing them at the stores and markets, and on all our neighbors' stoops this time of year. They pop up here and there randomly as if growing overnight out of steps and porches. Ben gets so excited about seeing the latest jack-o-lanterns and pumpkin collections around our neighborhood. So, I got out my sketchbook and a few days later...


I am so happy about these pumpkin pieces!! I think the style is really different depending on the background -- boldly stamped coffee bag or plain burlap. I love both for different reasons. (They are for sale in my shop now, click on the photos above to go to the listing).

I thought I would share a little bit about my process for creating these, in case you want to make a similar project. I'm also assembling a few kits for my shop with the template, instructions, burlap and fabric to make these. I'll update here when they're ready and listed (probably tomorrow at some point). Kits are in the shop now! Here's one. Update: I've also listed the PDF pattern for this pumpkin art in my shop here.

Open For Business!

Hello Angel and friends! Quick post to let you know I am open for business. The shop is launched. Yeehaw!


Here are a few links:
- Etsy shop
- Website
- RSS
- Facebook page

I hope you'll subscribe and "like" me on Facebook! I'm so nervous about this whole deal, but very excited too.

Progress on the Rainbow Lizard!

Hello! Quick post in the midst of Etsy shop launch madness to update you on our progress on the Rainbow Lizard costume. The last time I wrote about this, we had a "dee-zign" by Ben, some sketches by me and a whole stack of eco-felt ready to roll.

The first part we tackled was the largest: the back with all the scales. I used one of Ben's shirts to get a rough idea of the size and traced the outline on the blue felt. Ben helped me trace scales on all the different colors of eco-felt. I cut them and sewed them on, in the order he chose, on the back felt.

Link Love: Halloween!

Halloween is fast approaching. Are you ready? We've been working on our Rainbow Lizard costume and, slowly but surely, it's starting to come together. Can't wait to show you the progress! I still need to figure out what Henry is going to be. I'm thinking caterpillar or spider, we'll see.

Aside from costumes, I want to have some fun with Halloween decorating this year. I have been pinning lots of fun stuff on my Halloween board on Pinterest. Here are some of my favorites.

(Oh, speaking of Pinterest, my mom is on there and getting on a roll with pinning some cool stuff. She used to have her own decor and mural business. I can't wait to see what she puts on her boards! Follow her if you'd like. (She's probably going to strangle me for putting this on here, ha ha.))

All right, moving on with the Halloween links! I'll let the pictures do the talkin'.

Source: google.nl via Jenny on Pinterest

Sneak Peek!

Launching an Etsy shop is way more time consuming than I had ever imagined. I keep pushing off my opening date. I think I should finally be able to launch it by this weekend. I think. Don't quote me on this.

I am so excited though, I wanted to show you what I've been working on! So here's a little sneak peek. Let me know what you think!!