Free Vintage Pattern : Little Jumping Lambs!

A gift from me to you! This vintage embroidery pattern is a personal favorite... I love the little lambs jumping! The dots on their wool look especially fetching done in a series of french knots.

This pattern is included in a pack of five PDF pages in my new shop, PatternAngel.

Using a PDF Embroidery Pattern

There are many awesome sellers of PDF hand embroidery patterns on Etsy, and Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching recently started selling PDFs of her patterns as well. How do yo use a PDF embroidery pattern once you purchase it, though?

1) You need a program that can open PDFs. The most common is Adobe Acrobat Reader, available for free here: http://get.adobe.com/reader/ Mozilla offers the FoxIt PDF Reader for free on their website as well: http://www.foxitsoftware.com/

2) Next you'll want to print the pattern. If the pattern is multiple pages, I recommend printing just the page you need. Most printers will allow you to choose advanced printing options and "scale" the size of the printout as well, so if you want to print a smaller/larger version of the pattern you can. The exact directions for changing the size will vary with different printers. Some people put the pattern up on their computer screen and trace directly off the screen, but I don't recommend that. It will damage your computer screen.

3) Now, you need to choose a method to get the pattern onto your fabric. You can use a transfer marker or pencil, transfer paper, or even a lightbox/window and tracing method. Read Amy Bindel's "How To" at Sublime Stitching's website: http://www.sublimestitching.com/transfertechniques.html

4) Once you've transfered the pattern to your fabric, you're ready to stitch!

Hand Embroidered Flowers

Another lovely set of handkerchiefs for a bride, finished and shipped!

For these hankies, I took vintage floral patterns from a collection of English women's magazines and modified them to fit the size and style I needed. For example, the calla lilies are part of a huge calla lily pattern, so I used one of the flowers and one leaf as a basis for the two-flower pattern you see here. The tiger lily was actually an Easter lily, so I made the ends a little more pointy and added the dots on the inside to mimic the real flower.

I'd love to use your wedding flowers or your favorite flower to create a beautiful keepsake for you!

http://mutantangel.etsy.com

Check out Fat Sally!

My sister Emma recently entered a contest at My Friend Teresa Photography -- Teresa is hosting a "Makes Me Laugh" contest, and Emma entered a photo of one of her cats, Sally.

We call her Fat Sally because she is so round!

Like Teresa's Facebook page and Emma's photo and help her win the contest!

Recent projects...

I just finished a set of wedding handkerchiefs for a bride in Florida, featuring the popular vintage birds in a nest design. This design is actually from a set of vintage patterns that belonged to my cousin's grandmother, a professional draper and all-around talented needlewoman.

Her wedding colors are mango and clover, so we incorporated those colors into the design in the edging, beaks, and text color. I created the hankies themselves from scratch, using a white linen and hand-cutting all of the scalloped edges.

I'm off work today, so I'm going to be busy stitching letters for a large order of groomsmen's hankies. I feel blessed to be so busy!

Stitching on an airplane... Part Two

Here I am, ladies and gents, stitching on an airplane (3-13-2011). I had my sister take this photo, blurry and silly as it is, to prove that the TSA does really let you have scissors and needles on an airplane. I can't say that it was very comfortable or that I had a lot of arm room to stitch in, but I did actually manage to finish a few hankies for custom orders.

I wouldn't recommend having your stitching out during take-off or landing since you don't want to drop your scissors or needle. The first leg of our flight was only 30 minutes, so I didn't bother to get everything out then, but the 2 1/2 hour part of the flight was much more entertaining with something constructive to do.

Stitching on an airplane...

I am traveling to Houston tomorrow for a wedding, and I am very excited! However, because of the necessity of changing flights and dealing with layovers, the trip will take almost five hours (on the way there and back). I hate flying (who doesn't?). Actually, I kinda hate traveling in general. I like BEING in a different place and SEEING the place but not GETTING to the place. I'm actually not scared of an airplane crash, but I just hate being uncomfortable and breathing all that dry, stuffy air. On top of all that, I was sure that I wouldn't be allowed to bring my embroidery supplies because they include scissors and needles.

I was wrong!

Check out the list of "prohibited items" from the TSA-- metal scissors with smaller than a 4" blade are permitted in my carry on! It doesn't say anything about needles.

YAY!