Embroidered fall napkins

Happy fall! I made these napkins several years ago and I love pulling them out every fall.


You'll need:

• cloth napkins
• embroidery floss to coordinate with your napkins
  
• needle
• fall clip art (I use Microsoft office clip art) - stick with a simple design
• blue water-soluble fabric pen
• knowledge of basic embroidery technique - French knot and backstitch

The embroidery stitches are really very easy. Here are helpful links:

• French knot
• Backstitch
  

1. Choose clip art and print out desired size.
   
2. Cut out clip art.
3. Use the fabric pen to trace your clip art onto the napkins. Add easy details (like the leaf veins). Don't be a perfectionist here.
4. Thread needle. Embroidery floss consists of 6 strands. I usually use 3 for my French knots. If you like your knots bigger or smaller, increase or decrease your threads accordingly.
5. Knot the end of your thread.
   
6. Embroider your image using the stitches. I outlined my leaves with French knots and did the veins with a backstitch. You could use all backstitches or all knots. Anything goes!
   
7. Wash your napkins in cold water to erase the blue pen markings.
   

There are so many possibilities for this little project. You could embroider napkins or a table runner with your monogram. I've done monograms on pillows, too. Be creative and good luck!

(I promise to get some photos of Caroline on here soon!)

Tiny treasures

I made these little hair bows for Caroline. So cute and easy, too! My mom thinks she looks like Little Cindy Lou Who with the bow! She really does... (She's vegging out to Sesame Street with a snack here.)

I love the blue one the best. I haven't found anything that it matches yet.

And here's a tiny pin cushion. Also very fun and easy to make. Save your 2-liter bottle tops!

On a side note...this is my 100th post! Thanks for keeping up and staying in touch with us!

Behind the scenes

My good friend and fellow blogging mommy Rachel asked about my smocking - if I have a special machine that does it and if I made the baskets by hand. And the answer is yes! Maybe you'd like to start smocking, too, Rachel?

I start by cutting out the pattern. Here I'm using a lovely lavender scrap. Wonder what that's from? ;-)

Once the pattern is cut out, there are a couple of different options for pleating the material. There are iron-on transfer dots or the dots can be carefully drawn on with a fabric marker. Then the material is gathered by using a running stitch. Or the material is run through a pleater. I'm lucky enough to have the use of my mom's pleater. Some fabric stores offer pleating for a fee. That's the pleater on the left and spools of thread on the right. My dad built this board to hold both the machine and the thread. It really makes this process very smooth.

This is a Sally Stanley pleater. Those are the needles on the left. I didn't get a picture of those, but they have a crook and fit between two of the rods. You insert as many needles as you want rows of smocking. I want 5 rows of smocking, so I've inserted 5 needles.

Thread the needles.

Pull plenty of thread through the needles. That's where the fabric winds up.

The fabric gets wrapped around a wooden dowel.

Here's the knob that turns the rods.

The material feeds into the pleater...

...and onto the needles.

Gently pull the pleated material off of the needles and onto the thread.

See how the machine makes the running stitch that gathers the material?

Here's a pleated piece of material.

Cut the threads, leaving plenty on either side of the material and stretch/shape to whatever you are making.

Now the fabric is ready to be smocked. The green threads are called gathering stitches. Smocking is done on top of the pleats, using the gathering threads as guides. It's very much like learning to write on ruled paper. There are some websites that outline the basic stitches.

Stitches Link 1

Stitches Link 2

I have a couple of books that serve as inspiration and instruction for patterns (like the baskets). Sometimes I just do my own thing. Luckily, it's easily pulled out and redone if you make a mistake (as I am prone to do!) or don't like the way it looks. There are also smocking plates.

Are you thoroughly bored now? I think smocking is great fun and I love to talk about it. In fact, I think it's time to start a new project!

Waiting for spring

My sweet little helper and I had an indoor project today. We saved our egg cartons and poked a few holes in the bottom of the cups. We used the lids for saucers. Then we filled the cups with some damp potting soil and planted our morning glories and moon flowers. We put them in a sunny window and by the time spring gets here we'll be ready to plant them in the backyard!

The Garrett Museum of Art

OK - so it's not quite Guggenheim material, but I had fun. And isn't that what's really important?


A 30"x40" canvas, some joint compound, and a few spatulas...


...some craft acrylic and a paint brush...


...Voila! Mantle art!

(You'll have to come visit to get the full effect.)