goody-goody

Oh the irony and Pimpstichiness (aka the brown post)

Hello there! If you're reading this, you've most likely made it through Moday (or you're already well into Tuesday in some parts of the world). Congratulations, either way. I haven't blogged about my whirlwind Japantown trip with my stitchin' pals Missy and Amy (Tamie was AWOL in Hawaii....poor thing). It was a fun-exploding-with-food-and-japanese-zakka kind of trip. Except for one thing. Remember how I gloated and did a happy dance when I got my red rocker? Thinking smugly at least I didn't get the OTTOMAN? Well, guess what. Kharma's a doozy.

Tomorrow's another round of Pimp Stitch releases. I'm excited about my two collections, Felling Fall and French Bakery. Down below you zee my leetle French cake...so zueet and petit. Go take a peek! Mais oui!

Plus, it'll be the debut of our stitch kits in the etsy shop. They feature a little snippet from all four designers, plus fabric, thread and needle. All you need is a hoop! They make great gifts, too. Enough plugging. See you soon!

tgif quickie :: robot goody/tooth pillow

And, now, one for the boys. Or girls that like robots, too. Tuck in a tooth and beeept! boop! boink! kaaachink! out comes a special prize. Also good for gift cards, little love notes and special bits dear to little hearts. With the cost of shipping these days, I may just be sending along little dolls with gift cards for upcoming birthdays. It's cute, handmade and they get to go shop for themselves. Everyone wins!

 

Get it:

• Four patterns of fabric cut in the following sizes:
• 4  2" squares (arms)
• 2  2.75 x 3" rectangles (head)
• 2  4" squares (body)
• 1  4x5 rectangle (pocket)
• scrap of felt or linen for face
• stuffing
• embroidery thread for mouth

Do it:

• Sew face on one side of head piece. Zigzag works great for linen, but felt can be sewn in a straight stitch or even by hand. Center head pieces on body pieces, right sides together and sew.

• Sew arms together on three sides, right sides facing each other. Turn, press and stuff lightly.
• Iron pocket in half, making it 2.5" tall, 4" wide. Pin on body piece that has face.
• Pin on arms, raw ends matching onto sides of the body (arms are pointing in) about 1/2" down on body piece. They will overlap with the pocket a bit, that's okay.

• Finish your robot sandwich by placing back body piece, face down on top. pin all around. Remove unnecessary pins (don't want them stuck in your pillow...ouch). Sew all around edge, leaving a hole for turning. Remember the hole needs to be big enough to get the arms through. Check before you turn and stuff to make sure you have everything sewn in there all tidy. There's nothing more frustrating that turning and getting halfway stuffed before realizing you have a popped seam. argh.

• Stuff and stitch opening closed. Add buttons for eyes and embroider mouth, going in under the face to hide the knot. Beep! Boop! You're done! Speaking of robots, we went and saw Wall-E yesterday. Turned me off of Jamba Juice forever.

Have a great weekend!

New stuff and see you tomorrow!

Hi there. Is it just me or does today seem like it should be Friday? I am happy to read that lots of people have been stopping by my blog..mostly due to being on the Craft blog site (thanks to Amy, who was so awesome to submit it for me!). I'm hoping that some of you guys will stick around and see whats next. Tomorrow's quickie goes hand in hand with last week's, so check back.

I've been working on my bib-making skillz this week. Turns out I'm not so hot at binding things. Cross that off the 'ol resume. I tend to like everything to lie nice and flat and when things get bunched and then you have no choice but to sew over it like that...well, it's like driving backwards or not finishing dessert. Completely wrong and unnatural. I think this green one turned out okay, just not as tidy as I'd like. I'm going to start at square one with Alicia's tutorial. Maybe tomorrow. I need to go find a dessert to finish.

tgif quickie :: matyroshka doll tooth fairy pillow

Everywhere you look, there's matyroshkas these days. Why not have one to tuck into bed with your child's tooth kept safely in her pocket? I think the tooth fairy would definitely approve.

I've got it all right and ready for you. The pdf below has the pattern.  

Download toothpillowpattern.pdf

Now for the instructions, witty banter and the secret to life. Which, according to the hub, is 42. Now you know.

Get it:

• 4 patterns/colors of fabric to mix and match
• a scrap of linen, felt or muslin for the face
• embroidery floss for the face and hair
• stuffing

Do it:

• Get your pattern pieces all cut out and ready to go. The pockets are to be cut on a fold on top (indicated by the little dots..that's where the fold should be) so they'll be tall enough to double over.
• Sew the pocket LHS to the RHS. Fold over and crease in half with an iron. Who knows how generous that fairy will be..this pocket's big enough for an ipod. Ha. They should be so lucky.
• Stitch the doll face to the body front. I used a zig zag ('cause I love me some zigzaggin') but you can straight stitch or even sew it on by hand.
• Layer your doll sandwich. Back body piece face up, pocket (lining up the raw edges with the body bottom), doll body front face down. Literally face down! I crack myself up. Pin and sew all around, leaving an opening to turn on the bottom.
• Turn and stuff, making sure your pocket ends up on the doll front, not the back. I only say this because I did it. And I freaked. Until I realized I could just flip it over. Whew.
• Sew opening closed.
• Embroider face, going in under the linen circle so you can't see the knot. I used two strands for the hair, eyes and mouth and one strand for the lips.
• Place tooth inside, tuck under a little arm, and send to bed with kisses and hugs.

Make and share with all the little toothless kids you know, but please do not sell any dolls you make from the pattern. But I would LOVE to see what sweeties you come up with.

Have a great weekend!

And away we go! (or went)

 

Hi there. Hope you all had a fabulous and fun Fourth. We had a great first two days before the stomach flu hit. It's all over and done, thank goodness. I don't have a great transition from that to food-related items, so I apologize. But these were my cupcakes for the party all nestled in their seats ready to go. I love this cupcake carrier. I really do. I spend a lot of time trying to find a space to store it, but when I need it, it's wonderful to have. Especially for school birthdays and other happenings.  I got mine at LNT but they don't have it anymore..no worries, I found them at HSN. They're a bit pricier there, but trust me, you walk into a room carrying that sucker, people will give you some serious props. In that moment, you will feel like Martha. If Martha were to be a ball of sweat and drive a car with two bickering children that goes dead in temps over 100. Wait, that's just me.

I have a few new little bags trickling into the shop soon. Thanks for stopping by. I'm hoping to pull together a little tut for Friday--I know, it's been ages since I've had a quickie! Smirk.

It's here! and other fluffy bits..

Meet my new friend. I don't get out much, so I had to mailorder her..kind of a tech version of Lars and the Real Girl. Hopefully I won't have to fake her death so I can go on to have relationships with living, breathing people. I'll just stay in my little sewing cave, thank you very much.

And look at these new fabrics from Erin McMorris' new line called Park Slope. I'm in love with their funky retro feel and can't get enough birds. I got mine here, the shipping was pretty reasonable. I know, birds are sooo three years ago. But in this house, birds are always in fashion. Except when they hit our picture window. Then they are in pain.

Well, back to my cupcake crusade '08. I just finished a batch of chocolate ones. They were so beautiful and puffy when they came out of the oven and then turned into wrinkly old men when I turned my back. Why does that always happen to the chocolate ones? Well, good thing I plan to cover their faces with oodles of Amy Sedaris' frosting. I thought I would shrink these and use them as cupcake picks, but nothing lined up right and they are decorating my trash can instead. Bummer.

Check in on Pimp Stitch for Tamie and Missy's new patterns! They are so cute--a perfectly adorable ending to our week of new releases!

Hope you all have a happy and safe 4th of July!

Sorry, more embroidery

I want to thank all of you who have visited the Pimp Stitch website since our grand opening last week. I have a few new designs up for your amusement. Check 'em out! Get pimping! No, not THAT kind of pimping. Sheesh. I'd love to hear your ideas for things you'd like to see in upcoming patterns, too. Drop me a line!

If this gnome could talk..

He'd tell me that my yard has seen better days. And to get my a** in gear before the summer growing season is in full swing. See how he's lifting his foot a bit? He's going to kick me. When I least expect it. All this talk about pandas doing kung-fu? Pshaw. It's the quiet, little ones you have to worry about.

Get this pattern and Amy's super totally like rad 80's patterns at Pimp Stitch as of today!

Just when you think life is poopy...

You find a smile in your garlic bread. Happy Sunday. Wherever you are.

Quickieless...again

So, big surprise, when you take apart a computer half a dozen times, it never quite works the same again. Poor hub has spent so much time on that piece of dookie. It will work for a day and then not. It will start up lying down but not upright. Pretty soon we'll have to burp it and rock it gently to get it to cooperate. So, I have no quickie, but I am going to send you over to my friend Amy's blog where she had a great tut posted about making cupcake picks. It's adorable. It's cupcakes. You can't go wrong. Great inspiration for 4th of July picnics and such...'cause sometimes it just doesn't matter whether or not it came from a box...it just needs to be cute.