My New (Old) Love, Embroidery & Some Birdies for the Nursery

I almost titled this post "My New Love, Embroidery," until I remembered that embroidery was how I began my foray (descent? downward spiral?) into the needle arts. So that actually makes it my first crafting love.  As it turns out, embroidery was my first creative endeavor as a grown up.  Like, 9 nears ago when I was 23.  How many 23-year-olds do you know who are into embroidery?  Yup, I'm a trail blazer and clearly ahead of my time.

Of course now I'm 9 years older and a smidgen wiser and I've branched out and become hooked on knitting and, recently, sewing.  I also threw in a touch of punch embroidery and some haphazard crochet, as well.

And it appears I've come full circle and I'm back to loving embroidery again.  Embroidery offers me a different kind of relaxation than knitting.  It's easier, for one, and less monotonous, to a point.  Constant color switches keep it light and interesting, projects are more portable and I don't have to do any counting. (Yay!) Except when it comes to counted cross stitch. But that's a whole other story.

On to the New Nursery Sneak Peek!

I recently finished embroidering some scandanavian birds for our new baby's nursery. The pattern is Scandinavian Birds II from the sweetest Etsy shop, The Split Stitch. (I can't link directly to the pattern because once someone buys it the link won't work anymore.)  I love Sara's embroidery patterns and just purchased a sewing pattern from her, too -- and I'm almost already finished!

I love how sweet these little birdies are. And the colors were fun to choose, too.

In what might be considered sacreligious fashion, I cut and hot glued the evenweave fabric to the hoop (I know) and then wrapped the hoop with strips of coordinating fabric as per Allison's tutorial on her blog, Little Lovelies. I'm very happy with how it came out and plan to make another piece or two from this same pattern for the baby's room, and someday for mine. (The pattern gives you several more birds to choose from than the ones you see here, and in several different sizes and orientations.  What a great deal!)

Don't you just love it?! 

Stay tuned for more from our baby-to-be's nursery, coming soon... I still have lots to show! 

Pinned It, Did It #3: Embroidered Family Tree & BIG NEWS!!!

It seems like it's been forever since I've written a post -- well, two weeks, but that seems like forever in the Internet age, right?  Or maybe just to busy moms, who get so much accomplished in two weeks they can't believe that only two weeks have passed.  Either way, thanks for sticking around and for reading! 

Today I have my third Pinned It, Did It project to share with you, plus some really big news!

The project is an embroidered family tree:

The pattern is from Cozy Blue, an etsy shop I'd read about in Better Homes & Gardens a few months ago.  It has mine and T.J.'s names in the middle, the date we started our family on one leaf (our wedding day), Nathan's name in another leaf.... and then there's a blank leaf awaiting a name.

You may have figured it out -- this is our big news -- we're expecting baby number two!!!  We couldn't be more happy and excited.  Baby is due in late September and I'm almost 15 weeks along. 

So that's one of the reasons why I haven't been around much lately -- a little exhaustion, a lot to do and some time-consuming sewing projects. (If you follow my Facebook page or Twitter, you already know that my sewing machine has been giving me problems and that's been taking up more time than the actual sewing. But I dropped it off at the shop today, so hopefully I'll be up and running again soon with more Pinned It, Did It projects to share with you.)

So, back to the embroidery. The pattern is fun and easy and works up quickly.  Some of the water-soluble pen has come back, so I need to work on that a bit more and iron and finish the back of the piece.

I really enjoyed the change of pace -- I find embroidery really relaxing.  I've recently pinned some other really cute embroidery projects, most of which I hope to use in the new baby's nursery.  But don't worry, I'll find out the baby's sex before I begin working!

I've been adding more pins lately, including some baby-related pins that I found out have recently sparked some curiosity among my friends (I only announced my pregnancy to the "public" yesterday) -- so please have a look and follow along if you'd like!

Here's today's Instagram (Instagram is a photo-sharing iPhone app, in case you didn't know):

It was my sneak peek of today's announcement.  If you use Instagram, please find me and I'll follow you back!  My username is kellypatla.  I love looking at other people's pictures.  Hope you do, too!

Something Different

My recent little embroidery project has left me with a taste for something different.  It was so fun, and so fast and so different from what I'm used to -- and it sparked the creativity I felt I've been lacking for weeks.  I stumbled upon a few interesting embroidery patterns (thanks, Pinterest?) and high-tailed it to Joann's over the weekend.

I dug into this pattern today -- a slice of my family tree.  I'd seen the custom screen print from this Etsy shop in Better Homes & Gardens magazine months ago, and when I saw the same embroidery pattern on Pinterest I recognized it right away.  What a great idea!

But I'm really excited to dig into this design:

It'll let me try lots of different stitches (most of which I haven't executed yet, but I've read about in Stitch-opedia) and pick and choose what types of stitches will go where.  That's where I find creativity in working on someone else's pattern or idea.

With some new embroidery thread in my collection, I'm suddenly getting all kinds of original cute home decor ideas (yay, my creativity is back!).  I even found some interesting fabrics to try embroidering on while sorting through my closet to donate the clothes I no longer wear. 

We're planning a bedroom makeover in 2013, and my gears are already turning.  I can't wait to share my ideas.  With 2013 seeming so far off -- and still so much to accomplish in 2012 -- who knows when this will be.  Stay tuned, I guess!