French Hen pattern is in zee shop!

At last! French Hen patterns are available and just waiting to be made for your Christmas tree. This is the third pattern in my Twelve Days pattern series. (Here are the first two patterns: Partridge & Pear, Turtle Dove.) I'll continue to release patterns until the entire series is available. This is the last one for this year, and hopefully still in time for some holiday hand making fun.

This pattern utilizes the magical and amazing time-saving properties of Sulky Printable Stick 'n Stitch (formerly known as Sulky Printable Sticky Fabri-Solvy), a stabilizer that makes quick work of these ornaments. There is no tracing or transferring of embroidery designs. Just sew right on top of the printed lines:

If you can do basic hand embroidery stitches then you can do this project. There are helpful tips for whipstitch, backstitch and French knots in the Resources section of the pattern. And of course, lots of step by step diagrams. I'll be using the same stabilizer method for each of the ornaments in the series.

You can find all three currently available patterns in this Twelve Days series in both my Etsy and my Craftsy shops.

quickie gadget cozy

I took some time out of my manic hen sewing to whip up this gadget cozy for my sister-in-law, Tiffany. She just got a new birthday purse and her old cozy did not match. Shocking! So I had to do something about that.

It's fun to revisit a pattern that I put together a while ago. Completely fresh eyes to look it over. And reading my own instructions keeps me from making the doofus mistakes I would make when I'm trying to get a project done in a hurry.

Start to finish took about an hour. It's a very quick project and a handy thing to have in your purse for kleenex or gadgets or anything that needs an anchor. I keep mine hanging from the strap inside my purse so I don't have to fish around for my phone in the bottom of my bag with all the bobby pins and cough drop wrappers.

say bonjour to my leetle friend

Zees is my new French Hen ornament design, numbare three in zee series (here is numbare one and numbare two). I sink she is très bon. Ok, ok, je suis désolé, Juju, I'll stop it now.

I'm still writing the pattern (whilst wearing a jaunty beret and of course seeping a café au lait) but I'm determined to get it done and released soon! This one will be made in the same time-saving method as the first two patterns, utilizing the fantastic Sulky stabilizer to quickly do the embroidery and with no pattern tracing or transferring of embroidery designs. Sweet.

this foot was made for walkin'

 

Haha, get it? Walking foot. The first few lines of machine quilting have been sewn on my throw quilt. I spent a long, knee popping time over the weekend crawling around on the floor and baste stitching my pinned quilt sandwich together. Can't say I enjoyed that part. I also can't say I'm exactly enjoying the machine quilting part just yet.

I've wonkified my straight lines so far and am now regretting my choice of off-white thread. It's just so very visible on my dark, solid backing. At first I thought the contrast would be great but now it is merely spotlighting my ineptitude. LOL. This throw will have a lot of handmade charm.

And oh yeah, I changed my mind again about the block design since I last posted. I do super love how the new quilt top arrangement came out, and also love my wonky hugemongous double cross on the back...but I am going to force myself to wait and show you the finished quilt soon. That will help motivate me.