Ink Circles: Pens and Needles

Merry Christmas.  I enjoyed some time today stitching up this little project and I thought I'd share the "How To" with you. It only took a few hours, and is going to actually be one of the more useful things I've made. I have a wonderful barn coat that I wear often, but am always wishing it had an inside pocket. So I added one made from scraps of silk, linen, and lined with flannel.
The design I chose is "Holiday Magick" with a few extra snowflakes from "Square Dance" below it. The little reindeer's antlers have an antique protection charm woven into them, and was found with instructions to make the (original) charm stitched in red silk and worn near the heart. I think this is perfectly fitting. Obviously you can use any design you like.


Using a garment with a good pocket size and shape, make a pattern template out of paper. My linen was a bit small, so I added a flannel strip on the top. It works well as a decorative element too. Press the linen and the flannel and place right sides together. If you like, you can use interfacing behind the stitching.

Pin the paper pattern so that the stitching comes out straight and centered. Leaving a 2" gap on one of the long sides, stitch the rest of the way around at the outline of the paper.

I had actually forgotten that I did a piece for this until the finished book showed up in the mail! It's a sweet book with a lot of well-designed projects, IMHO.  I see a number of designer friends' names in there, too, which makes if feel like a group collaboration.

Hardback book on the shelves now.

You'll like the way they divided the projects up by planned color palettes - we got to choose which section fit our piece. I picked purples and gold.  I used DMC, but you could easily sub in overdyes or different colors.

GIngerbread Flourishes by Ink Circles

So if you're looking for a collection of Christmas patterns that extends beyond an ornament collection, have a look at this book. It would also make a nice gift for a stitcher.

P.S. You still have plenty of time to finish something BEFORE Christmas. ;-)

I've got three new holiday pieces popping up in the magazines this season.  Look for a new Halloween Mandala in the the Just CrossStitch special Halloween 2014 book. This is the fourth year I've done a piece in this series.

Ghostly Mandala by Ink Circles

For some reason I think of Scooby Doo when I look at it.  This series was all done with dark but not black threads on varying backgrounds. Any one of them, but this one in particular, would look really neat stitched on the new Glow in the Dark fabric produced by Fabric Flair.

Changing seasons and dropping down to ornament size, I have a piece in both the JCS Ornament 2014 Issue and the Preview Issue. You can see my mistletoe peeking out at the bottom on the Ornie issue. It's not on stands yet, but you can preorder from just about any shop.

Happy holiday stitching,
Tracy

It looks like the JCS 2011 Ornament issue is arriving in peoples mailboxes and in the shops. I haven't got my copy yet, but I saw a picture of ornament I did for it. I wasn't sure how well the single photo would convey what it was, so I've got a few more pictures to show you.

It's a book. The red fabric "Tango" from Picture This Plus reminded me of the faded red leather of old books. I used Belle Soie to emboss a little pattern into my leather, then finished it with some felt pages. The back has the same border as the front with my initials and date, and a dainty pattern on the spine.

So who else loves the old Dr. Hook songs?

To circle things back to relevancy... if you spotted the current issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine (July/August 2011) it looks something like this:


Bottom - left. Ink Circles. Get your copy now.  'Nuff said.

Well, it's not the Rolling Stone, but it still makes my mamma happy.

We here in the designer world have our schedules completely turned around - for your benefit, of course.  If I started thinking about Christmas when the Thanksgiving turkey leftovers are all packed up, then the season would be lost.

Today I'm doing the finishing work on a new Christmas ornament for Just Cross Stitch magazine. None too early - it's due next week.  After all, they need time to do all of the photography and layout for the mag. Then of course the printing and getting distributed to shops in time for you to get your copy and STILL have enough time to whip out one or two before the holiday.  If you're able to stitch on gifts year round, it helps ease some of that crunch for you too.

On a related note, Jenna shared a picture of the Celtic Ice Christmas ornament that I put out as a kit a few years back.  Didn't it come out cute?  I loved doing a project on that funky windowpane fabric (although I was a bit peeved that the squares were not perfect squares.)

Regardless of what my son says, this ornament does not feature a tumbleweed.  When I told him to look at the bead in the center, he merely thought my tumbleweed had been decorated - it was, after all, a Christmas ornament.

I do like the fact that it takes the eyes a second or two to process the image. If you are still only seeing tumbleweeds, perhaps the ornament title will help.

This is the new Christmas Ornament Kit available from Ink Circles.  I'll be putting it up on my site for sale later today.  I'll be offering 3 fabric count choices.  It comes with 8 different colors of brown silk by Carrie's Threads and a few little red beads, for Rudolph's nose. $14

Wishes for peace and happiness in this season, regardless of how you choose to celebrate (or not!)