Teddy Bear Cellphone Pouch

As I mentioned yesterday, I have received several orders for custom cellphone pouches. The first, is for one in purple and yellow with a teddy bear theme.

I searched through my bits of vintage jewelry but I knew I didn't have a bear. I looked through my copyright free clipart and vintage photo images but again, nothing with a teddy bear. I pondered this for a bit, trying to figure out what to do for a bear as a focal point and then suddenly, I remembered that I am a professional pattern designer that I've designed tons of teddy bears! Insert a great big DUH here!

The first design that popped into my head was Hatbox Teddies:



These little teddy bears having a tea party has always been a favorite of mine. The bear to the left with the Victorian hat was a perfect focal point! I simply changed the colors from pink & blue to purple & yellow, printed him up on commercial inkject fabric and pieced my block:



I embroidered the seams last night so this is what it looks like at the moment:



I want to go through some of my do-dads and see if I have a real purple feather to sew onto the hat. I then plan to do some Silk Ribbon Embroidery on the hat as well. I'll start beading it later today so stop by tomorrow for an update.

And in case anyone is wondering about the Hatbox Teddies design, it is currently retired.

At Home With Needlework Magazine February 2007 Issue

Zweigart has just released the February issue of their At Home With Needlework Magazine:



Here is the list of my designs which appear in this issue:

Butterfly & Berries Tabletopper - page 9
Summer Nap - page 12
Hummingbird In Flight - page 36
Touch Of Spring (Cover Designs) - page 45
Christmas Kittens - page 62

A Pattern For Your Crazyquilting

Well, I worked later yesterday than I normally do. I was so close to finishing up my design work, that I decided to just keep going until it was completed. By the time I was done, my eyes were hurting from staring at the computer all day so I didn't manage any stitching time. Instead, I parked myself in the chair, looked at a catalog and watched Star Wars on HBO!

Since I don't have any stitching to share with you today, I worked up a nice little pattern for you to use on your crazyquilts:



Click on the image to go to my Flickr site where you can download a larger version of the pattern.

Pin your Waste Canvas to the area on which you like to stitch this design on your crazyquilt piece. You can use #5 or #8 Perle cotton to stitch this or several strands of embroidery floss. Stitch the design, following the chart and then carefully remove the waste canvas. If you prefer not to use Waste Canvas, you can trace this onto tissue paper, pin that to your piece, stitch and then remove the tissue.

I received several orders this week for custom cellphone pouches and one for a custom CQ kit. So I'll be making some changes to my stitching schedule. I'll be doing foundation piecing today on my sewing machine and will have to start work on these projects right away.

Stay tuned because I do expect to have some stitching to share with you tomorrow.

Enjoy the pattern!

New Projects

I didn't manage any stitching time yesterday. I'm in the middle of a design project so I was focused on that all day and then when my husband came home from work, we ran up to Michaels so I could use my coupon. Love those Michaels Craft Store coupons!

I did pull out two new projects to work on:



This will be a purse with a Spring theme. I sewed this block up a couple of weeks ago. I have no idea where it's going to go so it should be interesting to watch my progress on this one.



I traced this one awhile back on some muslin that I had hand-dyed. I plan to stitch this entirely with DMC Rayon Floss. Yes, call me crazy! It's a challenge to work with but I love it because of the shine!

I don't know if I'll have time to start on both of these today. Like I said, I'm in the middle of a design project. And normally, I only work on one stitching project at a time but I've been wanting to do some more simple old-fashioned embroidery and I always want to crazyquilt so I thought I'd alternate on these.

Speaking of old-fashioned embroidery and iron-on transfers, specifically Vogart patterns, Laren of The Needle's Excellency blog has put alot of time into cataloging all of the pattern packs that Vogart produced from the 40's - 60's. This is a wonderful resource for those of you who like me, collect vintage Vogart patterns. You can find Laren's Vogart Reference Library site here.

I was quite to surprised to see how many I'm missing! I have quite a few but not all of them. Now I'll have to start adding to my collection again!

American Bald Eagles

First, I want to share with you my completed Spring Chick pouch:



I completed the stitching Friday evening just before my husband and I went out to dinner. If I can stay on schedule, I'll assemble it later this week along with the Red Hat Lady purse.

On Saturday morning, we drove down to Peoria, Illinois where my in-laws live to spend the weekend with them. It's about 3 1/2 hours south of were we live. I'm really excited about sharing the following photos with you! The Illinois River is open in some areas down there so the Bald Eagles spend the Winter on the river! This is a site that I can't even begin to describe! They just sit in the trees along the river, hundreds of them! We probably saw 100 eagles yesterday!











All of these photos were taken from our truck. If you get out of your vehicle, it frightens them and they fly away, which is also an amazing site!

We saw one tree that had 8 eagles in it! For those of you who live outside the US, these are huge birds! Beautiful and majestic! To see so many in one place is just breathtaking.

I have some design work to do so I'll end here. If you would like to see larger versions of my eagle photos, just click on one to go to my Flickr site.