Elemental Stitches

Christmas Embroidery Inspiration and More Free Patterns

1. Christmas Pencil Toppers, 2. Christmas Ornaments, 3. borduurwerk / embroidery, 4. Forever Noël embroidery pattern,

5. Mistletoe Holly 3 nov09, 6. White Christmas Lavender Bird, 7. Pretty Christmas tree, 8. love birds ornament,

9. Rudolph, 10. Merry Fucking Christmas, 11. Bitty Elf Shoes, 12. Christmas Stitchette pillow,

13. 2008 Christmas Ornament Swap #2, 14. Day 19 - Felt Christmas mittens, 15. string of lights, 16. Peppermint ornament,

17. all stitched!, 18. Target Tuesday:Tree Tea Towel, 19. Felt Gingerbread Biscuits // Star group, 20. Lulu's advent calender 1

I also came across a couple more Christmas embroidery designs on flickr.

Christmas Robot Elves (Awesome pattern!!!)

Holiday Deer

Presents and Ornaments

Gingerbread House

Yule Tree Sprite

Celtic Yule Pattern

Hope I gave you some last minute ideas!  Have a great week!

Holiday Patterns - Part 3

The Tree Family

Snowflake

Reindeer

Elf Stitchettes

And the ever wonderful Yahoo search for

Christmas Coloring Pages

Hanukkah Coloring Pages

Kwanzaa Coloring Pages

Winter Coloring Pages

Holiday Patterns - Part 2

More holiday cheer!

Row 1:  1. Vintage Christmas Embroidery Transfer, 2. Vintage Christmas Embroidery Transfers, 3. Vintage Christmas Embroidery Transfers,

Row 2:  4. xmas-sample-4, 5. Untitled, 6. Untitled,

Row 3:  7. www.flickr.com/photos/29038065@N04/4001544506/, 8. workbasket1, 9. holiday designs 2 

Holiday Patterns - Part 1

There are so many holiday patterns on the internet that I had to break this series into parts.  Look for more pattern links over the next week.

Row 1:  1. ornaments, 2. Christmas is too damn close!!, 3. Snow City, 4. shepherd boy, 5. drums,

Row 2:  6. peace, 7. Snowman Family, 8. Snowman, 9. free snowman or should I say lady.., 10. Snowman,

Row 3:  11. Snowman, 12. candy canes, 13. Snowman, 14. Retro Christmas Tree!, 15. Christmas Elves!,

Row 4:  16. Santa, 17. Santa, 18. Santa, 19. Vintage Christmas Embroidery Transfer, 20. Vintage Christmas Embroidery Transfer

Embroidery Inspiration - Time for Pie

1. french knot cherry pie, 2. Sweetie Pie embroidery pattern , 3. Vintage striped toweling with hand embroidery ~ pie,

4. pie-em, 5. Fruit Pie embroidery, 6. Embroidery ATC,

7. Sunday Pie, 8. All in favor, say "Pie!", 9. Sweet Cherry Pie

Free Thanksgiving Embroidery Patterns

Its time for turkey!  I love Thanksgiving.  My husband, being part Native American, has a love hate relationship with it.  He says that as long as we are celebrating the season, the harvest and all the prosperity we have had the past year then its okay.  If you start getting into Indians saving Pilgrims and long dinner tables full of food in 1621 then he starts getting sick to his stomach.  Check out the history of Thanksgiving for more about the origins of this holiday.

I love Thanksgiving food and the chance to catch up with friends and family.  Tom and I try to focus on what we have gained over the last year.  What was our "harvest"?  Every year we have goals for ourselves and for our family.  At Thanksgiving we celebrate how far we have come to reaching our goals and we start planning for next year. 

So enough about me, onto the patterns! 

I went on a long search for Turkey Day patterns and here is what I have.  If you know of a pattern that isn't listed please leave it in the comments so I can add it to the list.

Free Turkey Day Embroidery Patterns

-Adorable Turkey from Badbird

-Turkey, I Love You by Barbara Parrish

-X-Stitch Turkey

-Pumpkin and Sunflower Pattern

-Pilgrims

-Thanksgiving Turkeys and Word "Thanksgiving"

-Seasonal Kids from PatternBee

-More Vintage Patterns from PatternBee

-Fall Acorn Border

-1891 Ingalls Thanksgiving Pattens

-Google Thanksgiving Coloring Pages Search - Its awesome!

Harvest Inspiration

I found very few completed embroideries for Thanksgiving.  I am working on a pattern list of Thanksgiving embroidery patterns from around the net so look out for that in the next couple days.  Hopefully we will see some more turkeys in the days to come.

1. Autumn Wreath embroidery, 2. Tired Turkey Embroidery, 3. squirrels: the acorn fairy stitchette, 4. Hibernating Bear,

5. Brown Tumbling Leaf Embroidery, 6. hello, autumn, 7. acorn embroidery, 8. Bunny stitch along close up,

9. autumn bird, 10. hosten3, 11. The Guardian (Palomino), 12. AMBER WAVES OF GRAIN.....,

13. Wild Turkey Pillows Custom Embroidery, 14. Squirrel Friend, 15. Fall Embroidery, 16. Finished Turkey Towel

Gnome Home Embroidery

Halloween was lots of fun.  My little one dressed up as a ballerina.  She didn't want to get a tutu so we used her ballet costume and she picked out stockings, a crown, and a star wand.  She dug the black ribbon around her waist out of my ribbon drawer for her "sash".   Her leggings are the sleeves of a felted wool sweater that still had a little stretch to it.  I just cut the arms off and put them on her legs!  Easy as that.  They fit perfectly.  She picked out the color.  I tried for pink but lost. 

Onto crafty things...  I finished another embroidery.  This one is eventually going to be framed in a 6 inch wooden hoop.  Jo-Anns is 45 minutes away so its going to have to wait until I go to town again.  The Owl Embroidery is in the same boat.  I need a certain color thread to finish it.

The house and workshop were done in backstitch.  The trees were done in split stitch.  Seed stitch for the grass.  The moon and mailbox are in satin stitch.

I am working on a pattern for a Thanksgiving embroidery based on a vintage Thanksgiving postcard.  I am about done with the pattern and I cant wait to start stitching it.

Hope you had lots of treats and few tricks this Halloween!

Dia de Los Muertos Sugar Skull Embroidery Complete

 

Got it finished!  I wish the pictures were a little better, but I didn't take them until this evening and the light was terrible.  I had to use a lamp to get enough light.  I love how his eyes turned out.

I figured out the teeth as soon as I finished the outline of the mouth.  It was an "duh, of course" moment.  Tom didnt like how I had the nose on the original pattern and I have to agree after stitching it.  I am making a couple of changes to the pattern.  It will be posted on flickr in the next day or so.  I chose the same bright colors that you would see on a real sugar skull.  I had the opportunity of decorating a great Day of the Dead altar last year with some friends so I had lots of inspiration. 

Isn't that the coolest bread!  Those are supposed to be bones crossed on the top.  Its a Mexican bread traditional on Dia de los Muertos.

The photo is me in 8th grade with my dad who passed away in 2005.

Hope you all have a happy and safe Halloween!

Fall, Mail, Yarn, Projects

There is a lot of crafting going on at Chez Melissa.  The leaves are falling, a chill is in the air and a severe weather alert is in the forecast.  70 mile per hour Northern winds are scheduled for Tuesday evening.  These seasonal changes have caused my insides to scream for cozy yarns.  I forecast lots of knitting in my blog's future.  Today I was thrilled when I received this.

My Christmas Knitpicks order.  I have a lot of knitting to do this Christmas season!  Here is my favorite.

This beautiful hand painted sock yarn will become a pair of socks for me.  I can't wait to get started on them, but I wont let myself begin until I finish the green pair of socks.   Speaking of unfinished projects, I have a pile of them I am trying to complete.  Today I worked on hemming pants, sewing potholders, and I finished a quilt top that I haven't worked on in years.

These are some Christmas gifts that are almost complete.  Below is another that I am really happy with so far.  It an owl cable hat.  I need another ball of yarn to finish it.  I thought I ordered another ball in this shipment from Knitpicks but it looks like I forgot to order it.  I guess I will have to make another Knitpicks order now.  Oh darn!

There was also a little crafty instruction going on.  She embroidered for a good half hour.

What did you do this weekend?