blooms and berries

autumn's come in pretty quickly this year, hasn't it? it sure feels that way to me - and i think my inspiration is being influenced by the oncoming chill and shorter days. i've come up with a new pattern + kit for the season:

i'm pretty sure that the berry shapes were inspired by those that i found a few weeks ago. and the dark garnet red on grey is a color combo that i've had in mind for quite some time.

the pretty dove grey aida cloth is not so easy to find these days -- i think it's actually been discontinued, so the kits in this exact colorway are going to be limited.

they're up in the shop - hop on over!

custom in blue and red

Here's my latest custom order:

I'm positively thrilled with the colors, which were the choice of the sweet wife who commissioned it as an anniversary gift for her husband. (Their friend, who married them, flubbed their names during the ceremony, instantly creating these sweet new terms of endearment; cute, eh?)

Here's a behind-the-scenes fun-fact about this piece: as I was stitching the birds, I was watching The Birds, by Hitchcock. !!!!

feeling blue...

...in a very good way.
Remember that post just last week when I was freaking out over the color of those blue berries? Well, the day or two after that, I inherited my grandmother's Blue Nordic dishes -- and they are THAT blue color.

Aren't they great? (I do understand that you cannot see them fully in this photo....I forgot to get one of *just* the dishes...) I have so many wonderful memories tied to these dishes. I'm pretty sure they were the only plate set that my grandmother and grandfather ever had, while I was around. I remember eating grilled cheese sandwiches, and English muffin pizzas off of those dishes.(My Nan made the *best* English muffin pizzas - to this day, I have never been able to replicate them.) I remember Sunday night spaghetti dinners with all of my mom's family seated around the table. (And tasting super dry Chianti and thinking it absolutely disgusting.) I remember my Poppi carving turkey and putting it on the serving platters of this set. (Way back in the day when I still ate turkey!) And then I remember setting the table with those same dishes years later when Nani and Poppi retired down in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
My Nan moved out of that house in NC years ago and since then, the plates had been packed up in a box - and for a time, thought to be lost or donated. And then they were found! Hooray! Hooray! I wanted these so badly... So many good memories tied to them and I just think they are absolutely stunning. So now they've become inspiration.

I'll soon be putting in my order for the towels that I use for my monogram tea towels and this holiday season, I'm limiting the color range slightly. Last year I offered many different color options, and I liked giving that choice, but honestly, it was a bit too much for me in terms of keeping track of inventory and running out of colors and having to replace/reorder so many. This year, I'm going a little more simple... This blue will definitely be on the list, though.

making props to get props

It's getting close to fall and winter market season and I made these guys up to use in my display for the new produce bags. I'm kind of really really loving them. I'm trying to figure out whether or not to make some to sell...
So far, the only market event that I have on the books is Clover Market, in Ardmore PA on October 14th and November 4th. (Please note that I will not be doing the September market.) I'm working on filling the calendar with more sales/events/dates; I'm even thinking of doing some traveling for holiday shows.... ooooooh.
Are there any markets in your area that you know of that you think I should do? Please let me know!
Have a great weekend, friends! I'm heading out in a few minutes for fabric shopping - that's always a good time!

classes and bike boxes

Hello friends!
I've got two little bits to share with you today. They're both long overdue, actually...

One: I'm getting back into the classroom! I'm teaching a beginner cross-stitch class on Saturday, October 6th at the Creutzberg Center in Radnor, PA as part of Main Line School Night. I'm pretty excited about this. With the class, students get a Little Owl Love kit and we'll do the project together. It's really the best way to teach/learn cross-stitch - by going through a project together from start to finish. Afterwards, students will have the opportunity to purchase other kits at a mega discount price. Sounds fun, right?

I know this is only good for those of you who are in the Eastern PA area, but the info is here. If you do happen to be local, even if you're not interested in learning cross-stitch with me (I know most of you reading this probably know how already....) there are a lot of other really fantastic classes being offered by Main Line School Night. I know if I lived a little closer that I'd be taking one or two! Check them out here.

Two: Friends of mine are working on a really cool project -- they're making canvas covers for milkcrates that you can then use as a bike box. They're calling them Boova Boxes, which is a little nod to the mennonite culture that inspired the design. (These friends and the Boovabox project are based in Kutztown, PA.) Taking steps towards getting the project off the ground and into full-scale production for a wider audience, Paul and Giles have set up a kickstarter to help generate funds. If you like riding your bicycle and the idea of a new cool bike box, maybe you could check it out - the page is here. And if you click, you'll see the design that I created for them! (I stole this little preview image from their site...)

on inspiration

i know that it may not seem it, because i've been blogging so infrequently lately, but i've felt the most creative and inspired over the past few weeks than i have in a long time.
maybe it's the season, my favourite, and the weather, which has been absolutely perfect in my opinion these past few weeks. maybe it's that i've been spending more down-time outdoors; between a little mini-vacation with my best girl friend on the delaware in beautiful bucks county, and few days at the shore with my family, i've been soaking it in and doing a pretty darned good job of leaving work at home. or perhaps that's just it -- that i've been more relaxed about the pressure of working and making enough to keep it all going.... i'm sure it's a combination of lots of things (including the fact that i cleaned my studio!!!), but i've been feeling good and happy in my creativity. and i haven't been stressing about photographing and documenting it all. which is a bummer, because i'd like to share it all with you. but then, maybe that's why it's felt easier....
i'll work on getting some snaps of some of the projects i've done recently. a lot of them are for upcoming projects and the fall and holiday markets, so you'll see at least some of them, sooner or later.
in the meantime, here are some photos i took this morning of some treasures that i found -- the luna moth wing at one of our local nature preserves and the blue berries on a walk through some woods last night. i don't know what those blue berries are... surely not edible, but the color of them is blowing me away. i have a pretty good feeling that these colors will work their way into my craft somewhere...

whoo-ee i've been a terrible blogger! sorry! in between making the most of the summer days, lots has been going on here with me and chez-sucre-chez, but i have been terrible about taking the time to take photos and post blog posts.... oops.
this may not be the most exciting, but here are some tea towels done recently. i've had a few orders for white tea towels with various color monograms. dang, stitching looks great on these crisp white towels.

come mid-late fall i'll be gearing up for the holiday gift-giving season and will have new photographs and listings for the monogram towels (and napkins!) in the most current colors.
i'm hoping to do another post or two this week -- until then, have a good one!

crusader

i've got a new item in the shop --- reusable produce bags.

another product created by my intense disgust of wasteful plastic use! as i said in my etsy listings for these, i've been using tote bags for many many years, and i'm pretty crazy about it. if there were a sound board of the ten things i say the most, "i don't need a bag; i can put it in my tote," would certainly be one of them. i'm such a freak about not taking/using plastic shopping bags that i'm that person who won't let friends who happen to be shopping with me get bags. i butt in and tell the cashier, "we don't need a bag, he/she can put it in my tote." or, on those days that i purchase more than what will fit in the tote(s) i brought, i might walk to my car with a pack of toilet paper or a box of tampons under my arm, a carton of eggs in one hand, and anything else i can possibly carry in the other.
but those plastic produce bags -- i often find that i don't plan well enough and end up needing one or two on a shopping trip. and i feel crazy guilty every time i take one, even though i always reuse them or recycle them.
so -- i'm working to correct that. i made up these reusable produce bags with the intention of just making a few for myself. not even half way into the project, though, i was so pleased with them that i decided to try them out in the shop. i really really like them and i want you to, too!

i made them in two different sizes. the one is small/medium, it's perfect for most produce shopping needs, fitting at least six large apples, or a bunch of lemons, or three or so average size zucchini or cucumbers. it's also great for herbs or delicate little lettuce mixes. and then i made a larger size one, which is great for bigger heads of lettuce like romaine, or for bunches of kale or collard greens, or beets or carrots with the greens still on them.

i gotta admit, i felt pretty darned cool walking out of the store with one of these bags full of lettuce and the other carrying apples and lemons.

each is embellished with a row of a machine-embroidered leaf pattern.

and the top is a drawstring of vintage ribbon that matches the embroidery. it's knotted so that you won't loose the string in the laundry machines.

what do you think? is this the kind of thing that you would use? or would you get them and then forget to bring them along when you went shopping? i'm certainly excited about them...
see the details in the shop, here. ciao!

new edit --- i made more - a lot more! yesterday i got on a kick and was having so much fun letting my sewing machine do all of the fancy stitchwork that i just kept going. here are some of the new colors and patterns:

yeah!

summer look book

Open publication - Free publishing - More craft

hey friends, (with a lot of help from B.) i created a little look book of some of my most recent projects and products. i love the way it looks all nicey-nice and pro. please check it out, share it if you so feel inclined, comment, etc. etc.
next up -- i'm working on a holiday look book. holiday?! already?! my thoughts exactly.

a good excuse for new fabric purchases

a couple of weeks ago, i was at "home" visiting mom and pop and i spent some time with my dear nani (grandmother) too. she'd seen the bowl cover that i made for my mama and thought it was just so clever (her words!) that she wanted a bunch as her go-to wedding gift for the season. i thought that was very sweet.

nani asked that i do them as sets of three; a small, medium, and large. i didn't have the heart to tell her that i really only did them as sets of two (medium and large), so i let this motivate me to make a pattern for a small size cover, too.

since i didn't have any bowl covers left in stock (they were the unexpected super-seller at renegade; i sold all but three on the first day!), i had to make them all and, rather than working from my fabric stash (oh my goodness, i have so much fabric), i treated myself to some new yardage for this project. new fabric is almost always more fun to work with, isn't it? a new joann fabrics just opened down the street from me and though i was in the mindset of thinking that their fabric selection was a little generic, i found some really sweet prints! i hadn't really looked at their selection in a long time and i was happily pleasantly surprised. with the store less than two miles away, i have a feeling i'll be going back for more sooner than later...
this way, too (using new fabric), i know that i can replicate a set if need be.. which makes me think, i should put these in the shop! hmmmm. i think i'll do that (soon).

they're on their way, nan!

he said the world was as soft as lace*

yesterday i designed a new pattern, and started stitching it up to be able to photograph it and list a new kit. it was partially finished by the evening and then b and i went for a walk in our local town park and discovered this:

i hadn't taken my phone with me, but went back first thing this morning for a little walk and a couple of instagram shots. it was only once i was back at the house that i saw the uncanny connection; i fell in love with this field of queen anne's lace, and i'd just made a lace-inspired pattern.
funny, eh?

i stitched the sample one up as white on black, but i'm putting these new kits together in a few different color options. i'm not sure how quickly i'll get to stitching samples of the other options, and i have a feeling i may add new color combos somewhere down the line, but currently, they can also be ordered in grey with ecru stitching:

and, in a really really limited quantity, white stitching on this beautiful lilac colored aida:

isn't that so pretty? i only have THREE pieces of this aida. not three big pieces; three kit-sized pieces. it was four, but one of them sold already! the new kit is in the shop here. if you'd like one of the few remaining lilac ones, hop to it! also, my dear blog readers, if there's some other color combo you'd like for this one, get in touch -- if i have the aida and the floss color, i'll put it together for you, because i like you and i know you'll come up with some good stuff. there are so many color combinations that would be great in this pattern. pink on white? white on blue? black on platinum? think about it. xo.

*i've always loved that line from the belle and sebastian song, "i don't love anyone."