cockadoodledoo

another kit for you to do - in red and blue!
(wow, sorry -- don't know where that came from...)

if you've been following this blog for a long long time, you *might* remember this one; i did it a long time ago. like many of the pieces i did long ago, i'd been holding onto it because i really loved it too much to let go. (i think i did sell one of these - and then i missed it so much that i made another!) lately, i've been trying to be better about letting things go. (my studio is a little out-of-control these days -- i have waaaay too much stuff.) so, in that spirit, i took this one (the one from the photo above) to renegade with me. it sold, but before it did, the sweet young lady who bought it asked it i had kits of this pattern. this was another instance of me replying, "no, but i should!" and now i do.

i'm sure you can imagine, the possibilities for the title of this kit were pretty exciting. in the end, i decided to play it safe.

it's up in the shop now! coming next, a new color variation on the borderlines kit... next week!

these summer days

right before renegade (which was amazing, and i didn't take any photos, as usual - duh! but, if you check my instagram page, you can see some snaps.) i whipped up a few women's aprons. every year, for the past two or three that i've been offering the kids' aprons, people asked if i did them in sizes for women. and every year, i said, "no, but i should!" well, i finally did. i only had time to do a few, and one of them sold, but now i've got three in stock and i'm thinking maybe i should put them in the shop.
so -- b and i did an impromptu photo shoot for them this evening as we prepared dinner.
here are some of the shots:

sangria?

while the vegetables cooked, we went into the garden to get some fixin's for a salad. (ended up having lettuce and pea greens with goat cheese and figs. yum!)

dinner was delicious! the aprons should be up in the shop tomorrow. also tomorrow, check in here and in the shop for another new kit! i finished it today, just gotta photograph it all and do the posting. hooray!

sweet dreams are made of these

a couple of months ago, i was asked to contribute to a very special project; i was asked to create pieces for a nursery. that alone is so special to me -- i love when i'm asked to create pieces that will decorate someone's home - especially the room of a beloved little baby. but this was even more of an honor, as the nursery is to be home to twins, and the mama is a super sweet and wonderfully talented interior designer who specializes in nursery spaces. (susan hutchinson, see her site/work here and here.)


susan was fabulous to work with -- she had come up with an idea, based on work she'd viewed on my site, and, since she was looking for larger pieces, we tweaked and customized things i had done and turned those ideas into completely new pieces.
susan knew she wanted a cloud piece over each crib. since the idea was to fill a nine inch hoop, i opted to double the size of my stitching - which made it less time-consuming and made it easier for me to make bigger clouds. i really like the look of the more open stitches and the larger clouds! also, since we were working with a gold and neutral color palette, i did gold instead of silver linings. oh la la!




susan came up with the quotes, and i love love love them for this nursery! "the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams," is a quote by eleanor roosevelt, and napoleon is credited with "let him sleep, for when he wakes, he will move mountains." so sweet for the spaces above sleeping babes, right?




the initials were done in my monogram lettering style, and i did them on white linen with charcoal floss and a strand of gold. (the one in the top photo was a test - we didn't like the color of that gold and we didn't think it popped enough, so that was a last minute change. i didn't get photos of the second set.) but, susan had the nursery professionally photographed, and there you can see the new monogram pieces, and how everything looks in place.
(the following photos are all by courtney apple.)






isn't it beautiful? i love what susan did with the room -- all of the white with the neutrals and the gold accents -- it's so dreamy. you can see more of the nursery, and more of susan's house on this fantastic sneak peek post on design sponge (here), and on susan's blog.
thank you, susan, for inviting me to be a part of such a special project!

crossed borders

there's a new kit in the shop!




i've been calling this one "borderline" ever since i began working on the pattern and stitching up the sample, and the madonna song of the same title has been looping over and over again in my head. i guess it's not such a bad song to stitch to...

this one's quite different from the others, no? it's a lot more busy and, i'm not going to lie -- it does take quite a bit longer... but hey, it's summer, which is a great time for a little project! it'd be perfect as a little to-do project for a week at the beach, right? or for an airplane ride to some exotic destination!

the border patterns are from the collection that i've been building over the past few years. i find them on all kind of sources; books, actual samplers, websites, etc., and then i do my little work in illustrator to turn them into a digital pattern for myself and add it to my library of borders. and here, all stacked up and framed in a hoop, they make a lovely little modern sampler piece. i'm pretty stoked on the colors of this kit -- but i only have a limited amount of this fabric color (i have no idea what this color is called or where i got it!), so this will be a limited edition kit in this colorway.... if you love it, be sure to scoop it up (here) soon!

when silence really is golden

i'm sorry for the lack of posts lately...
i've been quite hard at work on some brand new things, and i'm really excited about them. it is my hope to show them off here by monday at the latest. (but maybe sooner?!)
in the meantime, here's a glimpse, a preview, a teaser:







seriously, i'm giddy about these new projects and products... you'll see!

do the mess around

had a fun photo shoot last night for the bless this mess piece (and prints! see below.)

the first part of the fun was creating the mess:

poor b got home from work only to discover that i'd turned our bedroom into a disaster area and i was itching to get these photos done (which he'd need to take for me, of course) while the light was still right. i didn't even give him any warning.
but, he was a great sport and, as with our last collaborations, b got so many great shots that i'm having a really difficult time narrowing it down to top picks!

(oh hey, looks like i'm nude under this one; i'm not!)

this piece was inspired by life; i have ALWAYS been a bit of a mess. growing up, i was constantly getting in trouble for my messy room. i have a very distinct memory from when i was very young, of laying in bed the night after we'd had fire safety day at school. i was thinking in my head about how we children had been told that it's important to have a clean room so that we have a clear and easy access to all escape routes. that night, i got up and cleared a path through the barbies and strawberry shortcake dolls from my bed to the door. the rest of the floor remained covered in toys and clothes.
to this day, although i can't stand an unswept floor or a dirty kitchen or bath, i am incapable of keeping a table, desk, floor or bed free and clear of my belongings for more than an hour or so.
i dug up this photo of my old brooklyn bedroom to illustrate my point:

messy bessy. it's pretty much always that way. i've gotten a little better, though. maybe. or maybe it's just that i've learned to contain my mess and fortunately have my studio/girl room to do that... heh-heh.

so, in addition to the original stitched piece, i've got prints of the bless-this-mess piece; and i'm really happy with them! since my last post about prints, i've had even more trials and tribulations. i think i'm finally figuring it out though. i found a WONDERFUl digital print shop with which to work (they were able to do these ones for me with great results) and soon i'll be teaming up with masthead print to try some screenprinting. the fun continues.

here are shots of the digital print:

other than the frame vs no frame, you can't really tell the difference between print and original from this distance, right?

i'm really happy to be able to offer these prints as an option. they're now listed in the shop and ready to ship! if you're one who prefers a one-of-a-kind original, though, that is listed there in the shop, too.
have a great weekend, friends! remember if you're PA local, clover market is on sunday and it's the last of the season, so stop by if you can!

pretty in pink

(i'm pretty sure i've used that title before. sorry. trivia tidbit: that's also the title of my maybe all-time-favourite song.)

in preparation for clover market this sunday and renegade brooklyn later this month, i made up some new bowl covers today, including this pinky pink set:

my mom got me the pink kitchenaid mixer years ago when i was really into pink. she had it shipped to my greenpoint apartment (where i had painted my bedroom walls pink). as it was a surprise, i had no idea what was in the heavy heavy box i had just carried upstairs. oh boy, did i ever cry of happiness and gratitude when i opened that box! i may have moved out of my pink phase, but i still absolutely adore this mixer. it sees A LOT of use; like last night, when i made these cookies. (thanks to my friend jill for turning me on to that recipe!)

the smaller of the two in the set fits the kitchenaid artisan mixer (as well as medium-sized regular bowls, up to about 9 inch diameter) and the larger size fits the bowl of the larger professional series kitchen aids. it fits up to a 10.5 inch diameter bowl, which is about the size of the largest of the old pyrex nesting bowl sets.

my kitchen is wonderful to work in, but it's stink-ola for photo taking -- all dark and full of weird wall space.
it's really too bad i live so far from my sister; her kitchen has pink walls, white swiss-dot curtains, and 1950's era boomerang print countertops in pink and grey! it would have made for a perfect photo shoot; oh well!
this has been my third post today; phew!

throwback thursday - pompeii

in my quest for new podcast series to keep me entertained/engaged while stitching, i discovered "stuff you missed in history class" by how-stuff-works. i've been going through these for the past few days and today, listened to the one about pompeii (#274).

this prompted me to check my old hard-drive to see if i had any photos from my trip to pompeii many years ago; the above shot is the only one i seemed to take, or that seems to have survived transfer from seven years and three computer upgrades...
do you have any other podcasts or podcast series to recommend? i've gone through most of the radiolab ones, and i know that the npr site is always ripe for exploring, but are there others i should know about? please share!

instagramming

i know i'm a little late to the party, but i finally got myself into instagramming, and now i get what all the buzz was all about; it's pretty fun and it makes just about anything look like a great photo.

looking at my first month of captures, i probably come off as an alcoholic cat lady; i'm not really either, i swear! (i just happen to have a very handsome cat and a thirst for delicious cocktails.)

i linked the instagram account to my website (http://chezsucrechez.com/instagram), so you can go there to view them all, or, if you're in on it, go on ahead and follow along!

seasons greetings

memorial day is the unofficial start of summer here in the US and this past weekend was full of perfect weather for that. we had a little backyard party, gathering friends and family for a wiffle ball game and some relaxing.

later in the evening, we had a big bonfire and cooked veggie hot dogs on sticks. there were also s'mores and cupcakes and home-made ice cream.
(i like how, in this next photo, you can see the glow of the fire as well as a hand grabbing one of the cupcakes.)

and now i'm jumping into a short work-week before the last of the clover markets for this spring season. i am expecting to do lots of shop updates -- new listings and new photos, it's well past time for that! i also intend to spend some time working on designs for new kits - fingers crossed that the inspiration strikes!

here's a sneaky peek of a job i did this past week:

ooooh gold. you'll get to see the rest soon, i hope! as soon as i have photos to post, i'll put them up.

and here's a shot i took last week of one of the simple embroidered hearts i did recently. sometimes i really love super simple pieces.

have a great week, friends!