Recently, I found and got inspired by some plain baby bibs and have begun putting some simple embroidery designs on them.
Each bib will have one item on them, I feel that too much fancy takes say from the wearable napkin purpose of it.
A blue anchor on the blue bib, ‘Hungry’ on the green, ‘Feed Me’ on the yellow, and the baby’s name on the orange.
My little cousin is coming soon! I had better get crackin’! I can’t wait to meet the little sucker!
So here is the second part of what we got to see at the KY state fair on the 20th. Wanna see Part One? Kit was sad that the goats were mostly gone and the cattle hadn’t all come in yet, but we got to see some fun stuff anyway.
There was a charming “petting” zoo part of the fair designed for kids. It was called discovery farm. There was a lack of educational info and not many people working the animal booths. Also, there were signs above every cage warning that the animals can and will bite. These goats were just too cute to pass up.
I mean, come on, how can you just walk away from a pile of sleeping piglets??
This peppermint chocolate cake really struck Kit and me. It was colorful and my chocolate stomach started grumbling almost immediately. Not knowing the details, I am betting that it was a rich chocolate cake—like devil’s food—and a cream cheese peppermint frosting would be creamy and minty at the same time. Yummo!
Kit and I also wanted to submit our pickles and pasta sauce for next year. Some of the pickles were a little rough looking by comparison. I’m hoping we can at least get things entered into our county fair for judging.
The theme for various ages and skill levels was music. There were some really cute ones. This was easily my favorite. The colors and design was very beautiful.
This type of cake is gorgeous to look at and although I wouldn’t be interested in taking a bite, I loved this detail they put into the fondant sheet music.
The most popular sewing crafts are quilting and counted cross stitch. I was lucky to find these little gems among the CCXstitch. I love the detail in this peacock. Awesome sauce!
I really like the display for this intricate embroidery design even though I haven’t the foggiest why it is on a paddle. I can’t imagine setting steaming pots of pasta on it or chasing an errant youth around the house with this work of art.
Whenever I look at the rows and rows of quilts I get super excited and then sad all at the same time. I love the patterns, colors, stitches and love that people put into their quilts. I get sad because I don’t know how to make a quilt like these beauties. I just want to make a simple block squared quilt, but it is such a large undertaking by hand that I fear I would get overwhelmed. I don’t know how to use a sewing machine so that would be an even larger undertaking–buying and learning how to use one proficiently without assistance.
My all-time favorite at the fair was this quilt. I cannot believe this didn’t win any awards. The judges were obviously off their rockers and out of their sewing circle minds! These are my favorite colors and the pattern is to die for!!
One of the last things we did at the fair was watch a 30 minute musical about the War of 1812. I was really impressed with the young people involved in putting on the show. I wondered how they perceived the audience and when I looked back I saw, a row of ancients with their chins on their chests, and behind me a woman whose entire bottom fell out of her 32 oz. soda. The soda barely missed me and Kit and made the poor lady looked like she had wet herself.
Despite the non-ideal audience, Kit and I kept eye-contact and reacted to the emotions and songs that they put on. My best two word summary is alligator horses!!! Go ahead, look up the New Orleans battle and see how the soldiers scared the shit out of their enemy!!
Ta ta for now!
~Kat
This is essentially a link roundup via my Pinterest board titled, Embroidery—Stitch-tastic!
This pin board is mostly devoted to free hand embroidery patterns that I have found online. Most of the patterns are free, with the understanding that you will not be selling the pattern or a final product using the pattern.
****Please be respectful of the fantastic artist that choose to share their patterns.****
Additional pins are for-purchase patterns (which are marked), tutorials from various websites, or
a final product acting as inspiration for a future project-which I call Stitch-spirations.
Please let me know if you discover a dead link or a pattern that is no longer offered for free.
~Kat~
My newest embroidery project will be rather involved and with have several steps.
For Xmas, my hubbster got me a plain white apron and I have been holding off because I haven’t had time to decorate as I wished. I am trying to make time now.
Step one:
Embroider Chef Clark on the left breast of the apron. It is a satin stitch which takes forever…or at least it feels that way.
Step two:
Tie dye the whole apron. I haven’t fully decided what colors. My current thoughts are to dye one apron string yellow and the other red. The body of the apron will be red and yellow with some splashes together to make some orange spots.
I kinda want to do the tiny star burst pattern. To create this effect I will need to put a rubber band around the cloth with a small stone on the underside of the cloth.
Step three:
Once the tie dyeing is done I will make the final decision about whether or not I want more things embroidered on my apron.
At this point in time, I want to add some vegetables and at least a whisk. Perhaps on the pockets. I am doing this as a last step because I may be so excited to wear my apron in the kitchen that I save further embellishments for later.
First, there are so many jacked up words beginning with X, no wonder kids only know “X is for X-ray”!! Words that have to do with wood, yellow or gross illnesses.
My word Xyloglyphy refers to wood carvings. I like em, I think they’re fun…I also found out I had an incorrect definition for the word I wanted to use so I was scrambling. Forgive me.
What I like about wood carvings is there are so many things you can do with this art form. Pieces can be functional or pretty. Created by hand with a small pocket knife, a lathe or even a chainsaw.
The subjects can be earthly related woodland spirits or animals or your favorite sports team’s mascot.
They can be painted, left bare or stained to bring out the grain of the wood. This is a type of art form where a piece of the artist is inside it.
Do I think doing wood carving is fun? I’ve never tried it. Sure, I’ve shaved down sticks and played vampire slayer in my backyard. Around my area of the woodcarving and whittling something done by our grandfathers who sit in front of hardware stores and burn time watching the town.
Female hobbies pertain more to the kitchen—traditionally anyway. I’m sure there are tons of super skilled women carvers and I don’t feel that I can’t because I’m a woman.
My Christmas tree holds a tiny handcarved shovel made by the grandfather I never met. I don’t know who else in my family tinkers with wood.
Is this a dying art?
Should we revitalize it by teaching our youth?
How do we bring back something like this?
The hand embroidery that I do is an outdated craft, but I hope to pass it on to the youngsters in my family.
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