on the loss of kathreen

Yesterday's tragic news about Kathreen of Whip Up, and her partner, has not left my mind since I read about it. Having had the privilege of welcoming Kathreen as a guest here on Wild Olive and to guest post on Whip Up on more than one occasion(the game pictured above was created for a series) was such an honor. She crafted more than just a craft blog. She developed a place where creators shared their hearts and passions and all that a creative life entails.

I am quite stunned and saddened and invite you to please pray for her children and family, lifting them up and helping as you can.

printable: floss bobbin thread organizer

Over the years, I've crafted many ways to store and organize embroidery floss. Sometimes I think that I like the process of making these even more than using them. Now, I'm not going to make some sweeping statement that I've finally found one that I'll use for life, but secretly, I'm thinking that.

A few weeks ago I spotted a post on Hey Porkchop! Amanda showed this card she uses to hold the threads she's using on a stitching project. She made hers with scrapbook paper, which got me thinking that I should make one with a Wild Olive touch. Mine is based on the thread bobbins I've made in the past, but bigger and prepared for holding a bunch of threads and labeling them too!



Download the PDF with 4 bobbins. Print the page on heavy card stock (or you could mount it onto thin cardboard), then trim the bobbins. Punch holes along the sides. If you want, you can also punch a hole in the top so you can keep all of your bobbins on a ring.

(Don't you just love how my printer decided to make their faces look blue? I'm avoiding taking it in...)




When you start a project, or as you're working, place the cut strands through the hole and secure with a cow hitch (yes, I had to look that up...). You can write the color numbers next to each loop, and add your project name at the top if you want. No more guessing, especially when you have colors that are close to each other!

Download the PDF with 4 bobbins.

As you can see, I'm already putting this to use for Summer Stitching Club colors. There are a few more shades to add, but I haven't started on the blue items yet.

And while I love these bobbins, I can't help but think that there are more shapes and designs that need to be made into thread organizers. When practicality and cuteness come together, I'm a happy girl!

register for the 2013 summer stitching club

Whether you're traveling, hanging out at the beach or poolside, taking in a ball game, or sipping some iced tea between activities, this summer, take some time to do some relaxing embroidery! The Wild Olive Summer Stitching Club is made for both calm and busy schedules, and it will leave you with a project to remember the summer of 2013.

It's a combination of patterns, project and class, all rolled into a club!

Each week in June, July, and August, club members will receive a tiny embroidery pattern to stitch, for a total of 12 summer-themed patterns. Each motif is less than 2 inches, and is designed to fit on a paper-pieced hexagon. These hexagons will fit together with more hexagons, and when summer ends, you'll have a mini-quilt wall hanging or table mat! Don't worry if you've never made anything like this before, because complete instructions for making hexagons, and assembling the mini-quilt will be provided.

When you purchase your club membership, you'll be able to download the welcome PDF immediately. In that PDF you'll find the complete supply list, plus instructions to get started on hexagon-making. Each pattern PDF will be emailed to club members on Mondays, starting June 3rd.



I'm keeping the patterns a secret for now, but I've been sharing a few peeks and glimpses here and there as I stitch away. You can expect to stitch sunny, picnic on the beach, kicking back poolside sorts of things.

The cost for the 2013 Summer Stitching Club will be $8 starting on June 3rd, but if you sign up early, membership is just $5.00. Really!

I'm looking forward to a summer of stitching, and I hope you are too! If you have any questions, please ask in the comments, and I'll answer below.

Thanks, and happy almost summer!

project: stitched hexagon fiber art

Being a collector is a dangerous business. You can accumulate so much stuff so fast. It's just as dangerous if you're a collector and a crafter, because you can lull yourself into thinking that the supplies you're buying are things you'll use up, but in fact, they are just another collection. Pretty ribbons? How can you use those? Fabulous fabric? It's waiting for the perfect project. And don't get me started on my sticker issues.

This is the trouble I ran into when I joined the Thread Club from Dragonfly Lotus Designs. Liz hand-spins the most amazing embroidery threads! They are so amazing that I treasure them, and thus, have quite a stock of these darling skeins. I've even saved all of the sample thread cards, hoping to put them to use, lest a thread go to waste!

Today, I have a wonderful way to use those stitch-able samples! The fiber art I've created is easy to do, looks pretty, and you can do it too! It's inspired by this lovely work by Rebecca Sower. You can change up the fabrics and colors and stitches to make it your own!



You will need:

Osnaburg or other utility fabric
Embroidery hoop (mine is 8")
Tiny hexagons (mine are 5/8")
Embroidery thread



Place the fabric in the hoop and lay the hexagons out as you want them. Use as many or as few as you like. You can also use a variety of colors or patterns. Once you've decided on a layout, you may wish to take a quick photo so you remember how you wanted them.



Working with one hexie at a time, remove the paper from the shape. Several fine folks mentioned to me that if you punch a hole in the paper before you make your hexagons, it's easier to remove the paper and you can use a crochet hook. They're right! Especially on the smaller hexagons.




Stitch the hexagons down onto the fabric using different colors and stitches. Space them as close are as far apart as you want, but they'll have a better overall "fit" if they are all spaced evenly.




I found it to be very enjoyable and challenging to find different ways of stitching each of these down. There are 12 hexagons on my hoop, and no two are alike! Of course, it wouldn't need to be that way. Repetition is very nice too.

Another element that would be fun to add to this would be to have open areas without an appliquéd hexagon. Then you could add some embroidery, such as initials, into that "hole". There are lots of possibilities with this!





What I love most about projects like this (aside from showing off some of that treasured thread!) is that it's very free. You can make it anything you want it to be, and truly feel like a fiber artist, while still having some guidelines to work within. It's not quite as scary as a blank hoop without a pattern!

Give it a try and see how it feels to make your own stitches!

review: sew pretty t-shirt dresses

Today I have the pleasure of being part of the blog tour for Sew Pretty T-Shirt Dresses! Sixth & Spring books sent me a copy to look over and try out and tell you about. Because I don't have kids, I decided that this would be a good book for making things for my 8-year-old sister.





I'm not usually a fan of restyled t-shirt dresses, because they often look pretty blah. You know the ones I'm talking about: super straight tee with a little ruffle added at the bottom? This book is not like that. In fact, on most of the designs, if not all of them, you'd hardly know that they started as a t-shirt. That's basically just the base.

The other thing I like is that the designs don't just look like they're for little girls. There's some much more sophisticated options in here, and I'd probably consider wearing some of them myself.




When the book arrived, I gotta tell you, I was a little nervous because the sizes only go up to a 7/8, and my sister is tall. Thin, but tall. Normally, a 7/8 wouldn't work. But the dress designs in here are pretty adjustable. You make skirt pieces based on the size of the t-shirt you're working with.

We settled on making the Square Dance dress and chose a new t-shirt from my sister's closet to work with. Grace is a super pink kinda gal, and we would have loved to have had pink bandanas to work with. Sadly, they didn't have enough of the same dye lot in the right pink, so we settled on traditional navy. The contrast is cute though, don't you think?




I've read from others that this book is good for people of all skill levels, but as someone with limited sewing skills, I was afraid to tackle this on my own. My mom and I worked together, and I was glad.

One thing we found with this particular dress was that it's a more difficult design to adjust the size on. It's supposed to have a bandana on the front and back, but they would have overlapped on the sides, which wasn't part of the design. Had we made this in a smaller size, it would have been worse. Instead, we opted for more of an apron look.

We both felt that it helps to read the instructions, think through them, and adjust sizes and steps as needed. But speaking of adjusting, one benefit to the construction of these is that without a pattern, you can adjust lots of things as you want and feel comfortable.




Although you can't tell from the pictures (it was COLD outside!) Grace loves her new dress so much, and we've all got more picked out for the next projects. By not making the bodice, these really save a lot of time, and they're soft and sweet too!

Be sure to stop by all the other blogs in the Sew Pretty T-Shirt Dresses blog tour. There are reviews, more finished projects, and some giveaways!

May 5
Nouveau Stitch
Just Pure Lovely
The Crafty Princess Diaries

May 6
Crafting A Green World
Stitched by Crystal


May 7
Prudent Baby
House of 34

May 8
Smashed Peas and Carrots
Simply Modern Mom

May 9
Marsha’s Spot
Sew Spoiled

May 10
Dollar Store Crafts
Only From Scratch

May 11
Wild Olive (You're here!)
Positively Splendid

May 12
On the Laundry Line
Elegance and Elephants

May 13
Luvinthemommyhood
My Little Gems

getting ready for summer stitching

I've been working on a little something for this summer. Actually it's a group of little somethings that will come together in a bigger something. I've been having a hard time keeping a secret, and some of you already know about it. Because I had to break the news to someone. (There are benefits to being on the Mailing A-List!)

For the past three summers I've offered online embroidery classes. I have loved doing that, and I'll do it again (plans and ideas are still forming), but I needed something different this year. Something a bit more manageable. I'm betting you understand, because summer can get very busy.

This summer, I wanted relaxed stitching and one project instead of fifteen. And so a club was born. Actually, I think a club was re-born, because my regular Pattern of the Month Club is on a break, but I couldn't resist getting back to it.



Without giving everything away today, come back Tuesday to learn more about the Summer Stitching Club. It's stitching and hexagons and summer and relaxing and a real deal for you!

Seriously...I'm so excited about this!

Speaking of online classes, last summer's The Embroidery Project: Re-Sized is finally available in PDF format! (It only took me nine months to finish...) You'll find it now in my Etsy shop.

project: simple embroidered mug rug with real quilt binding

Earlier this year I made my first real quilt. Sort of. I still have a hard time thinking of it as a real quilt because I made it the cheater way without a binding. It has been bugging me that I didn't learn how to do the binding, but I figured I'd get there eventually.

Eventually is here.

To learn the process, I decided to start small. A mug rug is the mini-est of mini quilts and I had that lily of the valley embroidery to use, so I set out to create something easy. It's not perfect...I'm super super new to some of this...I'm not trying to be an expert. But if I can learn this stuff, so can you. And it happens when you just start.

You will need:

A piece of embroidery on fabric 5 x 6 inches (this is a great place to use something you've already stitched!)
Fabric for front: 5 x 6 inches
Fabric for back: 9.5 x 6 inches
Batting: 9.5 x 6 inches
Fabric for binding: 2.5 x 40 inches (I cut mine from the full 45-inch width of the fabric)
Embroidery floss
Sewing machine, needle and thread, iron, scissors, pins...the basics

All seams are 1/4-inch




Start by sewing the embroidered piece and the front fabric piece, right sides together. Press the seam toward the darker fabric. Hopefully at this point, you'll be more successful at ironing out the wrinkles than I was.

Layer the backing fabric (wrong side up), the batting, and the top piece together. If the back and batting aren't quite the right size, trim them.




Pin the layers together and quilt some lines on the non-embroidered half. I kept them all straight, but varied the line widths. You can do this however you choose, including hand quilting it, which would look fantastic, I'm sure.

Add a line of running stitch next to the center seam on the embroidery half.



There are all kinds of great tutorials out there for binding a quilt, so do some searching and take in a few guides. The one I relied on for my binding can be found here.

To prepare the binding, press 1/4-inch of the end of the strip toward the wrong side. Next, press the entire strip in half the long way.



Place the raw edges along the edge of the mug rug, with the folded edge toward the center. Start along the bottom edge, and begin your sewing an inch or two from the end of the binding strip. When you get to the corner, stop 1/4-inch from the end.

That diagonal line is another tip I learned here. It forms a guide for the next step. When you get to the edge of the fabric, back stitch on the machine, and trim your thread.



At the corner, fold the binding back at a 45-degree angle. This is where that diagonal stitching helps.



Next, fold the binding down so that the raw edge matches up with the next edge of the mug rug you'll be sewing.



Start sewing 1/4-inch from the edge, and continue on to the next corner.



When you make it back to the start, you'll need to trim off any excess binding strip so that it overlaps about 1 inch with the loose folded starting piece. Tuck it inside the starting piece, then continue sewing to finish it off.

I was a little upset by that pucker you see, but guess what? When I folded it down to the right side, there's no pucker!



See? Pretty!



Finally we get to the finishing. Wrap the folded edge around to the back and stitch it down with a blind stitch. To do this, you secure the thread (I used hand quilting thread) to the quilted part, then bring the needle through the folded edge of the binding, tacking it down to the mug rug. The idea is to make the stitching secure but invisible.



When you get to the corners, you sew them down the same way. What do you think? Not perfect, but not bad either!



With your thread knotted and trimmed, you've got a mug rug!

Things I noticed: When quilting the yellow section, the fabric wanted to shift more than I expected. It worked out, but next time I'll pin more. Also, the embroidered area with no quilting looks loose to me, probably because the other side is so tightly quilted. If you have a suggestion (other than quilting this area), please share!




Now, I'm going to let you in on a secret. I've made a lot of projects where I started with limited knowledge and only a rough plan. And most of the time they work out because of this: She believed she could, so she did. And also, because I know that I can share these things with you and tell you about my experiences and that you'll join in my celebration or sorrow. But mostly celebration. You know, because we're awesome like that.