Monday, February 27, 2012

“Caught With Carrots!” New Pattern is Ready!

caught with carrots 650
The pattern is printed and ready to go!
To purchase, just look for the Paypal button on the left sidebar under the picture.
The price is $9.50 for the pattern and his price includes shipping cost for US & Canada. All other international customers will just need to pay a small additional shipping fee.
caught with carrots 1
The finished size for this tablerunner is 10” x 25” but it can easily be made longer just by adding to the length.
The picture shows this made with my 100% hand-dyed wool but wool felt can be substituted for any or all of the wool requirements to save on cost. 
Wool kits are also available for this.  The price is $43.00 for the pattern and all of the wool needed to make this look exactly like the picture.  Shipping cost is included in that price but international ladies will have to pay the difference in shipping cost.
ALl of the wool that is in this kit, except for the wool used for the eyes, is my own hand-dyed wool that is dyed just for this design.
If interested in purchasing the wool kit with pattern just CLICK HERE

Those wishing to pay by personal check or money order, just email me at cathspennies@gmail.com and I’ll send the mailing information.

Thank you ladies!
Happy Day!

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Caught With Carrots <-----Let’s Make It Tutorial!

 

I haven’t done a step-by-step tutorial for a while, so it’s time. My newest design,“Caught With Carrots!”, will now get some special tutorial attention.

CIMG0915

Let let me start by saying first that I do this so that you ladies may see how relatively easy this is to make.  If you know how to make basic embroidery stitches, and take it step-by-step, you can do it. 

I realize that showing this tutorial will open up the easy opportunity for some to steal without purchasing the pattern for it.  But I’m willing to chance that because it really is helpful , especially for the beginners.

Once, a few years back, right before I started selling my very first pattern, a woman who had copied/stole my Let It Snow design said, “what do you expect when you show people on your site how to make it?” 

Well, I expect people to be honest enough to not copy my designs and claim them as their own.   So please ladies, don’t ruin this by stealing.

The picture above shows this as not quite finished so check back in a few days to see the official finished design picture.

 

So to start, I have my background wool cut to the size specified in the pattern instructions.

Here are the cut pattern pieces along with some of the wool colors I’ll be using….

CIMG0883

CIMG0887  I will stitch down the bunny first.  I traced the bunny pattern onto freezer paper and cut out the shapes.   This little guy looks odd without ears but I’ll add them later.

CIMG0888 I used a lightly mottled wool for the bunny,  but light brown or just natural colored wool would look fine too.  So here, I’ve pinned the bunny in place, tucking the little tail behind the bunny backside. and with thread that is a few shades darker than my wool, I blanket stitched around the edges.

CIMG0889 I generally use a lot of pins to hold down the larger pieces, like the bunny body.  Pins help to keep the wool in place and tight so that once it’s all stitched, there will be no puckers … it lays completely flat.

CIMG0884Before I attach the bunny face, I need to make the ears.  To start, I blanket stitch around the pink inner ear.

CIMG0885 The white ears need to be two layers so I pin the two white ears together and blanket stitch the edges.

CIMG0886 Done! 

CIMG0891 I pinned the ears and head in place, tucking the ears under the head. I’ll blanket stitch around the head/face, stitching through all thicknesses of the bottoms of the ears.  The ears will be kept loose except where they are attached at the head.

CIMG0892

Done!  I like to put the face on after finishing the whole bunny.  I like making it come alive. That’s just me though so if you want to put the face on now, just skip over the next few pictures!

CIMG0895I need to stitch in the hind leg details and to do this, I need to use my freezer paper pattern piece.  I cut right along the hind leg line that is on the pattern.  I laid the pattern back onto the bunny and with a chalk pencil, I drew right around that leg shape.

CIMG0896  The white chalk is a little difficult to see since it’s on light wool, but it’s visible enough to be able to backstitch along the drawn line.

CIMG0897 Done!

CIMG0900Ok, now, I’ll work on  making the cute bunny face.  Remember, this part is important to get right.  We need a face that people will look at and say “awwww”.  We don’t want a face that people look at and say “ewww”.

So I blanket stitched around the little pink nose.

CIMG0901  I want the eyes to have a guilty expression.  They need to say “uh oh, I’m in trouble!”  To do that, I angled the whites of the eyes….

CIMG0903 Then I placed the black pupils on and blanket stitched around the edges of the black pupils.  I gave each eye a little white french knot highlight.  I also blanket stitched around the whites of the eye, but I don’t have a picture to show that.  I still need to make the eyebrows and the whiskers, but I forgot to take pictures of that. 

CIMG0906 Time to work on the carrots.  I pinned the two carrot layers together and stitched all around, leaving the tops unstitched.  (The pattern will show exactly where to stop stitching.)

CIMG0909 The green carrot stems are made by cutting three strips down a rectangular  piece of wool.  (the pattern will give the exact measurements for this)  I left about 1/4” uncut at the bottom.

CIMG0910

I folded the green strips into each other to make a stack …

CIMG0907 Then I pinned the carrot onto the wool, inserting the green carrot stem at the top.   Now, I finish blanket stitching around the top edges, going through all thicknesses of the carrot, the green stem and the background wool.  This takes a little extra time because of all the layers but it’s just a small area, so it doesn’t fray the patience to much.

I did the same with all of the carrots.

CIMG0911 The carrot on the right has a little bite taken out of it and the stems are chewed down so I randomly clipped the green stems to make them looked munched on.

CIMG0912 I clipped the tips of the other stems a little.

CIMG0913 The stem which is to the left of the bunny’s nose is tacked just under it’s nose to make it look like the bunny is caught chewing it.

Just about done!

CIMG0914I folded the ears down and with a couple little stitches from underneath, they are tacked down in place. I had a difficult time figuring out the cutest position for the ears … I settled for this, but they look cute however they are placed.

 CIMG0916

The little flowers are attached by stitching french knots into the centers of the flower circles.  These flowers, like the bunny ears can be arranged in any way you wish. 

 

I recommend using a pretty matching cotton backing for this.  Just cut the cotton 1/2'” wider than the background wool.  Iron a 1/4” edge around the cotton and pin the backing to the back of the background wool.  Blanket stitch around the entire edge.  Since the carrots are attached higher than the background edge, it’s easy to just lift the carrots up, and  blanket stitch underneath them.

And that’s it!  See, it really wasn’t difficult at all!

 

I still have a lot of work to do on the pattern instructions and the pattern itself so if you’re interested in purchasing the pattern, check back in a few days for the pattern at a very special price!

 

Happy Day everyone!  Spring is almost here!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

“Caught With Carrots” <<-------The Beginning!

I’ve had this idea in my head since last fall for a spring design with bunnies in a carrot garden.

It’s inspired by my husband’s Aunt Ethel. 

Aunt Ethel used to be what we now call a “neat freak” .  Her house and property were perfectly maintained with a spotless home and an absolutely picture perfect yard and garden.

Aunt Ethel love nature and especially the bunnies and birds.  She complained about them though, as one would complain about their children. She didn’t want them in her garden!   To keep the bunnies out , she had a small wire fence around her perfect garden.

Aunt Ethel complained and complained about the bunnies figuring out a way into her garden in spite of the perfectly installed garden fence.  Every time we visited, she’d have a different story to tell about the animals in her garden.

We’d laugh as she told us how she’d stand and scold the bunnies when she found them feasting on her perfect vegetable plants.  She’d threaten them with her perfectly shiny clean shovel, as one would threaten a child with a paddling.  But she could never hurt them, even though they caused massive damage to her carrots and lettuce. I think they must have known that, which is why they kept coming back for more

I miss Aunt Ethel…. and her stories.

But anyway, I had this idea for a penny rug design with a bunny getting caught by Aunt Ethel in her carrot garden.

I had to figure out how to make the bunny so here’s the first sketch…

Caught in Carrots I had found that one Google picture that I mentioned in my previous post, that gave me the help I needed to make those eyes have a guilty expression.

  bunny Once I had decided how to draw the bunny, I drew it out to the pattern scale size that I needed.

caught in carrotsThen I drew in the rest of the design …

I wanted the carrots to look like they were growing out of the ground with the bunny chewing on the carrot greens ….

caught in carrots  Once that was drawn, I needed to figure out the colors, so my colored pencils did their job …..

caught in carrotsOnce I have the exact design drawn out, I get really excited to start stitching. 

I will be dyeing the wools that I need for these colors and in the next few days, I’ll show my progress. 

 

  I’ll be back soon with more Caught In Carrots pictures …

Happy Day everyone!

Friday, February 10, 2012

I’m In The Mood For Bunnies!

 

It’s that time of year when I have to start thinking about Easter and spring designs.  Easter is early this year … April 8th will be here soon!

I was looking through Google images the other day trying to get some ideas on making a cute bunny face for my new design.

Oh. My. Gosh!  The bunny pictures that I found were so cute that I just kept looking and looking. 

I have a design in mind that has a bunny getting caught eating the garden carrots.  I needed, first of all, a good idea of how to create the bunny face and second of all, I wanted to get an idea of how create the bunny eyes to make it have a guilty/”uh oh, I’m caught”expression.

Those bunnies are just the cutest things! 

The picture above reminds me of  the young couple who lived down the road from us who had a pet rabbit that they kept in their house. 

They let it roam loose throughout their small home.  It was so cute to see it hopping around in their living room and it was even paper trained.  How perfect!  They are smart creatures and it seemed like a great pet.  But then later, I heard that their cute little bunny was eating everything in site … like their couch and carpeting.  You wouldn’t think that those cute little things could do so much damage, but gosh, it’s a good thing it didn’t turn into a fried bunny when it chewed through the lamp wire.

Anyway, I enjoyed my Google image “bunny eating” search and it helped me with my design idea. 

bunny I’ll show my design drawing as soon as I put some finishing touches on it.  The pic above is exactly the expression I was looking for.  See how those eyes have that “uh oh, I’m in trouble” kind of look? 

I hope to use that eye expression in my new design.   Sometimes the translation from drawing to wool stitching doesn’t work though, so I’m proceeding with caution. 

It’s supposed to snow a bit over night and tomorrow so it’s a perfect time to sit by the fireplace and stitch!

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

“Shamrocks!” New Pattern!

shamrocks400
This is shown made with 100% wool and my own hand-dyed green shamrock wool, but woolfelt can easily be substituted for any or all of the wool requirements to save on $$.
The finished size is about 12 1/2” across and it’s really quick to stitch up.  The pattern has a layout sheet which shows the exact placement for each shamrock and the vines.  Super easy!
 Just click on the Paypal button over there on the left sidebar to purchase. (Note:, this price is for US & Canada only. International customers will just pay a small additional amount for the extra shipping)
I also have an E-pattern available for download which is $5.25.  The epattern is available at PatternMart or at PatternCupboard.  
I have my own special hand-dyed green wool available for this design too. 
CIMG0878 For $4.00, which includes shipping, you’ll get the three different textured wools.  It’s enough green shamrock wool to make one candle mat plus a little extra.  If interested, just email me or go to my website to purchase HERE
Total size of all three wool pieces together is about 6” x 7”

Of course, if you don’t wish to pay with Paypal, I accept personal checks or money orders.  Just email me at cathspennies@gmail.com to get my mailing info.

Happy Day Everyone!