Lark Crafts

Hi! This is Aimee Ray again with another week of happy stitching! We’ve been stitching up a free embroidery pattern each week. Here is this week’s pattern, a cute duo of birds!

Download the bird motifs here.

If you’ve missed the first motifs, it’s easy to catch up. Here’s motif #1 and motif #2 and motif #3 if you missed them.

Be sure to show us what you’re stitching by posting your photos in our flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/doodlestitchalong/ And don’t forget to check back with us next week for some sweet apron instructions to put your stitched motifs to good use!

Hey guys, this is Aimee Ray. Are you ready for another week of stitching? Here is this week’s free nest pattern! I used the satin stitch for the leaves and eggs on this one. Also, I found it easier to just wing it on the nest lines rather than following the pattern exactly, but do whatever works best for you.

If you’ve missed the first two weeks, it’s easy to catch up. And we’d love to have you along! Here’s motif #1 and motif #2 if you missed them.

Be sure to show us what you’re stitching by posting your photos in our flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/doodlestitchalong/

Next week is the last free pattern, then we’ll be putting them all together into a cute and easy apron. Don’t miss it!

We’re sharing the hexagon love today with a hexagon pillow tutorial from Stash Happy author Cynthia Shaffer. I kind of want one in every colorway! Here’s how (and don’t forget to scroll through to the bottom for the giveaway details!):

Gather:
Large linen throw pillow
Stash fabrics in 5 or more coordinating colors
Cardstock and standard office paper
Pen
Hand needle
Thread to match the pillow and thread to stand out from the fabric hexagons
Sharp scissors

Make:

1.     Create a hexagon that measures 3½ inches and cut one out from the cardstock.

2.     Create a hexagon that measures 3 inches, and cut out 13 from the office paper.

3.     With the pen, trace the cardstock hexagon on the backside of your fabrics. I traced 2 of each color, then went back and traced a third one from one of the larger prints.  Fussy cut the larger prints to highlight an interesting motif.

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Hey guys, it’s Aimee Ray again with the final installment of our Doodle Stitch Along! I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have, it’s been so much fun seeing all of your embroideries along the way. Today, I’m going to show you what I made with my motifs (including the toadstool house): a mini ticker tape quilt! I’ve loved ticker tape quilts since the first time I saw one and this was the perfect way to try making one. Let me tell you, this is my kind of project. Quick and easy, no patterns or measuring, and you can use up scrap fabric! This is a fun, freestyle, make it up as you go along quilt. I found this awesome tutorial online and followed it almost exactly. Also, if you’d like to add a few other stitched elements to your mini quilt, download some free embellishment motifs here.

My little quilt measures about 13 x 17 inches; I started by cutting out the front and back pieces and the batting and pinning them together. You can add fabric strips one by one as shown, but I wanted to space out the embroidered pieces and see what it would look like finished, so I put all my scraps in place and secured them with a tiny bit of fusible web before sewing them on. The tutorial says to use a walking foot, but I just used my standard sewing machine foot and it worked fine.

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Hey guys, it’s Aimee Ray again, with another Doodle Stitch Along post! Can you believe we’re almost done? This is week number 4, and the last of the free patterns is up for grabs: a super cute toadstool house. Thanks to everyone who participated in our gnomes vs. toadstools poll… gnomes are just too hard to beat but enjoy anyway!

Be sure to visit our Flickr group and check out all the awesome embroidery being done by our Stitch Along participants! You guys are really blowing me away with your work! It’s great to see all the different variations. Come back and join us once again next Friday, as we wrap up our Stitch Along with a project you can use all of your stitched motifs in. Here’s my motif set from last week (at left).

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Hey there crafty people! This is Aimee Ray, the author of Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection. I’ve got a fun project for you, a Stitch Along! We’ll be giving away a free embroidery pattern motif a week from my book for the next 4 weeks, and we’ll all stitch them up together into a super cute mini quilt. The motifs are from the Woodland Fairy Tale set (one of my personal faves), and you can get the first one today: first up is the Gnome and Mushroom (click the linked text to download a PDF of the motif, which includes two size options). Start embroidering them right away! Get creative and use whatever colors and stitches you like. (If you’ve never embroidered before, this is a great time to start! If you need some beginners tips, visit my blog for some free tutorials.

Read more after the jump!

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