Do you love the snow? The holiday season? How about stitching by the fire? If all these things appeal to you then show your winter pride in Hoopla form! This month's theme is all about winter and the reason you love it or hate it. Are you stitching presents for the holiday season? Show those off too!

Now for the details:

• You have until December 31st to post your project and be eligible for the random drawing.
• Prize: 20.00 gift card to Amazon
• Post your hoopla HERE

http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2015/12/december-craftster-hoopla-along.html

http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2015/12/patterns-cherry-blossom-festival-sampler.html

Hello Dear Readers! Well, I goofed today and didn't have a post scheduled to go out early this morning so readers around the world would see Friday Instagram Finds first thing. I also hadn't contacted anyone to let them know I'd be featuring their Instagram account. I didn't want anyone to feel shafted, so I thought I'd let you know what I've been up to lately.

I have been making, making, making for the two holiday markets I'm in this year. Last night was the first, Rockford Handmade Market at the Prairie Street Brewhouse. It was so much fun! I got to see so many old friends (I'm from Rockford, but now live two hours away), and meet so many new people.

A week from tomorrow, on Saturday, December 12th I'm in the first annual Sugarplum Market at North Main Studios. Between my full time day job at the Library, and this market coming up, I am going to be super busy stitching nights and this weekend away for the foreseeable future! Here are some of my pictures from Instagram.

@randomactsofamy

This is me at Rockford Handmade Market last night. Image by: @randomactsofamy

This is my Black Friday haul - 300 skeins of DMC floss! Image by @randomactsofamy

This is one of the larger ornaments (4") I made this year. Image by @randomactsofamy

Snowflake ornaments on navy linen fabric with vintage bugle bead accents. Image by @randomactsofamy That's it for this week's edition of Friday Instagram Finds! Join in the conversation by commenting below. You can find Feeling Stitchy on Instagram at the handle @feelingstitchyish. You can find Amy @randomactsofamy on Instagram. Want to be featured in Friday Instagram Find? Tag your best stitch-related photos like Jenny did with #feelingstitchyig!

http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2015/12/friday-instagram-finds-no-32-with.html

British artist, Cornelia Parker has produced a 13 metre-long embroidery of the Magna Carta Wikipedia page to celebrate the document's 800th anniversary.


“I love the idea of taking something digital and making it into an analogue, hand-crafted thing” says Cornelia Parker. Due to the evolving nature of Wikipedia the artist chose last year's version of the page as a basis for her work, fixing this version in a tangible form.


This epic embroidery incorporates contributions from over 200 people. The majority of the text was stitched by prisoners which was lead by the social enterprise Fine Cell Work. Hand & Lock, the Royal School of Needlework and the British Embroiderers' Guild were also major contributors.


Many other individuals were invited to embroider a few words including judges, lawyers, civil rights campaigners, members of parliament, artists and musicians. “I thought carefully about the words they should stitch. For instance, Baroness Warsi, Eliza Manningham-Buller, Julian Assange and numerous prisoners have all stitched the word ‘freedom’, but all have different relationships to it.”


“I wanted the embroidery to raise questions about where we are now with the principles laid down in the Magna Carta, and about the challenges to all kinds of freedoms that we face in the digital age. Like a Wikipedia article, this embroidery is multi-authored and full of many different voices. ”

The work is currently on tour across the UK.

http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2015/12/magna-carta-embroidery.html

http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2015/11/patterns-felt-farm-set.html

How are you doing today? Here in the United States, it's the day after Thanksgiving, and is known as Black Friday, a day that retailers big and small offer up sales in order to get into the "black" (as opposed to being "in the red"). It's also a day to graze on the leftovers from Thanksgiving.

@frost.maya

I have a special treat for you today by introducing you to Maya Frost. Maya is an ex-pat from Portland, Oregon, USA who now lives in Mexico. You can see the influences of Mexico in her work, most especially in the vibrant colors she uses.

Maya uses unique and different materials in her embroidery. Yes, in the first picture, Frida Kahlo is stitched on a tortilla with hair of beans - how clever!! IN the other pictures, Maya uses pieces of brown paper, canvas, and pieces of clear plastic in which to stitch on. She uses paint and floss together to create vibrant and unique pieces of art.

Image by @frost.maya

Image by @frost.maya (On canvas)

Image by @frost.maya (On a brown paper scrap)

Image by @frost.maya (On a clear plastic remnant)

Image by @frost.maya (On canvas)

That's it for this week's edition of Friday Instagram Finds! Join in the conversation by commenting below. While you're on Instagram checking out Maya's work at @frost.maya, and make sure you follow Feeling Stitchy! We'd love for you to stop by and say hello. You can find Feeling Stitchy on Instagram at the handle @feelingstitchyish. You can find Amy @randomactsofamy on Instagram. Want to be featured in Friday Instagram Find? Tag your best stitch-related photos like Jenny did with #feelingstitchyig!

http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2015/11/friday-instagram-finds-no-31-with-maya.html

In my ongoing quest to find different needle weaving tips and techniques, I came across a post by the amazing Mary Corbet on the Common Thread blog.

In this post, Mary shares tips on how to add texture and patterns to your needle weaving. What caught my eye was the technique to create a plaid-like pattern.

So, I decided to give it a try by needle weaving a red plaid - because it's the fall season and red plaid reminds me of cozy flannel shirts.


For my plaid pattern, I stitched 2 rows red, 1 row black, 1 row white, and repeat.

DMC Floss used:

• Red #817
• Black #310
• White ECRU

I chose a circle because originally I was going to put the finished work in a small round frame I have for an ornament (more on that later). So I traced the frame - which is a 3 inch diameter circle.






Here are the finished vertical stitches (warp threads).




Now time to weave my horizontal stitches (weft threads).






I weaved over and under each vertical stitch - but I wasn't perfect. I sometimes missed a row or weaved over/under two rows by accident. But it doesn't seem too noticeable...





What do you think? Does it look plaid to you!?!

I didn't like how it looked in the round ornament frame - it didn't quite fit right either - so I think I will keep it in a small hoop.






Overall, I like how the plaid pattern looks. This is my first needle weaving using multiple colors and I will definitely keep experimenting.

Seriously, check out this needle weaving post by Mary Corbet to see her step-by-step tutorial and her awesome needle weaving sampler.

See you next time!

http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2015/11/mooshiestitch-monday-needle-weaving.html

http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2015/11/patterns-new-designs-from-kelly.html

Hello! I hope you're having an awesome day. This post published at 6:00 am my time, so I'm sure I'm still fast asleep. But I know our readers in other parts of the world are more than halfway over with their days. Take a moment to sit back and relax, and look at some beautiful stitching.

@bethcolletti

The first thing I'm struck by when I look at Beth's Instagram feed is the color - bright, beautiful, and bold color. I love it! The next thing I'm struck by is her blending of nature in her work. Beth's sunflower hoo is one of the most amazing pieces of embroidery I've ever seen! Now those are some embroidery goals to strive for!

Her use of mixed media with embroidery is beautiful, and combines fabric, paint and floss with lovely quotes and typography. The last picture shown here gives a lovely closeup look.

Beth's pictures are beautifully staged, and light, bright, and beautiful! I cannot emphasize enough how important this is in a fantastic Instagram feed.

Image by @bethcolletti

Image by @bethcolletti

Image by @bethcolletti

Image by @bethcolletti

http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2015/11/friday-instagram-finds-no-30-with-beth.html

http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2015/11/have-you-heard.html

http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2015/11/have-you-heard.html

Born in Delhi, India, Swati Kalsi studied fashion design at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, India. Since then she has developed her own fashion label and distinct style of embroidery design. Swati Kalsi's work highlights traditional Sujani embroidery which orignitates from Bihar in India. The designer works with local female artisans in Bihar to realise her elegant and modern embroidery designs.


Orignially this age old type of embroidery was applied to old sari fabric or any easily accessible cloth. The pieces of silk would be adorned in colourful embroideries using simple running stitch and chain stitch to illustrate typically distinctive motifs, often depicting the life story of the embroiderer. These embroideries were usually patched together to create family heirlooms such as a comforting quilt for a newborn. Sujani literally translates as 'facilitating or easy birth'.


Nature is a reoccurring theme in Swati Kalsi's designs: 'Rhythm and nature have always caught my eye and have gradually become my vocabulary for ornamentation.' The Anhad (boundless) collection is 'inspired by naturally occurring fractals. The embroidery spreads abstractly and seamlessly over the surface of the garments'. Through her approach to mark making a great beauty and cohesion is created.


Find out more about Sujani and Swati Kalsi's work here.

http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2015/11/sujani.html

Hello, Dear Readers! If you're reading this, it must be Friday - hooray!! I don't know about you, but I have been So. Busy. I've been working away at my day job as a library branch manager, and I come home every night and stitch, stitch, stitch the night away. I have to set an alarm on my phone to go off at 9:30 pm every night to get myself in bed. (Just because it goes off doesn't mean I actually get in bed, but I shoot for it.)

@girlystitch
Today I bring to you Tamra from @girlystitch! Tamra has a lovely, clean style that features beautiful typography, pop culture fun, and gorgeously needle painted pieces of art. Like many of the needle artists I feature here, Tamra used #feelingstitchyig to get "discovered" for this weekly feature.

Tamra's pictures are always so beautiful. They're nice and bright and clear, and I particularly love the close up shots. Take a look at a snippet of her talent in the pictures below.

(Pansies are my absolute favorite flower, and have been since I first watched Alice in Wonderland. Wow, oh wow! Check out her pretty pink pansy below!)

Image by @girlystitch

Image by @ girlystitch

Image by @girlystitch

Image by @girlystitch

http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2015/11/friday-instagram-finds-no-29-with-girly.html

http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2015/11/november-craftster-hoopla-along.html

http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2015/11/november-craftster-hoopla-along.html

http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2015/11/november-craftster-hoopla-along.html

Kamal Kadai is an Indian embroidery style native to the state of Andhra Pradesh that primarily uses needle weaving to stitch beautiful flowers. There is definitely a specific style to the flower designs used in Kamal Kadai. The flower petals kind of look like they have "steps" or "levels" (for lack of better explanation).

After reviewing a couple blogs that had step by step tutorials (here and here), I realized you basically follow the same process as the woven trellis stitch to stitch the flower petals.

http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2015/11/mooshiestitch-monday-kamal-kadai-work.html

Thank you, readers, for joining me on yet another new stitching adventure! Today we'll be learning the Eye Stitch, only we'll be cheating, because technically this stitch is just made up of two stitches we already know - satin stitch and back stitch. So let's dive in!

Today I'm working on some linen fabric instead of my normal tightly woven cotton. I like linen for this stitch because of the big "hole" in the center of the design that forms as you go, but if you don't like that, you could stitch this on anything. To get a truly symmetrical design, use any even weave fabric and count the threads. As you will probably be able to see from my examples, I just eye balled it.

To begin, find the center of where you want your eye stitch to go. You're going to make a total of 16 satin stitches in various lengths from the center. To make mine a little more even looking, I first made a cross of stitches, and then went back around my circle adding in the others.

First a cross

Then long diagonal stitches in between

Then finally shorter diagonal stitches in between each of those

Make sure you always end (or begin) each stitch in the same spot, and you'll see how the threads surround the hole for a nice eye catching center.

http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2015/11/learn-eye-stitch.html

Hello! Welcome to another edition of Friday Instagram Finds! I just cannot believe how quickly the year has flown by! There are only seven Fridays left in 2015, with the last Friday falling on Christmas.

Today I'd like to introduce you to Rinny of @stitcherinny on Instagram. Rinny is from Madison, WI, which is a great town I used to hang out a lot in when I lived in Rockford, IL. Rinny creates, "pretty & witty hand embroidery" with clever pop culture references. Her Instagram feed is colorful, and fun - take a look at some of my favorite pics!

@stitcherinny

Image by @stitcherinny

Image by @stitcherinny

Image by @stitcherinny

Image by @stitcherinny That's it for this week's edition of Friday Instagram Finds! Join in the conversation by commenting below. While you're on Instagram checking out Rinny's work at @stitcherinny, and make sure you follow Feeling Stitchy! We'd love for you to stop by and say hello. You can find Feeling Stitchy on Instagram at the handle @feelingstitchyish. You can find Amy @randomactsofamy on Instagram. Want to be featured in Friday Instagram Find? Tag your best stitch-related photos like Jenny did with #feelingstitchyig!

http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2015/11/friday-instagram-finds-no-28-with.html

The fabulous Mister Finch's enchanting hand-sculpted creatures were exhibited earlier this year in New York in his first solo show at the Steven Kasher Gallery. If you haven't seen his collection of fairy tale curiosities already, I warn you it is hard not to fall in love with them.


A predominant theme in his work is nature: rustic fungi that look like they belong in the natural history museum, quaint rabbits, masked birds and bees the size of your head!

“My main inspirations come from nature and often I return to certain ideas again and again. Flowers, insects, and birds really fascinate me with their amazing life cycles and extraordinary nests and behaviors."


The mystical textile sculptures range dramatically in size and are intricately hand-sewn using an array of materials; many of which are recycled. Mister Finch's creatures are born straight from his colourful, imaginary wonderland. He recalls that growing up with Beatrix Potter books and other childhood classics has influenced his textile art.


"British folklore is also so beautifully rich in fabulous stories and never ceases to be at the heart of what I make: shape-shifting witches, moon-gazing hares and a smartly dressed devil ready to invite you to stray from the path. Humanizing animals with shoes and clothes is something I’ve always done and I imagine them to come alive at night, getting dressed, and helping an elderly shoemaker and a tired housewife.”


I had never considered before that an eclipse of moths could be so stunning!

http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2015/11/stitchy-snippets-mister-finchs-faeryland.html