The Most Important Backpack - Free Pattern!

HEY! I have another important and free cross stitch pattern for you guys. This time it's for Hunger Games fans.

I've been seeing a lot about the Catching Fire film lately and, AND, the Cover Girl Capitol Collection (I'm dying over here about that, by the way!) so Hunger Games has been on my brain. I thought I'd try and do another "important tools" type pattern and decided to go with the backpack that Katniss nabs from the cornucopia. So, it includes her muddy backpack, crackers, rolled up sleeping bag, matches, night vision glasses, dried beef, iodine, wire and water bottle!

Get it for free by clicking the image or right here:

Little Gardener

I can't believe this didn't get posted here yet! Little Gardener - my newest counted cross stitch patter is now available in the S. Jane Craft shop! Click on the banner to the right to go to the shop!

Lady Bear Cross Stitch Pattern

I was recently able to get my laptop working again, which has been awesome. However, the biggest reason that I wanted to use it again is because a little while before it crapped out on me I had purchased a program to make cross stitch patterns. I was able to make a few before my computer, let's just say, "slept" for over a year but I never really got to share them.

So, I am very excited to share with you all, my first cross stitch pattern - Lady Bear!



Lady Bear cross stitch pattern is available now in .pdf as an instant download in the S. Jane Craft shop. She's a fun little beginner project, if you haven't done much cross stitch and she is worked up in only four colors so she's easily customizable!

Happy stitching!!

Vintage Tablecloth

Monday I spent the night at my mom's. We started talking about embroidery and she showed me some vintage linens she had. Some of them were printed for embroidery and had been started and some hadn't. She gave me all of them and I am so excited! (Thanks, ma!)

I started one of them the other night while Adam and I were plowing our way through the first season of Downton Abbey on Netflix. I wish we had noticed season one was only 7 episodes - then we might not have watched 4 in a row one night and then the last 3 another. Oh well!

Anyway, here is what I have started on one of the tablecloths. Adam says the colors are very "foodie" and I'm not totally sure what that means.




Good thing it got chilly out again. The tablecloth is linen and it gets a little warm on your lap when you work on it!

Shop update? Reopening?

I'm finally adding some of my new stuff to the S. Jane Craft Etsy shop. It's a little scary adding new, different stuff. So here are the first two new things, now available in the shop! Click on the images to go the listing.

Diamond Pendant in Sunset

Rainy Day Brooch

Quick peek and bone chisels (jk not really)

Just a quick peek at some projects I'm working on!

It's been a lot of stitching and a lot of Doctor Who the past few weeks. We are finally starting to get the gross heat that everyone else has been having. It just started yesterday so it's not too bad in our house yet but I'm already dreading it. Maybe I was one of the only ones, but I really wasn't minding the unseasonably cool weather we were having.

Well, I'm going to return to trying to keep cool and then make some pizza dough! We are going to a BBQ later and we're going to bring stuff for grilled pizzas. We made them when we went up to Seattle for the 4th and they came out so delicious.

Also while in Seattle on the 4th, I took some time to study up on medical equipment sterilization procedures.

And by study up I mean look through a procedure book my dad has for work and look for the old medical tools that I have and yell.."OH GROSS OUT!" at what they were once used for. I wish I had taken a picture of one of the grosser ones (like the bone chisels or things that cut nose cartilage, totally pukatronic!) but my camera battery crapped out immediately after that pic.

Flower Necklace

Here is the other cross stitch piece I did. I decided to turn this one into a necklace as well.

It's the middle of June and only in the 50's outside. What the crap, Oregon!

Diamond Necklace

A few months back I did some little cross stitch pieces with the intention of making some kind of wearable things out of them. I finally got to work on one of those today.

It's a diamond necklace! Get it? Jokes!

You can see a pic of it on at my Flickr account. I'm not sure about the gold chain or the length, but I haven't totally secured the backing yet so I might change it out. I'm not really even positive if I like it as a necklace.

I've been so drowsy the past few days. The weather has been great but since moving here I've developed allergies and all I want to do is nap and blow my nose and sneeze. It's pretty lame.

I got the needle craft crazies.

Just kidding. I don't even know what that means!

First off, thank you so much to everyone who commented on my last post. It really helped me feel better about where I want to take my work. I'm feeling renewed and really excited about some new projects.

Ok, but needle crafts. I have been doing a lot lately. I recently finished two commissioned embroideries that are super cute, started many paper on paper embroideries and have been crocheting a bunch. Last week I started plugging away on these:

They are so much fun! I just need to find my thimble because pushing a needle though layers of paper is getting a little rough on my fingers.

Yesterday I did some crocheting. I found this post on Bella Dia about crocheting covers for glass jars and I decided to try it. I had an old glass that I was using to hold stuff in my craft room. It had a chip in it so it's days as a drinking glass were over.

It was a really easy, fun project and a great way to add some extra color. I want to crochet some more covers for jars to use as vases because that is something Adam and I lack at our house.

So yeah, I'm feeling good!

Back on track-ish?

Well, I am still in Maine. I will be here until September and it sure is nice. It's nice to spend the day at my mom's house with the dogs and sit in her massive craft room. It gives me so much inspiration but at the same time can be overwhelming because there is just so much you could do in here!

Yesterday I felt like working on something small and using some fabric. I'm not great at sewing or really anything involving a sewing machine so I just decided to do some embroidery with some little scraps of my mom's fabric on paper.



It's pretty similar to some other paper embroidery I have done and it was really fun. I want to try doing some of these on a larger scale so this morning I dug through all the old supplies in my bedroom and found a stretched canvas with some crappy unfinished oil painting on it. I think it was supposed to be of Popham Beach, but I really have no idea. I've never been much of a painter. At all. Ever.

I'm cooking up some pretty big ideas for some new stuff and with the help of my mom have been collecting some little things to get started. I've had a bit of a rough year, personally, and now it's time to get back on track.

Home Sweet Home!

I have been in Maine for about a week now and it's even better than I could have imagined. My heart and mind are feeling much happier than they have in a while. I feel, well, at home. (Sorry, Oregon, you are really really great, but you just aren't Maine.)

My mom and I went down to Bailey Island this morning to visit The Log Cabin, where I used to work, and to pick some sea glass. It was foggy when we first got down there, but that place is so beautiful that it really didn't matter. We had also gone down a few days before with my dad to have lunch. The moment we crossed the bridge onto the island I let out a little squeal and a big sigh and immediately felt at ease. I just love it down there so very much!

Ok, now onto something I have been wanting to share for a while now! The wedding present I made for my friends DeAnne and James. (Who, by the way had a super awesome dance party wedding!)


It was so much fun to make and today DeAnne told me that they did, in fact, find it to be "totally awesome". But seriously, the wedding was SO much fun! DeAnne looked beautiful, James was totally dapper and everyone danced all night. How could we not when there was a plethora of tambourines!

:)

Well, well. I've had a busy couple of days.

I totally missed out on Halloween. I woke up feeling sick as a dog on Friday and I was so bummed out. I kept hoping that I'd feel better by the night time but, no dice! So Adam and I watched Ghost Hunters Live and ate cookies.

Saturday totally made up for it though...because Adam asked me to marry him!! We picked out a ring together on Wednesday, but it had to get sized, etc, so I didn't know for sure when it would be ready. So it was still kind of a surprise!! We are both so happy! Umm, here is my ring!!

Picking out a ring was one of the more stressful things I've done in my life. I'm pretty sure I looked terrified the entire time and my heart was beating about 8 billion time a minute.

I've started doing some stitching on paper again. I really like what has been coming out. I need more patterned papers or magazines or whatever to cut up. Or I just need to make some.








I know I have said it a million times, but I really need to see if our scanner works. I think I want to get some frames for these and put them in the shop.

I hope you all voted today!!

Patterrrrrns!

So I'm pretty excited because I made some embroidery patterns for my shop the other night. The first one is available now and called Little Night Out annnnndddd it looks like this:
So maybe you should go check it out in my shop!

I found an awesome website last night with videos of how to do all sorts of different embroidery stitches. I tried out some last night, but they don't look so hot because I was sitting in the living room where it's not very bright. I think I'm going to try some more today though. Just for a little bit. I have a ton of other stuff to do but my brain is just not in the right place to work on it now.

red head

yaaaay embroidery!

my awesome and amazingly talented friend Graham Kahler decided to do an illustration swap a while back. and months later, i'm finally finishing up my end of the swap! i drew out this little bunny a while back, but i just couldn't settle on what medium to finish him in. then i thought, duh, sarah, he would look great embroidered!

i'm really happy with how it came out. i'd only done embroidery on paper so this is the first time i've done it on fabric and the first time i've filled any areas in.

seriously though, check out Graham's work! and what i'm getting in return.


and in unrelated news: i really miss bailey island, maine today. i don't know why, i just do. i just wish that i could be driving down that windy road to work at the inn. maybe it's because this is the time of year i'd be starting work down there. i miss sue and aimee and laura and matt and alicia and the pups and the guests. boooooo.

last night i decided i wanted to learn embroidery. well, maybe i didn't decide that last night, but i decided to try it last night. really, i only know the back stitch and how to make a french knot, but that's ok with me for now! i tried embroidering one of the white twins felt pins, but i haven't finished that yet.

today i decided to try it on paper instead and i think i like that even better. i just drew the image on the back of the paper and stitched over it!


anyway, now i want to buy a million colors of embroidery floss!

ok, two more!

hello again, felt! i love you!

i have a table now in my studio/craft room and adam and i got a router now we can use wireless. i really like my room! i spent all day in here yesterday and i plan on spending most of today in here too! the room is still kind of a mess though. i still have boxes on the floor with some stuff in them. oh well. i'll empty them soon enough.

i was productive yesterday. i made two more felt pals and a new heart badge. although, i kind of hate it. the colors aren't right. but that is besides the point because, oh man, you guys, i made this:
it's a mini wall hanging of the littel dog thing i've been drawing. i'm not that crazy about the little outfit. it started out as an attempt to make a little lab coat type deal, but it was too small and didn't work out. the whole thing, not including where the wire sticks up is a little shy of 2 inches. so i guess, if you really wanted to, you could wear it as a pendent.

i love working on small stuff. it's so delicate and fun. i'm really not sure how i have the patience. but i do.