ReOpened For Business...

BrynwoodNeedleworks on Etsy

I've been very busy, lifting and emptying boxes, organizing fabrics, fibers and hardware. I'm nearly there, so I decided to reopen my Brynwood Needleworks shops. I will be creating new items to stock in the coming weeks, and I'm excited to get back to playing in my studio(s).

Brynwood Needleworks on Facebook

Are you on Facebook? Are you in our Brynwood Needleworks Facebook group? Members are encouraged to share links to needlework and other handcrafted items. It's a place where we share our love of needlework, knitting, crochet, quilting and more. All you do is request to join the group and I'll happily add you to our ranks.

Brynwood Needleworks - Strawberry Rose Pincushion (or Sachet)

Monday held a particularly wonderful surprise for me. I follow "Embroiderers Guild of Victoria" on Facebook, and they have recently been sharing some of the most beautiful pincushions. I checked in on Monday, and guess what? They were featuring one of MY pincushions!! I could hardly believe it.

I thanked them for featuring my Strawberry Rose Pincushion, and got excited about making more of these in the near future. I'll also be adding some new pincushion designs in the near future. So many ideas...so little time. Please do come and join me. You'll usually get a sneak preview there, even before I get back here to tell you about them. 

 

Come on over. There are lots of talented women, eagerly waiting to share their creations with you, too! We'd like to see yours, too.

 

My Latest Strawberry Sachet...

Brynwood Needleworks - Strawberries and Roses

I've been working on another commission (when I'm not knitting or sewing dresses for little girls). You know I don't like to just sit around! This one is for someone special who loves collecting strawberries.

Brynwood Needleworks - Strawberry Rose Sachet - WIP

I've added new blossoms to this one. Instead of only stitching my usual ruffles, French knots and roses, I've included strawberry blossoms with tiny beaded "strawberries".

The blossoms are dimensional, constructed using bullion petals and French knot centers. I really like the their added effect on this piece.

Brynwood Needleworks - Strawberry Sachet - WIP

I finished all the stitching last night, so I'm ready to start assembly. I'll be stuffing this one with a mixture of crushed walnut shells and lavender buds, and then top it with a little organic cotton to hold everything in place while I stitch the woolen leaves to the top.

It will be ready to use as a sachet, pincushion or just a sweet decoration in no time, and then I'll send it on its way to a new home. Of course, I'll show you photos when it's finished. You don't even have to ask, silly!

Handsome, Tag and I are heading over to see Bella today. We're looking forward to seeing how she's doing at Uncle Mike's Boarding School (Tag's description), and snuggling with her a bit, too.

I'm sure Tag will tell you all about it next week, and I'll get back to the studio when we return. I still have a few things to finish this week! Happy Thursday!

Strawberry Pincushion Swap...

Gorgeous gifts from Jacque A.

 I don't remember whether or not I told you that I was participating in

a Strawberry Pincushion Swap this month, but I did. The swap was

organized by Erin at Why Not Sew? Quilts blog (click here to visit).

I thought that I would send out my swap package to my partner and that I

would be receiving a package from the same person, however, the person

who sent my package to me was someone completely different. Surprise!

When a package arrived for me from Madison, Wisconsin, I was trying

to figure out what would possibly be inside. I read the enclosed letter

and realized that this was my swap package. Then, I began opening 

the red and white polka dot-wrapped gifts inside from Jacque A. Oh, my!

She stitched a Corgi ornament for me!

 Jacque's blog is "The Doodles of My Mind" (click here to visit).

Before she created my gifts, she visited Brynwood to learn a little

bit about me. For my friends, "Do you think she hit the mark?"

(Of course she did!!!) 

She told me that she realized we had a few things in common:

• We both like Crabapple Hill Studio designs. I made the

"Over The River" quilt, and she's working on "Snow Days".

• She and I have both had Herding Breed dogs - me, corgis

and she, collies. AND, we've both had Labrador retrievers.

• My current dog's name is Taggart (aka "Tag") and her

current dog's name is Tag (aka TagEButt)!!! Sweet!!!

I have another one for her, too...

• She lives in Madison, Wisconsin. I grew up in Wisconsin,

and at one point, I commuted to work in Madison, WI.

Small world, right?

Look at the sweet, little bone button!!

 She included a hand stitched corgi ornament, and it's adorable! She used linen

thread on linen fabric, a tiny bone button, and then finished it with polka dots.

My strawberry gifts from Jacque

 She also sewed up two large wool strawberries, and they're truly wonderful.

There are three acorn-sized strawberries, embellished with lace and 

buttons, and then another hand stitched creation...a strawberry pillow!

For the strawberry pillow, Jacque again used linen thread to stitch her

design onto linen fabric. She attached a sweet little matching strawberry to

one corner of it. Swoon! I've placed all her lovely strawberries in one of my

creamware dishes, and now it sits on my cutting table where I'll always see it.

The perfect place to show off my new corgi ornament!

 I've hung the corgi ornament on the wall with my organizer. This is where

I keep many of the wonderful gifts that my blog friends have gifted me.

Happy, happy, happy!

 I think this is the perfect place for it, don't you?

I was really overwhelmed by her generosity and true creativity.  I think 

she really read me well. In fact, when I realized that all of these gifts 

were from her, and not the person who will receive my gift, I decided 

that I wanted to create a few things with Miss Jacque in mind. I'm 

planning to send a personalized gift to thank her for what she sent.

(Don't tell her, ok? We'll just keep this secret between us for now.)

My latest Strawberry Rose as a pincushion

 My swap partner's name is Jessica and she lives in North Carolina.

Are you surprised that this is what I created and sent to her?

...with my acorn magnet and silver thimble

 Of course, it has my "Brynwood" label (acorns and thimble not included).

Silk roses

I'm really happy with the way it turned out, and Jessica might even

get it in the mail tomorrow. I sure hope she likes it. In the meantime,

I'm going to start working on a few surprises for Jacque. I want to

sufficiently thank her for her beautiful strawberry (and corgi) gifts.

Thank you, Jacque. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE every single, gorgeous

piece you sent to me. They'll be treasured for for years to come.

Finally...

 I finally got back into the studio, and I managed to create a few more

gifts that are long overdue for mailing. I created a needle book, more

bookmarks and a strawberry rose, filled with organic wool.

This needle book has a teacup twill trim for a special person who loves them.

I also finished the last needle book for our Saturday Coffee Group.

Our friend, Flo received a beautiful applique' tool organizer from Brenda

as a special gift. I knew right away what I would do for Christmas for the group.

 

I noticed that there was a pocket in the organizer that would be the perfect

size to hold one of my needle books, but I needed to ask Brenda for a

piece of the matching fabric for Flo. She was generous enough to share some

with me, and now Flo's needle book is finished. It's embellished with

the same twill tape I used on the rest of the gifts for our group, and I used

a vintage blue satin ribbon to tie it up. I hope it will fit in the pocket

and safely hold all Flo's needles and pins with the rest of her tools.

It felt great to be back in the studio making surprises. 

I definitely think I have my 'mojo" back and I'm ready to get busy!

I can't wait to show you more....Soon!

Studio Goodness...

Well, girlfriends. It's Friday already and nearly the end of July, to boot. I don't know where the time is going, but I do believe that the older I get the faster it passes.

I've been diligently working on my projects, but I don't have a "finish" to share with you yet. Instead, I'm going to share some "studio goodness" with you.

You've seen my Strawberry Roses before, but one can never have enough roses or strawberries, right?

Then there's my serious stash of fabulous, vintage laces. Look at those crocheted roses. How am I ever going to use those on a project? I love looking at them!

I think you already know what a fan I am of those twill tapes from Lillalotta. She even did custom tapes for me with my single acorn and just the word "Brynwood" - both from my logo. I also save the tapes used to tie the different jelly rolls I purchase. I'm saving them to use in a special project that I hope to share soon.

Finally, I'll close out today with a parting shot of some of the wonderful gifts I've received from other bloggers. These beautiful treasures reside on the wall organizer I made a couple of years ago. They remind me every day of the friendships I've forged over the three years that I've been blogging...and their incredible generosity.

I hope you enjoyed the mini tour, and that my studio goodness brought a little smile to your face today. Happy Friday!

A Little Vintage Goodness...

I took Tag to the vet for a checkup yesterday. He was limping around and favoring his left front leg. Seems he just pulled a muscle trying to catch a squirrel on Tuesday! He's alright (so is the squirrel), but I just have to try to keep him from running like a fool for a while. Yeah. Good luck with that!

After we got back home from Sarasota, I spent the rest of the day hand stitching my scrappy plates to the background fabric. I'm not finished yet, but I'm moving right along with them...and loving how they're looking.

Today, as I continue my stitching, I thought I'd leave you with an image from my studio. I have this pretty, oval ironstone dish on my sewing table. It's always filled with buttons and I toss in bits of ribbon or other embellishments from time to time.

I added one of my ribbon-embroidered rose strawberries and did a little re-arranging before I took this picture. All that vintage goodness - along with the girly pink touches - makes me smile. I hope it makes you feel good, too.

Enjoy your day today, and I'll be back tomorrow with project updates to show you.

Summer Strawberries...

 

Sometimes, a smaller project - something that makes one smile - is just the perfect thing for a hot summer day. I love making ribbon embroidery roses into small strawberries, so I pulled out my supplies and thought making a few more would be fun.

  

Tiny stitches, scrumptious silk ribbon and verdant green threads all combine to create the designs that I make up as I go along. I don't draw out the pattern before I begin, I just start with the basic spiderweb for the roses and scatter on my fabric. After all the buds and flourishes have been added, I stitch the stems and leaves. When I'm finished with the stitching, I sew up the strawberry shape, stuff it and sew on the wool leaves. A simple project, really, but always a sense of accomplishment with the finished strawberry.

How do you spend your hot summer days? I'd love to hear what you're up to!

Strawberry Roses...

I'll be listing up three of my medium-sized Strawberry Roses in the Boutique today. They're each embroidered with my own ribbon roses, buds and flourishes and are filled with lavender and organic wool.

I only have one of each of the colors shown, and I can't promise I'll be making any more before Christmas. If you've followed my blog since last year, you'll remember that it gets a little intense in the studio leading up to the holidays, because I make almost all my gifts. You'll understand why I may not get back to creating more of these. As much as I love making them, I just can't make any promises.
Each strawberry measures about four inches long, so they're not little. They'll be perfect sitting in a little dish, in your lingerie drawer, or you can even use them as pincushions!

You can find these three in The Boutique later this afternoon.
Handsome performed with the North Port Concert Band last night, and this proud wife recorded the entire evening's program. It's going to take me a while to sort through everything, but I hope to share a clip or two with you very soon.

Alas, because I was hired to record the entire concert, my head was in another mode yesterday and I didn't photograph any silver goodness for the October Silver Sunday. I'll photograph my entry later today and link over to Gypsy Fish Journal tomorrow. Sorry to be late to the party, Beth!
One last thing today...In case you didn't see Shell's comment to my post yesterday, I thought I'd share it with you. I loved her interpretation of Fezzik's reaction to the bunny...

"He isn't a hunter at all, but a friend to the bunnies and the creatures of the wild. He will protect them from harm and they will have many good conversations. He growled to warn the bunny of a human. There was peace and love in the world and they all lived happily ever after. You know I love a happy ending. :)
xx, shell"

I love her whole outlook. She's really a "glass-half-full" kind of gal. Fezzy really liked Auntie Shell's story, too! Thanks, my friend.

On The Other Hand...

I've been working on new Strawberry Roses while in Williamsburg. It's wonderful to relax and stitch - until this happens...

Monday night, a group of musicians and spouses decided to go to Golden Corral in Williamsburg for dinner, where we were enjoying a really good meal. I got up to get my main course, and when I came back to the table, I sat down and tried to pull my seat in. Apparently, the legs were detaching from the rest of the chair, and without knowing it, they separated. As I pulled the chair in, both of my hands were caught between the seat and the front legs. Boy, was I surprised!

My left hand escaped with a small puncture that only bled for a little while. On the other hand (no pun intended!), I suffered a more severe injury because the chair decided to keep a hunk of skin from my right "attitude" finger. It bled like crazy.

Our waitress immediately got the manager who came over with a bandage and antiseptic cream. I thought he was gonna kiss my boo boo, he was so concerned! He was really very sweet! He helped bandage my finger, comped our dinner and said that if it needed further medical attention, Golden Corral would pick up the tab.After the band finished their final rehearsal on Monday evening, (and I had already changed my bandage three times), Handsome took me over to the Emergency Clinic, where I was treated with space age adhesive to cover the wound. They couldn't stitch or use butterfly bandages because there was too much tissue missing to "bring it together", so they just glued up the opening and I left sporting this lovely new look.
My new bandage wasn't very conducive to stitching early on Tuesday, but I was still able to sit back in the chair and listen to the Consort make beautiful music. Watching one hundred fifteen musicians work with Lt. Col. Larry Lane, who usually conducts a band at the Air Force Academy (Handsome's brother, a former Air Force pilot, refers to it as "Zoom U") in Colorado Springs, Co.

After our dinner last night, I was able to switch from the "attitude" bandage to a regular Bandaid to keep my injury covered...and I was able to return to stitching. Don't fret. It doesn't hurt now. It's just a royal pain that this even happened.

The chair has been relegated to the dumpster, and I thank Heaven that it happened to me. Had it been a little child, they could have lost a finger. I went back to Golden Corral yesterday, where they reaffirmed that they would cover all my medical costs, and then they bought my lunch, too!

If you've never eaten there before, I can highly recommend the food...and I'm more than happy to give their people rave reviews, too. They really care about their customers. But, if you sit on a wonky chair, move it and get a different one in a hurry!

More fun stuff tomorrow. Til then, I hope you have a creative day wherever you are!

I see that Brynwood has reached 500 Friends (Followers) as of Tuesday night. In celebration, I'll soon be starting a second lap quilt for a second giveaway prize! You guys are incredible! You're making sure I won't be resting when I get home. Thank you to all of you for joining me on this fabulous journey. Love you all!

So Far, So Good...

I was busy working on the quilt project again yesterday.

I had already assembled strips of fabric, so the next step
was to cut the strips and then sew them into squares.
After I made the squares, I assembled them into blocks.

I assembled three. whole. blocks. today.
woo hoo!
Then, I took them to the bedroom, lay them on the bed
and determined how many blocks I will need for the quilt top.
5 blocks in a vertical strip.
5 strips across.
25 blocks in all.
I assembled three. whole. blocks.
Twenty Two blocks to go.

Recognizing that you might not want to see all the details of this process, I've only posted one photograph of the project today. But...if you'd like to see how I got to three. whole. finished. blocks. just click on the photograph above and it will take you to my Flickr album (tutorial) showing all the steps (except ironing...because, well, who wants to watch me iron?!!)

Twenty Two Blocks To Go.

Oh, and I finished another strawberry.
I love making these!

I'm calling this one the Lavender Strawberry Rose.

I filled it with organic wool and lavender buds.
It's quite large, too. Fits in the palm of my hand...barely.
Like it?

The Winner, A Giveaway, And A General Update...

And now, for a celebration of my own!!!

It happened when I wasn't even watching!
The next thing I knew, Brynwood had 400 friends.
Of course, it's time to celebrate with another drawing.

I'm humbled and honored that you like what I write here.
Enough to put me into your blog roll or in your reader so
you can keep up with my projects, activities and thoughts.

You mean the world to me, really!!!...and you make me
want to be a better person. I try to make Brynwood an
interesting place to visit with new things to share.
I always try to put my best foot forward for you, and
really treasure the friendships I've made here.
I look forward to getting to know all of you even better.

I'd like to say "thank you" to
Karen at Graphics Fairy
for this fabulous vintage image of two ballerinas.
I'm going to offer FOUR giveaway gifts using this image.
"What are they?", you say.
Uh, remember the part where I told you
I was taken unawares?
I have no idea what I'll do with this image yet.
I might make a gift tag. I might make a cushion.
I promise that, as the drawing progresses, I'll share
each of the gifts with you as I make them up next week.
Here's how you enter the drawing...
Only comments on this post will count for the drawing.
• One entry if you leave a comment
• One more entry if you are a follower, or become one.
• One more entry if you blog about my giveaway,
post my button, and link back to this post.
PLEASE LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT FOR EACH ENTRY.

The giveaway will end at midnight Saturday, July 10, 2010.
I'll announce the winners on Sunday, July 11, 2010.

Feel free to use any giveaway image above in your blog.
Good luck, y'all!
Announcing the winner of my
Strawberry Rose
from the
"Where Bloggers Create II" event.
#57
Rebecca from A Gathering of Thoughts
Congratulations, Rebecca!
Please email your address to me so that I can send out your strawberry.
I finished piecing the French General quilt top yesterday.
I added two more borders from what I showed yesterday,
and today, I'll take it out to be assembled.
I'll add the binding when it comes back.
My Bloggerette Sorority Sister, Marsha,
from Marsha's Musings and Sassy Mini Dolls
is having a giveaway, too!
Deadline to enter is July 14th.
Click on the giveaway photo to enter.
UPDATE: Midnight July 14th
The Giveaway Drawing Is Closed.
Thanks for entering!