Deja-vu!

Hiya! I'm sorry to be so repetitive and boring, but I've just created my first Instructable and wanted to show it off! If you haven't yet discovered Instructables.com, then you are really missing a treat! It's a site FULL of tutorials, tips and just interesting things from crafty folk, geeks and clever-dicks the world over! Plus they have lots of competitions too.


Cute Sandcastle Flags - More DIY How To Projects

Best wishes
Joey xx

Little Tiger Embroidery Pattern Launch!

Hi!
I hope you've had a good Friday... and now it's the WEEKEND! Hurrah! :D

You will be pleased to know that due to popular demand, my winning Little Tiger's Orangey Celebration embroidery pattern PDF is now on sale in my Etsy shop, Joey's Dream Garden!  Please click on this to take a closer look!

With the full-size (nearly A4) pattern, I've also included full instructions to making this embroidery, together with photos of my finished embroidery for your reference... And there's no shipping cost as the pattern is delivered right to your inbox!

You will be pleased to know that Little Tiger has now got over the initial excitement and is back to one of his most important tasks: watching his Gogos doing the conga...

Party Time!

Have a great weekend everyone, whatever you're doing!
Best wishes
Joey xx

Come With Us! to see a new embroidery pattern...

Here it is - my new embroidery pattern! The boy bunny has found something to show the girl bunny, and you can tell she's really excited about it! What could it be... a pretty little beetle, or a cloud shaped like a dinosaur, or even a new picture which he's just drawn for her?

You can get this embroidery pattern from my Etsy shop: Joey's Dream Garden.

I've got lots of ideas for other patterns (mostly involving bunnies, of course!), so watch this space...

Best wishes

Joey x

New Embroidery Pattern... Sneaky Peek!

I've finished designing and embroidering my second embroidery pattern PDF, so I thought I'd share a bit of the process I went through with you, and you get to see a preview at the same time!

The first picture shows a couple of sketches, the one on the left is a preliminary drawing to establish the position of the bodies and limbs, to suggest a feeling of movement and balance. I referred to a photo from a magazine; it was a picture of a boy and girl half-running, holding hands with their mum who was in the middle. I missed out the woman and just concentrated on the two children. The drawing on the right is the “finished” sketch, which is still fairly rough, and from this I traced the final line drawing which I scanned in (thanks Claire for use of your scanner!)

The second photo shows a few of the steps (but not all! I need to remember to keep taking photos, but I get distracted...) I went through to make the finished embroidery (which will be revealed in the next couple of days – watch this space!).

The pictures explained: (1) Starting the embroidery – close-up of stem stitch around outline of face, (2) continuing the stem stitch, (3) sewing the split-stitch of the inner ears and (4) almost finished the first bunny...

So, what do you think so far?

Stay tuned to see the finished embroidery (hopefully) tomorrow!
Joey x

Little Jumping Joan Embroidery Pattern

I am very pleased to show you the first of what I hope will be many embroidery pattern PDFs! To celebrate, the first one is FREE (click on the link below to view the PDF and print it out if you wish) and I will be selling some from my Etsy shop very soon, so please watch this space!


Click this link for the free PDF pattern: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/23782359/Little-Jumping-Joan-JDG-Embroidery-Pattern

I've also anticipated that you might want to show off your creations (of course you do! Please don't tell me that I'm the only person who likes to blow her own trumpet occasionally...) so I've created a Flickr group! Which is here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/joeysdreamgardenembroidery/

So why Little Jumping Joan? Well, I have a little board book of Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, illustrated by Rosemary Wells and there's a particular picture in there to go along with the skipping rhyme:

"Here I am
Little Jumping Joan
When no-one's with me
I'm all alone"

The picture shows a black bunny in a happy, multi-coloured stripey cardi, skipping with a rope, and the sky looks very dark and overcast, but somehow it makes me feel cosy. The bunny looks like she's out in the countryside which I associate with my own childhood in Leicestershire, and the safe feeling of being alone and able to do exactly what I wanted. So I've drawn a bunny doing her own thing, not caring what anyone thinks and having a bloomin' good time!

I do have a confession to make though; I haven't even embroidered her myself yet! But I am going to, starting tomorrow (as soon as I've taken our Christmas tree down. Don't ask...) I just couldn't wait to post the PDF here. So maybe you will beat me to it and post your embroidery in the group before me!

Even if you don't download the pattern, I hope you like the drawing. :-)
best wishes
Joey x