Covered in Stitches (and Yarn)

I took last week off from my sewing room as things were crazy busy.  We had an out-of-town friend staying with us, and free time was spent bonding over needlecraft activities.  She's a fellow knitter, and I refreshed her memory on how to crochet.  I ended up spending the rest of the week working on my pending needlecraft projects, including a crochet wrap, and my submission for the Covered in Stitches embroidery contest.

Here's a peek at my crochet wrap...

The yarn is by Three Irish Girls, and I picked it up at my LYS, Bobbin's Nest.

I think the green and grey hues of the yarn may actually serve as my main color palette for my winter garments.  I've been pinning a few items and have been leaning towards that color scheme.

I'm over halfway done, having gone through a full skein of the yarn, and am well into the second.

And now, onto my entry for the Covered in Stitches embroidery contest.

He's so flippin' cute!

A few months ago, Feeling Stitchy posted pictures of Jillian Tamaki's needlework book covers for a few Penguin classics.  The covers were gorgeous and had me wanted to snatch up each one of them (Black Beauty, Emma, and the Secret Garden).  I was so inspired by the images that I instantly jumped on Feeling Stitchy's book cover contest.  The challenge? To design your own needlework book cover based off of an existing design.  I instantly knew that I wanted to do the Little Prince.  I love the book and have a mini collection (ok, figurines, postcards, lunch box, a couple of copies of the book in French and English, etc) that I've been hoarding for years.  It's such a beautiful story and I love the illustrations throughout.

I set to work on making a transfer of the design.  With this project, I wanted to try all new things.  In the past, I've mainly done basic cross stitch on heavy Aida fabric.  This time I knew I wanted to use linen, and do crewel embroidery... primarily satin stitch, chain stitch, split stitch, etc.  I used tutorials from all over the web, but primarily from Sublime Stitching who also had the materials I needed for the transfer.

Made the transfer of a tracing of the cover. Colors selected and all ready to be stitched up!

I started stitching my entry, in the meantime seeing that another Little Prince was made. I was bummed but I'm glad to know it's such an inspiring book for so many people.  At the same time, I was enjoying seeing how mine was turning out, and loving the new techniques that I was getting to try. It was also great to see another interpretation of the book.  So on with the stitching I went!

I finally finished my submission this weekend, with it taking just over a month to put together.  I love how it turned out and instantly had ideas in my head for a series of book covers.  These would be so perfect for a library, a child's room, etc.  I've already framed this one... but now I just need to figure out what's next!

If you have a chance, check out the Feeling Stitchy Flickr group.  You can see all of the beautiful submissions so far and even submit your own!