Craft Room Organization: Clothespin Spools

One of my goals for 2012 was to learn embroider and now, it's one of my favorite crafts. It's one of those hobbies that you can literally do anywhere which makes it all the more attractive to a girl on the go.  I keep all of my embroidery materials in a basket and they've become a little, how shall I say it, disheveled? I created these clothespin spools to organize the whole kit and caboodle. 

Embroidered Pillowcase by Anja of Cocalores

One of my favorite ladies, who hails from a land far far away (aka Germany), is stopping by as our guest blogger today. I absolutely adore Anja's inventive furniture makeovers, crafty projects, and pretty much all of the things she writes about. I hope you'll take a moment to stop by her blog and see what she's all about; I promise you won't be disappointed! Now, let's get this party started...

Hi everyone! My name is Anja and I'm so glad to be here today at Spool and Spoon. You can usually find me over at Cocalores, where I blog mostly about my creative endeavors (which include sewing, baking, and giving new life to old furniture) but also about anything that strikes my fancy. Jess writes one of my favorite blogs, and she is such a sweet and amazing person! (Well, I guess that's preaching to the choir because you as her readers already know this!)

Do you also like reading the About Me page first? Well, here is mine in a nutshell:

• My husband, dog, and job are my everything. Well, that and my creative side.
• I'm German, so you'll always find lots of entertaining mistakes and clichés.
• I'm a redhead, but my go-to accent color is pink. Not always easy to make it work.
• My vices include coffee, chocolate, ice-cream, and lots of DVDs. Preferably at the same time.

I like pillowcases. There's nothing like a cute pillowcase to change the look of the room. So I'm going to share with you an easy embroidery and sewing project!

Yes, there's pink, but you can choose any color ;-)

Hot Air Balloon Embroidery Pattern

Isn't it satisfying to put the finishing touches on a project that you feel took way too long? Last night I finally wrapped up an embroidery piece that I've been working on for a couple of days too many. 

Sometimes even I'm amazed by where I find inspiration. I was taking Quinn for a walk about two weeks ago when one of the neighborhood girls ran up to pet her and had the cutest little dress on. It had the most charming hot air balloons all over (see here) and I knew right away that I wanted to have a bit of that dreaminess in my world. I thought an embroidery would be the ideal medium to showcase the playful beauty of the balloon and set to work to create a pattern I could use.

Family Tree Embroidery Pattern

Firstly, I apologize for not updating more frequently. As mentioned in the last post, we just got the dog and I've been focusing every waking moment on making sure her transition has been smooth. It's important for the Mr. and I that Quinn and Aubrey have a loving and happy home. I've barely had a spare minute to even work on projects so here it goes...

For Mother's Day I wanted to make a family tree for my mother-in-law. She is not only the most caring mom ever, but she's also the most sentimental. I had searched far and wide for a unique pattern that I could use to put her boys and their families but I couldn't find any. It seems like those tree murals are all the rage, but I wanted to embroider mine so I needed something dainty and pretty.

Combining elements from my favorite clip art trees into one gave me the result I really wanted. If you would like the pattern, click here! I printed my pattern onto tissue paper pinned it to the fabric and stitched directly through it. Afterwards, simply rip off the paper (or use tweezers to remove teeny pieces) and that was it. I used some high quality natural linen and basic embroidery floss.

For the trunk and main branches I used a chain stitch. The smaller branches are done in the stem stitch; everything else is done in a back stitch. There are 5 leaves on the tree: one for the Mr., one for me, one for his brother, one for his brother's son and another for his fiancee.  Next to the leaves for the Mr. and his brother, I put French knots to signify how many people are in that family unit (2 for us, 3 for them).

Why I love this pattern:

• 100% Customizable
• Easily updated when there are marriages and new arrivals
• Really simple once you learn the basics of embroidery
• Stunning finished project
• Heirloom quality gift