the last handmade christmas present i have to show you is this wedding sampler that i made for my other brother and sister in law.

they had a beautiful wedding last year, and i wanted to make them something to commemorate the event.

i actually designed this one myself, and my favourite thing about it is the colours. it reminds me of delftware, which is the look i was going for.

i may release it as a pattern in the shop, though i haven’t decided yet… we’ll see!

essie xoxox

here’s another one of my christmas present projects. this one was for my parents-in-law.

the pattern is called “family record samplers”, and it’s by ellen chester of “with my needle“.

the pattern contains three variations of the design, so it can be adjusted for different numbers of children (up to about seven). being a meddler and never quite satisfied, i rearranged things and did my own version, modifying the motifs of the original pattern.

overall i enjoyed stitching this, but the pattern was a little confusing to follow. the number of variations available meant that there were lots of pages that were easily muddled up (especially for someone as scatterbrained as me!).
the pattern is also designed to be stitched on belfast linen, with some stitches over two linen threads, and others over one. the blank areas of the pattern, where you could write in your own family details, were all two-thread sized, and much of the lettering was one-thread sized, so it was quite tricky to plan out.
this is definitely a pattern for more confident and experienced embroiderers!

i chose to stitch this one on antique-look linen, and i really like the way it turned out. it looks tea-stained and old, which i think really suits the design.

most importantly, it was very well received by the very dear and loving people i made it for.

essie xoxox

it may have looked like i’ve been on a bit of a crafty hiatus for the last couple of months, but i haven’t! i’ve just been working on handmade christmas presents, which needed to be kept under wraps until after the gift-giving season was over. over the next few days, i’ll show you what i’ve been up to, and you definitely won’t think my needle has been set aside!

the first thing i want to show you is this:

i made it for my brother and sister in law who welcomed their first son in november. it’s called ‘the birth band’, and it’s from ‘the drawn thread’ (you may remember that i also stitched a pattern called ‘the marriage of the minds’ from their collection recently).
i used different colours to those suggested in the pattern, but apart from that didn’t modify anything. i adore the pattern, and found it very easy to follow. there were clear diagrams for all the stitches, and useful instructions for all aspects of the pattern. it stitched up relatively quickly as well.

i didn’t get to give it to the recipients in person, but i think they liked it.
i’ll be back with more to show you soon!
essie xoxox

i am working on a new design, and i just can’t decide if i like it or not.

i love the colours, i really like the individual elements of the design, but i simply can’t be sure if they will all come together in a pleasing way… and the most annoying thing is, i can’t show you and ask what you think, because i am stitching the prototype to give as a christmas present, and i don’t want the recipients to see it!

will it work out? i suppose only time will tell…
essie xoxox

i recently found myself in need of an owl cross stitch pattern. i looked around on etsy, but couldn’t find one that suited my purposes (small, cute, simple), so i decided to design my own.

it was very quick to whip up so i thought i’d make it a free pattern to share here on the blog.

as you may be able to see, i used some variegated thread on the owls wings and tummies. as these are not as accessible as dmc threads, i’ve substituted dmc alternates into the pattern.
where the pattern uses dmc 3858, i used cottage garden threads‘ “blackwood”, and where the pattern uses dmc 422, i used cottage garden threads‘ “wheat”.
you should, of course, use whatever colours tickle your fancy.

click on the pattern grid to be taken to a larger version

i always love to see the results when people stitch up my patterns, so if you sew your own little pair of owls, do consider adding a photo to the ‘penelope waits designs’ flickr group.

happy stitching!
essie xoxox

p.s. feel free to share the link to this post far and wide, but please don’t repost the pattern elsewhere.

i just thought i’d let you know that there are a couple of new kit’s up in the shop…

hardly bear

crafty like a fox

neither of these patterns have been available as kits before, so this is fun and exciting!

penelope waits kits include:
- full skeins of all required colours (heaps more than you need to stitch the pattern)
- 14 count aida cloth to stitch on
- an embroidery needle
- pattern grid, with colour photo of completed project

in short, they have everything you need to stitch the project!
i have limited quantities for now, so if you want to get your hands on one, be quick!

essie xoxox

it seems like ages since i’ve had a new pattern to share with you, and i am excited to say, that the time has finally come! may i present, ‘hardly bear’:

this pattern is a little different - it’s customizable. where the example says “sweet” is left blank on the chart, and i’ve included charts for a whole bunch of useful adjectives, such as awesome, silly, clever, cute, pretty, etc. so you can make the most appropriate crafty message for the recipient of your masterpiece.

i’ve also included an alphabet chart, so that you can put your own adjective in there if it’s one i didn’t think of.

you can find the pattern as a pdf in the shop. i’ll be re-stocking regularly, so if you don’t see it there, check back in a little while and you’ll find it.

essie xoxox

it turns out that i am great at blogging about works in progress, but when i finish a project, i’m so keen to move on to the next one that i forget to show it off.

remember the ‘marriage of the minds’ sampler i was working on earlier this year? i finished it ages ago, and was going to wait til i’d had it all nicely framed before taking proper pictures of it. and then i forgot! it’s been hanging on the wall here in our new house for weeks!

there’s a lot of great detail in this one, so can i suggest clicking here to see an enlarged version?

i loved every moment of working on this piece, and have now become completely obsessed with the drawn thread’s beautiful, timeless designs. i’m currently working on the birth band (with important details left blank til january!), and modifying the colours so it tones in better with this sampler.

as i said in my previous post about this, my favourite part of this sampler is the bit i modified - in the original pattern the two figures at the top were a man and a woman, but i changed them to make them look like my partner and i on our not-quite-wedding day. that little change makes it all the more personal, which a sampler like this should be. the whole reason i decided to stitch this (apart from it’s general beauty) is that it features the sonnet i read to my partner on that very day.

i also love that, while most of the piece is cross stitched, it includes a range of other pretty stitches, and they add variety and texture to the overall look.

there’s a lot of symbolism incorporated in the sampler too - the two houses join through love to make one house, the rabbits are for fertility, the bluebirds for happiness, the owls for wisdom, and so on. so much love and thought has been put into every aspect of it, and that makes me so happy.

i’m pretty proud of this one, i must say…
essie xoxox

i’ve been trying to limit my extra-curricular commitments with all the house business that’s going on over here, but i couldn’t help signing up for the “dr whoopla’ swap on craftster this month. embroidery hoops with a dr who theme? come on! how could i possibly resist?

i went for a simple-but-cute look, and i’m pretty happy with how it turned out. the lettering is a little wonky, because i’m used to working either with less strict lines, or more structured fabric (aida, or dublin linen, for example).

here’s where the quote comes from:

i hope my partner likes it. i’ll be sending it off this week!
essie xoxox

my bff is a marine biologist. she loves fish, and sea creatures, and the ocean. she’s kept her own aquariums for a really long time, and always takes great care of her fishy friends.

for her birthday, i decided to make her an embroidered aquarium to go with the real ones.

it’s in a four inch hoop, so it’s pretty tiny - i wanted to make it detailed, so that you had to peer into it, the way you do with a real aquarium, to really see what’s going on in there.

i enjoyed working on such a bright and busy little project for a couple of days. hopefully that enjoyment shows in the finished piece.

essie xxx