My second machine embroidered tiny garden (here’s number one). The idea was California poppies, which I love. (Little off topic, but favorite poppies ever are Jill Bliss‘s. I’ve got a notebook and a screened shirt, but, alas, no poster.)

Anyway my golden California embroidery makes me pretty happy. Hmmm, now what to do for the third? I’m thinking thistles.

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I’ve been trying to think up something nice to do for my readers to thank everybody for making craftlog so fun to do. I *love* getting comments and emails, especially from all the crafters whose work I respect and admire so much. I love seeing my hits go up every month too (well, almost every month). So, if you email me (craftlog @ huangfamily . com) with your address, you will get a small token of my appreciation, a scissors patch or charm. I made these with my Gocco. The patches are made from canvas recycled from an old shoulder bag and satin stitched around the edge. The charms are made from shrink plastic.

I’ll accept addresses for a week (it’s now midnight July 10 Eastern Standard Time) so my occasional readers have a chance too. Let me know if you’d like a patch or a charm. I only have however many patches I could fit on a disassembled bag, so first come first served for them. I can make unlimited charms, though. I’ll mail anywhere.

Thanks to I love April Fool and used-to-be-starserge-now-Heyday-Fashion for the patch idea.

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Some kind internet-denizen posted about the free issue of Selvedge you could sign up for a while back. (Sorry, it seems to be expired now in favor of free access to the website.) Anyway, I sent off for one and it came last week. What a beautiful magazine. Even the ads are pretty. It covers a wide range of subjects from fashion to art to designers. There’s a whole article about Lotta Jansson, of whom I’m a long time admirer, and another little one on knitted dolls. New floral fabrics are shown off in the form of origami cranes. They highlight the work of new graduates in textile design and galleries showing textile art. All sorts of stuff. I don’t think I’m going to subscribe ($$$), but I might buy the occasional issue if something in particular catches my eye.

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I made a partner for the crochet-edged kitchen curtain I made a while back. The panel look just wasn’t doing it, although I made believe it looked OK so I wouldn’t have to crochet another 4 feet of edging. The ruffle looks much better.

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I really need to stop clicking on every link I see. There are some *fantastic* ones in the latest batch, though, so I felt the need to update the linklist. Check them out, new links are in bold. I also added a meme section that I will fill out as I remember more of them.

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Martha Stewart Living issues 4-15 are now in the Marthadex. Thanks to Amy‘s mother-in-law for letting me borrow them.

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I am ridiculously proud of myself for making this bag. It’s been on the list for a few months now, awaiting the perfect lining fabric to go with the linen I’d gotten for the outside. I finally found a nice lining fabric at Joann’s yesterday, and today I miraculously have a new bag. The pattern is from one of my Japanese craft books (info on my library page and this post at Angry Chicken.)

Remind me again why I insist on learning new crafts from books I can’t read? I realized right after I cut out everything that the seam allowances aren’t included on the pattern (I think), causing some minor reworking. A few other things I ended up just winging, because I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the pictures meant. I think it would’ve been easier if I’d ever made a lined purse before. Oh well. I figured it out. With interfacing, no less. I also got to use my nifty ruled tape to keep the topstitching even. Of course I’m going to make the matching bird-shaped coin purses (see the Angry Chicken post for pictures) eventually. I’ve pushed my luck enough today, though. I’m certainly not brave enough for zippers.

And by the way, is the Jeff Buckley version of Hallelujah not the most perfect song ever?

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This is my first real experiment with machine embroidery. The ground and most of the grass is machine, with some more grass and the flowers added by hand on felt and linen. The design is based on a wonderful Japanese embroidery book I have called Tiny Embroidery Tiny Garden (info on my library page).

I’m very encouraged by it. The last time I attempted any machine embroidery it was a disaster. Of course, setting out to make a weed garden helps with a multitude of problems. :) If you look at the back of this one, you can tell that I still don’t have the tension quite right, but it’s getting closer. I felt a little smoother moving the fabric under the needle, too. I’m thinking of making a little triptych of tiny weed gardens to frame and hang up.

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