Beautiful, Creative Mess

I was checking out my usual blogs this morning and was inspired by Carina (over at Carina's Craftblog) to post a couple of photos of my stitching "mess". I think Carina's pictures are prettier, but this is what it looks like in my living room these days (when we have no scheduled guests!)...

We recently purchased a new couch, a sectional, which I love. It is super cozy and will be awesome for our long Maine winters. But due to arrangement, I lost my large side table, where I kept everything contained (mostly). The yellow basket above is pretty much full of all of my hand sewing supplies (for hand quilting, embroidery, and english paper piecing). The second picture is pretty much where I have a stack of books/magazines that I am currently reading and my most current project in progress. I had a lovely wooden tray I bought for putting all of my in-progress supplies on while I am on the couch, but it got reassigned by my husband for his projects (cheeky monkey!!)! Now I am on a hunt for another cool tray.

Anyways, I was just inspired to share this today. I like looking at other people's creative messes/processes so I thought it only fair to share mine. :) If you have any "behind the scenes" photos to share of your creative process, please share the links in the comments!

And now, a couple of pretty macro shots of my current little sampler. I just got some Sublime Stitching floss to try out (they were having a big sale on the floss) and I am currently using the Breakdance Palette (which has some neony colors).

I also have an in-progress shot of the Star Trek baby quilt I am working on, which I NEED to finish this week. The mom is in labor as I type this!

Thanks for stopping in. Have a great day!

embroidery in the air

I have been getting the embroidery itch lately! I have numerous cross stitch projects going, but for the last few days, I have been drawn towards embroidery.

I purchased Jessica Marquez's hand embroidery class on Craftsy, watched it in its entirety and got the bug to make samplers! I really enjoyed her class and having each stitch illustrated clearly through video was such a great a help. I definitely recommend it to any beginners (and anyone else wanting a refresher course). I also waited until the class went on sale. :)

Another great embroidery website I found with lots of video stitch tutorials is Mary Corbet's Needle 'N Thread. I am still on the look out for inspiring and fun embroidery websites/blogs. Feel free to share any suggestions in the comments. I also follow &Stitches; feeling stitchy; hey porkchop! (co-founder of Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery-love them!); wild olive (I am currently signed up for her Spring Stitching Club); Button, button; Carina's Craftblog; and Mr X Stitch.

I thought I would put up a few pictures of what I have been working on, but I just realized I don't have a way to access my pictures at the moment. So I will be back tomorrow (or later today) to post some pics!

Have a great day everybody!