Have a friend or family member that really loves fiber arts, or more specifically embroidery and cross stitch?  Well, today I have the ultimate gift guide for those people.

These are all products I use and recommend, in various price points.  Almost all these items are available on Amazon, which makes shopping a breeze.

Keeping your fabric clean while working on a large embroidery or cross stitch project can be a challenge.  When your fabric is hooped up and you are working with it, setting it down or even just storing it in a tote bag, the edges of the work can come into contact with dirt and oils.

These marks, usually left in the shape of a circle due to the hoop are often permanent.

There are few things I like as much as cross stitch these days, but eating Pasta is one of them.  That is why I was so fired up to work on my latest piece, celebrating my favorite holiday: National Pasta Day.


I’m partnering with Olive Garden, hands down the best place to celebrate National Pasta day!  My family loves the Olive Garden.  My husband always tries to beat the never ending pasta bowl (not possible) while my kids are bread stitch aficionados. I am ALL ABOUT the soup and salad.

I love that witches can be scary and creepy or they can be funny and cutesy.  Witches are the perfect motif for Halloween. Check out these 15 counted cross stitch patterns all based on witches.. great for Halloween or all year long!

By now I’m sure you know a Cricut machine is good for personalizing things, from furniture and cups to shirts and tote bags. You also know it is great for paper crafts and home decor. In fact, this month’s Craft and Create challenge is filled with a huge assortment of home decor ideas for the Cricut:

Buffalo Check Wooden Pumpkin from Weekend Craft • Inspirational Candles from Happy Go Lucky • Rustic Wooden Sign from Refresh Restyle • Paper Pumpkins from Create & Babble • Charting Embroidery with the Cricut from The Kim Six Fix • Rainbow Bookends from SeeLINDSAY • Dollar Tree Sign Upcycled For Fall from Daily DIY Life • Coco Inspired Pillows from Upright and Caffeinated • Pumpkin Spice Latte Towel with the Cricut EasyPress from Cookies, Coffee and Crafts • Fall Inspired Sign from Every's Creations • Quick and Easy Home Decor with Your Cricut: One Cricut SVG File 12 Ways! from Happily Ever After, Etc • DIY Clipboard Wall Art from Real Girls Realm • Welcome Fall Cricut Shadow Box from the Inspiration Vault • Fall Wreath from Our Crafty Mom

But did you know you Cricut can be handy in the world of HAND EMBROIDERY?  Oh yes..  It is like there aren’t many crafts that a Cricut can’t crack.   Check out my recent embroidery project, all done with the help of my Cricut Maker! 

I don't remember Shark Week as a kid, but in recent years it has taken on a life of its own.  With the meteoric rise in Shark Week's popularity, came a huge increase in the number of shark related crafts making the rounds.

And sure, cute little shark cake toppers and tee shirts are nice, but I wanted to find shark crafts that made me laugh.. and this collection was born.

More than 15 hilarious craft ideas, from crochet to cross stitch.  HTV ideas along with pet costumes and even some unmentionables.. If you love it when your heart races whenever you hear that Jaws music, you are going to love these!

Sure you could go the “I love you dad” cheesy route, and nobody would judge you if you do.. but if your dad has a great sense of humor, one of these sarcastic designs may be perfect.

10 Sarcastic Father’s Day Cross Stitch Ideas: 

I have a new sarcastic cross stitch sampler pattern available in my series of snarky cross stitch designs.  I know these aren’t for everyone, but I’ve been enjoying venting out my aggressions onto Aida.

This was a meme I saw on Facebook and I decided to put it down in fiber.  Some days I just get tired of being nice.. and this really resonated with me.

I started the pattern a few weeks ago, but I don’t stitch very quickly so even small designs like this one take me a while.

This post is April’s Dollar Store Design Squad challenge and I'm so stoked with just how fabulous this project came out. I mean, I thought it would work out, but the actual finished project is so much nicer than I actually thought it would be.. (oh, should I be admitting that out loud?)

This tote bag is actually made from dollar store PLACEMATS. Yep, those are placemats, and the entire project only took a few minutes and cost about 4 dollars!  (Nice right?!)

I recently found this little cross stitch pattern at the craft store and I immediately knew I could “snarkify” it.  I mean, as much as I love the sweetie pie sentiment, it was a little too cutesy for me.

I recently jumped back into cross stitch since I have found it to be a great outlet to get some your sarcasm out.

There are a lot of hilarious and sarcastic patterns available out there, and I wanted to design some of my own.
When I heard about the recent “Emotional Support Peacock” episode, I knew I wanted to snark on the ridiculous of it all, and how what I personally really need I some Emotional Support WINE!

I learned to cross stitch when I was a kid.  My mom taught me the relatively simple craft and I created some simple samplers featuring Care Bears and Precious Moments dolls.  Yeah.. You can tell I was a girl in the 80s.  I did evolve to do more complicated pieces, but eventually I lost steam when it came to cross stitch.  It just took too dang long to make anything.

For my version I used the Radiant Treasures floss, which is polyester and reflects the light beautifully.  But you could also use standard Embroidery Floss or even the Light Effects/Metallic type which looks like spun metal.
 I made my tassels directly on jewelry Rings with claw clasps so they could be used as a keychain or zipper pull, but you could put them on standard rings if you wanted to use them in other ways.

 You could also hand these tassels off a backpack or on a purse, or even use them in decorating.  Make them in holiday colors and turn them into Christmas ornaments.  They really are just that versatile.

Plus they come together in about 2 minutes.  YES.. they are seriously that fast.  I put together a video to show you exactly how quick they come together.
For those of you who prefer the step by steps with photos, keep reading! 

SUPPLY LIST: 

Jewelry Rings (with claw clasps)
Super Glue
Scissors (I obsessed with the non-stick teflon kind)
Standard Embroidery Floss or
Radiant Treasures Embroidery Floss (as seen in tutorial) or
Light Effects/Metallic Embroidery Floss

TUTORIAL:

Step 1:
Pull out approximately 24 inches of floss from the skein and set aside.

Step 2:
Slide the sleeve of the skein down to one end but don’t remove it completely. 
Step 3:
Slide the ring over the sleeve on the skein.

Step 4:
Slide the ring off the sleeve and into the center of the skein. You can remove the sleeve at this point. 
Step 5:
Fold the skein in half on the ring. You want to make sure you have lined up both ends, since that is the bottom of your soon to be tassel. Step 6:
Take the extra 24 inches of floss and wrap it around the very top of the tassel, just below the ring. You want to make it as tight as you can. 
Step 7:
Tie off with a square knot. Again, you would like this to be as tight as possible so the tassel doesn’t loosen up. Step 8:
Apply a tiny drop of super glue to the knot. This is to keep it from unwrapping, especially once you trim the ends.  Allow to dry completely. Step 9:
Trim the ends of the knot. You can use a needle to push the knot up and under the wrapped thread to hide it. Step 10:
Cut the loops apart, making sure you have them as even as possible.
Step 11:
Hold the loose ends in a closed fist and cut them off even with a sharp scissors.
This will make a little bit of a mess. 
Now you just need to fluff the tassel and separate the floss into it’s individual threads.  This gives it fullness and makes it look really expensive. 
This is such a fast and easy project, that looks a lot more complicated than it really is.   You could make a bunch of tassels in no time!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of JOANN. All opinions are 100% mine.

Have you ever seen one of those cute appliqué shirts at boutique shops and think “I love this but I can’t sew”?

Well, today I am solving that problem for you.  There is a super quick and easy way to create appliqué and all it takes is your IRON.  Yes!