Embroidery How To: Straight Stitch

Straight Stitch is probably one of the most basic stitches, and is perfect for anyone just starting out with embroidery. I also find that this stitch can be great for simple embellishments on tea towels, placemats, etc to make something plain a little bit special.

An embroidery hoop is definitely not necessary for doing this stitch, I just found it helped me take neater looking photos, feel free to practice this on your own without the hoop. The split stitch, or running stitch, is made by sewing a straight line, with stitches of even length. You also want to make sure the negative space between your stitches is about the same length throughout. I often weave my needle through the fabric for several stitches before actually pulling the thread through, so this stitch can make you feel like you are getting a lot done very quickly!

After weaving the needle through your fabric, pull it through and voila! A neat little row of straight stitches appears! If you have a little beginner that wants to try out some stitching themselves, this is a great starting stitch. I'll be posting some cute projects that use straight stitch this weekend to give you ideas on what this basic little stitch can do!

Mod Chevron Baby Quilt

Quilts are something that I don't usually attempt. They definitely take more time and effort than my average craft project, but the results generally garner many more "ooohs" "aaahs" and "wows" than something you can stitch together in an hour or two. As one of my super Besties from college announced she and her husband were expecting, I decided to go for the gusto and try this super cute quilt from Generation Q Magazine. Naturally I found the pattern on Pinterest, but modified it slightly to include fewer total fabrics. I ended up using 4 total fabrics:

1.5 yards of the grey/red elephant fabric for the backing
1.25 yards solid grey
3/4 yard off white with pandas
3/4 yard red with monkeys


If you are making one of these yourself you will also need a coordinating thread (or 2), batting, lots of pins, ruler and scissors or a rotary cutter and cutting mat. If you plan on trying out quilting, I highly recommend investing in a cutting mat and rotary cutter as well as several sizes of rulers, otherwise you up your chances of failure considerably.

I chose the colors based on Brook's registry (she chose lots of grey sheets, elephants and other zoo animals). So I wanted to find some zoo animal themed fabrics that tied in with the grey things she had picked out. This also shaped my decision to use fewer fabrics. I don't know if you've ever tried, but it is hard to find many coordinating fabrics for baby that use grey as the main colorway (also, I super loved the grey elephants with red ears and once you set your heart on that, the choices get even fewer).


This is the kind of project that I usually start and then half way through I get into something else and it never gets finished, but having the added motivation of making something really special for a great friend helped me to finish the whole thing in about 2 weeks! Unheard of for me considering I didn't take any vacation days from work to finish this up :)




This is only the 3rd quilt I have ever done start to finish, and I would highly recommend it for beginners. First, it is a baby quilt so the smaller scale keeps you from getting too overwhelmed. Mostly though, I think its a great, on trend pattern that isn't too complicated for pretty much anyone to follow.

Do any of you have a favorite quilt pattern you've seen or used lately? I'm thinking about tackling some quilts for my nieces/nephew for Christmas this year and I'd love to see some more ideas!