February Vintage Pattern Stitch Along

Have you seen the feeling stitchy website? They are currently running a February Stitchalong - so much fun. This is my first stitch along - but essentially you download the pattern and then over the month post pictures on the Embroidery Flickr Group of your work (either in progress or completed). Feeling Stitchy is also a great place to find free patterns, tips and tricks and of course lots of beautiful pictures of inspirational embroidery work. As you can see I'm still pretty new at this :) ! I had the most trouble with the petal stitches - keeping them even and not too loose was my biggest challenge.

Last week I had the chance to pop into the new Calico & Ivy store in Balmain. It is so beautiful I could have spent hours in there just looking. They have the most gorgeous collection of fabrics, yarn, patterns and books oh my! The hardest (but also most fun) part is choosing the fabric... this is what I came home with.

It is a bit of an eclectic mix of Amy Butler, Liberty and Japanese prints. For one reason or another these prints jumped out at me - I'm not exactly sure what I am going to do with them yet. I have a few ideas... but ...watch this space! Whilst there I also met Amy of badskirt blog fame. She is so lovely and helpful (even though I knocked over a shelf of patterns... oops!). I really recommend you stop by her blog or pop into the store in Balmain - you won't be disappointed!