Stitch Heaven

Last weekend I went to a store called Needlepoints in Garden Grove to pick up some fabric for my latest designs. I had heard so many good things through Yelp, and had so many unsuccessful shopping trips to my usual chain supply stores that I was excited even before I walked through the door. 

But wow, was I blown away when I walked inside. This place was a cross stitch heaven! Elaborate hand-painted stocking patterns priced in the hundreds, rows and rows of kits from all over the country and fabric and thread in any color you could imagine. It was incredibly inspiring! I am almost complete with my first "seasonal" pattern, so be on the lookout in the next week on my Etsy store. :)

Inspiration: Home Is Where The Heart Is

Just got back from seeing my family-in-law in Alabama. :) Hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend! This is the song we played as we walked down the aisle at our wedding in Springville. See the finished pattern here: Home Is Where The Heart Is

Inspiration: Baby Monkey

To tell the truth, I'm not a huge fan of primates. Monkeys kind of creep me out. The blue-butted baboons at the Phoenix Zoo were always interesting to look at when I was little, but still scary.

A couple months ago, we went to see Zookeeper. Who can't resist Bernie the gorilla's excitement as they pull up to TGIF? And then we saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes. With hundreds of primates running around, they started to grow on me. That orangutan was darn cute.


Then to put me over the edge, the little rally monkey shows up during the Angels games, and with thousands of little kids flinging long furry arms and legs at a camera I couldn't resist. There's now a baby monkey in my shop!

Inspiration: Drama Queen

I love, love, love movies! My career aspiration when I was younger was to become a film producer, and I went to a well-known university for it and actually got my foot in the door. But along the way something funny happened, my lucky breaks at two major studios and on two "indie" productions, allowed me to witness all the bigwig Drama Queens in their glory and ...

Pay No Attention!

it left me with a Wizard of Oz, man behind the curtain experience. I stopped reading the trades and tracking the releases, and lost my excitement for going to the theater. 5 years later I met my husband who shared my love for midnight screenings, buying Blu-rays for a big movie collection, and going to the theater opening weekends. Now I'm enjoying it all again!

Inspiration: Little Princess

My First Niece: A Little Princess at Disneyland!

Stitch Up Kits & Tips!

Happy Friday! Here's a great project that can be done over the weekend. I just released the Stitch Up kits in the shop today. They come with everything you need to create an original piece of artwork - the pattern, hoop, fabric, floss, needle and even backing and hanging ribbon to display your finished work. 

You can find them here.

Now to share a few helpful cross stitching tips that have saved me so much time:

Three's a Charm. When knotting the thread to begin, three's a charm. I've found that it will never slip through the fabric.

Form a Y. To avoid knots when separating floss, use your hands to pull left and right while keeping the hanging thread between your knees. This "Y" shape prevents the floss from bunching up and getting into a tangled web.

Give it the Slip: When you've reached the end of your thread, simply slip your needle under 3-4 stitches in the back to secure it, and cut any excess thread. No need for knotting!

Have a great weekend. Happy Stitching!

Shop Opening!

The francepesa shop is now open at http://francepesa.etsy.com! You can also Like the shop on Facebook by clicking here. I'll be adding more items throughout the week. Enjoy!

Sneak Peek

I'll be opening in less than a week! I have 5 completed designs to debut the francepesa shop, with more designs already in progress. Here's a sneak peek, enjoy!

Baby Penguin Trio

Introduction

Welcome! I'm planning on opening my Etsy shop in the coming weeks and started this blog to record the inspirations for each of my patterns. But I'll first start with my inspiration for the shop...

I cross-stitched when I was in grade school, buying little kits from Michael's. The last work I completed was over fifteen years ago, and is now hanging in my first niece's bedroom. This picture was taken before her arrival, and four years later my sister still has it hanging up! I hadn't touched a cross stitching needle or thought much about it over the years until I had a big dilemma.

I was getting married and could not for the life of me, think of a decent gift for my maid of honor and bridesmaid, who also happened to be my two sisters. Because I didn't have an enormous bridal party and because they are my sisters, I wanted to do something special.

So I racked my brain, but it had to meet a few criteria.

• I wanted the gift to be meaningful
• I wanted the gift to be unique and stand the test of time
• I wanted the gift to really mean "it's the thought that counts"

And then a movie popped in my head. My oldest sister and I love "In Her Shoes" because it's about the life of two sisters, and in it, there's a wedding where the younger sister recites a beautiful poem as a gift to her older sister called "I Carry Your Heart" by E.E. Cummings.

My oldest sister happens to be a freelance, published writer and after seeing this movie, absolutely loved this poem. She even printed it out and taped it to her wall above her desk at home.

I wanted to give her a nice copy, printed and nicely framed. I searched around with no luck. To make it even more meaningful than a pretty print out, I came up with the idea to stitch up every single word!

I went on-line, found an alphabet, plotted the words on graph paper, and then picked up cross-stitching again. It took a month between wedding planning and work and everything in between, but it was so worth it. This is a picture of her when she opened it at our rehearsal dinner.

The entire vision for my Etsy store is to provide people with the most valuable gift of time so they can create valuable mementos. I'll create patterns and creations that bring a smile to my face, in hopes that it will bring a smile to others. Happy Stitching!