Embroidered Poinsettia Pins

Sometimes I get a crazy notion that I have to make a last minute gift for someone.  That happened to me this week.  I decided late in the day that I wanted to take a little something to the Director and Assistant Director of my sons' preschool.  Luckily, I had just received an email from Reen at Embroidery Garden announcing her new Poinsettia Pin which looked like just the ticket.  These stitched up super fast, and in no time I had my gift.  I chose to bead the center of the flowers instead of using a button (these pearls are left over from the beading on my wedding dress).  The printable cards come with the files for the pins.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I'm wishing everyone a joyous Noel.

More Kanzashi

In my recent post Love in Bloom I wax poetic (sort of) about Kanzashi, folded fabric flowers that can be used to adorn all sorts of items.  I love the trend of big flowers that people are wearing these days, and I wanted a flower pin of my own to wear.  Starting with some moth-eaten scraps of raspberry coat-weight wool I fashioned a 7-petal flower.  For the center I covered a large button with a raspberry and white silk houndstooth check.  I wanted to be able to wear this pin on my leather jacket but did not, of course, want to put a pin through the leather.  Instead I used a mitten clip on the back which I can clip onto the collar or zipper edge of my jacket.  When placing it on my collar I made sure the teeth of the clip were centered over the stitching along the collar edge so as not to leave an impression in the leather.  Love it!