Come visit me and all my Whipstitch Backstitch friends at this years Emily Carr Student Art Sale! Great finds abound! Everything from art to clothes to dishes to cozy adorable stuffed animals (c/o Whipstitch Backstitch of course!).

xo

Lauren

One of my all time favorite things about fall are the beautiful blue skies. A fall blue just feels so different from a summer blue- crisp clean and exciting! Add in some organic apple cider and it’s shaping up to be a beautiful season.

Lately I’ve been on a blue kick with the Whipstitch Softies, here are some of my current favorites. I love the vintage blue floral fabric! There’s also a little family of squid on the way.

I am completely addicted to buying  fabric. And once I buy some, cutting into it is so hard! But of course the end result is always worth the initial trauma.

I’ve just finished cutting out a ton of chest pieces for the Song Birds, using some great new fabrics. The brown is actually a pair of vintage pants that I bought just for these little birds, adorable! The pretty little blue floral is vintage bed sheeting, and so wonderfully soft.

I’m looking forward to sitting and embroidering songbird wings and hoot owl eyes for the next week while I’m on vacation. I find hand-sewing very relaxing. Should come in handy once midterms arrive in the fall!

I’m very excited to be leaving for beautiful Gabriola Island this weekend! It’s one of my favorite vacation spots, and my family has been going there since I can remember.

In preparation I’ve been cutting like crazy, as I hope to spend much of my days embroidering wings on songbirds while relaxing in the sun! Tons of songbirds have begun their lives, as have owls in some awesome new patterns.

Don’t the sheets of felt look so great all arranged by colour? I have this strange tendency to want to arrange everything by colour, even hand-fulls of skittles! Keep an eye out, I’ve got some wonderful new fabrics to show you.

I thought I would share a pair of one of my favorite Whipstitch Backstitch families with you. The Yetii! Harold (tan) and Yota (white) are both yetii, but hail from opposite sides of the globe.

Harold is a west coast Yeti (close cousin of the Sasquatch) while Yota is a Japanese mountain Yeti, and lover of snow. These two, and the rest of the yeti family will be available exclusively on the Whipstitch Backstitch website.

I’m so very pleased to announce that my plush creatures are now available for purchase!

Pedagogy Toys in New Westminster is officially the first store to sell Whipstitch Backstitch toys.

If you haven’t been there, let me tell you a little bit about the  Pedagogy Toy store, not only is it beautiful in its design (think clear blue walls and high bright ceilings) it is also beautiful in it’s commitment to Eco-friendly production. Many of the toys Pedagogy sells are produced locally, others produced in places as far off as the Netherlands, and still Karen and Craig (the owners) carefully investigate each special item to ensure it is a perfect fit.

This beautiful and well crafted store is certainly worth a visit- and the bonus is that you will get to see my little plush family there as well!

Pedagogy Toys can be found at 424 E Columbia Street in New Westminster or online, Here.

As promised here are some photos from the party! Mostly of the little conglomeration of creatures that I assembled to be ooh-ed and ahh-ed over. I wish I had photos of the cupcakes and sweets but alas- they were gone before I could get my camera out. (take my word for it- they tasted de-licious!) You also might notice that the creatures are all displayed in vintage suitcases, which I cannot stop collecting – the details of the linings are almost as delicious as the cupcakes we ate!

Also, I’m getting even more excited about the website launch now because a dear friend of mine Toni Zhang, just drew up the most beautiful and charming illustrations you could ever imagine for the site! I can’t wait for you to see the whole she-bang, but in the meantime, my blog header is a bit of a preview

I’ve noticed a lot of talk in the softie community lately about the excess amounts of Owl softies being produced. And its true! What it is about that pair of saucer shaped eyes that inspires us to stitch I do not know, but the owl has become – in my opinion anyway- the new teddy bear and is loved by hipster moms and their stylish kids the world over.

Owls are adorable, and in softie-form that goes doubly! So when one of my favorite little friends requested an Owl softie of her own, how could I resist? I created a sweet little owl with felt appliqué wings and eyes, some in an adorable vintage feeling-turquoise print and of course, some in a fun pink print (the preferred colour of darling KiAna).

I’m pleased to report that KiAna loves her little owl, and guess what- so do I! I think I’ve become an Owl fan- these wide-eyed little guys totally tug at my heart strings!

So much, in fact that I will be adding them to my little family of creatures to be offered for sale when I launch my new website!

And check out this darling little card KiAna made! I think we have a future DIY-er on our hands!

One of my favorite parts of making softies is seeing people react to them! Making someone happy is just the greatest thing, and I think one of the reasons why I enjoy sewing up my creature pals as much as I do.

A few months ago, I sent Jean-Claude off to live with a wonderful family on beautiful Gabriola Island. apparently JC has been having a ball exploring the island, judging by these adorable photos his new family sent to me!

‘in a field of flowers’                              ‘out on a limb’