Unique Table Decorations for Every Celebration!

Take your table from Drab to Fab with our new Tablecloth & Place Card Set! The felt place cards can be personalized to be placed on a plate or left plain as a decoration! Show your guests that you thought enough to make a special space just for them! Very festive, very unique, very COOL! Check them out; we show our Thanksgiving leaves, Christmas trees and Spooky Bats! Collect them all.




Makes a great hostess gift! Add a matching garland to complete your decorating.
Get different fabric place cards for every celebration!



SPOOKY!

Thoughts for Thursday

When you give a little, you get a lot! It's really OK to get involved and react when called upon. Try it! It really makes your heart happy!

A few weeks ago I received information from a blog I follow. This Mom/Blogger/Shop owner put out a plan to help a sick girl. She asked for donations of personalized items. All donations were used to warm up her hospital room. Of course, we donated our favorite Heart of my Heart Garland. All of our prayers and thoughts are with Emily today!

Check it out at The PolkaDot Mom. People coming together, now that's something great!
Best,
Nancy

Garland Winner!

According to Random.org Comment #17 won our garland giveaway! Jacquie won! Thanks so much to all who entered. Jacquie, please let us know which garland you would like. Leave us a comment how to reach you, e-mail us at customerservice@sewmuchtosay.com or let me know on facebook.

Remember our garland can be purchased at sewmuchtosay.com - check it out!

Thanks again, and Happy Halloween.

Nancy

Favorite Halloween thing

We were just talking Halloween and with just 20 days left we thought it might be fun to collect favorite Halloween ideas from everyone. SO, What's your favorite Halloween thing? Mine is old fashioned treat bags and those retro cut outs for windows and doors. You know the ones - the black cat and the witch face. Ka likes the Jack-o-Lantern that vomits pumpkin seeds and the trick-or-treaters love it!

What's your favorite Halloween thing?

Nancy

Halloween party theme

Halloween Event Planner 101. I'v been drafted to organize the Halloween Party at my son's school. Thinking of doing a Haunted House theme. I just ordered cool paper candelabras online yesterday. I plan to place them on black tablecloths covered with spider webs.

Alongside my candelabras I want to place glass jars filled with different items in colored water. I plan to use labels to identify the items: Newts eyes, bat guts, witch fingers - well you get the picture. I'm not operating with a great budget so ideas are what I need. Got ideas? Let me know.

I'll keep you posted and up to date on my progress as I go along.

Best,
Nancy

Halloween Garland Giveaway!

In celebration of our newly designed Halloween Garland, we're having a giveaway! One lucky winner will be chosen at random to win the Halloween garland of their choice.
It's easy to enter...just follow the instructions below.

BEWARE! (click to enlarge)

PUMPKIN FACE! (click to enlarge)

All entries must be posted on our blog.
(If you are reading this on Facebook...please click here to go to our blog and enter.)


HOW TO ENTER: Visit Wicked Stitches and then comment here about your favorite Wicked Stitches product. Don't forget to leave your e-mail address so we can contact you if you win. Your comment is your entry.

You can get additional entries if you:
1. Become/are a facebook fan (leave a comment)
2. Become/are a Follower of this blog (leave a comment)

Be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry (that's a max of 3 comments/entries)
So that's 3 chances win!!
Good Luck!

CONTEST ENDS: October 11,2009

Autumn Decorations you'll fall in love with!

Embrace the change of season with our new Autumn Decorations. Check out our Orange, Yellow and Red Autumn Garland! Our hand made garland captures the spirit of the season with felt leaves appliqued and embroidered with all the colors of autumn. This beautiful banner can be reused year after year. Place it on a mantle, a window, a banister or on your front door. Welcome the harvest with a cozy, warm feeling! This garland is approximately 4 feet wide, and we sell it directly on our website: http://www.sewmuchtosay.com. Remember ...always free shipping! We also have Halloween Decorations to offer. Keep checking back!
Happy Harvest,
Nancy
Wicked Stitches

Backpacks, bag labels, school bags

(click on photo to enlarge)
School is cool!

(click on photo to enlarge)

Add a tag to your lunchbox. We'll make one to match!

(click on photo to enlarge)
Tag your guitar case!

(click on photo to enlarge)
Don't forget Dancing School - pack your shoes in style!

Summer sure goes quickly, it's back to school already. Personally, I have mixed feelings; I'm almost sad for the kids but I'm looking forward to a new routine. The endless days of summer fun are killing me! Nothing says routine more than School! We came up with some fun back to school items. Our "Kindergarten is Cool" cinch sack is perfect for the little ones - everybody wants to be cool, even if you're 5. We also do a lot of "tags" so be sure to label your child's lunchbag, backpack or coat. Check out these and all our back to school items on our website at http://www.sewmuchtosay.com

Wishing all of you a seamless back to school experience!

Nancy
Wicked Stitches

How to personalize soldier carepackage

This just might be the best idea I've heard today! We received a request to personalize pillowcases for a soldier serving in Iraq. This caring individual would like to place "I Love You" and "Come Home Soon" on a set of pillowcases. I wish I thought of this!



Special thoughts for a special soldier! Have you thought of your soldier today?



Nancy

Wicked Stitches

How to give the perfect hostess gift

As a special thank you to a friend of mine, I made a personalized Hostess gift for her summer home. Since she has a lake house, I thought it would be nice to make a "row boat" garland to hang on a wall or window or where ever there is space.

I must admit this was one of my favorite garlands to date, and if you know anything about me - it's that I love garland. Then to make the garlard personalized - boy, that's a double treat for me!


Happy rowing Boyles!

Nancy
Wicked Stitches

How to create unique Sweet 16 party favors

Wicked Stitches was asked to recreate Broadway show titles for the favors at a recent Sweet 16 Birthday Party. The young lady wanted to have a Broadway theme. She chose several popular plays and each one was a theme for a different table. She asked us to put the Show name on tank tops as a favor for the girls who attended. The party favors were a big hit. We wrapped them up in bags and made a Playbill tag with the young ladies name and date of the big day.

We loved the final product so much, we wanted to share this great idea!



Nancy
Wicked Stitches

Kids Aprons

This year my daughter participated in a cooking camp. She was so excited to put on her Cooking Camp apron every morning. It was a really nice experience, the instructor planned the recipes from the High School Musical Cook Book. She did one smoothie, one savory and one sweet recipe every day for one week. I wanted to share the Banana Crunchy Smoothie recipe with you.

Banana Crunchy Smoothie:
1 cup skim milk
1 banana (sliced)
2 tbsp honey
1/2 cup granola
3/4 cup ice

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. ENJOY!


Needless to say we are eating better this week as my daughter practices her new found skills on us!

Luckily for the kids, Wicked Stitches did the aprons! Check them out.

Nancy
Wicked Stitches

Family Beach Vacations

There is nothing better than hanging at the beach with your cousins, aunts and uncles. That's what my kids always say!

Sometimes, during the school year life gets too busy to see each other. Summer is a great time to get together. This year, my family will join my sisters and brothers at Ocean City MD for a few days. I plan to take along some of our Wicked Stitches "just beachy" towels to mark the occasion!
They are bright and colorful....and so useful.

One customer is doing the same! They are four families headed to the Outer Banks, NC. A towel for each of the kids is a great way to start the trip. Boy, those personalized embroidered towels are just beautiful!

Bring your sunscreen
...and your beach towel!

My Ironman

My husband Will is competing in the upcoming Ironman USA triathlon for the second year in a row. After being inspired by my brother Joseph at the Ironman in the summer 2006 to become a triathlete, he set out to accomplish an extremely difficult task, to compete and hopefully finish the 140.6 mile race himself. The Ironman triathlon consists of a 2.4 mile swim followed by a 112 mile bike and a 26.2 mile run. He trained hard for 2 years, swimming, biking, and running almost every day and maintaining a healthy diet. In the summer of 2008, all of his hard work and dedication paid off when he finished the triathlon in 14 hours and 53 minutes.

While triathletes are a one man team, Will did not just compete in the race for himself. He gave back to others by raising over $7000 for The Children's Brain Tumor Foundation. This year, in only a few more weeks, he will attempt to complete the race faster than he did last year. As with the previous 2 years, he has been training rigorously to prepare himself for the Ironman, even driving 6 hours to and from Lake Placid every weekend to get used to the course. It is well known that hard work pays off, and it surely will for Will. We wish him the best of luck and know that he will make us proud come race day.
Make a donation to The Children's Brain Tumor Foundation

-Carolyn

Happy 4th of July!

As we continue to be "garland" crazy - we are making our customers very happy indeed!

We made this red,white and blue garland for one of our favorite customers to give as a hostess gift. It was especially wonderful for this hostess since it was a July 4th B-B-Q but also because she has a red, white and blue themed summer house. This welcome garland was the perfect idea, it was made to fit an empty space above the couch. No worries, the little ones won't get hurt should it wall from the wall onto their heads and it looks fabulous!

Making the gift personal to the person receiving it really says you thought about them, and who could ask for more?

Happy 4th and Welcome Summer!

What's New?

Here are some of our latest creations...

Fun with Applique

I'm thinking of adding items to my retail wall at my friends Music Store. I want to create family members doing their personal thing and put them on a tote bag to carry all that stuff around. I have seen these types of stick figures on car windows and I really like the idea. I thought that a family tote is always useful and can be quite fun!

Check back for a photo!

Creative ways to market your product

A friend of mine invited me to show my products on her music studio wall. At first I was really excited to have someone place my items in a retail shop, as I sell my products exclusively over the internet. Then, I started to think about how I could work out a deal with her and what her expectation of payment may be. Then I began to become anxious about it and thought that maybe I wouldn't be able to sell anything.

As soon as I stepped into her shop I just was completely thankful that she asked me to be involved with her space. It's really a great environment and she is so open to my ideas as well. I plan to display me work on her wall with information for people to contact me. We haven't worked out the details yet, but we're both going to try it and see! Sometimes, when you have an open mind anything can happen!

Sometimes old sayings are exactly what is needed: "try it and see".

The music school is Staten Island Family Music located at 358 Forest Avenue in Staten Island. It's a great place to nurture your child's natural enthusiasm for music and movement. They will sing, dance, chant, and play instruments in an informal setting that will enrich their musical environment and guide them towards a lifetime of music making enjoyment.

Best Gift ever!

A friend of mine is taking her daughter to see the Jonas Brothers in the Bahamas. It's double fun; her daughter gets to see the Jonas Brothers and she get to go to the Bahamas! So we made her a "Mrs. Jonas" beach towel and matching tote bag. It is just too cute! My friends daughter got a big kick out of it and can't wait to see the Jonas Brothers in concert, sporting her beach towel that is! My friend can't wait to get to the Bahamas!

Butterfly Perennial Garden

Lately with all this talk and spring garland sewing, I find that I can't stop looking in the flower catalogs that I get everyday. I can't help but wonder, why my garden never looks like them. This year I plan to take a new and different approach. I'm just going to focus on one section at a time. This spring I plan to build a perennial garden in the back. I want to make a garden that will attract butterflies and birds.

I have been collecting bird houses over the last few years, and I plan to put them at different heights in the garden. I think I'll need a bird bath too. I would love to do something a bit unexpected. Maybe I'll put in a giant toad stool. I saw that once in a magazine. On a wooden log, a metal bowl is nailed in and the bowl is painted red with white dots. Let's see what comes of it.

WELCOME SPRING

I potted some Hyacinth bulbs in two containers last October. I placed them inside my garage for the winter. About a month ago they started to come up, so I put them on my front step. Now they are so beautiful and they smell so wonderful that it makes me smile every time I go to my front door. It took no time at all and turned out so great - I think I'll do it every year! What a great way to welcome spring!

Love to Garland!

I realize that sounds silly, but it's true! We started making holiday garland for Valentines Day and we can't stop! It's really become a wonderful way to use creative energy. They look great on my front door and mantle too! I wanted to share these because they could easily be re-created at home with the kids. But if that fails - just go shopping at Wicked Stitches! We'd love to make one for you too!

Welcome Spring!

Attention!

We have been getting some attention on the web lately!

One of our favorite sites...The Little Window Shoppe published a very nice review of Wicked Stitches. You will also find craft projects, recipes, sweet shops and fun family ideas on this site.

Over at The Funky Monkey...you can enter giveaways to win interesting and fun items.
We are sponsoring a giveaway of our 'Work of Art' tote bag. There is a really nice write-up about Wicked Stitches. Check it out. While you are there, enter for a chance to win the tote (ends 3/25)!

Valentine's Day Dinner

I love Valentine's Day...it's a great day to create a special memory for the family.

Every year I make a special dinner.
I make a heart shaped meatloaf, 'ice it' with mashed potatoes and decorate it with ketchup.
I serve the kids milk in wine glasses...use the 'good' dishes with a fancy red tablecloth sprinkled with Hershey's kisses....and light candles. For the final touch, I put a little Valentine gift on everyone's chair.

Enjoy!

It's a Super Bowl party!

My husband was born and raised in Pitttsburgh....so needless to say he is a huge STEELERS fan. So the Super Bowl is a big day in our house this year.

I had a great time getting the decorations together...
I just loved Nancy's Valentine Garland idea....so I changed it a bit and made a Steelers garland. For the table, I made a football field table cloth using ribbon and some iron-on number patches. I found black cloth cocktail napkins in the clearance section and embroidered some players names and numbers (you can also use fabric paint), and I embroidered some towels to hang in the bathroom.
GO STEELERS!
-Carolyn

Welcome to our Blog!

Welcome to our Blog! We hope to use this blog as a creative outlet. We have so many great ideas we needed a place to put them all!

I hope that you can find some interesting ideas or use our ideas as a springboard to create something special and just right for you and yours!

Please let us know what you think. We hope that you share your great ideas and crafts too!

With warm regards,
Nancy and Carolyn

Valenines Day Garland

A Funny Valentine Day story to share ... I am working on a DIY Valentine garland. As I'm cutting out my Valentine garland pieces ("XOXO's") to deorate my front door for Valentines Day. My son keeps asking my why I'm spelling out OX OX. So, I explained to him that it's not OX OX but XO XO witch is a code word for kisses (thinking he'll love some spy type lingo). Quickly, my daughter reminds me that this is the year of the OX ... hum, now I'm wondering if my 7 year old has outsmarted me again.

Directions for XO XO Garland:

What you’ll need:
White felt (one piece 12 X 24 “ or two pre-cut pieces)
Red felt (same dimensions)
Assorted coordinating ribbon
(we used 2 yards red and white polka dot - ¼ inch, 48 inches red and white gingham - 3/8 inch and 2 yards red grosgrain ribbon - 7/8 inch)
Fabric tac
Sissors (we used straight and pinking shears)

Cut four X ‘s and four O’s – two of each color felt.

Each letter template has an outside line and an inside line. Decide which color you want the back of the letter to be. Then use the outside line as a cutting guide for the back. Use the inside line as a cutting guide for the front of the letters. Be sure to cut the bigger one out first.

We cut the back one out with pinking shears, and the front pieces with straight shears.

Dimensions of cut ribbon:
Red grosgrain: Two pieces one yard long.
Red gingham: 4 pieces 12 inches long.
Red polka dot: 6 pieces 12 inches long.

Lay out the backs of the letters on a table the way you want them to hang. Attach the ribbons with fabric tac. On the first X, the top left side has the red grosgrain ribbon. Fold the ribbon in half so that it’s a double 18 inch length. You will need a longer length for a nicer bow. Then on the right top side of the X, put a piece of red gingham and a piece of red polka dot ribbon. Then the first O has the red gingham and red / white polka dot ribbon combination on the top left with only the red polka dot ribbon on the top right. The second X has the red polka dot ribbon on the top left with the combination gingham and polka dot on the top right. The second O has the gingham and polka dot combination on the top left and the red grosgrain on the top right.

Now just fabric tac the top pieces in place and your done! Tie the letters together, I tied them close together – but you don’t have to. Just hang it up and Kiss away! I used suction cups with hooks on them.

Feel free to use wired ribbons for the ends. They do make a nicer bow! Use any combination of ribbons you wish. These colors just worked for me. But, light pink and hot pink felt would be great too. Not to mention hot pink and black!

Here's the template: