Indoctrinating the Masses

Cassandra and I have an evil plan. Well, it might not actually be evil but we kind of like the idea of being slightly dark and mysterious.

We want to teach everyone to craft something. 

Frankly, it doesn't matter what a person's interest is, we just want them to join the club and become a maker of things. Making stuff is great for the soul and the mind. It gets you out of your routine and gives you something to focus on that will provide a finished project at the end. For those of you who are readers, you know that sad feeling you get at the end of a good book? Well, making something is the exact opposite of that. Even if your finished project doesn't come out exactly as planned, you've CREATED something - which is an awesome feeling.

To this end, we've been doing our part to bring crafting to the masses. And, while the term "masses" may be overstating it a bit, we believe that every little bit counts. In recent months, we've taught a Beginning Knitting class and, yesterday, I taught a Beginning Embroidery class.

Me, teaching. Note my new hairdo!

We're lucky to have this cool community space in Madison called DreamBank where they'll pay for all the materials and advertise the class. All you have to do is teach it. The students get to go home with a new skill AND all the materials. So, yesterday, seven people tried their hand at our Bear embroidery pattern*. They received the pattern printed on linen/cotton fabric, a 6" hoop, a #5 embroidery needle, a skein of floss, and handouts on how to do the stitches needed for this pattern. Plus, of course, they got two hours of instruction from yours truly.  ;)

Interestingly, teaching embroidery was MUCH easier than teaching beginning knitting. All my students were women (two of them teenagers) and they seemed to intrinsically understand the stitch work. My star pupil was one of the teenagers who just plowed through her pattern with abandon and did a great job. Her mom struggled a bit but I was able to find the right words (and process) to help her understand what she was doing and she eventually caught on and was successful.

The best part was watching people "branch out" and try things that were not strictly on the curriculum. I encourage this behavior because I think it makes more fearless crafters.

Anyway, a good time was had by all and I'm pretty sure that a few of these folks will actually finish their project. Hopefully they'll continue on and make more wonderful stuff.

- Alex

*Click that link for free downloads of Bear, Hare, Fox, and Owl embroidery patterns!

Free Bear Embroidery Pattern!

Greetings everyone!

We are thrilled to be offering the third free embroidery pattern in our Woodland Series today. Please meet Bear:

Click to download.

Bear is a great addition to his friends Hare and Owl. This pattern uses 5 simple stitches (chain, straight, stem, satin, and french knots) to create a panel for wall hangings, pillow fronts, or even quilt blocks. This design is child-friendly yet sophisticated enough to make a fun addition to the "adult" rooms of the house.

Tree trunk is stem stitch, branches are straight stitch.

Detail of bear face.

The word Bear is chain stitch next to chain stitch.

Included in the free PDF download of Bear are directions and a color/stitch guide. With this instruction, you can exactly replicate our sample or feel free to go on your own and have fun creating something new! If you are new to this craft, the embroidery tab at the top of the page has some information to help you get started stitching.

As always, we would love to see what you do with our designs. Please send us an email or maybe put a link to your own blog post in our comments section and share your creativity. And, keep an eye out for our last design in the series coming soon!

–Cassandra

Coming Soon to a Blogpost Near You...

Recently, we've enjoyed an influx of new readers thanks to being mentioned on two really fun sites - Craft Gossip and Friend-Stitch. We're thrilled to have you all with us and hope to continue to offer relevant and fun content that keeps you coming back.

We love hearing your comments and encouragement. As a matter of fact, based on some feedback we received from one reader, we added more instruction and a color/stitch chart to our embroidery patterns. The only way we can improve is when you all tell us what works!

So, today, we'd like to let you know about some of the things we plan to cover in upcoming posts. This is not a comprehensive list by any means and, of course, we're sure to get distracted and write about whatever floats our boat in that moment (as usual.) Without further ado, here's some of what you can expect from Mighty Distractible....

Upcoming Distractions
As you all know, we can't seem to stay focused on a single thing. We have noticed, however, that most of our crafts include some manner of needle work or fiber - including the new skills that we want to try.

Cross-Stitch - Alex is fascinated with samplers, mostly when they're really edgy. The dichotomy of a sweet handicraft turned on its head is really appealing.




Quilting - Cassandra caught the bug when we made quilts for the earthquake victims in Japan. She's working on some ideas for kid-sized quilts for Thing 1 and Thing 2.



 Needlepoint - Years ago, Alex saw needlepoint squares used to upholster the seats of dining room chairs. Every since, she's been obsessed with the idea of covering her chairs similarly.  Specifically, she wants to use some ridiculously intricate William Morris-style patterns. This is why the project hasn't left the ground yet.

Only slightly complicated Wm Morris design

More crochet - Alex has already started down this path. Now it's Cassandra's turn. She's taken one of the library books home so expect to hear about her foray into hooking pretty soon.

Serging - Both Alex and Cassandra love the idea of using a serger and are dying to get their hands on one and see what can be done with it.

Upcoming Free Stuff
As promised, we will continue to offer free downloads and tutorials as often as possible. On our list of things to give you are a variety of patterns in different disciplines. We're in various stages of creation on these - writing them up, testing the patterns, etc. - but know that we'll have plenty for you to enjoy soon.

Love this wavy stitch

Knitting patterns - Alex is working on a set of three patterns - a scarf, a hat, and fingerless gloves (aka: wrist warmers). All of them use a unique stitch that she learned from a stranger at a protest knit-in at Madison's Capitol back in February. 

Sewing patterns - Cassandra recently spent some time learning to lay in zippers and, for practice, developed a pattern for a simple, but very pretty, zippered pouch. They make great notion bags and are so easy you can make a few in an afternoon. Additionally, Alex keeps threatening to make a pattern for a knock-off apron that she saw at a trendy store.

Embroidery and cross-stitch patterns - We like to thank everyone for the warm reception to the first two patterns in the Woodland Series. There will be two more to come - Bear and Fox. Also, Alex is excited to design some cross-stitch patterns so, yeah....we'll see how that goes.


Upcoming Giveaways
We've done one giveaway so far and would like to do more. Basically, we're interested in reviewing things - books, supplies, etc - and then giving the reviewed item away to you! We think the easiest way to do this is to have people comment within a certain time frame and then we'll do a random drawing from qualified names.

We'd love your feedback on this idea. What items would you like us to review? Does the "random drawing" process seem fair or can you suggest a better way to pick a winner? Any advice would be appreciated!

So...that's a little bit of what we have in store for you. We hope this sounds intriguing and that you'll stick with us on this journey. We're having a BLAST and hope you are too. Don't forget, we love hearing from you and can only improve from your input.

Happy crafting!

- Alex & Cassandra

Free Pattern Wednesday!

We at Mighty Distractible would like to introduce you to our new FREE downloadable embroidery pattern from our Woodland series. Please meet Hare.

Hare is a feisty rabbit from the Black Forest who looks very cute as wall art, pillow fronts, or even a quilt block. Use floss, crewel yarn, ribbon, felt in any color of the rainbow. Hey, if you love purple bunnies, go with it...you're only limited by your imagination. Please feel free to download and enjoy!

We would love to see your work so please send us pictures of your finished projects.

The Woodland Series will feature 4 designs. All will be different animals and all will be offered free from Mighty Distractible. Please keep checking on Wednesdays for a new free design to download. There is also a link to "free downloads" on the right sidebar for easy access.

We did french knots, you do what you want!

–Alex and Cassandra