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Today is going to be great! – Free Felt Pattern for January

Happy New Year!

I’m a morning person. I really do wake up most of the time happy and excited to start my day.

I know this can be super annoying. I live with two not-morning people who speak in grunts for the first hour they’re up. By the time they wake up I’ve usually been working for a couple of hours and I have all kinds of things I’m excited to show them. I’ve learned to restrain myself until they’re past the grunting stage. 🙂

As Polyanna as it can be – my eternal optimism is part of who I am. It’s a part of me that I like – and a part that I fully embrace in my work. So my studio is a great place to hang this happy reminder of how I like to start every day!

I love happy words, felt applique, and embroidered details – so you KNOW I had a ton of fun stitching up this project. 🙂

Here’s how. . .

Download the pattern here.

I printed the reversed version of the pattern onto a sheet of freezer paper, then cut the letters apart and fused them to some of my smallest felt scraps. I cut out the letters and the freezer paper at the same time – it’s the best way to accurately cut small, detailed pieces like this.

I colored in the regular (not reversed) version of the pattern with some crayons first to help me choose a good balance of colors and make sure I didn’t end up with consecutive letters in the same color.

My scraps were ruby red slippers, loden, periwinkle, love bug blue, old gold, and copper. Use what you have! Your scraps will be in colors you love!

Arrange the letters carefully on your base fabric. I used black cotton twill.

Today is going to be great! Free pattern from Shiny Happy World.

The pattern shows the letters arranged in an 8-inch circle, with a dotted line showing the vertical and horizontal centers. That line can help you eyeball the arrangement of your words. I used a 9-inch hoop for a little extra breathing room – plus it’s what I had on hand. 🙂

You can pin the letters in place, but it drives me bonkers when my embroidery thread catches on the pins, so I glued each letter in place with a tiny dab from a fabric glue stick.

Whipstitch around all the letters.

Today is going to be great! Free pattern from Shiny Happy World.

I love the look of whipstitch in matching color thread, but an outline in blanket stitch in contrasting thread would also be really nice.

I could have stopped there – and I almost did. I thought there was a real charm to the simple refrigerator-magnet-letter look. But I couldn’t resist adding a bit of extra fancification. 🙂 I did keep the extra stitching tone-on-tone so the effect wouldn’t be too wild or overwhelming. And I love the texture it adds!

Today is going to be great! Free pattern from Shiny Happy World.

Sometimes I just did little straight stitches across the letter.

Today is going to be great! Free pattern from Shiny Happy World.

Sometimes I did French knots in the center.

Today is going to be great! Free pattern from Shiny Happy World.

Sometimes I made little stars out of simple straight stitches.

Today is going to be great! Free pattern from Shiny Happy World.

Sometimes I backstitched a stick letter right in the middle of the block letter.

Today is going to be great! Free pattern from Shiny Happy World.

And sometimes I did some extra little stitches across the backstitched letter for a “Frankenstein stitches” kind of look. 🙂

Today is going to be great! Free pattern from Shiny Happy World.

For the two i letters and the exclamation point, I stitched a star in the dot and a row of three backstitches in the line.

I didn’t plan anything out – I just did what would be easiest in each letter and tried not to do the same fancification in two letters right next to each other.

Today is going to be great! Free pattern from Shiny Happy World.

Finished!

I finished the back using this technique. No glue!

Today is going to be great! Free pattern from Shiny Happy World.

Now it’s hanging in my studio and I smile every time I see it. Even at 6 am. 🙂

Happy stitching!

12 COMMENTS

  1. Pingback: CraftCrave | DigiFree | CraftCrave

  2. Sandi Knowles SAYS...

    Super cute. Thank you for sharing the free pattern.

    I have a question. When you did the embroidery on the letters, did you stitch all the way though the black twill as well?

    • Yep! If I were doing fancier stitching that needed a guide I would have drawn it all on Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy, then stitched the letters, cut them out, soaked it off, and then done the applique as the last step. But with stitching this simple I just freehanded it after doing the applique.

  3. Vicky Lambert SAYS...

    OMG! So adorable! Most of my buddies are still teaching, so I like to make them goodies. This will give me tons of ideas! And I can’t wait to make something for my mom, who just turned 85. Thank you!

  4. Loretta Shekleton SAYS...

    Love love love it! I’m going to make one for my kids teachers for the end of the year presents – thank you!

  5. Sharon Walker SAYS...

    Beautiful, I especially love how the bright colours stand out from the black. I’ve loads of ideas running through my head now lol xx

    • Thanks! I think the bright colors would also look good on a rich, chocolate brown or a deep slate grey. I love bright colors on dark backgrounds!

  6. Pingback: Five for Friday – Cross Stitch & Embroidery – AURIbuzz

  7. Rachel Jones SAYS...

    amazing work u do! Cant wait to try this embroidery for my new home!

  8. Rebecca Camacho-Sobczak SAYS...

    I just bought your book. Wonderful!