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In the Fifth Friday Festival of Fabulousness we introduced you to the pattern series from our newest designer, Sailormouth. They’re a terrific bunch of tattoo inspired no-holds barred designs, and the first in the series is no exception! But before we get to it, here’s the legal bit.

WARNING!

NSFW SATURDAYS WILL CONTAIN CONTENT THAT IS NOT SAFE FOR WORK!
IF YOU READ THESE POSTS, AND ARE OFFENDED, WE’RE SORRY BUT WE DID WARN YOU!

see more of this cuteness at Daily Squee

Those Texans, they’re a crazy bunch. Sailormouth sums it all up in one sentence.

This pattern is technically a black/red work piece, and it does a great job of getting the message across.

It comes in PDF format and is now available to buy in the Mr X Stitch etsy store for the bargain price of $6! Yeehaw!

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NSFW Saturdays are brought to you in association with
Subversive Cross Stitch, the original snarky stitching site!

It's all about activity here at Maker Faire Detroit. If you're over by the crafting area, you've got a lot to choose from:

• TaDaa! Studio T-shirt Tote Bag


• XYRON Creativity Area


• Detroit Lives Mural


• The National Needlearts Association Station

Just to name a few!

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That's right! The crew from i3Detroit has been working hard all week to get their Twinkie car ready for Maker Faire. If you're lucky, you might be able to grab catch one as you're walking around!

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As you can see in this picture, it's a little drizzly out, but the gates opened to a line of folks waiting to get in to Maker Faire Detroit this morning, including our local TV crew. Let the good times begin!

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I often find myself out and about shopping for something and needing to measure it to see if it'll fit where I want to put it. So I did a little googling for a mini tape measure keychain. At 2" high and shaped like a snail, this is pretty much perfect for the job! Available at Amazon.

 

It’s Saturday here at Mr X Stitch, and that means… Well. You know.

WARNING!
NSFW SATURDAYS WILL CONTAIN CONTENT THAT IS NOT SAFE FOR WORK!
IF YOU READ THESE POSTS, AND ARE OFFENDED, WE’RE SORRY BUT WE DID WARN YOU!

This is the last week of Miriam Blaylock Appreciation month, and I wanted it to go out with a bang. Instead, it’s going out with a tinkle.

Miriam enjoys the artwork of George Tier and decided she just HAD to stitch Trixie. It’s the only embroidered golden shower in existence as far as I know – if I’m wrong, please feel free to tell me!

Be sure to see more from Miriam at her lovely blog, or look back through the last four Saturdays here at Mr X Stitch to see more NSFW posts featuring her work. It’s all great stuff.

NSFW Saturdays are brought to you in association with
Subversive Cross Stitch, the original snarky stitching site!

To get things started for Maker Faire Detroit, we gathered in Shed 3 at Eastern Market for an impromptu conference, calling all makers, crafters, thinkers, etc. From learning what business opportunities there are for the up-and-coming maker, to an all-local lunch from Detroit Evolution and meeting Lee Zlotoff, the creator of "MacGyver," (!!!!!!!), it was a great group of folks passionate about making it in Detroit and putting creative folks front and center. If you missed the lineup, check out our great group of speakers. Inspiring stuff!

Check out more photos here.

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Our very own Brookelynn was waaaaayyy more relaxed then I was when she met a cockroach from one of the Detroit Maker Faire exhibitors at Can Do Camp. I stayed on the protective side of my camera just to be safe. We crafters are pretty gutsy (well, Brookelynn is!).

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This salad is a refreshing combination of tomato, avocado, mozzarella and more. Trekky was looking for a tasty way to use avocado and I think she definitely discovered it! This salad looks perfect for a hot summer evening with dinner on the patio. Get creative and try other ingredient combinations including cucumber, feta and lentils. Enjoy!

To see this Tomato Mozzarella Salad project on Craftster click here.

To see related projects on Craftster click the Salad tag here.

Lately I've been hanging out with a friend who is really into crop circles. So today I was thinking about crop circles, and then my mind went back to crafts, and then back to crop circles ... And I made a delightful discovery - this sweet crop circle quilt, made by Jaime Kuli McIntosh (Georgetown, KY) of Twisted Textiles. She documents her process on Craftster. I love the quilt squares in various shades of gray. This is not the bed covering of choice for those in fear of alien encounters. Who knows what that pattern communicates?

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Susan Beal of West Coast Crafty brings us more of her excellent crafty finds in this month's Bazaar on Photography. I love how she made a Qoop calendar with beautiful photos of her daughter Pearl.

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Feel like putting your crafty thinking cap on? Join us on the DIY Stage, located in the Automotive Hall of Fame, this weekend at Maker Faire Detroit. We'll have presentations every half hour.

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Congratulations to Summer of London, Ontario, Gloria of Norwalk, Calif., and Kristin of Ames, Iowa, who each won a copy of The Art of Preserving. Enjoy the book and let us know your favorite recipes!

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Vickie Howell knows knitting. Check out the complete Knitting 101: Basic Stitches tutorial, including a special six-part introduction to knitting in this week's CRAFT Video. In the video above, learn the basic knit and purl stitches in the Continental style of knitting.

Subscribe to the CRAFT Podcast in iTunes, download the first m4v video directly, or watch the playlist on YouTube.

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In this episode of Stitching n Junk we interview the amazing Penny Nickels! How exciting is that??? Answer: very, very exciting.

Big Love to:

• Kit Lane
• MadebyMoxie – (art and store)
• Cate Anevski
• Friday Feltz

We read letters from:

• GigglyMama
• Rosalyn McWatters
• Robyn Enz

AND we got a message from GigglyMama too! NEAT!

We love hearing from you, so please – email us at podcast@mrxstitch.com or leave us a message at 847-802-9242.

Subscribe on iTunes or listen to the podcast here!

Yesterday the Maker Faire hosted the Can Do Camp at the Eastern Market in Detroit. The day was filled with amazing discussions about the future of creative innovation and enterprise. Young entrepreneurs connected with veterans of business, and many amazing ideas were sparked. Yet it wasn't all business chatter, thanks to lunch and flowers from Detroit Evolution.

More than just a catering company, Detroit Evolution is a movement encompassing sustainable agriculture, education, and even yoga and bodywork. They created a vegan feast made with locally produced food, and my instantly fell in love with their amazing menu signs.

Created by the talented Jessica Reid, the frames of each menu were a stunning collage of scavenged materials that included wasps nests, bark, turkey tail mushrooms, and even metal bits from the abandoned Packard plant. I love that she incorporated tiny bits of litter like bottle caps and can tabs in with all the natural textures. She did a beautiful job turning information into art.

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Wrapping up this month's Design Studio tour we have the independently minded design company, Volume Inc., comprised of Adam Brodsley and Eric Heiman. Eric and Adam met while teaching at San Francisco's California College of the Arts. They founded Volume "at the dawn of the new millennium" and the rest is history. Living history, that is ...

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food and france go hand in hand, but add in an american pastry chef, a fantastic blog, a few books and a dose of great humor and you have david lebovitz. recently, i was lucky enough to spend a day with david where we met up to go shopping at one of my favorite markets, and made a delicious red wine raspberry sorbet from his new book, ready for dessert.  we had a blast putting together today’s special edition d*s video, and are so excited to share a little bit of our paris adventures with you today. we had too much great footage, so along with the recipe, you can find some more great one-on-one answers from david on cooking, his books, living in france and traveling with food in mind after the jump. {a huge thank you to david lebovitz, our amazing videographer christian wilmes, assistant sophie bocqueho, and kali vermes / studio vermes for use of their garden!!} -anne

** for a chance to win one of two free copies of ready for dessert, leave a comment with YOUR favorite dessert and why you’d like to win this book in the comment section below! comments will be closed saturday, july 31st at 10am EST sunday, august 1st at 10am EST. winners will be announced monday!**

CLICK HERE for the full recipe and interview with David after the jump!

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As you may know, here at Mr X Stitch Towers, we’ve been supporters of the charity Fine Cell Work for quite some time. The charity works with people in prison, teaching them embroidery skills and giving them an opportunity to make money from producing stitched goods. There’s more information on the work they do, which has tremendous positive impact on the prisoners, on their website. And what’s more, they’re a really lovely bunch of people who genuinely believe in the work they do and are committed to help the charity develop. It’s great stuff.

I’ll be working with Fine Cell Work more closely, and to get the ball rolling, I’ll be running two cross stitch workshops at the Vintage at Goodwood Festival, on Saturday 14th August. It should be a fun afternoon, you can come along and stitch your favourite number or phrase for an hour or so. And I’ll be in the company of the legendary Curegreed and stitching Goddess Jessica Aldred from the Royal School of Needlework, all of whom are armed with stitchy knowledge and skills. The festival looks amazing and if you’ve got the time and the money, I’d do the whole four days.  At the very least, go and look at the site and make a note to save a space for it next year.

We’ve decided to start a series of cross stitch and embroidery patterns where the profit for the sale will go to Fine Cell Work. We’ll be looking to engage new artists to help us create patterns for the cause, and we’ll release them on future FFFoFs. But I’m getting slightly ahead of myself here as I have a story to tell and a credit to give.

Alex Walters, aka Alexcateye, aka one of my favourite stitchers of all time, made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. She had stitched an amazing redwork pistol, and said that I could have it if it is was used to raise money for Fine Cell Work. And I took her up on the offer. So I am the proud owner of a terrific piece of stitchery, and Fine Cell Work have now got their own ongoing range of stitchery patterns from the Mr X Stitch design house.

Alex, as well as being awesome with a needle and thread, runs the thought-provoking Meet Me in the Dayroom blog, exploring self-guided art therapy. It’s great stuff, and Alex is a true gem, with more talent and compassion than the rest of us.

So without further ado, the first Fine Cell Work charity cross stitch pattern – Rock Out…

The pattern is available to buy in the Mr X Stitch etsy store, at the bargain price of $6! Four bucks from every pattern will go straight to Fine Cell Work. The design is an instant classic that you can stitch in any color you want, just watch out as it’s designed in 22ct so it needs a bit of control! Go get it!

And if you’d like to work with us to create designs for the charity, drop me a line!

Cool, now I know what to do with all my dust-gathering knee x-rays! This anatomically awesome lampshade was designed by Sture Pallarp. [via Street Anatomy]

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