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Hands Occupied

Contemporary yarn crafts by Heidi Gustad. Knitting, crochet, latch hook and macrame.

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West Coast Love & A free pattern!

February 25, 2015 1 Comment

West Coast Love Book Review | Hands Occupied

You know those friends you click with effortlessly? Artist and embroidery designer Megan Eckman and I were in the same fifth grade class back in Fargo, ND. We graduated high school together, our little brothers played sports and graduated together themselves and our moms are friends. We’ve known each other almost 20 years, so when Megan set up the blog book tour for her new embroidery book West Coast Love, I was immediately on board.

West Coast Love Book Review | Hands Occupied

You don’t have to be from the west coast to appreciate this coffee cup pattern!

From the Golden Gate Bridge to the Seattle Space Needle, this 100+ page digital pattern book gives you a tour of the seaside states. In addition to man-made landmarks, you can stitch up iconic birds, alternative state flags, and national park monuments. West Coast Love is the first pattern book by Megan Eckman, the designer behind Studio MME. Her patterns are simple to sew but intricate in their design, letting you curl up on the couch with a beer while you stitch something beautiful.

West Coast Love Book Review | Hands Occupied

Free embroidery pattern – Steller’s Jay

To give you a taste of what to expect from West Coast Love, here’s a pattern from the book for you to try. It features a lovely bird native to the Northwest called the steller’s jay. It’s a really gorgeous bird similar to the blue jay, but features some black in its coloring that’s really gorgeous, especially in embroidered form! Get the free pattern here. 

West Coast Love Book Review | Hands Occupied I have a distinct memory of Megan sitting at my parents’ kitchen counter drawing fantastic illustrations on post it notes at age 10. Even then, she was a talented illustrator, and today, she’s expanded her design talents to embroidery. Her new book is full of 20 adorable designs designed to be sewn on pennant style flags and embroidery hoops, complete with instructions on preparing your hoops and flags for display after completing the embroidery part of your projects. Even Midwesterners like myself can appreciate how fun these designs are – I’m hoping she does a book of Midwest patterns and comes for a visit to Chicago for inspiration! :)

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Embroidery Tagged With: book review, embroidery, hollywood embroidery, megan eckman, stitching, studio mme, west coast love

About Heidi

Heidi Gustad is a craft book author & content creator in love with primary colors & vintage vibes. She specializes in knitting, crochet, latch hook and macramé, and her first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is out now!

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Comments

  1. Julie

    February 25, 2015 at 9:11 am

    what a cool collection of embroidery patterns !I love embroidery, I return to it every so often, it’s always so satisfying.

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Heidi Gustad from Hands Occupied / Craft Book Author and Knitting, Crochet, Latch Hook and Macrame Designer

Hi! I’m Heidi, an author, yarn craft designer and content creator specializing in knitting, crochet, latch hook & macrame. My work unapologetically features primary colors and vintage-meets-modern style. My first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is now available!

Professionally I’m most known for: advanced intarsia knitting design & modern latch hook design.

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handsoccupied

Craft book author & content creator in love with primary colors & vintage vibes. / #latchhookbook out now!
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knitting, crochet, latch hook & macramé

Heidi Gustad 🧶✂️
A new YouTube tutorial is live today covering how A new YouTube tutorial is live today covering how to knit the Little Butterfly Stitch (aka Bowknot Stitch). It adds so much cute character to simple stockinette. Only a little funky to knit, and it packs a huge visual punch! 🦋 
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Find the video & written stitch pattern on the blog and YouTube, links are in bio. 
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#kpambassadorsfeb21 #sponsored
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Yarn: @kelbournewoolens Germantown in Baby Blue via @knit_picks. Needles: Prism Interchangeables, also from Knit Picks. 
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Pictured: a light blue swatch of Little Butterfly Stitch knitting on a pink background. A skein of yarn and a few stitches of knitting are nearby.
“You’re telling me words can be pronounced in “You’re telling me words can be pronounced in different ways and mean the same things?!” 👀 Posting this here, just to make it clear: when anyone says skayne, skeen, or skyne, it can be safely assumed we’re talking about a bundle o’ yarn,  a SKEIN. It’s not necessary to shame someone for using a word that is known to have MULTIPLE common pronunciations. 🧶
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Can you plz comment sharing how you say SKEIN and where you learned it? The OED happens to say SKAYNE, but it’s not a personal attack if someone says SKEEN and you say SKYNE or even Saskatoon. I’m legitimately curious. We don’t all knit or crochet the same way, and craft evolves a bit like language - it is passed on. There is so much value in having conversations about & embracing these variations! ✌🏻
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Pictured: A blond woman holds a skein of mustard yellow yarn up to her head like a phone, looking shocked. She’s wearing glasses & a knit sweater. 
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#handsoccupied #heidigustad #skein #yarn #yarncraft #knit #crochet #yarnaddict #knitincolor #soldotnacrop #language #englishisweird #oed #oxfordenglishdictionary
Sometimes my weekend projects involve hair rather Sometimes my weekend projects involve hair rather than yarn. Here’s the latest mediocre-but-improving result of my slow quest to learn to set vintage inspired curls. 💇🏼‍♀️ I’m hoping to be able to wash my hair less using a regular vintage set, but we’ll see if it ends up being practical. 😆 Hair frustrates me so much more than crafts! 
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Do you also style your hair using vintage methods? If you have any tips for vintage hair styling or good resources to share, please do!
I suppose this is one way to decide what yarn colo I suppose this is one way to decide what yarn color suits your pooch. 😆 Navy really might be Woodrow‘s color - what do you think? 
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Pictured: A medium sized, brown, senior dog asleep on a green bed. For some reason a donut ball of navy wool yarn sits on his head.
The first stitch tutorial of the new year is live The first stitch tutorial of the new year is live on YouTube! Diamond Brocade is a great knit+purl only stitch for beginners or anyone wanting a classic look for their knitting project. Find the video with a written stitch pattern on the blog or head directly to the video on YouTube. Both are linked in bio. ✌🏻 
#kpambassadorsfeb21 #sponsored
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