Category Archives: stitching

magical monochromatics

Last year we worked on Britt and Peter’s wedding invitations with Nicole Sillapere and Rosemary Events. All the paper goods for this wedding were tactile and warm even though the color palette was shades of white and grey.

The layers of this invitation were intricate – the was hand calligraphy for print, laser cutting, letterpress, mounting, hand tearing, ribbon binding, foil stamping and die cutting. It was tedious but worth it. And the vintage stamps came together so well, though we had to use some newer stamps because of the size and weight of the handmade heavyweight envelopes.

The wedding programs were also pretty special… small booklets printed on textured translucent paper with white cotton organdy covers with a simple stitch bind. these are my very favorite programs!

The escort cards echoed the invitations – handtorn with laser cut slits for the ribbon.

When everything came together what we created as a giant collaborations was truly magical!

Thanks to Abby Ross Photography for the amazing photos on this one. Check out everything on Style Me Pretty!

a french lavender wedding

I just came across all these beautiful photos from Andrea’s wedding in France. We worked on her wedding stationery for over a year and I think it turned out beautifully.

 

One of my favorite elements was the program. We used my very favorite stiff cotton organdy as the sheer cover of the program with two lavender plants attached to the cover page. The booklet was an ethereal sweet nugget!

 

 

uppercase magazine



I was so excited to get my copy of Uppercase Magazine because a few months ago, Tiny Pine got a request for 100 or so actual printed samples which would be included within the pages…. I thought that was super exciting for recipients to get an actual little piece of limited edition art hiding there.

I knew that the TPP contribution would have to be special… showing off the things that I like best. The only obstacle was timing – the deadline landed right in the middle of holiday card season. Because of severe block from being creative for everyone else, I couldn’t figure out what my piece would say.

I was going on a hike one sunday afternoon when I got a text from my boyfriend. A question answered and a wish for my hike in one text message was instantly inspiring.

And yes. Salute the sunset for me.”

I took out a period and it was the perfect poetic message… I drew a sunset, wrote out the message in my handwriting, tore down sheets of somerset buff printing making paper, printed letterpress in two runs, and stitched the horizon line.

It occurred to me that this was also the perfect holiday greeting, so I made some extra for mailing.

Anyways, that’s the story. and now there are 100 or so people receiving those little pieces. I hope they enjoy looking at them as much as I did making them.

Martha and Tiny Pine officially meet.

I realize that it’s been a couple of weeks since this news broke but I have been too much flurrying around the workshop to post it here… but it’s definitely worth hollering about – betther late than never!

This has been making me smile since they inquired. Tiny Pine Press got a stationery feature on The Bride’s Guide: Martha Stewart Weddings!

Splendid!!

It’s  fun that my personality shines through in the written interview so if you just miss talking to me,  check out this feature. It tells the story of how Tiny Pine Press was started, and then goes into all the inspirations.

Here are a couple of the photos that were featured but check it out and look at all the pretty pictures! (thanks to Gia Canali!)

inspirations from the old home place

Going home gives renewal of my creative vision. When I return to the home where I grew up in Sugar Grove, Virginia, I am surrounded by inspirations.

My mom is an avid quilter. So was my grandma. This huge pile of quilts that probably is about 5 feet tall is comprised of family tradition. Some of them were just the tops that my grandmother pieced, or the pieces before being sewn that my mother finished years later…

My mom’s thimble collection is so sweet.

and here are just some laterns that hang on the wall, also there is a section of just washboards and another section of tiny cast iron skillets.

My nephew’s rusty dump truck on the front porch.

AND one of my favorite all time activities, the Wythe raceway dirt track. When I was 5, I wanted to be a race car driver….. Instead I operate a giant piece of motorized cast iron, printing as fast as I can!

Brown Paper Bag Packages

As I was printing some brown paper bag envelopes yesterday for a wedding invitation, I was thinking there’s a lot of thinking time in printing, but also I was thinking about where I got this penchant for the good ole grocery bag.

Tiny Pine was started 7 or 8 years ago when I sewed presents onto chopped up trader joes bags and then sewed those onto cardstock for last minute birthday cards. I sold those for a while and made a sort of card line. They were cute and quirky. I know where the sewing thing comes from… , my mom and several aunts and uncles worked at Mr. Casuals for 30 years – a sewing factory in southwest Virginia that produced Ralph Lauren and Osh Kosh and lots of sort of high end jeans and pants and such. My grandma made many many quilts (my mom too). It’s almost genetic.

But why do I love the brown paper bag?

Well, I got a delivery on my doorstep yesterday for my Birthday Present. Every package from my mom looks like this. She literally puts everything in a brown paper bag and wraps it with tape and addresses right on there. The shape doesn’t matter (I’ve gotten round packages) AND she also sticks crazy stamps and stickers on it. I almost don’t want to open it I love it so much.

PS Here is another good example of reusing. That paper bag got a good work out before it got to me.

Thanks Momma!

Tiny Pines + Hipstamatic = The new old fashioned

Whenever I hang out with Gia Canali, I get bitten by the photography bug. She was showing me her iphone photos using the Hipstamatic App, and I took a notion to download that myself. I was hoping that all I needed was a program to make my photos look like hers…

Well, turns out that taking good iphone photos not as easy as just paying $1.99. BUT I was able to start learning how to use my new took as I stitched this weekend.

These photos are of an invitation I am working on right now. My client wanted to have a similar look to this invitation which i designed almost 6 years ago. (I used a black and white “film” to convey the idea that this is the OLD invitation, just so you know )

This new bride is getting married near a pine forest and really loved having that visual element stitched on.

For her, we brightened up the paper a little bit, freshened up the typeface with an added script element, printed letterpress on handmade cotton paper with a slight shimmer – using a cool grey ink color and stitched in a subtle green since her wedding isn’t in the fall… (though you can’t actually tell from my old fashioned photo…… hmmm….)

Every invitation was stitched with the sewing machine but guided by my hand which definitely requires complete concentration, and lots

of tunes in the background.

Since I am quite fond of pines so the hours of stitching breezed by as I concentrated on each one and their limbs.

Obviously, some are taller than other, wider than others, etc. but together they make an elegant stitched tiny pine forest.

Tiny Pine ventures into fair trade fashion

A couple of years ago, I discovered that two of my college friends from Northwestern University, Maureen Dunn and Michelle King, owned a Fair Trade Clothing Line called Mata Traders. Soon we figured out that the Tiny Pine style could have a place within Mata… I helped out with some design for the tags, catalogs and logo redux. Then Maureen asked me if I wanted to try my hand at actually designing some of the clothes.

The cooperatives in India that Mata Traders works with do a lot of applique work and hand stitching. This made me really smiley because I knew that anything I would come up with would be treated with love the way all handmade products are.

I was super proud to do some applique design sketches for Mata, and then they translated within their block printed clothes. This shirt, which they so sweetly named the “Jennifer Blouse”, was one of the pieces I worked on. The collection will be available sometime in late April… keep your eyes opened at your nearest fair trade clothing shop!