Creative Tuesdays-Ice Cream

I don't find all the themes for the Creative Tuesday challenge easy to adapt to sewing,  but I did have a few ideas for this weeks theme-ice cream.  Then a visit to the  DMC website soon made it a lot easier.  One of the links for summer embroidery was to an embroidered ice cream cone which I thought was perfect for what I wanted.

Ice cream and the seaside always seem to go together, so I to have that reflected in the fabric choices.  I used the pale blue fabric as a background for the stitching and yellow was perfect for the backing and binding, I had sea and sand.

 The little pair of flip flops were one of a set sent to me in a previous swap, and this seemed the perfect opportunity to use them.

I pieced the back using white for the centre.  This has been stiffened using iron on interfacing, and this is going to be where I shall write a message to the recipient, using a permanent pen.  It's my thank you to a friend for our holiday in a couple of weeks time.

On Tuesday and Wednesday,  if you go over to the  Creative Tuesday blog, you will see all the other entries for this weeks challenge.

Creative Tuesdays-Summer Break

I find it's always a challenge to think of something appropriate for the Creative Tuesday theme, this time Summer Break.

In among my finished stitching, I had this All our Yesterdays cross stitch.  This always reminds me of the old fashioned summer holidays at the seaside, and the excitement of sending postcards home to friends and family.

The challenge then, was to incorporate this into something useful, and what could be more appropriate than a beach bag.

I bought some canvas fabric, which I love.  It is so soft, as well as being just that bit more substantial for carry large bulky items..  The cross stitch was mounted onto calico and went to form a pocket. 

 There are pockets, front, back and sides formed by another panel of the canvas with the handles are forming the boundaries of the separate pockets.  All in all, there are seven pockets, useful for all the little extras that find their way to the beach.

As I like the feel of the fabric so much, and I have some left over, I am hoping to make a smaller bag for general use. 

Creative Tuesdays-Tree

I was so pleased when I saw that the next theme for Creative Tuesday was "tree".  At the time I was cross stitching a spring tree, perfect for the theme.

When I saw the picture, I just liked the spring feel of it, and had no idea as to how I was going to finish it, but ideas started coming.  Once the cross stitching was completed, I knew exactly what I was going to do.

My youngest son grow carnivorous plants, and has seed heads to harvest in the autumn, as well as trading in seeds from other growers.  At the moment, he has little bags,and folds of paper floating all over the place.  Having somewhere to have them safe and organised seemed like a good idea.



 The cross stitch formed the front of a seed book.  The inside is divided into compartments to hold the seed packets.  They are of different sizes as some of the packets are quite small.  I've used a popper/press stud for the closure to keep them all safe.

A Venus flytrap may have been more appropriate on the front, but as spring is the time for planting most of the seeds, a tree in spring will do.

This is the last project out of the old copy of Discovering Needlecraft that I'm doing, so it can now go in the post to it's new home in Australia.

Purple

I seemed to go on strike during the purple month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, so when the theme for this week's Creative Tuesday was announced, I knew I had to make up for it.   I don't know why, but the first thought I had was tulips.  I was going to do a single tulip, but while I was looking for a suitable picture to adapt, I came across a couple of tulip patterns that took my fancy.  I ended adapting a pattern from freepatterns.com

Unfortunately, I didn't have enough batting to finish it into a wall hanging or table topper, but hopefully, it should arrive later today.  With a bit of pink in it too, it will fit in with this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge too.

All the pieces are fused to the fabric then, using invisible thread in the top of the machine,  I stitched them using a zig zag stitch.  The petal details are done with a straight stitch. 

This was the first time I've done mitred corners on the outer border, and, though not perfect, I am happy with the result.

If you click on the Creative Tuesday link over the next couple of days, you'll be able to see how other artists have interpretated the theme.

Creative Tuesdays and Jennifer

This is another week where I've tied two projects into one.   The theme for Creative Tuesdays this time was Valentine, so Jennifer seemed to be the perfect project.

I've adapted the design from  Little Ladybug Creations and finished it in a slightly different way.  Unfortunately, I didn't have enough suitable fabric for the borders, so the quilting and finishing will have to wait for another day.

For the month of February, I need to get out all my red scraps for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and it is UFO Number 8.  Before I can start on that, I need to do some shopping,  In the meantime, I need to catch up with this week Mystery Monday.

2011 Rainbow Scrap Challenge

I thought it might be a good idea to get involved with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year to empty my ottoman.  The colour for this month is blue, so I've collected all my blue scraps and have a little pile on the floor.  Throughout the month, I will try to work my way through it.

The first project was inspired by the next Creative Tuesday challenge which was "scarf".

 I came up the idea for this fun wall hanging.

The background fabric on the front and the bindings was some pale, lightweight denim that had been gifted to me.  It was just a remnant leftover from something else, so I hadn't known what I was going to do with it.

I've used white felt under the pieces of the snow man to give it a bit of dimension, and then, for the first time, I machine appliqued the pieces.  Once the pieces were attached, I went through the button tin, and found the eyes, nose, and buttons down the front.  The scarf is white felt with silver dots and snowflakes, especially appropriate, as snow was falling when I was working on him.  I also cut a fringe into both end of the scarf.

For the backing, I used some sky fabric from my blue pile.  I quilted around the outline of the snow man, and then some gentle wavy lines for the background.

Two challenges met in one project and smiles all round.