Ledger-Page one continued

Page one now contains  some stitching.

There's a mounted colour swatch of french knots.  Lift the flap and you can see the paint test dots.

There's also a header mounted piece of embroidery.  Here I'm exploring the effect that plain, and more heavily stitched areas have on colour.

This is the page as it stands at the moment, it's still not finished, but I like how it's going so far.

Time for the Dust to Settle

It's been a really hectic weekend.  I hired a car, and I haven't been seen for dust since Friday morning.  Both boys have been driven round Sheffield, picking up tools and stuff for the garden that can't be brought home on the bus, and Daniel has had a trip to Shropshire.  The car went back this morning, so hopefully, it will be a return to an almost normal routine this week.

Not being home has meant that anything crafty has had to take a back seat.  Apart from reading my book whilst waiting for Daniel, I did get a hexagon flower made, which was a bonus.

Now I'm back home I can hopefully finish these projects ready and waiting in their folders,

and maybe a few rows on the next knitting project.

Whatever gets done, I shall enjoy it.

Flower Pots

This is the last of February's stitchery blocks for the Lynette Anderson BOM.  Now to catch up on cutting fabric and making up blocks.

Tree

Here's the next stitchery for the Lynette Anderson BOM.  That's January's stitching complete.

I had to laugh, Daniel was looking at the packet this came in, and started talking to me about BOM's.  How wonderful is that, a 13 year old boy who knows that BOM stands for Block Of the Month.  His only complaint was that it should have been 12months not six!

The Garden Bench

I decided to treat myself at the beginning of the year and bought myself a Lynette Anderson, BOM.  It involves two things I enjoy, stitching and quilting.

The first part came at the end of January, followed very quickly with the second part the first week of February.  Each month has two little stitcheries, so guess what?  I'm catching up with something else.  I want to get the stitching done first, then I can start cutting fabric to make up the blocks.

This is the first one, The Garden Bench, and once I started, it was quite enjoyable to do.  All the stitches are ones I know and enjoy, so no stress involved at all. 

There are two more weeks to this month, so hopefully, there will be plenty of time to do the other three.  The next one has less stitching to do, so should be quick to do.

Pansy Cottage

I enjoyed doing the pansies so much, I did the other design that went with it.  This time, a cottage worked in long and short stitch, satin stitch, long stitch, and stem stitch.  Instead of making a card, I am thinking of incorporating them into a wall hanging.  I shall have to get my thinking cap on and see what I can work out.

A Little Bit of Spring

If spring isn't outside, with stitching, you can always have it inside.

Looking through one of my old magazines the other day, I saw the pattern for this little pansy embroidery.  This will probably go to make a card, but I am waiting to make up my mind until I have another picture stitched.  This time, it's a country cottage, with pansies.

End of Embroider, Embellish, Create

I can honestly say, illness aside, the last seven weeks have been the most enjoyable for some time.  I have learned so much and achieved something I didn't think possible, all thanks to a good teacher.

This is the cloth as a whole.  The backing arrived while I was in bed Thursday, but I finally was able to spend the time to put it together, with the final embellishments yesterday.  I certainly hadn't intended it to be this big when I started.

I put a row of puffs along the bottom edge

You need to rotate this clockwise in you mind, blogger won't play properly this morning.  This is along the bottom edge, with more puffs going up the side and a small cluster of knots on the right

There's another puff alongside the muslin "bump"

This is the right edge, a row of prairie points.  They only go along this section, not top to bottom

On the right side, just three points, and three more puffs along the top section

 And now some of my favourite bits

The heavily embellished hanky

The cut work section

Again this should be rotated clockwise.  I love the applique and the little "pies"

More pockets with my special things

 Hidden delights

And the embellished "bump" with lots of loose muslin which I hope will get more raggedy with age.

This has been an exciting journey, and although I shall be pleased to catch up on some other things, I will definitely do some more of this.  A very big thank you to Karen for the opportunity, and I'd recommend any of her classes.  In fact, I'm doing her next one, Buttons and More, and now this is finished and everyone has stopped being sick, I've got work to catch up on.

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.

Josie's Garden

This is probably only the second project from Mollie Makes that I really enjoyed doing, this is much more my type of thing.

I used DMC pearl cotton size 8 for the stitching and used a variety of stitches-running stitch for the border, back stitch outlines, long and short stitch, straight stitch, satin stitch, couching for some of the stems, french knots, whipped running stitch, and spider stitch.

Not exactly sure what I will be doing with this, but at the moment, I'm thinking of a wall hanging.

Raspberry Rabbits-July Heart

Another month, and another heart from Rasberry Rabbits.  That's seven hearts all done now, with five more to go.  Before long, I'll have to start thinking of fabric to go with them.

Whitework and Cutouts

Over the years, I've seen many embroidered pieces with fabric cut out.  Although, I found it beautiful, I was always too frightened to try it, I didn't have the confidence that the whole piece wouldn't just fall apart.

Last year, I had a go at hardanger, so when I saw this project using embroidery incorporating cut outs, I thought it was time to give it a go.

I was well in my comfort zone for the satin stitch bodies, leaves and antennae, but soon it was onto cutting the fabric.

 First up, were the little holes.  These were my favourites.  First a line of running stitches go around where the hole is to be, cut a hole, and then use over cast stitch to finish the edging.

The larger holes on the butterfly wing were worked using the same principle, but used blanket stitch edging rather than over cast stitch. The fabric in this case is cut away after the blanket stitch is worked. I need a little more practise on the corners but it's worked.

The scalloped edge is done in blanket stitch, then the fabric is cut close to the stitching.

As a first attempt, I am really happy with how this has turned out so I shall look forward to getting this finished into something useful

Exquisite Post

Don't you just love getting beautiful things in the post?  Just imagine how delighted I was to open the envelope to find this little beauty.

It came from Karen, and it was a piece of embroidery I'd won on her blog.  She always does such beautiful embroidery, and it is an honour and pleasure to own one of her pieces.  She has lots more beautiful pieces available in her shop and I quite often go and have a look and dream of what I'd buy when the boys stop growing out of their clothes.  Go and have a look for yourselves, I am sure Karen would enjoy your visit.

Needle Case Swap

We've been having a needle case swap on the Yahoo group, Small Quilt Talk.  I had to wait patiently for my needle case to arrive at it's new home before I could post pictures.  Now I know it has arrived safely, here is what I made.



 Bonnie's favourite colour was red, so I hoped that the fabric I found in my stash would be suitable.  I found the button in my tin to go with it, and some fabric for the binding.

The pattern came from Kaaren, but instead of using black, I used red.

I forgot to take a photo after the accessories had been put inside, but there were a pair of scissor, tied with a bow in the scissor keep, pins and needles, some vintage poppers/press studs and hooks and eyes.  There was also a fat quarter in one of the pockets.

This has been a lovely swap and I was so glad Bonnie was happy with hers

April Heart

The April Heart from Raspberry Rabbits was released on the 12th, and although I printed it off, I forgot all about it for a few days.

Once I sat down to do it, it didn't take long at all.  Now I have a few weeks to wait for the next one.

Silk Flower Cushion

The feather cushion pad I ordered came about a week or so ago, but with being so busy, and not feeling one hundred percent, it spent more time sat on the side than was intended.

Finally, I felt more motivated to get this cushion finished. 

The cushion pad is 16" so I measured 161/2 inches and marked my line for sewing,  I did a double seam, as silk does like to fray.  The double seam gave enough strength to the seams to give no trouble when turning the right way and sewing the final seam shut.

Finally, something is completely finished here, hopefully, we shall have another finish here this week, days out permitting!

Friday Night Sew In

Let me introduce you to Flyboy Jacob, the latest design released by Little Ladybug Creations.

My Friday evening of sewing saw me finishing the stitching on this design.  As you can see, he needs a wash to get rid of the transfer lines and the wrinkles from stitching.  He will then become a wall hanging, though it may take a little while to be completed.  I need to find some fabric suitable for a little boy.

Embroidery on Silk

There is something very satisfying about stitching on silk.  I just love the "pop" of the fabric, when I saw the pattern in Part Four of Discovering Needlecraft, I knew I wanted to do it.

All the flowers are stitched in satin stitch using Madeira stranded cottons.  I really enjoyed stitching this, and found it really relaxing.



This will eventually become the front of a cushion cover, I just need to get the cushion pad so I can finish it.

Roses Sampler

As I was doing the centre of this sampler, I thought I'd be finished in a week, the alphabets went so quickly.   However, the border took a lot longer, though, with no back stitch detail, the progress was easy to see.

This is a design taken from Part Four of Discovering Needlecraft, stitched using two strands of Madeira thread,.  I did enjoy stitching this, but I am now enjoying some embroidery on silk.  Lots of satin stitch to fill my evenings over the next couple of weeks.

Raggedy & Friends QAL and Mystery Monday

The last of the stitching on the Raggedy blocks is now complete.  I now need to get some black for the sashing.  I seem to have used the fabric I bought for something else.

 Also done are the blocks for this weeks Mystery Monday installment.  That's eight more blocks made.