It’s getting quite exciting now with the Jacquie needlecase, we’ve got to the putting it together bit!

Three weeks ago I was just about to start making wings for my dragonfly…

The wings are made by over-stitching wire onto organza, I found a lovely piece of hand-dyed organza in my stash which went perfectly colourwise. I used a single thread of floss and buttonhole stitch to over-stitch the wire, I added some veins and then put a line of fray-check round the edge as back-up for my stitches. Once that was dry I could carefully cut them out, push the wire through the body and stitch in place.

I was so chuffed with the wings I sat in my sewing room with a big grin on my face looking at them! even made another single wing for the other dragonfly as I wasn’t happy with my first one…

Once the wings were secure I could start putting it together, the instructions for this are split into two sections, this week was all the preparation so the four felt needle pads were stitched in pairs using the back-stitched outline, these were whipped together which makes a really neat edge. The two narrow strips with ’embroidery’ and ‘cross-stitch’ on were similarly stitched together.

Next I carefully measure my dragon-fly sections and cut too rectangles of stiff interfacing which neatly fits in between the outlines.

The pins which you will have noticed on the photos were the last part of the preparation. We needed seven different coloured pins as markers for how it all stitched together. I was scraping round for enough different colours but when I happened to be in Boyes in Ilkley this week I noticed a ring of ‘berry’ glass ended pins, they were perfect! These are all carefully placed at specified points, using the stitched markers in the outline, so 2 stitches down, 32 stitches down and so on. Apparently it will all become clear when the final instructions are released next week by Faby. I think I know how it’s going to work,but can’t quite picture it yet, so I’m looking forward to being able to put it together.

If you would like to stitch this dragonfly needlecase, please follow the link to Faby Reilly’s website, she has lots of beautiful designs.

This SAL is organised by Avis from Stitching by the Sea, we each post our progress on our chosen piece every three weeks, which is perfect timing for keeping the motivation going. Please follow the links to see what everyone else has been stitching.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen