Three Smalls and a Shortlist!

Posted on February 21, 2018 by craftycreeky

Somehow or other  I seem to have ended up with three little cross-stitch projects on the go, which is a lot, even for me!

Last month I stitched ‘January’ from the Joyful World series by Maja Matyas, I think it’s really pretty and soon after finishing it I started February, my idea was to get a bit a head so I would have the embroidery finished in time to display for the appropriate month.Joyfulworld January from Snowflake Diaries

February is particularly cute with two ducks on it, I stitched the drake but then mislaid the project bag with everything in. I was beginning to think I’d lost it as it’s often in my handbag to snatch a few stitches here and there, maybe it had fallen out…DSC_0001 (2)

Whilst I was waiting to find it I decided to start March, so I’ve stitched the stork over the last couple of weeks…

Sub RosaIn the meantime I decided to stitch a wedding anniversary card for our anniversary in March. I chose a design I’d seen on facebook by SubRosa. It’s turned out a little bigger than I anticipated so I might make it into a fabric card rather than just mounting it on a card. I made a couple of changes to the pattern, some intentional, some not! I chose four DMC colours which I think work really well together.

I started the embroidery whilst I was visiting my mum, I stitch and chat with her and clearly there was a lot of chatting and not much concentrating as the very first row which was the shaft of the key was about four stitches short!…only I didn’t realise until I had already stitched the head of the key and started the greenery! It was certainly too late to start unpicking it. It did make the key a little short, so I decided to add another twirl on the top of the key head, make it more round. I think it works pretty well!

I think these designs are reproduction ones as the initials were W and R with the date 1776 and there wasn’t any alternative lettering with the pattern. I wanted it to have our initials on and really I was very lucky. It was fairly easy to turn an R into a K for Ken, and what’s an M but an upside down W! I’ve just got some floral corners to stitch and it will be ready to make up.DSC_0002 (2)

Last night the February duck waddled out from behind the piano! I was very relieved to find it.

Now for some exciting news!

About a month ago an e-mail came through from Sew and Sew which mentioned the National Needlecraft Awards. There are several categories including ‘Needlecrafter of the Year’, all you had to do was send in a photograph of an embroidery you’re particularly proud of and write a bit about it. On the spur of the moment I filled it in and sent a photo of my flower lattice.Silk Ribbon and Stumpwork Embroidery

Well I found out today I’ve been short-listed, I’ve to post it down to them for the final judging and I think it will be on display at the Knitting and Stitching show in London next weekend – exciting stuff!! Such a shame I can’t go as I’ll be on my way to Australia!

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Hand Quilt-a-Long

Posted on February 18, 2018 by craftycreeky

It’s three weeks since I last showed you my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt, at that point I was feeling a bit bogged down in vines, this is where I was…

Three weeks later I still haven’t finished them but I’m on the last stretch. It’s a bit difficult to photograph my progress as there’s four vines to stitch pretty much all the same!

I had a couple of good days stitching away at Embroiderers Guild and then visiting my mum one morning followed by WI Crafty Club in the afternoon. I usually take something to stitch when I visit my mum, for a start I’m usually there for a couple of hours, but also she likes to see what I’m doing and it’s encouraging her to craft again, she’s just started a cross-stitch kit having not done one for years.

I finished one full border length,which meant I could stitch it on to the main quilt and then applique the last sprig of vine which I’m having trailing round to the running rabbits. I’m meant to have several flowers on stems around the running ones, but my rabbits weren’t jumping high enough, so I decided to trail the vine around the corner instead. I’m pleased with the effect, though looking at the photo now I might just add another sprig over the grey square…might…I’ll see how I feel when I’ve finished all the corner vines!Down the Rabbit Hole

I’ve managed to stitch one side of the final vine border and I’ve started the last bit. I did have a bit of a push when I realised the closing date for the on-line competition was looming, could I finish it in time? In the end I decided that the wedding quilt was more important and I really didn’t want to rush the last bit and potentially spoil it. I can still enter next year.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Nearly there!!

I do recommend having a look at the competition, it’s amazing to see all the different colour combinations, some are beautifully muted, others loud and colourful. You can also see the pattern variations that were available to those of us who did the BOM, there’s cats and flowers with birds as well as bunnies.

My favourites to look out for; the 50 shades of grey one is beautiful, though I don’t think the final photo does it justice, there’s an amazing colour spectrum one where the colours go round the quilt through all the borders, there’s also a gorgeous one in purples, blues and greens, really fresh and pretty, the ones with dark backgrounds are stunning too… unfortunately you’re only allowed to vote for one…

Kathy from Livinginrapidcity  organises this hand-quilt-a-long party, there’s quite a few of us posting every three weeks, so follow the links and see what everyone has been stitching. It is a good opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Lori, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Connie, Deborah,  Susan, Jessisca, Sherry, Nanette, Sassy, Edith, Sharon and Bella.

I’ll be linking up with Kathy’s Quilts later too  for her hand-stitching linky party, so follow the link to see even more hand-stitching.

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Friday Photo Challenge

Posted on February 16, 2018 by craftycreeky

The Friday Photo Challenge is organised by Postcard from Gibraltar, this week’s seasonal theme is ‘heart’. 

Two days earlier and I could have chosen my heart embroidery…

I tried to find a photo on facebook of me at work in the Cardiac Catheter Lab when I was actually on TV…OK so I had a hat and mask on so even my OH couldn’t recognise me!

Instead I’ve chosen a cross-stitch I did last year for a card for my OH on our wedding anniversary, it’s a design by Faby Reilly with a heart of entwined roses and a little gold heart in the middle.Sweet Roses cross-stich by Faby Reilly

I knew if I looked long enough I’d find a suitable garden picture! These are cyclamen and they have pretty heart shaped leaves, hopefully I’ll have some coming into flower soon.

Cyclamen

Finally, this is an embroidery I made for Helen a couple of years ago, an elephant spraying a shower of hearts from its trunk.

Elephant embroidery

Have a look over at Postcard from Gibraltar for lots of links to other hearts 🙂

 

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Feel the Sunshine and Do a Happy Dance!

Posted on February 15, 2018 by craftycreeky

Yes it’s happy dance time again, I have just finished my Kaffe Fassett quilt, just nice time for the wedding in March. It’s taken me about three weeks in total to make it, so it’s a pretty quick pattern to make.

This quilt will be flying to Australia shortly, it’s a wedding present for my brother-in-law and his lovely fiancee, a Yorkshire girl so she’s obviously great 🙂 I asked them what colours they would like and they chose the colour scheme of red and orange, they wanted a bright and cheerful quilt – they’ve certainly got that!

I was quite excited by the colour scheme as it is something I’d never make for our home, but I do admire the colourful quilts on facebook. I immediately decided to use Kaffe Fassett prints and ordered a selection of his fabrics especially the big bold bloom patterns in reds and oranges. I chose the Radiant pattern by Cosy Quilts, again I’d seen it on facebook and loved the effect.

It went together fairly easily as it is just two different blocks stitched diagonally together.  I quilted it very simply echoing the diamond pattern with a bit of stitch in the ditch as extra. I used a Gutermann variegated thread both top and underneath. It’s probably the biggest quilt I’ve tackled on my machine, it’s 84″ square, this is why I kept the quilting pretty simple with straight lines!! I don’t think I’d be able to manage anything bigger, I think I’ve found my limit, anything bigger and I’ll be visiting a friend near Oxford who has a long arm quilter!Radiant Quilt in Kaffe Fassett Fabrics

I made a flanged binding which is much easier than it possibly looks. I just cut a 1″ stripe of cream, folded it in half and stitched it along the edge with just a bit less than a 1/4″ seam. When I then stitched the binding I’d made from the yellow scraps and folded it over, a quarter inch strip of cream showed underneath it. I’m not sure if this is the official way to do it, I just made it up as I went a long! I think it works really well at separating the flowery border from the scrappy binding.Flanged quilt binding

All that was left was to embroider a label and name the quilt. Traditionally all quilts have a name and I now embroider the name on the actual quilt. My favorite quote to write in wedding cards is

“To love and be loved is to feel the sunshine on both sides”

So I’ve called it ‘Feel the Sunshine’ and included the quote on the label. I tend to embroider straight on the quilt back, if possible using the lines of the quilting. It worked pretty well here as there was a triangle which fitted everything in nicely. I wrote it in a silver gel pen and then went over it with back-stitch. I managed to find in my stash a variegated thread which matched perfectly.Quilt labels

It’s so big I struggled to take a decent photo, in the end I hung it on our washing line and tried to snap a photo inbetween the gusts of wind! Unfortunately it’s in the shade so it doesn’t show off the colours quite so much as the other pictures but at least you get the whole effect!  I love this quilt, it’s so striking, it still makes me think ‘Wow!’ when I see it, I think I might make another radiant quilt sometime…Radiant Quilt in Kaffe Fassett Fabrics

 

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Domesticity in Stitches

Posted on February 14, 2018 by craftycreeky

It’s our Embroiderers Guild meeting on Monday and as I’m away for the weekend in London I thought yesterday I’d better crack on with my Travelling Sketchbook entry. It’s the final swap of these travels, I get my own book on mountains back on Monday – exciting to see it again with lots of new embroideries inside!

The theme of this months book is ‘Domesticity’, I did struggle to think what to embroider, previous entries have been on keys, a house, lavender (I like that one) a chatelaine…

I tried my usual source of ideas, Pinterest and one name kept coming up, Jenny of Elefantz. Jenny is an Australian designer, her designs tend to be what I would call pretty vintage style, a little bit twee at times but very pretty. She is actually one of the first blogs I followed when I started this one. I remembered that I had subscribed to her pattern releases for a year so I had a look through my files and found one I thought I could adapt.

I decided to look at the theme of domesticity in terms of what I see as ‘domestic bliss’ and this image does seem to encapsulate it for me. It has a little house, surrounded by a garden full of flowers with plenty of room for sewing and creating, all surrounded with love…very apt for Valentines Day too!

I chose a piece of quilting cotton which has a very delicate grey floral pattern on it. It’s very pretty but I found the one disadvantage was that the grey pattern looked just like the pencil lines of my tracing. Of course this did have the advantage that where I changed the design slightly the pencil lines don’t show up!!

I embroidered it with DMC 4030, I wanted a variegated thread that didn’t have very light areas, but also wasn’t too dark. I can also argue that peaceful greens and blues are the colours I have painted my own home!!

Jenny’s patterns tend to be mainly in back-stitch or stem stitch, I wanted to vary it a bit. I used chain-stitch round the heart as I find it quite forgiving when you’re trying to stitch a nice curve. I turned the barn into a cottage, it was meant to have little buttons either side but mine weren’t quite small enough, I later added three flower shaped blue sequins underneath and a few beads instead.Embroidered heart adapted from pattern by Jenny of Elefanz

The flowers were meant to be tulips, but I changed them into daisies instead and used feather stitch for the leaves. OK this isn’t botanically correct but it looks pretty!!

I changed the scallops at the apex to buttonhole stitch and used a double whipped running stitch for the twisted cord of the scissor fob.

To finish the embroidery I backed it with interfacing and blanket-stitched round the edge. All I had to do then was stick it in the book and write a little bit about it.

I’m fairly pleased with this one, I don’t feel it’s as much ‘me’ or my usual style, probably because I adapted a pattern, rather than starting from scratch with an idea, but I found it a difficult subject to choose an image for. I have managed to incorporate most of the stitches in the new round of TAST too!

We’re starting a new round of Travelling Sketchbooks in March so I think I’ll have to choose a new theme for my next book.

 

Posted in embroidery, Serendipity, TAST, The Travelling Sketchbook | Tagged , , , | 26 Comments

Tall Year Square Etui SAL 2

Posted on February 11, 2018 by craftycreeky

It’s three weeks since I last showed my Tall Year Square Etui, it’s a pattern by Betsy Morgan from issue 93 of Classic Inspirations. This is where I was three weeks ago…Tall Year Square Classic InspirationsI must admit over recent weeks I’ve been concentrating on my Sunshine quilt (as there is a dead line for that one, called a wedding!!) and also my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt as I’m on the final stretch now and I just want to get it finished.

OK, excuses over, I’ve stitched some very tiny, cute bunnies! These are stitched in cross-stitch over a SINGLE thread of linen, they are rather small stitches to say the least! I think if I was starting this again I would have used 28 count linen instead of 32, it would be a little easier on the eyes! I’m not finding the charts easy to follow yet, I’m sure it’s just getting my eye in but they are drawn with each line being a single thread of linen, rather than one square as two rows (or one standard cross-stitch. The bunny on the right is slightly plumper than he should be, but that’s just imitating nature!! To give you an idea of scale the embroidered area is just over 2.5″ across!

Tall Year Square Etui

The flower in the middle is in satin stitch, I think it looks a bit like a forget-me-not flower. The leaves were meant to be satin stitch with a backstich vein,but I decided to use fly stitch instead, I’m pleased with the effect.

Last night I started the next section, this has a back-stitched flower border on either side of a floral motif, when I came to take the photo I realised I’d started one thread too high on the right and it’s very obvious, so it looks like I’ve a bit of unpicking to do!Tall Year Square EtuiAll these threads bar one are DMC variegated flosses, I’ve got quite a collection now. The pattern uses Gloriana silk thread which I’m sure is beautiful to use but it way out of my budget. I was a bit concerned that using just variegated threads could be a bit too much but so far each time I’ve thought I’d use a plain colour it hasn’t looked right and I’ve reverted to variegated. I am trying to keep to a limited palette though, spring time colours of green, blue and yellow with a touch of pink/purple.

This Stitch-a-long is organised by Avis, we all choose are own projects and post about our progress every three weeks. If you would like to join us please contact Avis at the link below. There’s lots of amazing needlework so please follow the links to see what everyone else is stitching.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Kate, Jess, Sue, Constanze, Debbierose, Christina,

Kathy, Cindy, Helen, Steph, Linda, Mary Margaret,

Heidi, Connie, Jackie, Sunny

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Dancing in the Sunshine

Posted on February 10, 2018 by craftycreeky

It’s nearly time for a happy dance with my sunshine quilt, nearly, but not quite…

This is a quilt I’m making as a wedding present, the wedding is in March in Sydney, so I’ve got a deadline to work against, always an incentive! The couple asked for a bright, cheerful quilt in reds and oranges and that is certainly what they are getting with a colourful selection of Kaffe Fassett fabrics! The pattern is called Radiant by Cosy Quilts, the instructions have been great, it’s gone together relatively easily.Kaffe Fassett Radiant quilt

Having stitched the borders on I sandwiched it on the lounge floor. The backing is an ivory with a self coloured spot. I was hoping to get a patterned backing but I couldn’t see anything suitable, instead I stitched a stripe of the backing fabric down the centre, this had the added advantage of giving me those extra few inches around the quilt.Quilting

This is the biggest quilt I’ve tackled on my sewing machine, I kept the quilting fairly simple, following the diagonal pattern first. I stitched either side of the line with a variegated Guterman quilting thread. I had a couple of issues with it at first as the thread kept breaking, despite a new needle. I changed to a bigger needle and it was sewing happily again. The centre square was the hardest as I had to manoevre large amounts of quilt through the throat of my machine. It did get easier as I moved outwards. Having stitched round the diagonals I felt it needed a little more, so I stitched in the ditch following the shape of the pattern.DSC_0005

This afternoon I could finally start on the binding. My initial plan was to do a scrappy border, I had just enough left and it would use them up! I did take on board the comments last time that it might be a bit much next to the flowery border….I decided to do a flanged binding. I’ve not done one of these before but I remembered seeing it on facebook. I stitched a folded 1″ strip of cream along the border, stitching just in from the 1/4″ line. Typically is wasn’t quite long enough, by about 4″, so I had to add another bit in!DSC_0001

I made a length of binding from the scraps, I realised I had enough yellows to do the whole binding and I think that makes it alot more ‘settled’ than a full on scrappy border.DSC_0002

I’ve stitched the binding on the front, now I just need to settle down and hand-stitch it to the back.DSC_0003

I think I’ve decided on a name for the quilt too. My favourite quote to write inside wedding cards is…

To love and be loved is to feel the sunshine on both sides

So I’m going to embroider the quote on the label and call it Feel the Sunshine, I think it’s quite apt for a quilt.

I’m linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, why not follow the link and see what everyone else has been stitching.DSC_0008

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Friday Photo Challenge

Posted on February 9, 2018 by craftycreeky

This week the photo theme set by Postcard from Gibraltar is Wall Art.

I have rather a lot of pictures on my walls, both embroideries I’ve stitched over the years, photographs or pictures I’ve bought or been given. As I was rapidly running out of wall space I started doing what I now realise is called gallery walls. I try to be very precise when I’m working out where the hook will go as I like everything to be lined up with something else somewhere! These are our family photos…Gallery Walls

Last year we redecorated the whole house, so it gave me chance to reorganise our pictures. This is our hall where I’ve put a lot of my embroideries;

Gallery Walls

Going up the stairs I used to have a big display of the children’s paintings, going back to primary school. Now they are in their twenties they really didn’t want a preschool painting on display! So, I could have a change of pictures…it was a bit tricky doing this wall as it’s over the stairs and quite a big drop. I managed to hit a few hooks in on the left by propping the steps closed against the wall, but the ones in the middle needed another solution. Don’t tell my OH but I found if I propped the steps against the wall and then stood a stool with one pair of legs on the stairs and another on the steps, I could just about reach if I stood on tiptoe!!!Gallery Walls

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Sunshine Quilt

Posted on February 7, 2018 by craftycreeky

I’ve temporarily called my Kaffe Fassett quilt my Sunshine quilt, just because it’s so bright with it’s hot colours. The name might stick, or I might change it, as it’s a wedding present I quite fancy a name that denotes that too.

Last time I showed it to you I was having dilemmas over the block placements, after some very helpful comments, especially from Claire and Kate, I rearranged them to a point where I was happy. I did get to a point where I just had to stop fiddling and look at it as a whole, as every time you try and swop one pair of blocks it throws up all sorts of other problems!!Kaffe Fassett Quilt Radiant quilt pattern

I stitched all the blocks together, I am pretty pleased with my points, there’s a few missing but not too many! I then had to decide on borders, my original plan was to do a piano key border using up all the left over fabric. When I looked at what I had left I really didn’t think I had anywhere near enough. I decided to bite the bullet and order another 2m fabric for the border. I chose one of the fabrics which I felt reflected the red and orange colour scheme the most.

The postman came with a squishy parcel on Monday lunchtime, so I immediately started cutting the borders. I cut the deep border a fraction narrower than the instructions as I wanted to be able to get a side out of two widths…yes it’s a pretty big quilt, about 85″ square (Well that’s big for me!)Kaffe Fassett Radiant quilt

Tuesday I sandwiched it in the morning and started quilting in the afternoon. I sandwiched it on the lounge floor with a sheet down to protect both the carpet (from the glue) and the quilt (from the doghair!!) I had a brainwave before I started that if I moved the settee into the bay window I would have a squarer area, it worked, I had plenty of room to work around it.

I love seeing the quilts all smoothed out on the batting. I do like this pattern, (Radiant by Cosy Quilts)  it still gives me that Wow! feeling when I look at it! It’s such a simple block but so effective. It did look huge though when it was all laid out on the floor! The only way to photograph it was to stand on the coffee table with the camera up against the ceiling!Kaffe Fassett Radiant quilt

I tried a slightly different way of sandwiching this time, usually I smooth the backing out, spray baste the batting on top of it, get that nice and smooth before spray basting the top onto the batting. This time I basted the top to the batting first, cut round it generously and then turned it over and basted the backing on, I think it worked better, it also meant the colourful stripe I’ve got down the middle of the back could be centralised.

I started quilting yesterday afternoon, I’m using a Gutermann variegated quilting thread which I think picks up all the colours nicely without being too strident on the cream. I decided to be brave this time and use the same colour on my bobbin thread, in the past I would have used cream underneath, but invariably little dots of red show through anyway, so I may as well just use the same colour and hopefully make it neat!

I’m stitching either side of the red diamonds at the moment. I was a bit worried when I saw how big it was as to whether it would fit through my little sewing machine. It was with trepidation that I started in the middle, I knew that would be the worst bit as two thirds of the quilt has to go through in places. I needn’t have worried, it was a bit of a squash in places but just about manageable.Quilting

I had to stop at tea time as having had three vaccinations for our holiday early afternoon, my arms were getting decidedly uncomfortable! I feel I’m winning with this quilt now, it’s just a matter of deciding how much quilting I need or want to do and then bind it. At the moment I’m tempted to do a scrappy binding, I’ve never done one but I saw one on a quilt at Tea & Tents and it looked really good…it would also use those scraps up !

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Warm

Posted on February 6, 2018 by craftycreeky

Wild Daffodil is hosting a monthly photo challenge on a one word theme. We post on the first Tuesday of each month. This month’s word is warm , certainly not what I’m feeling at the moment with the temperature outside hovering around freezing!

Zac is 14 years old now, he loves a good fire, his favourite spot is actually sitting on the hearth with his feet almost under the stove, one hot dog!

Zac

This is how Rosie deals with warm days, we call her a floosie 🙂

I like warm colours in the garden too, when I was younger I didn’t ‘do’ orange in the garden, I don’t know if it’s an age thing but I love a good fiery orange now! This is the garden last summer, it’s the Amber & Amethyst area I’ve been revamping over winter, I’ve kept all my amber coloured flowers!

I made my first Coatigan last January from a length of wool I won at a bloggers meetup in Leeds, it’s kept me warm all winter.Coatigan

This was the first quilt I made for Helen, she wanted a black and white quilt. She’s always snuggling down with it on the settee to watch TV! It’s a pattern from Layer Cakes and Jelly Rolls by Pam Lintott.

Hopefully our weather will get a bit warmer soon, not long to our holidays now when it will definitely be warm 🙂

Posted in Serendipity | 7 Comments