Having finished my Owl and Hare Hollow quilt I decided my next project should be a UFO which I think has been sitting quietly in the corner since February 2020!! It’s hopefully a fairly quick finish as it’s just a table runner. The little embroideries were from a free SAL by Hugs and Kisses, thinking about it February 2020 is when my mum died, so that’s probably why it got tidied away and forgotten about. Last week I was having a bit of a tidy in my sewing room and decided to investigate a bag in the corner, I found this project and an unfinished quilt for the care-leavers charity.
I’d started quilting it with perle thread but I couldn’t find the same colour so I’m using two threads of DMC which seems to be looking very similar. It’s very simple quilting with just straight lines across and then along the runner.
As the runner had been rolled up for around five years it was no longer sandwiched neatly. I separated the layers as far as I could, resprayed with 505 and smoothed it was best I could. It’s not perfect but it’s better than it was. It’s a polyester wadding so I don’t even feel I can lightly press it.
I quilted two rows last night, it’s not going to win any prizes as the lines are not very straight, but at least it will be finished.
Hand Quilt Along Links
This Hand Quilt Along is an 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.
After all the work we had done at the beginning of the year, our garden is finally starting to take shape again. The weeds have got the upper hand again but hopefully I’ll have more time soon to keep on top of things as in two weeks time I retire!! After 41 years nursing, it’ll certainly be a big change but having made the decision I can’t wait!! I see lots of sewing, gardening, walking…
…anyway, back to the garden. It’s been a very dry summer here in Yorkshire, we were the first area to have a hosepipe ban, so all those new plants I’ve bought are having to be watered by watering can. I’m actually amazed I haven’t lost many, and most of those have been ones I dug up in the winter and had to leave out for months whilst I prepared the garden.
The plant who seems to be wilting the most is actually one of the standard roses but having had to dig down to be able to hammer in a stout steel stake to support it, I can see why. Even 8″ down it’s as dry as a bone and being clay it’s like concrete. I’m currently trying to give it a watering can full each evening until it starts to look a little happier. It certainly looks happier with the new stake, it’s now standing tall and proud!
I had a long overdue clear-out in the pond over the weekend. I used a fishing net to pull out lots of duckweed, debris and pond weed. Sadly I didn’t see any newts this time, I’m not sure if it’s a time of year thing or if the pond had become too stagnant with rotting leaves. I left the stuff I pulled out next to the pond for a day to let any wildlife crawl back in but I didn’t see anything. I’ve ordered a few pond plants so hopefully they will help it become more enticing to wildlife again. The plants around the pond have gone a little mad, the original hostas are HUGE and I think once the autumn is here I might have a little move round.
I know the pond weed still looks bad, but it’s MUCH better than it was!
August tend to be a bit of a green month in England, many of the classic English garden flowers like roses, paeonies, geraniums, have either finished flowering or be past their best, I’ve dead-headed the roses hoping for a final flush at the end of the month as I’m having a retirement / birthday garden party. One plant that is looking glorious is the creamy white hydrangea, it’s the hydrangea paniculata vanilla frieze variety, I think it’s gorgeous and the blooms will hopefully last for weeks now. I’ve just bought another one from Otley market which is slightly pinkier.
So it’s starting to fill out and look like a garden again. Hopefully next year I’ll be a bit more on top of it. Here’s the view from the upstairs window.
Well I’ve made a slight boob with my butterfly alphabet, three weeks ago I was just four letters off a finish…
As several of you predicted I cracked on and by the following weekend it was finished, happy times! I popped it in the washing machine on a gentle wash seen as it had been around when all the building work was going on. I pressed it carefully and then I was so pleased with the finish that last weekend I took it down to Otley market where there is a picture framing stall. Usually he has pictures back the following week but he was on holiday yesterday, so I won’t get it back til next weekend…
…my mistake was that I didn’t take any photos beforehand so I can’t share my finished embroidery just yet!! In the meantime…
I have started a new project called Postcards from the Hedgerow, it’s by Rebecca of Featherstitch House. I fell for it at the spring quilt show. Rebecca releases a design every single week of a postcard sized embroidery with a hedgerow / nature theme. There’s a pattern to download, a detailed video on how to make and embroider it and you can also get another video of poetry and nature. There are three levels of membership, I went for the middle one which gives me the pattern template and the instructions video. You get all this, a new design every week, for a grand total of £6 a month! An absolute bargain!
As it started in January, I’ve got a lot to catch up on if I do them all, but I’m concentrating on the ones I like best first. I started with the week 2 design, the one that caught my eye at the show, it’s a little wren.
First of all I had to make a scrappy background, like Rebecca I used icy blue fabrics as it was a January design. I rather liked the idea of including the two birds on the print. This is my postcard once it was pressed down and stitched with tiny stitches. It was laid on some iron-on interfacing so it is firmly attached.
Having traced round the area that would be covered with the wren the next task was to embroider the background. Rebecca kept hers fairly abstract with running stitch and cross-stitch. I decided to try and incorporate more nature themed stitching. I started off with an allium seed head, I did a few smaller ones for background plants. I stitched grasses and used feather stitch for a shrub like plant on the right hand side. Above the birds I just did little star shapes. I’m pretty pleased with how the background came out.
The wren is cut out from a whole piece, then the tail, wing and breast are overlaid. I actually chose the wing fabric first, then the body, tail and breast. I did wonder part way through embroidering if there was enough contrast between the wing and the body as it tones in a lot more now it’s stitched, but then I thought, well in reality it’s a little brown bird!
I embroidered the breast first, taking the straight stitches into the brown area to merge the edges. I think Rebecca mainly used straight stitch but I decided to go a little off piste with fly stitch on the tail which was later whipped with a darker thread to accentuate the long tail feathers, The wing has chain stitch, herringbone and split stitch. I then decided to start adding sequins and beads, I have some that are more matt than shiny and I quite like them for adding a bit of variety. I added some tiny darker beads along the wing and then up the tail feathers too.
The eye is stitched with satin stitch and a tiny white stitch to add a bit of life. I felt the breast area needed a little more so I added some tiny gold beads. With hindsight I should have used tiny fly stitch on this bit with a bead on the ‘v’.
I’ve still to embroider the ground/branch, I’ll probably do a mixture of running stitch, French knots and a few long fly stitches.
I like my little wren and I’m already thinking about which one to do next. I was planning to put them into a book, but Rebecca puts a backing on with the date and title and is keeping them in a box. I think it would be rather nice to make a fabric box to put them in, it can always sit with my row of fabric books.
This SAL is organised by Avis, please follow the links and see what everyone else has been stitching.
I’ve managed a fair bit of stitching away from home, all these little stitching sessions add up; I usually get to work half an hour early, three times a week that’s 1.5 hours, 20 to 30 minutes whiles I have my morning coffee at home, that probably adds up to an hour a week, 40 minutes in the physio waiting room…it all adds up to pretty quick progress on a simple cross-stitch.
Last week I had almost finished a sheep design from Sew Together series by Jeanette Douglas..
It didn’t take me long to do the last corner. These designs are meant to have a border round but I’m missing it off so they match some other designs size-wise as the plan is to put them all in a cross-stitch book.
There was just the three flowers to stitch at the top and the satin stitch grass under the sheep. I think it’s pretty cute!
I cracked straight on to the next in the series – I’ve got four of these designs, I bought them a while ago on a destash site. This one is numbers and letters and it’s almost finished too, I’ve just got the words to add…
These little cross-stitches in my bag have become almost like a comfort blanket, I don’t like leaving the house without one! It doesn’t help that I once spent 5 hours stuck on a broken down commuter train, luckily I had a seat and some stitching!
I always have a little stitching project in my bag, ready for opportune moments, I find for me that small cross-stitch projects work best. I’ve stitched this one in the coffee room at work, in a cafe in Skipton and at home whilst having my morning coffee. It’s an easy design to just pick up and do a few stitches.
Having finished the Christmas rose humbug I decided to do another little pattern I’ve had for a while. It’s from a series called Sew Together by Jeanette Douglas, I’ve got two of the set on a facebook destash site, I think there’s eight altogether but I’m hoping to put them with some sheep cross-stitches in a book.
I’ve changed a few colours as the designer used three or four different makes of thread, I only had the DMC threads listed so I looked at the picture and substituted the others for DMC. It’s quite a simple design so I’ve made fairly quick progress…
I’ve got three motifs to stitch in the top right corner, there’s meant to be a border round too but it’s turned out a little bigger than I anticipated, probably because I’m trying to use some of my linen stash up and it’s 28 thread count, rather than the 32 or 36 I’m used to. It’s meant to have a border round too but I’ll miss that off so it doesn’t get any bigger. The linen is a pretty grey/green.
It’s happy dance time, I have finally finished my Owl and Hare Hollow quilt! It’s taken a while, it was back in April 2023 that I started the BOM from the Homespun magasine and it’s taken 12 months to hand quilt it.
Three weeks ago when I last posted about my quilt I had just finished the quilting so all that was left was the binding.
I was thinking of using a darker William Morris print, but when I looked I didn’t have enough left (it takes a surprising amount to bind a quilt) as I’d used most of it as a strip up the back and actually it looked too busy anyway. I started looking through my stash. I found there’s an advantage in often using a similar colour palette, a fabric that I used for my Coming Home quilt matched perfectly. It has lots of seams in it as I had one piece about 24″ long and another which was much longer but was obviously a trimming from making the quilt as that already had seams in it.
I machine stitched it to the front and then hand-stitched it to the back. Normally my last job would be to make a label, but I embroidered one as the final extra block, the quilt pattern was for a rectangular quilt 8×6 blocks without sashing, whereas I wanted a square quilt 7×7 blocks. Of course I could just embroidered 2025 and my initials on the back too for the final finishing date…I’ll see.
So here’s my finished Owl and Hare Hollow quilt…
I remembered to stitch tiny dark buttons on for the owl eyes, they look perfect on the appliqued owl on the third row, maybe a little big for the embroidered owl in the top right corner.
Here’s the back with all the different sized circles. I’m pleased with how that idea panned out…
It’s interesting how the eyes play tricks, on the right side I see diagonal waves but on the left I just see circles!
The quilt has already been through the washing machine, having taken two years and more importantly, been quilted during building work, I felt it was probably quite grubby. So it’s now fresh and clean, ready to go on a bed.
I love it!
Hand Quilt Along Links
This Hand Quilt Along is an 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.
In the autumn it’s 50 years since my stitching group was formed. It was originally part of the Embroiderer’s Guild until they decided a few years ago to cast all the individual guilds adrift so now we are a thriving independent stitch group called Skipton Stitchers.
It was suggested that we do a joint project to celebrate and one member came up with the great idea of each of us stitching one or two small pieces in gold, 50 altogether, which could then be displayed at places such as Yarndale.
We were each duly given a card disc about 4″ in diametre, a piece of wadding and some felt to back it with. We could do what we liked so long as the background was gold coloured and the theme was gold.
I had a peruse on Pinterest on possible designs and decided on a cone flower (echinacea ) I thought it was an interesting shape but wasn’t too complicated. Ages ago I stitched a cat cushion by Ragged Ruff Designs, the cat was surrounded by cone flowers, I couldn’t find the pattern on my computer but I’d also used it on a denim jacket so I used that as a basis for my template…
I rummaged round in my silk remnants box and found a silk dupion in a gorgeous soft gold colour, perfect for the background. I found a square of gold leather too so I earmarked that for the centre of the flower. I also spotted some fancy gold fabric and after a play around I decided to use that for the petals rather than having to embroider and fill each petal. I could just edge it in gold thread then.
I nearly had a disaster when I tried to iron bondaweb onto the fancy gold fabric as it started to melt! Luckily I was just on the very edge of the fabric so I quickly found a pressing cloth and used that to protect the fabric.
I drew on the petals with a Frixion pen, planning to couch the gold thread down. I had to change my plans however as you need to use a large chenille needle to thread the ends through to the back and betweeb bondaweb, silk and some cotton I’d put behind to support the silk, I couldn’t get the needle through even with the biggest one I could find. I rummaged in my box of gold threads, most of which I inherited off my mother so goodness know how old they are! I found a thin coiled wire thread which I though was like the purl wire I used in the goldwork bee so I stretched it out a bit and started couching it down.
I’ve edged all the petals in the coiled wire but I’m not convinced it was the same type of wire as it is very thin and doesn’t hold the line very well…it looks pretty though!
I tacked a small piece of felt on the central cone to give the gold leather a bit of shape, I then stitched the gold leather down and this time used a purl wire to edge it.
I used a soft gold tape doubled up to make the stem and that was my embroidery complete. I had mulled over the idea of stitching on the background but actually I like the simplicity of the design.
Once the embroidery was finished I trimmed it to an inch wider than the disc, gathered the edge and pulled it in round the cardboard (which I’d already glued a circle of batting too) to make like a Suffolk puff (Yoyo). After a bit of fiddling to neaten the gathers, I stitched a circle of felt on the back to finish it off.
I’m pretty pleased with it, I love how the different gold fabrics work, I’m not sure how long the gold thread will stay neat but hopefully it will still look good for Yarndale, the show in September where they are all going to be on display.
I’ve managed a few finishes this week, one of them being my Christmas rose humbug. I started this ages ago as it’s been my stitching on the go project so it’s a lucky coincidence that I’ve managed to finish it in time for ‘Christmas in July’. It’s a design by Faby Reilly, she has lots of very pretty humbug designs on her website.
The finished cross-stitch is a rectangular design with a back-stitch edge which is used to stitch it together.
The linen is a scrap I found in my linen drawer and it’s not the best, it’s fairly thin so I cut a piece of iron-on cotton interfacing to just fit within the back-stitch outline. It’s both given it a bit of body and made it more opaque.
To make it into a humbug shape the two short sides are stitched together, using whip-stitch through the back-stitch. The top edges with the smaller roses are then stitched together making a square pocket with one open side. The bottom edge is then stitched so the centre line of the large rose and the seam with a bow on it come together, resulting in a humbug shape. Mathematically I believe it’s called a tetrahedron! …a pyramid!
I threaded some fine gold tape through the top to make a hanger and my Christmas decoration was finished…though I am tempted to put a bead in the centre of the bow where it doesn’t quite meet!
I’ve now got a little collection of Christmas humbugs to hang on my tree this year…
Kathy is doing ‘Christmas in July’ on her blog, do follow the link to see what everyone else is stitching.
I always have a little stitching project in my handbag for those opportune moments when you can fill some time stitching. I’ll stitch anywhere, waiting rooms, bus station, tea-shops, broken down trains…I usually arrive at work about half an hour early, so I sit in the coffee room and stitch.
These projects need to be small and easily picked up, I find cross-stitch easier than free embroidery for this as I know exactly what threads I will need. Over the last few months I’ve been stitching a Faby Reilly design I bought ages ago, it’s another Christmas humbug decoration, I’ve made three humbugs before, two Christmas ones and the poppy one.
Faby Reilly Poppy Humbug
Humbug refers to the shape of the finished decoration. Here in the UK we have a mint sweet called a humbug and it is this shape. It’s basically four triangles.
I’ve just finished the cross-stitch design. I put it through the washing machine as it was looking a little grubby, pressed it and now I just need to make it into a humbug.
You can see how the design will (hopefully!) match up when it’s stitched together, there’s half a bow either side and the smaller roses will also meet up. I might put some light interfacing behind as its quite a thin weave linen, it was a scrap I found in my linen box but it hasn’t been great to work on, if I find any more in my stash I won’t be using it for cross-stitch.
Hopefully I’ll be able to post the finished Christmas decoration soon.
I’ll try and post more about what I’m stitching on the go, rather than just give final updates, maybe once a fortnight…hopefully once the decorating is finally finished I’ll be able to get back to posting (and sewing) a bit more regularly.
I’ve made good progress with this embroidery over the last three weeks, mainly because it’s been my main project in the evenings. I’m still busy with the never-ending decorating so I haven’t done much else but my OH and I have got into a routine that if we’re busy doing our own thing early evening then at 9pm we both head to the lounge, watch a bit of TV etc before bed. This project is kept in the lounge in my workbasket so I can easily pick it up to do a bit.
Three weeks ago I had just past the half way point with the letter N embroidered…
Well I’m now within sight of a happy dance! I’ve embroidered the whole of the next row and I’ve just got the last four letters to embroider! I’m sure you can tell from my progress that I’m enjoying embroidering this DMC kit.
I photographed it this time in our conservatory in bright sunlight, it’s interesting to see how its captured the slightly raised contours of the satin stitch.
I’m already thinking about what my next SAL project is going to be!
Please visit the other blogs that are also taking part in this SAL. There are so many different projects to enjoy. The participants live all over the world so you may need to allow for time differences. We’re posting today at local time. Click the links to their blogs below and see what they’re up to.
thecraftycreek 