I’ve made a little bit of progress on my Christmas runner, not a lot though as I’ve been concentrating on other things. This is a project I actually started back in 2020 but it got put on a back burner for various reasons and then to be honest I forgot about it until I was having a tidy! Last time I posted about it I was half way along doing lines across…
To give you an idea of scale, the embroidered squares are 2 1/4″ square, the runner is around 48* long. I’ve now finished quilting across the runner, next I’m going to quilt down the length of the runner.
I’d used a polyester batting and I’m not enjoying quilting it, it feels really thick and bulky, even though it doesn’t look like a high loft one, maybe I’ve just got used to the feel of the 80/20 cotton ones.
Hopefully next time I share this I’ll have made a bit more progress!
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.
I’ve got a big birthday this week with a bit of a party on Saturday, so I decided to make myself a birthday cake. I made a hexagonal fruit cake a few weeks ago as they do need time to mature, on Monday I decided I really needed to get myself organised and decorate it.
I wanted a sewing themed cake and having perused pinterest I decided on a quilted one. I covered it with a layer of marzipan first. This is stuck on with melted apricot jam, it gives a nice smooth base for the icing and stops any discolouration of the icing too.
I bought some hexagonal cutters and coloured some fondant icing in three shades of purple, leaving some white too. I just use water to stick the icing on, the top was easy enough but it did get tricky trying to work the shapes out round the corners, some are neater than others! I went round the inner edge of each one with a tool that did about six dimples in a row so it looks like stitching.
Once the basic cake was covered I decorated each square with a mixture of fondant flowers and icing, some worked out better than others, those on the side were particularly hard to get neat. I used an alphabet cutter foe my initial and iced LX for my age (Roman numerals, not recommended for 40 as thats XL!!)
Round the bottom I wanted a row of buttons, I had a button mould left over from my 50th birthday cake so they were very quick to make. I’ve a few left over so they can go on some fairy cakes.
It took me most of the day to make but here’s my finished cake…
I’ve made quite a bit of progress since I last shared my handbag project, it’s a nice and easy design so I can easily pick it up for 10 minutes here and there. I usually do a bit when I’m having my morning coffee, or whilst making tea as well as in the bus station when I’ve half an hour to wait for a bus!
Last time I shared my progress I’d almost finished this one…
Since then I’ve not only finished this one, I’ve stitched another two!! They are pretty quick to do! I now have a set of four.
I’m now starting on a series of designs called Little Sheep Virtues. It’s a series of twelve, I’m going to put them all in a book with the ones above. I actually stitched one of the set back in 2020…
I’ve started with the Courage one, they are meant to have special little buttons on too which are gorgeous but pretty expensive here in the UK, so I’ll have to adapt things slightly. Here’s where I’ve got to so far…
I’m not keen on stitching borders so I’m now making myself stitch a couple of threads of border and then reward myself with a more interesting bit!
I haven’t quite worked out a name for this book yet, I was thinking of Vices and Virtues but the numbers and letters one doesn’t really fit into either, so I’m still thinking! …maybe Cross-Words as all the designs involve words in cross-stitch…any suggestions or thoughts welcome.
Considering these designs come out weekly, I’ve not done as much as I anticipated! However I love what I’ve done so far. This is a SAL from Featherstitch House, it’s only £6 a month for all the designs and very good videos.
I’ve finished my first one, a wren, he was almost finished last time..
…I just had the ground to embroider. I decided to use fly stitch to do lots of leaves. I love this one, it’s a good start to my collection of postcards.
The next one I initially chose to do was a winter scene of a hare. The background involved splattering cotton with melted wax and then painting it with watercolours. To start with I tried melting the stump of a good quality candle, despite quite a few minutes in the microwave it showed no sign of melting! I then tried a cheap tea light, that melted straight away and splattered nicely. I couldn’t find my watercolours so I thought I’d use my silk paints instead. I wasn’t really happy with the colours I used and when I came to iron the wax away with brown paper it didn’t leave the starry effect it was meant to. I think because I used a heavier cotton the wax stayed on the surface whereas the silk paint went round the back. I’ve splattered a thinner, smoother cotton but still not found my watercolours. I was tempted to buy another small set but I know it was on my list of present ideas for my birthday later this week, so the hare is on a temporary pause!
Instead I decided to do one of a bee, the pattern was only released a couple of weeks ago. The background has lots of lazy-daisy flowers and French knots. I still have a few French knots to do and then some running stitch ‘bee trails’. The pattern of the bee gives you an idea of the scale…
Despite not having quite finished the background, I’ve already started the bee! This is embroidered on black or dark grey cotton and then appliqued on. I found a dark grey quilting cotton as my base. Marking a design on very dark fabric is always an issue, I’ve used a silver marking pencil to draw round the bee, the markings have just about lasted long enough to stitch it. Once I’ve finished stitching the body, I can applique it onto the background, then add the legs and the organza wings.
I think for this project I possibly need to spend a day prepping a few designs so I have everything ready to stitch as they’re nice little projects to work on in an evening. I could get the backgrounds done and the threads chosen. I need to be a bit more organised!
This SAL is organised by Avis from Stitching by the Sea, we each post about our progress every three weeks, please follow the links to see what everyone else is stitching;
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.
thecraftycreek 