It’s hard to believe it’s March already, but here we are! This month, on the 17th, we have our wedding anniversary, so I put the lovey-dovey ones out now instead of for a Valentine theme in February.
I’ve kept a few of the Faby Reilly ones from last month, like the two heart shaped wreaths and the poem. The shamrock which I only finished a couple of weeks ago, is also a Faby design…and of course my Zoe box at the back.
The one with our initials on is a design by Subrosa, it was originally a wedding anniversary card which I later turned into a small.
The two at the front were free designs from Hands on Designs which I stitched back in 2019. The Valentine one is another free pattern, this time by Sandra Longan. There’s links for both these sites on my original post here.
The March one is from the Snowflower Diaries SAL called Joyful World. It’s a another free one, most of these patterns are also easily found on Pinterest.
Here we are, 14 years younger on a crisp, sunny March day.
Last time I shared my stitch-wheel I was still stitching the first ring of leaves. This is the SAL organised by Cathy Reavy, she is releasing videos of new stitches every Thursday, I initially thought we would have one stitch a week so it would last nearly a year, however we seem to be getting two or three stitches a week so I’ve got three weeks worth of stitching to share!. They’re only small blocks though so they don’t take too long. This was the last photo I shared with you…
I’m still not sure about the Lazy Daisy stitch used as a filler stitch for the oak leaf, though it might just be that my sketch didn’t have a pronounced enough shape. The other two new stitches are wheatear which is below the ‘oakleaf’ and Van-Dyke stitch which is the skeletal looking purple one. This is an interesting stitch but I feel the angle is wrong for a leaf
The next ring is all about fillers…
We started off with Jacobean couching which is the heart shaped one, this was quite quick to do as it’s just a cross-hatch of long stitches held in place by tiny cross-stitches at the cross-over points. Long and short stitch seems to be more difficult than it should be, technically it’s simple, but in reality it’s not easy to do well. The purple tulip shape is the long and short stitch.
For the satin stitch I drew a ying yang shape, I found it tricky to get the angle right and despite working an edge stitch it’s not come out as neat as I would have liked. On the other hand I am well chuffed with my padded satin stitch, the big golden sun! There’s three layers of satin stitch making this beautifully domed, I love it!
This week Cathy released another three stitches…
Spiders Web stitch I’ve done several times before on Faby Reilly designs. Seeding stitch I’ve used many times but I didn’t realise you were meant to do tiny double stitches. It actually seemed easier with double stitches as it makes the finished effect more of a square shape which means the randomness of the direction isn’t quite so obvious. Cathy used a flower shape for her sample, I decided to just use the square but try and fade it across.
The last stitch is velvet stitch. It’s based on a cross-stitch with the first ‘leg’ repeated but left in a loop, this is then secured down by the second leg. It’s then a matter of stitching in a grid formation to make a dense area of stitches, this is it before the haircut with lots of loops…
I have to say mine looks more like a shag pile carpet than velvet! This is the wheel so far…
I’m doing a purple, green and amber colour scheme as it’s going to hang in my sewing room afterwards but Cathy has started a facebook group for those stitching the wheel so you can see everyone else’s stitching and colour scheme. One lady has created a colour spectrum around the wheel which looks amazing.
If anyone fancies joining in this SAL, it’s all on YouTube, Cathy (from Threads) releases the next series of videos every Thursday.
I started this fabric book last summer, late to the party but it didn’t matter, Anne Brooke has all of her lovely tutorials on YouTube. Having stitched a double page spread every three weeks I have finally finished it, happy dance time!
Three weeks ago I had finished a double page and just started the final one…
The quote is for the final page, I was planning to embellish it but in the end I kept it simple as the facing page is very busy.
The final set of pages includes an ‘index’, a record of the different fabrics and embellishments used throughout the book. I pulled out all my scraps and started cutting little samples and putting them into colour piles. I chose the alphabet fabric as my base – I thought it was rather apt. I also managed to arrange it so C for Creek was visible.
Once I had my mini piles I started arranging them in a tab, adding lace and trims I had used in the book, this is the blue and taupe index, secured at one end with blanket stitch, some french knots and a handmade wooden button…
For the red index I stitched a silk flower onto a red background just with running stitch, adding some lace before stitching it down with cross-stitch…
Partially under the blue fabric index was the smaller teal tab with a line of fly stitch a button and some lace all stitched securely with a line of blanket stitch…
This lifts up to reveal my favourite bit, a tiny fabric envelope to enclose a little message, isn’t it pretty! I haven’t written anything yet, but I’ll probably include something about the making of the book.
All I had to do now was make it all into a book! I had used the calico pages from Untangled Threads as a base, these have little tabs on for binding with beads. Their irregularity somehow suited the relaxed nature of the book.
I kept the covers simple just using fabric from the sample book, I made two pockets then slid some bosal in between to stiffen them and slip-stitched them closed. I still needed something for the front and back pages of the book. I kept it fairly simple with a few oblongs of fabric and some simple stitching…
I used little beads as spacers, I didn’t have enough of one colour so I made a striped pattern with them instead. I found a gorgeous blue button which came from my mum’s stash for the front, made a cord and attahed the two for fastening.
It’s quite a fat book! I’m really pleased with how it’s come out and I’ve learnt a lot about this style of embroidery. Anne Brookes is doing a new project this year of 52 handmade tags, all on YouTube. I know several people who are doing it and really enjoying having a little project each week, it’s not too late if anyone wants to join in!
In case you can’t remember the contents of this book, here’s a few photos…
This SAL is organised by Avis from Sewing by the Sea, we post our progress on our own choice of project, it’s a great motivator! Please follow the links for lots more stitching inspiration…
Having read very little since Christmas I bought four books from a cheap book site (£2 each or 3 for £5!) and in little over a week I’ve read them all! Some were recommended, others followed on from previous reads or just appealed;
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri; This is about a couple living in Aleppo, Syria, he is a beekeeper, she is an artist. When ‘the unthinkable happens’ they are forced to flee, travelling through Turkey and Greece towards Britain. It is beautifully written and very moving. It is one of those books that everyone should read, just to help understand what refugees have gone through trying to find somewhere safe to live, how bad things are for them to abandon everything to escape. It is not an easy read, quite harrowing in places, particularly as it’s set in fairly recent history. In many ways it reminded me of when I watched ‘Killing Fields’ at the cinema, it was on TV fairly recently and my OH mentioned it. I said if you’ve not seen it, you should watch it, but I don’t want to watch it again.
I wanted something a bit lighter next…
The Foundling by Stacey Halls; This is set in London in the 1700’s, Bess leaves her newborn illegitimate daughter at the Foundling Hospital. Six years later, she returns to reclaim her daughter only to be told someone else has already claimed her, Her life is turned upside down as she tries to find out who has taken her daughter. I really enjoyed this, couldn’t put it down!
Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris; this is a sequel to the Tattooist of Auschwitz, it’s based on a true story. Like most people, having read the Tattooist, I was left wondering what happened to Cilka… Cilka was taken to Auschwitz at the age of 16. She was immediately chosen to be ‘camp wife’ to a couple of the senior SS guards, enduring the rape and abuse for three years before Auschwitz was liberated. This book starts as the camp is liberated. Cilka is deemed to have collaborated with the enemy and is therefore arrested and sent to a brutal labour camp in Siberia. As it says on the back cover ‘ Cilka’s Journey is a powerful testament to the triumph of the human spirit. It will leave you astonished and uplifted by one woman’s fierce determination to survive, against all odds’
The Familiars by Stacey Halls; By chance I bought two books by the same author! This one is set in the early 1600’s during the time of the Pendle witch trials. Pendle is an area of Lancashire not too far from here and in 1612 twelve women were sent to trial for being a witch, eleven were hung and one was released. The story starts just before the trials, Fleetwood Shuttleworth is 17, mistress of Gawthorpe Hall and pregnant for the 4th time having miscarried three babies at various stages of pregnancy. She meets Alice Gray by chance, a young midwife who promises to help her have a healthy baby. When Alice is drawn into the witchcraft accusations, Fleetwood risks everything to help her. Another great read, made even better by actually knowing the area.
Looking towards Pendle from Shap Haw
I’m hoping the library opens soon so I can go back to borrowing books instead of adding to my already groaning bookshelves!
This week I’ve been on a bit of a roll finishing cross-stitch smalls. I’ve not one but three finishes to share!
I’m trying to work my way through my stash of kits and patterns (preferably quicker than I buy them!) so after I stitched the nuthatch I had a change of scene from the bird kits and found a Shepherds Bush pattern which I think I bought last year from a destash site. It sounds like a new one as it’s called ‘Be Nice’ and there’s been a lot of Bee Safe and such like but this one is actually from 2006.
It’s a very pretty design with pink lettering, flowers twining round and bees buzzing round too. It was pretty quick to stitch as well. The original design has lots of JABCO buttons (like 8) of bees, flowers, hearts and bees. They’re lovely are the JABCO beads but over here in the UK they are pretty expensive too. I’ve a handful in my stash so I was planning to include one or two, but when I tried them even the tiniest bee was almost too big, probably because I’d used 36 count linen instead of the 11 count aida in the pattern! I decided to just squeeze one tiny bee on in the letter ‘e’.
To finish it I found some soft green quilting cotton which matches beautifully. Pink ric-rac picked out the colours of the letters and the flowers. I rummaged in my stash for some odd buttons and made some cord using green and pink DMC thread.
Whilst I was couching the cord on I decided to add a pink bead on every stitch, trying to lay them on the front of the cord. I fashioned a bow, used beads for the knot and added a flower charm on a short length of beads.
I think the pink and green make such a pretty pillow.
Next to be finished was a cloverleaf design which I stitched last year (I think!) it was a freebie from Faby Reilly. It’s less than two inches square, little and cute.
I tried the dark green cotton first but it was too dominating for the main fabric. I cut a one inch strip, folded it in half and made a narrow flange. I added some ric-rac with a bit of pink on to bring out the pink in the centre of the leaf. I titivated the ric-rac with some green beads and then finished with cording and beads like before. This one has a glass flower bead instead of a charm hanging from the bow. Perfect for St Patricks Day next month.
This evening I finished the kookaburra which I stitched in the autumn. This was the first of the Fido Stitch Studio kits I made.
He’s is a bit bigger than the other smalls so I just backed it with a taupe cotton with little blue flowers on, it matches nicely. I felt the bottom corner looked a bit bare so I chose three buttons to fill the gap. Again I trimmed the seam with a cord made from DMC threads and little blue beads.
I’ve still three more smalls to finish, but I’m making progress, and more importantly, the pile is going down not going up!
I have two stitch-a-longs on a three weekly cycle, an embroidery one and a hand quilting one. I’ve decided on the Sunday in between I’m going to do a post on a quilt kit. To begin with these are going to be Raggedy Ruff kits as I’ve fallen for so many and they are languishing in my to do pile!
Raggedy Ruff is the Etsy page of designer Andrea Walpole. I’ve stitched one of her quilts, the Spring Woodland Wreath one. They’re beautiful designs with lots of free motion embroidery and applique, the detail in her designs is amazing…
I follow Andrea on facebook and I’ve fallen for several kits over the time since I finished this one. When I say quite a few, I’ve got two lampshades, a clock, a stool, a pheasant panel and another quilt to make without even looking in my box of kits. I think the problem is they still terrify me a bit, despite having completed the quilt already. They are such beautiful designs, I don’t want to mess them up and I’m still not that confident with free motion embroidery…I still have to remember to breathe!
So I’ve decided every three weeks I’m going to post my progress on one of the kits…and once I’ve got through those there’s several other kits waiting to be done!
The first one I tackled is called Suzie the Cat, it makes a 6″ by 9″ panel with a cute black and white cat looking through some flowers. I’ve had two black and white cats in my time, I’ve always gone out saying I want a tabby cat, and always come back with a black and white one – I just couldn’t resist a kitten basically! First there was Suky, then Oliver!
I decided I wanted to make the panel into an oblong cushion, so I added a couple of squares of co-ordinating fabrics with the plan of adding a couple more flowers.
As this was a fairly small panel I decided to experiment a bit. Andrea doesn’t use any adhesive in her panels, she cuts out using freezer paper and just holds the pieces in place and stitches them down, on the quilt above I did use tiny dots of fabric glue to just help a little. This time I decided to try it with bondaweb, it would keep everything secure, the downside being that it reverses everything. I decided with the flowers it didn’t matter and with the cat I attached the bondaweb to the fabric and then ironed on freezer paper with the design traced on, so the cat was the right way round.
Here’s everything in place with the outline stitching starting…
It was then a matter of doing free motion embroidery in variegated grey, black and white for his fur. The eyes are the tricky bit, trying to get them equal and not mean looking! I added a couple of extra flowers to spread it out onto the extra length at the sides…
Having stitched the panel I then found a cushion pad hidden behind a cupboard, it was slightly bigger than I had anticipated so I added a strip of batik on each side. In my stash I found some amber and purple batik which went beautifully so I used it for the upper and lower borders and added a narrow strip either side of the panel as some how it looked more finished then.
Having slept on it I felt it now needed more flowers to cover the extra fabric on the sides, I’d already cut two extra flowers so I knew I didn’t have anything left from the kit, I rummaged in my scrap box and found a dark and a medium purple batik and a light gold fabric, this is actually the back of a patterned fabric but it works pretty well.With these I added another four flowers annd it really finished the piece.
I also added a touch more green to his eye as one looked slightly out of shape.
Once I was happy with the panel I made it into a simple cushion with a button fastening at the back. I’m really pleased with how it’s come out, I think the extra flowers work well to make it into a longer panel. It didn’t take long at all either!
As for my bondaweb experiment…it was easier to stitch, but my machine did grumble when it had three layers of bondawebbed fabric plus background plus stabiliser! I can see it would also complicate things if you’re trying to reverse the image. I’ll be good and stick with the instructions next time!
If you fancy having a go at one of these designs follow the link at the top to her Etsy page. It’s worth following her on facebook too as then you get heads up if she’s putting any kits up for sale or starting a new quilt…but you do get tempted too!!! The kits are great, everything is well labelled and there’s just the right amount of fabric too. Her instructions are good, as she says at the beginning it’s a matter of take a deep breath and go for it!
If anyone fancies joining me for a kit-a-long, leave a message at the bottom and I’ll organise something.
My one and only New Year Resolution this year was to try and make cross-stitch smalls up as soon as I finished them, so they don’t end up languishing in a box. Last year I discovered the Fido Stitch Studio designs of birds on eBay, they do very reasonably priced and beautiful cross-stitch kits of birds (and dogs, cats, guineapigs…) I made two last year and they are unfortunately still languishing in my box waiting to be made up…
I stitched the singing robin just after Christmas and made him into a pretty small…
I had two more of these kits so once the robin was stitched I moved on to the next one, a nuthatch. Nuthatches are one of our regular visitors to the bird feeders, they’re quite handsome birds with their slate blue back and black eye stripe. You can see from their head shape that they are part of the woodpecker family. I remember reading years ago that tree-creepers creep up a tree trunk whereas the nuthatch creeps down, they’re often upside down on our feeders.
The kit stitched up fairly easily, I think the colour changes were more even with this one. I changed the fabric from 14 count aida to 32 count linen as I much prefer linen. I also used a sharp needle for the back-stitching instead of my usual blunt cross-stitch one, the back-stitching on these patterns bears no resemblance to the holes available, it would be my only criticism of the designs. It was a little easier with a sharp needle as I could bring my needle up slightly off the hole if needed.
Isn’t he gorgeous!
I decided to make him into a long thin pillow. I found a blue batik that toned in nicely and also had a leaf design which seemed rather apt.I pulled out my trims drawer and chose one of the blue cotton laces which picks out the blue of the nuthatch nicely. Buttons took a bit more deciding, but eventually I chose three different ones, two peach ones and one blue.
I made some cord from a peach and a light blue DMC thread, nicely using up two old bobbins of floss. It didn’t come out quite as neat as usual as just as I had it on full twist it slipped off my gadget! I rescued it but it’s not perfect! I stitched it round and added a few beads in peach/cream and blue.
I think he’s come out pretty well! My other Fido Stitch Studio design is a kingfisher, but I might do something different next.
I’m trying to work my way through my stash of kits at the moment so at the weekend I had a browse through and pulled out a pretty Rowandene kit called Roadside Pink Campion. Rowandene have quite a distinct style of embroidery with layers of chiffon and simple embroidery stitches making lovely nature scenes. I always make a beeline for their stand at any show as they always have an activity table where for about £5 you can sit and embroidery a little flower scene, it’s like a calm oasis in the midst of the hustle and bustle of a show, time for a much needed sit down usually too! I think I bought this kit at the last show I went to, which seems an age ago!
The base fabric has the basic outlines printed on so you can just overlay the chiffon and start stitching. There’s one large piece of green chiffon which covers the whole piece and then several squares in pink,blue, yellow and lime green to overlay.
The instructions give an order to stitch everything in, first flower was the cow parsley stitched with stem stitch and french knots. Three strands of DMC are used for most of the embroidery which gives quite a chunky but effective look.
The foxgloves came next. The main spires are stitched with short straight stitches, I wasn’t sure about this to start with but once I got going I liked it. There’s a few spires of french knots too to give the idea of ones deeper in the hedgerow. The big foxglove leaves were supposed to be in satin stitch however I decided to use a stitch I’ve just learned on my stitchwheel, closed fly stitch. It’s worked well though I’m not sure it’s in keeping with the rest of the embroidery…
As well as DMC threads, the kits also include wools, there were two shades of green wool. At first I really wasn’t sure about using the blue-green one as in the packet it looked out of sorts with the other threads. However, when I looked at the image on the cover I realised it gives depth to the scene. I did though change the thread used for the fly stitches on the right, they were meant to be white but I used a soft green-brown variegated thread instead.
The pink campion were added next, both lazy-daisy stitches and tiny circles of pink silk…
The last step was adding blue daisy flowers, I then added a few more french knots in a pretty variegated pink thread which came with the kit and the scene was complete.
I like these kits, they’re quick and easy to stitch, there’s enough instructions to make the design but plenty of room to make it your own. I added a few more grasses and french knots and missed off some metallic thread. It’s also a useful learning experience to see how to use different weights and types of thread and how to layer up an embroidery. Just need to decide what to do with it now!
Sometimes the nearer I get to a finish, the more I stitch. I’ve worked a fair bit on my cottage garden quilt over the last three weeks. When I last shared my progress I was half way through the middle row with another block to embroider and the ivy leaves to finish, together with all the fill in squares…
The ivy block didn’t take long to finish at all, just a bit more backstitching to make the veins. In case you’re wondering, the main stem of the ivy is done with a long couched thread first, the ivy leaves are then bondawebbed along it. I love the little ladybird!
It’s partner block is a sweet one with daisy like flowers and bumble bees. I spent ages auditioning various fabrics for the flowers – I’ve more than another set cut out! I finally decided on the dark red with a slightly lighter red, two shades amongst seven flowers. The bees are made with yellow fabric and the stripes embroidered on. I was trying to work out for a while which bit didn’t look quite right and I think it’s that bees have black heads, and probably wider stipes, but they look cute, it’s called artistic license!
I sashed both blocks in a green fabric to help with the general mix of fabrics, I’ve found this fabric very useful in this quilt as it includes both sage green and olive green, together with a bit of red. I also swopped the two blocks round from the original layout as I felt I needed the red flowers on the right side to balance the quilt.
With these two blocks made I could crack on and piece the row together. It all went together beautifully and I was pleased to see the little squares helped to tone down the red churn square blocks.
The next big job was to join the rows together. I started pinning the top to the middle and then had a major panic…it was way out, the top and the bottom were considerably narrower than the middle, not just a fudgeable smidge out!
I double checked all my measurements on the middle row, well that was the odd one out wasn’t it! They were all correct and the finished width was right from my calculations…I then started looking at the top and bottom rows. I eventually realised I had missed off a whole row of squares on the other side of the pinwheels and thus they were over 2″ narrower! I had made the same mistake top and bottom!
I could have just added them somewhere else but that would have unbalanced the whole quilt. It was time to get acquainted with my seam ripper! I also realised the heart log cabin blocks and block of eight squares were the wrong way round too and to leave it would have meant lots of squares on one side and few on the other. That wasn’t as big a job as it sounds as I unpicked the heart and squares as one unit and swopped top to bottom.
I finally stitched it together and the extra work was worth it…
Next task was to embroider four little cornerstones for the border. I puzzled for a while which fabric to base these on as all the other embroidered blocks have been on creamy whites, but I could see with the light fabric I was using for my inner border, these would just merge in. I tried various ones which had a fair bit of plain in, but nothing worked. In the end I introduced a new fabric to the quilt, not ideal at this late stage but I think it works. I used a pale pink Kona solid which is just the right shade of pink. These are 2 1/2″ squares so you can imagine how small the cherry on the cake was! I love the detail on these blocks, though if your wondering, the red splodge of french knots on the label is meant to be a strawberry!
Having stitched these I could sew the inner border with these on the corners and then start cutting out 100 rectangles for the piano key border! I was a bit limited by what fabrics I had left, the only one I didn’t include was the dark red as I felt it would stand out too much, though I am thinking of including it in a scrappy binding with the two darker olive greens. I divided the fabric rectangles into four piles so I had a similar mix on each side then laid them out on my cutting table.
By chance the first strip of 26 worked perfectly when I put it next to a side, none of then were opposite the same fabric square in the quilt. The second side I unpicked and swopped a couple of areas. The third and four sides I arranged on my table, sewed into lengths of four and then played with them til I was happy.
So my quilt top was complete…
I love it, I keep looking at it and grinning! I have enjoyed making this quilt all the way along, from the embroidery to the pieced blocks. The design is by Kathryn Whittingham, it’s in a gorgeous book called The Cottage Garden Quilt which is available from her website, Patchwork Katy, she ships overseas now too. I’ve got her Seaside Quilt to do next but first I need to quilt this beauty!
Having rashly said I’m never going to hand quilt a quilt again after finishing my huge Down the Rabbit Hole quilt, I clearly have a short memory as I’ve decided this quilt deserves to be hand-quilted. It’s only about 60″ square too so a much more manageable size. I’ve already made a backing (with a piano key strip down the middle) and it’s all sandwiched. I’m just waiting for some threads to arrive, mulling over different ways of quilting 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.
I’ve just caught up with the free Peppermint Purple SAL, it’s a blackwork one and a new pattern is released every Wednesday via facebook for either a square or a rectangle in the design. This is where I was last time I showed you…
Rather than following the designers colours, I’m hoping mine will turn into a blackwork picture of Catbells in the Lake District. It’s interesting seeing how the density of the pattern changes the colour. I’ve stitched another two blocks,giving Catbells a bit more shape…
The top blue square is actually a very similar shade to the one next to it, but being a lot more dense it looks considerably darker. The bottom one is more of an olive green, I’m doing the main body of Catbells in purples, olive greens and brown/amber. Along the bottom will be fresher greens where Manesty Woods is. Then I have to decide how to stitch the reflection in Derwentwater, but I’ve a few months to ponder that conundrum. This is where I am now…
Hopefully with a few more greens and browns that square won’t stick out like a sore thumb as much!
The squares are only 14 stitches each way, designed to be one inch square on 14 count aida, mine are slightly smaller as I’m using 32 count linen. Being little they don’t take long, but I do have to concentrate!
thecraftycreek 