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Friday, July 24, 2015

Baa Baa Barn Sheep

I've been on a roll with smalls and was able to finish another one that has been in my stash for a long time.  Here's Baa Baa Barn Sheep:  

Myrtle Grace Motifs
Baa Baa Barn Sheep
Recommended hand WDW
32 count mystery fabric

It's stitched with three pieces of floss over two fabric threads on 32 count mystery fabric which gives it a nice dense look.   

The barn scene on the sheep probably isn't everyone's cup of tea, and to be honest, I don't think I would have picked this up if I hadn't seen it finished in the store.  But I'm glad I did.  It was fun to stitch and was finished up in just a few days.  

My final finishing mojo has vanished though and this one has been added to my pile of pieces waiting to be finished...eventually....

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend!
Karen


Monday, July 13, 2015

Jeanette Douglas Spring Quaker Pincushion

Jeanette Douglas has designed a few small kits and let me just say they are awesome!  I ordered a few of them a few weeks ago and below is the first one that I stitched.


The kit included the floss for the cording, the buttons, the linen, and the felt backing fabric.  All of this for just $15 CDN at Traditional Stitches.  I think that's a pretty good deal.  I only ordered the scissor fob from this series, but I think I'll have to get the other two because I loved stitching it and putting it together so much.  

Below is a close-up of the front:  (sorry for the blurriness. I used the macro function on my camera, but it didn't seem to work.)


And the back....:


After I stitched the cute little Quaker design, I knew I would have to finish it right away...  I want to finish everything lately.  This was only my second time making twisted cording and I still can't believe I have put off making this stuff for so long.  Jeanette includes complete finishing instructions with the kit too.

Well, there you have it.  A cute little scissor fob and it only took a day or so to make.  If you haven't seen Jeanette Douglas' little kits, you should check out her site.  I've been enjoying kits a lot lately and I will probably get a few more of these.  They are such cute quick little projects.

Thursday, July 09, 2015

Teeny Tiny Tea Time Bunny

I was gifted with the cutest little kit a couple of weeks ago. It was so adorable that I started stitching it immediately.  It stitched up so quickly that I decided to go ahead and do the final finishing as well. 

Tea Time Bunny Tiny Tin Cover
by
Lorri Birmingham Designs

 Tea Time Bunny is stitched over one on 28ct Monaco Fabric and it certainly tested my eyesight!  It's not the first time that I've stitched over one, but I definitely haven't done it very many times.  

It's mounted on a teeny tiny Altoid tin.  I have never actually seen these tiny tins before.  To give perspective as to how tiny this is, I set my embroidery scissors beside it in the photo.  

The design itself is utterly adorable.  Who doesn't like bunnies?  And a bunny in a teacup is just too cute.

I haven't done very much finishing over the past couple of years, but I have been feeling the urge to finish everything lately.  This tiny little tin was the first tin cover that I've ever done.  It's also the first time I've ever made my own cord.

I've had "The Spinster: Cord, Trim, Rope" tool in my stash for years, but this was the first time I have ever dug it out to try it.   I can't believe I let it sit in a drawer unused for probably 7 years!  Crazyness!!  It was so simple to use.  It even comes with instructions to make beaded rope and bullion trim.  I'm really quite curious how the beaded rope would turn out....

 The above picture doesn't show the sides of the tin, but I glued some white rick rack around it to make it look pretty.  Overall, I'm very happy with how it turned out.

Something else that I finished awhile ago was "Butterfly Lace."  I'm not sure if it will stay as it is or not, but I thought I'd share what it looks like for now.



I mounted it in a shadow box that I bought at Michael's some time ago.  It was the only one they had at that time that had a padded backing that you could stick pins into.  Also, it's a rectangle (like most store bought frames), which isn't the most flattering for this very square design  I think it would look better in a white square frame.

In order to mount this in the shadow box I needed the piece to be finished around the edges so, I hemstitched it and I placed a piece of pink fabric on the back to show off the drawn and pulled thread stitches.  To balance it in the rectangle frame I added the piece of lace to the side and attached a small butterfly charm that I had in my stash.  I still felt like it needed something and scrounged around in my stash for a piece of pink ribbon to make into a little bow.

I'm not overly thrilled with how it turned out which is probably why I never bothered sharing the final finish with you all until now.

Over the weekend, I was in Homesense and they had a nice assortment of shadow boxes with padded backings.  They even had a square one (albeit a bit large for this).  But I bought it anyways because I love how simple it is to pin something into them and how easy it is to change them around for different seasons. 



One thought that I had was using the Butterfly Lace design in this along with some other pieces.  Kind of making a collage of stitched pieces.  Do any of you use shadow boxes to frame your pieces?

Thanks for stopping by! I always appreciate your comments.

Karen