March round up

It's the end of the month, we've all lost an hour's sleep and, if you're anything like me, are very grumpy about it, so let's have a look how my challenges for March went.

Needlequest

This month was goldwork and I worked on a goldwork canvas piece.  As it happens, I finished it well in time, but haven't had a chance to show you yet, watch this space!



1/1

This month on the Sew Kitschy paper piecing bom we had a bowl and wooden spoon.  I got it finished and made another trivet.  I still haven't done February's cookie jar.


1/1

The first quarter of the 2014 FAL is over.  I failed miserably!

         1. Restart and finish Crewel Flowers - YES!! This, I did do.

         2. Finish hooking my rug - yeah, no, I didn't.          3.  Finish Jacob's quilt - so close!  this may have happened had my darning foot not died on                      me.          4. Sew chair cushions for my dining room - I thought about it once or twice, does that count?           5. Handquilt/machine quilt my And Sew On quilt - I'm taking this out of the running until I've               taken Trudi's FMQ class in June          6. Finish the wrist warmers I'm crocheting - didn't happen, and now it's spring so I won't need               them, she says, hopefully.          7. Cross stitch the last Silhouettes picture for my dad - and another fail!
1/7
Something Old, Something New

Crewel flowers was my "old", so success!  Goldwork was my new and that was successful too!

2/2

Something New for 2014

I shared my Soutache attempts and I also learnt to do goldwork on canvas.



2/1

A Lovely Year of Finishes

My goal for this one was Jacob's quilt.  Fail.

0/1

Craft Book Sew along

I made a cushion from Playful Petals, which I also reviewed.



1/2

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

March's colour was teal/aqua.  I didn't join in as I'd already made my blue scrap bucket.

0/1

Smalls SAL

Not this month.

0/1

Sampler Along

This month was crewel, so I elected not to join in.  I'm looking forward to the next one though.

0/1

So, all in all I failed but not particularly spectacularly with 8/18.  Never mind, April is another month!

Related Posts

March goals
February review 1
February review 2
February review 3
February goals
January review

book review embroidery

Good morning ladies.  I hope you're having a lovely sunny weekend!  I can't believe the sun is out for a change!  Oh and happy Mother's Day if that applies to you.  Me and my wonderful mum had our Mother's Day yesterday, when the restaurants aren't so crowded and overpriced.  We had afternoon tea and a silversmithing workshop!  I'll tell you all about that soon, but today I want to share the card I made her.

I was offered the opportunity to review some books from the fabulous craft book publisher GMC and of course I jumped at the chance.  The first book I selected was 500 Simply Charming Designs for Embroidery (Design Originals).  Before we go any further, the disclaimers.  I was sent the book for free to review but I was not told what to say and all opinions are 100% my own.  I didn't receive any monetary compensation.  Links in this post, as with all my book posts, are affiliated.  If you click over and buy something, I get a few pence towards an Amazon voucher.  It doesn't cost you anything (unless you buy something of course!  but only the price of the book and shipping, no extras).

I was drawn in by that image of a hedgehog on the cover, and the book did not disappoint.  I was delighted to find 4 bunnies amongst the 500 motifs!  The book starts with a quick introduction on how to use the book, then has a few pages of projects, showing you how the motifs can be used.

I'm not sure I'd take the time to embroider my socks!  Then there is some basic embroidery information and stitch guides for the 15 stitches used in the book.  This information means that anyone could pick up the book and start to stitch, even without any experience.  Of course, for the more advanced embroidress, you can use the motifs however you like.

Each set of motifs is on a double spread.  On the right is the motif embroidered which gives you a lovely idea of how they look.  On the left is the traceable part with information such as which stitches were used, how many strands of embroidery floss and the Olympus colours (I assume this book is Japanese).  I ignored the colours in my project as I wanted to stitch from stash.  I did follow the recommended stitches, but you don't have to, you could embroider them as outlines if you prefer.

Categories of motif include home and hobby; nature's living things; special occasions; tasty things to eat; letters and numbers and borders and lines.

The motifs are all whimsical, but the alphabets and borders are just beautiful.  Look how elegant some of them look in this photo.  There are also a handful of cross stitch designs at the back and a conversion chart Olympus - DMC.

My mum loves pigs, so I knew straight away that I wanted to embroider the pig.  I had to enlarge the pattern by 200% (luckily my home scanner/printer/copier does that - though I've only just realised it does!) to make it big enough for a stand alone motif on a card.  I stitched in silk threads, my first time.

The pig is all done in satin stitch and I love the dimension he has. I did struggle with the silk though.  My stitches would be all nice and flat, laying smooth and even, I'd put a few more stitches in and find that an earlier one had raised and twisted itself!  I Googled stitching with silk threads for some advice but couldn't find any.  Anyone got any tips for me?

I made up the card very simply as I wanted that silk embroidery to shine.  I machine stitched it to a card blank, unfortunately the linen I stitched on stretched at the corners!  I should have used interfacing.  I added eyelets in each corner.  They broke as I applied them but as anyone who's used eyelets knows, once they're in, they're in forever!

This is the monogram I used for the first M.  At first I traced MUM with these monograms, but realised after I'd finished the first M in the recommended stem stitch that it would be too wide and look silly.  I took it out and retraced using the M from this page and the other letters from another, less ornate, alphabet.  I do regret the U being wonky, but mum will love it anyway!

Overall, I really like this book and I'm glad it's come to live with me.  I can see me making use of a lot of the motifs, especially as they are small so only take half an hour or an hour to stitch.  The alphabets (of which this is only one) are lovely and very useful.  If you fancy getting into embroidery, or have some experience, I'd recommend this book.

Book details:

• Paperback: 88 pages
• Publisher: Design Originals (7 Mar 2014)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574215094
• ISBN-13: 978-1574215090

RRP: £9.99

Disclaimer:

I was given a review copy of the book by GMC Publishing however this review and all opinions are 100% my own, I was not told what to say.  Amazon links are affiliate links.

I'm also linking up to Fiona's Something New for 2014 as this is my first time stitching with silk and Chrissie's Stitching Sundays.

Related Posts

Craft book review - Me and My Sewing Adventure

Craft book review - Mini Eco

Craft Book Review - Craftydermy

Craft Book Review - Playful Petals

project bag

Now, I've got a lot of WIPs.  What's that?  You had no idea?  You thought I was project-monogamous?  Nah, sorry to disappoint, I've got a LOT of WIPs.  They need sorting and taming.  I'm not sure what's wrong with me lately, I can't seem to help myself organising.  I'd spotted this tutorial  by the lovely Vera of Negligent Style and knew I needed to make some.

Some vinyl, a scrap of fabric, a zip and a piece of ribbon... 10 minutes later it was done.  Yes, really 10 minutes.  I've never sewn something in 10 minutes in my life, but this is really quick.

I didn't neatly finish the zip ends, mainly because I really just couldn't be arsed, but also because I can't find a nice way of doing it that doesn't squash the ends in.  I've added some ribbon for hanging.  Vera uses snaps so the loop can be opened, but me and snaps don't get on, so I used ribbon.  I'm going to hang them using those opening book ring thingies, or I'll hang them on a hook.  Yes, them, there will be more.

This one is in use already, in the living room, for my goldwork kit.  It's much tidier than just having it all slung all over the settee, and it's prettier than a plastic bag.

Expect to see a rainbow of these, very soon.

Sew Kitchsy - paper pieced bowl

As I mentioned back in January Kristy at Quiet Play is running another one of her fabulous paper piecing BOMs. The theme is Sew Kitschy and it is retro kitchen items.  I don't have space for a wall hanging in my little kitchen, so I'm making the blocks and turning them into practical items. What we needed most were trivets for putting hot dishes down on.

I made a bad choice for the stripes on the bowl, they're not obvious enough.  Speaking of which, I tend to point out mistakes I've made and things I could have done better in my posts.  There are a few reasons for this and I've been pulled up about it so many times in the comments recently that I thought I'd say something here.

I am not showing you the mistakes so you can say "don't be daft, it's brilliant".  This is a log of the things I've made, warts and all.  Don't you get bored reading blog post after blog post saying "ta-dah!  Look what I've made, it's perfect!".  OK, that's how other bloggers want to write, but I'm not playing.  The stuff I make has faults. Sometimes it's just stupidity on my part, other times I can learn from it.  Why not share?  I'm sorry that it bothers some of you, but I'm really not being down on myself.  Yes, I cocked up.  So what?  I don't care so you shouldn't either.

As you can see, most of the fabrics are Flea Market Fancy.  I'd cracked them out for the appliqued cushion and so thought I might as well use them.  Our kitchen has white units with black tops, and the tiles are multi-coloured, all colours except pink and purple, so anything goes.  I used Sketch for the spoon, it was the perfect choice.  So, I basted this bad boy up- I put on borders after making the block, I've just realised I was waffling about be being crap publicly and forgot to talk about what I made! - I started FMQing and...

What the??  How flimsy must that bit of metal have been?  I thought I'd broken the needle the sound it made, then I saw the needle and was a bit confused until I found this in my lap.  Well, no more FMQing for me... Jacob's quilt definitely won't be done this month now!

Scrappy binding and it was done.  I wanted a go at echo quilting, it's something I've never tried.  Yep, should have done that with a walking foot, not a darning foot!

It's OK though for something that lives on a kitchen counter and gets chucked in the wash with dirty socks every week!

The bar thing broke when I was doing the curlies in the spoon, I just kind of carried on, I was so near the end.

I have completely ran out of things to say about this trivet...  Oh, I don't much like the way I did the borders.  I didn't have enough of one print to do them all, so I should have mitred them.

It's bloody huge.  The bowl section is 10", I added far too much of a border and it's loads bigger than the other one.  I think that's an old pillow case on the back.  I'm not wasting expensive designer fabric on the back of a trivet.

The binding went OK.  I did it by machine as I really couldn't be arsed hand binding it.  It's not perfect, but it does the job and doesn't look as bad as it sometimes does!

Is this post over yet?  I'm boring myself...


Related posts

January - oven gloves

Yep you guessed it, more bunnies

I spent 3 hours looking online for bunny fabric.  Some I purchased, most I just bookmarked as unfortunately I don't have an unlimited budget!  I just have to hope they're not gone next week when I come to buy them!

The first three FQs are called Lucky and I bought them from a Thai seller on Ebay.  Wondering why they fit the bill?

See the bunnies dressed as Matroyshkas?  How adorable is that.  If anyone is collecting fabrics with mice dressed as Russian dolls, give me a shout and I'll send you some scraps!

Ange answered my plea for more bunnies, more bunnies, more, more more!  She told me where I could find some of the difficult to find Posy by Anita Hooey fabrics.  I ordered them in pink and lilac from The Brighton Sewing Centre, my first time as a customer of this shop.  Definitely not the last though.  I ordered on the Thursday, on the Friday I got a refund via Paypal and a note saying they'd run out of lilac bunnies and had sent me a refund and a free FQ.  I must have skimmed it as I didn't notice the bit about the free FQ but, the very next day my order turned up and had a free FQ, what amazing service is that?  I also bought another FQ of Enchanted in green as I noticed I was lacking green, and this Wildwood print. 

Tucked into the bundle were a couple of scraps.  One of them featured this little bunny, bottom right of the photo above!  I wonder if they noticed I was going after bunnies, or it was a coincidence?  It was gratefully received, though I now have to identify and find that fabric in all colour-ways possible!

So this is where I am right now.  20 FQs and one scrap.  A lot of blue.  I definitely need some purple and lilac, more shades of green, more red, orange and pink and some yellow.  Not much then!  I've started a Pinterest board... my bank manager is going to kill me.

I've also been the lucky winner of a few giveaways recently...

First up, I won a giveaway hosted by Vera of Negligent Style.  She sent me this gorgeous 1/2 yard of fabric along with the cute little quilt block card:

I won another giveaway at 1/4 incher, Stephanie sent me a charm pack courtesy of the Fat Quarter Shop, I chose Simply Style:

During the Grow Your Blog blog hop, I won a handmade necklace from Dawn at Sadie Jewelry Design:

And last, but certainly not least, Susan of Canadian Abroad sent me this sweet little gnome pincushion.

Thanks ladies!



Related Posts

where it all began
a present
more bunny fabric

peyote triangle

A few weeks ago I went to another jewellery class at The Bead Shop Nottingham.  The class was Peyote Triangles, another kind of beadweaving.

About 3 minutes into the class I realised I already knew how to do this technique, I'd done peyote triangles with Delica beads for my beaded box.  No matter, I love the classes there, we had fun and I did learn how to bead a bail.

We did both sides differently.  The class samples were done in stripes, using just two colours, but I went for three for a more graduated effect.  I have to say, it looks much better in person, beads are so hard to photograph successfully. 

I did the same on the back, using the same bronze coloured beads with a shiny blue and a matt blue.  I'm really chuffed with it!

And it's very diddy!  I just need to string it now to sit as a pendant.  Hopefully I'll have time to make some of the ideas I formed in the class, smaller triangles, linked together...

Quilty bucket list

Have you seen the Quilty Bucket List posts around the web recently?  I had to join in.  OK, I have a ginormous, over-ambitious, completely unachievable to-do list, but what's a few more?  I'm linking up with The Tilted Quilt, you should write your own list and link it up!

I'm pretty sure most of these quilts will never happen, but hopefully some of them will.  I can see some of them being cushions or table runners or smaller items, but that's fine with me.

1. Cathedral Windows.  I love these quilts, they are stunning.  Of course, I need to learn how to do it first!  I love this one by Amy of During Quiet Time.


Photo and quilt by Amy 

2. A Dear Jane style quilt in a rainbow of colours.  It could actually be any sampler, though it would be machine pieced of course, I'm not completely off my rocker!  I found a gorgeous one with a black background but don't know who to ask for permission to show it, so check out the one on this link from Empire Quilters.

I'm also madly in love with this beauty quilted by Judi at Green Fairy Quilts


Photo and quilting by Judi, quilt made by Gwen Nashida

3. The famous Bottled Rainbows ticker tape quilt designed by Rachel at Stitched in Colour, look at this gorgeous one by  Kelby at Kelby Sews.


Photo and quilt by Kelby

4. Green Tea and Beans by Jen Kingwell.  It's stunning, what more can I say!


Photo from the Amitie store

5. I'd love to make a Swoon quilt.  Whether I'd make a mini, a cushion, a full quilt or even a giant one-block quilt, I'm not sure, but it's on the list.  This one from Jeanette at Gone Aussie Quilting is beautiful.


Photo and quilt by Jeannette

6. A Dr Who quilt.  I'm very tempted by this Tardis quilt by Renee.  I'd be tempted to make a really large quilt, using some of Trillium's paper pieced patterns in the border... if I'm being ambitious, I might as well be over-ambitious!


Photo and quilt by Renee

7. A Quilt with a quote or some writing on it, quote not decided yet, but I do love the flip side of this quilt by Kate Spain, click on the link and see the back!


Photo and quilt by  Kate Spain

8. A Stained Glass quilt, like the one designed by Sarah at Narcoleptic in a Cupboard who ran a quilt along in 2012


Photo and quilt by Sarah 

9. Bunny Appliqué quilt, like this one by Katros at My Pink Cosmos,  the pattern is by Toni Alexander of The Red Boot Quilt Company.  You can find the pattern for sale here, though I'm also tempted by the larger bunnies at Hyde Park design...


Photo and quilt by Katros

10. A pieced bunny quilt of my own design.  I'm collecting fabrics for this one so it might actually happen!

11. I have the book for Anni Downs' Some Kind of Wonderful quilt which features a lot of applique and embroidery.  I love this one by Leeanne at Quilt Me Kiwi, I'm drawn to the blue backing.


Photo and quilt by Leeanne, pattern by Anni Downs

12. A completely hand-appliquéd quilt, like this one, Meg's Garden by Kellie Wulfsohn of Don't Look Now, though any of Kellie's patterns would do me!


Pattern available at Kellie's shop

13. An I-Spy quilt for my nephew, possibly using Economy blocks.  I need to start collecting fabrics for this.  He just turned two so this should probably be at the top of my list!

13 is not a good number to end on... I should probably come up with some more, give me 2 minutes on Pinterest and I'm sure I will!