Stitching Sunday: Slow and steady

To counter the maniacal pace of my crochet this week, I stitched whatever I fancied, whenever I fancied, and didn’t worry about finishing anything. It was lovely.

I’m at the piping stage of the sewing machine cover. This is the trickiest bit for me after the tiny patchwork at the beginning. I’ve only done piping one other time, and it was under the watchful eye of a seamstress friend, and I was basically doing as I was told!

I’m pleased with the results of my first attempts at piping solo. Don't look too closely - I still haven't sewn on the side panels that will even up the piping line. I used the pink fabric that I will use for the lining of this cover, fabric that was leftover from my Happy Spring Quilt.

It should come together quite swiftly now, just ironing on some interfacing and sewing all the parts together. Then it’s on to another practical sewing project, here’s a little peek at the materials involved:

I’m pleased to say that Sam has his eggs and ham, all ready to serve up to picky eaters:

The stitches have ranged from long-and-short stitch, stem stitch, back and split. Then I did the black markings in the ham with a scatterbrained hodge-podge of them all! I wanted thicker, scribbly looking lines, like the illustration in the book, and I found sticking to just stem stitch was too neat and orderly, so I simply stabbed away until I got the look I wanted. You don’t always have to follow the rules!

In other stitching news, yesterday Bunny and I discovered the latest pattern from wee little stitches – Elsa and Anna from Frozen!

We downloaded it faster than you can say “Do you wanna build a snowman?”, and Bunny started practicing her cross stitch on a scrap of fabric, because she herself wants to make this sweetly sentimental cross stitch for her and Little Flower! I'm going to buy her some Aida fabric tomorrow so she can get started.

So I set Sam aside – he’s waited this long, a few more days won’t bother him – and I started this awesome dragonfly kit I’ve had in my stash a little while:

I know, I know, I’ve only ever cross stitched this tiny rose, but I couldn’t resist the sparkly thread and peacock colours! I dipped my toe into the cross-stitch waters, and like so many other crafts I enjoy, I proceeded to dive in head first!

And it’s so fun to have a craft to share with Bunny that we can do side-by-side, and chatting as we go along. Slow and steady, calming for both of us.

Happy crafting! Please share your stitching below!

Chrissie x

Stitching Sunday: Order from chaos

In line with the sunshine this morning, promising Spring and its requisite cleaning, I want to start reorganising my embroidery supplies. I picked up a handy tool to make sense of the plastic bag(s) of embroidery floss...

If I wind a few a day, I could have them all sorted and ready to file away in this handy-dandy gift from my mother:

My mother is the most organised, tidiest person I’ve ever known, and the sight of my craft supplies (or craft piles) must make her cringe. She has given me storage gifts for yarn, fabric and threads. I aspire to get it all sorted this year...

The top will hold hoops and fabric, the drawers keep floss, scissors and needles tidy. And its portable, so I can take it to my craft groups...

I also have this lovely vintage sewing box, bought from a friend who refinishes old and tattered furniture

It has the original blue velvet lining in the top, and a small drawer for organising bits and bobbins

Another embroidery tool that keeps me organised is my magnetic needle keeper. I have a few at the moment, they beg to become a collection!

I have shared my love of magnets before, in this post, written in the first two weeks of my blog. These invaluable little pretties are perfect for anyone who can’t ever seem to be able to sit for more than five minutes without someone somewhere in the house calling out for something! Rather than stabbing the fabric repeatedly or just losing the needle in the back of the sofa, I park it on the magnet, sort out whatever minor crisis only I can solve, then pick up the needle and carry on with my work.

My little magnetic frog!

I found these lovely magnets here.

Now that we’re into February, I can report on the &Stitches Finish-Along. No, Sam-I-Am isn’t finished (ha! Don’t be silly!), but hey-ho, I’ve made more progress with him this month than I have all autumn and winter!

The ham is just about complete. I will add more black stitches today, but I wanted to show you the flow of the green stitches, following on from last week’s post.

I used long and short stitch embroidery, curving very gradually as I stitched. Here’s a size reference:

I couldn’t have done this without this super-geeky piece of kit:

This is a magnifier that I wear around my neck, so I have hands free to stitch. It comes complete with a tiny light if I need extra illumination to my thread. I am so rock-n-roll crazy it frightens me.

I wonder if I could tart up this magnifier, make it less, well, old-lady-ish? I mean really, I love embroidery, I love the cute magnets and gorgeous array of floss, so why can’t there be some Cath Kidston-inspired magnifiers and lamps?

Before I leave you to your day, I want to share some lovely discoveries in my garden this morning...

Amidst the rubble...

Despite the winter storms throwing all and sundry onto the back border of my garden (a thousand twiggy branches from my birch tree, piles of leaves, buckets of rain, and the odd bit of plastic bag blown away from a rubbish bin), the first few blooms change are making their tentative appearances.

The mighty-yet-dainty snowdrop, which no doubt would find a way to pop up through a glacier if challenged. I love these flowers, so delicate yet determined to flourish – never to be thwarted by the ongoing grey of January (note to self: take a cue from the humble snowdrop next year post-Christmas!). They pop up just when you need to be reminded that change will come!

Hiding behind the foliage

I was so delighted to see the hellebore blossoms opening this morning. Only last week I thought they had succumbed to the Christmas soaking, but by the end of the week, fat buds were sneaking out from beneath the leaves.

I love how these blossoms perch bashfully on their stems, heads down, revealing the beautiful rosy streaks on the back of the petals.

Eenie, meanie, minie, mo – do I work on my sewing projects now, or go outside and do some chilly gardening? I think I’ll take advantage of this gorgeous golden orb in the sky...

Chrissie x

Stitching Sunday on a Monday...and a Ta-dah!

Hello and apologies for not posting my usual Stitching Sundays post yesterday – I spent the weekend looking after Little Flower, who came down with a sudden sick bug early Saturday morning. Ugh. The world stops when a sick bug comes along - we weren’t sure if we were all carrying the virus, so we cancelled all plans and spent most of the time in the sofa nest.

Happily, she’s feeling much better today and eating normally, so I was able to put the finishing touches on my latest project:

Ta-dah! This must be one of my quickest WIPs ever, I was so anxious to get it finished! I’ve wanted to recover this bench for a while, and I had the Tilda charm pack in my stash (purchased with no project in mind, just my crazy need to own these beautiful fabric squares!). A match made in heaven.

Once a month on a Wednesday morning I toodle over to Jooles’ lovely home for a quilting morning, and last week I brought my charm pack along. We drank tea, nibbled on warm, wonderful homemade scones (complete with clotted cream and jam, she does spoil me so!), and arranged and rearranged the squares on her kitchen table. What better way to spend a Wednesday morning?  

This was the final arrangement, although I could have kept repositioning one square after another all day long. Do you ever find that with patchwork?

While Little Flower and Bunny were playing a board game Saturday afternoon, I sewed the squares together – which took me under an hour! I’m getting better at this sewing lark... This morning I tooled up and used my new staple gun to secure the fabric to the bench. Then I attached the pretty ice-blue trim with fabric glue. 

Time will tell if that’s enough to keep it all together! The bench is happily in its place beneath my growing wall of embroidery hoops

*sigh* pretty.

Now on to the embroidery part of Stitching Sunday on Monday:

I’ve started the green on the eggs and ham. I decided to fill stitch in a sort of curved direction for the ham - you can see the texture it produces on the left, as the shape of the ham curves.

I use guide stitches whenever I’m filling a space – those are the little stitches spaced farther apart on the left side of the ham. These will keep my fill stitches flowing in the intended direction without going astray and leaning too much in one direction (a common problem if you just use fill from one far side to another). I’ll take more photos as I’m filling to further illustrate this...

And the sewing machine cover is coming along, albeit more slowly than I intended – the distractions of Tilda patchwork and a poorly child!

I finished the ‘Stitch’ and sewed on the measuring tape ribbon; now I’m working on the running stitch and little buttons. I actually find doing a running stitch in a straight line quite challenging, I have to measure and add guide dots along the way!

Little Flower’s resting and watching a show, but now we’re going to bake some cookies. She's requesting chocolate chip...she's obviously feeling better! Wishing you all a happy week, and a big welcome to my newest followers from the Grow Your Blog party!

Chrissie x

P.S. Do link up if you have something stitchy to share!

A broader view of stitching

Happy Sunday and a very warm welcome to my newest followers! I am so glad to be blogging again after the holiday break, and each and every comment has made me smile. Thank you!

One of my goals for 2014 is to do more sewing. I am a beginner, but I need to devote a lot more time to my machine if I want to improve (plus I have *so many* projects I want to try!).

To that end, I’m going to broaden my Stitching Sundays focus to include machine sewing as well as my beloved embroidery. All of it involves a needle and thread, so it’s fair game.

Lady Elna

A project I started ages ago, then stowed away at the bottom of a fabric pile, was a sewing machine cover. What better way to get more into the art of sewing than to create a lovely cover for Lady Elna?

Machine sewing and hand embroidery – a perfect combination. I found this wonderful pattern here, and I had a layer cake of Aneela Hoey’s Sew Stitchy fabric that I bought to entice me to sew (I have purchased *a lot* of fabric with the intention to lure me to the machine...). The two just seemed destined to be together!

I cut and ordered sixty small squares, then sewed them together to form a panel (I'm trying to be forgiving with the uneven squares, I'm still learning). The linen and patchwork panels use a “quilt as you go” technique, ironed to fusible interfacing and sewn together (ha ha! Get me, “talkin’ the talk” like a proper seamstress! I hope you’re enjoying this, Grandma!). Next will be some more embellishment, some fusible fleece, lining fabric, piping...a lot of sewing experience to be gained from one project!

Now an update on my Green Eggs & Ham embroidery, part of the &Stitches Finish-Along:

I’m making progress on the letters this week, ignoring the dodgy “H” and concentrating on the “Green”.

Featuring my handy-dandy needle magnet

It is slow going, as I fill each letter with long-and-short stitch embroidery, but it is extremely calming and enjoyable. I’ll probably bounce down to the ham next, I’m itchin’ to get some green floss in there now...

I’d love to see what you’re up to with needle and thread, link up embroidery or sewing projects below!

Chrissie x

The return of Stitching Sundays

Although I don’t make a specific list of New Year’s resolutions, I start a new year by taking stock of where I am with things and make adjustments as needed...and some adjustments are certainly needed with my embroidery.

I decided to re-launch Stitching Sundays so that at least one day a week, and preferably more, I will give time over to my needle and thread. I absolutely love embroidery, but so often I find myself reaching for the crochet hook, because at the end of a long day it’s easier for me to crochet than it is to concentrate on small satin stitches...but honestly, I think I’m just being lazy. I only find crochet easier because I’ve been doing it so much longer than embroidery.

I just need to keep my stitching supplies to hand, preferably sitting atop my crochet hooks, and I know I will make good progress with embroidery techniques. The concentration helps me to forget about all else going on, which is ultimately very, very relaxing.

If it's written on a mug, it must be true

I have a WIP list a mile long, and I want to clear away some of these projects before I take on anything new (and of course I have a mile-long list of new things I want to stitch, too!).

Luckily, &Stitches is hosting a Finish-Along for the month of January!

I’m now a contributor to this wonderful site devoted to all things stitchy, and a little part of me is wondering if they introduced this FAL topic just for me...and Sam-I-Am...

I know they are fond of my Dr. Seuss embroidery, but the poor fellow has sat waiting for so long, I’m sure they really would love to say, “Get on with it, woman!” but are being polite...

I needed a break from this because I wasn't happy with the black outline of that letter 'H' - it's just sloppy, and I got ticked off that it wasn't working out as I planned. I knew I'd have to rip out part of it, so I put it away for a while. 

I’m joining in this FAL so that I devote more time to Sam, finish up his green ham and eggs, and then I can move on, because I have some ideas swirling in my head that I’m excited to share with you! Do you have an embroidery project needing some TLC? Link it up to &Stitches and finish it with me!

Please also join me as and when on Stitching Sundays – you might be curious to take up some fun and simple embroidery (click on the relevant words in my ‘Looking for Something?’ section on the right for inspiration), you might have a detailed project languishing in a drawer, you might want to add a personal touch to a quilt or item of clothing – share it here! I have some interesting topics to share in the coming weeks.

Link up below, and don’t forget to grab the button on the sidebar...

Happy crafting!

Chrissie x

Stitching Sunday: More about fillings and threads

I’m pausing my beehive project so I can answer some questions I’ve had since last Sunday...

Many of you were interested in the long and short stitching last week, so I’ll illustrate this technique a bit more. I’m going to use the Green Eggs & Ham piece I’ve been working on, as I’m using long and short stitch for the letters.

I decided to do an experiment and try one leg of the ‘H’ with two strands of floss, and the other leg with one strand. The results are interesting.

I could only work on this in the evening (tiny, detailed stitching with young children buzzing around was next to impossible this week!), so I used my daylight embroidery lamp and made the best of it. The fabric is white, but in the photos it looks beige. Never mind, as long as I can illustrate the stitches I’m not too fussed.

As I explained a bit in my last Stitching Sundays post, generally the technique starts with staggered stitches in the first row. I chose to work from the top down, but you could work up from the bottom if you prefer. Start in the centre of the area to be stitched and work out toward the sides – this is because sometimes a row tends to start leaning in one direction, and if you’re working one side to another, you can end up with a leaning row of stitches. Start with a straight line in the middle, and either side will stay straight. Does this make sense?

Anyway, for the next row and subsequent rows, it is key to bring the needle through the threads of the previous row. If you come up between threads, you’re more likely to encounter gaps or holes in your finished work. Splitting threads can be challenging at first, so have a bit of patience and very quickly it becomes second nature!

I’ve used two strands of thread here, and it gives the letters a rougher texture. But for the other side I used just one strand – see if you notice the smoother appearance in the first rows:

Much of a muchness, really, it all depends on the look you are after.

A black outline stitch will sort out those rough edges!

For my purposes, I think I’ll go with the one-strand floss. The letters are rather small, and I prefer the smoother finish of one strand. 

However, I used two strands of yellow to fill in Sam-I-Am, because I wanted a much bolder, almost furry texture to match his outline.

Give it a go with your next filling project and let me know how it works for you!

Next up: tangled and knotted thread. I’ve had some queries about avoiding tangles while stitching.

More than once I’ve been stitching along quite happily only to discover my threads have formed a messy jumble on the back of my work. Frustrating. And some stitchers find it difficult to even get started with more than one strand of floss, because the threads become twisted.

I have three habits that have helped me steer clear of knots and tangles. First, separate the threads:

No matter how many strands you are using, you should pull each strand, one at a time, from the main skein of floss.

Allow the floss to bunch up below the thread you're pulling - it will easily fall back into place once the thread is freed.

Then lay the strands evenly together

Second tip: condition your thread. I have used Thread Heaven for a few months, and I like the smoothness it gives to the strands of floss.

This is a tiny pot of a wax-like substance. You pull the threads through it, then pull the floss through your fingers to remove any excess conditioner and create a static charge between the threads. The conditioner reduces the friction between the fabric and the floss – threads flow easily through fabric and lay nicely.

This isn’t a necessity, but if you are having trouble with frequent tangles, I would recommend giving it a try. I think I bought my Thread Heaven from www.sewandso.co.uk for £3.50, but feel free to Google away...

Finally, the most obvious tip is to check your work every few stitches. I usually peek at the back of my work for the first few stitches, as that’s when I often neglect to pull the floss through completely and end up with tangles. If you get in the habit, then you’ll catch any little problems before they become big problems!

That’s enough from me today, thank you for visiting, and a warm welcome to my latest followers. Please do visit the links below each week, these lovely embroiderers are working on such beautiful projects!

Chrissie x