Stitching Sunday: More ways to display

Hello to you all and a special welcome to my new followers! Before I start musing about embroidery, I want to say a special thank you to everyone who sent emails, hit the ‘Like’ button and commented on my “Reader of the Week” accolade on Simply Crochet’s blog and Facebook pages. That was an unexpected and very pleasant surprise for me!

And while I’m still on the topic of crochet, I happened upon a very sweet combination of crochet and embroidery...

A crochet border for embroidery hoops! How happy is this? I just did a bit of the hoop to test the pattern. This beautiful idea came from Sew Chatty. She offers a clear and easy tutorial for hooking a scalloped border around a hoop.

This is the scalloped edge – but once you tackle her instructions for the first row, I think you could use any number of borders. I envisage a cute picot edge, perhaps a granny chic ruffle, colourful stripes to echo the embroidery...hmmm, I see a wall of wee little embroideries for children, with candy-coloured crochet borders...uh oh, I can tell this could become an addiction!

In my online travels I also found some simple magnetic discs which will clearly frame embroidery on the fridge, the microwave or anywhere you can stick a magnet.

Framecraft magnets come in various sizes and can be found in many places online. These could make great gifts for family members, teachers, those of you who collect fridge magnets...

Now to some unfinished business. My Hive Sweet Hive embroidery. I was all ready to frame it and dub it a Finished Object, but then I spied a little bag of fabric scraps, and the cogs started turning.

I have no idea where this is going, or how this will end up, but I decided I wanted little hexies around my beehive. I’ve chosen pastels and florals because this will end up on a wall in my kitchen, which is soft green and cream with pinks.

As I stitch these wee hexies, I’m not sure whether I’ll surround the entire hive, whether the hexies will just peek out at the edges, perhaps run parallel in two even rows...I could cut the hive into one large hexie and stitch it onto the small hexies...I’m just going with the flow and hoping something sings out to me. I would love any input, please brainstorm with me!

That's all for today; I didn't achieve as much embroidery this week as I wanted because, well, life just gets in the way sometimes, doesn't it? 

Happy crafting and enjoy the rest of the weekend! 

Chrissie x

Kicking off the CAL...

Ta-dah! My first hexie for the Hexagon Throw is done! Ah, but please, do hold your applause...I have 113 more to go...

Ladybird Diaries and I are officially kicking off our Bloomin’ Crochet-A-Long today! We are both working on the Hexagon Throw from Cute & Easy Crochet with Flowers. I really love the colours Nicki Trench used in her book, and thankfully, I had all but two of the colours in my stash:

See the ball of yarn with the label still on? I bought that plus five balls of cream-coloured DK yarn (I couldn't bring myself to use a very bold orange shown in the book, it's just not my thing with all these pastels). The rest I had in my stash (you might recognise a few from my Blossoming Bag, they fit the palette of the blanket nearly perfectly!).

Here is your Lazy Crochet Tip of the Day: weave in ends with a smaller hook.

I have decided, for the sake of my sanity, to take the time to weave in the ends after every hexie. I cannot face a stack of more than 100 hexies with billions of ends to weave.

But even weaving in as I go makes me grumpy; I really don’t know why I find it so tedious when I quite happily embroider teeny weeny stitches for Stitching Sundays...but we’ll psychoanalyze that quirk another day. 

Instead of threading a tapestry needle repeatedly with the tails, I grab a crochet hook a few sizes smaller than the one I’m using for the project...

...tuck it under a few loops...

...and pull the tail through. Repeat one or two more times in whatever direction hides the tail best. Sorted.

Same goes for the other tails.

A few snips of the ends and you have a neat piece of work!

What’s on your hook? Grab the button and play along!

Chrissie x

Autumn reds

Berry red

Leafy red

Little Red

This is what I have to show for a few days of convalescing and caring for the girls over the weekend...they're feeling much better and back at school today.

This little cutie is from the latest issue of Simply Crochet magazine, with a few minor adjustments to her facial features. But now Little Red needs a friend...

Happy crafting!

Chrissie x