Cupcake dotee

Mary made this dotee for me for the cupcake dotee swap. It has a lovely matching charm!

Purple ATC's

Take a look at this lovely ATC. Tricia made it for me for the purple ATC swap, she wrote about it here. It's very pretty with those tiny stitches. This one is a leftover from the same swap. First a made a crochet rectangle and then I laced it with fluffy yarn. I was not so happy with the result, so I made these instead.

Assisi 3

My second Assisi project is finished. I found this lovely pattern last year and now it was a challenge to make it. I used long-armed cross stitches for the background, cross stitches for the wheels and backstitches for the details and the edges. The train is in the original colours, the background is variegated yarn from my stash. I already have an idea to push this technique in my own direction, so the story is going to be continued.

Groninger blanket block 22

I finished another block for my blanket. Now I have made 20 blocks, because I skipped 2 blocks. I'm also working on my second Assisi project, it's almost finished!

Rain . . . time to quilt!

Today it's raining, so it's time to show you this lovely stitchery. It's 4.5 x 6.5 inch inside the frame. Instead of the logcabin I used a starquilt from my stash. 'Hoera Quiltweer' (hurray quilt weather) is designed by Anke and she has a new webshop (it's in Dutch, but there is an email adress on the bottom of the page) with lovely mini quilts and stitcheries.

Assisi 2

A sneak peek at my second Assisi project. I use the long-armed cross stitch for this one. It's a nice stitch worked from left to right, so you have to start again every row. I used 2 threads of variegated DMC and dark blue DMC. This is the result of 2 hours stitching, it's very addictive!

Groninger blanket block 20

This was a lovely block to knit. The next block is already on my knitting needles and almost halfway. I like to knit in the evening, when it is too dark to do embroidery.

SAL Japan - Sashiko

My SAL is finished. I skipped the second row of sashiko, because I made mistakes every time I tried again. My fabric is very dark and it's difficult to see the threads. I'm not sure how to finish it yet.

Assisi 1

The March challenge for stitch explorer is Assisi. This was new to me, so I read a lot about it online and found this lovely spring bunny pattern. I made a little Easter ornament with it to discover this technique. I used 2 threads of DMC for the cross stitches and 1 for the backstitches. Green is one of the traditional colours for Assisi, so I used 'spring green' (light and dark) for my ornament.

On this page there is a link to download Assisi Embroideries by Thérèse de Dillmont. It’s listed as Dillmont, Thérèse de, Assisi Embroideries, DMC Library.

Orange

Yesterday my last ATC for the orange swap arrived. Tricia made the orange slices and Hannah the one with the button. I used my sewing machine to make mine, which is very rare for me. I made a large piece of different orange fabrics and some yarn. Then I used the parts I liked best for my ATC's. I added some beads and finished them by hand.

Crazy block

Once again Sharon inspired me. She told about an old embroidery book, written in 1884 by Mary Haehnlen (with a link to download it). I tried some examples on my block, the dark blue one on the left and the brown one above it. They turned out a bit different, but I like them. I also made a whipped wheel, Cretan stitches, fly stitches, herringbone stitches and buttonhole stitches.

Groninger blanket block 19

This morning I finished another block. I worked almost 2 weeks on this one! Now I'm going to make the one from last week. I have a week for that one, because I'm going to skip the block for this week.

Shisha stitch

The trellis stitch reminded me of the next TAST stitch: the shisha stitch. I used DMC for almost every item in 2, 3 and 4 threads. It works better for me with 4 threads or perle, which I used for the purple one in the centre. I had some larger sequins, a mirror sequin and a coin with a square hole in it; they were perfect for this stitch. I also made some shisha's without a filling: a circle with a smaller circle inside, a triangle and a hexagon. I worked both ways, clockwise and counter clockwise. I prefer the first one, it works better for me.

SAL Japan - Cranes

I finished the second part of the SAL Japan. The cranes are embroidered in cross stitches with 2 threads of DMC. For the stitches on the left and the right side I used DMC broder special. It's the same thread as the first part.

Meggie

. . . is the dotee I made for Dana for a wish-list swap. She wanted an Easter dotee, so I made this dotee in the shape of an egg. I used some scraps from my quilt Tok Tok, which I made in 2002.

Tiger Cat

This lovely cat ATC arrived today! He is hand-drawn by Mary and he reminds me of my first cat. He had the same look in his eyes. I made a sealife ATC for Mary. I already wrote about the trellis fish here. You can see a larger picture here, with some information on the stitches I used.

Trellis stitch 5

Diane made a great tutorial about constructing a crazyblock, which reminded me of my first crazyblock. I made it a year ago, but I still didn't finish the embroidery! I was worried I didn't do it right. But Sharon recently wrote about the rules of crazy quilting: There are no rules in crazy quilting! So I did some embroidery on my CQ-block. I used the wheatear stitch, the chevron stitch and some buttonhole wheels with detached chain stitches. And this weekend a made a flower.I used trellis stitches for the heart of the flower and double detached chain stitches for the petals with 2 threads of DMC.

SAL Japan - Kogin

This is the first part of the stitchalong Japan, designed by Miriam. I used DMC broder special for it.

Coffee-break

During my coffee-break I finished my cupcake with a cherry and sprinkles. It's Teresa's pattern and you can find it here. I used 2-ply yarn instead of 4-ply, so my cupcake is smaller (2,25 inch high).
I think it's only my first cupcake!