Needleweaving 2

This is my second attempt to needleweaving. I still wanted to try pulled thread, so I used some aïda for it. It was very easy to count the stitches, but it was very hard to pull out the threads! It was supposed to become a square, but I made a small rectangle (3 inch long). I didn't weave in the pulled threads. On the long sides I made hemstitches and straight stitches on the other sides. The weaving was very easy on this fabric. I made small bars over 2, 3, 4 and 5 stitches with 2 different colours.

Needleweaving 1

The May challenge for Stitch Explorer 2009 is needleweaving. First I wanted to make a pulled thread piece, but then I had to pull out so many threads before I could start! That's why I made a small example (1 x 1 inch) on the fabric. I made 10 straight stitches and started weaving. When it was finished, it looked like a little carpet. So I made some fringes in straight stitches on both sides. Then I made a woven wheel with woven picots to make a little flower.

Groninger blanket additional block 3

This pattern is from my old Dutch knitting book (Libelles 300 breisteken boek). It's a lovely addition to my blanket.

SAL Japan - framed

This lovely embroidery is designed by Miriam and I finished it in March. My husband made some frames for me, one for this and one for my Assisi train. I didn't want it painted so it's already finished.

Groninger blanket additional block 2

I just finished another extra block for my blanket. This time I used Ivana's pattern, she named it stripes and cables. I cast on 52 stitches (1 extra stitch on both sides) and knitted the pattern twice. I started with row 2 (purl) and cast off in row 36 (second time).

Inspiration Award

Julie gave me this Inspiration Award, thank you Julie! These are the rules for this award:

* link back to the person who gave it to you

* put the picture award on your blog

* you can nominate anyone and as many as you choose

* leave a fact that no one knows about you

* leave a comment on the blog that gave you this award

Well, for the unknown fact about me: I have a lot of UFO's, I only have to quilt them :-)

I want to give this award to Miriam and Nadia.

Chicken scratch heart

I started this heart last February, after I finished this. I used the same fabric. Last week I finished it as a birthday present for a quilting friend. I used white thread for one side of the heart and red for the other side. It's fun to see it's so different! On the edge I attached some white ribbon with red beads. I didn't make the roses, I just bought them. They just finished my little heart.

Groninger blanket additional block 1

I need more blocks for my blanket and I found this lovely block on the forum of the Wolhemelblanket group. Here you can see the pattern. So far I have made 25 blocks and I need 40. Maybe I make something like the one Miriam made. I saw the pattern in my old Libelle knitting book too. I already made a list of patterns I can use.

Foreign text somewhere

. . . was the name of the swap I did recently. Liz (left) and Marsha (right) sent me these ATC's. Liz used words from a German book about Moscow. I used a part of a Chinese newspaper from the USA and scraps of origami paper to make log cabin ATC's.

Casalguidi: Tree In My Garden

Yesterday I finished my casalguidi project. I added some flowers to the right side of the tree and then I finished the grass. The yellow flower is a woven wheel, a cast on stitch flower-bud and a detached chain stitch flower-bud. The purple one is done in buttonhole stitches, I made them very close together. After the first round I did another one to give it some dimension. I wanted to have some birds in the tree too. The body of my bird is an oyster stitch. The head is a detached chain stitch, but I finished the stitch with brown to make a beak. I made the tail with a few straight stitches. And the eye is a French knot. The curved bottom appeared while I was stitching, so I left it this way. I only made an outline around the sky in the Portuguese stem stitch to complete my embroidery. Below you can see a dimensional detail of the grass at the bottom of the trunk.

I wrote about this project several times. You can read it here.

Embroidery presents

I made this card for my father's birthday. The numbers are designed by Miriam. I used the sashiko pattern of the 7 background. I like the Assisi style of the numbers. Two quilting friends celebrated their birthdays today and I made some presents for them. This lovely matroyshka is one of them. She's about 2 inch tall. I used this pattern.

And this lovely biscornu scissor fob is the second one. It's about 1,5 inch and I attached a crab claw. The pattern of this one is a retired freebie. There is a video of it here.

Casalguidi 6

I finished my raised stem stitch band on my Casalguidi embroidery, so now I can show you what I made. This started as an enlarged doodle. It's not finished yet. I have to add more grass at the bottom, some flowers on the right side and maybe a bird (or two) in the tree. I already wrote about the trunk and the sky here. And I made a tutorial for the green pulled thread triangle stitch here. The purple flower is done in detached chain stitches with a French knot, the stem is a whipped chain stitch with double detached chain stitch leaves. The butterfly is made of 4 detached chain stitches and a bullion knot with 2 straight stitches. Now I'm working on the grass. I use woven picots for those, with the help of Mary Corbet's video tutorial. Click the photo to see it bigger.

Groninger blanket blocks 25-27

Yesterday Miriam showed her Groninger blanket. She already crocheted 25 blocks together! That reminded me of my finished blocks, so here they are.

I altered the last one, I made 9 hearts instead of 5.

Casalguidi 5

I found a triangle pulled thread stitch in an old Dutch embroidery book for my Casalguidi background. I like the shape, so I share my way of stitching it. It's stitched in rows from right to left. The stitch is done over 3 x 6 threads. First you make a V-shape in 2 steps. Make a horizontal stitch from right to left by picking up 6 threads. Then make a diagonal stitch from bottom to top.

Close the top with a last stitch to complete the triangle and bring your needle up for the next stitch. When you finished a row, just turn your work and stitch the next one.

And this is how it looks on my project. I made the rows from top to bottom and reverse. I also started to make a raised stem stitch band. I couched 3 threads of cotton and covered it with satin stitches. This little sneak peek is 1 inch wide.

ATC

This lovely ATC was in my mailbox today. It's the second one that Nel made for me, the first one didn't arrive so she made me a new one!

Casalguidi 4

This is just a sneak peek of my new Casalguidi project. It is going to be about 3 x 4 inch and I'm working on the background. The part on the photo is about
1 x 1 inch. The brown on the right side is the same stitch I tried here on the back of the fabric, but I changed the direction. The other stitch is new, I found it in a magazine I bought last week (Anna 5-2009). The brown line between the 2 stitches is the Portuguese stem stitch. I already know where to put my raised stem stitch band too!