Happy New Year

Tree Family Christmas

Yesterday I finished this small wall hanging (13,5 x 20 cm or 5,5 x 8 inch). I just had to make it this year, because it’s the last year we live as a family in one house! It’s a pattern from Nini Makes. There’s a bigger picture here.

I wish you a Merry Christmas.

Crazy Christmas ornament

My crazy Christmas ornament is finished! It’s stretched over an old CD with a piece of batting. I think it has a nice sparkle. If you want to know which stitches I used you can see a bigger picture on my Flickr-page.

Totally Useless SAL December

This is the last time I write about this TUSAL-jar, but there’s a new TUSAL in 2010. I already bought I big jar for that, because I had to push my orts down every time! Cindy wanted to show my jar this time, but she didn’t allow you to see all those lovely colors. So I took them out for a picture.

I didn’t do much embroidery in the last month, but there where some new threads for a Sinterklaas ATC, a label for my crazy Monday morning quilt and a Christmas embroidery that’s not finished yet. It was fun to see the contents of my jar grow in the last 7 months. Thank you Yoyo for this SAL!

Crazy Christmas patchwork

I wanted to make a crazy Christmas quilt when my crazy Monday quilt was finished, but that will not happen before Christmas. So I decided to make a crazy Christmas ornament. The scraps are from a box stuffed with scraps I got through the years from my quilting friends. I’m looking forward to do some embroidery on it.

Cupcake with biscornu

Yesterday my friend B surprised me with this lovely cupcake. Inside there was a beautiful crazy biscornu. It’s very tiny, only 4 cm or 1,5 inch! Now I can keep my pins safe, my cats cannot find them when the lid is on the cupcake!

Crazy Monday morning

It has been a crazy week, but I finished my first crazy quilt! I used crazy Monday 13, 14, 15 and 16 for it. I only added a part of a doily, a button and some large orange beads. Instead of quilting, I attached the batting with French knots. This morning I gave it to my friend Y, who gave me the scraps for my crazy Monday blocks. There is a bigger picture here.

Crazy Monday 21

This time I show you the back of my crazy quilt. Some time ago Sharon wrote about the assembly of her crazy diamond quilt and this was very helpful for me. I sewed the blocks together by hand, as always. Then I embroidered a herringbone stitch (on the back of the quilt) on the seams and the foundation to keep the seams open. I didn’t iron it first, I was afraid it would damage the embroidery or the beads and lace. It was a lot of work, but it helped flattening the seams so it was easy to quilt. I’m not showing the result yet, because I want to finish the label first. I use a back stitch for the text on a piece of unbleached cotton. Below you see a small piece of it.

Feeding the Rebels

. . . is the name of my next block of the Civil War Diary quilt. This one is hand pieced on a foundation (L11) in 3 parts. I used freezer paper to get the stripes of the fabric on the right place.

Frog

A few days ago I saw this cute frog. It reminded me of a frog I made very many years ago from a 3Suisses pattern. I still had some cotton of this frog left, so I had to make a new one. My circles are about 4 cm or 1,5 inch. I used a single crochet with green instead of sewing them together.

Postcard from Norway

I was one of the lucky winners of Ati’s give away! Today her fabric paper postcard arrived at my home and it’s beautiful. It’s on a display on my desk, so I can see it while I’m stitching. I’m very happy with this card, thank you Ati.

Crazy Monday 20

This week I sewed the two parts of my crazy Monday quilt together, now the size is 15 x 20 inch (about 38 x 51 cm). I’m not sure if I want to add a border.

Sinterklaas ATC

A week ago Sinterklaas arrived in our country. This was a great excuse to make this ATC for my friend M, who recently started to make ATC’s too. I made the embroidery in back stitches on unbleached cotton with a batting. The background is colored with a felt-tipped pen.

Blue bird

Nikki made this lovely crazy ATC for me. The doodle-stitching bird is a pattern from ‘Doodle-Stitching’ by Aimee Ray. She used back stitches, detached chain stitches and a French knot. We did a swap by using this book, she already received the pink owl ATC I made for her.

Totally Useless SAL November

This time I show you my TUSAL-jar on top of my embroidery for the long and short stitch lessons. First I finished the circles and a few days ago I started with the fourth element in the top right corner. Below you find a close-up of it. But that’s not all I did this month. I finished my last blocks for my crazy Monday quilt, block 15 and 16. For the Stitch Explorer challenge I made a laidwork foundation fish. I made a pink owl ATC for Nikki and a crazy ornament for my friend B.

Crazy ornament

I didn’t touch my crazy quilt this week; I was working on a crazy ornament for my friend B’s birthday. The embroidery is done in off-white stranded DMC and cotton broder. It’s stretched over a CD for the back and the front (with a piece of batting). Then I attached a hanging loop and sewed the 2 parts together. I attached a ribbon on the edge and decorated it with some seed beads. There is a bigger picture here, with some info about the stitches I used.

Pink owl

I made this ATC for Nikki. I used a pattern of a stuffed owl from my embroidery book ‘Doodle-Stiching’ by Aimee Ray. I changed some of the stitches and added a branch. I used split stitches (outline and decoration on the belly), running stitches (wings and branch), stem stitches (branch), cross stitches (branch), laced back stitches (body), satin stitches (eyes and beak) and French knots (eyes, decoration on the belly and background). I did the embroidery on the body after I added a piece of batting. The edge is an organza ribbon.

Doodle ATC's

Last week I received this lovely doodle ATC, Dinie made it. I promised her to make a doodle ATC, it was on my to-do-list for quite some time. But I made 4 different ones with different pens and watercolor pencils on watercolor paper. So I have 3 ATC’s left to swap. There’s a bigger picture here where you can see which ATC’s are available.

Crazy Monday 19

My crazy Monday quilt is growing. This week I sewed 6 blocks together. I only had to remove a bead on the edge of block 12, because it was on the seam. The first time I attached it with a piece of tacking thread and I left a piece of the thread I used for the other beads on the backside. This way I could take a picture and it could not get lost!

Block 31

Last week I finished another block for my Groninger blanket. It’s the last original block I wanted to knit. I only need 3 more blocks, but my knitting needles will stay in my knitting bag for some time. I’m making a black crochet blanket for my daughter. She needs one for her new room when she’s moving out in January. So I want to finish hers first. I need to make 14 rows of 16 squares and I’m halfway on row 8 already. Every square is attached to the others when it’s finished, so I only have to weave in the thread ends when I’m done. I tried to make pictures of it several times, but black is a difficult colour to photograph!

Circles

This is the third element of the long and short stitch shading lessons. I wrote about the first circle here. I had problems covering the split stitches with the second one, so it’s not circular any more. But the last one went very well.

Russet and blue

. . . are the colours of the lovely ATC’s Hannah made for me. She called them ‘Study in russet’ and ‘Blue draping’.

Crazy Monday 18

This week I started to sew my crazy Monday blocks together. I thought it would be difficult to find out how to arrange them, but it was wasn’t. It’s fun to see my blocks change into a small quilt. I only added a part of a damaged doily to the block with the dogs. I’m not making any more blocks for this quilt, but I want to make a small crazy Christmas quilt when this one is finished!

Laidwork foundation embroidery 3

A few days ago I finished my fish. I already wrote about his body. For his fins and tail I used an open fishbone stitch with 1 strand of DMC. The size of this fish is 8 cm (about 3 inch). There’s a bigger picture of him here.

Halloween

I made this ATC for a Halloween swap in 2008. I sent it to Rose, but it never arrived! The fabrics are scraps of a Halloween quilt. I used chevron and cross stitches in black and herringbone and wheatear stitches in yellow. The edge is made of black cotton yarn.

FSM - The making of

Mr X Stitch surprised me again! This time Beefranck wrote about my Flying Spaghetti Monster. That’s why I decided to show some pictures of the making of my FSM. First I drew him on my fabric with a water soluble marker and stitched the lines in backstitches.Then I made satin stitches to create the spaghetti.

I made split stitches around the eyes and whipped them twice.

I made the meatballs with French knots in 2 brown colours. The eyes are 2 black beads. This was the last picture I made before he turned into an ATC. There’s a bigger picture of him on my Flickr-page.

If you never heard about the Flying Spaghetti Monster, you can read more about him here.

Update: Beefranck's post about my flying Spaghetti Monster doesn't excist anymore. 

Strawberry cupcake

Last week I made my second cupcake, the first one was very small. I used the frosting of Teresa’s pattern. For the cupcake liner I altered an old pattern of Priscilla Hewitt. The strawberry is a button and the sprinkles are seed beads. This one was a birthday present.

Gloomy Prospects

Instead of a new crazy Monday block I finally finished block 13 of the civil war diary quilt. I started it in June, but I didn’t work on it any more until yesterday. I made this block on foundation (L11) in 3 parts and I had to draw it myself, because the size in the book was not correct!

Crazy Monday 17

This is block 16 for my crazy Monday quilt, the size is 6 x 6 inch (about 15 x 15 cm). Take a closer look here with info about the stitches I used. I didn’t make a new block, because I want to play with my blocks to see how they fit together.

Laidwork foundation embroidery 2

A week ago I found these couched circles on the Handembroidery Network blog. These can be useful in the Stitch Explorer challenge so I made one in yellow and purple. It worked very easy and I know how to use it in this challenge.But I was already working on a different kind of laidwork foundation inspired by my new book ‘Chinese embroidery’ by Josiane Bertin-Guest. I used a fish from this pattern and reduced the size. First I made split stitches around the body. I made the foundation with 2 strands of DMC in 2 needles, so I could alternate them after each stitch. This way I have no long threads on the back.

I drew the stitches for the second layer on a piece of paper you use for making clothes. I secured it on the fabric with a piece of thread.

I made the stitches through the paper.

Then I had to tear the paper careful and remove it. I used a pair of tweezers for it.

I used long and short stitches for the head, a French knot for the eye and satin stitches for the bubbles. It’s not finished yet, I have to do the fin and the tail of my fish.

Update: you can see the finished fish here.

Pumpkins

Last year I found this lovely pumpkin pattern. I tried to make a pumpkin with cotton yarn, but that didn’t work and I forgot about them. A few weeks ago I found it again and I bought some Nomotta Bravo yarn in orange and green, an acrylic yarn. The brown yarn was already in my stash. My first pumpkin was not so easy, but with the help of Teresa’s video at YouTube it worked. The second pumpkin was finished very quick. I think I’m going to make more of them!

Crazy Monday 16

This is block 15 for my crazy Monday quilt. The size is 6 x 6 inch (about 15 x 15 cm). The button was a birthday present last year and I received the tatting in a swap. Take a closer look here with info about the stitches I used.This morning I made block 16, I still don’t know how many more I’ll make. I just have fun making them!

Totally Useless SAL October

This month I show you my TUSAL-jar in a different angle. The yellow, blue and red threads on top are from the new Stitch Explorer challenge I wrote about yesterday. The pink thread is for a new doodle ATC I started this morning. There is more red (and black) thread underneath. I made 6 ladybugs; 1 for me to practice and 5 for a friend. The light brown is from my flying spaghetti monster ATC. A lot of orts are from my crazy Monday blocks and the long and short stitch triangles. I started with the next element, the circles. This is the first one (½ inch) in ‘textbook’ long and short stitch. I’m not quite happy with the result, but it’s finished.

Laidwork foundation embroidery 1

The new challenge for Stitch Explorer is laidwork foundation embroidery. Sharon mentioned the stitches in my favourite embroidery book ‘Embroidery Stitches’ by Mary Webb, which I always have at hand. So this book is the start of my challenge. In January I made a purple ATC with a trellis filling stitch. Now I started with a squared filling stitch (bottom left) and a plaid filling stitch (bottom right). The stitches at the top row are honeycomb filling stitch (red), Torocko stitch (top middle) and trellis couching (top right). I used 2 strands of DMC for everything, but the last one would be better with a different thread. Maybe I’ll try some cotton broder or perle, because I cannot work with wool.

Crazy Monday 15

This is block 14 for my crazy Monday quilt. The size is 6 x 6 inch (about 15 x 15 cm). The watering-can is a scrap from my first quilt. I received the button and the butterfly in a swap. There’s a larger picture on my Flickr-page with more info about the stitches I used.I started my new block with a cute dog and an autumn leaf.

Quilties

I made my first quiltie for a swap and sent it to Amy. I used an old stained glass pattern of the Spectrum Glass Company. The appliqué, embroidery and quilting are done by hand. I made French knots in the centre of the flower and Portuguese stem stitches on the petals. The bee is a pattern from my embroidery book ‘Doodle-Stitching’ by Aimee Ray. I used satin stitches for the body and sting, backstitches for the wings and a split stitch for the line. The fabric of the background is a scrap from my first stained glass quilt Rosa Plumbi. I decided to give this one a Latin name too: Flosculus plumbeus (little flower made of lead).Ingrid made a beautiful crazy quiltie for me. The picture doesn’t do it justice, the colours are difficult to photograph. She called it ‘The Devil Is In The Details’! The embroidery is very pretty.