Pillow

I'm still searching for ideas for the contemporary embroidery challenge. My first idea came very quick and after that nothing popped up any more. I found some nice experiments online, I like this one! Now I'm looking again to things I made and found this lovely pillow. It was a kit and I know I had fun making this. The embroidery is done with cotton on canvas in different patterns. The chicken was printed on the canvas. The size is 30 x 30 cm (about 12 x 12 inch) and it's the only piece I ever made on canvas. I didn't keep the pattern, because I thought I could not use it any more! It didn't help getting the stitching going, but it was fun to look at it again.

Groninger blanket additional block 6

For this block I altered pattern 16 of Carla's blanket. The original had some bubbles on it and I had to change the number of stitches and rows for the correct size. It looks complicated, but this block had a logical regularity. I started knitting another pattern of this blanket, it's already halfway.

Rice stitch

. . . and square boss stitch are the next tast stitches I tried. I used DMC, 4 threads for the square boss stitches and 4 and 2 threads for the rice stitches. I started in the upper left corner with both stitches. In the upper right corner I made a square with rice stitches. Under that square is an experiment with square boss stitches and a variation I saw somewhere on the internet. In the lower right corner I made a combination of the rice stitch and the square boss stitch in purple. It looks like a cross stitch with a diamond shape instead of a square. I thought this stitch could work for simple cross stitch patterns too, so I made a little house to try that. For the roof and the window I used 2 colours, for the wall just one and 3 colours for the door. Just click the picture to take a closer look.

Crazy Monday 4

The embroidery on my third crazy Monday block was finished last Wednesday. It's very addictive! I used different kinds of threads this time. I used perle for the cable chain stitch between the cherry pie and the red fabric with white dots. The sheaf stitch on the triangle is done in a silk thread I received in a swap. The other stitches are done in DMC with 2 threads. And I made a new block this morning. I used a lovely flannel fabric with apples in the centre. After I took the picture I did some embroidery on it. I think this one will be finished very soon!

Pink

I made these ATC's for a pink fabric ATC swap. I used felt for the background. I made some cuts in the dark pink felt and wove the pink strips through them. The French knots secure them. I made woven and whipped wheels to decorate. The edge is a piece of cotton yarn. I sent these to Hannah and Deena.These are the ATC's I received for this swap. The left one is made by Tricia again, she wrote about it here. Don't forget to take a look at her white one too! The right one is made by Helen and she made two of them, one for me and one for Tricia.

Groninger blanket additional block 5

Another pattern from my old knitting book (Libelles 300 breisteken boek). I added a few stitches to both sides to get the correct size. It was easy to knit, just 2 different rows to remember.

Brown

I made these ATC's for a brown fabric ATC swap. I appliquéd 6 different circles on a piece of brown Gingham. The edge is made of an organza ribbon. The first one with the bat is sent to Ingrid, the second one with the turtle to Deena. And I received these lovely ATC's for the same swap. The one with the buttons is made by Helen, it's a heavy one! The other one is made by Tricia, she wrote about it here. The feathered chain stitch one this ATC inspired me to use it on my first crazy Monday block.

TUSAL July

It’s time to show you my TUSAL-jar again. I did a lot of crazy quilting for a new quilt. I already wrote about block 1 and 2. The third one is finished today and I only show you a sneak peek on the picture below. If you come back on Monday you can see it finished. There are also threads from a dotee I made for my daughter, my first experiment with contemporary embroidery and the cable chain stitch.

This little sneak peek is done in the Portuguese stem stitch and fly stitches.

Crazy Monday 3

I made a third block for my crazy quilt this morning. I wanted to use the fabric with the cherry pie and B suggested to use some orange. I discovered a piece of batik with orange, purple and a touch of green and used it in the corner. Now it's time to do the embroidery. I think I'm going to use some purple for that too!

Cable chain stitch

Miriam reminded me of TAST twice: she did the bullion knot and the sheaf stitch. So I worked on the cable chain stitch. It's very easy, but I like it best with a thicker thread like the photo below. And that brings me to a question. This thread was in a bag with leftovers I bought about a year ago. This nice green thread has only a label with number 955 on it. I hope someone recognize it, because I want to use it more often. Please leave a comment if you know this thread.

Groninger blanket additonal block 4

This block was very easy, but I like the woven look of it. I found the pattern in my knitting book (Libelles 300 breisteken boek). I already started a new one from this book.

Contemporary embroidery 1

Contemporary embroidery is the Stitch Explorer challenge for July. Sharon wrote about unusual background to work on, so I searched for my first-aid box. I didn't need to think twice about the stitch to use, because I wanted to try this one. I used 5 threads of DMC for the interwoven diagonal cross stitch and 2 threads for the French knots. It's a pity I cannot use it any more when I need it!

Gothic girl

A friend of my daughter is crazy about gothic things. Last month she got her diploma, so I made her a gothic dotee. My daughter gave me the gothic parts. The hanger came from her cell phone, the belt was a piece of leather from one of her old bags and the piercing was a part of her old jewellery. I had fun making this dotee.

Purple & green

I made some embroidery on paper for a purple & green ATC swap. It's the first time I didn't use a pattern. I just drew a rectangle and made the holes with a Pergamano pen. I used Madeira thread for the embroidery. I swapped them with Deb and Brenda. I received the ATC's below from Luz (left) and Raven.

Crazy Monday 2

I finished the second block for my crazy quilt. There is a bigger photo here with more info about the stitches. The tatting is made by Kelly and was part of a swap between us.

Groninger blanket bonus block

This was an extra block of the Groninger blanket. It took me some time, because I made a little cardigan too. Maybe I use that pattern too because I'm going to do my 'own' patterns now. There are 29 blocks finished, so I need 11 more! I found some great patterns I have to convert before I can use them.

Circus

A few weeks ago I made these ATC's for a circus swap. It was difficult to decide which yarn to use for the edge, so I made two different edges. The embroidery is done in backstitches on unbleached cotton with a batting.

Selvage bookmarks

When I started to quilt I noticed the lovely edges of my fabric. I couldn't just throw them away! So I started to collect them, I get them from my friends too. So my stash is growing! Time to make something for 2 of my friends who celebrated their birthday last week. I started with a big piece of old denim and sewed selvages in diagonal rows (yes, I used my sewing machine for this!). Then I cut them in the size I needed for the bookmarks (5 x 18 cm, about 2 x 7 inch). I used a piece of felt on the back and sewed them together with a looped edging stitch by hand. I attached some beads to the bottom to decorate it. The cute dice-beads where a gift from Lucy.

Crazy Monday 1

My first crazy Monday block is finished! It took me a week to do the embroidery. This lovely ATC inspired me to use the feathered chain stitch. The rose button was a gift from Faye. I made my second crazy Monday block this morning. It is the same size (6 x 6 inch or 15 x 15 cm) and hand pieced.

Little girl

A friend of my youngest daughter knew she was going to have a baby girl. As a surprise I made this little cardigan in pink and orange. The little girl was born on July 1, so I can show it here now. It was fun to make something this small again!

Dotee dolls

I made the dotee with the flowers for my youngest daughter, because she got her diploma yesterday! The other one is an itty dotee (her body is 1,5 inch) and I named her Itty Keiko. She now lives with Tiffanie in the USA.

The last cute dotee is made by Bonnie for the mini bug dotee swap. Bonnie named her Lil and she arrived yesterday.