Birthday card for Helinä

The design for this card was inspired by my blue Colour your life exercise from Sharon’s journal class. I hand appliquéd the fabric in place with the help of freezer paper.

The French knot circles are stitched with 2 threads of stranded floss.

Take a closer look at this card here.

Old slipped detached chain stitches

TAST stitch 68 is slipped detached chain stitch. It’s one of my favourite stitches and today I want to share a few old examples. Of course I start with my TAST 2010 sampler. I posted a slideshow about the making of it here.

This sample is part of my PLOS border sampler. I stitched a feather stitch with perle 5 and decorated it with slipped detached chain stitches in perle 8 and 12.

A detail on my PLOS sampler There is no spoon. The slipped detached chain stitches were part of the base for my whipped wheel. The thread is perle 12.

This is a seam on my Vintage fabric book page. Chevron stitch in stranded floss and slipped detached chain stitches in cotton a broder.

A seam on block 2 for Karen’s class Embroider, Embellish, Create. I decorated the half chevron stitches in perle 12 with slipped detached chain stitches in cotton a broder.

This spider is part of my second block for Sharon’s Encrusted class. I wrote a tutorial for this spider here.

Hookah Smoking Caterpillar

Alice in Wonderland is Catherine’s theme for the book page swap at Fibre Fever. 
At first I had a different idea for her page, but being the last person I had to choose a different character.

After reading Mollie’s tutorial I tinted the caterpillar with coloured pencils.

I stitched the outlines in stem stitch and whipped backstitch with 2 threads of stranded floss.

Take a closer look at this page here.

Top knotted buttonhole stitch

TAST stitch 64 is top knotted buttonhole stitch. This stitch was new to me and I had fun experimenting with it. I stitched my samples on 14 count Aida and started with perle 5.

Here I made a crossed top knotted buttonhole stitch with Caron Watercolours.

In this row I combined top knotted buttonhole stitch with knotted buttonhole stitch. The thread is Caron Wildflowers.

A top knotted feather stitch with perle 5.

And a top knotted Cretan stitch with cotton a broder.

Take a closer look at my complete sampler here.

Anne’s fairy

Last week I received another beautiful fabric book page. Anne used Angelina for the wings of the fairy.

Thank you, Anne!

Selvage ATC’s and inchies

Yesterday I played with selvages on my sewing machine. I turned the scraps into 
5 ATC’s . . .

. . . and 3 inchies.

It was great to be creative again!

Old fancy hem stitches

TAST stitch 67 is fancy hem stitch. It’s a great stitch and I like to share a few old samples to inspire you. The first one is my TAST 2010 sampler. You can read the details in my original posts here and here.

This is a work in progress photo of my last TAST 2010 sampler with a repeat of all stitches. The threads are yellow perle 8 and DMC fil or clair.

A seam on my ornament Beezzz. I attached the lace with fancy hem stitches, the threads are perle 5 and a metallic thread.

Here I attached a piece of lace on my pink ornament. The thread is perle 5 and Sulky metallic. Later I added some French knots between the stitches.

My last detail is part of block one for Karen’s class Embroider, Embellish, Create. It was the perfect stitch to secure my rouleau loops. The thread is cotton a broder.

Birthday card for Janny

I used the fabric scraps from my quilt Pot vol blomme, because Janny gave my quilt it’s name. I combined machine and hand embroidery.

Chicken scratch needlebook

My father started to learn embroidery on paper, so I made a needlebook for his birthday. The size is 5 x 5 cm or 2 x 2 inch. The chicken scratch on the front is stitched with DMC 80. The edge is a Palestrina stitch with perle 8.

 Mary Corbet wrote a tutorial about using the Palestrina stitch on an edge here.

Old buttonhole bars

TAST stitch 65 is buttonhole bar. There's no time to stitch , but I do have some old buttonhole bar samples to share. 

This is a detail on Nefertiti with 2 buttonhole bars, a cast on stitch and lots of French knots above the pulled thread.

My second sample is a detail on my embroidery Touch. I used the buttonhole bars to attach a wooden donut bead.

A raised buttonhole bar on my first pebble. I explained how I stitched this here.

Three buttonhole bars on my second pebble, which is still a work in progress. 
I twisted the thread around the foundation stitches after each 8-12 stitches.

Work In Progress

Maybe you already noticed I don’t blog often these days. We are working very hard to turn 2 smaller rooms into one big room. So there’s not a lot of time to be creative with needle and thread. I hope to return to regular blogging in a few weeks.

Work In Progress Wednesday - May 1

Lots of progress this week, I added the last 3 bindings by hand. The next step is stitching the mitered corners.

More info about Work In Progress Wednesday at Pin Tangle.