Stitching again...

This little pincushion has been sitting around (everywhere in the house really) for months to over a year ...well, it must be over a year now...

Totally lost any creative mojo during the main basement area reno.. then we had water damage go from upstairs into the basement and ruin all the renovations we had just completed... then, got that repaired and refurbished and then...the stupid stove went on the fritz causing yet another renovation.  WE discovered that "no built in ovens are to be placed within 12 inches of the cooktop or damage can occur to wiring inside the built in oven"..  ...   so had to opt for a complete range, as we call them in this country ...  which meant we then had to have the granite counter top re-cut to accept a total stove instead of just a cooktop...

The granite cutting was a disaster, and the opening is not the size we need, it is slightly larger and still not square, but you can't make a hole smaller once it is cut.  The guy who installed the range finally managed to make it sit as squarely in the opening as he could and it looks okay.  Not perfect, as it could have been if the granite guys had known their stuff ...but, okay.  Oh, and, the first range had Convection fans that were not working, so we had to order a second stove... which has now been installed and is working great.

This is the type of thing that goes on all the time around here.... or so it would seem.  Thirty plus years of renovations have taken their toll methinks.... if I never have to lift a finger to do or even to oversee anybody else "doing" things round here.... it won't be too soon for me.  I'm so done with renovating.

So, there you have it... and, now ...

Got the last embroidery stitches done on it finally ..or thought I had.. stitched it up around almost the whole thing leaving a small opening to turn it through..I am used to small turning openings from doing the little bears...and, got it turned with no difficulty.  However, I don't like how that corner doily bit opens up so deep under it after all...so now I need to do some little stitches to hold it down at almost halfway into it.  That will be a bit tricky as I need to begin and end and, also stitch, on the inside and outside the already turned pillow.  Darn it.  Oh, well, it must be done.

Here it is so far...  this is the part of the little corner of doily that I don't want to lift quite so deep into it if you know what I mean.  Part way will be enough for me.

Here it is next to a completed one from ages ago when I took Karen's class.

Little book

More like a booklet really ...it is just several pages.  With samples of my work to remind me of how I did certain things or things I want to try at some future point.


Anyway... here are a few of my pages.

Variegated embroidery thread.

I moved the white on white embroidery to a page with a bit of colour.   I wrote myself notes as you can see...for down the road when I'm sure to forget what things were.
Some day I want to do a pincushion with yellows and ruffles .. I still have some of the fragile silk hanky..just waiting to be used.......

The pale pink flower pounded fabric below is pretty but it never did become quite what I envisioned when I tried to piece it together so cut it into smaller pieces and have used it in my book.

I did a pincushion in taupes with a bit of another piece of flower pounded fabric and love it... I wish this one had worked out as well....but, it didn't and now...I'm just happy it's still good for something.

Wanted to show you my other flower pounding piece if you haven't see it before.  I posted it a while back. Lovely Olde Worlde tatting cut off a beautiful vintage hanky that I bought at a doll and bear show...for only pennies...I almost felt guilty.  I managed to buy 4 lovely hankies that day.  Thanks to that wonderful lady whoever she was.

Olde Worlde look ...

... I think it looks like something vintage .... and, it does have a bit of actual vintage on it...the tatted edge of a hankie that I bought at the local doll/bear show a month or so ago.  A woman had several silk hankies ..for 25 cents and 50 cents!  I snapped up most of them.

Of course, one does hate to cut into them....but, like Karen says ... why put them in a drawer and forget about them?  Use them on something else .. something that will be seen often.

What about a pin cushion?  Perfect.

The colour on the piece of fabric is flower pounding... using flowers from my garden.  I did it ages ago ...and stuck in in a bag with other fabrics... hahahahah...never to be seen again either really...... looks a bit like watercolour doesn't it?

Pssst... don't tell Karen I showed it publicly without damp stretching it...yikes!! It looks all wrinkly!
Almost as bad as showing your underwear in public....well, ...if you are over 30 that is.

I use my little pin cushions all the time .. some sit behind glass in a curio ... some have been sent away.... they get used and they definitely get looked at. No hankies in hidden places in drawers around here.

It's Christmas all over again at my house!!!

woohoooo....!!  I did a trade with one of the ladies in my stitching group... and both of us were getting pretty down in the mouth, because her pincushion to me went astray.  It's been in transit since early December and ...well, ... should've been here long before now, so we figured somebody else got a nice present .... but, it's arrived today!!  and...it is beeeyoootiful!

Soft creams and ecru colours with bits of greens and some pearlized seed beads.  Such beautiful attention to every little detail.  Click on the photos to biggify and see things better.

I don't recognize the stitch along this corner of the edge.... but, now confirmed... it is crochet.....

So many little corners to look at over and over again...tiny stitching and details to check out ... I'm back and forth between windows with it to look at every aspect of it in really good light.

I loved it in photos I had seen of it before I got it....and it is even more beautiful "in person" .... oh, what a fun day today is!!

And,  now...into my curio cabinet with it.... so no grubby hands will touch it.  Yes, you can look at it..but, from behind glass.......... so it will be a treasure well protected ....

I am NOT a morning person...

...and usually when I do try to be more productive by 'doing' too early, or if I try something that calls for the little grey cells to be more active than they usually are before 10:00..or need my eyes to see something before they are ready to do that.... ..... ...well, let's just say ..sometimes it isn't worth it.

This morning I took my coffee into my sewing room and was eager to put together my latest little pincushion.. even had the machine all set up and threaded, because I was also trying some FME on open weave fabric yesterday ....easy right? ...just change feet, raise the 'dogs' and sew around the 3 sides of my pillow.


acckkkk!  .....wtfajita???.. ........ .....    dammit!!!   No way!!  I'm not picking out those teensy tiny stitches...NOT!

Obviously I wasn't even thinking, period; never mind thinking clearly.  Stitched around the 3 sides of what is going to be my newest pin pillow alright ... ..... but, totally forgot to put on the silk backing ...and the piece of thin cotton that backs the silk..... what a nimno!  I took it off the machine and looked at it and it still didn't even register ...'til I thought... now how do I turn this? ... there is nothing to turn...what have I done? .... Sheeesh...... So.... either pick it all out ..which did not happen, because it would have ruined the satin-one-side-crepe-y fabric, I just know it would've.  Instead...I put on the backing material..pinned and stitched it as I was supposed to do in the first place ...just barely inside the other line of stitching... whew!  It worked.  Happy camper, me. Saved my lovely piece of fabric and embroidering..

So, I have a slightly smaller cushion..but, not enough that anybody would notice or care... because there is no regulation size, of course......

I particularly like this little area of webs and detached chain leaves.. peeking out from under the lace that runs across ...

Now...just to stuff, close and stitch around the outside ...and my first off white cushion is a reality...

had an idea...

...while stitching on the paper....
Why not FME some lace and silk onto my new 'master sheet' for my next pin pillow....

so, I did.. then added a few French Knots and some tiny Forget-Me-Knot flowers, which have become a trademark of sorts.... and, here is what it looks like in my little pin pillow view finder... yes...I like it... lots more to add yet ...but, so far I really like it.

And.... this is blooming.... isn't it beautiful?

Best laid plans....

"I don't think we are supposed to be playing with it"...
                                                                                 











"Don't worry....  I won't get my wet nose on it or nuthin' "......

"Okay, ..well, maybe I could touch the lacy bit just once too"...

"Oooooh... yeh...feels nice".....

"Uh, oh..............busted" .........

Hi, my name is Vee, and I have an addiction...

But, ... it's a simple, harmless, pleasurable little addiction... that's what it is!!  This is my fourth little pincushion.  And .... I put the blame squarely where it belongs.  On Karen!

I love them all and I love making them.  There.  I've admitted it.  That was lovely and cathartic.  Whew.

Take some pretty bits of fabric. Stitch them together.  FME seams.  Embroider and add tiny bits of favourite trim or snippets of vintage hankies or whatever you like.. et voilà !!  A "pretty".

Little hearts of cross stitch with some pink knots inside the top part of it... makes them look like cute little strawberries to me ..

Some cross stitch on a snippet of a vintage hanky that Mom gave to me eons ago.... when I was just a kid....

I love making these little Forget-Me-Not type flours... just 5 French Knots around and one for a centre...

Buttonhole lace edging on the bit of lace covering one corner.. and still need to do that all around the outside of the whole pincushion.


Uh, ohhh......
already looking at another area of the 'master sheet'..... deciding on bits and bobs....hahahhahahahha
like I said in the beginning..... ...addictive....

And, now....a third...

... almost completed.  Having the "master sheet" already made up and just being able to cut each piece out and embroider and trim makes it go a lot faster than beginning a new one each time.  Not that it's a race.

There is now just the last row of buttonhole lace stitching around the outside to do.

Wow... that is one of the things that takes me quite a long time and is very tricky.  The thickness of the edges makes it hard to get a needle through it ....and I end up using my haemostats to pull the needle through on many stitches.... it took me an hour's stitching last night just to do about 3/4 of the edge... not that I'm complaining...just sayin' ... and, so ... that means about another hour and a half to finish.  The second row will be simpler, of course, and not difficult to pull through.  It is more just stringing the thread through each stitch now... to finish off the outside neatly and prettily... it makes all the difference in the world to the overall appearance.

See the little soft cotton piece of my vintage hanky with the tatted edge?  Right there along the lower corner?  I still have more left...and I love how it works so well with the embroidery on the pillows... I will continue to use it all ... I may even have enough to do all 6 pillows that will come from the master sheet.

My idea to use a couple small bits of my lacy fabric that I won in Karen's giveway didn't go as easily as I was thinking it would.  I cut some some, placed them and promptly went blank... they didn't look like much and I had no clue what to do ... but, as the days passed...I had a few thoughts...and did a few stitches in other areas while I tried to puzzle it out.

Here's how it looked the first day....

Then, I wondered about just using one and some other stitching.... but, no.....

So, I continued to puzzle and stitch.... and here's how they look now...

They've come a long way baby!  French knots to hold them in place as well as bulk out the edges; bullion knots to surround them and make them stand out; more French knots as tiny daisy flowers ...

Another little bit of folded lace ( my new stuff I got in the village of Armstrong, B.C. for $1.50 for 5  metres) ... . ... and hey... a second little not so dangly thing-me-bob. I attached it a bit too close to a corner....live and learn.  It then sort of flipped up and looked more like a tab or handle.. so I had to stitch it down after the fact... not an easy feat..  nor is doing a few French knots when you can't get to the back of the fabric...but, I did it...hiding the beginning and end of the threads beneath the lace... tricky that.

The next one?  I make darn sure I remember a few lessons I already learned on my first three pillows.... the fourth should be a little less hassle..... but, ...maybe not.  You know how it goes... try something a bit different yet again and hey...more tricks to learn...  good thing old dogs can so learn new things.