Egg-stra stitching..

.... oh, brother....I suppose I could go on forever with the eggy titles...but, I should quit...hahhaha.... but, why? .... it's kinda fun and ...funny to me..... good enough.

Doing some extra stitching on the scalloped edge of the lace on the top of this one.... Karen's little frilly dilly stitch...she calls it Frilly Picot.  I never know if I've got it quite right...but, it looks right to me and with the number 12 Perle cotton and if I pull each stitch pretty tight...I can get it tiny.  Click on the photo to "biggify" and you can see it so much better.  I love it.  And, I think it really enhances the flat lace.  Gives it more body or something... and makes it more interesting to look at.


See the four little tiny scalloped bits on the lace edge? ....  just above the umbrella looking machine stitched flower on the cotton fabric I used for the base fabric?  Those are my little frilly dilly thingies ..... with some French Knots above holding the lace in position.. until the whole egg gets a backing of white silk.




I'm debating what to use for trim on this other guy...and ... more or less leaning towards a bit of this lace on the top end of the egg......

Not much time to stitch today ....but, must do a few each day at the very least.........every little helps, as my Mum was fond of saying.... then she would add...... "said the little old lady who peed in the sea"....... must be an old English saying ..or ... maybe she just made it up .......

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....

Beginnings...

... of my next pincushion... my fourth now... wow!.... not that I'm speeding along or anything.
A few little French knot flowers.  Look like Forget-Me-Nots..

It's so much easier and pretty quick too when I already have the 'master sheet' of fabric ready to go whenever the spirit moves me.  Remember the master sheet of pretty fabrics?  So much easier than putting each one together separately.                                                                     















Pick a nice area, figure out exactly the size and shape the cushion will be and begin embroidering..

Decide on some trims... embroider a bit more and soon, it begins to take shape... I love putting them together.  They are so tiny and dainty and I love working with tiny things.

Pin pillow

.... or pin cushion if you like....  WARNING:::: photo heavy ..... hahhahahhahahah....

I love it!!

Began it over a week ago as a break from the blocks of my wrapping cloth.  Well, and also, because all the others in the Simply Stitch group were making some... one girl made 6 already...whew...she must be 'da bomb' seamstress!  Me?  Well, I'm Slowpoke Rodrigues myself.... but, that's okay....

And, for me it began with a cutout window of cardboard.... I wanted to try to get an idea of how things might look when completed.  My window is 3" X 4".

Some decisions, ....     placing and piecing of fabrics ...  including a piece of Dupioni silk, some FME (Free Motion Embroidery) to hold all in position.  Then,  cross stitched some tiny hearts onto the silk ...they remind me of strawberries .. ..., some edging of the very plain flat lace on the right side with frilly picot stitches to make it more interesting, buttonhole edging of the top corner piece, placement of a cut off tab from a large stiff pretty collar piece from Maggi's cousin and lots of French knots here and there .....et voilà... my pin pillow begins to take shape.

After decorating it with more knots and stitching it went to the machine.  Which is where I usually stall out totally.... have to check to see I have it threaded right... put some matching thread on a bobbin... but, check page 13 of the manual to see if I have the thread in the proper place to do that... then, actually practice a bit on a scrap to see if I can more or less make a straight line..which by the way, is more harrowing than just haphazardly doing some FME... stitched 3 sides on the machine...turned it ..and oh, ... was I happy with the look!   Sometimes I do take a long time to make decisions it seems ...but, in the end ... am usually very happy with all of it... so, no time wasted really.

Stuffed and finished.

Dupioni silk for the backing.

Frilly picot stitch along the plain lace trim.

Little cross stitched hearts that look like strawberries to me.

Edged in buttonhole lace stitch.  Finishes it off perfectly.  And, there you have it....my first pin cushion.  Yay me!

Web stitches on silk

I love stitching on silk.... I wish all my pieces were silk.... maybe some day I will do a block or even a small cloth all in silks.

A couple small bits snipped from a pretty piece of trim sent to me ... placed on two strips of skinny trim ... stab stitched into position with stitches on the diagonal... and then... "encrusted" with web and French Knots... don'tcha love that word?  .... encrusted...   sounds like jewels on a crown...

 The clean up continues for the poor flood victims.  It is hot now and must be dreadful doing all that heavy dirty work in such heat...

Watering restrictions were lifted at midnight for the rest of us and I am busy watering plants and the lawn... 'midst trying to organize where to stitch next and making something for supper.  Oh, yeh...and doing some laundry as we have also been trying not to overdo with anything pertaining to city water until the water subsided somewhat.  The reservoir and sewage treatment plants were working overtime.

I've got big nuts..

What? ...


They're knots? ....okay then...I've got big knots.

Chinese Knots too.  It took me the better part of the day yesterday to make two of them.  About midnight...I cheered myself right out loud....woohooo ... got it!

Today I will try to make a third with the remaining cord and see if I can even go one better and hide the seam as one is supposed to do.  The instructions say "keep seam facing down at all times when you work"...yeh...right.......I'll just do that .. along with standing on my head and facing south, while I try to get the loops in the right place at the right time and remembering to put the trailing piece of cord over or under or beside the leading piece of cord etc.....  and then tightening it all to get a round knot...

I'm sure it will all be much simpler when I have made about a dozen...or so....

Of course, the first part where I had to stitch some silk fabric onto a cord..turn it and make it look right wasn't easy either.... for somebody who is not on intimate terms with a sewing machine.... oh, and.... I had to cut some nice bias strips before that .....  which I did from a print out on folding fabric to get the most out of it for bias strips.

... tacking silk onto cord.

Pretty happy with my first two nuts...er ....  knots.....

new header

Check out little Tanner... remember him?

He went to live in the UK with a blog buddy.  She took this great picture of him ...  he was very busy 'helping'... they did a search for some white fabrics to add to my embroidered cloth that I am making.

She put it in the post last week ....so now...this week I will be looking out the door every 10 minutes.... to check the mail.... even though I know full well nothing has moved all weekend what with it being a holiday and everything....sigh..... maybe by Friday..........................................

Meantime.....what fun I'm having with every part of this Karen Ruane class.  She calls hers "wrapping cloths" ...but, ....I think I've decided to call this first one my "Friendship Garden Cloth" ...  because it is going to be a collection of bits and pieces that friends are helping me gather to make it.  My sister has found a pretty doily to send me too now... and a lady up the block has said she will go through her quilting pieces .... I've been thinking I may also be able to trade something, including two silk hankies (that are too colourful and not my choice for colours really.... to others in our class for some trims or hankies of other colours) ...  .. we'll see........

I added what was going to be a little silk pocket.  I was just fastening it with the two shell buttons and the thread wrapped loops when something happened....   my hand caught it kind of funny... it tipped up on the back end... the button fell off before I poked the needle through the hole,  ...  ... and ... all of a sudden, all these little white and gold stars and gold knots spilled out all over the place !! ....

Couching

But, with a bit of a difference ... I tried a bit of gauzy chiffon type fabric..on a little piece of silk I found hanging around ..

That was fun.

Then I made some Prairie Points.... apparently it's just folding little squares to look like mountains...well, that's what they remind me of anyway...

Maybe when I piece my fabrics and trims...this piece of lace that is also pointy will add some interest....

Onward..... Rouleau Loops next ...