Two new buttons

With no stitching at all done in recent months and with some time off over the holidays I tried to get back into my house quilt the other day (after shaking off the layer of dust on it, slight exaggeration but nearly!!) I did another window.  Gosh how I wish I could time travel back X months and tell myself not to do the windows with raised stem stitch.  Five hours for a single window is nuts.  Hubby keeps encouraging me on this quilt, but I just don't feel the love for it which I don't think is helping my motivation.  But I still have a rather large space on the wall waiting for something amazing to fill it, I just don't think this quilt is it.  Sigh.  

Anyway, I sat yesterday and in a fit of trying to kick start my sewing mojo (or was it just procrastination??) I did another couple of buttons.  Square (ish) ones this time.  I love the look of pieces where someone has just sat down and let their fingers just stitch and somehow the result is something beautiful.  Random stitches, beads, buttons, lace etc.  When I've tried this myself I usually just end up with a piece of fabric with some random stuff stuck/stitched on it, no beauty in sight.

But I'm trying.  I'm trying to step from my comfort zone and I guess, while it seems contrary to the outcome, maybe it takes practice to create beauty from random stitches?!

I love the look of Boro embroidery, or any embroidery that is for the most part running stitches.  So this wee guy was just about creating something with running stitches mostly.  I quite like how it turned out. 

I don't have a very big stash of fabric.  But I came across some pictures of fabrics woven together to make a bigger piece.  So I gave that a go.  I somehow still managed to create stripes of the two fabrics I used, oh well note to self at least 3 fabrics next time and mix it up a bit.  I got some beads on there, randomly 'sprinkled' which is definitely not within my comfort zone (beads are scary).  And while its no beauty, it is woven and it is random.  So its a success!

 Better yet I feel like I want to stitch more.  So maybe they've helped my mojo along a bit after all.

Thanks for stopping by. 😁

I'm still here!

So not a lot of stitching being done of late.  But lots of crochet!  I'm not sure what it is about cold weather but it makes me feel like crocheting.  That and my daughter shaved her head to raise money for people with Leukaemia, so I made her something like 7 different beanies!  And I made sampler blanket which was supposed to be for me but is currently covering said daughter who isn't feeling well and has been seen covering the hubby when he has a Nanna nap on a Sunday afternoon.  At least its being used right?!?!  I have used it myself and it is so lovely and warm... totally worth it!

Anyway... TAST is still ticking along and last week there was a stitch that I hadn't done before - Scroll stitch.  So thought I'd give it a go.  Its not a stitch for 2 strands of DMC, its definitely better suited for thicker threads.  But I managed a small sample.  And here is Chicken Little number 103!!

Slow and Steady...

So I'm slowly making progress on the house quilt.  I'm finding I don't have much time in the weekends of late so I'm squeezing in a bit of stitching where I can.  As a single window frame takes about 3-4 hours its slow going.  During the week I'm just mentally exhausted after work and the idea of rounding up bits seems like way too much effort.  I'm not capable of much more than picking something to watch on Netflix, so lazy!

I'm pleased with how the pink house is looking so far.  I'm still deciding what to do about the eaves of the roof.  I did layer two pieces of fabric there.  Its hard to see but there is an off white edging slipped under the black.  The original picture has small white dots within the black which would work, but I'm just not sure I like the white fabric edging.  So do I couch something thicker along there or maybe some small buttonhole stitches or something.    I can't take the white fabric out, well I could but it'd be a nightmare and probably end in tears.

I'm also still debating a dark edge around all the big pieces.  Close up it looks OK but looking at this photo that first house is definitely blending a little too nicely into the background.  Although that might be OK depending on how I stitch/quilt that sky. Ugh the decisions!! haha.

Haven't even made any buttons of late.  I have a few images to do, just haven't gotten the bits together to do them.  Thats a task for this weekend - getting the bits within reach, so I can just pick them up and make a start while the credits roll on Netflix haha.

Anyway thanks for stopping by and apologies for there not being a lot of progress on anything!

More buttons...

I've been sick with a nasty cold this last week and haven't done any stitching, or much of anything really.  But I also didn't post the pictures of the buttons I'd made either.  So I do have some show and tell today.  Please note most of these aren't my designs, I've just been picking up images off the web that I either like or its a technique or style I'd like to have a go at.

Its quite funny how different they look being all the same size.  They're actually a mix of maybe 2cm right up for 4cm across.

Things I've learnt:

1.  I can't draw or cut a decent circle to save my life!!
2.  They definitely look better with a bit of padding under the fabric
3.  I still don't get the appeal of variegated thread
4.  I am intrigued by the idea of 3D stitching.  While the bear (or dog or whatever it is) didn't totally live up to expectations I do like the sticky out nature of the ears.  And the sitting off the fabric of the petals of the pink flower.  So I need to think up some more ideas to use that.  Maybe even try one of those hair embroideries that are around on the internet.
5.  I still love French knots but I think I like chain stitch a bit more than I did.  Will try to use it more.
6.  I should really think a bit more about it before using pure white fabric.  There is something to be said for an off white, cream or natural type colour fabric (IMO)
7.  Would like to say I've learnt how best actually make the buttons but I am still finding I have some where the back is quite bulky.  But as I'm only 20ish buttons in I am pretty sure I've still got some lessons to learn.

Hoping to spend some time on the house quilt this weekend but still not feeling that flash, so time will tell.

Oh!  I did get my curtains made.  Did I mentioned they're for peaked windows??  Well I even created a button especially for those curtains (the rude word one), I came across image on the web and it really spoke to me after I managed to cut one of the curtains out the wrong way.  I obviously cut one right side up and the other wrong side up, resulting in two curtains for the same side of the window.  Oh the language!!  But all fixed now and curtains are made and hung.

Thats all I have for now.  Thanks for stopping by!

Raised Close Herringbone

This stitch was made for feathers I think. 🐓🐓🐓.  And leaves, but feathers are pretty cool and you don't need to pack the stitches in quite as tight if you are doing leaves.  

I've also finished sewing back up my DMC colour chart fabric book which I'm pleased about.  I've replaced the spine and the pages actually only a lot flatter as well.  I'm not 100% sure why the spine wasn't opening properly, but it is now.  So yay a good job done.

And thanks to getting all the new DMC colours the other week I even had the perfect red to do another window on my quilt project this weekend - nice!  In saying that I haven't finished the curtains that I'm supposed to be making but shhh don't tell anyone!  😊

Thanks for stopping by!

Oops I got sidetracked!

So there has been absolutely no progress on the embroidery on my quilt since my last post.  I've done some testing to find some quicker options for the window frames, without a lot of success I might add.  But we've been having a heat wave and with no air conditioning (cause its not usually warm enough to need it) and sitting under the quilt top has not been at the top of my to-do list.  Especially not sitting under my sewing lamp which gets quite warm all by itself.

Anyway... I still felt like sewing.  So as I've no doubt mentioned before I'm still hunting for the 'perfect' sampler idea.  And I still haven't found it.  But I have found stumpwork samplers and spirit clothes and things like that and I like those.  They are made of small individual embroideries so I was heading down that track.  And I dunno... somehow I decided to make buttons or brooches... or small round things, whatever you want to call them.  So I've made some of those.

Here's the few starting ones.  The first four are about 3cms round (-ish)  which at the time I thought was quite small.  So the heart is 5cm which is quite a jump in size and is quite large.  So the last one is about 4cm which seems a better size, not too big not too small.  I haven't got a button maker or anything like that so these just have a piece of cardboard in them and the two larger ones have a bit of thin batting in between the embroidery and the card.



I think they're cute.  And while they might look a bit sad currently pinned to a spare piece of grey t-shirt fabric hopefully once there's a whole pile of them they'll look good.  Different sizes, fabrics and colours.  Keeps me out of trouble and gives me something to do in the evening rather than watching Netflix! haha.  

I'm still lurking on the TAST Facebook page, this week they're doing Raised Close Herringbone (tutorial is here).  I have done this stitch before but not as part of TAST so I'm going to work on doing a Chicken Little for that over the weekend.  And I have a set of curtains to make.  And fingers crossed I might get some time to work on the quilt.

I think thats it from me... Thanks for stopping by.

More progress and some shopping (yay!)

Firstly to the shopping... One of our local shops finally has the new DMC colours so as a birthday treat I bought one of each of the new colours.  Is it weird that makes me really happy?  I guess some of it is my control freak nature.  And some of it is that I've felt a bit cheated since the colours came out when I spent what felt like so long building up a full set.  When they went and released another 35 colours my wonderful colour swatch book was suddenly incomplete again!   Mind you I do have to agree there were some gaps in their range. 

So I have sewn up swatches for 25 of the 35 colours and just the last 10 to go.  It will mean I need to unbind my book of swatches mind you, but I've never been totally happy with the way the binding works (and looks if you look closely enough) so maybe thats a good thing.

As for my houses quilt/embroidery I've made some good progress today.  I admit now I couldn't face another window today - I really must find another (quicker) way to do the windows.  

Anyway so I made a start on the lamp post outside of House number 2, that came together pretty nicely I think.  For the post itself I used a full 6 strands of DMC and then used buttonhole to couch it down.  For the light, I used some felt to get a bit of height and then used long/short stitch to cover the felt.  I'm quite pleased with how it came out.

I'd done the door for the house last weekend but the door frame was bothering me.  The painting has just some white dots on the black surround and a French knot wasn't going to be big enough as its about an inch wide (and I already have plenty of French knots).  So I tried a single strand with some detached chain and some tiny French knots, it looked Ok so I carried on.  I did at this point use a ruler (oh no!) just to make sure the straight stitches were about the same height on both sides (or there abouts) to make sure when I got to the top things were in the right place to go around the corner.

For the door I back stitched the planks down the door in a slightly darker colour than the fabric, then put a few slightly darker straight stitches for provide some shadows.  The horizontals are two rows of back stitch which I think whipped to get a more pronounced line.  Then I back stitched around the whole door to provide a bit of definition with the slightly darker brown.  It wasn't until it was too late that I realised that the wee gap around the door should actually sit out a bit from the door (per the painting) but oh well.  I can't fill it in now even with couching as of course I didn't use a ruler so the gap is uneven.  But oh well its not like its supposed to be a real house anyway 😆.  The door handle is just a couple of straight stitches across and a large one to connect them, I then buttonholed the vertical stitch.  So if you had really tiny fingers you could actually pull on the door handle, wouldn't help you open the door but thats not the point right? haha.

Stitches used since my last post:

Detached Chain, couching, buttonhole, split stitch, whipped split stitch & back stitch.

P.S.  The final count of French knots on the tree was approximately 2100 - thats a lot of French knots!

Thanks for stopping by!

Thats a lot of French knots...
So the French knots are done! yay!  I had an approximate number that I thought I had done but now when I try and work it backwards based on how much floss I used approximately it doesn't make sense.  So I'll need to dig out my tally and double check the count.  I did end up using the 3865 'white' that I had, I couldn't see the difference.  Maybe what I had down as Blanc was in fact 3865 to start with, the thread was so old its entirely possible thats the case.  But if I can't see it now, once its up on the wall there is even less chance of anyone spotting any difference.

So with all the French knots done.  And the decision on how to embroider the leaves still pending.  I didn't have too much choice but to make a start on the houses and in particular the windows.  Although I did still delay the windows a bit more by starting with the roof of the first house haha.

House One:

Running stitch - Pretty easy decision for the first roof, the original painting had what looks like running stitch.. so easy peasy decision made, turquoise floss picked to tie it in with one of the other houses and first roof done.  

Split stitch - Used for the brick work on the chimney,  I used an light orange floss that tones in with the roof fabric.

Detached chain with French knots  - I used this under the roof eaves I'm not sure if the stitch has a name, well I'm sure it does have a name, I just don't know what it is.  I thought I'd done it before but I can't find a matching chicken haha.  Its simply detached chain secured down with a French knot instead of a small straight stitch.

Raised Stem Band - I used this for the outer window frames.  Because I'm not using any rulers or anything I had of course to eyeball the spacing on the band bit.  I then used a single strand of floss to weave the band.  Each window took over two hours, probably closer to three.  But when I tested it a double strand would've worked up faster, but would've been too thick I think.

Long/Short stitch - Used for the inside of the window frames

Cross Stitch - I couldn't find a fabric that really made me happy for the brickwork at the bottom of the houses.  But I think the few cross stitches I've sprinkled on the brick work of the first house has made me a bit happier with it.  And I've managed to use another stitch!

So technically I could say thats House One done.  I'm still debating some additional stitching within the lighter windows themselves to get that lights on look.  And whether or not I need the dark outline around everything like the original image.  But I'll think about that as I go.

Thats it for now.  Thanks for stopping by!