Country Garden Stitchery

I finished my wildflower sketch cross stitch pattern today and really like the all black on grey colorway.  I'll have it ready for the online needlework show in April.     I found some really nice wool fabrics on Etsy to finish some of my cross stitch designs.  I am going to use either the red or the dark brown to finish the wildflower cross stitch above. I wanted something different and the wools are so nice.    My green tea embroidery is a work in progress.  It is a big design so I decided to take a break from it, but it is coming along and will be done by the online Needlework Show in April.  I haven't decided how to finish it yet.  I think it would make a nice big pillow and I have some green fabrics I think would match. I bought some lace yarns from Knit Picks and they are wonderful.  The lavender purple yarn on the right is an alpaca blend and it is heavenly.  I'm going to knit a lace scarf I t...

I made some new needlecases with my Spoonflower fabrics.  I liked the shades of pink from the watercolors in this fabric, lots of variations.  A really cheerful fabric.     This fabric is made from a colored pencil drawing of sweet peas, pansies and a few little blossoms that I don't know the name of - I just drew them.  The printing picks up the texture of the drawing so nicely.  Neat unique fabric.    I printed these watercolor flowers out at a fairly large repeat and when I got them back decided to decrease the size and think I will like them better.  Thought these would be cute for kids rooms or summer things.  Not sure what I will do with them yet.   

I finished my Easter bunny cross stitch design last night and finished it into a composition notebook journal cover.  I bought some hand dyed ribbons on Etsy and thought those matched well so added them to the side and top.  I used Gentle Art Simply Wool thread for the pattern and I really like it.  This is the second time I've used it.  They are adding more colors to the line all the time so there's a nice selection now. I used just one strand of the wool and the cross stitch filled out nicely and is very soft.  On Sunday I found a great blog with wonderful sewing tutorials on it.  She's a lovely  young mother of three who sews and sells her patterns online.  She calls her blog "The Cottage Home" and she generously shares many tutorials.  I found this one for a fabric portfolio  and made it with a blue fabric theme and used a couple of my Spoonflower fabric samples.      The two bottom pocket...

I've been busy this week making new home decor products in my Zazzle shop  because they've just released some really nice new products including pillows, kitchen towels, napkin sets and placemats.  The best thing about these new items is they are made in the USA by sustainably employed single moms, very exciting!  I started with the  kitchen towels  since I love to put flowers on everything.     I made some dots with some more watercolor flower paintings and put them on napkins, kitchen towels, and placemats for matching sets.  The napkins come in sets of four.  One set measures 20" x 20" dinner napkins or 12" x 12" set of cocktail napkins.  Made out of nice 100% cotton.     I made rose pillows  with a smaller rosebud design and little blue dots.  These are nice big pillows measuring 20" x 20" and made out of 100" grade A woven cotton with a hidden zipper closure and a p...

I took a bunch of my Spoonflower fabrics from my Apple Blossom collection and Pink Collection and made a quilted tote bag, a nice big one for weekend trips.  The inside lining, the handles and the middle strip in between the patchwork is a batik fabric in a nice spring green that I thought complimented the other fabrics well.    It went together pretty quick, but I had the pieces all cut out in advance.  I thought about making a throw quilt out of them, but lost interest in that adventure.  I like making small quick things better and I will use this bag.  I have it on display in my bedroom since it is so colorful and there's very little color outside right now.  Maybe I should buy a fresh flower bouquet at the store this weekend.  Hope you have a good day!