Country Garden Stitchery

  Inspired to take a break and sew yesterday so I looked through my collection of quilting and sewing magazines for an inspiring pattern.  I found an apron pattern in the "Simple Quilts" issue.    I bought some pretty Christmas fabrics with a robin egg blue theme a few months ago and have been saving most of it for a special project.  I didn't know what it would be, but knew it would come to me...     I had enough to make the "for the cook" apron and cut out all the pieces.    I like projects like this because I always learn something new.  This pattern has a gathered top around the neckline and four pleats at the waist, both were new to me.  As I was evaluating my project, I noticed my straps didn't match up with the waist, but I think I know what I did.  I've done it before with quilting projects.  I don't pay close enough attention to my seam width so on some I sew a 1/4" seam an...

  The robins have been visiting our trees a lot lately to grab the little plums still hanging on.  They've been inspiring some of my bird designs.  I like robins, they're a brave bird and stay around a while if your near.        I started a little chickadee hand embroidery pattern on some soft blue batik fabric.  I added some little pink blossoms to the tree branch for a little more color, but overall I wanted it to be a winter color palette.      The little chickadee is in my Spoonflower fabric sample called "The Birds"  along with a bluebird, cardinal and a gnatcatcher.  I love gnatcatchers.  They're so small and chubby.  I hope to see one some day.       He's also in a "Thinking of You" greeting card.      Do you read MC Beaton novels?  I really like her Agatha Raisin series, really funny.  Now and then I'll read one of...

  I belong to a local art group called the "Sagebrush Sisters" and we had our annual  Christmas Art and Craft Fair last weekend.  It's a lot of fun, a lot of work and a great way to end the year.  We have some loyal customers who come every year and it's fun to see them.  I'm always amazed that I only see some of them once a year considering the small town we live in.      There are about 15-20 artists and crafters and everyone's items are different.  We try to make it unique with rustic/shabby style displays using muslin cloth, old doors and windows.  This year we had some apple boxes to display items in.        We hold it in the old post office that has been maintained and still has lots of charm.  This year we had live music and a face painter for the kids (and adults too :)  It was fun and now we can settle in for the holidays.  Wishing...

  Our local art/craft show is this weekend so I've been working on some pillows and other things to take to the show.  They've been fun to make using my  drawer of scrap fabrics.  I think that may be my favorite part, sitting down with the design and my drawer and finding coordinating fabrics.      I received my Spoonflower fabric samples back and think they printed nicely.  This is kind of a "Farmer's Market" collection that wasn't planned.  :)          Watercolor dots, lots of dots!  These fabrics are fun for kids items.  Hope you had a great Thanksgiving holiday.  Here comes Christmas, ready or not! :)   

  I finished the last pattern in this embroidery set for autumn, the cornucopia design.  It's a set of three patterns that would be cute on towels or added to a quilt!      Or made into needlebooks!  This is a fun set that works up quickly.  Nice for gift exchanges too.  You can find them in my Etsy shop     

  Worked on needlebooks this week to stock my shop for the holidays.  I'm getting low on my Spoonflower fabrics so I ordered some more samples and a few fat quarters this week too.  Excited to see them.  It's been a while since I've had some new fabrics to work with.     I have a set of small hand embroidery patterns I'm working on and the sunflower is the second in the set.   It was fun to do and I liked the tall design and different shape of needle book.  I'll finish the next one next week hopefully!   Wishing you a lovely fall weekend!  

  Autumn inspired needlebook with a little wooden wagon and a nice big pumpkin! I added little wings on my birds this time.  Usually I leave them plain, but I like the wings.     We've got our local Christmas fair coming up and I'm getting some things made for it.  Pincushions are always fun to make and this year I decided to make some out of felt.    I love to keep all of my fabric scraps so now and then little patchwork needlebooks are nice to make to use some of them up to make room for more since the year is coming to an end :)

  I'm getting ready to begin a fair isle knitted vest. Big venture for me, but I thought wintertime would be a good time to begin.  I haven't knitted fair isle anything in such a long time and I'm really looking forward to it.  I used to knit fair isle a lot and have made a couple sweaters, socks and mittens.  Alice Starmore is so inspiring!  Anyway, this may turn into a long epic saga style project, but I'm going to document my progress along the way on here.   Here's my Craftsy Affiliate link for the Fair Isle Vest Class   if you'd like to take a look.  Mary Jane Mucklestone is a beautiful knitter and wonderful instructor too.  I've really enjoyed what I've watched so far of the class.      I'm really excited about my winter wheat cowl!  This is the first one I've made and I wasn't sure if I'd like to wear something like this, but I tried it on and it fits comfortably and I'll we...

  I started a lace cowl with some winter wheat hand dyed yarn.  It's got great subtle color variations and really reminds me of the autumn colors around here.  It's an easy to remember lace pattern and the yarn is DK weight so it's working up quickly.    I was able to go to New Orleans (I like the nick name NOLA :) last week with my husband and while he was in classes I toured the wonderful city.  I found a fun knitting shop in the French Quarter called "The Quarter Stitch".   They packaged up my yarn with such festive colors of ribbons and tissue.  It's a little smashed from being packed, but the effect is still there so I took a photo to remember.         Hand dyed yarn in blues that reminds me of the all the waterways in NOLA.  It's very soft.  I'm thinking maybe a hat or some fingerless mitts.    I can't decide what is my favorite part of NOLA but Jackso...

  I fussy cut some fabrics yesterday and made holiday themed needlecases.  I like character fabrics and think the artwork on them is so fun.      I finished my socks today!  It's been a while, I think maybe a year since I started them.  Since winter is coming soon I wanted some new wool socks to wear so I was inspired to finish them.      I used a pattern from Interweave Press "Favorite Socks" collection.  The pattern was really easy to remember once I got going on it.  Very happy with them and they'll be a nice addition to my hand knit sock collection.      I bought this yarn a while ago and think I'll make something with it next.  I'm thinking about a cowl, a lace cowl.  I only have one ball of it so it's got to be something small.  It's a nice wheat color.  Good for autumn.  Hope you have a great weekend.  

  I designed this desert crystals fabric for a geology themed contest on Spoonflower a while back.  I have a jar of crystals I collected when my husband and I were first dating (years ago :) and I was inspired to draw some of them for this contest.  We'd go out exploring in the desert and in certain areas there were so many pretty little crystals!  I kept a little collection for myself in a jar to remember.   A talented sewist emailed me photos of a blouse she made with the Desert Crystals silk crepe de chine fabric.   I thought she did a lovely job and wanted to share it.   You can get a closer look at the fabric here Desert Crystals Fabric  

  I've been enjoying embroidering on felt lately and decided to make some little brooch pins for autumn and Christmas.  I made a couple in pink in honor of October breast cancer awareness month.   I received some new felt in the mail today and the seller did such a nice job packing it I wanted to take a photo before I opened it.      I got some cool colors for winter designs.   And some warmer shades for autumn and Halloween.      The weather was so nice yesterday so I took my sock knitting project outside and worked on it for a while.  Sat with my cat (sounds like Dr. Seuss), knitted and enjoyed fresh air.  I'm almost finished with the second sock!  I've been working on this project for a while now and  I'm looking forward to wearing them.  I guess the colder weather has inspired me.  Hope you have a great week.   

  I've been working on Autumn and Christmas designs and finished a merry snowman tea towel today.      He's easy to embroider.  I used Gentle Art hand dyed floss in "Buckeye Scarlet" red.  The skein had great color variations.      I'm looking forward to making something out of the snowman fabric I used for the background too.  Maybe another BOM project with Christmas fabrics.  That sounds inspiring.

  I finished my June Rose cross stitch design yesterday.  I'm making them all into needlecases because I like useful little things like that.  All the designs measure 4" x 6" so are easily framed in standard size frames.  It will be in your local needlework shop soon!   I went to the local annual outdoor antique market last weekend and found these two tea towels for my collection.  They have the prettiest little hand embroidered flowers on really soft fabric.  I'm not sure what the fabric is, maybe a linen cotton blend.  Nice colors too!    My embroidery book is now on Amazon! You can Click here to visit and view a few of the pages inside on Amazon's site.  Hope you have a good day.