Country Garden Stitchery

I made my daisy sampler cross stitch design into a little felt pillow today.  It looked like a little pillow design to me.       I finished another embroidery pattern of simple little daisy blossoms in redwork.  I used a bunch of my red quilting fabric scraps to make the front of the pillow and did an envelope style back so I can change the pillow cover now and then.  I was in a red mood today I guess.  Have a great weekend!

Our local art group got together yesterday and had a potluck and spent some time making fabric flowers.  We made pinwheels, I'd never made pinwheels before and I love it.  There were big stacks of fabric scraps, strips, buttons and such and everyone just did their own thing and came up with some really neat flowers.  All different and really unique.        Layered flowers and frilly toule accents and silky flowers and cotton canvas strap flower. One of the artists likes to work with metal and makes some fabulous creations.  She took out an old metal coffee can top and cut it into the shape of a flower and added some beads with wire.  Loved it.   Last weekend it was snowing so I spent Sunday sewing and photographing some designs .  I decided to finish my blue lilacs cross stitch into a runner.  I bought some really bright chartreuse green fat quarter fabrics off Etsy a couple months ago and they...

I'm working on a little sampler design with a daisy flower all in red.  I really like using just one color in a pattern.  I like to finish most of my designs with sewing and that makes it really easy to find matching fabrics :)  Think I will use wool felt on this one too.  It is a small design and will make a cute little pillow.    I started my lace scarf a couple weeks ago and it is coming along nicely.  I found a really easy pattern to memorize.  I think this is maybe the second lace project I've ever done, I'm usually a colorwork/fair isle knitter and for me those are easier patterns to keep track of.  Last night I was watching the new series first episode of "Missing" and I lost track and my pattern is way off so I have to rip a bit ... exciting show - the lady can fight :)     

Last Friday I finished a bunch of my smaller cross stitch designs into small pillows using wool felt fabric and added a little lace, rick rack or buttons.  This is the finished Wildflowers Sketch design and I liked the way it turned out.  These are nice to display and they don't take up much room.     My newest hand embroidery design is inspired by a green tea illustration I did for greeting cards.  A little lavender bouquet and pale pink jasmine flowers accent the design.  This is my collection of small pillows I made last Friday and I'm keeping them in this long basket together.  Four of them will be great to decorate for autumn.  This is a fun project to do if you have small pieces of fabric you want to use. 

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...