Country Garden Stitchery

  Working with red and pink fabrics lately inspired by Valentine's Day.  I've made a couple nine patch needlebooks using fabrics from my scrap drawer.  A fun way to use up little pieces in colorful ways.     Heart watercolor fabrics for Valentine's Day. Some candy hearts and blue hearts.  There's also a book lovers fabric and medicinal herbs.  Needlebooks for hobbyists!    A sweet pink Valentine's Day card decorated with a little petit four candy and words painted in watercolor.  I've not tried a petit four candy before.  Think I need to put that on my list of things to do this year.  They look very good.  Happy weekend to you.

  Some felt needlebooks I've been working on this week. I really like embroidering on felt.  The floss and stitches show up so nicely on the felt fabric and it's easy to work with.  Felt comes in great colors too.     A bit of progress on my July Larkspur cross stitch design.  The design has some French knots and straight stitching to vary the design a bit.  I like to add different types of stitches to designs.  I'm looking forward to when it's finished so I can make a new needlebook out of it with some nice purple and lavender fabrics.   I finished my little chickadee into a zip pouch.  I was excited to put a row of patchwork squares on the front, but it ended up on the bottom after I added my gusset.  I should have put the patchwork strip above the plain strip.   Not great planning, but will definitely remember the next time I try to do that :)   Hope you have a nice weekend.  ...

  This week I worked on a Valentine project and loved it.  Valentine's Day is a favorite holiday of mine.  And I really like pink.    I had to have some pink wrapped candy for the photo, which is a bonus.      In this project I dug into my box of scrap fabrics and used up some I've had for years, which made me happy so I can buy some more.  I've been saving the robin egg blue rose floral for a long time and this was the right project for it.      It was incredibly challenging for me to get a photo of the full runner.  I wanted to show the patchwork pattern and the embroidery on each end so I took an above "ceiling" view standing on a chair :)  You can find the pattern  in my Etsy Shoppe    Hope you have a good weekend.  

  I went to one of my favorite quilt shops in Reno for their end of the year sale and had a great time picking out some fabrics to use in my projects this year.    I got a few bolder colors rather than my usual pastel favorites, not too bold, but bold for me.  I needed to add some reds to my collection and they are getting me inspired for Valentine's Day.    I loved this print and found some tiny trims to match.  Thinking of a spring pillow design with these.      After the fabric store I had to go to the bookstore (bookstores are my favorite).  I found a new-to-me cozy mystery series "The Deadly Notions Mysteries"  so I thought I'd try it out.  I like to collect vintage notions and it takes place back east ~ one of my favorite settings.      I finished my little chickadee embroidery and have fabrics picked out to make something.   I bought a grey zipper and am...

  I transfer my hand embroidery patterns the good old-fashioned fashion way with a lightbox or a window.  I used to use a window often before my patterns got a bit bigger and before I purchased a lightbox, which I love.  I use a #1 Micron Pigma Pen in sepia or black. I like the sepia because it' s a little lighter in color.  For my embroidery projects, I use lightly patterned quilting fabrics, flour sack towels, Dunroven House Towels and white linen tea towels like the one above.  I press the fabric lightly before I begin.     I print out the pattern on a sheet of white paper and center it on the lightbox.   I center the towel or fabric over the design and an inch or so above the border.  When I use fabric I'll cut a piece 2" larger on each side of the design for a border to finish the design with sewing or framing.       The finished traced design.  The pen I used wa...

  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...