Slow Stitching - cross stitch embellishments for my next rainbow set

I have a large book of cross stitch projects which I at one time thought I would like to make up a few projects but after trying several of the small ones I found that I did not much like how long it took to complete a project and I don't have all the colours of floss.  So, I have decided to work up a few small motifs from the book into little embellishments for my third set of rainbow squares.  There are a lot to choose from and I am considering several different hearts.  We shall see!!        Therese

Slow Stitching - #6 in the second set of rainbow squares

I played with floss colours and the direction of stitching on my little fabric strips for my background on this one as well.  My heart is hand cut from two pieces of fabric which I stitched together.  I used white floss to stitch it to my background and then ran a length of the same floss under all the stitches which gives a bit of a neat look.  I have several more sets of rainbow squares cut so I will see if I can come up with a different way of stitching them up!!     Therese

Slow Stitching - #5 - second set of rainbow squares

This is #5 - the blue one from my second set of rainbow squares in my Slow Stitching project!!
For this one I used small strips as well for the back ground and did vertical stitching on the top portion and horizontal stitching on the bottom section in a variety of colours of blue floss.  I used white floss to stitch on my hand cut heart.  Not quite as much contrast on this one but I like it!!

Therese

Wild and crazy dryer balls made of felted wool scraps, an old sock and bright jersey fabric

 Dryer balls!!!!!!!!!  I love how these turned out!!  I was less than successful getting wool to felt in hot water and the dryer as so many online tutorials indicate it can be done.  In the end, I did find one place where the lady simply stuff an old sock with other old socks until it was the size and weight she wanted to make her dryer balls SO..... I just decided to make my own version.  I have a bag full of small felted wool scraps which my daughter gifted me so I used them to create a ball wrapping it with yarn as I went to keep all the pieces together.  When it was big enough I stuffed the ball into a piece of old sock and tied off both end using cording woven through the sock and tied off.  I have made a supply of these for my dryer and because they have sock wrappers they are boring brown and black but do the job. 

I decided to gift my daughter a set of six of these dryer balls for Christmas so I decided to give them a make over before wrapping them.  I dug through my fabric stash and found this really stretchy jersey top which was too large for me and I upcycled it into covers for the dryer balls.  I cut a 5" square of the jersey, I fold it in half and stitched up the side using zig zag first and then next to it a line of straight stitching using very short stitches.  You can see the seam on the right hand side of this ball.  I turned it inside out and stuffed a dryer ball into it - amazing how much that jersey stretches!!!  Then I used a large needle and cording to make a line of running stitch on one end about where the fabric meets if you stretch it into place.  Once all they way around I tightened ed only slightly the stitching and then tucked the extra fabric inside and under the edge of the line of running stitch.  As I pulled the ends of the cording tight I kept tucking the inner fabric inside so that once the two ends were as tight as they could be you no longer can see the sock dryer ball.  I tied a square knot and then pulled the ends into the ball to hide them.  I did the same thing on the other end. Dressed up those dryer balls pretty nicely!!!!   

 I wrapped them in one of the Bento Bags I made earlier this year and they fill it perfectly!!!

It will be a happy little surprise for her for Christmas!!!         Therese

Slow Stitching - All three floral hand stitched collage bookmarks

I managed to get a shot of all three bookmarks together before they are sent on their way to their new homes!!  

Therese

Slow Stitching - #4 in my second set of rainbow squares

For this purple square I pinned my strips (its a now the theme of this set  vertically and then stitched horizontal lines of running stitch to secure them in place.  I tried to catch the edges of the fabric on each strip to prevent raveling when this square finds its final home in a quilt.  I used various combinations of thread.  I am using small pieces so sometimes I find 2 threads and some singles so in this case the one set of stitches was executed with a 2 purple and 2 green thread combination.  For another I used 2 purple and one gold thread but I see it is not obvious in my scan.  For this square I secured the ends of all my strips with stab stitches and then added stars (three overlapping stab stitches) on five of them using red thread.  This heart was also cut from a combination of fabrics which I machine stitched.  I did one row of stab stitches all the way around a bit far apart with purple floss and then went back around and added another set of stab stitches using red floss.  To finish off my square I added a red star on the inside of my heart.  I am liking those star stitches and can make them more consistently even because I have come to the realization that I should first make an X and then add a stitch across its center.    Therese

Handmade thread holders

I have been saving some ruined sign holders (election leftovers) for this purpose.  I finally got to making them up!!  Thanks to DH's extensive wood scrap bin we have some very nice mahogany bases 5" x 5" with three drilled holes on the diagonal. He routed the edges and sanded them all down very nicely.
I cut the rods I needed from the sign uprights - 1.5" for the bobbin holder, 6.5" for the spool holder and about 12" for thread holder AFTER I formed the eye at the top.  I used the vise and a hacksaw to cut the pieces and used a file to remove the burrs.  There are two because my sister is getting one for Christmas from me!

Therese

Slow Stitching - #3 in my second set of rainbow squares

Here is my red square in my second set of rainbow squares.  Again I chose some strips from my little stash of red fabrics and pinned them vertically on my square.  Instead of long rows of running stitch I decided to secure all the edges of my strips with stab stitches with red floss.  I added some star stitches (3 overlapping stab stitches) using yellow floss on the one on the right hand side and then added vertical running stitches in yellow on the red and white striped strip and then added french knots on the strip on the left hand side to finish off the background.  My heart is hand cut from a piece of fabric which I stitched together from scraps using my sewing machine.  I laid it over my background and stitched it into place using white floss.  To finish off my square, I added a star in its middle with white floss.    Therese

Slow Stitching - #2 second set of rainbow squares

This is my orange square in my second set of rainbow squares in my Slow Stitching project.  I pinned little strips of fabric from my bag of orange scraps horizontally on my square and stitched vertically using running stitch in a variety of colours.  The ends of these ones were quite a bit more uneven so I finished the longer ones off with a row of central stitching with a set of three stitches on the end.  I chose some bright blue floss to stitch on my hand cut heart which is again quite bright and contrasts with my stitched background.   I decided to echo the colours of the heart and couched two strands of yellow and green floss under the blue stitches.  I did every second stitch which gives it a bit of a different look.    Therese

Slow Stitching - #1 - second set of rainbow squares

I have been slow stitching almost daily but have been remiss in getting the blogging of them done.  I have started my second set of rainbow squares.  For my yellow one, I used small strips of yellow fabric from my stash bin, pinned then horizontally and simply stitched all the way across them vertically until I had covered the whole surface of them.  I tried to catch the edges of each strip as I went along to reduce the amount of raveling that might happen int he life of quilt I plan to incorporate them into.  It is fun to use up short pieces of thread and mix up the colours.  I used blanket stitch in a darker colour of thread to secure my hand cut heart.  I like the high contrast between the background and the heart!!    Therese

Another baby quilt - pink and bound with the backing fabric

 I managed to get another of my small (36" x 43.5") quilt tops finished into a blanket!!

I added heavy white cotton as a batting and this pink, aqua and purple plaid as a backer.  I did all the internal quilting by hand from the back following lines in the plaid which worked very well.  I used a variegated pink crochet thread.  I used the backer to bind the quilt by folding it to the front and stitching it in place with my sewing machine.  Very happy to have another one finished.  I will likely get the red one finished sometime over the Christmas holidays.    

Therese

Sympathy card featuring a sanded white core background, a strip of vellum with an embossed greeting and a glittery butterfly

For this sympathy card, I started with a piece of white core paper which I embossed and sanded very slightly.  I glued this to a layer of coordinating cardstock.  I tore a strip of vellum and embossed the greeting near the bottom edge.  I punched a hole in the background before adding the vellum strip securing the ends to the back of the layer.  I had the vellum intersect the opening just a little.  I glued my large element to the front of a large white card and added the butterfly with 3D foam tape. 

Therese

Slow Stitching - Bookmark #3

Have finished #3!!  It has been fun stitching these bookmarks and  I really like the look of these!!  They are so similar but have their own look as well.  It has been fun to collage fabric scraps with stitching!! 

Therese

Sympathy card featuring starry background paper, embossed greeting and strip and glittery butterfly

For this sympathy card, I used scraps from my stash that coordinated with the butterfly and adhered them to a coordinating layer of cardstock.  I embossed a strip of white cardstock, ran my tracing wheel on both edges and adhered it over the gap between the two pieces of colour printed background paper.  I was careful to not put too much glue on the bottom edge so I could easily tuck my little embossed vellum greeting under the edge.  I put a small piece of double sided tape on the top of the greeting to secure it in place.  I added the butterfly with 3D foam tape and added clear glitter to the centers of the elements on the embossed strip.  I glued this large element to the front of a large white card. 

Therese

Sympathy card featuring wild flower die cuts, paste paper background and a glittery butterfly

 In need of a few sympathy cards this week.  This is the first one I made.  I started with the butterfly which is an embellishment I have had for a while.  I found some coordinating paper in my purple container of scraps which are actually paste paper from a while back. I trimmed the three pieces to fit on the front of a large white card and adhered them into place.  I decided to use these wild flower die cuts (TH) which worked perfectly with the paste paper strips.  I used white glue in a fine tip applicator to adhere them to the card front.  I trimmed my little font greeting, sponged its edges and adhered it to the front of the card.  I applied 3D foam tape to the butterfly and adhered it over the edge of the greeting. 

Therese

Slow Stitching - Bookmark #2

Here is my second book mark finished!!  I finished the same way I finished the first one so they resemble each other.  I tried different stitching on each of the flowers and changed up how I stitched the stems. 

Therese

Slow Stitching - Bookmark #1

I have finished my first book mark!!  After finishing the stitching of the flowers on the front I folded the front over the back and tucked it under the little flap I created to finish it off and stitched it down using buttonhole stitch and coordinating thread.  Next, I did a row of running stitch in black on each edge.  Finally, I stitched on some lace seam binding on the top to finish it off neatly.   I did the same on the bottom with dark brown.  Really happy with how this one turned out!!  I will post the others as I finish them.            Therese

Slow Stitching - floral book marks

I have worked up some bookmarks for slow stitching.  I first dug through my scraps and found some blue that would do sky, green that would do landscape and brown for the ground.  I trimmed them to size and overlapped them to get approximately 5" x 7".  I pinned them and stitched several lines of running stitch with coordinating thread before adding a row of stitching that overlapped and sealed the raw edges.  That was a few days of stitching.  Next, I dug out scraps again and chose some bright ones to create my flower shapes.  I pinned those into place and have used black thread to outline them as I stitched them into down.  Looking forward to working on the other two.   Therese