I'm back! Been busy, distracted, you name it!

Wow, I have really been remiss in posting here, almost a year! I guess other things have just gotten in the way, and I have been pretty busy.

Here is just one of the things that I have done since the last time I posted. This is not an original idea, but the stitching design is all my own. I didn't make it as a gift, and I don't really know what I am going to do with it, but right now it is sitting at my stitching station gathering orts. Hmm, not a bad idea. I finally found something to stiffen it months after I finished it. I was at Joann's Fabrics a couple of weeks ago and found Allene's Stiffen Quick. It is a spray bottle, and you just keep spraying until you reach the desired stiffness. And, you can wash it out if you don't like it. Perfect for this! Glad I waited until I found just what I was looking for.

New Finish!

Been really busy lately, but still managed to get some stitching and designing in. I made a pouch to carry my cell phone and hang around my neck like a necklace. I don't always have pockets, and kept laying it down and forgetting where it was.

I was just finished with the stitching when I noticed that I made a huge counting error, and had completed the cutting and stitching so there was no chance of repairing it, only starting over. I decided to use it the way it is. I am so happy that I did because it is so useful, and now I don't lose my phone any more. I was planning to line it with white satin, but tried it out for size and decided to leave it unlined because I liked the way the phone shows through. Can you tell where the error is?

"All you need is love"

Today was the wedding of some very good friends of mine. So, I had to stitch something to commemorate the day. I found this "freebie" chart from The Drawn Thread, added the names and date, charted a little border around it, and sat down to stitch it. It was a fun piece to stitch, and only took a few days. Then made it into a pillow, what fun that was. I haven't done any machine sewing in a while, so it really was a treat.

The wedding was great, the couple is very happy, and I hope they like this little pillow as much as I do!

Wait! There's more. When you turn the Summer Biscornu over, this is what the back looks like. I reversed the hardanger area, cutting and weaving in the larger, diamond shaped areas formed by the klosters. So it really is a reverse of the other side.

I thought I would keep this side a little simpler to show off the Gingham fabric better. So I just stitched some blanket stitch flowers inside the klosters. Oops, I just noticed, I forgot to stitch a Dove's Eye!

I finally finished my Victoria Sampler Summer Biscornu! Wow, those over-one stitches seemed to take forever. Well, I didn't get finished in time to enter the contest, but now I have a great looking biscornu, and the contest was a lot of fun.

It doesn't show up very well in the photo, but I love the way the metallic braid looks in the klosters. The thread was from Needle Necessities, and the color was called Hydrangea, which is where I got the idea to do hydrangeas for my flowers.

VS Biscornu Contest - back side of biscornu

Since a biscornu is 3-dimensional, it needs a reverse side. So for my reverse side, I decided to reverse the pattern so that the cut-out areas on the front are now the plain areas, and the cut-out areas on the back are where the hydrangeas are on the front. For this side, I used two different colors of perle cotton because I did not have enough of the metallic braid. And since the cut-out areas are larger, blanket stitch flowers fit perfectly. Funny how things work out!

This side is not finished yet either, but as soon as I get it all done, I will post a picture or two.

Victoria Sampler Biscornu Contest

Recently I was planning on entering the Victoria Sampler biscornu contest, but was unable to finish my entry in time. Even though I didn't finish, I am so happy with the way it is turning out that I thought I would post a picture of it, along with some of my thoughts.

The idea was to take a Victoria Sampler biscornu design and, using our own colors and stitching ideas, create a biscornu that maybe Thea could show on her website. While looking through my stash to see what colors I wanted to use, I came across a metallic braid from Needle Necessities that I decided to use for the klosters. Since the thread color name is "hydrangea" I decided that the flowers should be hydrangeas. The hydrangeas didn't work well with silk ribbons so I decided to do mine in over-one cross stitch and french knots. But the over-one cross stitch takes so long to do, and I didn't have much time to stitch, so that was the reason why it wasn't ready in time. The metallic threads really do not show up well in the picture, so just imagine a little extra sparkle. The colors are just perfect for what I wanted to do. I also love using the gingham linen from Graziano, so I used the blue/white gingham for my fabric. Very summery and yummy!