This was a kit, and I will be honest I can't remember where it came from! I think that it was a freebie from a class I took some where. If anyone knows, let me know! I tucked up the top and bottom to give it a little different shape. I liked that the finish was to insert the stitched linen piece right in. I did use black thread to secure it, and I think it made for a little bit neater finish.
The first set of blocks I completed was for a baby girl, Teagan. This set of blocks is for a little baby named Thomas. I was trying to pick fabric that wasn't particularly baby fabric, but had a blue color scheme. I did find out that his room has a whale theme, so I think that it will match well. I was hyper focused on the fabrics I was choosing for these block projects, and then realized that it is for a baby, and that they probably wouldn't care if it matched anything!
I don't think that I have ever tried to work on a project from a book! I have lots, and lots of embroidery and cross-stitch books, but I don't think that I have actually used one to make a project, until now. It was a great project! There are two people I know who recently had babies, for which I wasn't really sure what to do for a gift, or really if I should give a gift. I did want to make something, but nothing too complicated, and I also wasn't sure about what colors to do, etc. I happened to think to myself to look in this particular book: S is for Sttich: 52 Embroidered Alphabet Designs and Charming Projects for Little Ones.
I fell in love with the block pattern, and loved the idea of embroidering the baby's name on the blocks. I am rather novice at sewing, but everything seemed to come out okay, and I found a little more confidence with the sewing.
I have posted before about this wedding announcement project that I have been working on. I haven't had much time for other stitching or finishing because of this project, so then it seems like I am not blogging very often! I find it hard when there is a deadline to balance everything. I am so excited to be doing this, but I miss being free to work on what I want to work on! I also miss thinking of blog posts to write about especially because I still have lots of finishes to post about and other projects I would like to show. I still have the commitments I made in my last post to fulfill!
This project has gone through many different color changes, but I have settled on these. Also, the design has changed, as I have have tried to figure out what was the fastest, fit the best in the heart cutout, etc. I decided on a lavender sprig because in the language of flowers it means 'devotion'. There will be lavender in the flowers on the wedding day! The cards are from Christinae Dahlbeck of Germany. The lavender design I modified and changed, but found the original idea in a German cross-stitch and craft book from Acufactum. The English title is translated as All Beautiful Things.
I found this paper at Joann's Fabrics to cover the back of my stitching. The announcement will be written by a calligrapher on the inside of the card. I have finished 17, and only have 20 more to go! Now that all the decisions are made, and the design sorted out, the stitching is going to move along much more quickly! Fortunately, there isn't too much other planning to do. We have a scheduled elopment in Quebec City with four guests for April 4th at 3:00. The next day we leave for a Paris honeymoon- and hopefully everyone will receive their announcements that week of our news!
Here is another January-inspired stitch. I love stitching things for the months, especially these small pieces. They seem to stitch up quickly. This is a Rouge du Rhin kit. Many of the embroidery stitches I hadn't attempted before, so it has been a good learning experience. I will say that this kit is very unforgiving if you make a mistake! I used the wrong color green on the leaves, and there was no extra to take it out and re-stitch it. I think that it will be okay, and that I will have enough to finish it! I will have to pay extra careful attention on the next one. Any finishing ideas? I was thinking of maybe a little ornament....
Kindly, ~Jaime
August 3, 2012 was the most wonderful day I have ever had, when my sweetheart Dan, asked me to marry him. We are going to be married on the 4th of April 2014, in Quebec City. We will be married at Notre Dame des Victoires, and will be having a wedding dinner at Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac. Farimont offers an elopement package for up to 10 people. We will have five quests with us. We are so excited! The day after the wedding we leave on a romantic honeymoon tour of Paris for a week! Because we are having such a small wedding, we wanted to send wedding announcements with a picture of our wedding day to our family and friends. Because we have minimal planning and preparation to do, I decided to make these announcements my special project!
I will post more on this project again!
I posted about my Daisy Chain ABC's a little while ago when I started it. I have never done any crewel work before, so had only stitched the letter "O" becasue it looked the simplest, and I wanted to see how I did. It is really quite fun doing crewel, and it does work up fairly quickly! I have completed up to the letter K so far:
There are some stitches on this that I have never tried before, and I am pleased with how they came out. So far, I found doing long and short stitches on the "K" the most difficult. The next letter has some other stitches that I have never completed, so we will see how it goes! I am really looking forward to see this in a frame.
I purchased these kits from The French Needle, one of my favorites to purchase supplies. They are a little bit out of my comfort range, but I am excited to give it a try. The sheep kit involves wrapping thread around a wire to create the wool, and the two flower kits are ribbon embroidery, a first for me. I am working my way through my Daisy ABC's project, and will post a picture when I am finished with the first row of letters.
I purchased this kit from Rosie LIttle Things several months ago. I have one letter finished- 25 more to go!
Here is a project that I am in the process of finishing. I am having so much fun with finishing! This past summer I took a sewing class at a local sewing school. I am so fortunate to have been able to do this. The class worked in my schedule and gave me the confidence I needed to try my hand at the sewing machine. I have been motivated to try different finishing techniques because of work I have seen on the blogs of other stitchers. I would read posts and wish so much that I was able to finish my needlework projects so beautifully! That was my main motivation for taking the class. I am trying to learn as I go, and to find as much information as I can online. Also, I have been on the hunt for a good book title on needlework finishing techniques. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!
I have decided to name this "Winter Hat Girl". I was given this stamped piece of fabric by a very, very dear friend. She gave me four different 'hat girls'. I became inspired by red work embroidery, and thought that I would finish the hat grirls in a pseudo- red work embroidery way by only using a single color for each design. They are rather large in size for a pillow, so I decided to make them into seasonal wall hangings based on the pictures. With her muff and mittens, this one clearly seamed to be the one for winter! Here are some of the project details: