WIPW - Outdoor Stitching

A bit of the work reported in this Work In Progress Wednesday report was done outside. 

The weather was mild and sunny yesterday when I had to escort someone to somewhere and sit waiting before we could return.

There is a space indoors where I can usually find a seat to sit and read or stitch. Yesterday, though, was so pleasant at midday that I chose a seat on the terrace. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and I was happy to stitch in the open air. 

Is spring here to stay?

Hexablooms

I have stitched together blocks to form half of a new row of flowers.

I have basted some new hexagons and two more flowers.

A Birthday Present

I have started on yet another birthday gift. Once again, it will be an oven mitt/potholder.

WIPW - 100 Hina Dolls & A Birthday Present

Work In Progress Wednesday. 

A Birthday Present

I had a plain store-bought pot holder, and it was easy to decorate it with an appliqué Hexagon Flower block. I also added a line of Knotted Feather Stitch along the bias tape edging.

Hina Hanging Doll Ornaments

To start, do you know about the Japanese festival of Hina? If not, please read last year's blog entry. You can also click on HINA in the tabs above.

Every year, I aim to make three new ornaments to add to the mobile of Hanging Hina Dolls.

Last year, the count was 97 small dolls and other ornaments made of scraps of kimono silk and Japanese crêpe, chirimen.  With the three new ones, I now have 100 (one hundred!)  Hina ornaments!

This year I made 

1) an open needle keep, to hope for good sewing results in the future. The keep has two threaded needles and one floral pin.

2) a Dalecarlean horse, in celebration of the Year of the Horse

3) a cherry blossom, as I expect the cherry trees will start blooming earlier than usual this year

Hexablooms

I made a few white hexagons, and I also cut out new cards to stretch the fabric over. Slow work, lack of time...

Lucky me!

I am so lucky to have good friends. 

Last month, I celebrated my birthday and was given this lovely pouch. It is colourful, very Japanese and will come in handy. 

THANK YOU!

WIPW - Do you remember the Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler?

 Here is this week's Work In Progress Wednesday progress report.

Hexablooms

Ten more were made. The total is 330.

Birthday Gift

I wonder why almost all my friends and family members have their birthdays in spring!

Here is a simple bookmark I made for a little girl who loves cats. I added a small piece of polka dot ric-rac at the bottom. Does it look like a little bit of a cat's paw is sticking out?

Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler

Do you remember the Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler? 

I put this project on the back burner last year. I decided to add no more new stitches as there are already the first 300 stitches. 

To fill in the void, I added some extra stitches near those already sewn, for example, two more circles, one surrounded with #55 Tailor's Buttonhole Stitch and the other #135 Net Stitch across the circle.

This was in December 2024. 

Then, I shelved the project and wondered what to do as there were still blank areas here and there. By chance, I tripped upon a tube of blue sequins. Aha, I will sprinkle these over the surface to fill in bare areas.

I hope to have this sampler completed soon. 

We are now working on Sunday Stich School's 319th stitch and I haven't added a single one of the last 19 stitches on a sampler yet. A new sampler must be started!

WIPW - Finger Puppets

Work In Progress Wednesday report for the end of March 2025.

Hexablooms

Ten more floral blocks. The total count is now 320.

Finger Puppets

I got inspiration from the Internet to make two finger puppets for a little boy's birthday. Handstitched on felt.

Easter Egg Embroidery

I got inspiration from Lyn at Lyn's Needlecase. She has been embroidering a stitch sampler over an egg-shaped oval to be used for an Easter Greeting card. Lyn is always making the most delightful white-on-white embroidery on linen.

I stuck, as usual, to plain weave, then stretched the embroidery over a bit of thin cardboard and placed it in a window card.

WIPW - The Second Bookmark and some more Hexablooms

I have been buckled under by a nasty bronchitis and hay fever attack and have spent most of the last two weeks sleeping.

That is why my WIPW report is meagre this time.

Hexablooms

I completed another set of ten and have 310 flowers now.

Birthday Gift

Here is the cross-stitch bookmark I showed you the back of earlier.

WIPW - 3 x Coasters

 It is time for another Work In Progress Wednesday report.

Hexablooms

Once again, I was lucky enough to find the time to make the planned ten hexagon flowerets.

My collection now holds 280.

Birthday Gift

I made a set of three double-sided hexagon flower coasters. The cardboard I do my English Paper Piecing over is still inside, which makes the coasters stiff and stable. On the downside is that they can not be washed...

Actually, this means I made 16 hexablooms this week!

Bookmarks

I continued work on the first bookmark and completed it.

First, I stretched the linen under a wet cloth, then trimmed the top and bottom to get a fringe. 

Finally, I fused a piece of felt onto the back. 

The present is gift wrapped and on its way to the recipient.

I will show a picture of the whole bookmark once the present has been opened.

WIPW - More Aqua

It is time for Work In Progress Wednesday.

THIS last week I have had time to add some more aqua on the 

Mandala

Do you remember the raspberry circle in the middle of the Mandala? I had already added a disc of waste sequins and a circle of plastic cups covered in light blue silk. Just before I had my eye trouble I was planning to add some fancy embroidery stitches... 

Well, I now have. From between the cups sprouts #64 Madam Totsuka's Tasseled Chain Stitch and #71 Twisted Fly Stitch. 

The former stitches were worked in a Bunka thread with metallic from Oliver Twist. This thread twists and squiggles uncontrollably, so I stitched down the tasselled loops to keep them beautifully displayed.

Where will I go from here? What will I add next?... One thing is for sure, this circle is not finished yet.

Birthday Present

I have made a belated birthday gift for a small boy. (It was too hot to make anything during the summer heat.) 

By using scrap fabric and a few lengths of ricrac I have also made a small dent in my stash.

The result is a hand doll. The recipient is only three years old, so he'll have to decide for himself what it is, maybe a catfish, a mudskipper, an eel or a snake. Or is it a fantastic beast that has escaped Newt Scamander's brown suitcase?

I especially like the dotted ricrac, the white side must be teeth and the purple with white dots, could be suction cups! What useful tools for eating!

Hexablooms

I made eight more flowers. The total is now 108.

WIPW - A Book Cover

 Here is this week's Work In Progress Wednesday report. I am happy to say I managed a lot of work.

Rescuing the Sweater

I completed the restoration work on both sleeves and can now pack away the sweater together with some mothballs. In autumn it will be lovely to once more put it on. I hope to wear the sweater for many more years to come.

Book Cover

I made a simple birthday present - a notebook cover. This pattern is for a reversible cover - the lining can become the outside cover if you turn the cover inside out. 

I had a piece of blue and white gingham check (used for the lining), a remnant of kimono cotton (Yukata) for the pockets and a fat quarter with a charming print designed by Mutsuko Yawatagaki. 

Ms Yawatagaki is a famous quilter who usually works with kimono silks. She operates a charming quilt art museum in the countryside and I bought the fabric from the museum shop some years ago. I was happy to use the fabric for this book cover.

By the way, my friend Pamela of Hokkaido Kudasai, made a beautiful wall hanging with fabric from Ms Yawagataki's collection.

Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler

I added one more stitch, #288 Fairy Lights Stitch to my sampler of Sunday Stitch School stitches. 

Rachel of Virtuosew Adventures pointed out that metallic thread would be good for the Fairy Lights Stitch. She is so right! The lights glint and glow!

I threaded the needle with three colours and started with red metallic. After three 'lightbulbs', I switched to the blue thread, and so on. The non-visible threads are wrapped over the Running Stitch on the back of the fabric.

The Green Man - Final Work

Do you remember What's In A Quilt - The Green Man?

Click on the link to see the start of the embellishment of the bias tape.  

Life got in the way and I never completed the Herringbone stitches. Until now that is. I started on the embellishments again, finished the HB stitches and began adding French Knots.

A New Start - Hexablooms

So many bloggers work on Hexagon quilts. Whenever I see these English Paper Pieced quilts I feel an itch in my fingers - I want to make such a quilt, too! The problem is finding time for quilting...

Then I threw caution to the wind and decided to indulge in a SLOW project. 

I will collect any piece of scrap cardboard, e.g. food containers, that otherwise would end up in the recycle bin, and cut out hexagon shapes. 

I will then make use of the many small scraps of fabric I have in my stash to make flowers for my Hexablooms quilt.

It will be a SLOW project, without any time limit, I might be working on this new quilt, a large one, for 10 years or more! No pressure allowed!

WIPW - A Bookmark

Work In Progress Wednesday: I had to make another birthday present and also did some work on the 

Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler

where I added #235 Barred Herringbone Stitch (in red and green) and #273 Chained Wheatear Stitch (blue).

This is the sampler at this stage. To catch up on all the stitches worked so far, there are twenty stitches left to do, and then there are the new stitches that we haven't learned yet...

A Bookmark

was made and sent as a birthday present. 

WIPW - A Finish

Work In Progress Wednesday.

The best progress one can make is of course a finish, and today I have such a finish - the birthday present I wrote about last week.

The projects I usually report about, Mandala and Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler, slumbered peacefully while I burned the midnight oil in order to finish the present.

Last week it looked like this:

Now it is in the safe hands of the Japanese Postal Services and will be handed over to the Birthday Girl on Friday. 

I added more of the following stitches between last week and today: Stem, Fly and Pistil Stitch. Also, quite a lot of metallic thread and masses of beads have been used.

After pressing the cotton fabric, I prepared a circular piece of card as well as a circle of purple felt with interfacing. I basted 'drawstring stitches' around the circle,  pulled, 

tightened it around the card and the embroidery, pressed down the folds and stitched down the felted backing.

A string for hanging the ornament was next.

The last job was to make a beaded edge. This was easy thanks to the excellent tutorial by Pamela of Hokkaido Kudasai.

I now have an enormous backlog of chores... Well, I am very pleased with the result and will start on those jobs with a light heart.

WIPW - A Birthday Present

Oh, how time flies! Here is this week's Work In Progress Wednesday report.

Mandala

I completed the four lines of small blue and green leaves.

Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler 

I used two filling stitches: #87 Open Wave (variegated thread) and #104 Fly Stitch Filling (red and white).

Both were stitched freehand without waste canvas, so they are a bit wonky.

Birthday Present

A young lady I know will soon be 8 years old. The other day she coloured in a Mandala and hinted that she wished it had been stitched. I rescheduled some chores to get enough time to stitch it for her. This is as far as I have got.

I will only use threads that I have in my stash, so that is why the orange is a bit too strong in colour. Furthermore, I will also add some beads and metallic thread as the birthday girl LOVES everything that sparkles.