WIPW - Step by Step

 Step by step, I am progressing with my stitching and have this to report for Work In Progress Wednesday.

Mandala

The garland in six segments is done, two more to go!

Sunday Stitch School Indigo Sampler

#325 Long and Short Stitch (red, orange and light blue), #326 Alternating Cross Stitch (purple and orange), #327 Fire Stitch (orange) and #328 Old Florentine Stitch (pink and light blue).

Hexablooms

I managed to add another ten blocks and have 122 hexabloom blocks in the flimsy.

No need to comment.

WIPW - Slow Progress

It's Wednesday, the middle of the week, and that means it is time to report on Work In Progress Wednesday.

Mandala

Another segment of the Mandala now has a garland along the outer edge.

Hexablooms

The total number of hexagon blocks on the flimsy is now: 112

Sunday Stitch School Indigo Stitch Sampler

#322 Open Chain (dull brown and light blue wool), #323 Maltese Cross  (pink and light green), and  #324 Raised Spider Daisy (yolk yellow and emerald green) are the three stitches that have been added to the indigo sampler.

I did not progress as much as I would have hoped.

WIPW - Trudging On

 The Work In Progress Wednesday report today is a bit short.

Sunday Stitch School Indigo Stitch Sampler

I added four stitches: #318 Rhodes Circle, #319 Split Back Stitch, #320 Clown Collar Stitch and #321 Cornucopia Chain Stitch.

Mandala 

I have got halfway with the garlands. Four have been stitched on, four more to add.

Hexablooms

I added just six more flower blocks and now have 108.

It's getting more and more complicated to photograph.

WIPW - Handing over the Baton

Work In Progress Wednesday report of today shows the handing over of the baton. One sampler takes over from a full one.

Samplers

The Mottled Wool Sampler I use for Sunday Stitch School's homework is now full. I have trimmed the edges and put on a binding.

Here is a detail. I will show more on Friday.

I then selected fabric for a new sampler. This time, the freeform sampler is also of a challenging fabric - kimono silk. I added support fabric on all four sides to keep it steady in a hoop and give it good tension. 

Now, my worst fear is that this silk will be as hard to mark as the mottled wool was. After the upcoming revision Sunbonnet Sue Sampler, I will start stitching on the red kimono silk with stitch #336.

Sunday Stitch School Indigo Stitch Sampler 

The addition of #314 Split Stitch (purple), 

#315 Threaded Detached Chain Stitch (blue with green silk ribbon and orange metallic), 

#316 Detached Wheatear Stitch ( pink) and 

#317 Straight Stitch (metallic in various colours) can be seen here.

Mandala

I added another set of garland. There are now three done and five wedges to go.

Hexablooms

More assembly work. Totally,  I have 102 flower blocks stitched together.

Maintenance

This has nothing to do with stitching, but I cleaned the sewing machine of lint and grease. 

I wound a set of bobbins. I sorted out reels of thread and set aside bent pins for next year's 'Hari Kuyo' festival in Asakusa where broken pins and needles are stuck into a big block of tofu.

Storage

I sorted the leftover fabric pieces from the baby quilt-making and put them back in storage in my stash. The picture shows the unsorted pieces!

All in all, it's been a productive week.

WIPW - The Euphoria of Taking the Last Stitch

There is some general progress and a finish to report for this week's Work In Progress Wednesday.

Hexablooms

I attached more flowers to the flimsy. In total, there are 98 flowers. 

Mandala

I decided to use the small flat flowers as a garland along the inner edge. One 'slice' out of eight is done.

Birthday Card

Here is the stumpwork portrait I showed part of last week. Hopefully, it arrived in time for my friend's birthday.

The Baby Quilt

The quilt is now finished. I enjoyed making it; there is love in every stitch, although almost every stitch was made by machine. The binding, however, I put on by hand. 

Oh, the euphoria of taking the last stitch!

The quilt top has three columns of pieced rectangles made of remnants and odd pieces from my stash.

The four borders are panels of a cherry blossom print on a pink background. There are some machine-applied aqua circles scattered along the border.

I quilted the rectangles freehand, but wanted to use a quilting template I have had for a long time for the borders.

This template is obviously meant for hand quilting and has double lines. I decided to use only one line but vary the size of the oval-shaped twists in the line, thus creating small butterfly motifs.

By using the walking pressure foot and a slow speed, I managed to quilt the entire quilt without too much trouble. Not all butterflies were as neat as the one above, but overall, I am pleased with the result.

I also had two reels of rice-rac, in green and turquoise. Why not use them to add interest and match the colour of the appliquéd circles?

The binding was made from the same prints you can see in the pieced rectangles.

I folded it in half and stitched on along the edges. It is a wide binding with mitred corners. When folded over, the binding is narrow on the front and wide on the back, thus making the plain back a bit more interesting.

Sunday Stitch School Indigo Stitch Sampler

#310 Circular Buttonhole Dome Stitch (red and aqua), #311 Seed Stitch (purple variegated), #312 Closed Buttonhole Stitch (light blue and blue metallic) and #313 Darning Stitch (off-white).

WIPW - Getting On

As you can see from this Work In Progress Wednesday report, I have been getting on with the usual work. Additionally, I promised to share the work I completed on World Embroidery Day last week, which you can see below.

Hexablooms

I added more flower blocks and the flimsy now holds 86 flowers.

Mandala

I dug into my box of braids and ribbons and fished out this line of flat flowers. I will use them on the Mandala, somehow...

Baby Quilt

The machine quilting is now underway. Here is a picture of the reverse side.

Sunday Stitch School Indigo Sampler  on  World Embroidery Day

These are the three stitches I added last week:

#307 Rhodes Diamond (light coral),  #308 Crossed Cretan (red) and #309 Chessboard Filling Stitch (light blue and teal)

Birthday Card

I had this stumpwork portrait in a box and decided to mount it onto a piece of card and insert it into a window card.

Here is a picture of a detail. I will show the clear portrait once the birthday 'gal' has celebrated her day.

WIPW - Another Productive Week

I've had a rather productive week - I've stayed at home as much as possible to avoid the heat, and thus have had time to stitch.

Here is my Work In Progress Wednesday report.

Mandala

All four areas have been filled with Colonial Knots. 

I started looking for a braid or something suitable to add... more on that next week.

Sunday Stitch School Indigo Stitch Sampler

Here are #304 Single Knotted Cable Chain (red),  #305 Kalem Stitch (green) and #306 Whipped Back Stitch (light blue with orange and purple).

Hexablooms

I picked out 40+ blocks in grey, black, blue, wine red, purple and green. These were then arranged the way I wanted.

I also stitched a piece of paper on each one with the coded placement.

Baby Quilt

I appliquéed on a few blue circles, by machine, and then quilted the pieced blocks.

Next, I will quilt the outer borders.

Binding

I made a long roll of binding by stitching together 6 cm x 11 cm pieces. Part of this roll will be used for the baby quilt.

WIPW - New Starts and A Restart

Work In Progress Wednesday.

The past week has been about starting two new projects (a stitch sampler and a quilt), restarting an old UFO (The Mandala) and of course, continuing with the ongoing quilt (Hexablooms). A bit of garment adjustment was also achieved.

Hexablooms

I added more floral blocks in purple. In total, 75 blocks are joined together. It's getting difficult to photograph...

Mandala

Here is the restart of a shelved UFO. I added more Colonial Knots to the Mandala. Two out of four sections like this are filled.

New! Sunday Stitch School Indigo Stitch Sampler

This is a new stitch sampler for the remaining and future Sunday Stitch School stitches.

I added #301 Wreath Stitch, #302 Triangular Bullion Stitch, and #303 Tacked Herringbone Stitch.

The coarse cotton is lovely to stitch on, but tough to mark. For the orange wreath, I tried to mark the fabric with a yellow charcoal pencil. The markings were not clear enough to guide the needle, but the charcoal stuck to the fabric, and here I am with a yellow stain inside the wreath.

In the end, I had to mark the design on a piece of paper, pin it to the fabric and stitch through the paper.  The result was a very neat wreath.

In the stitch at the top, I also stitched the corners - I ended up with a square wreath!

New! The Baby Quilt

Next month, a friend of mine will become a grandmother, and I want to welcome the Little One with a simple quilt.

There will be pieces of scraps from my stash in it, but I needed a piece of cotton big enough for the larger area and the back. Off I went to a fabric shop where I selected a print with pink cherry blossoms and the traditional Japanese wave patterns.

The first step was to wash the fabric. 

Step number two will be to give it a good press with a hot iron, before cutting it into the desired parts.

Modifying Clothing

A young family member came with a request: "Aunty Queenie, please shorten this secondhand T-shirt I bought online". 

My nephew had bought a T-shirt marked size L. Made in the US, it was considerably larger than a Japanese L-size, especially in length. When my nephew modelled the T-shirt, I thought he was wearing a dress.

Out came my Elna sewing machine and the presser foot for "Super Overlock Stitch". In the manual, it says: "This industrial inspired overlock stitch is excellent for assembling and finishing fabrics together in one step. Apply ribbings to knits and garment retains its shape. Elna invented this stitch in 1982."

I haven't worked with knits or overlocking in a long time, but the machine delivered a good result.

Sorry, no photo was taken.

WIPW - Basting the Zipper

How can time fly so fast? It's already Wednesday,  so here is my Work In Progress Wednesday report.

Hexablooms

I have now added ten blooms to the previous yellow, orange and dark blue. The new ones are mostly dark blue, too, although many of them have prints.

Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler

I am still preparing the transformation of the sampler into a cushion. The zipper was bought and has been basted in place. Next step is the lining...

Birthday Card

I have made another birthday card, which I will show in full later in July. Here is a blown-up detail.

 

WIPW - Two Projects off my Shoulders

 I had less time to progress on my Work In Progress Wednesday project than I had thought. 

Anyway, I can report on two finishes.

Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler

The entire piece is now covered with shiny blue sequins. 

I started this sampler in November 2021, with #1 Anundsjö Stitch and added the last stitch in September last year with stitch #300, Ring Picot. Since then, I have been adding stitches and sequins wherever I spotted a void.

I will now look for a lining/backing fabric and a zipper, and turn this into a cushion cover.

Bookmark

The bookmark is now filled with Cross-Stitch. What remains is the stretching, pressing and fringemaking.

Here is the reverse side. I will show you the front in September. Until then, the bookmark will slumber in a box.