mega needlework swap post

This is going to be a long one, seriously you might want to go fetch yourself a cup of tea or something...

I already posted about the Anything Goes Needlework swap I participated in on Craftster, well as the swap was wrapping up the organiser let us know that a couple of people had gone missing without sending anything and asked for volunteers to pair up with their partners. I couldn't resist the opportunity for some bonus needlework swapping so I was partnered up with Spidermom - and can I just say how glad I am her partner flaked because it meant I got to swap with her!

She made me a great retro mermaid hoopla- what is that mermaid up to? I like to think she is about to bludgeon the lady in the boat with that fish! It was hard to get a photo of this the colours are much brighter in real life. I have quite a collection of mermaids now, most of them are displayed in the bathroom, which is predictable I know but the ones that are in hoops are on my hoopla wall. I don't want to risk them getting all soggy and mildewed. Every embroidery fan should start a hoopla wall - I love how my hoops look all hung together although there is a risk of it overflowing on to other walls at some point.

Spidermom also made me a crossstitched notepad to use for those lightbulb moments- or for my many lists!

 And how cute is this mini felt toadstool girl? I have a feeling this may have been based on something on my pinterest- I have a lot of cute felt things pinned. I think I will add a hanging loop and hang it in a window, she is just adorable and I love the little bead details

And here is what I sent her, one of her themes was woodland critters. I made a little felt fox picture based on an ornament from falalafelt. I've had the mini brass frame for ages and this was the perfect project to use it. I think orange, teal and lime green might be my new favourite colour combination :) I didn't change the pattern much but it would be fairly easy to create similar designs to do in felt- I think a selection of critters with victorian styling could be cute; a badger with a monocle, stoat with a pipe, bird in a top hat etc... very quick to make too, will have to get sketching some ideas

 The main item I made was this stumpwork owl hoop. I designed this myself but aimed to learn a few new stitches along the way. The owl is a padded embroidered slip and the branch is raised stem band with raised leaf stitch for the... ummmm... leaves  The raised leaf stitch is very easy to learn and looks very pretty, maybe I should have added more leaves to this piece. The raised stem band didn't turn out all that raised- I'll pad it with felt next time. I was a bit unsure about the blue cotton I stitched it on but I think it turned out to be a good choice as white would have looked wrong and I think black wouldn't look as nice. I need to get some fabric paints so I can tint or crate a backdrop on my fabric prior to stitching I think.

 Then I made a simple crewel wool hoop. Again my own design, stitched mainly in gorgeous appleton crewel wool- look teal and orange again, just missing a splash of lime green! I was inspired by a design on my sons jumper and stole  based the tree on that. I haven't done any wool embroidery for a while and had forgotten how quickly it stitches up.

And now a confession- I did try to make a mini spiderman felt embroidery but had to bin it halfway through- he had wonky eyes and his web was all over the place. I think the fox I ended up doing instead is cute though and embroidery shouldn't be too stressful should it? (says she who is constantly doing battle with knots and who cannot finish any piece without much cursing and bodging). In the past I hated to abandon things I'd started as I'd already invested so much time but now if something starts to feel too much like hard work into the bin it goes (wheeee!)- life is too short!

You still here? I told you it was going to be long didn't I?  sorry about that- but thanks for reading xxx