PQ swap piece

P5140207, a photo by Sewphie T on Flickr.

This is my science themed piece for the recent Phat Quarter swap. It's quite detailed and was stitched using one strand of floss. I was contemplating using neon floss to fill it in but as it was for a swap thought it would be safer to go for a subtler finish with a hint of metallic floss- neon skeletons aren't everyone's cup of tea! I do sort of regret not going bright though I think it would've looked great - the vintage image plus neon combo will have to be used on something else.
When I was planning the piece I actually considered doing a stumpwork dissected frog. Which would be awesome, right? But I knew it would take way too long and I thought it was perhaps a bit too odd to send to someone I don't know well. Looking forward to making it now though - watch this space!

Baby presents from Sublime Stitching Patterns

 A close friend recently had her first baby I wanted to include something stitched in with the gift I sent her. I used patterns from sublime stitching (Black Apple and Kurt Halsey). They are embroidered on muslin cloths which was slightly tricky as they are a fairly loose weave so I had to be careful with the thread tension- also they are quite see through so these embroideries had super neat backs- a first for me!!
I'm glad I chose muslin cloths though- I used muslins loads with both of my babies and I think I'd have liked some cheerful ones. If you zoom in you'll see I used quite a lot of split stitch and tiny chain stitch as these seemed to work best on this fabric. I used the cloths to wrap the baby clothes I bought and tied it up with some ribbon- it looked very sweet. Another nice idea might be to dye some muslins or add applique, I think most new mums would appreciate some pretty muslins to cheer them up when they are mopping up dribble and milk!

And I just want to share this, the other day my robot-obsessed son (nearly 4-eeek!) was quietly crafting in the dining room so I went to see what he was up to and was greeted by this;

:D