owl PDF

I finally got the owl converted to PDF - there is a link underneath you can use to download it. Any problems give me a shout.


https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwuwiOA6rycIMzBLYTR6UGg3Vlk

If anyone does use this pattern please let me know- I'd love to see what you make!

in the hoop

This is what I'm working on right now. It's an embroidered slip for a stumpwork piece. Am loving trying to capture all the colours that gleam on a magpies black feathers.
I've been doing lots of embroidery lately but it's for swaps so I can't show you yet but I can share the gorgeous goodies I received in the Craftster 'anything goes needlework swap' ;

 better photos and more info
here and here!
I was so lucky to get such a great partner for that swap and as a bonus I am getting to swap twice as someone dropped out so I volunteered to be a replacement partner. I'll be posting my swap package this week so can share what I made very soon...

Day of the dead owl

This is the other item I made for the Craftster needlework swap. My partner had lots of owls and lots of day of the dead stuff on her pinterest and so I designed this. I sketched out a very basic owl on graph paper and then added loads of decoration. I then used a sulky transfer pen to transfer my design onto my the felt. He is backed with a sugar skull design fabric and stuffed with toy filling. I might try and scan my pattern and add it to this post as a pdf if anyone wants it?

I like the teeth/beak the best - I was very pleased with how that looked - I was feeling very smug as I was stitching that bit up !!

The boys loved it too- all those bright colours they thought it must be for them right? I managed to rescue it before Rory dribbled on it!

stumpwork sparrow

This is part of my swap package for the Anything Goes Needlework Swap on Craftster. My partner loves sparrows so I knew I wanted to do make a sparrow embroidery. I also recently bought the RSN guide to stumpwork and so the two fused together pretty nicely. I have to also give credit to this tutorial that I found incredibly useful, especially as it uses a bird for the example so it showed me how to add details at the end.  As a first attempt I think this worked really well  and I was pleased with my stitching on the bird, I wanted it to look realistic. The twiggy branches are tapestry wool couched on with embroidery thread, this looks really nice but the wool shows through a little from the back of the linen so next time I'll hoop up some cotton or calico behind the linen to avoid this.

Here is a detail to show how the bird is three-dimensional;

Please excuse the creases in the photos- I did iron the piece before sending and mounted it in a flexi-hoop but I don't have any photos of this.

WIP

IMG_20120301_092019, a photo by Sewphie T on Flickr.

I started this towel years ago. Every now and then I pick it up and do a little on it. There is some pretty scruffy stitching on it from when I was new to embroidery. One day it will be finished and i probably won't want to use it after working on it for so long! Anyone have a really ancient WIP they revisit every now and then?

Rabbit

DSCN0442, a photo by Sewphie T on Flickr.

This is a bit of a test post really as I posting directly from Flickr, we'll see how it works...
This is a little rabbit from a vintage pattern. I just fancied something simple I could stitch up in an evening whilst watching TV - I'll display it over Easter then hang it in Rory's room. I actually have quite a stash of transfer patterns and I rarely use them, maybe I should have a proper sort through and try and put some of them to use.

swaps

This is a busy embroidery month as I'm doing two swaps. The first is organised by Wild Olive, it's huge there are over 100 people taking part! My head spins when I think of poor Mollie trying to keep tabs on all those swappers. We are swapping one 4 inch hoop, I used a pattern from this book but ignored the stitch guide as it wasn't a filled in design.
The chest on the bird is my first ever attempt at needlelace it was semi-succesful but some of the holes are a bit bigger than others. Overall I'm pleased with the finished piece although it's not really my style. I picked a design and colour palette that I thought my partner would like and it's a bit too pale for me. I wish I'd tea dyed the fabric because I think that would have looked nicer. You live and learn.

As a little extra I made this Wild Olive style badge- too cute!

The other swap is on Craftster and I'm not going to post photos yet as I think my partner might just look at my blog and I don't want to ruin the suprise. I'm really looking forward to sharing what I've made though- I challenged myself a bit and it really paid off. Stu wanted to keep it and has told me I have to make him one.


I used to do a lot of swaps, in fact some of the best things I've made have been for swaps. I like the way it forces you to do something different. it always makes me focus on getting my stitches neat too, when I know someone else is goung to inspect them! The best swaps for me are themed because you end up making things you'd have never made otherwise. A while back I did a Phat Quarter swap (the flickr group from Mr X Stitch) which had a movie theme. I ended up doing this Twin Peaks Firewalk with Me piece which was so much fun to do that it was actually quite hard to part with.