Its been a fairly quiet week in terms of crafts. I did manage to finish this little sign for a good friend of mine. Its the companion piece to Stitching Please Wait.
It is now on its way to Australia, where it will live in my friends craft room.
Today’s goal was to finish the pattern for “Stitching, Please Wait” and release it on Etsy. DONE!
Now to spend time with my girls!
Late last year I wondered if I would be able to chart and stitch a vehicle. I picked a Ford Transit van, which is a popular medium sized transporter here in Europe. This was the result:
Overall I am very happy with the clean look and simple lines, which do manage to convey an amazing amount of detail.
Details:
Fabric: white linen 32-count from Zweigart
Threads: DMC stranded cotton
stitches: whole and partial cross stitch, petit point, back stitch and satin stitch
Design: by Alexandra Rule
Last week I posted a sneak preview of my latest creation. I’ve now finished the first in a series of 3 Kokeshi dolls.
I am really happy with how this one turned out…
During March and into the first half of April, I worked on a different design, something to carry my friend’s wedding rings. I knew exactly what colours to use. This time I had the limitation that it needed to fit in the best man’s pocket. The original design turned out to be too large. On the final weekend before I had to post it to Australia (from Germany), I finally settled for something truly simple. I posted it on Monday of the week when most of Europe’s airports shutdown due to the Icelandic volcano eruption. I still can not believe that it made it on time for the wedding!
I think you will recognize the basic design… Needless to say, I will be stitching this one again for myself!
And here are a couple more views of it:
It is interesting to design with constrains in mind. Balancing between creativity and certain set limits can be frustrating. Yet, when the piece is finished I get an enormous sense of satisfaction.
I finished the pocket using some fabric I purchased at the Dutch Cloth Market in Ludwigsburg. This is an event that takes place twice a year. My little girl is starting to enjoy visiting the market too…
January and February found me busy working on a 15-sided biscornu. I named it porcelain Flowers, I wanted it to look a little like those antic fine porcelain items that look very pretty and we are never 100% sure what their use is. All decorated with flowers and sparkling.
It can be very difficult to select colours for a project. This one was specially difficult since it was intended for my brother and his then fiancé, now wife! They wanted something with light blue in it.
I went through 3 coulor schemes before I finally settled on the right colours.
First I had what I still think would have looked best for this design salmon and cream fabric with tender early spring thread colours:
Then I heard my brother and his bride like blue, so I tried out something with a blue fabric. That really didn’t work for this design:
After sleeping on it several nights I remembered I had some sparkling fabric. I added more blue to the thread selection and I had it!
The final result looked nothing like my original intention. It was a challenging project because of the colour restrictions and the new finishing technique. Here is the finished result:
It was a quick stitch… I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to finish it on time. In the end I was done on Saturday night. Quite happy with it. As it turned out the gold was not too yellow. I ended up adding brown to the pattern to stitch the worlds in, this made them stand out more.
After that I quickly updated the charts and added them to the patterns. Now I just wait and see if the ladies doing the class at Territory Craft enjoy stitching them. I hope they do!
I finished stitching and assembling the model for Flowers and Swords. It was a quick and enjoyable stitch. It is now ready for its life as a scented biscornu… Filled with some batting and lavender flowers. I added a few drops of lavender oil to it.
Chanda Belle 