The Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade 2017

Hello everyone,

Today I am joining Ida at My Sister Made Me Do It to join in the fun with this year´s pincushion parade.  Lots of interesting pincushions to be seen by the different participants and prizes to be won.

As I took part in the two previous parades, most of my collection has already been seen and I don´t have very many anyway, however I made the Mr Minion pincushion a few weeks back for my seven year old grandson who was here visiting and as he certainly doesn´t need a pincushion, he used Mr Minion´s upright arm to store his wristbands.

The pattern and very clear instructions can be found here.

I have three favourite pincushions, one a simple design and finished with lots of mother of pearl buttons which I showed on my blog last week, another rather different redwork triangle which I stuffed with rice and is nice and weighty and another embroidered design by Danybrod which I only grew to like when I had finished the embellishing.

The next two pincushions are from last year´s parade.  The May Flowers pincushion, a free pattern from Needle Knowledge found here, and my little hedgehog.

 Two hardanger patterns by Mabel Figworthy and sewn into ornaments always seem to get used as pincushions as they hang in different bedrooms.

I don´t think I have anymore to add to my parade only maybe a photo of the worst sewing addy  which I made a couple of years ago and really hate, so less said about it the better.

If you would like to show your own pincushions and join in the parade, just link up, you have until the 16th, see you there.

Sheryl

End of Summer Holidays

Hello everyone,

Whilst most of Spain is enjoying a wonderful summer with hot sunny days and temperatures sometimes just too high for comfort, those of us who live on the north coast have been rationed with only four days of sun during July and about the same this month, so I have had plenty of time during my summer break, between journeys and visitors, to get some UFOs finished.

In the Dreaded Drawer, I found a tiny embroidered design and decided to make an ornament.

A very simple pattern with an unremembered original destiny, so to add a little interest, I delved into the button box and found some ideal mother of pearl buttons.

which I added very generously to a piece of lace which was then trimmed and used to surround the ornament.

and I like it, really like the result and have it hanging by my bed, so I will probably use it as a pincushion when I embroider in the evenings.

I´m only one day late to join Heather at Stitching Lotus for the August Smalls SAL check-in, so if you have some little design or embroidered piece that you would like to show, just head over to Heather for the details.

Until next week, happy stitching.

Sheryl

Summer Holidays

Hello blogger friends and visitors,

I wasn´t expecting to go away on holiday until next week, but a phone call from my daughter has changed our plans and in a rush and hurry, I haste to get this post done to join Heather at Stitching Lotus for the Smalls SAL June check-in, before departing to search for the sun.

I fancied using up some of the felt pieces I have in my stash and remembered the little earbud holder Christina at Rainbow of Stitches had made and decided to make a similar one.

As you can appreciate, the embroidery was really quick and easy.  I used DMC floss in black and shades of grey and topped each little red flower with a black bead.  I found some polka dot fabric, added a red zip, a piece of batting and lined the holder with red satin.

I also made a yellow earbud holder but as yet I haven´t had time to take photos to include with this post.

I shall be away next month and then have visitors in August, so apart from commenting and keeping an eye on what everyone is doing, I shan´t make any blog posts until the very end of August.  Hope to see you then.  Happy summer stitching.

Sheryl

Embroidered bag

Hi blogger friends,

I haven´t advanced much this week with my two new started projects, but I did manage to take a few photos of this little embroidered bag I finished last month.

Perhaps it is not so much a bag as a holder and the design is by Dietrolangolo with the tutorial on her blog.  There are two different sides, one embroidered with bullion stitch roses and Algerian eye stitch.

and the under side is all - I think - Algerian eye stitches mixed with tiny beads. This took quite a while to do because I didn´t want to take the thread on the back from one stitch to the next in case you could see that from the right side, so each stitch was fastened off before the next begun.

Both pieces of fabric are lined with pink silk which I found in my stash and then an opening  made by cutting a large cross just on the front side which is then hemmed and edged with lace.

I was undecided whether to use pink or turquoise ribbon to close the bag and eventually decided on the turquoise.

  

I loved making this and shall use it to store hankerchiefs.

Until next week,

Sheryl

Smalls SAL and G.G. SAL check-in

Hello everyone,

It´s time again for the Smalls SAL check-in hosted by Heather at Stitching Lotus and late, but not too late to check-in for the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL, organised by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching - see side bar for button links.

On wanting to diminish my ominously growing scrap stash, I thought I´d make a few flower themed gift tags and as my friend gifted me the little flowerpot buttons, I may include these in the G.G. SAL.

I used different embroidery stitches, like cast on stitch and my favourite French knots.

and even adventurously tried some dimensional embroidery, like these picot stitch petals with herringbone stitch leaves.

real fun here but lots more practise needed.

Then with the lovely little flowerpot buttons, I added some ribbon, beads and  more buttons.

Now they are being saved for future use.

Hexagon  Table Runner giveaway
Thank you to everyone who took part in my hexie giveaway of last week

The Random number generator chose the winner, it chose number 20.

which corresponds to Julie from Julies Knit Stitch Corner.  Congrats Julie,  I´ll be contacting you this afternoon.         Until next time.

Sheryl

A Hexagon giveaway

Hi everyone,
Today I have a giveaway. A hexagon table runner.

I visited my daughter in Madrid last week and took my hexies with me to sew.  I wanted to mix some crochet ones, made with Anchor Tridalia No. 8 with some fabric ones.

I found it quicker to make the hexagons than to decide how to mix and match them.

Once that was decided I added a tiny crochet edging

and backed the hexagons with green fabric.

So if anyone is interested to have this table runner, just leave me a comment below and I will pick a name on the 26th of May.  Anyone anywhere may enter this giveaway.
NOW CLOSED

Until next week.

Sheryl