Japanese cute: quilt label

Remember the quilt top I made a couple of weeks ago? Well I need to finish it within the next two weeks so it was time I started on the quilt label. I chose a cute design from one of the Japanese Embroidery Books I have. I changed the design a bit, made it a bit larger and added a date. Rather than stitching the Quilt label on the back of the quilt I'm going to make it a part of the quilt backing.

I think a warning is in place now: if you like photos of pretty embroidery stitches LOOK AWAY NOW! Because me and the Cable Chain Stitch didn't get along very well. I even ended up stitching my sampler piece to my skirt, not on purpose I might add. It's one of those stitches for which you ideally have the use of three hands not two!

Sunday morning stitching: one small canvas shoe

Usually I write the names of my children on the inside of their PE shoes with a sharpie but this is much prettier isn't it? It was a bit tough embroidering on the canvas especially since it's such a tiny size. I made knotless starts so she will not be bothered by knots on the inside of the shoe and improvised the embroidery 'design' (as is clearly visible) but I guess a water soluble marker would also work fine if you would want to draw the design first.

On the Embroidery Stitch Challenge menu today is the Cable Chain Stitch. Will report back in a few days time if it was a success!

Sorting Scraps & the Loop Stitch

Scraps of fabric to keep are by my definition:"certainly a lot smaller than a fat quarter and must be big enough to possibly cut a 2 inch square from". Anything larger than that goes with the folded fabrics in my fabric cabinet and the small bits and pieces go in a ziplock bag so my daughters can make interesting art work with them. :) I had several (smallish) baskets full of unsorted fabric scraps and I have now sorted them into 'Cool colours', 'Warm Colours' and 'I'm not sure where to put it and that includes brown and grey'. I found some really nice scraps I forgot I had like a 5 inch square Heather Ross Unicorn and some Amy Butler Belle prints too. Totally in line with my (s)crap story of today is this giveaway (and sew along) on the Pleasant Home blog and this sew along for a Technicolour  Yawn Quilt, formerly known as the Scrap Vomit quilt,  on Katy's Imagingermonkey blog. If you have any other good scrap projects let me know!

I had not forgotten about my Embroidery Stitch Challenges, really! It just has been kind of busy here on the blog with giveaways and such that I just didn't get round to posting about it. The good news is that I loved the stitch I took on last weekend. It's called the Loop Stitch and is also known as the Centipede stitch. I used a cheery Rainbow floss and as you can see messed up a bit on the first few stitches but really got the hang of it later on. Now the bad news is, is that I have given up on making my sampler look pretty or outstanding. It will just be a piece of linen with lots of different stitches on. Maybe it will eventually inspire me to make a sampler pattern who knows?

This is what I had to share this Friday. Tomorrow I will be back with the winners of the Castle Peep Patterns Giveaway (there is still time to enter!). I'm totally loving all your comments about your favourite books! If you can't wait for the results: the Castle Peeps Patterns are now also available in my shop!

The Book of Flosses

I almost always buy all my embroidery floss online. And it wasn't until I was in an actual brick and mortar craft shop that I learned about *insert dramatic tune*.... The Book of  DMC Flosses. Well it's officially called 'Color card' but I like the title *insert dramatic tune*....The Book of DMC Flosses more. Anyway, if you haven't seen it before: it's a big  folder kind of book with all the Mouline (six stranded) DMC flosses, the Light Effects Flosses, Pearl Cottons, Color Variation Flosses and Metallic Pearl Flosses. It has the actual floss in so you can really see what the floss colour is like. Obviously I got very enthousiastic about it and, being the optimistic person that I am, thought it was free. It's not free, it's actually quite expensive. In my local shop it was about 25 euros, which is over 35$! Eventually I bought one for a more reasonable price on Ebay and now I can order floss online and know what colours I'm ordering. :) Still dreaming about owning the whole set of 470 something flosses though...in whole skeins that is, not tiny fragments stuck in a crazy expensive folder.

This week I shall try and do a better job of my Embroidery Stitch Challenge. I'm going to give the Chained Feather Stitch (#5) a go in the next couple of days. Have not even checked my usual little library if it's described in one of the books so I'm not quite sure exactly how challenging it will be.

Thanks to all the peeps who entered the Giveaway so far. You can still enter this one until this Sunday! Have a great weekend all.

Autumn view from my living room & a not so succesful Cretan stitch experiment

This is my view from the living room. I'm sure I have previously posted similar photos taken in a different season but the Autumn view is especially nice I think! Even if it's a bit grey outside... With each gust of wind it 'rains' leaves. :)

I quite enjoyed learning the Cretan Stitch (Embroidery Stitch Challenge #4). It was really easy to master and makes a decorative stitch.  I tried a couple of variations by making one 'leg' of the stitch longer than the other but that didn't turn out too great. I was actually trying to make this stitch, in combination with last weeks Chevron Stitch, look like a bunch of colourful rooftops in a busy city but I'm probably the only one who sees rooftops in these wonky stitches. ;)

In which I talk a bit about a lot of different things...

I was browsing through the photos I made in the past year and stumbled upon one of the many progress photos I made of the Castle Peeps project. At the time I couldn't share this, which was really hard because I like to share about every crafty thing I do with you all, :) This sampler must have been one of the biggest embroidery projects I did and certainly the largest!. It didn't even fit my largest (10 inch) hoop. I spent quite a lot of hours embroidering this sampler. It was much fun though and I miss these peeps dearly, for they moved away to live with Lizzy House in the States. The good news however is that some of the Castle Peeps patterns will come and stay with me for a bit. In other words: soon I will have this and the other pattern, of the  'Rockin' Bard,  available in my shop!

For my Embroidery Stitch Challenge of this week (#4) I chose the Cretan Stitch. You can read how me and the Cretan Stitch got on after the weekend.

Yesterday I was featured crafter on the Fat Quarterly blog! So if you'd like to know a bit more about this crafty bunny,  do have a peek at the nice write up they did about me.

As I'm near to my 300th blog post I'm planning a fun giveaway,  so please visit soon to find out more about it! For now you must see this fun giveaway at the Feeling Stitchy blog. You can win an embroidery mystery novel called The Quick and the Thread. How awesome is that? I must read that book, the title alone kills me! Well not literally but you know what I mean. ;)

update: I could not resist and just ordered 2 copies of this book. One for me and one for a lucky winner in my upcoming giveaway!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Quilt a long (and already behind) and Challenge #3 the Chevron Stitch

Back in August (I think) a fun Quilt Along started on the Fat Quarterly Blog. I'm not sure why I didn't Quilt Along in the first place (probably because I already had two quilts in "progress") but when I saw the first quilts made from the (easy!) pattern of this Quilt Along I had to start my own quilt. I wanted a pink and orange quilt but somehow the prints and colours of the fabrics I had pulled from my stash didn't work well together so now it's more pink than orange with a yellow polka dot square. At first I thought I had made a mistake with the measurements but the blocks are supposed to be trimmed after they are assembled, so all is well. :) This will be a small version (lap quilt size) and for the backing I will use some of Anna Maria Horner's Folksy Flannels.

I have also been working on the Semi-Fantastic Mr.Fox from the cute Bird and Little Bird pattern. Mr. Fox is stuffed now (and I immediately ran out of poly fill) but he needs his limbs attached and eyes and a nose embroidered so he is still looking a bit....unfinished right now. I will show him when he's ready to present himself to world! The pattern is very easy to follow by the way and he would make the cutest Christmas present. He's a good size too, I think 15 inches or so.

Friday night I took on my Embroidery Stitch Challenge for this week. Usually I do not embroider much after dark but I have borrowed my mum's Daylight Lamp and it's awesome! I was surprised how different the light was from a 'normal' lamp. Now I want one for myself. :) This weeks challenge was the Chevron Stitch. It wasn't too challenging and I managed to get a pretty decent result after only one try.  I guess it's a nice stitch to make a decorative border or something but I would be surprised if it would pop up in my embroideries often!

Colourful leaves and Embroidery Stitch Challenge #3

Remember the Bear and Squirrel embroidery I was working on? I started fill stitching the Big Bear's fur and I just didn't like the way it looked. Sometimes things don't turn out the way you had imagined I guess. And if you have spend hours and hours stitching it's hard to make the decision to stop and start over. But I did and I'm very pleased with the result so far. On the picture above you can see a bit of the New Bear. :) I love how well the soft shade of pink on the linen works with the dark brown colour of the Bear and the intense colours of the leaves.

Luna made some colourful leaves too this week! It's Fall Break and she loved this craft activity. First we went out to find some leaves, she painted them and then used them as stamps. After that I cut a couple of Halloween themed shapes (a Witches hat, a pumpkin etc) from a bit of cardboard and she used those as stamps as well. We are planning to make a Fall/Halloween themed banner with these. :)

Moving on to the Embroidery Stitch Challenge #3: the Chevron Stitch. I only have a vague notion of what the Chevron Stitch is and I will certainly need to look it up before I started trying it this weekend. It would be fun if you could join me! Please post your most awesome stitches in the Embroidery Stitch Gallery!

And I almost forgot to mention that I was very pleased being featured on Beth's blog with an interview about patterned fabrics, tales and embroideries and much more! 

Stitch Challenge # 2 Rope Stitch

It took me three tries to get an o.k. result with the Rope Stitch. It was not a difficult stitch to master but to get an even looking result was the hardest part for me. I wanted to use this stitch to make a tree trunk (and add branches later in a different stitch)  so I did not want to end up with totally straight lines. The gentle curves of the tree trunk might have made it a bit trickier to get perfect stitches. I like the slightly raised effect of the Rope Stitch and it actually looks a bit like the Satin stitch. The Rope Stitch is performed differently though and it has slanted and not straight stitches.

Halfway one of my unpicking sessions I decided to start my sampler piece over on a better quality linen. The other linen left holes a bit too easy when stitched on. So I got to practice my Bullion Knot a bit more et voila:

I'm quite happy with how these turned out. Practice really does make perfect! (or at least 'better') However these Bullion Knots were still quite difficult to make as I couldn't find the right needle for making them (a Milliner's needle) I ordered some now and hopefully that will solve the problem.

Slightly scary vintage pattern & challenge #2

It's almost Halloween so I thought it was time I showed you the most scary pattern from my vintage pattern collection.(Click on the photo to make it larger) It's probably not meant to be scary but I find the little guy with the stick rather creepy and that Panda Bear definitely has some Zombie like qualities! According to the envelope this pattern could be ironed on fabric for an 'embroidery effect'  so you don't even have to take out your needle and thread! I guess they could be used as iron transfers for embroidery as well though. The pattern was already cut by a previous owner and I could see by the fading of the print that the rather amusing dogs and their cart had been used but Mr. Creepy and Zombie Panda looked like they were unused. Imagine Mr. Creepy on your kids pillowcase! *shudders* 

I really enjoyed practicing the Bullion Knot in  last weeks Embroidery Stitch Challenge and I'm ready to take on the next challenge. One of you put forward the Rope Stitch and I'm going to give it a try in the next few days. I know nothing about this stitch but I did find a video tutorial on Needle 'n Thread, just in case you wanted to find out what kind of stitch it is. You are very welcome to post your Rope and other Stitches in the Embroidery Stitch Gallery!

P.S. the Fall sale in the Follow the White Bunny shop will only continue for 1 more day so be quick!

Bullion Knot musings

A little while ago I had already tried my hand at the Bullion Knot. That went quite well but I only did a few then and  I hadn't made any since. So the first couple of Bullion Knots I tried this weekend didn't go too smoothly. I had read the info on this stitch in all four of my books and also watched this video that Ana posted in the Embroidery Stitch Gallery. She makes perfect Bullion Knots without even using a hoop! Anyway, after the first 'rusty' ones I think I got the hang of it and even began to have some fun with this stitch. I do think I need to use the so called Milliners needles though next time. They have really small/narrow eyes which makes it easier to make this stitch. I struggled with pulling the needle through on most of my knots because the eye on my needle was quite narrow but not narrow enough.

I think this stitch has lots of possibilities! I made a flower and some weird Green Kale kind of plants with it (the original example for that was a rose but I'm not very good at following examples) but it would be perfect to make a tiny snail with.as well! Or, as the other names for this stitch suggest: caterpillars and worms! At this moment I have no fixed idea of what my sampler is going to look like but I thought I'd make at least three sections: the top will be the 'sky', the middle 'land'  (where these flowers are and a huge bunny) and the lower part 'sea'.

If you have decided to play along,  I'd love to see your Bullion Knots in the Embroidery Stitch Gallery and read your experiences with this stitch in the comments! Suggestions for new Stitch Challenge are also welcome, I'm enjoying this. :)

Books I learn stitches from & Embroidery Stitch Challenge kick off!

These are the books I use to learn stitches from. From top to bottom: Mary Thomas's  Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches, Stitches of Creative Embroidery by J. Enthoven, The left-handed embroiderer's companion by Yvette Stanton and the A-Z of Embroidery Stitches from Bumpkin Press.  

The left-handed embroiderer's companion truly is my companion and for obvious reasons: all other books have diagrams for right handed stitchers so this book is my first choice to learn stitches from. It has very, very clear diagrams of the stitches too. There is also a version for right handed stitchers. Mary Thomas's book lists many stitches (and the various names they have) but the diagrams are not very clear. My version of this book is from the early fifties and it has been reprinted many times so it's quite possible that the book has improved on this point! The A-Z of Embroidery Stitches is a handy to the point stitch dictionary. It has clear photos of how to make embroidery Stitches from the Algerian Eye Stitch to the Zig Zag Stitch. Jacqueline Enthoven's The Stitches of Creative Embroidery is a wonderful comprehensive book about embroidery stitches. It has lots of information and describes the stitches in detail. I also love the many examples and creative ideas for using embroidery stitches. There are a lot of black and white photos in this book though, it was first released about 50 years ago. Maybe more a book for Stitch Geeks? Anyway all these books have a different approach and you will have to find out for yourself which one suits you best.

If you want to look for information online you can't go wrong with Mary Corbet's NeedlenThread. Her video library of stitches is a wonderful resource for learning new stitches. As is Sharon B's Embroidery Dictionary.

I managed, thanks to some of my dear blog readers, to make a list of Stitches to learn over the next couple of weeks. Today I'm kicking off with the Bullion Knot! A couple of months ago I wrote a little bit about that stitch on Feeling Stitchy.  I'm reporting back on Monday with some examples of my Bullion Knots. If you would like to join in the fun please do! I've started a new Flickr Group called Embroidery Stitch Gallery where you can post your photos of embroidery stitches. You can also post photos there of other stitches than those from the Embroidery Stitch Challenge, but please do tag them correctly (with the stitch name) or mention which stitch you used in the description.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

The week that was...

It was quite the week here chez bunny. We started of great last weekend. First a fabulous wedding party from friends, an upgrade to a Royal Suite in the hotel we were staying (and it really was Royal!) and a visit to a wonderful museum with a sculpture garden on a beautiful autumn day. But then our luck ran out and my oldest daughter broke her wrist Sunday evening (but we found out Tuesday morning) and today my bicycle (with kids bike seat) was stolen. Nothing too dramatic but enough make the balance wobble a bit.*sigh*

O.k.on to the Embroidery Stitch Challenge! I had hoped to get a bit more suggestions for stitches so please leave a comment here (or on Facebook or in the FTWB Embroidery Group on Flickr) if you have interesting stitches for me to explore!.Tomorrow I will be back to announce the stitch I'm going to tackle over the weekend.

And don't forget to check out this months very special 'Three times cozy' Package Deal in my Etsy shop!

Embroidery Stitch Challenge!

So what is this Follow the White Bunny Embroidery Stitch Challenge all about? It's about challenging me to master a stitch, because I really don't know that many stitches. And it's about you challenging yourself to do the same! Every Monday I will share with you my failures and successes in learning new stitches. And if you want to join in certain challenges, let me know and  I will share your photos and/or comments/tips in the post too. I tend to stay in my 'comfort zone' when I'm looking for new stitches to learn so I really need your help to challenge me. Leave a comment on this post with your Stitch suggestion and I will let you know this Friday which one I will try and tackle over the weekend and you can join in (or not). Looking forward to your suggestions!
Thanks! x