Here's one I didn't finish earlier...

I think I started this embroidery based on an illustration in Edward Gorey's Doubtful Guest about a year ago and it resurfaced when I went through my craft basket recently.  Probably at some point last year I wasn't sure how to proceed with this piece. Often I abandon a project for this reason for a little while and then  'a little while' turns into a few months and hey a year has past without finishing it! I'm determined to finish it now though as it is too cute to leave in the WIP basket for another year. And I'm eager to make a Turkey Stitch fringe on his scarf  :)

P.S. if you haven't bought the new issue of &Stitches yet (I can't imagine why not!) you have a chance to win a copy on Julie's blog.

P.S. P.S. I have some rather fabulous giveaways coming up myself soon to celebrate my 500th blogpost!

Tiny stitches

For the past week I've been working on this embroidery for a swap on Flickr. I assume my swap partner does not visit my blog so I thought I could share a WIP picture here. I'm a bit nervous about it all as my swap partner is an amazingly talented embroiderer. The theme of the swap is music. I love music but I had a hard time trying to connect to my partner's taste in music. Eventually I was drawn to an album title (Ophelia) and started the project there. I made some sketches before hand but I'm largely making it up as I go along. Ophelia is a character from Hamlet. She drowns in a brook. There are many lovely art works with this theme and I'm especially inspired by this pastel drawing by Odilon Redon, this painting by Millais and the lovely 'stamp' embroideries by Penny Nickels. (see picture below)

And at the same time I'm trying to do 'my own thing'. The good thing about a swap like this, is that it forces me to step outside my Embroidery Comfort Zone and create something different from the stuff I usually do.

New quilt for Autumn

Last week I felt I needed to start quilting again soon. The quilt I made earlier this year has become a favourite item in the living room  so I know a new one will be used and loved too. I started cutting 6 inch squares without a plan and as I went along I started to pull out more brown and orange fabrics from my stash. Must have something to do with Autumn which seems to be fast approaching now. Both brown and orange are definitely not my favourite colours but with these lovely Denyse Schmidt, Heather Ross and Joel Dewberry designs they look fabulous. At least that's what I think.

I'm still not sure if I need to add another colour, blue maybe. I bought a tiny bit of Heather Ross' Far Far Away Blue Unicorn fabric which I think could look lovely with the other fabrics. Or maybe some pink?

Have you seen my cutting mat by the way? No, well neither have I! I'm pretty sure it moved with us but I haven't found it yet. So I took a piece of left over Marmoleum flooring and used that instead. :) I will need a new one of course and a new blade for my rotary cutter too. I haven't replaced it since I bought it. They are so expensive. I'd rather spend the money on fabrics!

Summer dress WIP

I really wanted to start sewing again and preferably on a quick and easy project so yesterday I started on a summer dress for Luna from one of my Sew Hip! magazines I mentioned earlier this week. The pattern is by Oliver + S.

The pink fabric is a cute but rather hysterical Michael Miller print featuring Parisian cats. I bought over 3 yards (maybe even more) of this fabric on Ebay when I just started sewing because it was so crazy cheap. Same goes for the green gingham (which actually is meant to line curtains I think). I've made some really wonky trousers for Luna with the same fabric combo last year and she loved them so much I decided to use the same fabrics again.

The dress is super-easy to make and I'm now in the process of putting the bias tape on, which is the most tricky bit of the whole project. Somehow all my previous attempts at putting bias tape on stuff were not too succesful, especially the store-bought bias tape. I made this bias tape myself though, cutting diagonal strips from a large piece of fabric. It seams like a bit of a waste of fabric, but it feels so much better than the ready made bias tape!

French knot

It took me a long, long time to learn how to do the French knot. Thanks to the excellent Video tutorial on Mary Corbet's Needle'nThread I was able to master it. Her website is a great resource if you want to learn new stitches.
This is a test embroidery of a new pattern by the way. As I watched a picture of a sleeping Wombat (well of his butt anyway, I assume he was sleeping) this morning I thought of making a pattern similar to the Hibernating Bear pattern. This one has a sleeping wombat and instead of the woodgrain an aboriginal inspired 'frame'.