Busy Beaver!!!

Greetings to all,

I have been busy as a beaver -- Okay maybe not quite that busy!!  But I have many things to show you today.  The first few pictures of vintage purses with beautiful wool applique designs were created by my great friend, Connie, at Starry Pines.  She was gracious enough to share many purses from her vintage collection, created designs for them and made them available for purchase in a store closing sale.  I love this rounded box type purse.  I think it will work great for my sewing supplies when I am on the go.

This bag intrigued me for several reasons.  The shape and clasp reminds me of purses the ladies at church carried.  I remember as a little girl wishing for a purse and knew when I grew up I would have a purse just like it.  Fast forward fifty years and I finally have that purse.  The wool applique design is an added bonus.  This is another of Connie's vintage bags and designs.

I also loved this bag because of the design on the back.  I thought it was beautiful with a tactile sense of a cording coiled into a butterfly type design!!!  I don't ever remember seeing anything like this growing up.
Anyway after over a year of having theses bags in various stages of completion I have finished them.  I was so happy to cross these items off my "TO DO" list.  Now I can enjoy them and use them for purposes I purchased them for.

The last "show and tell" for the week are more hand embroidered projects.  I completed the embroidery on these towels using DMC Floss and the patterns are from Pretty P and Mama B designs.

The towels will be displayed in the new Windsor wool shop opening soon.

I have more samples in progress and can't wait to share them next week.  Stay happy till then.

Chick-a-dees!!!

Good Morning all!!

We are heading into another warm day here on the eastern slope!! Hopefully we will see some rain showers later in the day!!! 

Our 'backyard' is full of the little munchkins back at school.  I love watching the teacher with students lining up for different activities.  It seems like yesterday my own son was starting school.  Wow!!!  Time passes quickly as my son will celebrate his 28th birthday next week!!!  I think I'm a bit more nostalgic since he also moved into his own apartment this past week.  He had been staying with us after moving to the front range, finding a job and getting established in a new area.  So now it is back to the husband and me watching Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune in the evenings!!!  What a life!!!

My embroidery sewing machine is working away, stitching out a couple more samples for the new wool store!!  This rooster 'crows proudly' from a Bird Brain design!!!  I stitched it in a muted brick red to match the attached ruffle on this kitchen towel shown above.  The towel below was stitched in 

multi-colors giving the design more interest. This is also a Bird Brain design from the same pattern.  I am very pleased how well the designs stitched out!!  Even thought I love the time saving of embroidery by machine I prefer hand stitching!!!  I know the stitching isn't as perfect by hand, but I feel I put a piece of myself into my work when completed by hand.  I will be visiting Cheryl today and can't wait to see what samples she has for me to work on next.

In the meantime, I'm finishing some of my UFO projects!!!  (UFO = un-finished objects)  I will be sharing them in the next couple of weeks.  It is such a good feeling to see my basket not overflowing with those projects.  I'm anxious to work on some new things I purchased at the quilt show this past weekend.  

Have a great week and don't forget to check back next week to see what I have been up to!!!

Embroidery of a Different Kind

Hello readers,        
                        

Welcome to a late posting!  I worked out of the house last week and it really messed up my schedule.
But I'm thrilled to share this posting with you!!

This is another sample I 'made' for the new wool store in Windsor.  It is a Bird Brain Design done in black on a tan linen.  The design was 'digitized' and I used my embroidery machine to stitch it out!!!  Can you tell the difference between this stitching and hand embroidery???  I think it stitched out very nicely.  When I look at the stitching close up I can definitely tell it was not hand embroidered, but for a display sample I don't think anyone will be able to notice the difference unless they study the stitching!!!

I have a couple more machine embroidered designs to share with you later this week.  Please check back on Thursday!!!
Have a great couple of days!!!

MORE SAMPLES

Happy Thursday Followers,

I have a couple more samples finished and ready to deliver to the up and coming wool shop in Windsor.  The first is a kitchen towel decorated for Halloween.  (It is hard to think of the holiday coming up so soon.) I embroidered this with floss.  As shown below there is a bit of added color.  After marking my pattern on the fabric I used crayons to color the open area on the lettering, flowers and hat.

I have played with this technique a bit before but never finished the project. So I'm happy with how the embroidery compliments the coloring.  I love the WIDE rick rack used to finish the design.

I have finished another sample using embroidery as well.  The pillow was a fun project using different colors of floss.  First I tea dyed the fabric -- even though it doesn't show in the picture.  After the embroidery was complete I added some borders around the stitching to frame the pillow top.  It was a pretty simple project but did take some time with all the floss color changes.

I love embroidery and sometimes memories from my six year old life return as I sit and stitch.  My very first projects were a pillowcase and sheet set for a wooden cradle that was handed down from my mom.  I believe she told me her father made it for her.  Mom used recycled sheets for the bedding in my dolls in the cradle.  She "stamped" the image on the sheets.  Back in the day she would get designs from a black and white publication called the "Workbasket."  A person could get several "stampings" from the designs if you ironed them on the fabric carefully.

I'm excited to see what projects await me!!!  I'm sure there will be more great designs.  I'll sure I'll have more next week!!!  Here is a quote from a blog I found and would like to share.  "My soul is fed with needle and thread."  Have a wonderful week until next time.

Sampler Sample

Happy Friday!!!

Hope everyone is ready for the weekend!!! I know I am.
Here is a stitching of a sampler I completed this week.  I used black pearl cotton to embroider the design on an ecru linen. It will be framed in a black frame.  I thought it turned out pretty well.   More importantly the lady I did it for, was pleased!!!

There is a new wool shop opening in Windsor soon and Cheryl, the owner, asked me to make some samples for her store.  I am so excited.  You all know I love needlework!!!  This is the first one I completed and it took me about eight hours to stitch.  I have more to do and am excited to work on them.  I will post them next week.  I am hoping to have more details regarding the new store by then as well.

Have a super weekend and I'll be back next week with more exciting projects.