Monday 30 January 2017

#our52weekproject - week 4

#52weeksofstitchingthecircle











This week's circle is all about buttonhole stitch and different ways to use it. I've learned how to do closed buttonhole - there's three curvy lines, one cerise pink and two cream, and the cream circle at the end of two of those curvy lines (photos 3-5).


The rest of the sample is made up of various ways of using ordinary buttonhole - long and short stems, stems with french knots at the end, a closed circle with the stems 'disappearing' in the centre and a circle with the buttonhole used one way then the other.

As I've finished this first set of four, I'm now going to damp-stretch this piece of fabric and then they'll be mounted into the journal I'm going to keep them in. I'll show you that in my next #our52weekproject post.

I'll be back on Wednesday.

TTFN
Louise

Saturday 28 January 2017

A little 'twig' tree


















Apologies for the dark photos again, it's another dull, grey day again today!

The house always look so empty after Christmas when the tree and decorations have been taken down and I had a couple of new year decorations that I'd made that I wanted to display so I decided to look out my painted twigs.

I've had them for a few years now, but all I did was to to find some twigs (Fallen ones from our local park. If it's been really windy you can usually find quite a few on the ground.) and then paint them with acrylic paints, white first then either a pastel blue or pink. I've wedged them upright in the jug be filling it with glass, so that they don't move around.

Apart from the two new year decorations, there's a glass heart and a glass egg, along with three birds. I seem to have accidently started a bird collection and these are the hanging ones. The white dove came from Chatsworth a few years agog, the finch from the Lady Lever Art Gallery and the pottery one came from the Seagrass Gallery. The heart is by Swirly Designs that I got in a swap last year, I think.

I've made a couple of valentines decorations so I'll be swapping those for the new year ones soon. I'm also planning on making some mini bunting for the twigs too. I'll share these with you soon.

I hope you're having a good weekend. I'll be back on Monday with the 4th installment of my 52 week project.

TTFN
Louise

Thursday 26 January 2017

Needlecases









The first needlecase is one I've made for myself. It's to go in what was my Christmas sewing tin, but I'm going to be using it for things with occaisions/holidays attached. Therefore, it's currently the Valentine's tin. This needlecase replaces the two scraps of fabric that I've been using to keep my needles in. Now I can find them more easily and I don't keep gettingthe pointy end in my fingers anymore.!

The next two are destined for the Seagrass Gallery and just need their buttons attaching and the felt 'pages' added to the inside. The last photo is for a pair of needlecases that are yet to have their embellishments added. These will appear in my Etsy store soon.

I hope your week is going well and I'll be back on Saturday.

TTFN
Louise

Tuesday 24 January 2017

A pillow for a wedding













Unfortunately, it was a really dull day when I had to take the photos of this pillow so, they're not as bright as I'd like. 

I started this pillow with ivory silk that I printed the image of the happy couple onto. I then decorated with lace cut out from an old slip that I added backstitch curls, french knots and beads too. The heart is a guipure applique and there's also a small blue guipure flower under a button and some french knots. Just to add that little bit of blue, to go with the new silk and old buttons, though there isn't anything borrowed on the pillow, three out of the four isn't bad.

I hope you're having a good start to your week and I'll be back on Thursday.

TTFN
Louise

Sunday 22 January 2017

#our52weekproject - week 3

#52weeksofstitchingthecircle



I've finished the stitching on the second leaf on last week's circle, though I've not edged it yet.








With all of my stitching on the wedding pillow I had been making this week, I've kept this week's circle fairly simple, just single chain stitch flowers with french knot centres. These would look lovely all over a pillow cover, I'll store that as an idea for the future!

I'll be back on Tuesday.

TTFN
Louise

Friday 20 January 2017

A wedding card














This card has two folds meaning it has six sides and I've added decoration to all six as they can all be seen depending on the viewing angle.

I used 250gsm double-sided paper (from The Works) to make the card and used a mixture of vintage wedding images, die-cuts, paper flowers, wood embellishments, crystals and enamel dots to create the design. The cut-out circle enables you to see the happy couple from one side and the word love from the other.

I only make this type on commission as they can take a bit of time to put together.They cost between £6-9 depending on the size and detail.

I'll be back on Sunday with this week's circle for my 52 week project.

TTFN
Louise