Embroidered artist trading cards (ATC)

I've sworn off swaps this year as they were taking up too much of my time, but I let this swap sneek through as ATCs are only small. There's a huge community of people who swap artist trading cards, but the swap I joined is for cross-stitched cards and we're a quite small group. Each month we're given a theme and we have to produce a piece of cross-stitch that fits onto a card that is 3.5 inches by 2.5 inches.

My first theme was stitcher's choice. One of the reasons I wanted to do this swap as I hadn't done any cross-stitch for while and this gave me an opportunity to do a little bit. Of course, I jumped in with both feet and decided to do mine on linen with waste canvas! I had a really hard time pulling the waste canvas threads out some of my stitching ended up a bit wonky (that is my excuse and I'm sticking to it!)!

Last month's theme was creepy crawlies so I did this beetle, on aida that was so much easier!

This month's theme is 'baked goods', I'll share that one when my partner has received it.

TTFN
Louise

Bird and flower felt brooches.

With the spring flowers coming out and the welcome bits of sunny weather has wanted me to make with brighter colours. The brooch above is made from felt, with the addition of some tiny tatted flowers, with beads and a vintage button.

This bird brooch has more embroidery on it than the flower one, with blankets stitch, french knots and back-stitch. There's also another tatted flower with a bead, this one in the centre of the heart. I haven't done the tatting, it's a skill I don't have, but I found the ones in both of these brooches in a charity shop. I added the beads on both brooches.

The flower brooch and the bird brooch are now available in my Etsy shop.

TTFN
Louise

Heart and flowers brooch

This little brooch is nearly all vintage as just the thread and the brooch back are new. There's a fabric heart buttonholed stitched onto  linen that has tiny running stitches all over it. The heart is decorated with little tatted flowers that I found in a charity shop and a button. The front and back sandwich is edged in blanket stitch.

This brooch is now available at the Seagrass Gallery in West Kirby. There a few of my brooches available in the Elsie May and Bertha Etsy store.

TTFN
Louise

Embroidery and patchwork quilt.

 

I've cut back on doing swaps this year, but I signed up for this mini quilt swap last year. The idea was to combine embroidery with quilting. My partner likes LiliPopo's embroidery designs and I've been wanting to buy some of her designs to embroider for ages, so this swap was a good excuse to finally buy some!

The one I used for this quilt is called 'Night, Night' and was the one that my partner chose out of the designs I'd bought ( I bought five designs for £10, which is a bargain) but I used my own colour scheme to match the patchwork fabrics I was going to use for the quilt.

Everything on this quilt has been hand-stitched, whether it was the patchwork, quilting or binding. I've used a lovely bias binding that has a crocheted edge that picks up on the colours used in the embroidery. 

My partner loved her quilt, despite its wobbly edges!

 

This circular quilt was made for me by my partner (the same one I sent to). Isn't it magnificent? Her sewing machine skills are much better than mine and the shape of the quilt (I definitely wouldn't attempt a circle!) fits in with the embroidery beautifully. It's going to be hung on my bedroom wall underneath one of my own pieces of work.

TTFN

Louise. 

Blue and white gingham lavender sachets.

Blue and white is a classic combination and I found this organic cotton gingham at The Draper's Daughter (they have a fantastic collection of fabrics) and thought that it'd be perfect for making lavender sachets with.

The first ones I made have hangers so you can hang them on a coat hanger or door handle. I decorated each one with a piece of vintage embroidery (from an old tablecloth) and lace daisy's that were originally bought for bridesmaid dresses when I was little (all of the stuff in my staff eventually gets used even if they've been there for over 35 years!). The hanger is blue and white braid and is tied on with a little button.

The second set are sachets for popping in a drawer or placing on your dressing table etc. Each one has a corner from a vintage fine cotton hankie, attached with running stitch and french knots. Once they were sewn up I tied on a tiny mother of pearl button at the point of each hankie piece.

All of the sachets are just filled with dried lavender flowers and are available from the Elsie May and Bertha Etsy store.

Happy Easter.
Louise.