Work in Progress Wednesday

I am currently doing my first Craftsy class - Carol Ann Waugh's Stupendous Stitching - and exploring the many built-in stitches on my Husqvarna Epic. Definitely more to do but I'm happy with what I've done so far - and I'm getting to use some of my hand-dyed fabric:

I've done a few more (more than 100) stitches on the Pebbly Beach, although it's hard to see the difference from last week - and there are still plenty more to go:

And another 2 squares of my blanket finished - only 38 to go:

Leafy table runner

My super-dooper Husqvarna Diamond sewing machine came with an embroidery unit, which I wasn't particularly interested in but I've played around with from time to time - it's great for making quilt labels.

Last year, I decided to explore what I could do with it and bought Sarah Vedeler's A New Leaf design. It works with the Rustling Leaves cutters for the Accuquilt Go Cutter, which I had just bought, so it seemed like a good project to try out.

Then my brother and sister-in-law mentioned that they wanted a table runner. I showed them the pattern for A New Leaf, which they liked but they wanted their one to be half as long again. I soon found that there is more to machine embroidery than just hooping up some fabric and watching it stitch out but after making just about every mistake possible, I eventually finished all the stitching and put the runner together.

Here it is spread out on my extended dining table - the runner is a bit less than 2.6 metres.

This photo shows some of the detail:

A wedding

I've been making more bags, this time for a wedding. My daughter-in-law's sister was married yesterday.

It took me ages to settle on a design for the bride's bag. I wanted to do hand embroidery or beading but in the end I opted for this machine-embroidered heart design with a pair of ladybirds. But I did hand-stitch the beads in place around the top of the bag.

 

I then stitched the names of the bride and groom, bordered by hearts, onto the back.

I also made this bag for my d-i-l, whose black dress featured a fern design in silver sequins on the bodice:

Emma had a little lamb

It's fleece might have been white as snow once upon a time but its fur has greyed over the years, having been much loved and much travelled (Abigail has been to England, France, Switzerland and Italy). But Emma still loves her little lamb.

So, when I made a winter "silkie" for Emma, I machine-embroidered a lamb onto it - much to Emma's delight.

This photo gives a clearer view of the embroidered lamb:

Start with a piece of calico

I decided to participate in this year's holiday challenge for ACT Textile Arts. The only requirements were to make a journal cover, starting with a piece of calico (the calico didn't have to be visible at the end). I used calico, brown paper, copper metallic paint, machine embroidery thread - and beeswax.


And here's my completed journal cover. I'm quite pleased with it, although I've learned a lot about the construction process.


I painted the paper, scrunched it up (lots of fun and very good for relieving stress) and fused it to the calico. I then embroidered words onto it, using a font built into my sewing machine, and finally rubbed beeswax all over it. There is a magnetic catch to hold it closed.