Is this the perfect gift for the person who knows everything?

A few years ago, I made cushions with machine-embroidered words. The words were drawn from the sadly now-defunct Save the Words website, which was dedicated to preserving words in danger of disappearing from the English language.

A friend saw a photo of those cushions and declared them "the perfect gift for the person who knows everything". I'd been thinking of re-visiting the idea but having the words in a crossword/scrabble-like grid format. So this version is hand-stitched with white thread on black Aida.

My friend was delighted to receive the piece and now has it hanging in his office - appropriately in the Communication school at a university.

Exhibition Gift Shop

The embroidery exhibition is on next weekend and I've made some things for the gift shop:

Billy B Brown

Emma wanted to go to her school's Book Week parade as her favourite character, Billy B Brown in The Bad Butterfly by Sally Rippin:

I mad a circular skirt with a piece of taffeta that has been in my stash for a long, long time (well, a couple of decades. I then added the blue 'B' and trims to a white t-shirt. She already had the hot pink boots. Not exactly like the original but Emma was happy with it. She particularly likes the way the skirts twirls.

Tissues and dice

While my sons are very supportive and encouraging of my textile arts, they show little interest in many of the things I make. However, recently they both asked me to make something for them.

With two daughters, Keith finds it necessary to always carry tissues with him but they quickly become very grotty. So I made him a tissue cover, using Japanese-style fabrics for the lining/trim. I actually made 6 (2 of each colour combination) and they proved very popular. I must put one in my handbag.

Then Dan wanted a dice bag for the board games he plays with friends. The bags are made in fake leather, with a machine embroidery design we found online, and lined in printed cotton fabric. The design seemingly makes sense if you are a fan of the Firefly series - generally favoured by nerds.

Dan also asked me to make a bag for his brother, almost a duplicate of his but with different in the embroidery.

Explorer Backpacks

A couple of years ago, I made a nature bag for Emma. However, I wasn't very happy with the bag - it was a bit floppy - and Olivia didn't have one.

So I have made new bags for both girls. Each bag is lined with the fabric used as external trim and they have lots of pockets, both inside and outside, for all those things that they might collect. They also contain bags and containers, as well as necessary equipment such as binoculars, magnifying glasses, pencils, books and so on.

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:

Kanzashi Flower Brooches revisited

I enjoy making these silk flower brooches - they are very quick to make and don't take much concentration - but I don't often think to make them. However, I recently made these for the Embroiderers' Guild sales table. They proved to be a very effective fund-raiser - they all sold in one day.