Easy Shopping List

I've posted before how I precut my DMC into 8 equal lengths, slip them back into their numbered band and into a bag. When I get to the end of a skein I toss that numbered band into my frog jar and save it. The little short band gets tossed into a giant jar and saved, aren't they pretty? I've always had an idea to one day put these into a clear glass lamp for my studio.

Once I get a lot of the numbered bands saved I will get them out and write down the numbers and go shopping! This way I can replace the floss I've used and I don't miss out on sales because I haven't looked to see which colors I need.

This photo is a bit dark to reduce glare. You can see I have one unopened skein of DMC 160 and one precut skein. I tuck an index card in the bag so it will stand up in my cabinet and it's easier to see the floss. The bags are "Bag-It" by Westex, not Floss-A-Way's. I don't like those because they are covered in red lettering and I like being able to see my floss.

Everyone will be curious! How you do your floss and how you keep track of replacement colors? 

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox 

My Favorite Kitten

This design was serious fun! I couldn't even be bothered to stop and blog about starting it before I had it stitched and finished. Too much fun!

Design ~ My Favorite Kitten

Designer ~ Primitivebettys

Fabric ~ 32 count Belfast Linen, Daffycat Dyed

Fiber ~ DMC

Finish ~ Pinkeep

I had a few comments and questions about the Tweet Heart finish so I decided to address those in a similar finish blog post. First off, someone said something like, "You make it sound so easy!" which I worried meant, "This is easy for you to make but "I" could never do this." I want to make it clear this IS easy to make. YOU can do this! So I found a pattern I've had sitting and waiting and made a start, taking photos as I went along...

I have my design stitched. I don't really enjoy stitching on Belfast (it wrinkles like mad) but I wanted its rustic weave for this project. I cut out some iron-on interfacing to cover the back.

I choose a backing fabric and put the interfacing on it as well. Once you have it ironed on don't fiddle with it until it is cooled down. Let that glue set!

I take my pattern and hang it up in the window. 

I put my Kitten over the paper face down so I can draw on the interfacing. The tricky part is centering! Once you think you have it where it goes, tape it up and check it over carefully! Once you're sure, trace over the lines and don't forget to mark the opening you are to leave un-sewed!

I use a Frixion pen. This ink erases with heat. The line I have drawn is my seam line, the line I will sew directly on. If my pattern called for me to sew inside the line, I would draw a second line.

Now, I pin my backing fabric to my stitched piece. Careful! Make sure the pretty sides touch each other! 

Now, I sew on the line, careful to backstitch at the start and stop. What if you don't have a sewing machine? 1. You can hand sew, use tiny, secure stitches. 2. You can have a friend sew it on their machine. 3. You can invest in a machine of your own. Check Craigslist or Facebook marketplace for an inexpensive machine in working order. I am fond of vintage Singers as they are easy to find parts for.

Once my seam was sewn, I ran the hot iron over it to "disappear" the ink. See how the ears are still there? Just a touch of the iron erases the color.

Now, I can trim close to the seam and clip any curves so it will lay nice inside.

The hardest part ~ turning! Careful not to tear out your stitching. Be gentle. Poke. Pull. Squeeze.

I use a turning tool to help poke out ears and tails. A chopstick works great! Careful not to poke through the seam. I run the tool along every seam, pinching from the outside to make sure it gets pushed completely open.

 

Goodness, Belfast creases and crumples.

I iron the piece flat, smoothing out the seam inside with my tool. Open it all up neatly.

Using the turning opening fill your pinkeep with your favorite stuffing. I like ground walnut shells., just pour them in with a funnel. Someone wanted to know why I use them? Because they are heavy and they smell lovely. They give a good weight to your pillow. If your pillow gets damp they won't get sticky like rice or small peas/beans would. I also add a good pinch of dried lavender buds for additional scent.

You can buy the ground walnut shells at the pet shop, sold as bird or small animal litter.. I got about a five pound bag, if I remember correctly. It fit inside this cereal storage container. I have had this same package for several years. Once I had it as full as I could stuff it I used a ladder stitch to close the seam, using sewing thread. Learn this stitch! It is a nice invisible way to close seams. 

 Then I stitched a decorative cross stitch on the seam itself, using a DMC that I tea-dyed. I deliberately made it uneven to give it a rustic, prim feel. After my kitten was done, I used a hot iron to smooth the seam and to remove creases in the Belfast from all the pinching during sewing.

I think my kitten turned out really sweet! Don't forget, he isn't too pretty to stick pins in! Use your smalls and love them. Collecting dust isn't as much fun as being loved and used.

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Hugs to All

A big thank you for all the happy birthday wishes on my last post. You sure know how to make a girl feel special! Dash does too ~ look at the gifts he got me:

Both seasons of Downton Abbey and a companion book...plus the first season of The Walking Dead and a book about it as well. I'm half way through The Walking Dead Chronicles already ~ very interesting!

I had a lovely day out on Friday. We had a lovely lunch at a brick oven pizza place in downtown Tulsa called Joe Momma's. I won't bore you with the craptastic pictures I took there. We had a basket of fried button mushrooms, a fat calzone and each had a couple of beers. It was lovely! Then we went shopping:

I bought some finishing fabrics. I especially like the red striped mattress ticking. I found loads of new charts. Absolutely had to get La D Da's A Bird in Hand because I was chosen by Nina to stitch this using her over-dyed threads. I could have borrowed Nina's but I wanted my own copy anyway. The Prairie Schooler ones both had partridge-in-a-pear-tree designs and I could not resist. Yes, I was able to control myself during stash shopping...I only had two beers!

A little close-up of the Just Nan pin I bought:

I can't resist ladybugs either! Counting pins are too handy. One can never have enough. Here are the ones on my desk:

Forgive the stray thread clippings...this IS a work area, after all! 

What are counting pins and how do you use them? Easy...say you have a long border to stitch and you want to be SURE you have it counted correctly. Or you are counting for center placement on a new start. Use your counting pins to mark every 10 or 20 stitches so save the place. No more mis-counting! You don't need fancy pins of course but they make it fun. 

I am still having a great time for my birthday weekend. I've been catching up on my blog list, doing some stitching on  projects for Theme-a-licious and WIPocalypse and even a bit of housework. *gasp* I can't believe I just said the h-word!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

How to fake a French Knot

This post is for Chris who is having fits with his French Knots. I've never had to do this myself. I am one of those that learned easily how to make a French knot and quickly perfected them but I know many, many stitchers have trouble with them. No one wants to wait to finish a project until the stitch has been learned reliably, and beads sometimes look out of place. I am not advocating using this technique forever. Practise! Learn those French Knots! But until you do ~ here is how to "fake" a French Knot:

I stitched a block of cross stitches for my foundation. Take two strands of floss and tie a simple pretzel knot and pull it snug. I left it loose in the photo so you could see the shape I used to form the knot. When you pull it snug (not tight) make sure you have all the threads pulled in, with no little loose loops.

Thread one end of your floss on the needle and go through the front where your French Knot is supposed to be. Remove the needle from the floss and just leave the tail hanging loose on the back.

Now, thread the other end of the floss on the other side of the knot and go through very near where your first thread went through. Try to split a fabric thread and go through that for stability. Pull that end to the back and flip the piece over. Be careful not to pop the knot through to the back side!

Tie both ends in another pretzel knot. Again, don't pull so tight you pop your knot though to the back! Tying the back ends will give the knot on the front the round shape you are looking for.

Then thread the ends on your needle again and secure them underneath stitches like you would to finish off any other stitch.



Can you tell which of these is a "real" French Knot and which is "fake"? No? The one in the middle is the real French Knot. Yes, this is troublesome and fiddly but it could get you through until you learn that stitch!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Loose Stitch Fix

A how-to for new-ish stitchers.

It never fails you don't notice the loose stitch until well after the fact. The little buggers usually crop up after a tiny twist in the thread finally untwists (sometimes days later) and there you have it. A loose stitch. If you are OCD or working on perfecting your backsides now is the time to frog. Unpick the whole blasted thing to get to that ONE LOOSE STITCH! Or you can fudge it like this...

I stitched this block with one thread so you could see everything easier. And I exaggerated a loose stitch.

It's the perfect place to use the loop method start I showed you ~ just loop through a thread on the back side. I'm doing it with white so you can see. Secure the thread a little bit away from the loose one.

Find the loose thread, pull it to the back with the tip of your needle and go through it. Make sure to get the whole thread or threads! Pull snug.

Now, going a little bit away from where the loose stitch was, run the needle under the stitches to secure the thread and end as usual. The loop holds the loose stitch tight. It isn't pretty but it works.

It sure beats frogging.

Shhh! You can't even tell from the front! Just ~ nobody look at my backside. Please!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox



Joy

I have another finish to share! I made a cute little scissor fob out of Lilybet's Joy freebie design. This is stitched over one on 28 count tea-dyed Monaco. There is a trio of snowflakes on the reverse. Tiny, it's around 1 inch by 2 inches! I stuffed this with crushed walnut shells and a bit of Lavender. So sweet and precious! 

This post was a hidden giveaway!

Congratulations to Meari!

Crushed walnut shells isn't found in the needlework or crafts department. You get this in the pet section, sold as litter for cages. It is usually with the bird stuff but I have seen it sold as reptile litter as well. It smells lovely, isn't dusty and has a nice weight to it. One bag will last you just about forever. Here is a link to it on Amazon in case you don't have a pet shop near you.



When I go to stuff an item with walnut shells I use a funnel and a cup. I stitch my item up to leave a small hole and poke the end of the funnel through and pour it in. It likes to clog the funnel  so go slow or you will have it everywhere! Fill your item as full as you want it; full and tight or loose and floppy ~ both work. This little fob was stuffed as "packed tight" as I could get it.

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Step By Step

This afternoon I worked on my ornament. I'll show you exactly how I do this. I hardly touched a sewing machine until only a couple years ago ~ I'm NO expert. Dinna be askin' me to sew ye a shirt, lassies! This is about all I have really mastered, simple pillows. So far it's all I've needed. My point is this is easy!

After I pulled threads on the design and ironed interfacing on the back (and some on the back of the backing fabric as well) I trimmed the design on the lines. I also trimmed the backing fabric to fit and pinned the two together. Front sides together, please! The interfacing simply gives the pillow a little bit of body or "stiffness" to help keep it's shape. Plus, it helps keep fiberfill from squiggling out and driving OCD people like me crazy.

Now, I sew down each side and across the top. I don't "turn" the corners ~ I sew straight up and take a few stitches backwards then up again to reinforce the corner. Then I do the next seam the same way to create a + at each corner.

Once each side and the top is sewn I trim the threads and nip off the top corners. See the +?

Then I turn it right side out. I use a stuffing tool to gently poke out the top corners. This stuffing tool came with my package of fiberfill. After I have it turned out I fold in the bottom edges where I am going to sew it closed and run the tip of my iron over it to crease it. Careful ~ don't melt any buttons with that iron!

Yay stuffing! This being an ornament, I don't want it too heavy so I'm using fiberfill, just enough to fluff it out all puffy. DO NOT EVER use paper towels or toilet paper for stuffing material! You want fluffy and puffy not lumpy and flattening! I've used cotton balls as puffy backing behind stitching on greeting cards but I think they'd get too lumpy in pillows. Besides, fiberfill is extra cheap and easy to find as well.

Once it's stuffed I sew the seam closed on my fold-over using a ladder stitch. This is an excellent hidden seam stitch every needleworker should be able to do ~ so learn it! Learn it now, and here is a video to help you. Seriously, if I can learn this anyone can. And it's a lot easier if you fold and iron those edges first!



A very nice seam! If you are nervous about working with backing fabric try homespun like this or a gingham print fabric. Those straight lines will help you cut, sew and finish the closing seam neatly! Now my little ornament is ready for some edging.

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Ornament Progress

A quick post today. I've made some progress toward ornamentifying this afternoon. Today I sewed on the teeniest buttons. I found these unexpectedly at Hobby Lobby last Saturday and was thrilled to discover they fit this project! This has been languishing in my finished bin wanting buttons. I stitched this last year but did it over one, not thinking it needed buttons and even the smallest I had were way too big. I could have used beads but I really, really wanted buttons. I'm so glad I waited!

After I sewed on the buttons and chose a backing fabric (green & tan gingham) I ironed lightweight interfacing on both pieces. Maybe tomorrow I will have time to sew it together.

For those that have asked, this is Plum Berry Sampler from Bent Creek. Yes, if you open that link you will see mine looks very little like the original. I modified the colors and gave the birdie a top-knot to make this into a Christmas design.

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Pulled Thread Cut

Here is how to cut straight and square on linen and plainweave. This won't work for Aida since the threads of that fabric are secured differently. However, Aida is simple to trim because the lines are huge and easy to see. But on plainweave it's much harder to see to cut straight. We've all done it; you open a new package of fabric or the store help wasn't careful and the fabric you get is uneven and wonky. I hate having an inch and a half of wasted fabric because it wasn't cut to square. Yuck! Use this method to even up those crappy out-of-square edges. Here, I am making cut lines to finish a Christmas ornament.

First, measure out from the edge of your stitched design and mark it with a pencil. This is going to be a small ornament so I only measured out one inch. You can also count the threads if you want to be exacting. I often count threads when I'm doing a seam-sewed edge. For example: I'll count out ten threads and pull the eleventh.

Just to be clear, this first thread pull is going to be vertical (going up and down.)

Take a needle and pull up that marked thread enough to slip the sharp tip of a scissors through it and cut the thread.

Now, use the needle to work that cut thread loose. Just slip the cut thread out from under the stable threads. You need enough to grab onto. I use my fingers but sometimes tweezers come in handy too.

Once you can get a good grip start pulling that thread. Hold the fabric with one hand pinching near where the cut thread emerges and pull with the other hand. It takes a good tug! Bunch up the fabric as if you were gathering a hem. Note: some fabrics pull easy and the thread comes out very neatly. Other fabrics the thread likes to break with the slightest tug. Monaco pulls pretty easy but oh my, the sound it makes going through the fabric sets my teeth on edge!

Once you have the thread pulled, you have a nice straight line to make a clean cut! No more wonky edges!

See, now I have all four sides done! There is no chance now of getting things cut too short or uneven. I haven't made the actual cuts yet because I'm not ready to start finishing ~ still more to do first!



There will be quite a few of my readers that already know this kind of information but I know some of my readers are still learning these little tricks that make stitching and finishing look so easy. That's why I'm posting about it. I hope this helps someone learn!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox