Finished - Squash Squad

I have finished my Squash Squad Instastitch with Sue Spargo. YAH!!! My vine border sort of got away from me but it was enjoyable to stitch. 

To read more about this piece, please hop over HERE where you can see a couple of close-ups. I've also added some links about the various squash / pumpkins used in this piece.

 Enjoy!

90 Stitched Circles - Instastitchwithsue

The 90 Day Stitch Sampler, with Sue Spargo, is finished! It was a delightful experience, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Each appliqued wool circle had its own unique design that was stitched with a variety of threads. Over 40 stitches were used in the sampler. 

The sampler ended with this little Bluebird:
Love the variegated thread. Note the Drizzle Stitch tail. This stitch gives a lovely dimensional look to the piece. This little bird can be positioned in a variety of ways. I flipped this one to face inward toward the other designs as it was too close to the edge to stitch the way Sue presented it.

The finished sampler. If you click on it, it should get a bit bigger.

Below, is the sampler before it was stitched. You can see the colours of felt I used. In hindsight, the softer colours that Sue Spargo used, would have been easier to work with especially for choosing thread colours. I worked with what I had on hand, the bright wool circles on a black background. 

 

Which is your favorite design?
My granddaughter selected the fox 'because he is cute'. I have several that catch my eye.
Check out my Instagram @jctextileart for lots more photos of the circles. You don't have to be an Instagram user to view the various posts.
Enjoy

My new web site is coming soon with a new blog design that will be linked back to this one.

Drizzle Stitches - Insta Stitch with Sue

Well, folks, the 90 day challenge from Sue Spargo is nearing the end. Number 81/90 was just posted. It's been a fun stitch along and I've done more Drizzle Stitches in the last few weeks than ever before. Have you ever tried them? No? Have a look HERE for Mary Corbet's Drizzle Stitch Video Tutorial.

Here's # 61 showing drizzle stitches with beads

# 55, Drizzle Stitches without beads

# 43

# 80

But here's my pièce de résistance, with 106 Drizzles, # 78, the African Lion! Well, my lion just got back from the hairdresser where he had an old fashioned perm!! In fact, there is hardly room to see his face and ears. One thing I can say, the circle colour was a perfect match (which didn't happen often), as was the circle for the acorn above.

Hand Embroidered Circles continued . . . Instastitchwithsue

I had this post already to go when, for some reason, the whole thing disappeared! Bummer!!!

It is a beautiful sunny day here and I got some time to sit out on the back deck. The temperature is above 20C and the clothes is quickly drying on the line.

I have been trying to play catch-up on these hand embroidered one inch circles from @instastitchwithsue on Instagram. These are a bit time consuming, depending on the design and I'm still about ten circles behind. I try not to take out stitches. In the first one, my spacing is a bit off but it's a practise piece and I only eye balled the distances.

 Lots of practise doing these bullion knots! I used two different variegated #8 pearl from Valdani Threads.

More variegated threads. Love the colours on this one.

The colours for this one worked out well. More bullion knots and a bullion rose.

 My basket is a bit tilted!

The lime green is a bit garish and it was difficult matching colours for this circle. Again, the middle is not centered. BUT these are practise pieces and it was late when it got done. That's my excuse.

Enjoy!!

More Circles - Instastitchwithsue

As promised, circle # 2.
My tension was off as you can see on the bottom left. I was going to take it out but that was more work than I wanted to do. So I added another outer edge as seen in 2nd photo.

A variegated chain stitch was embroidered at the edge. I thought that yellow might be the one but it was too garish. This will work for now.

# 3 Working with the colours of my felted circles, choosing the right colour was a challenge.

 #4 This one might need another outer edge added too.

 #5 Did I mention that I love variegated threads?!! Candy colours!

 #6 The center of this one is all fly stitches.

#7  This is suppose to be a seed pod. Not sure if I like the orange chain stitch on the orange felt. But it is what it is!!!

I'm using my own colour scheme. Most of the threads are Valdani, with a few from Sue Spargo's line of threads. All the # 5 pearl cotton is DMC that my sister gifted to me many years ago when I lived in NL. Thank you, Joan. They are coming in handy for this project.

Here's my colour pallet. It will be an interesting collection of designs when all 90 are finished!

• DMC Free Embroidery Patterns
• Hand Embroidery on Quilts   
• Stitch Doodles has a free cute Hello Spring hand embroidery pattern
• Hand Embroidery ideas from Spruce Crafts  
• DIY & Crafts 25 easy embroidery projects for beginners with free patterns

Enjoy!!

Still Here

No, I haven't given up on blog posting. Trying to keep busy but not necessarily working in my studio.
We've taken up bread baking since been confined to the house. There is a shortage of yeast so bread baking maybe short lived!

 

The clothes line was fixed after it broke last fall so I am enjoying hanging clothes out instead of using the dryer.

 

A pair of ducks paid us a visit after a heavy rainfall a couple weeks ago. This kept me amused for awhile.

A new shimmer has been designed but that's as far as it goes. You will have to wait and see what it is. About a dozen sheets of shimmers have been stitched on my machine this month.

Another Reversible Fibre Lace Scarf was just completed.

I decided to join in with a 90 day insta stitch with Sue Spargo. There are 90 one inch felt circles stitched onto a felted background. I decided to use a bit of boiled wool coat fabric for this. As you can see, I'm about 17 days late starting as # 17 was introduced this morning. It's a cute bee. I have to get busy.

  
Here's the first embroidered circle Sue introduced so you get the idea. Each one will be entirely different.

My first circle is green. I will be using a combination of Valdani and Sue Spargo threads.

Enjoy!!