Celtic Christmas Trees: More Christmas Gifts!

In 2017, I finished my Celtic Christmas tree. This is stitched on linen using white Sashiko thread. The pattern is from Indigo Niche Designs. I find this method of stitching very relaxing as I don't have to count stitches and pay close attention to the pattern.

This year, I stitched two more trees using red linen. One went to Tennessee and the other to Newfoundland. Both trees have seed beads randomly stitched over the tree and are stretched on to canvas panels.

• How to Sashiko Stitch from A Threaded Needle
• Sashiko Stitching for Beginners from KoeKoek
• Patterns and Tutorials from Radiant Home Studio  Free Patterns
  
• Step-by-Step Guide to Sashiko Stitching by Create Whimsy
• Sashiko Stitching by Machine from We All Sew
• Wikipedia   
• Check out my 2011 finish of Sashiko Tablecloth HERE 
  

Enjoy!

My Journey into the World of Textile / Fibre Art

Last Monday afternoon, I did a power point presentation as well as a Show & Tell of my art work at the Mahone Bay Quilt Guild. I focused on my journey of creating art from textiles and fibres. 

Below are a few of pieces that I had at the guild. To see some more, please check out the Mahone Bay Quilt Guild March meeting blog post HERE and some photos from my presentation on flickr HERE. 

I've been blogging since 2019 so most of my art pieces have been posted during this time.
Thanks for reading my posts. 

12 Days of Christmas

Hand stitching samplers

Sample Fibre Lace Scarve

Folded flowers with Sashiko stitching

Voyage of Discovery (50th anniversary for parents around 1997)

Evening Purse with removable brooch

Blogging - 1589 posts!

I was reading Margaret Blank's blog and she mentioned that she has been blogging for 15 years and posted over 1500 posts. That got me thinking, so I checked my blog profile and so far, my total is 1589 posts. I didn't think I had written that much in ten years (it will be ten next August). Some would say 'long winded'!

I've tried to keep my comments related to my art and the art of others. Most of the time, I've linked to lots of interesting sites where you will find things related to textile / fibre art such as free patterns, tutorials, YouTube videos, other blogs, teachers, classes, quilt shows . . .

Thanks for stopping by and for your comments.
Now it's time to view a few links:

• Magpie Mumblings has lots of interesting links. Her writing usually gives me a chuckle or two.
• Needle and Thread Network  
• Brown Paper Bag (from Magpie Mumblings) 
• Asian Sewing Patterns 
• Fabulous Fat Quarter Sewing Projects 
• Sashiko and Other Stitching (Susan Briscoe's photos from Tokyo 2018 Quilt Festival)
• Free Coaster Tutorials & Patterns for all Occasions   

 Enjoy!


  Here's yesterday's visitor:

Finished Project

My Celtic Christmas Tree - in Sashiko, from Indigo Niche Designs, is finished. It was a relaxing project to stitch. I decided to mount my tree on a canvas instead of quilting it.

The pattern suggested adding beads to the finished tree. I used gold seed beads which don't show up in the photo. However, when the light shines on them, they sparkle. It was worth the extra effort of stitching them on as I like sparkle!

Enjoy!

 

Links!

My studio is up to your eyeballs! The downstairs storage for my supplies is partly packed up. Hopefully I'll find everything when it's all unpacked - sometime in the future. Trying to decide if I'll keep something or not is a difficult choice. I don't know about you but the minute I get rid of something is when I suddenly have a use for it - AND it's too late! It's gone!

Here's a few links to consider:

• The Art of Louise Smith (hand embroidery) 
• 25 Quilt As You Go Tutorials 
• 10 Travel Sewing Projects 
• Zipper Pouches 

This Sashiko pattern was just added to my stash and will be an easy summertime project. My friend brought it back from Australia with her. I think the photo of the Christmas Tree does not do justice to the actual colour of the fabric and some colour adjustments were needed.    

Sashiko

Awhile back, I posted a glimpse of a piece of sashiko that I had just finished stitching. Well, I'm not happy with the piece! Most of my stitching is fine. However, I had decided to put a stitched border around the pattern. Since this is an open weave fabric, the straight stitching is not straight. If I put this down on a table, my eye would always go to the edge of the piece.

I had a look at some other Sashiko pieces and discovered that none of them had stitched Sashiko borders outside the pattern. Instead, the stitching pattern came right to the fabric border.  This piece below has an inch navy binding around the edge (not visible here).

This little piece above has some straight stitched Sashiko that worked well. It was done on cotton and didn't distort when ironed and when binding was attached. 
 

This piece was destined for the discard bin!
I was ready to throw it out. Notice the stitching around the pattern. The pencil lines won't come out so removing the stitches isn't an option.

I did get a solution that I can live with. I will put another border on the piece and attach it right up to the pattern. Thank you, Verna, for that suggestion! At the moment, it will remain behind the studio door until I can tackle it again!

I will pay more attention to my next Sashiko project!

Work in Progress

I'm trying to complete a few UFOs during the winter. This piece of Sashiko was started several years ago. I made a plastic template and drew it out on the fabric. The stitching was just completed! YAH! Now I have to finish it for my coffee table. Here's a sneak peek at the piece:

I have a variety of Japanese fabrics but mostly in fat quarter sizes but I found this blue piece with koi fish all over it that will work perfectly for the back.

Recent Fabric Purchase

My latest fabric purchase was at Atlantic Fabrics in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The multi coloured piece is batik. I think it will make a couple of very nice Pisci Fantasticus.

The other pieces just caught my eye. I'm thinking mug rugs at the moment but who knows what they will be used in. The white with black lines reminds me of sashiko stitching.

Pincushions!

Back in November, 2014, I blogged about winning a china teacup pincushion from Edith at Inch by Inch Quilting, Calgary, Alberta. It came early in December but with the craft fairs, Christmas shopping and the holidays, I didn't get a chance to blog about it. Many thanks, Edith! Here it is with my other pincushions.

The cosy chair holds some oversize needles. Note the tall upholstery needle. The dark blue rectangle pincushion is decades old. It's made from heavy coat material and has a strip of Velcro on the bottom. This one is attached to the table in front of my sewing machine. I find having a pincushion in front of the machine, works for me. The sashiko stitched pincushion (the newest one ) was this year's Christmas gift from a friend. One can never have too many pincushions.

 

Here's a few patterns to check:

• cupcakes
• 50 + free pincushion patterns
• teapot pincushion

Enjoy!

Fabric Flowers

It's suppose to be spring! However, today we had a light sprinkle of snow, then freezing rain and finally rain. Certainly not weather for growing flowers. My poor crocuses! I noticed that one of the houses further up my street set up their Christmas lawn ornaments again - yes, the weather has been that bad.

So, I figure, if the garden isn't up to producing blooms yet, why not make some from fabric.
I found a few ideas to check out.

• Zipper Flower Tutorial
• 20 Different Fabric Flowers
• Felt Fun
• Fabric Daffodils
• Frayed Fabric Flower
• Embellished Flower Tutorial
• Tissue Paper and Tulle Flower Tutorial
• Felt Flowers
• Rickrack Flowers 
• Rick Rack Roses
• Easy Fabric Flower Tutorial
• Sheer Blooms
• Sheer Blooms ll Tutorial  (check out the other flower tutorials)
• Organza Flowers
• Chiffon Flowers
• Crinoline Tattered Roses
• Wired Ribbon Flower
• Rolled Ribbon Flowers
• Velvet Blossom

Here's a small wall hanging I did a number of years ago called Thistles. It's from Fabled Flowers by Kumiko Sudo. I believe this was my first attempt at Sashiko stitching.

Show & Tell - St. John's Embroidery Guild

Have a look at the wonderful work that was on display last evening at the St. John's embroidery guild. The piece with the blue and yellow flower is Romanian Point Lace and was designed and created by needlework artist, Sylvia Murariu. Sylvia is visiting and teaching her method of Romanian Lace to members of the guild.

Show & Tell at the Embroidery Guild

The St. John's Guild of Embroiderers meets the last Tuesday of the month. Here are some of the items shown last month. Firefox is playing games again (at least on my computer) - not all the photos are shown on their screen.

Sewing Box

Cross Stitch Pillow

Needle Point Landscapes

Sashiko Bags

Eastern Edge Quilt Guild Show & Tell

There was quite a variety of items for the February Show & Tell at the Eastern Edge Quilt Guild. This guild meets the first Tuesday of the month. There were quilts, Japanese Sashiko bags (from a workshop given by one of the quilters), my Sashiko tabletopper, a flock of birds, a set of cushions and a wall hanging. The wall hanging was quite lovely. It was the result of an on-line course, Darned Quilts by Dena Crain, a teacher from Quilt University. Enjoy!

Add caption

More Show & Tell : Cabot Quilt Guild

More Show & Tell from the Cabot Quilt Guild. 

The turquoise quilt shows the front and back. I finally finished my Sashiko Table Topper.

For some reason, Firefox is not showing all the photos posted in Internet Explorer.

Stitchin Fingers

After posting my sashiko piece on Thursday, I decided to also put its photo on the Stitchin Fingers blog. I didn't give it any more thought until I started getting comments from members about it. It's now # 2 for Top Content on the home page! Thanks to everyone for the comments.

If you are interested in textiles and fibre arts, this is the site to visit. You might be so inspired as to join too. They have almost 4000 members at the moment. There are lots of inspirational photos of work by members as well as groups to join. Visit and have a look around. I don't think you will be disappointed.
Enjoy!

Sashiko

Finally! My Sashiko cloth is finished. The designs were already printed on the fabric which I purchased in St. John's, Quilt Canada, 2008. I certainly enjoyed stitching it as I didn't have to concentrate on following a paper pattern or count threads. In this pattern, the cross hatching, which I did in a green thread, went through the squares. However, I felt this was a bit too busy and opted to have them end at the blocks so that the blocks appear to float above the grid pattern.

Now I'm looking for a piece of black sashiko fabric at least 25 x 45 as I would like to do a top for my coffee table. Finding a source for the black fabric other than some of the Asian countries or Australia & New Zealand, is a challenge.
If you aren't familiar with this kind of embroidery, check out the following sites:
The Origin of Sashiko
Studio Aika
Sashiko Flickr Group    
Tutorial from Sashiko Stitchers

I own a number of excellent books on this topic:

The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook by Susan Briscoe
Sensational Sashiko by Sharon Pederson
Sashiko by Mary Parker
Sashiko, Japanese Traditional Hand Stitching by Ai Takeda
Sashiko and Beyond by Saikoh Takano
Sashiko - Traditional Japanese Quilt Designs by Nihon Vogue
Paradise Stitched by Sylvia Pippen
For some reason, when this post is viewed in Internet Explorer, two photos of the same thing is showing. I had this problem before and it took quite awhile to correct. 

Books

I just love Books and I have lots of them! I retired from teaching in 1997 and have been collecting an assortment of textile related books ever since. For some reason, Asian designs have always intrigued me. Here's some from my collection. I turned the photo on its edge to make it easier to read the titles.

I have a small collection of Japanese fabrics too. About 50 - 70 pieces (fat quarters & smaller) was inherited from an older lady friend who passed away a few years ago.

I found a few Asian things you might be interested in:
Check out the Chinese Lantern Quilt Block 
Japanese Fans by Marsha Evans Moore
Expedition Asian Wall Hanging  
Asian Fan Placemat  
Studio Aika  has lots of interesting information about Sashiko. Check out the Sashiko tutorials.
If you want to get started stitching Sashiko, I recommend Susan Briscoe's The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook. Susan also blogs about Sashiko and other stitching.