December!!! Ornament Exchange - Part 3

I love Christmas! The lights, the tree, the decorations, the baking, the food, the goodwill, family, friends, making gifts . . . Need I say more. I will be posting some great links this month so check back occasionally.

Needless to say, the embroidery members did some fantastic stitching. I did not participate in the exchange as there wasn't enough time to do something handmade. My Shimmer Ornaments are lovely and partly handmade but I like to keep my business ventures separate from my guild activities. Maybe I'll have time between now and next year to finally make one to share!!

Here are the rest of the beautiful ornaments from Tuesday evening:

Ornament Exchange - Part 2

More ornaments from the St. John's Embroidery Guild:

This is Verna's Christmas Temari Ornament.

I haven't posted any new links lately. That will happen soon. However, in the meantime, check out my blogging buddy, Mary Ann, at Magpie's Mumblings. For my Crazy Quilt enthusiasts, check out her Santa. And to all the grandmas whose little ones are quite young, scroll down to view her 'quiet' book. Job well done!!! 

Embroidery Christmas Ornament Exchange - Part 1

Tonight the embroidery guild held its annual Christmas Ornament exchange. I will show them all over the next couple of posts. All were beautiful!

I had difficulty editing this one. It didn't matter what I did, this is how it stayed.

Ornament Exchange

Last evening was the Christmas Dinner and Ornament Exchange for the St. John's Guild of Embroiderers. Here's a few of the stitched treasures:

Back of ornament

Temari Ball

I have another temari ball to share with you from my friend Verna. This is Verna's donation to the St. John's Guild of Embroiderers' fall auction next month. It is stunning!

World Embroidery Day

In 2011, a local group of ladies belonging to Broderiakademin, Sweden's embroidery guild, took the initiative to plan and create a special day to celebrate embroidery. "They wanted to acknowledge embroiderery as an act of free creativity, which can lead to free, creative thoughts and ideas." This small part, was taken from the Embroidery Manifesto . Please scroll down the page to get the whole manifesto in English.

As a result, July 30th became World Embroidery Day. This has now become an annual event around the world.

What will you do to celebrate? Will you stitch with friends, stitch in public or will you prefer to do it privately, in the comfort of your home? Whatever you decide, I hope you enjoy the day.

Thanks, M. for telling me about this.
Here's a few embroidery blogs to also check:

• Mini Cat Cross Stitch (these are cute)
• Inspiration
• Needle Lace
• Previous Post on Hand Embroidery, another HERE

Enjoy!!

I haven't touched this piece of hand work all summer. Maybe I'll do some on Thursday?

Hand Embroidery: Trellis Work Fan

Happy May!! Now if the weather would just cooperate, things would be great. I think this is the first May 1st that I still had to wear my winter cost outside. Anyway, that's enough complaining. Warmer days will come. I'm hoping that if I say it enough, it will actually happen.

I belong to the St. John's Embroidery Guild. At each meeting, the program committee presents a project. The January project (a three month piece) was a Trellis Work Fan. Each kit ($5) contained 11" x 11" silk noile, 11" x 11" unbleached muslin, DMC perle cotton, pattern and directions. The pattern was designed by one of our members and is based on a fan drawing from the SJGE NeedleNews.

The two fans below were hand embroidered by my friend, Debbie. She gave me permission to photograph and show her work. Of course, she did her own thing by changing the stitches used, adding beads and using different colours from the ones included in the kit.

All her work is just beautifully executed. Thanks for letting me show your work, Debbie!!

Pattern Darning

The November project at the St. John's Embroidery Guild was Pattern Darning Christmas Trees. The pattern was designed by Elizabeth Fewer for the guild. Since Christmas, I made an effort to start on the trees and hopefully, they will be ready for next Christmas!

The outline of the trees were traced onto 22ct fabric and then stitched around with cotton. I opted to stitch around the outline with my sewing machine instead of doing hand stitching. The edges of the fabric are taped to reduce fraying. When the stitching is completed, the trees will be cut out with a 1/4" edge. This 1/4" will be turned in and a backing stitched on. Cording goes around the edge and looped at the top to hang on a tree.

Here's my stitching so far.

If you are interested, here's a few sites about pattern darning:

• Needlework Tips & Techniques
• Sarah's Hand Embroidery Tutorials
• Royce's Hub (free samplers)
• Mary Corbet's Needle 'n Thread 
• Pattern Darning Charts
• Kogin & Pattern Darning on Pinterest

Ornament Exchange

At the December Christmas Dinner, the St. John's Embroidery Guild had its annual ornament exchange. Here's a sample of the lovely work stitched by some of the members:

Ornament Exchange

Our embroidery guild has a bunch of very talented ladies as you will see by the ornaments below. By the time I thought to get my camera, many of the ornaments were put away. Here are the ones that were still on the tables:
Enjoy!