100 Stitches - Buttonhole Stitch with Picot

This may or may not be the Buttonhole Stitch with Picot.  Lovely isn't it?

To me it resembles a gorgeous trim:

It even makes a pretty stitch when seen from the underside:

This is the latest stitch I have "learned" from 100 Stitches.  I said may or may not be the stitch because I really couldn't figure out the way to do this stitch from the written instructions or the two diagrams provided in 100 Stitches.   I also couldn't find any help on the web, so I just tried what I thought would be the way to get this result and that is what I will demonstrate.

Before I start, you might enjoy this picture :) This hoop full of disaster shows some of my first attemps at this stitch:

This is a stitch that is easier if you have some guidelines.  I drew two parallel lines, 1/8" apart.

The stitch (just like the name implies) is a series of buttonhole stitches with a picot added at regular intervals.  Start the stitch just as if you were making a line of buttonhole stitches.  Working left to right, come up through the fabric on the left edge of the bottom guideline:

Pull all the way through. Bring your needle around and go back into the fabric on the top guideline and back out of the fabric on the bottom guideline.  Notice the needle tip is going to go over the working floss:

Pull all the way through and you have your first buttonhole stitch:

Now bring the needle around and do the next buttonhole stitch:

When you have 3 buttonhole stitches, you are ready for the first picot. 

Slide the needle under the working floss:

and wrap the working floss around the needle three times:

Carefully work the three loops up close to the edge of the buttonhole stitches while you carefully pull the needle all the way through:

This should result in a long knot or picot:

Now bring your needle around and under the last buttonhole stitch and over the working floss.  Don't go into the fabric.  Pull all the way through and it makes a buttonhole stitch:

Now bring your needle around and you are ready to start the next buttonhole stitch:

Just continue until you have a full line of stitching.

The difficulty I had was in the forming of the picot. I would really like to know if this is the correct way to do this.   Have you ever heard of this stitch or seen a demonstration? I would appreciate any tips or corrections!
This stitch is #27 and is in the Looped Stitches section of 100 Stitches.  The floss I used is the beautiful DMC Color Variations #4180.

Sweet Dreams Baby Shower Gift Completed!

Remember the gift I was planning for a baby shower? Well...things didn't go as I planned in that earlier post. I changed my color scheme as soon as I started playing around with the fabric and floss!

Instead of the variegated browns, oranges and minty greens...I went with these beautiful colors.  They are less of a contrast with the blue and white checked fabric so I think they give the whole picture a more sleepy, dreamy feeling. 

I did use quite a few of the new stitches I have learned.  Here you can see the threaded running stitch in light and dark yellow for the moon

and the double knot stitch for the moon's hat:

I used back stitch for the lettering, the moon's facial features and the stars, french knots for the tiny accent dots and chain stitch to outline the clouds:

When I finished the stitching, I backed the fabric with a piece of similar weight white fabric, wrapped them both around a piece of cardboard and put them in the shadowbox frame:

Then I put the back on the frame and it was ready to go!

I am really happy with the way it turned out. Here are the floss colors I used with thier corresponding dmc numbers:

Polka Dots

I have always loved polka dot patterns and I recently designed some polka dot recipe cards that I am putting in my Etsy shop:

I made these cards editable and of course printable!  They are really easy to use, they are a pdf and you just open them with Adobe Reader - which you can download for free here  You can then type in your recipe or just print the cards and hand write in your recipe:

I made 24 cards total, 12 in  pastel colors and 12 in brights.  I named all the colors as follows  :)

Here are the pastels:

and here are the brights:

Each color has two cards, the main card with the word "Recipe" and room to write or type your title and your recipe.  But, for those really long recipes, you may need more room - the second card is the same design but is just lines for your to write or type the rest of the recipe:

They come two to a page and once you are done typing or writing your recipe, you just cut them apart:

These were such a pleasure to design, and I am already really enjoying using them!

Baby Shower WIP

We are having another baby boy born into our family and that means another baby shower! For this shower gift, I have what I hope will turn out to be a great idea :)   It involves this shadow box picture frame.  This is an 8" x 8" frame:

I am going to take this baby blue checkered fabric:

Transfer this "Sweet dreams" motif onto the fabric:

and stitch it up using a variety of my newly learned stitches in some or all of these colors:

Then I will add the backing and put it inside the shadow box and add some trim - either inside the shadow box - sort of framing it, or maybe tied around the outside? 

I will post some pictures of my progress and of course some pictures of the final result!
I have two pictures I took a few days ago in during our sunny weather. This is Berit:

and this is Rego.  I used a tennis ball as a distraction in each of these pictures so they would sit still -they don't like to take time for pictures!