Ballerina Pillow Project - Part Eight

The ballerina pillow is just about finished!  The only steps left are filling the pillow and adding the trim.

Since my last post on this project, I put the front and back pillow panels together and determined the final pillow size.  It is going to be approximately 13" x 8".

I pinned the two panels with the right sides together

and then cut off the excess fabric on all four sides.   I sewed the two panels together, leaving about a 2" opening on one edge to turn the pillow right side out. 

Once I fill the pillow, I will hand stitch this gap closed.

My last step will be to embellish the pillow with this beautiful green velvet trim. 

I am really looking forward to finishing this up!

Some Autumn Projects

I wanted to share a picture of these sunflowers that I planted last spring.  They are all in bloom now and so gorgeous!  
I think the beautiful Autumn colors in this picture make a nice palette for some embroidery projects.

My first project is an embroidered table topper.  I am using this rectangle of beige colored cotton.  The fabric measures 11-1/2" x 14" but I am going to hem the edges.

I transferred this Autumn motif on the four corners of the fabric.  I plan on using a combination of floss colors. 

I love the yellow, burgundy and orange perle cottons I have here:

I also want to make an Autumn-themed kitchen towel.  I am going to transfer one of these motifs as a border - I think I will use the top one with the acorns:

My third project is an embroidered owl.  Specifically, the owl on the left in this picture.  I love the leaf garland!

I have transferred him to this white fabric:

And as soon as I decide on colors, he is ready for stitching!

100 Stitches - Woven Bars Stitch

This interesting looking stitch is the Woven Bars Stitch.  It is the next stitch on my list of 100 Stitches.

The floss I used when learning this stitch is this beautiful multi-colored blue.  It is DMC Perle Cotton Color Variations #4230.   

This stitch is from the Drawn Thread Embroidery category which means a little preparation of the ground fabric is needed.  I cut and pulled the horizontal threads out from a small section.  That leaves the vertical threads to be worked for the stitch.   

I realized after I had carefully cut and pulled the threads that I was supposed to leave an even number of vertical threads...I ended up with nine - oops! 

The first step is to come up through the fabric on the bottom edge of the working area.  Working right to left I began weaving.  The picture in 100 stitches showed weaving four threads in two sets.  I started with the first set  - going under the first two threads {set one}:

and then over the next two threads {set two}:

Next, I pulled the thread all the way through and then worked my way back going left to right by first going under set two and then over set one: 

and pulling the thread all the way through:

Next I worked right to left again under set one and over set two:

I continued weaving like this all the up the vertical threads.  You can really see how it pulls them together and makes a nice tight weave:

I finished off by going back into the fabric at the upper right side of the working area and securing my floss on the underside.  That completed the first two sets, now for the next two:

I did the same steps, starting from the opposite side of the working area.  Weaving under - over:

Under - over.....

until I completed that side. 

I used one length of the color variations floss and I love how the color played out, one side white to light blue and the other side blue to dark blue:

This stitch looks really nice on the underside too!

This is stitch #82 and is from the Drawn Thread Embroidery category of 100 Stitches

Ballerina Pillow Project - Part Seven

I have an update to my ballerina pillow project.  If you remember from my last post on this project, I was beginning to stitch the motif for the pillow back. 

I have completed all the stitching. I used the fishbone stitch for the leaves, the long and short stitch for the rose, and the stem stitch for the rose outline. 

For the swirly lines, I used the double knot stitch :

Then I added a line of back stitch to each edge of the double knot stitch.   I used green floss on the back stitch to add interest.   Here is a little better view of the green:

Once I finished the stitching, I compared it to the stitching on the piece that will be the pillow front.  They look great together except

I used this rainbow blending filament to add sparkle to the stitching on the ballet costumes.  It really added an extra dimension so I decided to add some of the filament to the back piece too.

Once that was done, my next step was to rinse out all the blue water soluble marker pen lines.

Give it a final pressing with the iron {on the underside!}

After all the wrinkles were ironed out, I snipped off any remaining thread tails:

My next steps will be to sew the back and front pieces together

 

  make a final decision on any trim I am going to add:

and finish the pillow!

Here Comes Santa Claus!

I have a new pattern set in my Etsy shop!  This one is all about Santa Claus. 

There is plenty of time before Christmas so I am stitching up a lot of samples - there are 51 different motifs in this set! 

I really like this little elf.  Wouldn't he look good in these green and red metallics?  

Also, this "Here Comes Santa Claus" text.  You can see part of Santa's North Pole house too...: 

I can't wait to stitch this Santa and reindeer.  I have already transferred the motif to some fabric :)

And this 2014 tree!  I think this will make a beautiful card or stitched ornament. 
I also included a number set so any year combination can be stitched:

I took the time to pull out all my metallic floss and beautiful Christmas trims to start getting some project ideas:

Here is a view of the pattern set. 

It is available here.