A new wip

My first stitching project for 2013 is this fancy cake from the La Patisserie pattern.  For the floss colors, I am going to use pink and red. 

I have done the cake stand in red, using the back stitch and the double knot stitch for the top rim of the cake stand. 

For the cake, I am doing the back stitch using three strands of pink cotton floss.  For the frosting decorative border I am using three strands of satin floss.  It is really beautiful!  I am using the couching stitch with this, to hold the strands in place and give the border a draped look.  In between each draped element, there is a round shape and I am using the satin stitch to fill those:

I was having a hard time doing the satin stitch with this satin thread :) the thread kept slipping out of the needle and it was becoming very frustrating.  I remembered that I had some smaller needles that have a smaller eye so I switched to this size 28 chenille needle.  It made all the difference!  I had been stitching with my size 24 chenille needle - you can see the difference between the two - the top is the 24 and the bottom is the 28:

The 28 really holds the satin floss better.  Since the 28 is shorter I find it easier to work the satin stitch.  Here you can see the two needles threaded, I am using only one strand of the satin floss to do the satin stitch.

I will be sure post my pictures as I make more progress on this one!

Cold weather and some new floss

Happy 2013 -  I hope your year is off to a wonderful start!  Mine is starting out with embroidery :)
I just bought some new embroidery floss.  I picked up two each of a few of my favorite colors:

I also found these two colors, which are new to me. They are dmc #3032 {the sage green one} and dmc #3824 {the coral one}.  I had never seen these two colors.  I have a sage green already that I love using, it is dmc #611 but this #3032 is much lighter and has a silvery look to it.  These are both really pretty and I am looking forward to using them.

Speaking of a silvery look, it is a bit chilly here today - I had to capture the beautiful sight of the frost on these little maple leaves:

Brrr...! 

100 Stitches - Buttonhole Insertion Stitch

This interesting stitch is the buttonhole insertion stitch. I am starting a brand new section of 100 Stitches - the Insertion Stitches category.

This stitch is for joining two pieces of fabric.  I practiced this stitch several times with disappointing results.  I had such a hard time keeping the two pieces of fabric the same distance apart while stitching them together.  I kept looking at the example in 100 Stitches and finally noticed that they recommended going back to the front of the book and reading the special instruction notes on Insertion Stitches before working them!  The special instructions are to stitch your fabric to a piece of stiff paper and then work your stitches.
For my demonstration, I just turned under the raw edge of the fabric 1/2" to act as a hem.  If I were making a finished product, I would actually hem each piece of fabric:

I used this green card stock and pinned my fabric in place at about 1/2" apart.   Then I stitched the pieces of fabric to the paper, leaving the folded edge free:

Next, I drew some guide lines.  I drew mine about 1/4" in from the folded over edge.  This line will help me keep my stitches the same size!

This stitch is really simple.  It is sets of four buttonhole stitches worked alternately on the two pieces of fabric.  Just start the first buttonhole stitch at one end - I hid my knot under the folded edge:

I stitched the buttonhole stitch, first on the left side:

and when I had four done, I moved to the fabric on the right side and did four stitches:

When those four were finished, back to the fabric on the left:

and so on until the two pieces of fabric were joined:

Then I took the joined fabric off the card stock and washed out the marker lines:

Beautiful! I think this stitch would be perfect for joining panels on a table runner or table cloth.  I can't wait to try it on a real project. 

This stitch is number 98 on the 100 Stitches list.  The floss I used is DMC pearl cotton color variations #4060.

Some Christmas Stitching

I just finished stitching this beautiful motif:

I used the back stitch as a filling stitch.  I really like the way this stitch worked as a fill:

I used three strands of cotton floss  {DMC #321} and everywhere you see gold glints, I added a few strands of gold blending filament {Kreinik Metallics #002HL}.  Now I have two more words to transfer and stitch - Peace and Noel.  I am trying to decide if I want to do all three in the red/gold or maybe each one in a different color combination.  Wouldn't these make a nice set of pillows for Christmas?

Gingerbread house completed

 Remember my gingerbread house wip?  I finished it!

Well, the stitching is finished anyway :)

I really like the pastel colors on this one

Can you see the sparkle in the gingerbread frosting?

I used my new favorite blending filament to add some sparkle.  I love this!!!

I didn't use too many advanced stitches, mainly back stitch and french knots.  For the candy tree trunk I used the open chain stitch.  I had to go back and review my own 100 Stitches post to remember how to do it!

I am really happy with the way this turned out! 

Now I just have two more gingerbread houses left to transfer and stitch:

Here is a list of the beautiful floss colors I used for this project:

100 Stitches - Seeding Stitch

The seeding stitch is the latest stitch on my 100 Stitches  journey.  This stitch should really be called the easiest stitch ever! 

This stitch is a filling stitch and is used to fill in blank spaces inside shapes.  For my shape, I used a template:

I copied the diamond shape onto my fabric:

I first outlined the shape using the back stitch. Now to the seeding stitch. The reason the seeding stitch is so easy is that it is just small straight stitches stitched in all different directions. The only concern is to make all the straight stitches the same length. The first step I took was to come up through the fabric. I started at the top but you could start anywhere inside the shape:

Then I just started taking small straight stitches:

in a random pattern:

 stitching, stitching, stitching until…

 the whole diamond shape was filled:

So easy, and really beautiful when finished:

The underside of the stitching looks almost like the top side:

This is definitely a stitch I will use!

The seeding stitch is #72 and is in the Couching and Filling category of 100 Stitches.

Retro style Christmas tags

I just listed some new Christmas tags in my Etsy shop.

I used the description retro style because of these color combinations.  I think of these as retro.  These tags are really nice because they are editable - you can type in the to/from information or a nice message and then print.  Or you can just hand write in your message.

Print and cut them out:

Then use them on a gift:

They are really easy to use.

and I love all these colors!  The gift tags packet has 20 different tags.  This is what the packet looks like: