Sat stitching like Sally Finkelstein ;)

Last week I said I planned to make something nice to show off the new stitches I’ve been practising – but I’m so completely enamoured with feather stitch that I haven’t had time to attempt anything else!

My aim for this week was to replicate the heart featured in this great tutorial from A Simple Quilter:

http://asimplequilter.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/christmas-ornament.html

But once I’d sat down and started I decided that I had to make a few changes to my original plan as the very first line of turquoise feather stitch immediately reminded me of Sally in a Nightmare Before Christmas……

Sally Finkelstein – Seamstress extraordinaire.

I think it’s the patchwork that did it. At any rate I decided not to opt for additional stitches or seed bead details but instead plumped for feather stitch to delineate the patchwork sections and blanket stitch to edge the outline of the heart. To finish, I chose to use a die cut pleatherette flower, assorted loops of ribbon and a flower shaped mother of pearl button. I’ve also included a ribbon loop for hanging and filled it with micro aroma beads which I’ve fragranced with ‘Baby Powder’. Here’s the results:

‘Sally’ heart by Big Blue Bully Bus 🙂

So, it’s another week of me feeling very pleased with myself; It’s also been a very productive process as it’s given me lots of inspiration for how I could adapt the idea further to incorporate different fabrics other than felt to create the newest addition to my repetoire – ‘The Sally Heart’.

I think that both her and my Gran would heartily approve of my efforts 😉

Officially, it was a 100 days until Christmas 2012 yesterday – So let the nightmare begin!!!!!

Knock me down with a feather…..

It’s week two of my embroidery odyssey and I’ve learned to do something new; I’m really pleased with myself!

Years ago my Gran sat me down and patiently tried to teach me a whole range of stitches which I attempted enthusiastically at first but then quickly gave up when it seemed I’d just never get the hang of it all. I was fine with blanket stitch, perfectly happy with chain stitch and would happily cover everything with lazy daisies if given half the chance. But the one technique I could never quite master was feather stitch.

Today I met my Nemesis face to face; I wish my Gran could see the results.

I’m such a happy bunny. Who would think that something so seemingly insignificant could make me smile so much?

I’m determined to attempt to learn more new stitches now and make something nice to show them off. Hopefully you’ll see the results next week 😉 Happy Crafting Folks!