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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Finger Kitchen Mitten

 This finger kitchen mitten is one of my previous projects
made in November 2008.
A very quick, easy and fun crafty project to squeeze in a busy schedule!
The pattern for the mitten is a free pattern from
the Needlecrafter website.
The pattern I used for the stitcheries of the rooster
and momma hen and her chicks is from ...
 ... an embroidery pattern set  from Patternbee.
As I already mentioned is very quick to put together,
the only step requiring time is the embroidery and that is
if you want it to be embroidered.
 Mine turned out a bit big, if I ever decide to make another
one I will definitely reduced the size of the pattern a little
before printing it.
Just for fun.... below is a before picture with most
of the things needed to make the finger kitchen mitten.
Maybe you remember when I posted this on a previous
old blog but if this is your first time seeing it
I hope you like it and perhaps make one (or some)!

Monday, January 30, 2012

Sneaking In Some Stitching :-)

I couldn't resist... ;-)!
Very soon I will be working on my 3 stitchy quilt blocks for 
the month of February in the meantime I started 
stitching one of the designs on the Garden Pincushion pattern.
Sneaking a small project to work on here and there while 
I still keep my focus on my Stitchy Baby Animal Quilt.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Quilt Progress (Blocks 1-3)

These are the first 3 blocks for the month of January all finished!
Below is a just for fun picture of my bunny block in the making
while waiting at a doctor's office.
 I need to piece a couple of blocks to start stitching 
blocks 4-6 blocks for the month of February.
I'm trying to keep my focus (which at times is really hard)
so I can finish this quilt on time... by April.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Quilt Project Wip (Block #1)

Yes, I'm done hand embroidering Block #1!
(picture below shows just before beginning to stitch)
I received the Sulky cotton thread 12wt a couple of days ago
and I'm so glad I got it. In the picture below you can appreciate
that the Finca perle cotton #8 was a bit to thick (at least to my liking)
for the tiny delicate lines of the small patterns I will be embroidering.
I was not able to finish it before sunset -you know how it
goes when you run a house and have progeny ;-)- but was glad
that at least it got done today.
I trimmed a bit of the excess Fabri-Solvy and was going to 
rinse it off but since I didn't pre-wash the pre-cut strips of fabric
I thought that perhaps I will just rinse them all
together after assembling the quilt top.
 What a cute teddy!
Bunny will be next... hopefully tomorrow will have it done.
I was going to stitch everything in dark brown but decided to
stitch the flowers in coordinating colors. 
The hand embroidery stitches I used on this teddy are:
straight stitch, lazy daisy (aka: detach chain stitch),
back stitch, fly stitch and satin stitch.
Besides the Sulky 12wt brown thread I also used
other threads from my stash: 
DMC Danish green flower thread (a non divisible fine matte cotton thread),
Cotton Floché in yellow and 1 strand of good old DMC in blue.
If you missed the beginning of this quilt project, perhaps 
you may want to take a look here.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Embellished Turtleneck Shirt



 Plain red turtle neck shirt for someone to wear to school and
she asked if it could be embellished with her favorite characters 
to which I agreed, but put it off until now. 
I had everything I needed in my stash: 
Lite Steam-a-Seam, Eco-spun Felt, Perle Cotton 
plus the tools of the trade :-).
As you see I'm almost done. This is my first time
working on a project like this one so hopefully the end result
will be wearable and the recipient likes it.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Hand Embroidered Quilt Project Progress

I'm working slowly on a small simple quilt that I
will like to have finished by April 2012.
It will be a 9 block quilt.
 I'm using a Hello Betty Retro jelly roll from my stash that
I intended to use for a 2011 BOM but didn't.
For the centers just a solid light cream fabric. Maybe is
bone-white(?). I also will be adding some raw edge center blocks
to some of the 9 blocks.
With only a simple doll quilt as previous experience,
this will be my very 1st quilt.
I'm taking my time choosing fabric for the borders
and perhaps you can get the feeling of how I go about it...lol.
I'm not doing all the cutting 1st but I cut as I go. Yes, it  is slower
but I get a better feeling of how I want to combine fabric colors
and patterns this way. You more experience
quilters, please be kind, laugh but don't let me hear you! ;-) 
These super cute baby animal patterns will be
the fun part of this on-the-making quilt, they will
be hand embroidered on each of the block centers.
I didn't feel like tracing all those tiny lines forming the
body of each of the animal patterns
(if you click on the picture you will see what I'm talking about)
 so I printed the designs on sticky-fabri-solvy.
I'm only waiting for some cotton thread in 12wt to start
stitching away. I have 6 strand embroidery thread 
and perle cotton #8 but I wanted a thiner thread 
that I didn't have to divide.
Hopefully it will get here soon because if I want to finish the quilt
by April I have to complete 3 blocks (pieced and embroidered)
per month from January to March and use April to 
put together the quilt and finish it.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Welcome To My New Spot!

Welcome to Bits of Stitching!
(this entry is postdated until 01/30/2012)
Hope you found your way ;-)!
 I renamed
the blog, that other blog name/web-address became available to someone else 
with whom I have no connections whatsoever.
Now Bits of Stitching! is my new spot for sharing/posting
about any of my, new and old, crafty endevors.
Life surprises us when we least expected and to
embrace that I decided to start a blog from scratch.
Why the name Bits of Stitching!?
Well.... if you knew me from my previous blog,
you may have noticed that even though I love
to handicraft and everything that comes with it...lol,
(supplies, pattern, books, etc.) the truth is that
I'm not able to complete much of what I start.
My time is very limited and I'm expecting it to stay
 that way for years to come. 
However I do like to squeeze some stitching 
a bit here and a bit there so
Bits of Stitching!
seems to be a perfect description of how I move along
with my handicrafts. ;-)