Annies Crazy World

Happy Australia Day to my fellow Aussie Readers I hope yo had a lovely day…I spent a quite one watching the cricket and Australian open tennis on TV (I don’t know what is happening to me the older I get the more sports I enjoy watching) and while watching the box I got a few stitches done on my sampler.

First up I did Fancy Hem Stitch, which I found in one of Sharon’s books a few weeks back, its stitched with #5 cotton pearl thread.

I was then at a loss as to just what stitch to do next with so many to choose from…to give me some direction I decided to repeat TAST, last year I did my TAST stitches on crazy quilt blocks which was a good idea because amongst other projects they helped me get Mum’s Memory Quilt finished…This year I will work the stitches and variations on my sampler so that I will have a record of them all in one place…

TAST week 1 stitch was Herringbone Stitch and the next seam on my sample is the basic herringbone which I worked with #5 cotton pearl thread.

On the bottom row the basic stitch, worked with 2 strands of cotton, is a little wider and is trimmed with short straight stitches worked with pearl 8 cotton crochet thread and French knots worked in a linen thread.

This is my Band Sampler…The fabric is 25 count Linen…The pulled threads to define the edges are 3.5 inches apart…I am using my leftover scrapes of thread so the colours will be random.

I started it with A header row of Buttonhole stitch (3 strands of stranded cotton thread) which I trimmed with Detached Chain Stitch (green 2 strands of stranded silk, pink 3 strands of stranded cotton)

For my name and the year I used the same cross stitch alphabet as I used on my Stumpwork Sampler, (teracota is 2 strands cotton, green is 2 strands silk and th pink is 2 strands of cotton)… I started my first name in the centre so that it would be centred but had very carfully MISScalculated the centre…oops nothing for it but start the surname and year in a line with it.

For my first seam sample I have done a row of houses, a stitch from Carol Samplers book ‘Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches’
…I had to alter the roof because I hadn’t left enough space, so it is a little bit cramped and after so many years of working on crazy quilt blocks with the extra thickness of the foundation and seams to stitch through I am having a little trouble, even using a hoop, with my stitch tension on the single piece of fabric and the countable threads are a little distracting after doing so many freeform stitching but I am sure I will adjust to both and am thrilled to have it started.

When visiting Sharon yesturday she was stitching her sampler together, Have you seen Sharon’s Sampler? it is worth a look, and we were talking Samplers.

I loved samplers from the first one that I saw and wished that I had learnt on a sampler…The first samplers I saw where cross stitch Alphabet Samplers an I made a miniature one of them in 1995 but it was the long band samplers that I really fell in love with…I have started them before but not got anywhere with them and although I have made a few small samplers over the years unlike Sharon who made all of hers the same width mine are all different widths, and I have done thread samplers like the Spanish Knotted Feather Stitch sample below…

Another difference between Sharon’s and mine is that most of hers are on linen, I had done mine on calico (muslin), it just doesn’t have the same ambiance as linen does…I made my Stumpwork Sampler on a nicer fabric and it is my favourite of what I have done.

The Samplers that I really, really fell in love with when I learnt about them are the 4 inch wide band samplers that where kept in the sewing boxes of days gone by to record new stitches as they were learnt because they had no books/internet to reference…These darling band samplers were not lined so that the backs of the stitches could be seen (being able to see the back can help when working out how the stitch was done)…Wanting to make one with the back showing means that I don’t want to start with knots, I did know how to start with a couple of tiny back stitches but sometimes those stitches can be seen, today Sharon solved that problem for me, she tought me about waste knots, a term I have never even heard before, which work simple by knotting the thread to hold it in place while you stitch the first few stitches, working them over the thread on the back to hold it in place, then the knot can be cut off leaving a neat start to the seam.

By the time I left Sharon’s I had a 4 inch wide lenth of linen with the edges zig zagged and threads pulled on either side to line up the start and finish of the stitches…I have got it started but I am tired and going to bed so it will be tomorrow before I take and edit those photos.

The kit to make this Scissor Keeper was a Freeby on the cover of a needlework magazine, I started it when on holidays a few years ago…I found it in a box the other day, nearly finished, it didn’t take me long to embroider the flowers in the basket and stitch the 2 halves together.

The red flower petals are 8 to 10 straight stitches coming up and going down in the same hole…The pink flowers are buttonhole Stitch…A scattering of French Knots and Berry Stitch Leaves finish the arrangement.

Until I stitched around the edges and turned her right side out this little lady was a Scissor Keeper but I found myself not wanting to Stitch the front to the back across the bottom because I didn’t want to flatten the bottom of her skirt, I was seeing her as a doll rather than a scissor keeper…I went hunting around the house for something round to fit in the bottom to hold the round shape, I tried a cotton reel but the top showed as a ridge on the skirt, small bottles did the same, coins wouldn’t stay in place, the lid of a bottle might work but before I found a lid that fitted I found a metal hose fitting, perfect size and being smaller at the top there was no ridge and it has the added advantage of being heavy enough to stabilize her so that she stands tall, 4 1/2 inches tall to be exact.

I wrapped the hose fitting in the batting and a square of fabric before inserting it into the base.

This year I am aiming at cleaning up and putting everything I have used for a project away before pulling out another…I am also looking for the next pattern I want which requires excursions into unsorted boxes from the past…while I am working towards this aim I will take the opportunity to share another heart from the past, this one made in 1997 is 5.5 inches wide and keeps the embroidery very simple so that it forms a nice background for the featured flower trail and silk ribbon butterfly.

This is the finished Pink Album Cover.

Instructions for making removeable book covers are available as internet lessons, contact me for details email annie@loopylace.com

The pink fabric I am useing for the Album cover is more slippery than I had expected, and after having to unpick and baste before restitching the first couple of seams I have basted all the others before taking it near the sewing machine and although I feel as if I have spent half my day basting it is worth the time and trouble because it helps make for a neat finish…I now have it ready to stitch the lining on.

Tonight I went to a crazy quilters meeting and it was lovely to catch up with everyone after the christmas break….the fabrics on the right are from the grab bag, I don’t need anymore fabric but sometimes they just jump out of the bag into my hands.

A couple of weeks ago a friend told me I was brave for making the Pink block before I had purchased the album..Not brave I replied, I now what size the albums are, the first border will be an inch wide and the second border will be as wide as it needs to be…

Not brave, more like st****, I didn’t now what size the albums were, I thought that they where 14 inches square, It IS 14 inches wide but only 12.75 inches high which means that the top and bottom borders would be to narrow…A change of plan needed…what it I make the first border a 1/4 wide, a shame not to show off what a beautiful fabric that I have and the side borders will be much wider than the top and bottom borders…If I move the block off centre so that the right side border is the same as the top and bottom and make the pink border on the left the same, I can then use the first pink border fabric for the spine where the pattern in the fabric will be shown off and I think the the darker spine will give it a nice old fashion photo album look, that will work but…

Narrow borders are hard to get even at the best of times, almost impossible with slippery fabric, I have been procrastinating about stitching the borders on because both the border fabrics are slippery…light bulb moment, I used light weight iron on interfacing to stabalize the fabrics and the borders are stitched on.

Next problem…the pink fabric was a dress, bought at a thrift shop because it was the right colour for this album…Unfortunatly it was also the right colour for a cartoon character costum that my nephew wanted, we made the costume and now I don’t have enough fabric and have been joining smaller pieces together to make the lining and inside flaps.

Last nights post was so long with so many images to manipulate that I lost track and forgot to do the final image of the finished Heart…I remembered that I had not done it this morning, when I was at the post office sending it on its way.

To Finish the embellishments I put a bride and groom charm in the centre and balanced it with the silver butterfly on the upper right and the silver heart charm on the left, I like the single spot of colour provided by the pink stone in the middle of the heart and the bow around the heart charm balances the texture of the flowers…Then the big question when is a piece of crazy quilting finished? Was it finished or not, a part of me was saying Yes the section above the bride & groom charm looked empty but any charm/bead/button that I tried there distracted from the rest of the heart so it probably is finished but that area does look empty, the best of the beads I had tried was some little stars, I tried them again, to big but what if I use silver metalic thread to embroider stars, with a scattering of stars the heart was finished.

On the last seam I did a Double Feather Stitch with Colonial Knots.

Then before adding embellishments I cut a window template to help place them, which is just as well because I found that the flower trail was cramped on the edge, fortunatly I had enough in the seams to make the heart about 1/4 inch bigger which gives just enough extra space so that it isn’t cramped.

To Draw a basic heart shape Draw a square and then draw a half circle on 2 edges…to make it slightly more shapely, I then deepen the indent at the top just a little and slightly curve the point at the bottom, curving the bottom or just snipping of the very tip of the point will prevent the point poking through the fabric when you cover it.

Trace the heart onto template plastic or any stiff plastic.

I Draw the finished size of the heart onto the back of the crazy piece and Run a gathering thread around the edge, Use a big knot and start at the top of the heart…clip into the V at the top.

Layer a finished size piece of batting the the platic heart shape in the centre of the crazy piece and pull gathering to back of plastic…

Lash the back from side to side with the thread until the fabric heart is firm over the plastic.

Stitch lace around the edge and add a ribbon (mine is long enough to hang over the arm and hang down.

Cut the plastic template and batting for the back just a tiny bit smaller then the front and cover with fabric…I also cut a smaller piece of batting to put between the front and back to compensate for the thicknes of the gathered fabric around the edges.

Ladder Stitch the two halves together by alternating stitches through the fold at the edge of the back…

With small stitches through the fold at the edge of the front.

Make My Day Award Update…I would like to thank the following blogs for also tagging me for the Make My Day Award, Thank you All

Rengin, Elizabeth, Susan, Marty, Julia.