Hello!
This is a way overdue post about a crossstitch project I finished about ten months ago – only a few weeks before my little angel was born.
I love how the moon and a star are used like letters!
Chart source: http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Stitches-Heart-Embroidery-Cross-Stitch/dp/030758688X
Hello!
My little nephew, Kostis, just turned one! To wish him I made him a quilt and matching towels.
You probably remember my experiments with applique for it.
The quilt meaures 90×120.
I am pretty pleased with both quilt and towels, especially since it is the first time I am embellishing towels.
What do you think?
What does that give us? Handpainted fabric!
First I tried with an apple, and then with some wooden blocks that I had bought from Jaipur, India a few years ago. Super easy and fun! I will provably use some of it to make a patchwork cushion.
I think with a couple of more tries the result will be even better, although I do like the unevenness of the prints. What do you think?
Hello all!
The time has come for my first tutorial! A very simple and super quick square pincushion that you can stitch by hand. Yes, by hand! No sewing machine needed. I am using the English Paper Piecing technique.
First, I decided that I wanted my pincushion to be a 2×2” square. I cut 2 paper squares of this size and then I cut two slightly bigger squares from the fabric I chose – about 1/4” bigger, but you don’t have to be exact here.
Then I ‘wrapped’ the paper squares with the fabric squares and secured the fabric on the paper with thread.
I did the same thing with four rectangles (that will serve as the sides of the cushion). The long sides of the rectangles have to be as long as the square sides, but the short ones can be any size, depending on the shape you want for your pincushion. (If you want to make it like a cube then you can make them square instead of rectangles).
and this is how it all looked at this stage:
Front:
Back:
Right. So now you have to sew everything together. Let’s begin with the first square, and sew all four rectangles on its four sides. The technique is very simple. You put the right side of the square together with the right side of one rectangle and you align the edges. Then you sew them together by hand, putting your stitches close to each other. Just like that:
You do that with all four rectangles at all four sides of the square. When you are done you should have something like this:
Next step will be to attach the second square and connect the sides of the rectangles. The order doesn’t really matter, so start as you feel comfortable. Again, you have to align the good sides together in order to sew them.
The cushion will be inside-out by the time you are done. So make sure to leave a small side unstitched so that you can turn the good side out. You will close this side later, once you have filled the pincushion.
Now go ahead, remove the papers and turn the good side out. My trick here is to use chopsticks to stretch the corners from the inside. You could also use a pen or something like that.
You are ready to put the stuffing! I used polyester filling. I don’t know how it is called but this is how it looks:
Once you ‘ve filled your pincushion, go ahead and stitch that little side closed. But, we are not quite done yet. Adding a button at the center of each square will make the cushion puffier and cuter!
Tadaaaaa!
I hope you found this tutorial helpful.
I would love to see your pin cushions, so let me have a look!
Hello WordPress!
I was strolling through IKEA the other day and I saw a nice thick baker’s twine, that I thought would be great to use for my Christmas gift wrapping. I put it in my basket – along with lots of other things that I didn’t really need – and headed to the cashier.
That’s where I saw these tiny boxes with small plain wooden ornaments. And then I got the idea of this garland. Very simple to make and very minimalistic (and very cheap!)
Well… I have been thinking these days how annoying it must be for a quilter to get cake pops in her reader feed, and how frustrating for a baker to see cross-stitched cushions popping in between cookies posts.
That’s why I decided to separate my too loves. Yellow stitch will remain my favourite space for everything non-edible but I just created another space for my baking experiments. It is called yellow kitchen and I am still beautifying it, but this is the link: oneyellowkitchen.wordpress.com.
Wish me luck!
Galateia
so… as promised to you and myself when I finished the Scandinavian cushion, I made some Christmas towels so that my kitchen also gets in the spirit of Christmas 🙂
Inspired by my little one, I chose some vintage toys as embellishments, done with backstitch.
Which one do you like more? The chicks or the train?
chart source: ‘A Rainbow of Stitches: Embroidery and Cross-Stitch Basics Plus More Than 1,000 Motifs and 80 Project Ideas
So I ve realised that my house needs more Xmas decor… And although I have stitched and sewn many Christmas items in the past, my festive box is empty because most of them were given as gifts.
So last night I looked for a small and minimal design to put on my red cushion. And here it is!
I love the Scandinavian style!
A while back I started my Xmas stitching, but I wasn’t too motivated to finish my little projects.
Last night finally rained in Doha so it felt a bit like winter. And that was all I needed for the final stitches!
Two Xmas frames are ready to be gifted!
A lot of people find monochromatic embroidery boring, but for me it is just classy. What do you think?
I am making another baby quilt for my nephew this time and I wanted to add a couple of applique pieces. The handstitching takes ages so I thought I d try do it with the sewing machine.
After a few tries, I found the perfect stitch and an amazing trick to hold the appliqué piece in place: Washable glue for kids!
It worked perfectly! But I m wondering how do you guys keep the appliqué in place? I m sure there is a more professional way than this 🙂
Here is my star and the stitch settings:
yellow stitch 