Showing posts with label beading. Show all posts

Thursday, May 14, 2026

Embroidered Victorian Pin Cushion and I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome 😊 Today's sun was greatly appreciated 🌞 It's still too cool to stay outside to stitch but it's getting there. I just love watching and feeding all of the neighbourhood wildlife. I finished my embroidered Victorian pin cushion, so here it is.

Victorian Pin Cushion

I wasn't sure if I would make the pin cushion but when I embroidered the pattern on a smaller scale onto lovely vintage cotton, of course I had to make it. Because the handkerchief had a lace trim that I wanted to include in the pin cushion, I didn't use the pillow case method. I just made it up as I went along.😀

Embroidered Victorian Pin Cushion

The good thing about embroidery is that it covers machine stitching lines very well. I even took out my pretty pins to put into the cushion...I'll need more of those.

This is what the sampler looked like last week

The last two stitches to add were the beaded wheat ear stitch and the half wheel buttonhole stitch. I did the buttonhole stitch on the yellow sampler without drawing it - so I learned from that and drew the half circle on my pin cushion sampler.

Drawing the half circles to get it right

What I learned

The size of the embroidery hoop you use matters! I was originally using a 6" hoop for my first sampler but since it felt small, I switched to an 8". This turned out to be larger than the fabric so it wouldn't keep the tension. So I switched back to my 6" but just adjusted the fabric when I needed to.
I don't always use an embroidery hoop but for these more "formal" stitches, especially placed in rows, it was necessary.
I don't like drawing the whole stitch because I don't usually follow the drawing anyway, but it was needed to make the half-circles roughly the same size. It worked out well.
If you've been following me for a while, you know that I don't like making things that require accuracy, so this was way out of my comfort zone. Now that I proved that I can do it - the question is do I want to do it again? Probably not 😁
It's nice to play with stitches, although I'm not a huge fan of embroidery floss. I found it really hard to thread my needle when I was using 4 strands. It's not so much the original threading as the multiple threading required when you make mistakes and have to pull the thread out - and you can only do that by taking it out of the needle.😕
To keep the lace trim on the pin cushion, I attached the back to the front at each end and sides, having two pieces meet in the centre. I then buttonhole or blanket stitched the edges so they wouldn't fray.
I channeled my mother's MacGyver talents when putting it together - the important thing is that it looks ok and won't leak filling!

Related links

More Slow Stitching and I Quilted This!, May 07, 2026
Why Not Stitching (WNS) Academy

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Why not check some out after you link up below? Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2026, Slow Sunday Stitching,

This is my May Favourite Finish!

Project details

Created during the WNS Academy's Victorian Sampler Challenge

Size:

Material: embroidery floss, beads, Kona cotton (first sampler) and vintage cotton handkerchiefs and filling

Techniques: embroidery stitches: sheaf stitch, beaded chain stitch, tacked herringbone stitch, beaded fly stitch, beaded wheat ear stitch, half wheel buttonhole stitch as well as back stitch and blanket stitch.

I Quilted This!

Welcome to the I Quilted This! linking party that celebrates quilting on a domestic machine or custom quilting on a long-arm. Feel free to link up and share any recent project, even if you're not quilting it!

Here are the posts that included FMQ, ruler work and walking foot quilting last week. Thanks for linking up 😊 and consider grabbing the button.

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts shared with us her week 3 and 4 quilts as part of the 6 Quilts in 6 Weeks Challenge.

Honey Bouquet quilt made with flannel scraps by Kat

Kat used ruler quilting to finish this lovely quilt

Deb, A Scrappy Quilter, quilted up a whole bunch of quilts that she and her grandchildren layed out. You'll want to check out her post to see all of them!

A lovely stroller quilt made by Deb with left overs

5" squares make up this cute quilt by Deb

A pretty yellow quilt with a gridded centre by Deb

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts has the pattern of her Rainbow Sprouts Quilt available in her shop. It was first featured in the Make Modern Magazine's Issue #68. She also has a great Rainbow Seeds quilt made from the left-overs of the Rainbow Sprouts quilt.

Rainbow Sprouts Quilt by Preeti

Rainbow Seeds quilt by Preeti

Sandra of mmm quilts has a gorgeous quilt, Diamond Baby, in the latest Make Modern magazine. She took some amazing pictures on her trip to Eastern Canada. You'll want to check out her post!

Sandra's Diamond Baby at Fisherman's Cove

Lovely quilted details on Sandra's Diamond Baby

It's now your turn! 😍

Thursday, May 07, 2026

More Slow Stitching and I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome 😊 I hope all is well with you - thanks for taking the time to visit!

Slow Stitching

This week I'm participating in an online challenge with the WNS Academy. We are stitching a Victorian sampler. It's been a change of pace to mostly follow instructions. As you may know, that's not my forte! My sampler is not great but then it is a sampler.

Victorian Sampler Challenge

Each day we get a different stitch. The top one is the sheaf stitch. The second day was the beaded chain stitch. I did this one three times. In the image below you can see my two rows of chain stitch using big beads. I made the first row with only 3 strands of embroidery cotton and the embroidery barely showed. It was better in the second attempt when I used all 6 strands.

The first two days of the challenge

For my third attempt at the row of chain stitch, I used smaller beads. Using the smaller beads was better but my line is terribly wonky.

The third day was the tacked herringbone stitch. Day four was the beaded fly stitch. I really enjoyed this one! Today we did the herringbone ladder stitch. I also enjoyed that one but I found out why it's important to make the base back stitches even!

Stitch challenge so far

We have two more stitches to do and then we're supposed to make a pin cushion. Since I've really enjoyed the stitching, I'm considering making the lines of stitching shorter so that the pin cushion will be a practical size.

Update May 8

I decided to start a new sampler to use for the pin cushion. I used a couple of hand kerchiefs given to me by a friend 😍. I put a layer of Steam-a-seam lite between the 2 fabrics. I'll just be using a corner of it to stitch on and then use part of it to make the pin cushion. I wanted to share this with you - it's so much better!

Embroidery on vintage hand kerchief to make the pin cushion

Once I erase the Frixion pen lines, it should look great. It does seem that my chain stitch is just naturally wabbly, even after making it four times! Oh well, proof that a machine did not make these. 😁

Nature's Texture - an Online Exhibition

Nature's Texture, an online exhibition of the art made by students of Fleur Woods at Take Two is now available. The exhibition is incredible and I'm so glad to have my piece, Views from Near and Far, included in it.

View the exhibition

My piece is on page 76. In case you don't have the patience to check it out, here is a screenshot of the page.

What I learned

The challenge is interesting. The instructions on the video are good but not very thorough. I appreciate being told why certain supplies such as threads are used, etc.
I'm really not very sociable in these types of events and don't use the facebook spaces.
I wasn't going to make the pin cushion but now that I'm getting into it, it would be nice to make a better version of these stitches and make something useful.
It can be difficult finding needles that are big enough for the embroidery thread but small enough for beads. I usually use tiny size 11 or 12 beads with silk thread, but these are too small. I'm glad that I found some slightly larger ones that mostly went though the needle!😁
Making a piece for the exhibition was a great experience but now I seem to be rudderless. I know that this happens after a big project is finished. I'm just hoping to get back to all of my other projects soon.

Related links

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. You may want to check some out!

Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2026,

I Quilted This!

Here are the posts that included FMQ, ruler work and walking foot quilting last week. Thanks for linking up 😊 and consider grabbing the button.

Gwyned Trefethen received her thread and is back FMQ her secret mission. I'm sure that we're all looking forward to seeing this lovely secret!

Gwyned FMQ her secret mission

It's now your turn 😍

Wednesday, October 05, 2022

Exciting News

Hi, you may remember that I taught a Meditation Stitching course this summer. It was a great experience, and I'll be repeating it (in French!) at the end of November.

Getting Ready

I know that I have a lot of time to get ready, and that this is probably another great way of procrastinating, but I've prepared this lovely piece to show at the course.

Joyful

There isn't anything very about doing mindful stitching. It's all about taking the time to be creative, to set a few parameters around what you want to do, and then enjoying the meditative process of stitching. I believe that doing this process regularly can help to keep you grounded, bring relaxation and encourage creativity.

As an exercise, I used my wonky block sample to see if I could create four different blocks from each quarter of the cut-up block.

I cut this sample block into 4 to make meditation blocks

Here is my stitching process. I chose various fabrics that might go with the base block and then started stitching. My favourite stitches are the running stitch, cross stitch, blanket stitch, chain stitch and a variation of the fly/feather stitch. These embroidery stitches are about as basic as it gets.

Adding fabrics and colour

Using stitches to add texture
(and more colour!)

At some point I trim the block, although I do like having things sticking out when I can. 😊 Here are close ups of the blocks.

First block

You can see that all of the bases started with the wonky star but evolved pass that! I love using different thread, yarn, and fabrics like hand-dyed cheese cloth, organza, felt, linen and velour. The flowers were cut from one of my favourite top.

Second block

I love how I can use up little bitsy pieces of some of my favourite fabric. Now I have an excuse to keep all of my tiny scraps if they are interesting :-)

Block 3

I also added beads on this last one. It looks so elegant!

Block 4

Creating a 4 drop hanging

One of the things that I want to include in my class are options for how these wonderful mindful stitching blocks can be displayed.

While reading a "new-to-me" Creative Embroidery book by Dilys Blackburn, I found a wonderful example of a drop hanging that is used to display embroidery pieces. The link to the book is in Related links below.

Since my finished blocks were roughly 4" square, I decided to make the finished hanging square 4½". I started by cutting my white fabric in 5" squares. I placed 2 squares facing each other, then added the square of batting on top. With my walking foot, I stitched with a ¼" seam all around the square except for a 1½" opening on one side. I then trimmed the batting and then turned the square inside out through the hole. In the image of my first block, I left a 3" space to turn the square inside out. This was a little too large, so I reduced the openings of the other blocks.

Opening pinned before stitching

I repined that opening so that the square would be more square. Then I top stitched around the whole square, as close to the edge as possible. After the four blocks were finished, I attached some wide white ribbon.

Back of the hanging

To prevent fraying, I cut the ribbon with pinking shears and the added a ½" fusible web and folded it over. I made sure that the ribbon was long enough so that I could sew a single layer over the original top stitched line. After I was all done, I just hand-stitched the edges down to stop them from flopping over.

I attached the meditation blocks with a couple of beads on the top corners. I want the students to be able to look at the blocks as much as possible. This also allows me to switch out the blocks if I wanted to.

I then went on a photo shoot in the back yard.

Twix and Taffy (my brother's dogs) exploring the area.

A close up with the tree and sun as backdrop

The picture that I took at night because I was so impatient 😊

What I learned

I do find it difficult to know when to stop embellishing these beauties. Often it's when I've had enough 😊
I've been reading about blogging and decided that I need to up my game by taking better photos. It's not always easy because I usually finish a piece in the evening and then have to wait for the next day to take good pictures.
I got so caught up with making the hanging that I only took one process picture. If I make another, it might be a good subject for a tutorial!

Related links

Embroideries in hoops, September 16, 2022
Blue Wonky Star Mat, September 10, 2022
Creative Embroidery by Dilys Blackburn

Linking parties

I'm linking up this post to many fun linking parties. Why not see what's going on in the quilty universe? Put your foot down, Slow Sunday Stitching, Monday Making, Oh Scrap!, Peacock Party, TGIFF, Beauties Pageant, Off The Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts,

Project Details

Joyful

23" x 4½"

Materials: Meditation embroideries with wool, thread, felt, lace, hand-dyed fabric scraps, tule, beads, etc.

Friday, September 16, 2022

Embroideries in hoops

I've been doing some slow stitching in the last few weeks. It's always such a relaxing thing to do.

Stitching a second seascape

Last month, I wrote a post about Embroidering a seascape. It was based on TextileArtist.org's workshop with Bethany Duffy (see Related links below). I decided that I wanted to go further with this technique since it's a lot of fun and since I changed it up a little, was able to learn a new beading technique 😊!

A second seascape with a shell and sea glass

As you can see, it's still a work in progress (WIP).

I used a piece of cotton for reinforcement and a hand-dyed piece as the background. On top of that, I added hand-dyed cheese cloth. I love the way that it looks like an old fishing net.

I attached the sea glass by making a beaded bezel. Since I had not way of attaching the sea glass, I treated it as a cabochon. I used Thom Atkins' book, Beading Artistry for Quilts. His explanations were great. It's obviously working since the sea glass is still attached after a couple of weeks!

Update: Here is a picture of the finished Seascape and Sea Glass

Finished Seascape and Sea Glass (Dec 2022)

I love how it's turning out, so much so that I started another squirrel - literally 😊

Getting caught up in a Squirrel

Here is my second WIP. I found a half nut shell that had holes inside, so why not use it too? With a nut comes a tree and a squirrel! I used a double layer of a blue-grey sheet as my base and added some of my own hand-dyed cheese cloth. I love the texture that it gives the piece.

A tree, a nut shell and a Squirrel!

I started with a tree trunk (a scrap of brown batik) and then some kind of olive green voile (from an old skirt) for the top of the tree. I've added a few daisy stitches as leaves and I'll continue doing that. I haven't attached the squirrel on the log yet. The squirrel may move, depending on what else I add to the piece.

It's far from finished but it makes me smile when I look at it.

Meditation stitching

Last weekend I spent a couple of hours at the Out of the Box (OOTB) booth at Fibrefest in Almonte. I did some great shopping beforehand and at the booth worked on some meditation stitching. A little difficult to be mindful with people asking questions but it was enjoyable talking with like-minded people 😊

Wonky star mat and the meditation block

Practice wonky star block

Can you see the quarter of the practice wonky star block as the background to the meditation block? I love trapping bits of thread and yarn beneath the tulle. This tulle is nice and glittery. I just finished the block, so here it is!

The beginning of a meditation block

Finished meditation piece

What I learned

Learning how to create a beaded bezel was interesting. I'm surprised that I was able to follow it easily - the instructions were very well written.
I should have used smaller seed beads as I went up and around the sea glass. I didn't even know that they made them smaller than size 11! I'll have to go to a beading store for those.
I don't think that I have much to do to finish the seascape embroidery, just tidy it up and finish the back.
I pierced a hole on the inside of the nut to attach it. It was tricky getting the needle through it. Now I know what a curved needle could be used for!
I will probably be working on the squirrel hoop for a bit - there is still lots to do.
I'm working on more meditation pieces since it looks like I'll be teaching this later in the fall. I want to create a few finished articles to show what can be done with these, other than my huge traveller's blanket.
Did you notice the lovely polar bear pin cushion that Turid sent me last year? I love it 😍

Related links

Embroidering a seascape, August 22, 2022
Bethany Duffy website and Instagram
Thom Atkins' book, Beading Artistry for Quilts (it's on sale now at Connecting Threads)

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Let's see what's going on around the quilty world! Put Your Foot Down, Off The Wall Friday, Peacock Party, Slow Sunday Stitching, Finished or Not Finished Friday, Oh Scrap!, Patchwork & Quilts, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, Midweek Maker, DrEAMi!,

Saturday, May 28, 2022

Let Them Flourish is finished!

If you've been following me on Instagram, you've seen lots of images of the progress of this piece. Lately I've been adding a gazillion French Knots, finishing up the beading and then finally mounting it on a fabric-covered canvas.

Let Them Flourish - Ready for Exhibition

Let Them Flourish (aka Biodiversity)

In the Beginning

This piece started off as a fabric collage of images related to Biodiversity, the theme that was given to us as part of the February 2021 TextileArtist.org's Stitch Club workshop. Kate Tume, our instructor, had us exploring narrative potential with embellishment.

The beginning of Biodiversity (working title)

I attached the fabric pieces to batting using Heat n Bond Lite. From there I started stitching and beading. To say that it was slow going is a huge understatement. Again, not called slow stitching for nothing 😊.

Starting the embroidery and beading

At some point I got tired of its slow progress and wondered off to other projects. I came back to it during my #100dayschallenge on Instagram. I would say that the majority of it got done between March and May 2022. It also helped that I had a deadline approaching - the Conversations exhibition with Fibre 15 (see related links below).

Towards the Finish Line!

I love using my own hand-dyed perle cotton 💙

At one point I got bored and had an aha moment. I realised that I didn't have to embroider the images using the same colours that was on the fabric. Notice the house in the image below, which was printed in blue but covered in orange thread. I love that the blue peeks through. That was quite liberating! 😊

Adding different colours than those on the fabric

The green embroidered background around the moose took forever -
I was seeing swirls in my sleep!

I added a gazillion French knots around the tree. I knew by then that it would drive me crazy, so to keep it interesting, I used different shades of green and went roughly from light to dark.

So many French knots!!!

I was worried about the owl - I wanted to add beads but wasn't sure how much. I found out fairly quickly how much was "too much"! I was going to bead every other line but got mixed up and ended up beading all of the lines. It wasn't really bad but it made the owl the focal point, which is not what I wanted.

Too many beads....

Just the right amount of beads 😊

I used sewing thread to lightly embroider various parts of the owl.

Finishing up!

Finishing up involved covering a 14" x 11" canvas with fabric and then attaching the piece to the canvas. I used Sulky's Invisible thread since it was clearer than the other kinds I have. I wasn't able to make a knot at the end of the thread, so I left a long tail and then after taking the next stitch, tied a knot at the back.

I just put in a few pins through the canvas to keep the piece from shifting as I was sewing it down. I stitched around the edges but also within the piece to keep it securely in place. It was easiest to stitch behind beads.

Attaching the piece to the canvas

Let Them Flourish

What I learned

I learned that this technique is called textile collage. This is probably my favourite technique of all times. I've used it a few times to make some of my favourite pieces. I'll include links to my favourite ones in Related links below.
I love being able to add bits and pieces of fabric to tell a story or show a moment in time.
The hardest part is probably leaving reality behind since there is no way to keep the actual perspective real since the elements come in the size that they are on the fabric! I love that whimsical part of it.
I'm glad that I figured out that I don't have to use the same colour as the background image to embroider. It adds a different look when using a different colour and having the original fabric colour peek through.
I realised that I need to change things up to keep me interested. What's not to love about many shades of green instead of just using one?!
I really got to know my threads - there's nothing wrong with embroidering with regular sewing thread if you just want a small accent of colour and texture.
A bonus is that the technique almost always needs the little bling of beads 😊
It's always a slow project, even if using FMQ but it's usually well worth making. I'm making myself finish this one before I start another one - it would be too easy to get sidetracked at this point!