Showing posts with label vintage handkerchief. 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!

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, October 16, 2025

Hand-stitching and Appliqué

Hi and welcome 😊 I hope that everyone in Canada had a good Thanksgiving. The weather has gotten quite cooler - still cool but darn close to cold! It's difficult to predict the weather at this time of year, but I'm very happy that it's mostly sunny while I walk Poppy! 🐕

Hand-stitching Ode to the Goose

I've been working on this piece for a few months. It's been sitting on the side of the dining room table, waiting for me to have a few minutes to stitch. This is what it looked like this afternoon.

Ode to the Goose as of this afternoon

Ode to the Goose - so far

Last month I thought I had finished stitching the Canada goose. I showed it to JJ and they said that I probably didn't want to just fill in the head and the feet. They were right - so I've started filling in the body. That doesn't really bring me joy, so I'm working on everything else first!

The background of the piece is a vintage handkerchief with a narrow lace band. I added neutral scraps and started moving things around. Here was my first attempt. I take pictures because they seem to be more objective than looking at the piece.

Throwing a few things at the piece

It's at this point that I thought about the focus of the piece, which is the Canada goose. I removed what wasn't relevant and then using the tracing of a picture I took this summer, I stitched over the paper. It's not my favourite way of transferring an image but it was the best one since I was stitching over several different fabrics.

This August the Out-of-the-Box (OOTB) fibre artists met at a local park. I took many photos of the geese - I have never been that close to so many of them! There are other photos (see Related links) but this is the one who is the star of my Ode!

Star of Ode to the Goose

Stitching the goose following the image on the tracing paper

Starting to get there

This is what it looked like before my holidays.

Figuring out what to keep and what to stitch

This is the evolution of the piece so far. Until it's finished, anything can happen! 😁 On the bottom right, I've added the stems of bullrushes. I want them to be fluffy - so I'll have to figure that out. These are the kinds are challenges that I love!

The evolution of the piece - so far!

I'm still working on the Pink Turtlehead flower piece. It's almost done but I'll wait until it's finished to post it. You'll be seeing it next week, just before the Fall Fling Show. I'm also hoping to have Ode to the Goose done for the show. The handkerchief is 8" x 8" so I plan to hand quilt it a little and then mount it on a canvas. In theory it should work!🤞

A Fourth Bloomers Block

I'm following Denise's Bloomers Sew Along. I'm on my fourth block - I love it! I sort of made this one up from two different blocks.

Fourth block of Bloomers SAL

What I learned

I always find it daunting to start a new piece, especially if I'm not sure where I want to go with it.
As you saw, I went through my odds and ends and started playing around. I knew that it would be mostly neutral but I did want a bit of colour.
Once I started stitching the goose, it was easier to see where the piece should go. It wanted a pond, a path, and a sky with a cloud. From there, it was mostly playing with stiches.
There will be a lot of background stitching but I have to ensure that I don't overwhelm the goose - it's the star of the show!
After adding my photo to a linking party, I realized how much I need to stitch in the Canada Goose. Right now it's disappearing into the background (except for the black!) That should help motivate me 😉
I'm happy with my latest Bloomers block. I think that I'll need at least a couple more to make something interesting. I also want to experiment with EPP hexies soon!

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 553 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a very productive week! Thanks so much for joining the party! Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Donnalee is in the Fall spirit and making a lovely falling leaves runner. What great fabric! Now we know why she wanted to keep the black pumpkins - that runner is really great!

Donnalee is finishing up a falling leaves runner

Donnalee's lovely pumpkins in black

Gwyned will be showing her Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2022, How Does Your Garden Grow?, during her upcoming Cohasset Open Studios.

How Does Your Garden Grow? by Gwyned

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts is making more Lil Bear Hug Quilts. She's quilting them using a mix of FMQ and walking foot. Here are a few - you'll want to check out her post to see them all!

Lovely Lil Bear Hug quilts, quilted by Kat

Walking foot work by Kat

Love that FMQ by Kat

Quilted by Kat - almost orange peels!

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts has a lovely new quilt on the cover of Quilter's World! Milo is a layer cake friendly quilt that was quilted with squiggly lines using the walking foot.

Details of Preeti's Milo quilt

Preeti's latest finish - Milo!

Gail from Quilting Gail made this amazing Switchback bag using a ByAnnie pattern. Gail quilted the fabric using the walking foot.

Gail's new Switchback bag

Brenda from Songbird Designs gave us a peek at the quilt she's making for her next blog hop project. Have a look at the pumpkin that she FMQ. We're looking forward to seeing this project soon!

Pumpkin FMQ by Brenda for an upcoming blog hop

Brenda also made a bag designed ByAnnie. It's the On the Go 2.0 Bag. She quilted it using a serpentine cross hatch using the walking foot. What a gorgeous and useful bag! You'll want to see the details of her bag on her post.