Wednesday, October 15, 2014

A bit of hand embroidery

This month I decided to focus on myself a little it and enrolled in a Hand Embroidery class offered at the local quilt shop. I mainly wanted to test my knowledge to see if I could remember how to make the stitches with hopes I would renew my interest in hand embroidery.

The class  met on Tuesday afternoons for two consecutive weeks, the 7th and 14th so I paid for the class, purchased the necessary supplies and went home and waited for the class to begin.

The projects are from this book by Gail Pan: Patchwork Loves Embroidery. The needle book on the
cover and this pincushion are the project we made. When I first sat down and traced the embroidery
patterns onto the fabric with the aid of a light box I was both intrigued and a little  intimidated, I had never used a light box before and I was worried my stitching would be a mess after all I hadn't done any hand embroidery in about 25 years.  I had nothing too worry about, using the light box was easy and after a few practice stitches it all pretty much came back to me, however I did learn I need to upgrade my basic sewing and quilting skills.  I have zero skills using the rotary cutter and all those helpful rulers.  I still use a template and scissors to cut my fabric, so some where down the road I see a beginner quilt or sewing class in my future so I can bring my sewing/quilting skills into the 21st century.
Here are my finished projects, I am happy with my stitches except for the dreaded french knots which at times resembled mini cauliflower heads.  But after several times ripping out the stitches I decided to keep it and proceed to construct the projects giving me pieces to gauge my future work on and see where I improved.  Here are the needle book and pincushions I made.
my needle book 
my pincushion
Here are photos of the inside parts of the needle book
inside pocket
opened 
back
I enjoyed the class so much that I registered for the crayon tint embroidery class which will be on Tuesday, October 21st and here is a look at the pincushion from the top.
The instructor DeeAnn was very knowledgeable and talented too, and quite patient to say the least as I am not always the sharpest needle in the pack. This was the first time the class was offered and I was sadly the only student but it did not take away from the class, in fact the one on one teaching was just what I needed and I am so glad the class wasn't cancelled for lack of students.

No comments:

Post a Comment