October Stitching up a Storm

The month of October seems to have creeped in when I wasn't looking.  We are watching hurricane Matthew this week so I'm sure we will have lots of rain, wind and humidity to start us off this month. Last month we started off with hurricane Hermine which brought some rain and a few bunches of mistle toe fell from the oak tree.

I have been slowly stitching the Hocuspocusville Quilt blocks for a little over a year now and began block 10 in September a year from when I began.

block ten

I am currently working on the hand embroidery for the Christmas tree skirt from Gail Pan's book.
Christmas Patchwork Loves Embroidery.

The next 6 blocks will be 3 stars and 3 gifts I plan to change the motif design just a little to make the tree skirt more personal.

I am taking a class at a local quilt shop for the tree skirt it meets once a month for 3 months the second class in October 19th.
Another hand embroidery project I will be working on is a Goddess pattern from Urban Threads, she will be a winter goddess.

Instead of tracing her onto the fabric I decided to print out the pattern onto a stitch and wash away sheet because I wanted to use the snowflake printed pale blue fabric which will be easier to see stitching and I didn't have to struggle tracing it through the fabric.

The last project I want to start this month is from an Etsy shop, Cozyblue, this moon phases embroidery kit has everything I need.

The shop also sells just the pattern as a download which I will probably buy too so I can make another with different fabrics.  I just love the sashiko look of the kit.

Here are links to
https://www.etsy.com/shop/cozyblue

http://www.urbanthreads.com/

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.