Wlydhare's Hollow

Chickens!

This has been a busy week with my youger daughter's tenth birthday, but I have found a little time to make another towel for my kitchen. This one has a really cute chicken design I found on a pattern from Bareroots. I just took a part of it and used it on a cute woven towel I found at a local quilting shop.

I am thinking of making some of these for sale and putting them on Etsy, but I really have no idea how much to charge. Either way, this towel will be enjoyed! I do love chickens!

 

How can you not smile with something like this?

Progress

I continue to make progress on the cloth doll I am making...

 

 

 

Embroidered Kitten Tea Towel

This was a fun, quick project I did, using a flour sack tea towel and a vintage transfer pattern I found online. I have a companion pattern I would like to make, to create a set of two.

I am still toying with the idea of doing some trim in fabric or rick-rack.

In our house, there can never be enough towels, so this will be a fun and useful addition to the kitchen.

Transfer Embroidery

 I love exploring the web and I have recently been exploring French blogs and sites devoted to various types of needlework. I really love a certain style that seems to be popular in France, which is a monotone color (most often red) worked on natural linen. I love the contrast and simplicity, and yet it offers a surprising amount of detail as well. Here are some examples of this type of work:

I am thinking of charting the rooster and doing it in miniature for a dollhouse. 

I also found some really sweet vintage French transfers. If I had to guess, I would imagine they are from the 40s or 50s.

 

Feel free to copy and use these, they were offered free on the French site and shouldn't have any copyright issues.

Miniature Needlework

I have enjoyed all sorts of needlework since I was a child. I think my first project was a kid's kit I got when I was around 7, to embroidery very simple animals on kitchen towels. Counted cross stitch seemed to start to really get popular in the late 70s and I got into doing that as well. Crewel needlework was also big back then and I am glad to see that is getting popular again.

Anyhow, around the time I was about 11 or 12, and minis were still pretty big in the general hobby world, I sold my first minis, little pillows I made with tiny pillowcases that came off, and were embroidered on the edge with little flowers. I sold them to a local toy store that carried miniatures.

Anyhow, I never really stopped doing little needlework projects. I have made mini curtains, bedspreads, Christmas stockings, etc. In the last few years I have learned about a type of micro needlepoint called petipoint, which is worked on silk gauze. It looks very intricate and difficult, but I actually find it fairly easy and relaxing. Here are a few piece I have done recently:

This was my first piece and is 42 count. This picture is bigger than the actual finished piece, with is about 1-1/2" square.

Next, I tried a small tapestry for a Tudor room box I was working on.

And then I did another pillow from the series the squirrel was in, because I do love bunnies, as you might have noticed:

This is the same size as the squirrel, so you can get a better idea of the scale, using the edge of the dime beside it. I have not had time recently to work on a mini needlework project, but I am in the mood, so I think I will dig out the goodies to start something new.

Sorting and Organizing

Like many crafters I know, I tend to collect and hoard crafty type things and then when I need them, I can’t find them, and end up getting duplicates. I have been trying to organize things and group like items together so I can find them. All the rubber stamps and pads in one place, all the different types of glue together, all the Sculpty clay in a single bin, etc.

When it comes to needlework, even though I have been doing it virtually all my life, I have never tried to organize my floss. My ‘organization’ consisted of tossing skeins into one of those plastic shoe boxes from Dollar Tree and then digging through this box when I needed a particular color. Often, in frustration, I would just skip it altogether and buy the floss colors I needed, which joined the shoe box, once I finished that project.

So this week, I finally sat down and finally properly sorted them all. I logged each color into an Excel spreadsheet (and learned I had somehow collected seven skeins of one particular shade of brown!)  And then I began the slow task of rewinding each skein on a bobbin and labeling it for storage in a floss bin.

By now you are probably thinking that I am a bit slow, and anyone in their right mind would have figured this out ages ago! You are probably right, but I suppose it is better late than never!