Whole-cloth Pillow Cover
September 13, 2009 at 8:30 am | In Patchwork, quilt | Leave a CommentHaving taken a course in hand-quilting a while ago, I finished the course project, but let the craft slide afterwards, although I liked both the process and the result. But when I needed a portable project to take to quilt group this year, I remembered I have a couple of unused pillows in need of a cover lying around, and decided to make one up as a practice project for hand quilting. And I found out that hand quilting is definitely something that needs continuous practice:
The stitches in the middle are way bigger and more unregular than they should be, but I got back into the swing of things pretty quickly and am quite happy with the result. The motif is taken from this book, which is full of inspiration suitable for any craft you could be looking for a design for. Here’s a detail of the cover to show the quilting better:
It was a fun little project, and I already started the next hand quilting project, which will be another pillow cover, using fabric and a pattern I bought in Birmingham. But pictures of that will have to wait until I actually have something to show!
Retail Therapy in Birmingham
September 5, 2009 at 2:15 pm | In Embroidery | 2 CommentsTags: Crewel Embroidery
I promised I’d write a bit more about the shopping that happened while at the Festival of Quilts. Although this is a quilt festival, I did spent more on embroidery stuff.
First and foremost I fell in love with this beauty from Needle Needs:
I wanted to have a floor stand for embroidery for a long time, and when I saw the care and engineering ingenuity that has gone into the development of this stand and the accompanying frames, I just couldn’t resist. It’s someting I expect to use for decades, so it’s an investment worth making. The Millenium Frame that goes with the stand works much like a traditional roller frame, but you don’t have to sew your fabric to the rollers, which honestly is a pain and one reason why I didn’t really like working with my roller frame before. Added advantage: I just checked that my round hand-quilting frame will also fit on the stand, so that’s a bonus. This frame is a winner, and you can see my first project already mounted. Here’s a close-up:
It’s a crewel embroidery kit from Sue Hawkins, which I also bought in Birmingham. I have always wanted to try crewel embroidery, but I don’t think you can actually get crewel wool around here, so I’d have to order online, and I wouldn’t really have known where to start anyway. This nice traditional pattern came with all the materials I needed, and it’s a joy to stitch, as you can see by my progress:
I’m enjoying myself and learning something new! The amount of crewel wool supplied with the pattern is way more than enough, so even if I made a mistake and had to throw a bit away,there’d still be plenty left to finish the design. One thing I’m absolutely amazed about is how fine the crewel wool actually is. The only wool I have any experience with is rough tapestry wool, so this was quite a surprise at first. The thread is fluffy, but really thin once it’s laid down, so I have to make my stitches denser than expected. I’m still not 100% successful, as you can see from the few spots of the background fabric peeking through here and there.
This was not all my shopping, but I’ll save the rest for another day. 
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