Stocking up for Christmas

I thought you might like to see what has become of my goldwork Rudolph. Well I had always intended him to decorate a child’s Christmas stocking. So I first set about making the stocking by quilting square scraps together and adding a linen section as a base to the goldwork.

I embroidered the name of the recipient in goldwork on the back and applied Rudolph to the front.

A little bit of hand stitching and a lining and this is what the final stocking looked like….

Rudolph is home….

The back of the stocking.

I really enjoyed making this stocking and am quite pleased with the results. Just hope they are enjoyed now for many years to come!

Happy stitching everyone.

Rudolph is ready…

I have managed to finish Rudolph! It has taken longer than I thought, almost a week of sewing, mainly due to the fact that the initial padding was so thick which made it rather difficult to plunge the Japanese gold thread through.

Last time I posted Rudolph, he looked like this….

Over the last few days I have been covering the head and neck in Japanese gold thread, plunging all the endings to the back of the work and sewing them in place. As usual I did not plan this piece before starting it – so I had not thought about the direction of the Jap thread, so I am not totally happy with the way in which it is lying on the final piece. Luckily it is going on the front of a child’s stocking – so they probably won’t notice too much. Here are some progress shots.

I may just fill in the eyes with white embroidery threads, but other than that – here is the finished piece….

Now all I need to do is cut around the pieces and sew back the organza before applying to the front of the Christmas stocking. I will post pictures of the final project when completed.

Thank you for popping by, happy stitching!

SAL 38: Buttonhole bananza!

Hello everyone and what a dreary, wet weekend it has been so far! I have finally managed to get a little bit of sewing done on my Blue Bird etui kit – although not a huge amount!

The wings of the bird act as needle cases with flannel panels underneath each side. I have spent about 6 hours in total slip stitching around the edge of each wing before sewing buttonhole stitch over the top. So much time, so little progress!

Thank you for popping by. See you all in another 3 weeks!

We are a small group of crafters using a variety of different techniques. Please check out the fabulous stitching by all the other members of the SAL. If you are interested in joining us you can contact Avis for details.

Avis, Claire,  Gun,  Carol , Sue,Constanze, Christina,  Kathy,  Margaret,  Cindy, Heidi, Jacky , Sunny ,  Hayley,   Megan,   MaryMargaret , Renee ,  Carmella ,  Jocelyn, Sharon,  Daisy,   Anne,  A.J. ,  Jenny , Laura ,   Cathie,  Linda,   Sherrie,  Helen

Rudolph is on his way…

I have been Christmas stitching again, trying to finish off some children’s stockings. I plan to have a goldwork reindeer on the front and the names of the children in goldwork on the back. That is the plan, but it is taking rather a long time. This is where Rudolph was up to last time…

Once the nose had been completed, I added a collar in the same colour and will probably put a little bell on this later on. Antlers have been added in felt and outlined in pearl purl. I have also made a start on the face, using gold Japanese thread which is couched down and then the ends are plunged to the back of the design and sewn in place.

The antlers were then filled with gold chippings, as were some of the stars. I have decided to use a bead for the eye.

In the next picture you can see that I have completed all the gold stars and have filled the inside of the ears with smooth purls. There is still a long way to go yet, and I was planning on making two!!! I think for the second reindeer I will give it less padding as it might make some of the stitching easier.

Thanks for popping in. Happy stitching everyone.

Oh Deer…..

Sewing with a Christmas theme today and I wanted a goldwork Christmas reindeer to go onto a Christmas stocking. As always, padding is everything. Two layers of thick felt were used around the head area and a single layer for the neck, This was then covered in a thin felt to round off the edges. The head was then surrounded in gold pearl purl and the chin was highlighted with backstitch.

As this is for the front of a child’s stocking, the reindeer had to be Rudolph, so I added more padding and covered in red chipping. Not sure how I will make the eye yet, I think I will leave that till nearer the end.

Thanks for popping in, happy stitching everyone.

SAL 37: No change still

Sorry everyone, but there is still no change with my little blue wren. I have been busy Christmas sewing – stocking number 7 just completed! Here is where I left you last time.

I hope to be able to get some sewing done this week as it is half term – Yippee!

We are a small group of crafters using a variety of different techniques. Please check out the fabulous stitching by all the other members of the SAL. If you are interested in joining us you can contact Avis for details.

Avis, Claire,  Gun,  Carol , Sue,Constanze, Christina,  Kathy,  Margaret,  Cindy, Heidi, Jacky , Sunny ,  Hayley,   Megan,   MaryMargaret , Renee ,  Carmella ,  Jocelyn, Sharon,  Daisy,   Anne,  A.J. ,  Jenny , Laura ,   Cathie,  Linda,   Sherrie,  Helen

Goldwork initials

Getting some Christmas sewing out of the way this week and decided that I wanted to personalise some gifts. With that in mind I decided to try my hand at some goldwork lettering. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the process.

I first found a font that I liked on line and traced this out on tracing paper. I then stitched this down onto a linen backing before removing the tracing paper. Larger areas of the lettering where then filled with a felt padding. The felt was then covered in coloured smooth purls. Here is the result….

There are a few little mistakes, where the purls are a little too long/short – but on the whole, and if viewed from a distance, I think they work very well together. Now to make the rest of the gift!!

Thank you for popping in, happy stitching!

A bird in hand….

Yay, happy dance! I have been frantically stitching and have finally managed to finish the little goldwork parakeet, designed by Georgina Bellamy of That Embroidery Girl. It was a lovely design to work with similarities in techniques used in her robin design. The top of the birds breast was worked in looped metal smooth purls tightly packed together. The rest of the birds face was stitched in long and short stitch.

Gold chippings hid any edges around the base of the feathers. Once the bird had been stitched, it was cut from the hoop and a felt backing was sewn on. I had chosen not to make the bird into a brooch and instead added a cord to hang the bird from….and here he is…..

I was really pleased with the finished results and he will be hanging in my kitchen window, catching the light!

Thank you for popping in, happy stitching.

SAL 36: No change here….

Sorry everyone, but I am afraid I have not made any progress with my little blue wren in the last three weeks. I am frantically trying to get all my Christmas sewing finished by the end of October as I have a feeling the post is going to be extra busy this year!

So here is where I was up to last time….

I hope this finds you all well and that you have had more stitching success than I have!

We are a small group of crafters using a variety of different techniques. Please check out the fabulous stitching by all the other members of the SAL. If you are interested in joining us you can contact Avis for details.

Avis, Claire,  Gun,  Carol , Sue,Constanze, Christina,  Kathy,  Margaret,  Cindy, Heidi, Jacky , Sunny ,  Hayley,   Megan,   MaryMargaret , Renee ,  Carmella ,  Jocelyn, Sharon,  Daisy,   Anne,  A.J. ,  Jenny , Laura ,   Cathie,  Linda,   Sherrie,  Helen

Feathered friends…

I have managed to do a little stitching on my goldwork parakeet  (designed by Georgina Bellamy of ‘That Embroidery Girl’) , The design was published in Inspirations magazine if you would also like to have a go. Last time I had managed to cut out all the felt padding and had started to sew it down onto some synthetic organza.

Once the padding had been stitched in place it was outlined in gold pearl purl, after which I could then start adding the birds feathers. These were made from cotton organza that had been coloured using painting pens. Feathers were cut out using a simple template and then sewn down to the felt padding. I also put some large tacking stitches across the feathers to stop them getting in the way of further stitching. The lower body of the bird was covered with smooth pearl in gold and olive green.

I have added a beak made from kid leather and started on the head of the bird. This is sewn in long and short stitch. The head has proved the most difficult part so far as there is such a lot of stitching around this area, making it hard to get even a beading needle through. Here is a close up of work so far….

I hope to find some time soon to finish this little fellow off.

Thanks for popping by, happy stitching.