Tiny Progress is Tiny (or, Gifted Gorgeousness June 2016)

For more information on this stunning and serendipitous SAL, please click on the graphic!

You were all so sweet and supportive about my crazy-looking pre-stitching for the finishing class I was taking at A Stitcher's Gathering. Just to recap, I had made eight of these little parasol pieces:

Crazy machine-stitched edge optional

I was hopeful that I would have this project finished by the end of class (where I was getting the GIFT OF KNOWLEDGE...ahh, theeeeeeere's the shoehorn into the SAL). These eight panels were to turn into Lady Violet's Parasol Needlebook. Wellll...after the first day of class, I was pretty sure I wouldn't be done by the end of the second day, and I was right. In fact, no one finished the whole thing. The first step was to cut a piece of Skirtex (a very stiff felt-like interfacing) to fit inside the chain stitch outline for each little panel, then cut out the panel and sew the Skirtex inside. The next step was to sew a piece of batting to the back of each panel, and, finally, to sew a beautiful sage green silk lining to each one. Working around that curve was...less than fun! But I managed to get all of them to the batting stage, and six out of eight lined.

This is the full kit for the entire class, which also includes the Crawley House Sampler and Anna's Apron Scissors Pocket. You can see what the parasol will look like in the kit picture. The scissors pocket is so darling; lots of whitework stitching. The second day of class, we got a surprise package with a kit for Cora's Spoon Pincushion, including an antique silver spoon from the teacher's collection. So cute! Now I just have to figure out when I can work on this project again...there is a lot going on in the next month.

In other gifted news...my friend Jean is very gifted in many respects, but one of her most dangerous gifts is the gift of enablement. What that means is that she can pretty much find something that one of us "needs" to buy at any given moment. I blame her for these needleminders that I ordered:

That pink behind them is the padded envelope they were mailed in! What fun!

Hmmm, was I supposed to have actual stitching progress in this post? For a stitch-a-long? Maybe next month...

Drunken Monkeys

Click now for JiffNotes

In a few days, I leave for Phoenix to attend Moss Creek's A Stitcher's Gathering. And just in time, I have finished all the prestitching (and finished watching the last season of Downton Abbey, which was crucial because the project is Downton Abbey themed!) The project is Lady Violet's parasol (in needlebook/pincushion form), so the prestitching was eight tiny panels with violets, outlined with chain stitch, then outlined in machine stitching to secure the linen.

Actually, you had to do three sides of the chain stitch, then iron on some interfacing, then complete the curved part of the chain stitch through the interfacing, like so:

I should have put something in the shot for scale; these panels are less than 2 inches tall (5 cm). Here's what they look like from the front:

This was one of the last ones I stitched around (first a tiny straight stitch, with a tiny zig zag stitch on top). The thread I had on the bobbin is shown here; you can see in the first shot that the other thread was pretty much exactly the color of the linen. This turned out to NOT be a good thing, since I couldn't really see my straight stitch to zig zag over it.

Now, the sewing machine and I are on fairly good terms, but it's a tenuous relationship at best. In reality, I pretty much stink at anything other than straight lines. So in the interest of Truth in Blogging, here are some of the other ones...

And this beauty...

My comment to my friends was that I was finally finished, but it looked like it was done by a bunch of drunken monkeys, because one drunken monkey alone could not have achieved the variation in crazy shapes that I did.

JiffNotes
I am ready for A Stitcher's Gathering!