H is for .....

This is my Tag for this week the letter 'H'

is for .......HAT

a Hogwarts sort of hat

 In Herringbone on the hat, Heavy Chain down the side

and Half Chevron around the brim

New jeans for old .......

There are many ideas going round for recycling jeans and I finally got around to trying some out first off was this fab idea , you may have read before of how difficult it can be for me to find clothes to properly my little girl Charlotte as she is very slim on the bottom. Although almost four she is just wearing 3-4 tops now and the last pair of jeans I bought for her were 18-24 m these fit her really well but with one problem the length she will very soon outgrow them, this is ok in the summer months as she can wear shorts and cut offs but its still very cold here in Scotland and so you can imagine how excited I was when I came across a little idea for lengthening a pair of little jeans, I have tried to locate the source of the idea since and now cannot find it : /

There is also another idea  here @ Trottersweetpeas which I might try next

Next was this book cover the idea,

   

which I got here on Planet Forward via pintrest

and this is mine  

I made mine a removable cover which just slips on, I basically drew around the book which was open flat, then stitched along the line, turned it over to the front and trimmed around the line. 

I then stitched some stems,

added a pocket for pencils, glue stick and eraser

 then hand stitched the flowers to the tops of the stems.

 I then pinned a strip of fabric either side behind each end for slip pockets and stitched on the front around the line again, trimmed away the excess fabric, so easy and no measuring!

Stitching the A- Z tags has made me want to use the stitches in other ways ans this little project was a delight to work my way through, and is now very useful! :)

I think I might make another one for my A6 sketchbook

Next up is this little prayer flag for a special Lady who is in hospital at the moment,

 Hand stitched applique petals, hand embroidered words, flower stem & border detail, dyed vintage crochet lace, ribbon, seed beads, yarn, machine embroidered circle, dyed shell buttons, handmade Tyvek focal bead, Copper wire hanger tied with wired organza ribbon.

 click imaged for an enlarged view

 I thought I would send her this to let her know we are thinking about her and praying for her every day.

Gosh is it g already!

.......still having fun with my letters over on Tag Tuesday.
Can you believe we have arrived at G already!

and G is for 'Gingham'

 I know it's not a thing but hey, it is when its a dress

 
in Guillioche stitch, down the front of the dress and the side of the tag 

and Ghiordes knot as fringing on the dress

and that little petal shaped stitch just right of the G is Granitos which is Spanish for 'little grains'

I thought I was going to miss out on things for a while when my laptop decided that I wasn't allowed to connect to the internet anymore on Thursday evening :o( it took most of Friday to get it fixed thanks to my two trusty IT guys and a whole re install, saving and moving of large numbers of  picture files because I like to take a picture or two :)....all fixed and running smoothly again!

Today I did more hand stitching on a little gift for a special lady
more about that tomorrow perhaps ......

Mountmellick

This is my little piece of Mountmellick that my sister Theresa and I are working on with EG Airdrie branch.

New work to both of us, the design is from a copy of Stitch magazine. We were both drawn to the design because it is quite open and light in pattern compared to some of the other designs we could have chosen from various books and also because we like toadstools, especially Theresa, who is drawn to all things 'Fairy' !

The design is by Katie Pirson of 'What Katie Threads Next'

As many of the women in the group have already work on a Mountmellick piece they had some supplies so we bought some Mountmellick thread which comes in a mat finish and 'Jean' fabric which is white twill weight with a slight sheen to it. However there are 4 different widths of thread and there was only the two thicker ones left, I've had to order the 2 thinner widths, this is where we have both got to using the No 3 & 4 and now patiently waiting on our thread arriving.

We have both got other projects to be working on though,
 I'm still working on my little tags and 

there is our 'House' for Fife branch which I've almost done,
Theresa beat me to it on that she finished hers last week.

F is for .......

.....for Tag Tuesday

Fish

worked in Fishbone stitch with a Fern stitch tail

Feather and more Fern stitch for the plants with French knots 

Four in all!

Shisha

So last night we did some stitching with Shisha mirrors with Jean Boath.

Jean runs all kinds of workshops for patchwork and textile art techniques. I first met Jean when we studied City & Guilds at Lauder college together, she was doing patchwork and I was doing embroidery, it was nice to catch up with her after such a long time. 

It was also on that embroidery course way back then that I last did Shisha work,

 this is my sample from then.

this was done about 12yrs ago!

so as you can gather I was a bit rusty! and my first attempt was so bad that I had to cut it all off and start again! I changed my choice of thread and with a little guidance from Jean I set off again and this was the result.....

then I tried one of my square mirrors that I use for my little pendants.

I was quite pleased :) 

as you can imagine with lots of chat that was all I got done

 but when I got home I was itching to do more so

 I tried out one of my oval pink jewel cut cabochons 

not bad I thought so then I did another....

a blue square this time

I think I'm liking these and the effect with the faceted ones is so pretty when used with a co-ordinating variegated thread. 

I then challenged myself to go small.....well why not, I like small and I used a single fine variegated thread 

on a small 8mm cabochon.

fun!....

I think I will be incorporating these into my work a lot more.

The letter E

Following on with the Tag Tuesday A-Z Theme
E is for 

EGG

 In Ermine stitch

edging stitch

 & Eyelets
It's been a while since I stitched eyelets on anything, it was good to catch up :)
and I have never used the Ermine stitch before so it was nice to try it out, it worked well with the variegated thread I think.
Talking of new stitches, I have chosen to work on a Mountmellick piece with EG Airdrie branch, I'm quite excited about it, a type of white-work, worked in solid heavy stitch, I have started a new board on my pinterest with examples that appeal to me.Looking forward to Thursday!

I'ts all hand embroidery at the moment, Tonight EG Fife branch meet and we will be doing a little mini workshop on shisha mirrors. Hopefully I should have something to show by the end of the evening :)