Embroidery Sew Along - Part ???

For the past 2 months I've been following along with other bloggers stitching and sewing from the book - Patchwork Loves Embroidery by Gail Pan. Martina at Sunshine Quilting hosted this sew-along and it was lots of fun. Not only are the patterns and ideas in this book beautiful and easy to follow along with (really, the instructions are really well thought out), the group of ladies in this sew-along were very inspirational with their talent and super encouraging as well. Thank you, Martina, so much for putting this together for us!!!

With that said, umm, I just couldn't keep up!! I did the stitching pretty well, but the sewing tripped me up every time. I guess it could have something to do with my LOVE of hand stitching and my not-quite hate of sewing:) I'm getting better at it and these projects really did help me learn some new sewing skills:)

So this is what I FINALLY got done....



Secrets and Dreams journal cover

I got a *bit* better at sewing on the binding on this one, but I still have wonky ends. The last end I sewed in was the best, so it looks like I still need to practice this part:)

The other problem I was having was drawing the wavy lines that was quilted on the front of this. I just couldn't get nice, even waves. So I went to the quilting store, to Hobby Lobby and to Walmart looking for a stencil to use, but I couldn't find one. I did find some blank stencil sheets though, and after printing some wavy line templates from the internet, I made my own:)

Here are the three projects that I completed...

And here is the stitching for the next project I want to do...

This sew-along is done, but Martina is planning on doing another sew-along including any pattern by Gail Pan in 2015, and I think I will join along with that as well. I have a couple more patterns in this book that I want still make:) Until then, I plan to keep going with the one above at a much slower pace. The stitching above is a panel for a bag and I'm hoping to have it done mid Nov. I'm planning on using the bag (that will have no zippers, buttons or Velcro) as my knitting bag. I'm super excited about getting it done:)

Embroidery Sew Along - Part 3

SAL at SunshineQuilting

I didn't do so great this time. I didn't even get all the embroidery done for this week!! But this is what I did get started. This one is to be a pocket folder with this adorable stitching on the front. I LOVE this one:)

Hopefully I will be able to get this one and another one done for the next posting!!! I already know which one I'm wanting to do next... :)

Embroidery SAL - Part 2

 

Clearly it is taking me longer than our 2 weeks between each project!! I'm not getting hung up on the embroidery part, but rather putting the project together. I'm really not great at sewing (stitching, yes, but I tend to need a bit more time with the machine!!), and it takes a while for me to the sewing part done. Hopefully with some more practice I will get better!!

 

Even though there are several things on this that I either changed, or did as it said, but really need some practice on to make it better (like sewing on the binding:), I am really happy with how it turned out.

 

I made the needlebook...

 

I made a couple changes since I didn't have all the materials that they called for. I didn't have cream colored ric-rac so I used some lace I had coffee stained for another project a while back. I also didn't have any batting so I used a piece of cheep white felt that I had, it worked perfect!! And I used some old buttons that I had cut off my grandmother's clothing years ago after she passed away. The goal was to make quilts for all her children (my mom and aunts and uncles) with the material from her clothing. I only ended up making 1 1/2 quilts before I stopped, but it was great for working through the sadness of losing her:)

 

Now I'm off to see what projects everyone else made. If you want to see too, visit Martina over at SunshineQuilting!! 



Embroidery SAL - Part 1

Well, this is a bit late, but it's better late than never:)  I really had a lot of fun with this project (except those darn satin stitches!!!). It's nice to switch gears and do something a little different every now and then.  

Here are pics of my project for part 1 of this SAL...

 

 The red fabric is what I used as a backing for it.

The only thing I wish I had done different is to make all the roses red instead of pink. I'm not much of a pink kind of girl:) But over-all I just love it!! And the instructions were very easy to follow, which is a big help.

If you want to join in too, just visit Martina over at Sunshinequilting and see what this is all about!!

Embroidery Sew Along

A couple weeks ago I joined in with Martina at Sunshine Quilting in this Embroidery Sew Along. The book Patchwork Loves Embroidery by Gail Pan has lots of pretty embroidery projects to work on and I think I've pick out about half of them that I'd like to do!! :0) It was hard to decide which one I wanted to do first, but since I have a few other projects that I am currently working on I decided to choose a pretty easy one.

I am going to start out with the Pretty Bluebird Pincushion. I have all my materials together...

 



 and now I just need to get stitching on it:) This should be a quick and fun project and I'm really looking forward to putting the first stitches into this. Wish me luck on getting it done, the due date on this one is Sept 1st:)