Swedish Wool Embroidery

This project was a reproduction kit I bought some years ago and made. It's from a design that was found in the south of Sweden. The fabric is a thick wool felt, really nice to feel, but less easy to push the needle through. I so loved working with the wool threads though! This is the project that brought me to crewel work which I really enjoy.

The size is about 20 inches square, so there is quite a bit of stitching in this!

 This should be made into a  pillow, which I still haven't done! In the old days, the embroidered pillow was meant to be used as a riding cushion, since there were no stuffed seats.

I love the naive folk art quality of the designs they used. Color were, of course, limited, but they made imaginative use of them to give the embroidery lots of life and fun.

Below is a selection of various antique wool embroidery from the Nordic Museum in Stockholm.

Beehive Crewel Embroidery

I've made a companion crewel design to the popular Bee's World.

The bees are such fun to stitch, I doubt I will be able to keep myself from making another pattern with this theme.

Pink Flower Stumpwork

This project was developed with the idea of making a series of stumpwork designs that would give beginners practice with certain techniques.

In this project, the focus is on detached wired shapes and covered beads which are a couple of my favorite techniques for creating dimension. 

I have loads of ideas for more such projects, and as always it's a matter of time and maybe a little bit of focus to get to them all. But first, I'm in the midst of a new crewel work project which are my other favorite type of embroidery. I hope to have 2016's first finish soon!!

Keep warm everyone, it's mighty cold out there right now!

Sheep Fabric Box

This one I made last year. The sides of the box are made out of Timtex which you can use to make all sorts of shapes.

These two pictures are when it was in the WIP stage.

As you see, I used all sorts of fibers and fabrics to get different textures. And here is the completed box:

 I used a this stumpwork sheep project for the top that I had sitting around for a long time.  It seemed like a good place to use it.

The box was a lot of fun to make! I could imagine doing another one eventually because I really like the interactive aspect of a box, but this one is kept tucked away in a glass cabinet. I'm too afraid to interact with it much. ;)

Dusting off the cobwebs

It's been a long time, but I'm returning to this blog after a loong pause. I've been busy learning lots of new things that I hope to bring with me to stitching and my other creative endeavors. I am keeping another blog, Dusty Sidewalks, for my painting-related work which I've done quite a bit of the last few years.

The store has undergone a face lift which isn't quite complete to make it prettier
and easier to navigate.

These changes are just the beginning and I will be back with more news soon! It's exciting to be back working on all this again.

I'm reposting the old stitch school classes or most of them, and there are plans for new lessons soon! I have a few more things to get going with before I can get to them though!

Thanks to everyone that has visited this blog and my site! I hope this year will be a great one for all of you!