Winter Wreath Crewel Embroidery

My latest finish is done!

This is a crewel version of my earlier winter wreath. I made a few changes to the pattern. Switching from white to tan fabric gave me some trouble, and I can't tell you how many times I felt compelled to take out stitches and change colors. That's sometimes the way it is though.

It is a fun project though with a bit of sparkle. It's available as a pattern with full instructions or as a kit.

I'm also re-writing the instructions for the original project, or rather, making full instructions, as I am for some of the other stumpwork wreaths I have made. And there will be more!

Right now, I'm keeping busy with plans for new designs and I'm hoping to create some classes too finally of different sorts.  They should be fun! I've wanted to for a long time.

I hope your day is great! :D

Strawberry Thief Crewel Embroidery

This is my latest finish and I'm very happy with how this out.

I really love pinks and greens on this one, they are so soft and yummy and a delight to work with.

Developing the details on this one was loads of fun. Making the strawberries with the trellis is one of my favorite ways to make them and I always like how they turn out.

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Summer Hare Crewel Embroidery

The Hare Crewel Embroidery has been a long favorite of mine. It was fun to design and stitch.

The motif seemed to fun not to play with some more. Way too fun! So I've made a follow up in the series, yes, it will be part of a series, yet to be created, but I have a start! The Summer Hare Crewel Embroidery Pattern is the first.

I love the colors in this! So warm and soft, feels just like a hare out in the meadow.

A couple closeups. I just love embroidery closeups!!

The rest in the series are yet to be created, and I am definitely looking forward to them all. So much fun playing with little animals!

Crewel Sampler Embroidery

This week I've taken another look at the Crewel Sampler project I made a few years ago.  This one was bigger than many of the others I have done. I do really enjoy a larger project now and then, they give me a chance to really spend more time with an embroidery and develop the idea further. 

I really wanted the look of an old-time sampler but with a little more modern feel. I'm not sure I captured either so well, but I do like the elements quite well, and it was an interesting challenge to design and stitch this piece. I'm glad I created this one! 

For this project, I used real linen twill, probably one of the most expensive fabrics I ever used! It was lovely to work with, perfect for a project that might is intended to be an heirloom.

Summer flying by, I hope you are enjoying it!

More Butterfly Florals

I've been working this week on a magazine project, so that's under wraps until the winter. But there are still plenty of florals to show. The floral projects are just fun and enjoyable stitching. I like especially that they fit so well in the hoops for easy display. I still don't have enough hoops, believe it or not, even after all these years of doing embroidery, but I would love to see them all hanging together.

These two are my favorites so far, but there will be many more in the future.

It must be the soft colors. They are just irresistible!
Closeups of the butterflies:

I hope your summer sun and fun continue on!!

USA Map Embroidery

I hope you're all managing to keep cool! Up here in the northern latitudes, it isn't especially warm this year, but I can feel the heat in the US all the way up here.

Today I have an old favorite from a few years ago that I have re-photographed. I don't think this project was every posted on this blog, so here it is once again...

This time I've taken a couple closeups.

 

It took some time to outline all the states and all the small shapes, but it was definitely worth it for this project.  It's just special and I'm very glad I made it. I have received questions over the years what I used to color the shapes, and the answer is crayons. Colored pencils would surely work too. I used a fairly light hand, but I think it would work to press harder for more color.

I still love this project and when the time is right I plan to stitch up the America version of this design. That one will have full instructions like all the new patterns do. The USA map pattern doesn't but most of it is stem and back stitching with a few french knots and lazy daisies where they fit.

Keep cool and enjoy the summer!!

Owl Mandala Embroidery

I dug up another old embroidery to photograph for my Instagram collection! This one was a fun one. I remember just having some fun with the stitches and colors I chose.

This one is from the third mandala pattern collection.  I'm thinking this one too could be remade into a nice crewel kit too. More to work on! And I am still so wickedly far behind.

Also, I have finally joined Pinterest!! It's been a long time coming. I'm slowly putting some of my stuff on there, but I also plan to scour the web for any sort of nice embroidery or artwork too that I like to share.

Butterfly Florals Embroidery Pattern Collection

Stitching and stitching! I've been working hard to get the Butterfly Florals Embroidery Pattern Collection finished this week.  This new floral embroidery collection with 12 patterns in it with sizes from 3 inches to 6 inches. These florals continue to be a lot of fun to play with, and I have many more ideas waiting for a chance to play.

I love working with the soft colors especially lately, but I do try to stretch myself with some new combos too! 

I really love the look of the chunkier stitches too on these. I often use 6 strands which adds a whole lot of interesting texture to the embroidery.

I have many more images I will be posting too as I look out for my next projects!

Happy stitching everyone!!

Bird Mandalas

I've been sorting through my embroideries lately as I dig up photos for Instagram. For me, the embroideries bring back memories of when and where I stitched them. This is one of the things I always love about handwork, especially slow handwork. Memories and associations are worked into each stitch. Most are neither happy nor sad, just reminders of where I was at different points in my life.

Here is one of my stitched memories. I remember very well this little project. I wanted to experiment with using a different color fabric than white, which I almost always prefer. The birds are fun, I may very well revisit them in a crewel project.

I'll be returning with more of embroideries., and the work on new one is continuing every day too, so more pictures very soon.

Lately, I've been seized with the explore bug, so I've been taking whatever little outings I can, even ones to those sort of little landmarks on the side of the road that you always just pass by and never take the time to stop and look. It's always, someday but not today. My latest stop though is more special. These are stone carvings from the bronze age (1000-500 BC.)

 

These are found in Southern Sweden, not all the far from the Baltic Sea, and as you might imagine they feature ships rather prominently. The little lines are thought to represent rowers and the larger figures might be gods.

More Floral Embroideries

Yikes, how time does fly away from me!! I have finally returned with a few more pictures from the Floral Embroidery Pattern pack!! Yay.  I've been visiting family in the US for the past few weeks and fell totally behind on everything.  I've finally recovered from a wicked case of jet lag and am working furiously to catch up a bit.

These are a couple of my favorite florals.

I'm still working on more florals. They are simply a lot of fun. While I was away, I had the opportunity to five my first embroidery class, which of course was for woven wheel florals!  Everyone had a great time trying them out, and I would love to eventually do lots more classes.

I'll be back soon with lots more pictures...

New Embroideries

I've fallen hopelessly behind! Most of my time for posting gets sucked into Instragram. It's been great fun seeing what other people have been working on and getting a little inspiration too. 

I have recently finished a couple new embroideries though in between everything.

Bee Floral Embroidery

All Life Floral Embroidery

And a couple closeups:

These are fun. I'm working on some new ideas. I'm behind as always, so back soon again!

Squirrel Wreath Crewel Embroidery

What a busy stitching week it's been, and it's not over yet! There is still time to work on more projects before it's done. This will be the second finish of the week. It almost makes up for last week's lack of finishes.

 

 These colors were truly a pleasure to work with, so warm and soft.

This is available as a pattern or with the whole kit.

All these projects are learning experiences - the designs, the colors, the stitches. Embroidery really offers limitless possibilities to explore, so keep on stitching, keep on working to express yourself because there is no one else like you, and the world needs your perspective.

Embroidered Purse

I'm still catching up on showing some previous projects on this blog. Today I have one of the embroidered purses I made a while ago.

I've used a variety of materials in making this purse, beads, cheese cloth, yarns of different types, mostly just playing around.  The bird was made by covering a thick interfacing with fabric.

 These little purses are like interactive works of art, which is an idea I really like.

Hopefully there will be more purses in the future because I really like them!

Three Berries Stumpwork Embroidery

Here is another one of the embroidery patterns I created with people new to stumpwork in mind.

 These little insects are probably the most fun to stitch! For this project, I took the help of Trish Burr's book, Color Confidence in embroidery, which is a really great resource. I'll say more about it later because book reviews are something I've been meaning to do on this blog for a long time. (It wouldn't be a surprise to hear that I have piles of embroidery books and magazines, I hope!!) For this project, I really wanted to try some colors that I don't usually work with and this book helped a lot with that! I have already used it quite a bit and I am sure it will see much more use in the near future!

In the works this week, a new crewel project. I have to order new colors, so I think it will end up sidelined while I wait for them to get here, but here is a little peak at it.

I've worked on this til my finger hurt from pulling the needle, but I'm really happy with this so far.

Have a great, stitchy day, everyone!

Let Your Heart Sing Crewel Embroidery

I've just finished a fun crewel project I adapted from an earlier design.

I love the bright colors on the little bird, and the way the wing turned out.

I have another couple of crewel projects I want to do before I turn to do some stumpwork projects. I've promised to make the dragonfly project into a pattern, so that is at the top of the list.

There will be other projects like this one too coming in the future.

Ladybug Wreath Stumpwork Embroidery

This is another of one of the stumpwork designs I made this past year with beginners in mind.

The ladybugs are such fun to make. I love the dimensional effect of them.

It always makes me want to get busy making more, just talking about them, and soon I will, but first a few more crewel projects are already lined up. Those are a lot of fun too. ;)

Back soon! I'm forming plans for a new stitch school for beginners.

Winter Owl Crewel Embroidery

I'm celebrating a new finish!

This little owl was lots of fun to stitch. I really like the big staring eyes. They look almost worried, but it must just be the snow that's the problem. :)

 

I have a pile of new designs in the works, all waiting to be stitched up, so it's to get to work!

Have a great day!

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.