And One Thing Leads to Another

Saturdays are pretty hectic at my house. After working all week, it is time to do the house work. House work, laundry, and grocery shopping are priorities, but my family usually likes a good breakfast and then I also get food prepared for the week. I usually manage to get it done in time to do my weekly shopping either at a thrift store or dare I say it, a craft store. I consider it my play.

This one particular Saturday, I dragged my daughter kicking and screaming to Joanne's with me.  I needed some DMC #5 floss and I wanted to pick up a Dresden Plate Template.  While we were there, Assa found some really cute cupcake fabric.  Mom, can I get some, she asked?  I don't normally indulge her because she never finishes a project that she starts.  I usually try to interest her with supplies on hand, but she was patiently walking around the store with me while I took in my dose of color and possibilities so I asked her what she would do with it if I bought it for her.  She didn't know, but she really wanted it.  I bought 2 yards.

It sat around for a while, and I decided that I was not going to let it go to waste.  I have been perusing sewing blogs and Pinterest pictures and I had come accross a pattern for fastest easiest  pillow case ever. I pulled out my sewing machine and gave it a whirl.  Here is a picture of the finished pillow cases:



Assa's Cupcake Pillow Cases

While I was working on my box which you saw in the last post, I thought I bet I have enough of that fabric left to make her a box too.  I did.  It was a lot of fun being able to give her a box like mine with her fabric choice. Here is a picture of her box.



Assa's Completed Box





Inside Assa's Box





 

I was able to finish a lamp shade for her too.

Chikan Embroidery

In March, I participated in a SAL (Stitch Along) with other members of MAP in a LAB project. As a group we took the tutorial from Artistic Fingers for a Chikan Embroidery project.  I knew nothing about traditional Indian embroidery, other than I follow a couple of blogs which discuss their embroidery for Saris and other traditional uses.  One of my favorite is Hand Embroidery from Sandalas.

Chikan Embroidery is a combination of shadow work, pulled thread and surface embroidery.  Armed with some Batiste fabric and regular stranded embroidery floss, we went to work.  First we transferred the design onto our fabric and then we started with the shadow work part. The design was a paisley which is a traditional design of Chikan Embroidery. We learned the stitch named Double Back Stitch.  It was a lot like working Herringbone from the back.  All of the stitches we used have names from their traditional roots.  It was fun to see how they were alike and how they differed from the stitches that we already knew.

I wanted to do two of the design.  I was thinking ahead to how the pieces would be finished and thought I would like to make a pair of pillows for my daughters room.

Pink Paisley 04/2012

Blue Paisley 04/2012

Once they were embroidered, the pieces kind of sat in my sewing basket.  I'm not really a sewer, but I am trying to learn.  One weekend, I framed them with some matching material, however, I miscalculated the size and they would not work for the pillows I had in mind so I ripped out the sewing and they went back in the sewing basket.  This last weekend, I finally pulled them back out determined to have them finished.

I did struggle.  I didn't have the original embroideries cut, squared and uniform.  I also was not working from a pattern.  The blue pieced together fairly well but the pink fabric was not opaque enough.  I ended up doubling the pink panels.  I was covering a printed set of pillows which I didn't want to show through.

When I sewed the extending panels on, the seams were puckered a little.  I didn't want to pick them out for a second time because I was worried that picking out sewn fabric multiple times would sabotage the embroidery.  I opted for a way of covering the seams. Each project teaches me a little more.  On this project, I learned alot about thread tension on the sewing machine.  I was able to fix the tension problem towards the end by turning the bobbin case thread tension a 1/4 turn.



Finished Paisley Pillows 04/2012

 The finished pillow slips are also just a little snug on the pillows, but they work and my daughter loves them. The backs of the pillows are the same fabric as the ruffled border on the front.  Here you see them being modelled on my own bed.  The blue one matched rather nicely. 

Oh BTW - do you see the lovely blue chenille bedspread.  This was a recent find at a thrift store.  I walked out of the store having spent $8.  My bed is a full size and the bedspread turned out to be a king size.  I can testify to how quickly you can get something done if you want to because I had that bedspread washed, cut down to a generous size and hand hemmed by 9 am the next morning.  This weekend, I was able to sew two matching pillow shams from the excess fabric.  I am really enjoying the bed spread.

Blue and White Dresser Scarf

Have you ever noticed that the closer you get to finishing a project the more time and effort you spend to finish it?  That is where I am now.  I started this Blue and White Dresser Scarf in August of 2009.  It was a day spent at a theme park subsidized by work.  They gave out discounted ticket prices.  I knew that I was not going to run all over the park taking rides with my daughter and her friend so I decided to take a project.

The pattern for this scarf came from the Book, "Favorite Throws & Table Toppers to Crochet".  It is titled "Dapple Blossoms".  The original pattern is not made with just 2 colors.  It uses 7 colors.  I loved it with all the different colors but I am making this dresser scarf for my own bedroom.  I am using JP Coats Royale Classic Crochet Thread #10 on Bridal Blue and White.

Here is a close up. I love the join as you go pattern. I have about 20 more squares to add and then the pattern will have a white border around the whole piece. I am almost to the white border. Even though there are a lot of threads to bury, you cannot see the joins.  I know that the pattern is not going to come loose because I buried the threads going one way and then back another.

It is really pretty and everytime I work on it in public I get marvelous comments. 

I can hardly wait to finish because then I will get to work on a new project.  I'm thinking about some bookmarks.  I am also thinking about some new pillows.  I am hunting for just the right pattern.  It might be one of these patterns:

Cozy Cottage Crochet Popcorn Pillow

Fluted Cushion

Front Post Round Pillow

Irish Rose Pillow-ghan Square

Ruffles Pillow

Ruffle Rose Pillow

Squares and Fans Pillow

Theresa E.