Gallery - Needlebook

Finished by Barbara J
(Full blog post found here)

Gallery - Seen on the Blogs

I have tried to keep a note over the last 12 months when I saw mention of a finish made using one of our Focus on Finishing tutorials - I have since been in contact with the stitchers on my list, and have heard that it's OK to post piccies of their finishes on the blog ... so, here's a bit of eye candy that I hope you will enjoy (hopefully there will be another post over the next week once I hear back from a few more people) :)

Flanged Pillow Tutorial

Finished by Jenna
(full blog post is found here)

Stitcher's Bourse Tutorial

Finished by Terri for Melissa
(full blog post is found here)


Finished by Jeannie-Marie
(full blog post is found here)

Beaded Scissor Fob Tutorial

Finished by Dawn B
(full blog post is found here)

Needleroll Tutorial

Finished by Kim B
(full blog post is found here)

It's particularly good for the tutors to see that their classes are being used - and don't forget, if you have some finishes to share we'd LOVE to see them here too! All you have to do is to drop me an email with your Blogger details, and I can add you as an author :D

A Needle Case for your needle packets

Who doesn't need a special something to hold their needle packets? Since I use a lot of different types of needles in my embroidery, I like to keep them in their packets. I've made a needle case to organize my packets that will help me find the needles I need easily.

To make the needle case, you'll need:

• your finished embroidery, 12 inches long by 6 inches wide
• light weight cotton for the lining, 27 inches long by 6 inches wide
• #12 perle cotton
• a small length of ribbon
• 2 pieces of skirtex or light weight cardboard, 5-1/2 inches by 5 inches each
• a hot iron
  

I stitched a stumpwork design for my needle case but the finishing instructions will work for surface and counted embroidery, including cross stitch and crazy quilting.

Click here for the needle case instructions (pdf)

I hope you will enjoy making your own needle case and will find this tutorial useful. If you have any questions or need clarification on any of the steps, leave a comment here and I will try to answer in this section for everyone's benefit.

Tutor = Celeste

Strawberry Fob Finishing Class

Hello all,

I'm running a bit late this month but have finally cobbled together some photos and text for Strawberry fob finishing.

First gather your equipment...

For this project you will need:

• Stitched project - some suggestions: Prairie Schooler chart 100 - American Strawberries & chart 101- Prairie Strawberries (used for this tutorial), Anita's little Stitches designs, Blackbird Designs - there is a strawberry fob in the Secret Garden pattern (OOP) from the Loose Feathers series of 2006 and a Blackbird Designs also designed a fabulous quaker strawberry for the 2006 Annual Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments issue (I'm sure this one is still available).


• Interfacing


• Ribbon, felt


• Stuffing


• Scissors, needle, thread, pins.


• Iron

And you can see in this photo, I also made sure I had a cup of tea to work with.

Take your stitched piece and iron a piece of interfacing to the reverse of the stitching.

Make a semi-circle template, pin to the stitching and cut around. You can see I have mucked up centering this up with the "quiltish" strawberry above - this is not really a problem for this finishing technique.

Next, finger-press a small seam along the straight edge. Make this seam as close to the stitching as possible.

Fold the semi-circle to form a cone (see above). Stitch the straight seams together. I like to use a ladder stitch to do this, but you can use a sewing machine if you wish (I find it is easier to do this by hand).

I kinda hoped you'd be able to see the ladder stitch in this photo. If you pull it nice and tight it disappears into the seam. I'm pretty pleased with the join for this strawberry.

If you used the ladder stitch to join the seam, secure the thread and then run a gathering stitch around the top of the cone around 1/2 an inch from the top.

Draw the gathers together a little and stuff your strawberry - I've used hobbyfill.

Draw the gathers tighter and run a few stitches across the "opening" and pull these tight to secure your thread. You can insert a hanger at this point if you wish, stitch through it as you secure your thread.

For my first strawberry, I've attached a felt cap. I cut the felt out using the template in the pattern (Prairie Schooler pattern 101: Prairie Strawberries) and tacked it to the strawberry.

Next, I stitched around the felt using a buttonhole stitch - making sure I caught the linen beneath. Then I attached the second felt star (template from the prairie schooler pattern) using buttonhole stitch.

Attach a hanger to the top. I made a loop of ribbon and secured with tiny tacking stitches and slipped a bead over the ribbon to hide the stitches.

Another pretty way to finish the strawberry is to tie ribbons around the hanger - I learned this technique from Janie Hubble from The Cat's Whiskers Design Studio at a class last year.

Here's the other design I stitched from Prairie Strawberries by Prairie Schooler. You can see in the photo I have gathered the top and inserted the hanger. I've cut a length of ribbon and tied it in a bow around the hanger. Just keep tying bows around the hanger - pushing them down towards the strawberry. Have them facing in different directions.

When you are satisfied with the ribbons, trim the ends and you are done.

Here are the two finished strawberries. I love them! - So cute!
I hope you will enjoy making your own strawberries too and will find this tutorial useful.
Cathy.

Tutor = CathyMK

Treat Bag Class

Here is the wonderful Treat Bag Tutorial put together by Celeste - I think you'll all agree that it's a real stunner, and the instructions put together are superb!

Due to the difficulties of learning to use the Wordpress platform, and to allow us to get this published on time, this tutorial has been prepared in a .pdf format. Hopefully I can work out myself how to get this file attached here so you can download it! ;)

As always, please feel free to leave any questions and/or feedback in the comments section of this post.

Enjoy! :)

Treat Bag Tutorial instructions are here (please click for .pdf).

Tutor = Celeste

Tuck Pillow - Class

Welcome to our tuck pillow tutorial.

This tutorial will be for a 7" flat door hanger tuck pillow but you can make yours any size you like. Smaller tuck pillows are good for Christmas ornaments. To recap, following is a list of what you need to make the pillow.

• your stitched piece


• main fabric for pillow - a fat quarter will be plenty


• neutral fabric for back of opening - a scrap piece the size of your pillow. I use calico/quilters muslin/homespun or whatever it’s called in your country.


• fusible fleece wadding - the width of your pillow. I use fusible fleece on my pillows as I prefer the finish it gives to the back of the pillow. You can, of course, use any batting you prefer. Something not too thick is best.


• cord for hanging


• sewing machine


• thread

Cut 1 piece of main fabric 7½” by 7½" for the back

Cut 1 piece of neutral fabric the same size

Cut 1 piece of fusible fleece the same size

Cut 4 strips of main fabric 7½” by 2½"

Fuse the fleece onto the wrong side of the main fabric piece - this piece will form the back of the pillow. I always use a pressing cloth for this step. If you are using a non-fusible batting, pin the batting to the wrong side of the main fabric piece & sew using a ¼” seam. Now treat this piece as one.

Fold the 4 strips of main fabric lengthwise, wrong sides together. Press.

Place 2 of the strips onto the top and bottom of the right side of the back pillow piece, raw edges together (the folded edge will be in the middle) & pin.

Place the other 2 strips on the sides of the right side of the main piece & pin. Do not sew yet!

At this time, you will add your hanger. First of all you need to ascertain which edge is the top of your pillow (this is only crucial if your pillow is rectangular or the fabric strips/main fabric have a one way design). Pin your cording piece between the strips and the main fabric piece making sure the cording loop is in the middle of the pillow, NOT poking out through the seam - the ends WILL be poking out of the seam and will be trimmed later (see pic for clarification).

Now sew all these pieces together using a ¼” seam. To ensure the cording stays put, you can backstitch over this part or sew that part of the seam again to reinforce it.

Place the neutral fabric and main pillow piece right sides together with the strips sandwiched in the middle and pin.

Now sew these seams using a ¼” seam, leaving an opening for turning. Trim the seams, corners & cording.

Now turn the pillow right side out and VOILA, your very own tuck pillow!

You may, if you wish, whip stitch the opening (which will now be situated inside the pillow) closed. However, I usually just leave it as no one can see it. Give the pillow a good press to make it nice and flat.

Now you can add your finished cross-stitch piece which, hopefully, will fit into the opening. You can secure it with buttons at the corners or just leave it. I find that the stitched piece doesn’t move much unless the cat gets at it & gives it a bat!

Calculating other sizes of pillows

To calculate a different pillow size, all you need to do is measure your finished cross stitch piece and add 1½” to all sides. That measurement will be your main fabric and batting size and strip length. The width of the strips will be 2½”.

Keep in mind that the larger you make your pillow, the wider the strips should be. This, in turn, will also affect the size of the opening so double check that your stitched piece will fit!

Tutor = AlisonC

Tuck Pillow - Class - Materials List

Next weekend will be our tutorial on making tuck pillows. Tuck pillows are very versatile. They can be stuffed like a pillow or left flat. They can be used for Christmas ornaments and hung on a tree, or used as a door hanger. This tuck pillow tutorial will be for a flat door hanger about 7" square. Instructions to calculate other sizes will be included in the tutorial.

You will need:

• Your stitched piece (duh!)


• Fabric for your pillow - a fat quarter should be plenty unless you're making something bigger than 9"


• Scrap of neutral fabric for the back of the opening - calico, muslin, homespun


• Fusible fleece wadding - same size as your pillow. You can use a non-fusible batting if you prefer. Something not too thick is best.


• Cord for hanging


• Sewing Machine


• Thread/scissors etc

I'll be back next weekend with the tutorial!

Tutor = AlisonC

Book Cover - Class

Hello everyone! I hope you've got the items ready. Here's a recap:

You will need the following items:

1. A stitched piece, size ½” to 1” allowance around the front of your book or a part of it if you prefer.
2. Some coordinating fabric for the side, back and inside flap of the book.
3. Muslin or calico for the backing
4. Book to cover ;)
5. Matching sewing threads
6. Ribbons to tie (optional)

Instructions for a particular step will be at the bottom of the picture (if any).

Step 1

Determine the size of your stitched piece that will cover the book and pull one thread from each side of the stitched piece. This will help to ensure the lines that you machine sew are straight. The stitched piece can cover the front of the book or partially or cover the front and back of the book. It’s up to you. In my example the stitched piece covers the front of the book partially.

Step 2

Measure and cut the length and width that you will need to cut from the co-coordinating fabric. Wrap from the left edge (where one thread was pulled) to the back of the book. Add necessary seam allowances on all sides. Machine sew the coordinating fabric and the stitched piece. Iron open the seam.

Step 3

Cut 2 additional pieces of the coordinating fabric about ½ the width of your book, add necessary seam allowances. Machine sew one edge of both the flaps after measuring and ironing a double seam.

Step 4

Cut the backing fabric the same size as the cover piece.

Step 5

Sewing them all together. Lay the cover piece right sides up. Place the flaps, wrong side up on the both sides of the cover piece with the stitched edge towards the middle. Pin accordingly.

Step 6

Place the backing fabric wrong side up and again pin accordingly.

Step 7

Machine sew from the top of the back portion of covered piece, about and inch before the flap starts. Backstitch a couple of stitches to fasten the beginning. Proceed to sew up all 4 sides but leave about a 3” opening for turning. Again backstitch when you end.

Step 8

Trim all sides to 1/4" and cut the corners to reduce bulk.

Step 9

Turn the cover inside out. It’ll be a mess but nothing that cannot be ironed out :)

Step 10

Stitch by hand to close the opening with matching thread.

Step 11

Give it a good ironing. Insert the book covers into the flap and there you have it your very own book cover! :)

Optional embellishments:

• Add a piece each of rick-rack, lace or ribbon on the sewn edge of the book flaps
• Add two long strips each of ribbon at mid point of the right and left edge of the book for a ribbon tie closure
• Add a small loop of ribbon/cord on the front side edge of the book and a larger loop at the back. Slip the larger loop into the smaller loop creating a closure that you can wrap around your wrist
• Add a ribbon/cord for bookmark where the opening was and stitch by hand or securely by machine.
• And anything else you can think of!

Samples of book covers:

• Appliqued book cover with ribbon closure


• Patchwork book cover

If you have any questions please feel free to comment here and I will answer them in the comment section itself so as to centralise the Q&A for everyone's benefit.

Thank you all for joining our tutorial this weekend. Pictures are always welcomed :)

Tutor = Barbara J