We have a guest blogger for you! Jessica is one of our regular customers and she just finished this beautiful basket.

But, here, let’s have Jessica tell you all about it!

Here’s the story of my finished quaker basket. I’ve been stitching for a while—dabbling in cross stitch, needlepoint, and surface embroidery– but recently discovered quaker style cross stitch samplers, and I’ve been wanting to give myself increasing challenges. Browsing the internet one day I saw a picture of Primitive Traditions’ “Abigail Colby Workbasket” and immediately fell in love. I showed the picture to my husband…a week or two later it showed up at my Mother’s Day breakfast table place setting! Apparently he’d gone to Krazy Kat on his own and found the pattern for me! I was thrilled and immediately ordered the 40 ct. linen and the basket from Peggy. Once they arrived I got to work.
The basket pattern consists of three parts, the top, an interior cartouche, and a fob. There are also companion patterns for a small sampler for the underside of the lid and some stitcher’s accessories— Peggy had those too, and I “invested” in them also. All the companion patterns call for the same floss colors and linen as the main basket pattern, and I ordered enough for all the companion pieces as well, but in the end I decided against stitching the piece for the underside of the lid since it calls for over-1 stitching on the 40 ct linen, and that’s just too small for me to enjoy. I will eventually stitch some of the accessories.

The stitching itself was really enjoyable, though. I love the colors of the silk flosses, and the pattern was easy to follow. I personalized the basket top and fob with my own initials, and purchased a personalized cartouche of my own initials from the designer.
My previous finishing experience was limited to framing and a couple of scissor fobs…I’ve never finished anything half this complicated before, but I really wanted to try it. I just took it step by step, and thankfully the finishing instructions included with the pattern were for the most part very clear. One thing I realized right away—my basket is a different size than the one the designer must have used for a model, so to fit my basket I very carefully had to make measurements for each piece of foam core board, batting, and lining fabric. But I have a ruler so that was not a problem. I will say it did help that I’ve been dabbling in making small art quilts and lunch bags for my kids lately—that’s really helped me get over my fear of fabric glues, interfacing, and cutting up pretty fabrics!

All in all, this was a super-satisfying project to stitch, as well as complete. I hope you enjoy the photos!
-Jessica

We do enjoy those photos, Jessica! Thank you for sharing your project story!

If you have a project you would like to share with our customers, just let me know!

Well, until next time…Stitch long and prosper!

As a child, I loved shadows. Shadow animals were fun to make in class while you were waiting for the projector to get fixed for yet another old out-of-date documentary on safety, biology or history. The shadow puppets that came to the fair every year, just fascinated me. And now, I have learned shadow embroidery.

Last Night, my good friend, Carmen, came to the shop to teach a class for the local Chapter of a history group we belong to. Though we, generally, stick to things prior to 1650AD, last night we got something a little more Victorian and had a very good time.

Now, Shadow work is very simple. You just need some very fine cotton or hanker chief weight linen and very bright colored threads to add the colorful glow under the fabric. Shadow work has a variety of uses, including quilt blocks, pillows, ornaments, clothing embellishment and a whole host of other ideas. The great thing is Shadow work is quick. In less than an hour, everyone in the class had finished their project and several were onto embellishing that with more shadow work. So, I urge everyone to give this a try.

For the leaf, I used a chenille needle with three strands of floss. You will need to make sure that you have a hoop for your work. Here is the basic diagram of the “reverse herringbone” or Shadow stitch:


As you can see the stitch looks basically like a herringbone stitch. Here is what my work looks like on the back:

So, now you know about shadow embroidery. This would be a great time of year to create some fun Halloween linens or ornaments, so here is a free pattern created for you to use:

Shadow Work Pumpkin Pattern

Have you tried punchneedle embroidery? I enjoy it. Punchneedle lets me just hang out and mindlessly punch. I can finish a punchneedle piece in a few hours rather than the 30 – 40 hours that a similar sized cross stitch or crewel piece might take. But punchneedle can, also, be incorporated into other techniques. Any time you need that extra bit of oomph to the wreath on a door or to fluff out a sheep or cat.

So, next time you are looking to try something new, check out our beginning punchneedle class.

I am having a great time stitching a stocking from the new booklet from Blackbird Designs. I really have to be careful though. I was up late last night watching a TV show on Hulu, while stitching (it is my peaceful time of the day). I got into such a groove that I had to go back and frog several stitches. Even with the frogging, I still managed to have quite a bit done by the time I headed off to bed!

Now, I am going to try and get better about blogging, so you guys have to let me know what you would like me to share with you.

Stitch long and prosper!

We are participating in this great promotion by Hoffman Distributing and Mosey & Me. Frank Bielec, of Mosey N Me designs, shows off his new Flaming Red Heart counted cross stitch design and tells how you can get it, the supplies needed to stitch it, and personalized how-to instructions absolutely free! (Hint: We got it!) Hear what Frank says!