A New Year, new plans

Another scrappy piece being stitched

I've been busily free machine stitching some more of the scraps. Not sure what these will become, but they would make useful little projects bags to give as gifts. This time I tried out my ideas as a doodle before starting stitching. I didn't draw anything out this time.

A doodle for the stitching design

The finished piece.

I didn't start off the year stitching this piece. I used a much smaller piece to "warm" up with first.

For some reason this one seems to have collected all the Christmassy fabrics. I see this one becoming the pocket on a bigger bag. I just need to search my stash for some suitable fabric.

 This week we had our Pinfold meeting. At our Christmas meeting we had been given a small collection of eleven fabrics to make a small Japanese Salt Bag. We didn't get instructions, so this one was made from a sketch I had drawn from the original shown at the meeting. I added iron on wadding to the outer fabric pieces so that it could stand up. Why eleven pieces? Well, five are needed to make the four sides and the base with another five for the lining. The last piece is cut up and used for the tabs which hold the string which is pulled to close the bag. The completed bag stands just five inches tall and will make a lovely project bag for something small. Sweet.

The next pages were completed for the Pinfold Book Challenge. The theme this time was "The Rustic Farmyard". The pieces I made were based on the following two photos I took recently.

I love traditional methods of making fencing. This one is hedge laying. The idea is to cut through part of the base trunk of each young plant and wrap these round upright posts. The hedging plants (usually Hawthorn) are not damaged by this. The resulting hedge is really dense and stops sheep or other animals pushing their way through. In the spring the Hawthorn will throw out plenty of leaves and new shoots which will also be woven in later in the year. This sort of hedge gets thicker and stronger each year. Sadly, fewer hedges are grown like this since it is quite time consuming.

Free machine embroidery on my own dyed fabric.

This next piece was handstitched onto a piece of dyed scrim (bought before I had tried dyeing), and a piece of my own tea dyed fabric. It is based on this photograph. I find it fascinating that farmers do not waste old items, but incorporate them into a barbed wire fence. This looks to have been an old gate post with part of the original gate still in place. This field currently holds a flock of sheep.

I'm back knitting again. A cardigan again. This is the yarn I bought from the Knitting and Stitching Show. It feels lovely. I have completed the back and am now working my way up the right front ready to start the neck shaping.

The knitting pattern for my cardigan.

I showed a photo last time of this needlecase being started. It was a secret santa gift for the Pinfold Christmas party. It has a little felt needlecase within the pyramid with ribbons to fasten a pair of scissors and tape measure. 

It is made out of my own felt with some thin bought felt for the lining. In between the layers is some pelmet vilene to make it stiff. I couched the edges with piping cord.

The finished needlecase 

This year, I plan to try to organise my dressmaking projects. With this in mind, I have signed up for the Colette "Design Your Own Wardrobe" course. This will last four weeks and starts next month. I got to hear about the course since I subscribe to the Seamwork magazine published by Colette. This is a digital magazine for sewers and I really enjoy reading it each month.

Other plans? Well, I have started a quilt ready for the NWCQ meeting later this month. It is the one based on maps which I have mentioned before. I have two more quilts in the planning stage and will post photos once these are started. I am also taking part in the Scania Shawl Knitalong organised by "Off Our Needles", a Craftsy video podcast.