back to stitching

These two towels are gifts for friends. They are Aunt Martha's iron on designs from Jo-Ann's and they worked wonderfully and washed out completely. Both are stitched with floche, a fiber I love to use. The majority of the designs are done in stem stitch with some straight stitches, French knots, and lazy daisies thrown in.

I had a baggie of floche in my stash that I'd either purchased or won. It was a set of colors with two greens, red, two oranges, yellow and beige. I have no idea where or when I acquired it but it was perfect for these designs. I used all of the colors except for the beige.

I have two more towels with designs ironed on ready to go. One is in this vegetable series: green beans. I think I'm going to use floss for it, perhaps an overdyed green. The other is a blue-and-white striped towel. A teapot design is on it. At first I was going to stitch the pot, ignoring the stripes, but the design transfer is the same color as the stripe and I've been debating stitching the design only on the white stripes, leaving the blue stripes blank--so it looks like the teapot is peeping out from behind. It's set aside while I think about it.I began a new project from my stash last weekend. The three crewel kits below are from Australia and by Lorraine's on Capri (they don't have a website). The colors are bad on these scans of the photos that came with the pieces. I began this pincushion over the weekend and am about halfway done. (I'm staying up way to late at night to stitch!) The background is greenish and the central flower is bright pink. The red stem and yellow leaves are the only colors close to what they should be. Once it's done I'll get better pics.These next two projects are ready to go. The colors on the needlebook are closer to those in the magazine and kit. These are unusual colors for crewel projects and are what had me interested in them. This project was featured in Australian Embroidery and Cross Stitch magazine a few years ago. (You can see some of the issues here atErica's.) They're stitched on hand-dyed doctor's flannel with Appleton wools. The wool fabrics in the kit aren't as mottled as those in the magazine and the photos. I love the concept, but I'll have to dye my own. The scissors case below is more traditional. The kit includes the strawberry fob. All of the designs are finished with cording made from silk threads included in the kits. I've been keeping track of the projects I completed this year over on Flickr, in Finished in 2009. It's a new way for me to keep a record and I like it. I've found out I can import the images to Snapfish and make them up into a little book. I may need to do that!