out of season

I've been in my sewing room a bit lately. First, to sew up PJ's for my boy, and then later, his robe. (Neither of which were photographed before being sent off. Bummer.) At any rate, having to do those projects got me back into the swing of things where sewing was concerned, and I'm so glad.

Last night, while watching a little Netflix and putting blanket binding on the fleece blanket and pillow case for my missionary boy, I found myself with more time left of the show I was watching, and nothing left to do on the project. I could have turned it off, gone to bed, and finished the show on my Kindle Fire, but, there I was, surrounded by unfinished projects, so I stayed.

Floating near the surface of those unfinished projects was a little Halloween pillow cover I'd not quite managed to finish last fall. I'd done all the stitching, and put on the borders, even chosen the backing. Where I got stalled was in how to finish the pillow. I reasoned that it was going to be easier to store a pillow cover than a whole pillow, so I wanted to be able to remove it when the seasons changed. But how best to do that?

My backing piece was slightly longer than it needed to be, so I'd pretty much settled on some sort of overlapped opening in the back, perhaps tied with ribbons. Good idea, and something I'd done before, but I wanted just exactly the right finishing on the outer edge, and the right ribbon to tie it with. Hence the stalling.

While mulling it over last night, my eyes lit on the exact right color of bias binding, and then a bit of ribbon, just a scrap really, that I thought would do.

Twenty minutes later, I had this:

(in retrospect, I think the ribbons should be a bit closer to center)

And I was done!

I know it's totally off-season, and I'll have to put it away until October. But it's finished, it's no longer taking up space in the sewing room, and I have a cute seasonal pillow cover!

The embroidery pattern is something I've made before, for a friend, and then stitched up for myself later. (Can't find it online at the moment, or I'd link to the designer/source - will update if I find it.)

I like to use a travel size pillow insert for decorative pillows like this. Easy to find at just about any fabric store, and very handy.

For the back, my piece happened to be about 3" too long, so I folded it in thirds, creased it, and cut off one third for the top portion. (I could have cut it in half, but I like thirds.) I then serged the upper edge of the bottom portion, just to make it so I didn't have to worry about fraying (it won't be seen), and bound the lower edge of the top portion with double fold extra wide bias tape. I used a sort of peach/coral color that I thought blended nicely with the Halloween colors on the front.

I overlapped the two back pieces, bias-bound edge on top, making the total finished length to match the front piece, and stitched the overlapped portions together at the outer edges.

Then I took the ribbon, a sheer ivory ribbon, about 1 1/2" wide and, at a guess, about a yard long (it was a scrap, likely from a package someone had given me, and I didn't measure it before I cut it up for this project), and cut it into four equal pieces, each piece being cut straight at one end and slanted at the other. I positioned them on the right side of the pillow back, two pieces to be sewn to the underside of the bound edge, the other two sewn just below these, on the lower portion of the backing.

After stitching them in place, I put the backing right sides together with the front, stitched around the whole outer edge using 1/4" seams, clipped my corners, and turned it right side out.

Slip in the pillow, tie the bows, and there you have it. Cute from either side, and ready for fall. Plus, I can use the pillow for other seasonal covers, and I can wash the cover easily - just untie the bows, slip it off, and it's ready.

Now I just need to hunt up a cute patriotic design that fits the pillow dimensions, and get that stitched up in time for the 4th.

All My Chickens, Week 33, Grandma Chicken

In honor of Grandparents Day (which was yesterday), I selected this sweet little embroidery pattern depicting a (grand)motherly hen and a little chick.

I'm thinking pastels, for some reason. Perhaps on a dresser scarf.

Chicken Scratch

I was finally able to complete this project, after I'd finished the Time Socks, while riding in the car and later, listening to stories.

It was a trifle boring, to tell the truth.

Also, the instructions? Not so good.

It occurred to me, about halfway through the second heart, that I'd seen it done some other way than row-by-row. I wasn't at home, so I couldn't reference my imagined source, but I was fairly certain that it could be done as a more whole-area sort of thing.

I meant to take pictures of this in progress, but the camera didn't seem to be to hand when I needed it, so I'll just have to try to describe what I did.

First, you'll work the border of the design in the second color. Work the Smyrna stitches either one-at-a-time or in rows, depending on your outline/area.

Switch to the main color. Now, instead of working the cross-stitch portions of the Smyrna stitch in a row, like you would in cross-stitch, work on the diagonal, and do the first half of the stitch throughout the entire piece, working it more like a running stitch, going from corner to corner of the gingham.

Then, complete the other half of the cross-stitch in a similar manner, working in the opposite diagonal.

Work side to side in running stitch on every row to complete the horizontal stitches, then top to bottom (or the other way 'round) to complete the vertical stitches.

The last step, where you run the threads under the horizontal and vertical stitches to make a circle, is done one circle at a time.

The back looks much neater when done this way, I think.

on the left, continuous stitching
on the right, done row-by-row

Bluework Hen

I worked up the Blue Hen Chicken pretty much the same as the redwork version - enlarged to 200%, same fabric, using DMC 825. I'm noticing here that maybe it's a little crooked. Oops. I'll tweak it when I sew it up.

I'll be putting the two together into a pillow. Soon.

Redwork Rooster

I got a little delayed as to working this one. What can I say? Busy work month, combined with spontaneous road-trip, and there you have it.

I used 3 strands of DMC 816, stitched entirely in back-stitch. I can't recall the name of the fabric I used - I got it at Corn Wagon Quilts a while back. It's sorta popular for rustic embroidery, I think.

When doing this sort of work, I generally trace the pattern onto the fabric using a light box and a pencil or pen. Sometimes, if the fabric is thin enough, you don't need a light box. This fabric is thicker, so it's necessary.
I enlarged the pattern 200% to get a chicken measuring about 6 1/2" tall by 4 1/2" wide, and I cut the fabric about 8 x 6 to give me something to work with when I sew it up later.

All My Chickens, Week 25, Blue Hen Chicken

The second part of our two-part project, from the same source as last week.

Martha's State Bird Embroidery Patterns, this time, the Blue Hen Chicken (Delaware).

I'm doing this one in blue. Which makes it bluework, right?

Make sure you do yours the same size as last week, whatever that is. Next week we'll put them together (which, I guess, makes this more of a 3-part project) into a fun little accent pillow. Or not so little, depending on how big you decided to make your bird. Either way, it will work, and it will be cute.

*pic of my own creation added after-the-fact*

All My Chickens, Week 24, Rhode Island Red

This week and next are a two-part project. I thought it might be cool to make a pillow using the two different chickens from Martha's State Bird Embroidery Patterns. (from this link, click on "old fashioned line drawings")

This week, we'll do the Rhode Island Red chicken (uh, Rhode Island, of course)

in redwork (which just means embroidery in only one color, red, using whatever stitches you need to complete the work, mostly back-stitch, chain stitch, or other outline stitch of choice).

The download has all the state birds, so print what you need, and re-size if you want. I'm excited.

*pic of my own creation added after-the-fact*

All My Chickens, Week 22, "Be Proud" Rooster

Back to stitching again, and another free pattern from Palette Primitives, Be Proud Rooster pillow.

Saluting the Rooster

The week got away from me last week, and somehow, though I had everything to hand, I didn't get to this cute little rooster until Monday of this week.
When I did finally pull everything together in one spot, this took me maybe an hour to stitch up.

In the interest of full disclosure, the yellow/gold color I used here isn't the one they specified. It's 783 instead of 782, because that's what was in my box of floss. I know I have the required color, somewhere. Most likely involved in another project. I just wasn't going to go out and hunt it down, wasting valuable creative time, when you won't really know the difference. If I hadn't had one very close to it, I might have felt differently, but I was lucky, so I just forged ahead with what I had.

Now, a word about needles. See on the right side of the rooster, where my stitching is all wonky? That was me, trying to make do with a tapestry needle. Tapestry needles are not sharp, they have a smooth rounded point because they are meant for use with needlepoint and cross-stitch fabrics, which have a loose, open weave. But to do this sort of stitching, you need a pointy end just to get through the layer of batting. When that length of thread ran out, I reached into a pouch full of needles that I had handy (less than a foot away, if you must know) and searched out a sharp embroidery needle to finish the rest of it. See how smooth that line is along the left side? That's what using the right tools does for you. Lesson learned.

Decided after I'd stitched it that I wasn't very likely to wear it if I made it into a pin, being not terribly much into wearing pins on a regular basis.

Frame is from the dollar store, which I only know now because the stickers were still attached to it when I pulled it from the frame stash. I think it gives it a decidedly "oval office" feel, don't you?

All My Chickens, Week 16, Americana Rooster!

Seeing as Armed Forces Day is coming up at the end of the week, I thought it was a good time to start in on patriotic chickens.

From Palette Primitives free pattern blog, selected for it's diminutive size, and cuteness factor, the Americana Rooster Pin.

*pic of my own stitchery added after-the-fact*

All My Chickens, Week 2, Chicken Scratch Heart

In preparation for Valentines Day next Monday, I figured this was a good time to touch on this related-in-name-only craft.

Chicken Scratch is sort of like cross-stitch, but you stitch on gingham, not Aida cloth, using a few basic stitches.

Our chosen pattern, buried at the tail-end of a general how-to from About(dot)com, happens to be a heart, hence the Valentine-theme connection. (You'll want the how-to as well, though, unless you're already conversant with chicken-scratch.)

Do with it what you will - frame it, make a pillow, or stitch in the corner of an apron. Just make sure you've accurately counted your squares and given yourself enough room to stitch before cutting into anything.

*pic of my own creation added after-the-fact*