Completed Fabric Bowl #2

 Whew - I did it!  Finished my fabric bowl in time to wrap up, pack and take with us as I'm leaving today on a holiday and am giving this away as a gift. It didn't take as long as I thought to mitre the corners, hand stitch a cloth backing on, pinch and sew the sides to form the bowl.  I already want to make another one to give away as a gift. 

 Here are the two fabric bowls I've made so far.  The square canvas piece can also be sewn to form a scissor case & I'd like to try that too sometime.

 Here's a picture of my Mom plopping tomato plants into the holes she made with a hoe. We start all of our tomato plants ourselves and it was high time they were put out.

It's a good thing my Mom likes her coffee as she saves all the coffee tins to put around the tomato plants when we first set them out.  As the prairie winds can be fairly fierce at times the cans offer them protection until they get a bit bigger and then we stake them all. Broccoli plants are under the cages in case you're wondering which protect the plants from cabbage butterflies.

Canvas work progress

 Now that the garden and flower beds are all in, last night I was able to complete the fun stitching part of my blue and white canvas work fabric bowl.  Now I have to do the not so fun and finicky finishing up part and try to make it into a bowl.  It's my 2nd one so at least now I know what I'm supposed to do.

 It was such a beautiful day yesterday I had lunch outside with a couple colleagues from work.  I'm in the pink t-shirt. It was great to get some fresh air and sunshine and a nice break from my cubicle :)

Buffalo Beans!!!  Love seeing these wild flowers dotting the hillsides and ditches. They're also known as Golden Beans or False Lupines but I grew up knowing them as Buffalo Beans. The story goes that they got this name because when they start blooming, First Nation Peoples knew it was time for the spring hunt of the buffalo bulls.

Canvas work fabric bowl #2

I so enjoyed stitching and the look of the first canvas work fabric bowl I made that I knew I had to make another one as a gift.  I have a fair bit of blue and white Perle cotton #5 thread so I decided to use some up but we're leaving for Alberta in 8 days.  Will I be able to get it done in time plus get 80+ tomato plants and all the other bedding plants in the garden plus keep up with TAST and go to work every day of course? Well, I'll try my best and try not to stress about it all.

Canvas work fabric bowl

Yeah!  Finished my fabric bowl this morning.  I had to figure out how to pinch and stitch the sides to form it into a bowl.  I'm absolutely thrilled with how it turned out and love the colours.  A few weeks ago I took a 3 hour canvas work class taught by one of the members of our stitchery guild here in Regina and this is her own design which she made into kits for all of us who took the class.  She even offered the class free of charge!  I'd love to make another one right away but I have a biscornu to finish and I also need to work on my mystery sampler.

Canvas work

A couple of weeks ago I took a 3 hour canvas work class through our local stitchery guild.  One of our talented members designed this wonderful pattern to work up into either a scissor case or a small bowl. I'm on the last row and plan to work it into a bowl if I can.  Issue 74 of the magazine Stitch with the Embroiderer's Guild has full instructions for making a stitched bowl.

Coral Hapsburg Lace Canvaswork

 Finished my canvas piece which was either going to be a scissor case or cellphone holder. My mom suggested that it would look nice as a wall hanging & voila that is what it has become.

 Don't think I've ever made so many french knots before but it certainly gives this a nice lacy kind of effect.

I like this so much as a wall hanging that I'm going to make another one but in different colours.  I certainly have enough canvas, thread, ribbon & beads.  I have enough time that I could even make one for a Christmas gift! Before I start another one though I'm going to try my hand at tatting with my sweet turtle shuttle from Diane :)

Holiday stitching

Today I am enjoying our Saskatchewan Day civic holiday.  Reading, stitching & napping are on my to do list. After making 3 cupcake ATC's, I'm back to my canvaswork piece.  The original design makes this into a scissor or cellphone case. I'm really not in need of either & my mom suggested that she'd rather see this hanging on the wall so perhaps that's what I'll do.  I'm just in the last stage of stitching down the ribbon & then I have to put a backing on it.

Melting While Stitching

It's so incredibly hot outside & we don't have A/C so I'm definitely not in top form on getting much stitching done the past few days. I am making progress though but still haven't decided on what beads to use in the centre of all the eyelets.  I also wish now that I had used variegated thread but perhaps if I make another.  We'll see.

Lacey Look

I'm using #8 DMC Perle Cotton thread #"s 352 & 353 colours that I have in my thread stash.  I'm really pleased with how the double cross-stitch, eyelets, lazy daisy stitches & french knots are looking. Beads will eventually go in the middle of each of the eyelets & that will set it off nicely.

Scissor/Cellphone case

 A friend from the Regina Stitchery Guild stitched this Tanja Berlin pattern up & it looked so nice that I thought I'd like to try making one myself. 

 I purchased 18 count canvas (don't remember what this colour is called) & I have lots of peachy coloured pearl cotton that I thought would look good.

Pleased with the results so far & it's a nice change from cross-stitch & hardanger.

Blue & White Pillow

I have a penchant for blue & white & when I came across this lovely Glorafilia book at the library I knew I had to make this pattern.  I was eager to finish it so I knuckled down & a couple short months later, voila!!  My mom had some blue velvety material for the backing & she was kind enough (& much better at sewing than I am), so she finished it off for me.  I love my blue & white flower bouquet pillow & it looks wonderful on the top of the couch :)

Humbug 2

And this is my completed humbug with a small bell inside.

Humbug 2

I do enjoy small projects for that wonderful sense of accomplishment they bring.  After finishing my first humbug a couple weeks ago & having plenty of canvas & thread I quickly stitched up another.  This is what it looks like before being sewn together on 3 sides.

Humbug

The program at our last stitchery guild meeting was in learning how to make a humbug.  We were each given a small piece of canvas & instructions & this is my finished piece.  It could become a scissor fob or an ornament to hang somewhere.  Not sure where it's going to go yet but I'm going to make another one right away using variegated blue threads.