Cow Parsley and Strawberry Shoes

No words today. Just a few more baby shoes.

Embroidery Pincushions

I have been saying for a few weeks that I was going to do a post on some hand embroidered pincushions I have been making.

This was my first attempt. I really like plants like cow parsley, or any plants that have a nice round seed head. I cut up a very old, partially felted, jumper to embroider on, but have decided shop bought felt may work out better. Although it doesn't really show in the photo it was a bit lumpy. The French knots is one of my favourite stitches, and have been thinking of other flowers that I could sew with knots.  

This is my version on shop bought felt. I wanted the cushions to have depth, but sewing a heart shape like this was much harder than I imagined.

Here are the bluebells that I showed before ...

And the final one is a dandelion clock. It has some clear beads sewn on too.

They have a few imperfections, so they are not heading for Etsy. I will keep them for a craft fair, as I feel more comfortable selling them in person.

My plan for the coming week is to get to grips with machine embroidery. My only previous attempt of a Butterfly I felt was too constrained. I enclosed everything with neat zigzags. I want to be able to paint with the thread, and it have that lovely free look. 

There are some blogs featuring machine embroidery that I really admire: one of the best is Sweet Birdy Love. The embroidery are works of art. I look at the beautiful work and think I'd just love to be able to make something half as nice. So I have a reel of machine embroidery thread, and am going to lower those feed dogs and just go for it.

Sorry about not commenting last week on Handmade Monday. We only got internet by sitting in one particular place in the garden in France.