Projects

Patterns

Most of these are designed for cross stitch.

Blue Bunny This could be stitched on almost anything.

Doves I originally created this dove for bookmarks that were going to be wedding favors at JL and Rob's Wedding. They were designed to be stitched with white thread on a colored background.

Texture Book

My grandmother is in her 90s. I was able to visit her Summer of '98 when Dan and I made a 3 week trip around the USA visiting friends and family before leaving for Europe. She doesn't remember much and doesn't see very well now. I wanted to send her something to stimulate her. I finally thought of making a book of textures, a cloth book that she could stroke and feel, a talisman perhaps. Before putting all our things in storage in Pittsburgh I selected a few different pieces of fabric from my sewing trunk and took them with us to England.

The fabrics were:
• a steel blue felt,
• purple (thick soft, cuddly) polar fleece,
• mushroom colored (stiff, smooth) linen,
• (soft) pink gingham flannel,
• (rough, scratchy) jute burlap,
• (smooth) plain weave cotton print,
• dark blue (bumpy) flocked swiss dot,
• and plastic coated (slick, sticky, shiney) floral print oil cloth.

While getting settled in England I sorted the fabrics and trimmed them to similar sizes. I appliqued a piece of punch embroidery which I had made a few years earlier to the felt.

I ran gather stitches in rows at regular intervalls on the flannel using the gingham check as a guide. I left these loose so the pleats/folds are free to slide back and forth. This gives a potential for change and fiddling with.

I used my printer to print a picture of my grandmother as a girl onto transfer paper which I then ironed onto the piece of linen.

I hemed the fabrics which needed it and sewed all of them together by hand. For hemming I used a Straight sewing stitch on the flannel, swiss dot, and cotton print. I used a Blanket stitch on the linen and a Hem stitch on the jute burlap. The felt, polar fleece, and oil cloth did not need hemming.

I bound the book with a piece of plain weave yellow gingham, which I signed and dated using a permanent pen. To add a more personal message, I used a black cord tacked down to the inside of the felt cover with Couching stitch. I intentionaly used a contrasting thread, (white) to give a look of twisted thread. This stitch, in particular combined with cord, gives a wonderfully raised texture.

Showing Off

Click

This is 'The Windermere Angel, 1990' by MarBek designer, Becky Waldrop. I stitched this from a kit in 1996. When I was finished I bought some pink moire fabric, peiced it together to match the mat shown in the original illustration, and turned it into a pillow.

Current

I'm currently working on a kit designed by Teresa Wentzler, Peacock Tapestry. I only work on it occasionaly however, and so even though I recieved the kit Christmas of '95 or '96 I'm still not even finished with the border.