Miniature needlepoint for you to drool over!

Dorthe lives in Denmark, and has been a customer of my dollshouse scale needlepoint kits for many years. She often sends me pictures of her stitching progress. Here’s her latest offering, which is just gorgeous:

This little garden room has this ‘Prudence’ carpet centre stage, surrounded by 1:12 potted plants and cane furniture:

This is a room setting picture that I took a few years ago, of the same design, that I stitched when I first designed it (I always stitch one to make sure that the design ‘works’, and to check how much wool is needed for the kit packet).

This ‘Prudence’ rug design in 1:12 scale is available as a kit for £19.95 from my website. The kit has everything you need to make this dollhouse scale carpet  – 18 count canvas, Appleton’s crewel wool, a tapestry needle, colour block chart to count the design from (the design isn’t printed on the canvas), fine thread for the fringe, and detailed instructions. It measures 6 1/4 x 4 1/2 inches when finished. I based the design on a William Morris carpet that I saw in the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow a few years ago. The miniature needlepoint kit would make a great gift for someone who loves the miniatures hobby (whether that’s a friend, or yourself!).

I always love seeing what my customers have stitched, so if you have any pictures of the stitching you have done for your dollhouse, please send me .jpg images to janet@janetgranger.co.uk, and I could well feature them here!

There is also a section on my website where I showcase customers’ stitching, if you’d like to see more inspirational pictures of mini rooms.

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Are you interested in doll’s houses and stitching? Then why not visit my website, where you can buy doll’s house needlepoint kits to make all kinds of soft furnishings for one-twelfth scale dollhouses. There are over 280 kits to choose from, plus chart packs, fabric project packs, tutorials, and lots of eye candy to inspire you! Kits are available on 18 and 22 count canvas, 28 and 32 count evenweave, and 32 and 40 count silk gauze, so there’s something for everyone – from beginners to experts.

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Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui 21: Stitching for the inner pockets

I am currently stitching the Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui as a stitchalong project. I’m just beginning the stitching for the inner pockets and smalls for this project now. See the end of this post for all the information you’ll need to join in!

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Now that the outer heart shape of the etui itself is completed, I’ve started stitching the inner pockets for the sewing tools. Each one is stitched in a similar manner.

This is one of the pockets close up – the little pink flower, stems and leaves are stitched in a similar way to the front panel of the etui, so refer back to the blog post about the front panel for detailed descriptions of how to do the relevant stitches. These didn’t take long to do, but, as I mentioned before, I think the leaf shapes in particular are very small for the detailed stitches that are supposed to fit in the spaces! If I wasn’t doing this for a stitchalong, and trying to follow the Inspirations magazines instructions as far as possible, I think I’d have done the leaves in Satin Stitch – partly to make them easier to do, but mainly to make them stand out more. I think that doing them with fiddly filling stitches doesn’t really work. These leaves are filled with Vandyke Stitch, but you can hardly see that that is the stitch that’s been used, as these leaves are barely a centimetre long. As before, the stems are worked in Chain Stitch and then whipped with a contrasting thread. The pink flower is stitched with Buttonhole stitch, then outlined with Coral Stitch, all using one strand of Anchor.

I’m working these pockets and smalls all on one piece of fabric, using a 12 inch hoop, which means that I can work similar design pieces in one go without having to re-thread my needle. It also means I use far less fabric, as I don’t need to allow space around each piece to hoop them up separately. As long as I leave at least half an inch of fabric between each element, I’ll be able to stitch them all and then cut them apart later, still leaving a quarter of an inch seam allowance for each one.

I’m starting to think about what items I’ll put in the pockets, when the etui is finished. Of course, I’ll be using one of the pockets for the very elusive mother of pearl ruler, that was almost impossible to buy, until I received a tip-off from one of this blog’s readers (thanks, Jeanette!!).

I’ve had a really cute, solid silver needle holder tube for about thirty years, which I might put in one of the smaller pockets. I’ve also got a wooden half cone stick for making stumpwork flowers  such as foxgloves, which would fit as well. I also came across some lovely vintage mother of pearl ‘gaming chips’ on Ebay, so I’m planning to use one as a thread-winder for one of the pockets. They are very finely carved, and quite delicate. There are loads of these on Ebay, with many different designs. Each one costs about £10 though, so they’re not cheap, but they’re very pretty, and continue the mother of pearl theme.

Now I’m moving on to stitching the heart-shaped pockets for the scissors and bodkin…..

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~~~INFORMATION~~~

The Strawberry Fayre design, plus the complete list of materials, appears in Inspirations magazine number 95. The publishers do sell a full materials pack  (not including the mother of pearl ruler though!), but it’s rather expensive, so if you can use your stash, and just fill in with bits and pieces, then so much the better! The magazine is published in Australia – if you live in the UK, as I do, it is cheaper to buy a back copy from Manor House Magazines, and save a lot on the shipping. 

EDIT: The materials pack from Inspirations, and the magazine from Manor House in the UK are not available any more as at March 2018 – I don’t know if any more stocks will be available now, unfortunately. The publishers may bring out a digital pattern pack later, which they sometimes do with popular projects from their magazines, but we’ll have to wait and see…..

To read about this project stitchalong from the beginning, start here. The post about which FABRIC to use is here. The post about the THREAD SUBSTITUTIONS that I made, plus WHERE TO BUY the threads and beads, etc., is here.

To look up all the posts in this series in the sidebar, see under the CATEGORIES list, under: Embroidery / Full size (others’ designs) / Strawberry Fayre heart etui, or use the SEARCH BOX at the top of the blog, and search for ‘Strawberry Fayre’ to get a list of all the posts (but it’s in reverse order, sorry!).

I’d be interested to see images of how your project is progressing – please email large, clear, well-focused images to mail@janetgranger.co.uk  Please bear in mind that any images sent may be used in this blog and/or social media such as Facebook or Pinterest.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Are you interested in doll’s houses and stitching? Then why not visit my website, where you can buy doll’s house needlepoint kits to make all kinds of soft furnishings for one-twelfth scale dollhouses. There are over 280 kits to choose from, plus chart packs, fabric project packs, tutorials, and lots of eye candy to inspire you! Kits are available on 18 and 22 count canvas, 28 and 32 count evenweave, and 32 and 40 count silk gauze, so there’s something for everyone – from beginners to experts.

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Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui 20: the inner heart panels

I am currently stitching the Carolyn Pearce Strawberry Fayre heart etui as a stitchalong project. This week, I am stitching the inner heart panels (there are four of them, all the same). See the end of this post for all the information you’ll need to join in!

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I thought when I started to stitch these inner heart panels for the etui that they wouldn’t take long. Ha ha! Stitching the same thing four times over does actually take a while….and it’s not all that interesting at times, either, to be doing the same motifs over and over.

Here’s the pattern that needs stitching four times:

As before, the drawn lines for the leaves and the berry placements look the same on the pullout sheet from the magazine, so I had to bear in mind that some of those ‘teardrop’ shapes would be berries, not leaves.

The actual stitching of the stems, leaves, and flowers, is done using the same stitches and threads as on the front and back panels, so the instructions in Inspirations issue 95 are quite brief for these inner heart panels – they just say things like ‘stitch the leaves as on the front panel’. This meant I was having to flip backwards and forwards through the magazine a lot, which became annoying. So, in the end, I spent ten minutes writing out ONE definitive list of the stitches and threads needed for each element. Then I could put the magazine away, and just refer to my own notes, which I found to be much less fiddly  🙂

I’ll briefly go through the order that I stitched each section – if you need more information about how to do these stitches, see the blog posts about the Front Panel, as I give more details when a stitch is first used each time.

This stem is done in chain stitch, as before, but looks much better once it’s been highlighted with the Whip Stitch and the Stem Stitch highlighting top and bottom.

Like this:

These little flowers don’t take long, and are very cute:

Instead of doing three types of filling stitches on these small leaves, I decided to do all three in Vandyke Stitch, as they are so small you can hardly see the filling pattern once they are completed.

The other set of three leaves was done as per the instructions, using Tied Wheatear Stitch.

My berries are improving, gradually….here is the felt padding in place:

And here is the berry with the completed Beaded Oyster Stitch. I’ve found that the best way to fill the area is to do the five stitches down the centre of the berry, and then ‘flood fill’ with more stitches up from the base to the top, doing both sides at once rather than left side then right side.

The Needlewoven Picots for sepals complete the berries:

Finally, I made the beaded forget-me-nots in two shades of blue:

This is how one panel looks, when completed. The lower part of each heart shape will be covered with the attached pockets for the smalls.

Here are all four panels, with their stitching completed:

They do look good, now they’re done, but it hasn’t been my favourite part of this project. It’s taken longer than I anticipated, and the repetition is getting boring! But my berries have definitely improved  🙂

~~~~~~~~~~~~~  ***  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~INFORMATION~~~

The Strawberry Fayre design, plus the complete list of materials, appears in Inspirations magazine number 95. The publishers do sell a full materials pack  (not including the mother of pearl ruler though!), but it’s rather expensive, so if you can use your stash, and just fill in with bits and pieces, then so much the better! The magazine is published in Australia – if you live in the UK, as I do, it is cheaper to buy a back copy from Manor House Magazines, and save a lot on the shipping. 

EDIT: The materials pack from Inspirations, and the magazine from Manor House in the UK are not available any more as at March 2018 – I don’t know if any more stocks will be available now, unfortunately. The publishers may bring out a digital pattern pack later, which they sometimes do with popular projects from their magazines, but we’ll have to wait and see…..

To read about this project stitchalong from the beginning, start here. The post about which FABRIC to use is here. The post about the THREAD SUBSTITUTIONS that I made, plus WHERE TO BUY the threads and beads, etc., is here.

To look up all the posts in this series in the sidebar, see under the CATEGORIES list, under: Embroidery / Full size (others’ designs) / Strawberry Fayre heart etui, or use the SEARCH BOX at the top of the blog, and search for ‘Strawberry Fayre’ to get a list of all the posts (but it’s in reverse order, sorry!).

I’d be interested to see images of how your project is progressing – please email large, clear, well-focused images to mail@janetgranger.co.uk  Please bear in mind that any images sent may be used in this blog and/or social media such as Facebook or Pinterest.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Are you interested in doll’s houses and stitching? Then why not visit my website, where you can buy doll’s house needlepoint kits to make all kinds of soft furnishings for one-twelfth scale dollhouses. There are over 280 kits to choose from, plus chart packs, fabric project packs, tutorials, and lots of eye candy to inspire you! Kits are available on 18 and 22 count canvas, 28 and 32 count evenweave, and 32 and 40 count silk gauze, so there’s something for everyone – from beginners to experts.

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Book review: A Flower Alphabet by Elisabetta Sforza

I’ve been collecting embroidery books for over 40 years. Once in a while, a really good one comes along, but not very often, these days. But this week I’m going to do a book review of a really fantastic book called ‘A Flower Alphabet’, by Elisabetta Sforza. This is one embroidery book that you’ve really just got to have!!

If you have ever seen the book ‘Embroidery for all Seasons’ by Diana Lampe (published by Milner Craft in 2006), you might recognise Elisabetta’s style – she has taken Diana’s little floral motifs (with Diana’s permission), and really made them into something very different. This book is the result of many many hours of stitching, where Elisabetta has created all the letters of the alphabet in this gorgeous floral look, in so many pretty colourways that you just don’t know which one to stitch first.

(If the floral letters seem familiar, that might be because Elisabetta had an article published in Inspirations magazine in 2016, in issue 89, so if you’ve got that issue, dig it out and see what I mean about how lovely her embroidery is!)

I first heard about her book when Mary Corbet reviewed it on her Needle ‘n Thread website. Elisabetta is Italian, so Mary recommended that people in Europe contacted Elisabetta direct to purchase the book. But when I did, she said that she didn’t actually sell the book herself outside of Italy, but that it was available from Tombolo Disegni – if you’ve never visited this website (and I hadn’t), it is an amazing site, full of the most wonderful needlework threads, tools, and books.

So, I was able to order this book through them, and indulge myself a bit with some of the other things that they sold, at the same time.

You need to be aware if you’re buying from the UK, though, that shipping from italy to the UK is VERY EXPENSIVE!! It cost me 24 euros for the book, and 19 euros for the shipping. But it was worth it…..

The book is A4 sized, softback, and has 68 pages. The text is in Italian and English throughout, which is very helpful for people like me who know absolutely no Italian! The photos are gorgeous. There’s several pages explaining the stitches that Elisabetta uses to create the floral letters, general instructions, information about the threads used (mainly DMC using two strands), how to stitch particular types of flowers, and details of the two sizes of alphabet that the designs come in.

Throughout the book, each double page spread has a different overall colourway, with various letters shown in close up.

I love this blue and green colourway!

The book is very inspirational, with many images of the letters used on various household items. There are close-up photos showing how different fabrics affect the way the finished embroideries would look, too.

As well as being suitable for embroidery stitches, the floral alphabet letters can be stitched in beads, whitework, and even ribbon embroidery. Isn’t this one lovely?

The last few pages of the book have line drawings of all the letters of the alphabet for you to trace off and use, in two sizes (11cm high, and 7cm high), although I reckon a tiny version about 3cm high would look good, if you stitched it in one strand of thread – but that’s just me, miniaturising everything! There are also a few shapes such as hearts done in the floral style, for more options.

This book is so unusual, that even if you never get round to stitching anything from it, it would just be good to look at. But I am already planning what I can make from it, in several colourways, types of thread, and different sizes. It’s that kind of book  🙂

Title: A Flower Alphabet by Elisabetta Sforza.

Published: October 2017.

24 euros from Tombolo Disegni in Italy.

Elisabetta’s blog is at:  elisabettaricami.blogspot.com and is well worth a visit.

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Are you interested in doll’s houses and stitching? Then why not visit my website, where you can buy doll’s house needlepoint kits to make all kinds of soft furnishings for one-twelfth scale dollhouses. There are over 280 kits to choose from, plus chart packs, fabric project packs, tutorials, and lots of eye candy to inspire you! Kits are available on 18 and 22 count canvas, 28 and 32 count evenweave, and 32 and 40 count silk gauze, so there’s something for everyone – from beginners to experts.

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