Flowers for Elizabeth embroidered sweet bag: 4 – stitching the stems and tendrils

This is the ‘Flowers for Elizabeth sweet bag project that I am currently making, from a design in Issue 51 of Inspirations magazine. This week, I am stitching the stems and tendrils.

There are several little curly tendrils, and each one is stitched in Chain Stitch with two strands of Anchor stranded cotton.

They look OK just in varying shades of green……

But they look an awful lot better when the chain stitches have been whipped with Petite Treasure Braid in gold (shade 002).

Next, I’ll be stitching the strawberries. I love stitching strawberries!

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

 

Dollhouse needlepoint kit sale on teacosies and traycloths is on all this week!

Do you want to save money on a cute dollhouse needlepoint kit?

I’m having a sale this week of all the 1:12 scale teacosy kits and traycloth kits on my website – they all have 10% off when you use the code TEACOSY&TRAYCLOTH10   at the checkout.

So take a look at the teacosy kits and traycloth kits sections of my website, and stitch a little something to make your dollhouse look great. Both types of kit are to be stitched on 32 count silk gauze, and the traycloth kits contain the mahogany pieces to make the tray itself. You may also like to add a Mahogany Finishing Pack to your traycloth kit order to polish the wood with when you’ve completed your kit.

Sale prices are 13.45 GBP for the teacosy kits, and 11.65 GBP for the traycloth kits. Mahogany Finishing Packs are 5.50 GBP, and give you enough wax to finish several kits.

These great kits give you hours of fun     Here’s a selection from the range:

 

 

I decided to do this offer this week after being contacted by a customer who had a bit of a problem….her puppy had eaten the corner of her teacosy chart!! I thought it was really funny that the design her puppy chose to eat had a cat on it 🙂 I emailed her a replacement chart in the end, so that she could continue with her stitching…..

So, while thinking of how to help her, I thought I’d offer everyone a little discount on both the teacosy and traycloth kits for a few days!

 

If you are looking for other types of mini stitching kits for your dollhouse,
I have lots of other kinds of kit in my shop:

Carpets  ~~~ Staircarpets ~~~ Cushions ~~~ Bellpulls ~~~ Samplers

Wallhangings ~~~ Dining chairs ~~~ Needlework stands

Rectangular footstools ~~~ Firescreens ~~~ Christmas stockings

 Teacosies ~~~ Clutch  bags ~~~ Tray cloths ~~~ Handbags ~~~ Pole screens

Round footstools ~~~ Christmas tree mats ~~~ Bolster cushions

Table runners ~~~ Placemats

I also sell a range of Magnetic Needle Minders, based on images of my stitching.

Postage & packing is a flat rate of 2.25 GBP for UK orders (4.50 GBP overseas) up to 50 GBP order value. Orders over 50 GBP are sent post free, worldwide.

The teacosy and traycloth kit sale ends midnight on Sunday 21st July, so visit the website now to treat yourself!

(Remember to use the code TEACOSY&TRAYCLOTH10 at the checkout to claim your discount.)

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

Flowers for Elizabeth embroidered sweet bag: 3 – outlining the flowers and leaves

I’m starting to do the stitching on this ‘Flowers for Elizabeth’ sweet bag design from Inspirations magazine Issue 51. It requires outlining the flowers and leaves with one strand of thread in Split Stitch first, to define the areas. That’s a  lot of outlining!

Once I got in the rhythm of doing it though, it was really nice to do – it meant that I got a lot of colour down on the fabric early on, which is always nice to see 🙂 This area is the honeysuckle flower in the bottom left hand corner.

These are the strawberries, pansies, and large leaves – the leaves will be filled in with Long and Short Stitch last.

Once the main shapes have been outlined, the stem is then stitched. For this, I laid bands across the width of the stem, and then worked Raised Stem Stitch Band up the stem until it had narrowed quite a bit.

The Stem Stitch is only worked under the short stitches of the banding, not through the fabric as well. It’s also necessary to use a tapestry needle for this bit, rather than a sharp needle of any kind, so that you’re not catching any of the threads of the background fabric.

Once the main stem had narrowed, I continued with ‘normal’ Stem Stitch to the ends of the stem. This part seemed to take me ages….then I read the instructions again, and found that I had been using just one strand all that time, when I should have been using two! So, it looks nice and fine, but took hours and hours!!

Once all the stems have been stitched, though, the nice swirling shapes of this design become apparent. You can also see that I decided to replace the moth from the centre of the design with a butterfly. I hate moths – their bodies are a bit too squishy and ‘maggot-like’ for me! Butterflies are much better!

I’m pleased with the progress so far – next, I’ll be doing the short stems and tendrils.

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