Ribbon Embroidery

 For the June Festival Stitchers program, I designed and taught this 5"x 7" greeting card. 

I designed it a bit on the fly, and I was not sure what I was going to turn it into. When I finished it, I thought about putting it in premade card blanks. But my design was a bit too wide. Since I also dabble in paper crafts, I had an oval die cut and cardstock I could use to make my sample above, but I needed something for class. So, I went back to the drawing board and made a few adjustments, so I could teach it to fit into premade card blanks with the oval already cut out. 

I gave everyone an option of Ivory or white cards and aida cloth. We use ribbon from the club's stash. We sometimes get donations from people who no longer stitch or have passed away, and one of these included a bunch of silk ribbon.

I used my book An Encyclopedia of Ribbon Embroidery Flowers 121 designs by Deanna Hall West, American School of Needlework (1995), to decide on the flowers.

Have a great day!!

A Small Southwest Design

This is a project for my local stitching club, Festival Stitchers. Members can volunteer to stitch a design on a provided piece of aida, and one of our members is going to stitch it on fabric and make pouches/wallets to sell at the Club Expo our HOA puts on twice a year (spring and fall). All proceeds from the sale of these wallets go back to the club.  Here is one I stitched. 

I found this design from my stash of Cross Stitch & Country Crafts magazine. This was in the May/June 1990 issue, pages 16 & 17. It was two stitches too tall and wide, so I just did not stitch those!

That's all for this week folks! 

Happy Stitching. 

Festival Stitchers EXPO Stitching

In our community, we have two Expos a year where clubs can show off what they do and possibly attract new members. The craft clubs can sell items their members make following certain rules.

One of the rules is that members cannot make more than $500 a year (among all clubs). So, our club table at the Fall Expo will look kind of stark since our best contributors sold well at the Spring Expo and can't put as much out.

In our case, and other clubs as well, the member keeps 90% of the sale and the club gets 10%. Sales help the club and in order to have our table look fuller and help our club's coffers, we came up with something members can make and the club will sell at 100% profit - Luggage Tags. I made two examples to get an idea of design size.

My design using DMC 991, 993, 356 & 754. I call it Southwest Luggage Tag 1 (so creative)!

Gecko on Wall by Jenny Rasmussen.

I had to adapt the Gecko design by moving the corners to fit the tag, but I think it came out ok. I used DMC 993 and Kreinik #4 braid color 027.

Not all of our members want to stitch to sell stuff, we have about 5 people who consistently sell.  But many of those who don't want to stitch to sell, are happy to make smaller items for the club. We did combine this with learning something. For example, last year we made wool applique stockings and learned the blanket stitch.

With the luggage tags,  we are learning how to work with perforated paper and if desired learning to find or adapt designs to fit the tag. 

The club provided the luggage tag, perforated paper and an identification card. 

I printed out an information sheet which included information about the best design size to use. I also provided some designs of my own and other freebies they could adapt if needed.

The club purchased 25 tag holders and after one meeting we only have eight left! I am sure those will be picked up by those who were not at our last meeting. 

I also stepped up my game and stitched this towel to sell. The design stopped after two arrows on each side of the bird, but I thought it looked empty, so I added more. The towel is a light sage green that does not show up so well in the photo.

Happy Stitching!!

Mystery Band Sampler

As you may recall most of 2021 was spent away from people. Our community clubs did not meet in person for most of the year. To try and keep our Festival Stitchers members engaged I designed a band sampler. 

I made the design size fairly small. Each band was 5" wide so you could stitch an entire band in one month. It corresponded with our stitch of the month. The total design size is 5"x 7".

The floss choice was up to each stitcher. I suggested a dark, medium and light shade of two coordinating colors. It could be done on 14-count Aida or 28-count linen over two. I chose rusts and greens on cream 14 count Aida.

Each band had the same dividing row at the bottom with each band being a different stitch of the month. You may notice there are only 10 bands, but twelve months. That is because in February we learned the long arm cross stitch which is the dividing band and in December was the backstitch which goes around the entire sampler.

Other stitches used: cross stitch, Smyrna cross, upright cross, rice stitch, combined cross stitch, tied oblong cross, diamond ray, Algerian eye, Pattern Darning, and knitting stitch.

The stitch and the band were published in our monthly newsletter and emailed to members. I am thinking about printing it in a booklet as a fundraiser for the club.

(c) Mary Mahaffey (2021)

I had a lot of fun designing this sampler and providing the project for the club!

Happy Stitching!!

This and That

I have been busy setting up a new Needlework related Chartered Club in my community. It has taken up a bit of my time, but we are now official! The needlework club of Festival Stitchers is meeting weekly and we have a good start. I started a blog for the group, we will see how that goes. Not much there at the moment.

Now to catch up a little.

I think I forgot to show you this cute Snowman ornament I made for sister-in-law 2 (SIL2, my husband's sister). I have two sister in laws, my brother's wife and my husband's sister. I have know my brother's wife the longest, she will be SIL1.

Here is the front and back of the ornament I made. SIL2 loves snowmen and I make usually make her a snowman something for Christmas (sometimes her birthday). This is called SNOW by Val's Stuff and is from the 2106 Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issue.

Here are some beaded items I had for sale at our communities last Craft Expo. I sold one bracelet.

My local EGA Chapter, Desert Threaders had a cute wool applique project this month. It is a little cherry tart pin cushion. So cute!! And easy to make too.  It is called "Baking Cherry Tarts" designed by Deborah Gale Tirico (c) 2012.

That about covers it for now!