Fourth of July Finishes!

Happy Fourth of July! I got some finishing done this week, and I’m excited to share it all!

First of all, in the spirit of the holiday, Strawberries and Stripes from With Thy Needle and Thread. Sorry I forgot to take a photo of the finished stitching! I was sick. I was tired. When I wasn’t sick, I had to go back to work, and I was still tired! But I’m happy with my finish which I got done in spite of it all.

For posterity, here’s how I did it…I used a small tart pan. I was making it up like a drawstring bag around a puff of fiber fill but the fiber fill kept springing loose. I was so annoyed! So I have some wool roving and I needlefelted the pin cushion to the shape and size I needed and that worked out perfectly. It was laborious but it was so clean and tight for the finish I am very pleased. It doesn’t even need any trim!

And also I was supposed to tell you the Story of the Stitch. Well, I bought the pattern second hand, and in it was a start of it. Sadly, the start was poor. It was the bird and the flag. The flag was fine, but as I inspected it the birds head was off by a stitch, there was other wonkiness, and I had to take it out. No big deal, it is a small thing. I did keep the flag. Thank you anonymous stitcher! And you’re welcome! Your WIP is complete and loved.

Next up, another patriotic thing, also with strawberries. This is Strawberry Liberty from Chessie and Me. Loved stitching on this little kit last summer, and my plan was always to frame it up or a flat fold. Here it is:

I didn’t want it is scream Patriotic as I want to display it anytime so I went with this sort of historic fabric which I think matched pretty well. It isn’t a flat fold, just a flat. It will have diverse display options. I am still deciding if I should add trim. I think a tiny pom pom trim might be nice if I can find a good color.

Next up is my little rooster from The Heart’s Content:

It is in a little Old Colonial frame. I think it is so cute!

Finally, the piece de resistance…

My mother’s day present was a spool from Pete’s Bee Skeps. While I had originally thought to make Snip Snip (by October House Fiber Arts) into a little scissor pillow, I was unsatisfied with my fabric choices (unable to find my finishing fabrics). I set my heart on rolling it around a spool then, thinking if only I could find a scissor spool of the correct dimensions. Well, I must have seen this finish before because a spool had in fact been created specifically for this project! So I asked for it for Mother’s Day. And when it arrived I had to finish it up right away! All I did to finish it was interface the stitching and then fold in the sides and press very hard and carefully (no stitching!) I added 2 buttons on each end so I could lace it around the spool with a ribbon. It came out really perfectly for something I was just making up and didn’t even stitch.

So that’s a nice collection of things! Check back soon, I have a backlog of posts to post. I’ll be putting them up in the order they should have been posted so if you want to read them all you’ll have to jump around. Maybe that will be fun though!