Wednesday, 25 September 2013

One of my faaavourite projects from Stitched Blooms

Acorn and leaves quilt

I like all the projects in Stitched Blooms, of course. But you know, some of them are just my faaaaavourites. ;-) And this is one of those favourites. It's a baby quilt, but it can also be used as a lap quilt. And believe me, at the moment it is seeing plenty of action like that because we can't put the radiators on in our house so it's kinda cold. Brrr.

Anyway, the quilt! It has an acorn and oak leaves motif appliqued on it. It is inspired by a design I once saw in the V&A. But you know what? It's been so long since I saw it that I can't even remember if it was a wooden screen or ceramic or a quilt or whatever. What I do remember is that it's in the Medieval section. Which doesn't really help a lot.

Acorn and leaves quilt - sketches
These are my sketches for the quilt. It had a few different looks as you can see! My original idea was to do the appliqué with felt, but my editor convinced me that fabric would be a better choice. It's certainly easier to use fusible web with fabric than with felt!

The acorn and oak leaves combination is an old one in design (it must be when they used it in the Middle Ages!) and I wanted to bring it into the 21st century. I hope I have succeeded! So the design is big and bold and kept very simple against a white background.

You must love hand appliqué to make this quilt (or you can cheat and do it by machine!) because there is quite a lot of it here. Or if you like the design but don't want to do it this big, it can always be re-sized using the CD that comes with the book. And if you re-size it you can totally use it as an embroidery pattern! :-)

Acorn and leaves quilt
One thing I am quite pleased with in my version of the quilt, is designing custom fabric for the binding. It sports the same leaves and acorns as the quilt itself. A small thing that makes me happy whenever I look at it. :-)

Acorn and leaves quilt
Although I am really happy with this quilt I must admit to being quite nervous that  proper quilters will laugh at my quilt instructions. Oh well.. ;-)


This post was originally posted on Carina's Craftblog, September 23rd, 2013.

Thursday, 19 September 2013

Love and thoughts in stitched form

Botanical art - from Stitched Blooms
This is one of the projects from Stitched Blooms, a set of botanical art inspired embroideries. The flowers I chose for these are hibiscus, daisy and rose. They represent three places: Hawaii, England and Denmark. You probably know that I'm Danish but live in England, so that explains two of those places. Hawaii may seem a bit random, but when I was working on the book projects, my sister lived there! She doesn't now, though..

The botanical project is very dear to me because of how it represents my family and the places where they live. I do sometimes get a bit sad because I see them so rarely. Especially my sister. When I worked on these embroideries I thought about my family a lot and that makes them especially precious to me.

I am keeping my botanical pieces, but I think they would make a lovely present. Especially for someone who has moved away from their native country/state, as a reminder of that place and the people who live there. You can absolutely stitch love and thoughts into your embroideries... :-)

Botanical art - from Stitched Blooms

Today's stops on the blog tour: Craftypod and Running with Scissors.


Cross posted from Carina's Craftblog.

Friday, 6 September 2013

Stitched Blooms Blog Tour

These are the dates for the blog tour for the book. Lots of fun stuff will be going on at these fine blogs etc. Thank you to everyone hosting a part of the tour! :-)

Sept. 16th – Amanda Carestio, Lark Crafts - Free motif download!

Sept. 17th - Sara Lawson - www.sewsweetness.com - Review and giveaway.

Sept. 19th - Jessica Crapo - www.running-w-scissors.com - Review and giveaway.

Sept. 19th - Diane Gilleland - www.craftypod.com - Review.

Sept. 20th - Mollie Johanson - wildolive.blogspot.com - Review. And Mollie shows a super cute project she made from the book!

Sept. 21st - Aina Crescimbeni - www.casandersen.blogspot.it - Review and giveaway.

Sept. 21st - Beth Wilson - www.sewmamasew.com - Free project download and giveaway.

Sept. 22nd - APL Creations - http://aplcreations.com - Review and giveaway.

Sept. 23rd - Jo Stafferton - www.feelingstitchy.com

Sept. 23rd - Rachel Hobson - averagejanecrafter.blogspot.com/‎ Review. And check out the cute stitchery Rachel made using a motif from the book!

Sept. 24th - Aimee Ray - www.littledeartracks.blogspot.com - Review and giveaway: book + one of the projects made for the book!

Sept. 25th - Jenny Doh - www.crescendoh.com - Review and giveaway: one of the projects I made for the book!

Sept. 25th - Nicole Vos van Avezathe -blog.followthewhitebunny.com - Review and giveaway: book plus floss!

Sept. 26th - Hanna Andersson - www.ihanna.nu - Review and giveaway: book and floss!

Sept. 26th - Abby Glassenberg -www.whileshenaps.typepad.com - Review. And Abby made a super cute pincushion based on one of the projects in the book!

Sept. 27th - Susie Stubbs - www.flowerpress.blogspot.com - Review and giveaway. And Susie made a really sweet luminary from the book!

Sept. 27th - Lynne - lilysquilts.blogspot.com - Review and giveaway: book plus floss!

Sept. 27th - Laura - bugsandfishes.blogspot.com - Review and giveaway: book and floss!