Pink Cellphone Pouch and Redwork Cupid Complete!

I did some serious stitching yesterday! I finished the stitching on the pink cellphone pouch:



Susan commented on how perfectly spaced my Buttonhole wheels are. I have a trick for that! I took a coin, a dime actually and drew a line down the middle using a ruler and a black permanent marker. Then I lined the black line up on the dime along the seam line. I used a pencil and traced around the dime. It's best to start in the middle of the seam that you want to cover. That way you won't have too much space on either side of the row you're working on.

If you want larger Buttonhole wheels, use a nickel or a quarter.

You can also use a quilters blue pen to mark your piece. That only works on very light fabrics though. If working on a dark fabric, try a white caulk pencil. And if working on a plush fabric like velvet, you'll have to use tissue paper. Using a ruler, draw a line on the tissue, then mark the line with your coin. Line it up along your seam on your CQ. You can baste it or pin it on. Do your stitching and then carefully tear away the tissue paper out from under your stitches. Now I know alot of stitchers use Press & Seal. I've tried this and I don't recommend it. I had alot more trouble getting it out then I do with the tissue.

I guess with my cross stitch background, I feel the need for my stitches to be perfectly and evenly spaced. Eyeballing it just doesn't work for me. I use waste canvas for feather stitches and fan stitches but it doesn't work for the Buttonhole Wheels so this is a nice way to do it. I hope these ideas help you to have perfectly spaced stitches too!

When I completed the cellphone pouch, I worked on the little redwork cupid that I started back at Thanksgiving and completed that:



Since I love beads and do-dads, I will be adding a few embellishments to this. Probably just on the heart. Stop by again tomorrow to see what I do with it!

I'm off to run my sewing machine. I want to sew the cellphone pouches together and then work up another CQ block or two. I have such a cool idea for one! I have to see what my stash offers in the way of white fancy fabrics first!

Pink Cellphone Pouch Continued

I honestly don't know why these are taking me so long to complete. My pre-Christmas activities are done and aside from housework & laundry, I really don't have anything else to do at the moment:



I really just have a little bit of beading left to do on this one. I plan on completeing it today and sewing all three up over the weekend.

Susan asked me if I was planning on putting these in the brick & mortar store. Actually, I was going to put these in my Etsy shop. But first, I have to get them done!

A Quick Update

I'm going out with my parents for a little while today so I just have a quick update for you on my cellphone pouches. I finished the purple one:



And then started on the pink one:



I'll have some stitching time later today and will post another update tomorrow.

Lace Variety Packs and Cellphone Pouches

My newest batch of vintage lace is all packed up now and available for purchase in my Etsy shop:



Each package contains at least 12 pieces of handpainted lace and motifs, all suitable sizes for crazyquilting and other mixed media projects. Each pack is different too!

I also listed a few counted cross stitch things today. My mom asked me to sell a few more things for her. All orders placed today "Wednesday" and paid for with PayPal will be shipped in tomorrow's mail.

On the stitching front, I worked on the purple cellphone pouch last night:



I have a little more stitching to do on the purple one and then I'll start on the pink one:



When I finish these and sew them up, I'd like to do a heart shaped purse. I hope to have time on Friday afternoon to run my sewing machine. I have to think about how it'll be finished before I start on it. Sometimes, I have so many ideas! I wish I could do things faster! Too bad I need sleep once in awhile!

Lots To Share Today!

First, I want to share a photo of the vintage lace that I handpainted yesterday:



It took me over 5 1/2 hours to paint everything but I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoy doing this! So many different patterns and designs! Each piece is so beautiful in itself but once painted, the patterns really pop!

I'll be starching and ironing today and I'm sure that will take another good couple of hours but again, I so much enjoy this process and being able to see and touch such a variety of old lace pieces.

Allison asked me what fabric dyes I use. I use Dye-na-flow by Jacquard. I started purchasing the small sampler packs at Michaels. They were perfect for my personal use. But now that I'm doing this on a larger scale, I order the larger bottles online.

When I finished painting yesterday, I worked on my green cellphone pouch:



This is complete now so I'll be starting on this one next:



On another note, Sharon asked her readers to mention her "Take A Stitch" project which will be starting on January 2nd. To learn more about it, hop over to Sharon's In A Minute Ago blog and read her post for today.

I'll be joining in on this project too, sharing patterns, stitches and designs with you. In fact, sometime in the next week, I'll be writing up the tutorial for painting dryer sheets. One of my first projects will feature "dryer sheet flowers" which you can use on your crazyquilts and other projects. I want to get that tutorial to you before the "Take A Stitch" start date so if you want to make some of these flowers, you can have everything ready in advance.

If you want to make some of the flowers but don't want to mess with the paint (it is very messy and time consuming and the paints are rather expensive), I still have several of the Painted Fiber Sheets packs available in my Etsy shop.

Ok, I'm off to starch and iron all that gorgeous old lace!