Cellphone Pouches

I completed this little one yesterday:



I added a few more beads, some sequins and a little gold fish. Can you find my signature cat? He's there, but quite obsure on this one!

A design like this, with larger embellishments will require using a zipper foot when assembling on the sewing machine. The zipper foot will allow for getting right up against the embellishments. When I sew this together, I'll document the process with my digi so you can see how it's done.

My next project will be this little cellphone pouch:



I mentioned a few weeks ago, that one of my goals for this year is to work more with colors that I don't like. Well, here's another yellow project! I think it'll be fun though, as the theme will be sunflowers! Check back tomorrow for an update on this piece.

Seascape Cellphone Pouch

I had alot of stitching time yesterday! I started working on this little cellphone pouch:



As you can see, it has a Seascape theme. I started with one of my painted dryer sheets ironed on to the foundation with Heat & Bond. I then did the Buttonhole Wheels in the center. Using a dime, I traced on the circles, stitched them and then added some Stem stitching.

Then I took a piece of metallic gold mesh fabric and tacked that across the bottom of the pouch. I did some Feather stitching to the left and tacked on some fancy fibers to the right. I did a bit of Twisted Tatting with cream & gold crochet thread and added that to the fibers to the right and then went onto adding the seashells and beads.

I left some excess of the gold mesh fabric at the bottom. When this is completed, I will pull that up a bit to make a poofy edge at the bottom of the pouch.

This a wonderful little project for someone who doesn't have a clue about foundation piecing. Knowing how to make a crazyquilt is not necessary to create a fun little work of art like this. Any piece of fabric laying around, basic embroidery stitches and a few different threads & beads are all that's needed.

I'm sure I'll have this completed later today. I plan to add a few more beads, a couple of sequins and a little fishy or two and it will be ready to assemble.

The White Peacock Purse and More!

Well, as planned, I completed the stitching on this last night:



I added my spider to the bottom left-hand corner and then highlighted the peacock's wing with a bit of metallic silver thread. That seems to bring it out a bit more and I must say, this so pretty!

I do think we need to take a moment when looking at our work and give ourselves a pat on the back sometimes. I'm still amazed with what comes out of my head and through my needle! And I don't think there's anything wrong with congradulating ourselves for our accomplishments! I love this piece and will have a hard time parting with it.

Susan asked me what the little flowers are that I used on the vine to the right of the peaocock. Those are just lavender colored flower sequins held in place with a few petite delica beads.

My next project will be a cellphone pouch:



It doesn't look like much now. It's simply a painted dryer sheet ironed on to the foundation using Heat & Bond. Notice the transparent quality that it has! Wait till you see what I'm going to do with this. I plan to start on it later today.

In the meantime, today is another finishing day. At least the machine finishing. On Wednesday, I assembled the Purple Painted Lady purse and the Green & Yellow Rose purse. Oh, did they come out nice! I used purse frames for them and only have the hand finishing left to do. I should have photos in the next couple of days.

Today, I'll be doing the machine finishing on the Pansy Purse. Again, I'll be putting it on a purse frame. I also need to finish my little Valentine Cupid Doorknocker.

Last of the news for today, I recently came accross a huge batch of beautiful upholstry fabric samples. There was way more there than I will ever use so I put some in my Etsy shop.



I hope someone can use them. Beautiful colors and textures! I can see these worked into crazyquilts or used for contempory embroidered pieces. Perfect too for the background on fabric postcards! I'm itching to do some more of those!

Ok everyone, I'm off to run my sewing machine. See ya tomorrow!

TAST and The White Peacock Purse

I didn't complete this last night like I had hoped, but I did get quite a bit done including the beading on the Detached chain leaves on the vine to the right of the peacock:



The beads give it a whole new look! They add more color and dimension to the stitching. I used 1 light green bugle bead in the center of each Detached Chain stitch.

Here's what the entire block looks like:



This afternoon, I'll add the spider web to the bottom left-hand corner and highlight the peacock's wing with some silver thread and then it's complete. I'll have another update for you tomorrow.

TAST - Detached Chain Stitch

As I mentioned yesterday, Sharon chose the Detached Chain as this weeks stitch focus. I use it alot as it's one of my favorite stitches. It's so versatile! Quite often, I use it for leaves like I did on the vine to the right of the peacock:



This piece scanned a little dark today. It's much lighter and brighter in person. And very sparkly!

I decided to leave off that rose applique as I feared it would compete with the peacock. Instead, I did a stem stitch vine and used the Detached Chain (aka Lazy Daisy) stitch for leaves. The next step is to bead it. I always add either a bugle bead to the center of the leaves or 3 seed beads. If I use Petite seed beads, then I'll usually use 5 of those. I haven't decided yet on what beads to use.

The beads add sparkle, dimension and more color to the piece.

I've drawn up the motif that I used in case anyone would like to stitch it:



Click on the image to go to my Flickr site where you can download the larger version. Trace onto tissue paper, pin to your block and stitch through the tissue. Once stitching is complete, carefully remove the tissue paper. I always freehand these motifs but if you want to do an exact replica, the tissue paper should work nicely for you. For the flower, you can outline stitch it, satin stitch it or fill it in with beads.

As you can see, I did alot on this piece yesterday. I added more glass flowers to the branch and a few seed beads. I did the grape vine to the left of the peacock and I did a rose motif on the dark purple ribbon. The roses are vintage Millinary (did I spell that right?) flowers. I found a whole bagful of them awhile back but kept forgetting that I had them! I added some glass beads for a little extra sparkle and did the leaves using silk ribbons from Pat Winters. If you need silk ribbon, visit Pat's Etsy shop! Working with Pat's ribbons makes me want to do more SRE!

Looking at this from a distance, I do feel like the peacock needs a little something to make him pop out more. Maybe I should have done him in purple but I've been wanting to do a white peacock for some time now. I may take a strand of metallic silver thread and outline him with that and maybe highlight his wing with it.

I still need to add my little cat and I'm thinking of a spider web for that bottom left-hand corner. I love doing spider webs!