Fields, Meadows and Gardens

Yes, my new project has a name! It´s actually on old name, which I considered a few months ago already: Fields, Meadows and Gardens. I thought about other names, but finally, I found this name very suitable.

The first quilt (Q1, without a specific name yet) is not finished yet, but it is in a relatively satisfactory condition.

The tree crown needs some more hand stitching:

 

The rabbits are machine appliquéd and hand stitched. The field, where they are sitting, is finished. A few more stitches may be added, we will see:

At the moment, I´m working on the cornfield.  I tried more materials, commercial embroidery floss, my rusted thread, I was thinking about coaching and also about appliqué (I wanted the ears quite big and 3D). Finally, I found a small skein of linen yarn, which is perfectly suitable. 

There is also another quilt developing under my hands (so called Q2). While the Q1 is obviously a field, this is going to be a meadow, a pasture.

Let´s have  look on my first sketch:)

The trees and the bush were appliquéd and machine quilted:

I really didn´t know, whether I should dare to quilt the pasture by machine, because I'm not very good at free quilting. After trying it out on a spare cloth, I finally made up my mind and started.

Voila, the first row!

And the whole pasture is ready for the sheep:

Now comes the time for my beloved hand sewing! Five sheep are appliquéd by hand on the background already. First I´m going to sew and embroider the heads of sheep and then I´m going to work on their fur – they should be nicely plastic. 

There is very much hand stitching left on Q1 and Q 2 (a pleasant handiwork for long winter evenings), but no machine sewing more. Which means, there is free space in my sewing room for preparing the Q3 – a landscape with a small house by the creek, in the fields. 

Today, the first step was made – choosing the colour combination:

Happy stitching!

Michaela

 

A Brand New Project 2022

No working on UFO´s this January, but a brand new project! There is not an official name yet, but it´s going to be a series of small quilts, using the fabrics I dyed last summer, combined with natural linen as background. Originally I wanted to work by hand only, but being under time pressure (the work must be done by mid-April to be exposed on PPM 2022) I decided for the  combination of machine and hand sewing.   

On January the 2^nd I started with the first one.   

Choosing colours:

 

 Arranging the hares (my own stamps cut from soft foamed rubber):

Starting the tree:

Arranging the trunk and the crown :

Sewing the roots:

Roots finished!

 

Next stitches are coming soon.

 

Happy stitching

Michaela 

 

 

Mending a Bag

For a small exhibition organised annually in the library of our small town I created in autumn 2016 three bags with appliqué motives of books. My Janome sewing machine was very new then and one of my goals was testing as much machine stitches as possible. Many texts from fabric selvages were used and also an old printing outfit I was able to borrow from a colleague. It was very laborious but I enjoyed the work very much. 

Later, my daughter Anna chose one of the bags for herself. 

Since she has carried the bag for five years now, it became what you call “well-worn” (it's an almost weak word). The most strained parts were more than shabby, particularly the upper edge and the bottom of the bag needed a mending quite urgently.

The leather handles were attached with small screws and could be removed very easily. The body of the bag was carefully washed. The colours became brighter again and the damaged parts much more visible. Fortunately, I could find some scraps of the Quilters Shadow by Stoff – the same shade the bag was sewn from. Well, the shade was originally the same, but the bag faded out in the sun of course and my scraps (beige and black) were quite a bit darker. Since I´m a fan of visible mending, I didn´t mind and used them anyway.

The bag hadn´t originally any binding on the upper edge, now it became one. 

I considered sewing by hand but finally I decided for sewing by machine, since the outcome is more stable and sturdy. And the decorative stitch suits other stitches on the books very well. 

The bottom of the bag was a much bigger challenge. The machine sewing was not possible there, everything had to be done by hand. 

It took one evening arranging the fabric and quilting the whole bottom with running stitch, row by row. The bottom is very smooth, I like to touch it, but it´s also quite sturdy. I like the outcome very much and Anna seems to be happy with her beloved bag. 

 

Happy stitching!

Michaela

 

Happy New Year 2022

Happy stitching in 2022!

Michaela 

There were also other candidates for the new years card:

A Christmas Present for Myself

This Monday was only a short working day for me, I had some overtime hours for good and could leave my office at noon. The plan was to work on one of my unfinished objects, a bird sampler, which I´m going to show you next time (at least I hope so).

However, I came home, had some rest with a nice mug of very dark black tea and entered my workplace with a very different idea. I wanted to sew something nice for myself. It was (and still is) very fascinating for me because this idea never occurs to me. I always do create things for others – for family, friends and colleagues. Never ( or almost never) for myself. This idea was so strong and overwhelming that I simply had to follow it. It was clear that I absolutely needed a zippered purse (what else? I LOVE sewing those!)

Standing in front of the (many) transparent Ikea boxes which harbour all my stuff I reached almost automatically for the box with fabric selvages. Omg, I never realised, there were so many already!

Being in Christmas mood, I chose selvages from Tim Holtz Christmas collections plus other fabrics by this great designer. I arranged them on the batting and sewed the selvages one by one onto the background, in the sew-as-you-go method.

A few cotton laces, some ribbons and - my label! This all was appliquéd onto the background and voila – there I had the two panels for my purse. Some time ago, I ordered some nice small embellishments by Tim Holtz, now they could finally be used!

Only today in the morning I could finally take some pictures in the day light.

Here is it, my very much personalised purse!

A very merry stitching to all of you!

Michaela