Buzzzzy spring stitching!

April has arrived, and with it has come glorious sunshine hot enough to make the garden errupt with blossom, tulips, hyacinth, dandelions, daisies, wood anemones, bluebells (just starting!) and of course, new leaves.   As if to remind us all that it's not summer yet, the days of blue skies are interspersed with days of thick blanketing fog, chilly, strong winds and thunder-storms, brrrr!

The wildlife in the forest has begun its annual spring-fest of baby-production - foxes, rabbits, squirrels birds, frogs, mice, even slow-worms, have all been spotted or heard in the garden, busy about the business of either finding a mate, or bringing up babies.

I have been buzy, both with the needle in my hand and the one in my sewing machine!  I decided I wanted to make a quilted tote to carry my stitching bits and bobs about; one that had plenty of pockets, that wasn't too big or too small, and had an open-top to allow bigger Q-snaps to stick out the top if need be.   I finally found the pattern I was looking for; a reversible 'shopper'; one side has long pockets, the other has smaller square ones, and you can turn the bag inside-out or outside-in, depending on what you want to be kept hidden inside, or be quick to hand outside!

Here it is:-

With cross-stitch, I have been working some more on Celestial Wings (hm, really must take a photo of that one, it's really starting to take shape, now!), Papillon Creation's How Does Your Garden Grow (I'm on to the last part, yippee!), the A Stitch A Week sal from my Friendly Stitchers group, and Bee Garden accessories.  I finished the scissor sheath for this today; I decided to make it into a 'scissor slider' by adding a twisted cord and attaching it to the pin-keep, so that you can't loose your scissors or your needles, or the case!  Here it is . . 

I made this one up differently to how I did the Friendly Stitchers Slider, in that no card was inserted, so it is 'soft' to the touch and squishy!   It also has a backstitch border round it which made the making-up much faster and easier.   Having ironed interfacing to the back of the stitching to stabilize it, I then put each stitched piece right-sides-together with the lining, and machined round three edges (one thread OUTSIDE of the backstitch border), leaving the top open.  I turned this right-side out,  and 'fed' in a piece of quilt-wadding already cut to shape, before closing the top with ladder-stitch (aka 'invisible stitching').  When both sides were done,  I whip-stitched them together through the backstitches (like how you would for a biscornu), remembering to insert the needle-keep after the first side, with the cord hanging out through the gap at the bottom.   I'm quite pleased with the result - a lot less bother and it's just as neat a finish!

We are up to week 16 on the ASAW sal, now.  I haven't got started on the latest design, yet, so this one is only up to last week's.   Anyway, here it is . .

You can see it's really starting to grow, now - and Winter is turning into spring!  I had the little bird button in my stash, but I did actually chart a bird sitting on the bird-house for those who didn't have one!  I am so enjoying seeing what everyone is doing with this project - one lady has changed the Westie to a Dacshund, for example, and another lady changed the primrose-patch that the bunny sits in to dandelions and daisies!  Another lady did bright pink wellington boots, jazzy!

A word about the free-charts on Friendly Stitchers  . . please remember that the charts are now passworded.   Passwords are given out solely at the discretion of the Moderators, and are not available to lurkers.

Happy stitching everyone - stay buzzzzzzzy!

Bee
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