Creating Patchwork Cross Stitch from Leftover Embroidery Threads

Look what I finished!!

I started this patchwork cross stitch project way back in 2014, as a way to make use of those scrappy bits of leftover embroidery thread (floss) which aren't quite big enough to be worth keeping and winding back on the bobbin but which still have a few stitches left in them.

I saved up the threads in a compartment in my embroidery thread storage box, then would sit and do a whole batch of stitching in one evening - slowly building up the patchwork design in blocks of colour. It was a super relaxing process!

 

As I wrote when I blogged about this project last year, "I guess I could add a block at a time, each time I have a piece of leftover thread, but I quite like spending a few relaxing hours working on this from time to time. Plus, adding a bunch of colours at once helps me make the randomness of this project more of a controlled randomness - I can spread out the colours more easily, and get a more pleasing mix of tones and shapes than I think I would end up with if I added a block each time I had a scrap of thread to use up.

I like the randomness of this project and how the colour palette (and the speed at which it's growing) is entirely dictated by what other projects I'm working on, and the luck of what size thread scraps I'm left with... but I also want it to be something I love the look of when it's finished!"

To read more about how this piece has developed, click here to read all about how the project has progressed over the years and see lots of in-progress photos.

I'm really pleased with how the finished piece has turned out - someone pointed out that it looks like a tiny quilt, and it totally does! It's about 6 inches (15 cm) square and absolutely jam-packed with colour. Loads of happy hours of stitching have gone into it, but it also represents even more hours of stitching as, of course, these are all just the leftovers from other projects!

And - to think! - all those threads would otherwise have just gone to waste. It's going to be really hard breaking the habit of keeping my scrappy bits of thread now... maybe I'm going to need to start another leftovers-themed project? Hmm...

Want to make your own patchwork design from leftover threads? Simple! Just start keeping your own leftover threads, stitch them in blocks and just keep on going until you've slooooowly filled up a whole square with colour.

A patchwork design like this is also a great way to use up a whole bunch of embroidery threads from your stash, you don't specifically need to be using leftover threads. Just have fun playing around with colour combinations and shapes!

Last year several people asked me for the pattern for this design, which isn't really something I can properly share as I've used to many random colours making this piece. BUT, I have drawn out a chart of how my design ended up, in case you like how the arrangement of blocks look and fancy replicating it. You can use my photos as guide when picking colours and/or use felt tips or coloured pencils to colour in your printed chart to help guide your stitching.

Click here to view the chart in a new window or tab, make sure you're viewing it full size then print.

P.S. For even more scrappy goodness, check out my Patchwork Mini Squares blanket, knitted from yarn left over from many years worth of knitting projects.

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Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns:

Fifteen Felt Christmas Ornaments Finally Finished!

Oh, hello, what's this? Another blog post about getting things finished?? HURRAH.

If you're a regular reader of my blog you'll know that I was working hard to finish lots of my personal creative projects last year, including a patchwork blanket, a couple of quilts, and a set of felt Christmas ornaments I was making from Alicia Paulson's lovely patterns.

I bought several of Alicia's kits way back in 2012 and 2013 and had really made very little effort to devote any focused time to them... so, unsurprisingly, most of the designs were still sitting in pieces, unstitched, in a drawer in my flat many years later.

Well now, happily, I can say that all fifteen ornaments are finally finished! Woohoo!

Don't they all look fabulous together?

That photo ended up being my most popular Instagram photo from last year - and, indeed, my whole time on Instagram. Watching all the "likes" roll in for this project was a weird and fun way to finish the year!

Fancy a closer look at the ornaments? The first batch was the slowest to finish as they technically took me 5-6 years to complete...

... then it took me just a month to get another four finished this autumn...

... and the final four were ready just in time for Christmas.

I completed the sweet Gingerbread Girl in early December - I probably could have managed it slightly earlier but I wanted to make sure I was super focused and in the zone when I stitched her face to get it juuuuust right. She is so charmingly folksy, I love her.

The next two got finished in the middle of the month, while watching made-for-TV Christmas movies (I love made-for-TV Christmas movies). There's the cute (double-sided) Notevena Mouse (as in "Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse")...

... and the lovely (single-sided) Lighted Window.

The very last design I stitched was the Whistling Tea Kettle which is the one I took most liberties with when it came to not following the instructions.

There was a lot of satin stitch in Alicia's original design and I a) do not enjoy and b) am terrible at satin stitch, sooo my version looks slightly different to hers while still keeping to the same overall pattern. Could I (should I) have used this project as an opportunity to improve my satin stitching? Probably, but never mind!

I deliberately missed out a row of blanket stitching on the kettle, too, because I was finding it frustrating and honestly just wanted this thing finished. I'm pretty pleased with the end result, though, even with the changes.

Just like the other big projects I finished last year after years of them being just works in progress, it is hugely satisfying getting these ornaments completed! I've been meaning to finish them "in time for Christmas" for so many years (and so many different Christmases) that it felt wonderful finally having them ready in time for one.

Having said that, though, I have a confession to make: although I basked in the glorious feeling of getting these ornaments finally finished (which was an excellent Christmas gift to myself), I didn't actually hang any of them up at Christmas!

My holiday decorating style is, these days, best described as very minimal. I put up a few decorations around my flat along with all the cards I'd received from friends, but I don't put up a Christmas tree... and even if I did, it would have to be a VERY big tree to fit these ornaments on it as they're quite large (though you might not guess it from the photos). The Gingerbread Girl, for example, is about 17cm (almost 7 inches) high.

Also (and it's embarrassing to admit this) there's a bit of me that's a teeny bit worried that I'll have them on display and someone will come round to my house and think I made and designed them and say something nice which ends up feeling not so great. I've had this happen several times before with handmade-but-not-by-me things and honestly hearing "oh wow this is the best thing you've ever made, I love these so much!" about something that isn't your work is super awkward and slightly devastating! (Even if you yourself think they're nicer than your own work, too!) (Ugh, maker feelings are so complicated).

So, I think I'm going to end up giving some of these as gifts to friends and family in the run up to next Christmas and possibly just keeping a few of my favourites to hang on doorknobs and other suitable places in my flat. (If you're a friend of mine please do feel free to drop hints about which ones are your faves!)

I'm going to give myself the year to think about it though - who know, by the time next Christmas rolls round I might have decided that I can't bear to part with any of them and I'll have found the perfect places to display them all! We shall see...

Want to make some of these ornaments for yourself? Click here to find all the patterns (and much more loveliness) over in Alicia's shop.

For lots more Christmas crafting ideas, visit my archive of free tutorials.

Making a Christmas Quilt: the Finished Quilt!

Waaaay back in 2014 I decided to make a Christmas quilt for my sister. She loves Christmas and I thought a cosy, festive quilt would be a perfect, special gift.

I decided to hand sew the whole quilt... and massively underestimated how long that would take! After many, many hours of hand stitching I finally finished the quilt this spring, and gave it to my sister (hurrah!) and now I finally have lots of pics to share with you guys (double hurrah!).

This isn't the biggest thing I've made (that would be my double-bed-sized giant granny square blanket), or the longest-running work-in-progress that I've completed (that title is currently held by my mini patchwork squares blanket, which took six-and-a-half years from start to finish), but it's still a huge thing to have finished and I'm thrilled with how it turned out. Luckily my sister likes it, too!

You can read about the making of the quilt here and here, or just scroll down for lots of photos of the finished quilt in all its festive glory...

 

 

 

 

P.S. I might have finished this quilt but I'm not done with quilting! My current work-in-progress (although I've not been making much progress on it during this hot summer) is another patchwork quilt - click here to read all about it.

Bags and Bags of Lavender

I finished my first Use It or Lose It project!

Lots and lots and lots of lavender bags:

 

That's not even all of them - I had so much dried lavender to use up I made a massive 29 sachets!

Lots of happy hours of hand stitching later I've got lots of scented goodness to add to our wardrobes and chests of drawers to keep them smelling fresh and help deter those pesky clothes-nibbling moths.

In a bit of magical de-stashing coincidence, I had exactly the right amount of that moth and butterfly print fabric to use up all the lavender. Hurrah!

 

I've just got a few small scraps of the fabric left now, plus a pile of these thin strips...

... which I am totally planning to use in another de-stash-y project soon.

Bits and Pieces from Last Week

At the end of last week I finished sewing the waterlily!

 

It's one of a set of three floral designs I'm stitching from a vintage embroidery transfer. Sewing them is making me totally fall in love with embroidery, so expect lots more stitchy things popping up here on the blog over the next few months :)

Last week I also...

... cut out lots of little felt diamonds for a new tutorial (or two).

 

... put my feet up with a couple of issues of Art Quarterly (you know you've been busy when the summer issue of a magazine arrives and you've not had a chance to read the spring issue yet!)

... tidied up my thread (floss) boxes and ooohed over the yummy colours.

... took photos of pretty flowers (oh summer, you are so lovely). 

... and started work on a new cross-stitch themed tutorial that's coming soon! :)

Finished!

The final day of Crafting 365. Wow. I know it's taken me about 5 or 6 weeks more than 365 days to complete it (breaks taken for illness, broken boilers, and other domestic disasters) and I've not posted exactly every day (mostly because of my camera and internet connection letting me down, but sometimes due to laziness and forgetfulness too!) ... but WOW it feels so great to have those 365 days under my belt! I'm really pleased with all my pictures and how much I've sewn and how the Crafting 365 group has developed ... and I think my work has really progressed since the start of the project. I'm still going to be photographing and blogging my projects, but I may miss a day here and there from now on :)

I wanted to do something special for the last day, so I picked a project I've been wanting to work on for just ages - turning my big pile of bird sketches (made in June) into actual brooches. They need their beaks and eyes and, you know, sewing together but they're starting to look like birds already...
Very typical of me to post a work in progress shot! And very very typical to be blogging about this a day late! Ah well - thanks to the delay, I've got some finished birds to show off now too as yesterday I sewed together the coal tit, greenfinch and bullfinch. Here they are along with "one I made earlier", a blue tit:
Also late: my penultimate Crafting 365 pic, a box lid filled with craftiness ...
... I started a batch of little robins and then a bit of trial and error finalising my large robin design. Got there in the end after lots of tweaking!

Watch out for the whole flock of birdies arriving in my Etsy shop over the next few weeks...

UPDATE: My robin design is now available as a sewing pattern and my other birdies are coming soon! Visit my shop to see all my printable PDF patterns

365 / 78 - satisfying tasks and a secret revealed

Last night my crafting tasks were deeply, deeply satisfying as I got to Actually Finish Some Things instead of just doing odd bits of works in progress. Here are the things I have finished (along with some things I almost finished)...... a batch of teacup pins, a batch of plush birdies and also some apple pips pins.

Ah, it is so wonderful lining all those finished things up in a row like that (mildly obsessive? moi? surely not).

Today I have been busy with blogging tasks - I am still very behind on updating the UK Etsy Sellers blog, but I have at least now brought the shop guides up to date... They still need a bit of work as I need to give a description of contents for many of the shops, but I've done some of them at least and all the empty shops have been removed and the new shops added (thanks to the sterling work of Kezzaroo updating the UK Etsy sellers list every month).

I have also been uploading photos to my flickr, of the secret item I made way back on day 39 of this crafting 365 project. It's a felt version of a comic strip creature? character? monster? not sure what to call him, but he is called Space Owl:
Today has also included a memorable trip to the post office (after which I realised I had been undercharged! I actually got to send a free parcel, it was rather marvellous), talks with my landlord about plumbers (our boiler and water tank and so forth may need replacing - doom!), and a lovely tea-break catching up on Storque articles wherein I spotted my moustache pins in a cute set of spy-related items in one of their How-To pieces, hurrah!