Spring Peacock Needle Book and Pincushion

I finally finished my Spring Peacock Needle Book and Pincushion. I aged these pieces a little more than I usually do. To be honest I'm not entirely sure I like it but you never know, it could grow on me after a few days. I just love the look of extreme prims but when I try it I'm never happy with the results. I suppose I'll eventually get the hang of it.

My attempts at aging aside the design is very sweet and I love it. The colors really were a joy to stitch with; they're such lovely colors. The set is a little touch of Spring . . . A pretty little peacock, a single bloom, and a basket of eggs. A sweet little flower tree . . . The wool tulips on the inside are just perfect (at least in my opinion) and they were so much fun to applique. I've told myself that there are two to of them to help organize my needles. Say two different sized cross stitch needles, or cross stitch needles and applique needles. Really I just couldn't decide which color wool to use. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed doing it and just those two little tulips weren't nearly enough for me. Time to take out the wool stash and start planning another project. Can someone have too many projects going at once?

The fabrics were just a perfect compliment as well. I purchase them from Nauvoo Quilt Shop on Etsy. Julie is so sweet and she has the most lovely reproduction fabrics. Her listings are all for half yards but since I never need that much fabric for any one project she's so sweet and puts together listings for me of fat quarters of the materials I want. She has certainly helped to grow my fabric stash!!! If you like the design and want the same fabrics she still has them listed. If you'd like the purchase the pattern just e-mail me at appleseedprim@yahoo.com.

An e-pattern is $6.00 and a printed pattern is $7.50 which includes the shipping costs. The pattern includes the finishing instructions for the needle book including the template for the wool tulips. I actually think when I wrote out the finishing instructions I said I did a light tea stain. Hmmm . . . well whenever you create something you have to trust your instincts and definitely experiment.

I think I'm going to take a little break from cross stitch. I do want to do some applique or maybe rug hooking (working with wool is so gratifying) or maybe even back to the punch needle (again). At any rate, I'll be sure to share with you ladies.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Butterfly Free Pattern

Here's the butterfly again. I was going to wait to put out the pattern until I had stitched both. Alas that will not be for awhile and I see no reason to make you wait.

Finished into a little pincushion? Combined with some pretty stitched flowers? I haven't decided what I'll do with it yet but I'm sure I'll think of something. Let me know what you do with this little flutterby and don't worry his sister will be along soon enough.

Click here for the free pattern.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Meg's Flower -- Wool Applique

Before cutting into my new wool I decided to finish stitching an applique I started months ago. It's been sitting in a tin in my dining room all that time. Every once and awhile I would look at it, occassionally I would take it out and lay it on the table, sometimes I would carefully place all the pieces, there were even times I threaded the needle. Then I hastily put it all back and hid the tin behind something so as to not have it mock me. Like I said I'm new to wool applique (this is only my second project) and my confidence is a little low. Though I have to say I'm very happy with how this came out and and now have renewed confidence to tackle my other projects.

I used Gentle Arts Simply Wool for the stitching; I like the fuzzy look. As you can see I'm still not confident enough to applique something as thin as a flower stem so I decided to embroider the stem instead. The little lazy daisy flowers in the circles were my husband's idea or at least they were how I interpreted the little doodle he did. I'm still not sure how to "finish" it. Do I back it with wool, felt, quilting cotton? Do I stitch on the little "tabs" I see on penny rugs? Do I get another larger piece of wool to back it and cut little scallops around the edge? More circles within the tabs or scallops, maybe a few more daisies? Any ideas? For now I think it will simply lay on my hanging rack for me to draw inspiration from if my confidence wanes while working on my other projects.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn