Crazy Patch Embroidery and Book Review

Some while ago I tried a couple of crazy patch pincushions. This was the more successful one where I used Anchor variegated threads. You can see more examples of how the threads stitch up in my blog post here.

Herringbone and feather stitch seemed like the obvious choices to decorate the seams. And cretan stitch looked like a good stitch too because it also spans the seam.

Once I started stitching I found two aspects of crazy embroidery that needed quite a bit of thought and attention. Spacing the individual stitches required very careful judgment and exact placing to get the spacing even. Otherwise it looked rather untidy and higgledy piggledy. Along the way I had quite a bit of unpicking to do to make the lines of stitching look fairly neat.

The other aspect that required some thought was how to embellish those lines of stitching. Plain lines of feather stitch or herringbone looked rather uninteresting and needed something extra to liven them up. This is the really fun part of crazy embroidery. I found ideas here and there but it took some time to unearth them.

Today I found a review of a new book called Stunning Stitches for Crazy Quilts by Kathy Seaman Shaw.  The book addresses both the challenges I had with crazy embroidery. Kathy includes templates for spacing a whole range of stitches and has plenty of suggestions for embellishing them too.

Courtesy Floresita of Feeling Stitchy

You'll find the review with a lot of photos over on Floresita's blog Feeling Stitchy here. There is also a giveaway of one digital copy of the book. And visit Kathy's website here for a link for another chance to win a book tomorrow.

Till next time, happy stitching!

Embroidery Mini Market

The Cape Embroiderers' Guild are having their Winter Embroidery Mini Market on Saturday 13 July from 10h30 to 16h00. Entry fee R20.

If you are going to be in Cape Town it's well worth a visit. So stop in at St Thomas' Church Hall in Rondebosch and join the embroiderers for a little stitching inspiration and a cup of tea. Plenty of parking too.

There will be displays of embroidery, demonstrations of different types of embroidery and all sorts of embroidered items, books, fabrics and threads for sale.

Spring Tea 2017

You will also be able to see the completed Rainbow Leaf wall hanging that was first displayed at the Spring Tea in 2017. There is just a glimpse of it in progress on the far wall in the photo above. Members were asked to stitch a leaf using any type of embroidery and contribute it to the hanging.

Happy stitching and enjoy the weekend wherever you are!