Halloween Bourse

Thanks to Isabelle’s fantastic Bourse Tutorial, I was able to make this Halloween bourse.

The inside is a free pattern from My Aunt’s Attic of some bats. I substituted the ghosts for the orginal design charted.

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Last August Finish-Along for AnneS

I managed to put a couple more finishes to bed last night, and finished two more pieces out of the finishing pile.  First up was a Christmas ornie I finished earlier in the week, and the second is a Mill Hill magnet pillow … I just love all the beads in the fringe and can’t stop playing with it! 😉

Finish-Along for AnneS

I made a real effort today to finish something off for this month’s theme of stitching accessories for the Finish-Along.  I’ve been taking photos ready for a needleroll tutorial for later next year, and while I was at it managed to finish another needleroll as well.

Planted Hearts by Lavender Wings
Stitched on 32ct waterlily linen
using recommended threads & beads

As well as the needleroll, I also dragged something else out of the finishing pile that’s been there for well over a year now – I finally put together my Thistle Bag.

Thistle Bag by M Designs
stitched using recommended fabric & threads

August FAL theme

The first theme for our new FAL themed months is stitching accessories!

This month’s class is a pinkeep, so we’ve decided to tie the theme in with the class, so that people who want to do the class will have a chance to participate. However, we’ve decided to expand the theme to include all types of stitching accessories, such as scissor fobs, biscornu, needlecases, scissor cases, pincushions, tape measure covers and needlerolls, so there are plenty of finishing choices.

I’ll post some tutorial links and pictures of finished accessories to (hopefully) give you some inspiration in separate posts below.

Happy finishing!

August FAL – stitching accessories tutorials

If you’ve never attempted any of these types of finishes before, here’s some tutorial links to get you started. I’ve pulled out the most basic, straightforward tutorials with beginners in mind but there are many others on the tutorial links page:

• Biscornu here – very clear instructions with loads of pictures
• Mattress pincushions here – in French but with loads of pictures. I used this one for my first mattress pincushion and found it easy to do from just the pictures.
• Needlecases here and a slightly different style here
• Needlerolls here – nice, clear tutorial with good explanations and pictures
• Scissor fob here
• Scissor case here – in French with lots of pictures and scissor pocket here (Becky will be doing a class on this one at a later date too, which will have more step-by-step photos if you want to wait for that)
• Tape measure cover here – in Japanese with lots of pictures. I’ve used this one myself and found it very clear and easy to use

August FAL – inspiration!

Looking for inspiration for this month’s theme?

Try The World’s Largest Collection of Smalls blog as a starting point for loads of pictures of stitching accessories, which are all grouped by category. Check out everyone’s gorgeous scissor fobs, needlecases, pincushions, needlerolls, pinkeeps, biscornu, scissor pockets, and tape measure covers, along with all the other beautiful finishes

Think outside the box: for example, mini biscornu make wonderful scissor fobs, like this cute patriotic fob by Linda in Iceland:

and these 3 colourful fobs by Melanie in Australia:

Or why not try out a strawberry fob, like this one by Blackbird Designs in last year’s JCS ornament issue, beautifully stitched and finished by Cathymk:

More thinking outside the box; needlerolls don’t necessarily have to be vertical designs – here’s one I made using a horizontal design, which I adapted slightly (Homeward at Last by JBW Designs):

and if you don’t fancy the idea of hemstitching the ends, just use banding, like this one stitched by AnneS:

If you’ve got plenty of time on your hands, why not create a matching set of accessories, like this beautiful set of LHN designs stitched by Becky:

or these fabulous Quaker accessories stitched by Nicki?

I couldn’t find a tutorial for a needleminder, but the basic idea is quite straightforward. Michelle has made a couple of beautiful needleminders recently (I’m totally drooling over the Quaker one):

Sarah Moon (top) and Flower of Courage needleminders, stitched by Michelle (Cozyegg)

The instructions she used came with a kit but think metal ornament finishing forms, magnets (inside and out) and any kind of trim for the edging and it’s not too hard to work out how to create your own. Or you could try a basic pincushion or fob with magnets inside to hold your needles or pick up dropped pins, like these great examples by Barbara:

and Lelia:

And finally, if you’re up for a challenge and want to try something completely different, what about a chatelaine to hold stitching tools? Here’s an example of one designed by Guilia Punti Antichi:

and a gorgeous one created to her own design by Helen:

So what are you waiting for? Drag out your stitched pieces and your finishing supplies and get finishing! And don’t forget to post your finishes to the blog so we can all admire them. If you’ve not already signed up to post on here you’ll need a WordPress account (free, no need to create a blog) and then you’ll need to email me to add you as an author so you can post. It’s quick and painless (honest!)

Have fun!

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Anne and I have been putting our heads together (well, as best as we can being several time zones and thousands of miles apart 😉 ) and we wanted to share with you what we have planned for the blog over the next few months.

First off, we’re changing the idea and format of the FAL weekends, since they haven’t taken off that well. From August, there won’t be a specified FAL weekend; instead, each month will have a different finishing theme, either a specific finish or a seasonal theme (or both!). Everyone is invited to join in at any point during the month, finish something along the lines of the theme and post their finishes on here. To give you some inspiration, we plan on highlighting relevant tutorials and including links to and photos of stitchers’ work to get you started. The themes won’t be too rigid so hopefully as many of you as possible will be able to finish something appropriate and join in. Also, every other month starting from December, just to make it a bit more fun, we’ll be having a prize draw for anyone who posts a themed finish during that particular month! 🙂

Secondly, Anne has collated all the results from the polls that we took earlier this year and we’re in the process of working out a new schedule of classes for next year. The plan is to run two classes per month, so that you don’t have to wait so long for a class that you really want to do, plus it will hopefully create more participation and activity on the blog, which we’re also trying to encourage 😉 More details will follow very shortly.

On the subject of classes, it’s been lovely to see people using the class tutorials that have been offered so far this year and the results have been wonderful! We’d like to encourage anyone who has finished something using one of the class tutorials to post their finish here so that we can all admire them 🙂 I know I’ve been asking individual people to do this if I see a finish on their blog, but I don’t visit every single blog so please feel free to post your finishes here as we love to see what people have done with the classes we’ve been offering. Also, if you create a tutorial and post it up online somewhere, please add a comment to the tutorials page or email either of us so that we can add it to the list!

Now it’s your turn. Is there anything you’d like to see covered in the blog that isn’t here already? Any gaps, anything we could do to encourage more participation? All suggestions welcome 🙂