Skyrim Inspired Stitches

So, I foolishly bought my other half Skyrim for his birthday when it came out last year. Bring on slowly being turned into a Skyrim widow!! haha. Anyway, I have spent many hours sat sewing, whilst he rides around Skyrim destroying dragons, and avoiding injuring chickens. The 'I used to be an Adventurer like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee' comments, that seemed to be said by every other person his character spoke to really cracked me up. At one point we were laughing about it, and we came up an embroiderer version!! There was no way around it, it had to made up!!

Stitched on cotton, and transferred the pattern with pencil. Is stitched mainly in backstitch, with a small amount of satin stitch. The skull logo is another awesome pattern Urban Threads, who also featured this hoop over on their website/blog so go check it out - http://www.urbanthreads.com/blog/?p=4047 !

The hoop makes me laugh every time I look at it!!!

Vicki

Ghost Reveries

So, about 2 years ago I decided that I wanted to make my other half an embroidered version of the Opeth logo, as they are one of his favourite bands. Only took several years for me to actually finish it!!! I hoped it would be ready by Christmas 2011, but alas, I was once again thwarted in the plan and ended up finishing it in February! Oh well, better late than never anyway!!

I made the pattern by converting an image of the band logo using KGStitch. It is stitched on 16 count black aida using 2 strands of white thread. I think I used about 2 and a half skeins of thread for this project.

It's now framed and awaiting us to find a new house so it can go up on the wall!

Still needs a better iron, but my ironing board is currently covered in coal dust so thought it best to avoid using it!!

So pleased that I have finally gotten around to finishing this! For a while it felt like it was actually never going to get done!

Vicki

Kindle Cover

After forgetting to update my blog for a week or so once again thought I should update it with what I've been making recently.

I got bought a Kindle for Christmas and I absolutely love it!!! I never thought I'd own any sort of ebook reader but wouldn't be without my Kindle now!! My parents bought me a lovely leather jacket thing to keep it in for Christmas as well and I didn't want it to get scratched when it's being carted around in my bag, so thought I would make a stitched case to keep it in :)

The case is made from felt, with two embroidered patches. The patch on the front is from an Urban Threads pattern. I traced the pattern onto the fabric and the outlined it in backstitch. The books were then filled in with mostly veryyyyy tiny satin stitch. Man, that satin stitch was incredibly frustrating!!

The patch on the back was made using an image I found online. Again it uses satin stitch and back stitch. I lined the inside of the cover with red felt for a bit of contrast.

The case is stitched together using blanket stitch. Again, I used red thread for some contrast. It closes with a flap that has three press studs, so the Kindle is kept safe inside.

I am so pleased with how this turned out :D I can make these cases to order over on my Etsy store - http://www.etsy.com/shop/EmbroideryEmp
Vicki

Baa, Baa French Knot Sheep

I have hated french knots since the first time I ever tried to stitch them, and have always really struggled to stitch them properly. Usually I substitute them for either beads or some sort of backstitch. I thought it was about time to finally get to grips with the pesky things, and cross off another thing from my 50 Projects list!

I found the pattern for this in a recent issue of Crossstitcher magazine and thought it was very cute, and a perfect small project to test out my french knots. It is stitched on linen and as well as french knots uses satin stitch, back stitch and cross stitch. As well as being my first time at using the knots, this project was also the first time I had used cross stitch on linen. Can't say I found using the linen easy for cross stitch though, will stick to aida in the future I think!! I freehand drew the pattern onto the fabric and got stitching!

So after avoiding starting the french knots and stitching everything else on the hoop that I could!! I watched loads of different youtube tutorials, read loads of tutorials, yet still the french knots evaded me. In the end I just ended up getting quite frustrated with them and tried wrapping the thread around the needle in a variety of different ways to see which one worked best for me. After eventually finding my "french knot groove" they got easier and easier to stitch and started to appear really quickly. They are stitched in 2 strands of cream thread and 1 strand of brown thread to make it a bit more multicoloured. I love how the sheep turned out so fluffy with all the french knots.

I think there are over 200 french knots in this project!! So I don't think I will be worried about doing them in the future :D

Vicki