Embroidered Collar for Grand Daughter's Dress

This collar set will go on an 18 month size dress for one of my grand-daughters. The inspiration for the flowers comes from the flowers in the vintage dress fabric. Embroidered with DMC floss on a piece of white table cloth fabric from Grandma Crystal Thompson. The fabric is like a thick linen.

Stitches; Long & short Needle Painting, Lazy Daisy, French Knots, Stem Stitch & Blanket Stitch

Time to finish the embroidery.

"Feeding the Hens" Miniature Embroidery Design by Trish Burr

This took much longer to finish than I had hoped. I had some trouble sourcing the outline threads by Guterman. They were manufactured in various places and the color was off. Not sure why but my micron pen from Martha Stewart decided to misbehave this time and bled following some of the twill lines. I've never had that happen before with that pen. so there are some extra stitches to hide some of that. The chickens feet were done with bullion stitch and the rest with Long and Short. Added the grass to place the signature in. 

Her hair was done over a large tapestry needle to give it a bit of curl and then long 'turkey work' stitches to make the long braid. My daughter Hope did the braid and bow. Fun to see the personality of the child and chickens emerge.

It is a tiny 4.5 by 4.5 inches

This design is from a book reviewed on Mary Corbet's NeedleNThread website. The fabric is Cotton Sateen, it has a delicate twill. Softer than a cotton poplin and round plump threads so it is easy on your embroidery thread. A single strand of  DMC floss was used throughout and then outlined in various places with complimentary colors of Guterman Sew-All thread.

Mini Needle Painting *Feeding The Hens*

There are so many different ways to approach needle painting  a face. Especially one that is smaller than a thumbprint. Choosing color, stitch direction, and details are perplexing. So this is coming along slowly,very slowly for a quick project that is less than 4" x 4".

Photography brings out all the flaws. 

"Feeding the Hens" Vintage Mini Needle Painting

One of the cute portraits from Trish's new book "Miniature Needle Painting Embroidery. We shall see if I can do it justice.

Miniature Needle Painting Embroidery- Vintage portraits, florals & birds by Trish Burr

I'm enjoying my copy of Trish's most recent book Miniature Needle Painting Embroidery. You can see a review  by Mary Corbett on Needlenthread and follow the link to order up your own copy. There is a pattern and instructions for a very pretty little needle book. Which reminds me there is a perfect ebook that just goes together well with miniature needle painting, Lavender Honey & Other Little Things. Trish Burr's Blog for more tips on needle painting and inspiration.

I anticipate many happy hours stitching. This is  "Watercolour Pansies" just a small warm-up. I'm looking forward to needlepointing "Feeding The Hens". 

Happy stitching!

Groom and Bride Monograms on the Three Roses

Finishing & Signing a Project

To sign or not to sign. No signature leaves people guessing who, and others disappointed. Signing ones name to a piece of art that was someone else's design but your own interpretation, your own hours  of labor, leaves one feeling like part of it still belongs to them. Thus after a pep talk from a designer--I opted to sign discreetly.

Washed, pressed, pinned to mat board, and laced up.

You can find the 'how to prepare your embroidery for framing' on Mary Corbett's http://www.needlenthread.com/ 

Ready for the framer.

Dog Roses A Trish Burr design

A wedding gift.

Rose Needlebook

Design from "Needle Painting Embroidery Fresh Ideas for Beginners" by Trish Burr.

I wanted the back petal to have more definition as seen in this second photo so I used DMC 150, 3685, and 154 and left out the DMC 3803 that I used in the first photo.

Washed and pinned to the ironing board to block and remove all the wrinkles and slight hoop marks. 

Ready to complete the inside.

Two pockets and two wool felt needle keeps. Fabric is a vintage rosebud cotton.

Bullion roses to hold on the buttons and felt.

Newest Project

Adapted from a Trish Burr design. Changed the colors to work with what I had on hand and added another flower ( not shown).