Friday 4 October 2013

Strawberries

I have been thinking strawberry this week,  firstly finishing my strawberry pincushions for a flickr Strawberry pincushion swap .  These are quick and rewarding to make and easy to add to with embroidery and trim.
I used a vintage latice style print which gave a great canvas for beading the 'seeds' and a scrap pf Sandi Henderson ginger blossom  fabric for the other and added french knots and an embroidered bee.
The leaves/storks are felt from Seamstar, I love the 1930s mint green colour.  The flowers were lace trim scraps and buttons.   A loop of ribbon and  mini ric-rac provides hanging loops for each.
 I used one of the basket blocks from 500 Quilt Blocks to make a mini lined drawstring bag (adapting Jeni's pattern) to pop them in with a few other goodies- they are winging their way to their new owner right now.
If you want to make one of your own, I used this pattern from Embroideroo as my base and then played around with the size.  I also used fusible fleece to back the fabric.  This makes for a firmer strawberry and gives a good strong base for beads, knots and embroidery.
For the french knot 'seeds', the needle passes right into the the strawberry and to the next flower for the next knot.  If you are new to French knots, there is a great tutorial at Sublime Stitching. I wrapped the embroidery thread once round the needle for these.
This is the treasure I received, a totally strawberry themed package from Susi (daveandsusi on flickr)
What a delight!  Two beautiful pincushions which have gone straight into my various sewing baskets and pretty tiny gifts.   The strawberry tape is perfect!   Susi also went for embroidery details on her pincushions; you can see more below including  French knots for the flower centres.
This was a really fun, quick little swap organised by Erin that brought some pleasure back to Flickr.  There seem to be a lot of little swaps like this going on there at the moment so keep a look out!
sib blog

13 comments:

  1. Looks like a fun swap. Even though I'm on flickr as much as ever I seem to keep missing these little swaps until I see the finished items appear in my flickr stream!

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  2. These are so lovely. I am sure your partner will be delighted.

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  3. thanks so much for joining the swap, Kerry! I think it has been quite fun. Your strawberries are wonderful and thank you for explaining the way you went about adding your french knots!

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  4. too cute!! I've been enjoying seeing all the cute strawberries pop up on IG!

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  5. Your strawberries are simply delicious! I can hardly wait until your book arrives!

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  6. Those strawberries look almost edible! Lovely. I'm also waiting for your book to arrive..

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  7. they're gorgeous and the french knots are the perfect finishing touch. Such a lovely swap package that you got as well. Makes me think of summer again! Like many others, can't wait for your & Lynne's book - it's going to be full of inspiration I think :) Have a great w/e x

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  8. Ah, these strawberries are so sweet and love the bag. Waiting on my 500 Quilt Blocks ~ can't wait!

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  9. oh I love them!
    the embroidery bee is also very cute!

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  10. I'm glad you enjoyed using my strawberry pattern. It is nice to see the finished strawberries!

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