Needleroll experiment

Hi everyone,

Happy Easter to you and your family! Try not to eat too many chocolate easter eggs, just keep it  down to no more than 10. Well, what do you expect from a chocoholic, abstinence? NO WAY, this is the only time of the year they tell me that chocolate has no calories and is good for you. Well this is my story and I am sticking to this myth.

This week I dug out of the mystery to do box a needleroll by Mary McLeon of M Designs, this one is called Country French. I decided to play around with the finishing. The design was stitched using the DMC colours recommended and are perfect summery colours.

Country French Needle Roll
M Designs
35 count Antique White with DMC colours

The original was stitched on 30 count White linen so I changed it over to 35 Count Antique White. The long seam was finished as a french seam so the edges don't show then I withdraw 3 threads and replaced them with stranded cotton to form the stripe on the edge. The outer edge is a row of double backstitch then a row of 4 sided stitch with gives a nice crisp edge and you can cut away the excess linen right back to this edging. Next I made up 2 long twisted cords and threaded them into the withdrawn thread space and tied them off. The ends of the cords looked a little woeful so I attached 4 tiny hand made tassels to finish. Viole!!! its finished.

As this took a bit of time I was only able to stitch a start on Santas Village, North Pole Post Office.

Country Cottage Needleworks
Santa's Village, North Pole Post Office
35 count Natural,  1 over 1

The colours in this one are quite interesting with names like Bluecoat Red  and Louisiana Hot Sauce (Weeks Dyeworks). Don't you just love the inventiveness of the person who named these. So clever.

Well I am off to tidy up some notes and photos for my next class I will be teaching in April for the Embroiderers' Guild of South Australia. A Wessex embroidery linen mat on 30 count linen with stranded cotton.

Bye for now, Happy stitching, Carol