Hopeful Flowers Week 2

Here we are at Week 2 of our Hopeful Flowers Stitch Along! It has been great to see the blocks that everyone has been posting over in the Facebook group. We love seeing how you take our pattern and make it your own. 

Today's block is the periwinkle flower, and we have used a couple of unique stitches for this one—the Pekinese stitch and the cable chain stitch, along with our good friends the blanket stitch and the French knot. Again, we will be doing something a bit different with the blanket stitch, but it is a fun and easy way to add dimension to leaves.

Block 2 Periwinkle Flower

Start with your 9" square of fabric and mark your stems using a light box or a window. We hooped our block for the stitching of the stems to eliminate puckering. 

Stitches Used:
Pekinese, angled blanket stitch, cable chain, French knots, stem stitch

The cable chain stitch is a fun way to vary the chain stitch. It gives a linked look without being too complicated.

Bring needle up at top of line.

Wrap thread around needle once.

Take a small bite of fabric.

Wrap thread under needle.

Pull through.

Wrap thread around needle.

Take a bite of fabric and keep thread 
under the needle.

Pull through and continue on down 
the rest of your stem

The Pekinese stitch is one of our favorites—so much that we did an entire blog post about it that you can read HERE. It is a 2-step stitch that starts with a back stitch and then lace another thread through the back stitch to create a series of loops on the top and bottom of the back stitch. There are many ways that you can change the look of this stitch to suit your needs just by the amount of tension you put on the loops as you are creating them. For this block we chose to pull them snugly on the bottom of the back stitch and then left a larger loop on the top of the back stitch. We have step by step pictures here, a blog post about the stitch, and then there will be a link to Mary Corbet's video on this stitch at the bottom of this post.

Line the inside of the cutout with 
back stitches.

Complete the circle of back stitches,
while trying to keep them an even size.

Come up just below and between
two back stitches.

Skip a stitch and with the back of your
needle, bring your thread up through that
back stitch. 

Pull your thread flush against the 
two back stitches.

Bring the back of your needle down
through the back stitch you skipped and
over the thread below it.

Leave a loop.

Skip a back stitch and bring
the back of your needle up through the
next back stitch.

Continue in the same way around the 
circle leaving loops that are roughly the
same size. Use your finger to hold the loops
in place as you go around.

Bring the back of your needle down
through the back stitch you skipped and
over the thread below it.

Bring your needle to the back
and tie off.

Now we will stitch the leaves with our beloved blanket stitch. This method is an easy way to make veins on our leaves. Using a variegated thread adds even more dimension. In the pictures, I have used a white gel pen to mark a series of tiny dots down the center of the leaf to give me a guide. If you don't want to mark, just eyeball it—which is what we do most of the time.

Come up at the top of the leaf, down at the first dot, and then back up 
at an angle with your thread underneath the needle.

The first blanket stitch.

Continue making your blanket stitches
down one side of the leaf.

Continue making blanket stitches
up the other side of the leaf.

Use your previous stitches as a guide 
for the other side.

A finished leaf.

To get your free download, follow these instructions:

1. Click on the link below that says Hopeful Flowers Block 2

2. You will be directed to our What's Happening Page. It may ask you if you would like to go to that page, and if so click the link provided.

3. Scroll down until you see the Hopeful Flowers wallhanging.

4. Follow the directions there for downloading your free pattern.

And just like that, we are finished with Block 2! We will be taking two weeks away from our Hopeful Flowers project as we have two different stitch along reveals coming up. Next week will be our block reveal for the Potted Petals Stitch Along, and the week after that will be the Winter Wonderland Stitch Along reveal—definitely a busy time at Through the Needle's Eye! Hopefully everyone can use that time to catch up on these blocks or maybe join the fun of either or both of the stitch alongs just mentioned.

Links:

Hopeful Flowers Block 2

Hopeful Flowers Block 1 

Hopeful Flowers Supply List

Hopeful Stitchers Facebook Group

Mary Corbet-Pekinese Stitch Video

Hopeful Bluebird Stitching Smalls

Back in April, we introduced our Hopeful Bluebird Stitch-Along during those uncertain times at the beginning of the pandemic—it certainly helped to keep us occupied as we all stayed at home. Our Hopeful Bluebird Facebook group was created and we really enjoyed seeing everyone's version of the wallhanging. Because it was so fun, we wanted to keep that fun going by creating more options to use our pattern so we created some sewing smalls that used our Hopeful Bluebird motifs. And to make it even easier to create, we have put together a kit for all four sewing smalls! 

The limited edition kits are available on our website starting today and will include all the wool needed. The Hopeful Bluebird pattern is available in our store in either digital or printed form if you don't have it already.

Each week, for the next 3 weeks, we will give you the instructions to create the showcased small for that week. This week we are creating our pansy scissor keeper which will be a pretty complement for those special scissors—pair that with our scissor fob that we showed you a couple of weeks ago (HERE) and your scissors will be set.

Hopeful Bluebird Scissor Keeper

Cut your wool out using your templates
and staple or fuse and then appliqué.

Stitch the vine onto your scissor keeper 
top. We used #12 pearl cotton.

Blanket stitch the top of your keeper front
with #12 pearl cotton, starting and stopping
an eighth of an inch from the ends.

Assemble your scissor keeper by placing
the keeper top on the top of the back piece, 
then place your front on top of that
aligning the edges.

Pin or staple all your pieces together to keep them in place and then 
blanket stitch around the entire scissor keeper.
Sometimes I lightly draw a line around the edge of the piece I am
working on to help keep my blanket stitches even.

(The first scissor keeper we made had a purple pansy, but we changed that out later to make it purple and orange as those colors looked better with the rest of the projects.)

The leaves are stitched down with an angled blanket stitch.

To add a little pop of color, you can make a
few straight stitches in a contrasting color
on the bottom three petals.

The finished vine.

If you choose to purchase the kit (and we hope you do!) your kit will include all the wool needed to make all the smalls including the scissor fob. The cream background for all of them is a 12" square and we have included a picture here of how we laid our templates out to make sure all your pieces will fit.

These little sewing treats would make lovely gifts for a fellow stitcher or for yourself and let's face it—we can always use some new stitching items! If you don't have the pattern, you can head to the website to purchase it in either digital or printed form. While you are at the website, feel free to pick up a kit while you are there.  Just click on the Hopeful Bluebird link in our shop.

The next step will be to download the instructions for the scissor keeper. You can do that below or better yet, join our Hopeful Bluebird Facebook Group. All the links to the instructions will be there as well and you can share your progress, and maybe make a few new friends. We also have an ongoing giveaway that is running. All you have to do to enter is post a picture in the Facebook Group of any Hopeful Bluebird project you have done or are doing. The giveaway will close on November 23rd and the winner will be revealed on Thanksgiving Day, November 26th.

Update!

The Giveaway is now closed, but you can now purchase the Hopeful Bluebird Sewing Smalls Printed Pattern along with the wool kits using the link below.

Hopeful Bluebird Pattern and Kit

Hopeful Bluebird Facebook Group

If you are already a member, please share our group with a friend. The more the merrier and the more inspiration and encouragement we will receive from one another. We can't wait to see everyone's stitching treasures!

Happy Stitching

Spring Wool "Egg"citement!

Well, at least in Maryland, spring seems to be determined to stay this time. Given typical Maryland weather, I (Kara) wouldn't bet my life on it, but my hope "springs" eternal. Winter always seems to hold on just a bit longer than we would like, but now the forsythia is beginning to come out (for the second time) and my hyacinths have deemed it safe to bloom. When I have had enough of winter but it is still sticking around, I like to put touches of spring inside the house—just to remind me that warmer weather and flowers will come eventually. That is why it seemed like a good time to come up with some new spring decorations. 

Our wool acorns last fall were so much fun, I thought I would adapt that process to make some wool eggs in happy, spring colors. I went through my wool stash and was able to find some scraps that would work perfectly. Once I picked the wool, it was time to choose the embroidery floss. I have really enjoyed working with Weeks Dye Works floss, so that was what I decided to use for this project.

The floss and wool colors are almost an "eggs"act match!

The first step was to cut out a pattern. I wanted to keep these eggs small so my egg shape was 7/8 of an inch at the widest part and 1.5" tall. 

Next, I traced my 3 egg pieces on the wool and then cut them out.

Using two strands of floss, I put two egg pieces together and starting from the bottom (the fatter part of the egg) I blanket stitched them together, stopping at the top.

The first two pieces ready to stitch

Blanket stitched from the bottom, stopping at the top

Two sides stitched together

When I got to the top, I added my third piece and blanket stitched to the bottom.

After the two sides were stitched, I added my embroidery embellishment using various stitches: stem, chevron, herringbone, lazy daisy and french knots. I started at one end and traveled across to the other. 

A few little straight stitches using two strands of floss

Herringbone and stem stitches

Once I was happy with the embellishment, I stitched the third side starting at the top and stopping about a 1/4 of an inch from the bottom center.

Stopping at this point leaves an opening just big enough for stuffing.

I unthreaded my needle at this point and put it aside, leaving the threads hanging. Then I used a toothpick to help me get the polyfill stuffing in the egg and I packed it pretty tightly.

This much stuffing actually fit into the egg.

Almost full, but needs a little bit more to round it out.

When the egg was full, I threaded my needle again and stitched the hole closed using a blanket stitch.

A finished egg!

As part of this project, I really wanted to create a nest using the sari silk that I used in the Secret Garden. My first attempt was to stitch the sari silk into a nest, but I quickly realized that sewing it was not going to work, mainly because I didn't have the patience for it. So I thought I would glue it together using some fabric glue and a pyrex dish as a mold. The glue I was using wasn't holding very well and it showed up on the outside. 

Attempt #2

Not loving the glue

Not what I was going for 

My next thought was to still use the pyrex cup as a mold, only this time use the inside. I soaked a length of sari silk in starch, layered it into the cup, and baked my nest for a couple of hours until it was dry. It worked to a certain degree, but the layers did not stick together very well. I think this process has potential, but I was tired of fussing with nests.

Starch soaked sari silk.

My nest before baking.

A loosely woven and somewhat crunchy nest.

The creative process has its ups and downs, and my nest-making efforts were mostly downs, but that is the way it works sometimes. I really wanted to have a nest for my eggs and remembered that I already had a pre-made nest from Michaels and decided it was just perfect!

My hyacinths provided a lovely photo backdrop for my nest full of eggs

Five tiny eggs all in a row

While my nest attempts didn't turn out, these eggs went together so quickly and turned out "eggs"actly as I had hoped. If you give them a try, let us know; we'd love to see your pictures! If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments section. Hopefully, spring will come to your neck of the woods soon. If she hasn't, make up some of these little eggs to remind you that she is on her way.

P.S. If you haven't already, go over to our post, Happy Birthday to Us! and leave a comment there, telling us which of our posts over the past two years is your favorite—and why. You could win a Marcia's Flowers pattern in the color palette of your choice! The giveaway closes on Sunday, April 2, at midnight.

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