Damp stretching the leaf

I am damp stretching the fabric around the leaf

 

I do it with pins on an iron board (which I made myself).

I learned it from Karen Ruane when I took part in the button class.

http://karenruane.blogspot.de/

 

The leaf - Tast stitches # 74 - 76

 

The last stitches were

Zig-zag chain stitch # 74 (dark green)

Vandyke stitch # 76 (white)

Woven zig-zag chain stitch # 75 (variegated thread with light blue) (below the white French knots)

 

Mit Blogsy veröffentlicht

Pin cushion

I am enthusiastic about my pin-cushions

 

 

 

As the border was not high enough I had to "mend" it a little with

the very interesting and practical stitch of SharonB's

Tast challenge. the up-and-down-feathered-buttonhole stitch. 61

 

click here for the stitch and for the Tast challenge

Leaf - Tast challenge

A new stitch - wrapped coral stitch - the  Tast challenge stitch no. 72

Some more stitches

I felt like adding two lines of coral stitches

right side above the buttonholed double chain

And the fancy hem stitch (67) which was still missing
My lines are rather close so the wrapping cannot be seen so well

Not very sharp -
the red lines are the fancy hem stitches

And great success for me: I learned how to add text under each photo!

Tast stitches

Some new stitches on my leaf which I am filling in slowly

 

 

 

Left side: in yellow the slipped detached chain stitches

and in green buttonholed double chain.

I used very thin fil à broder in green

 

 

 

The slipped detached chain stitches

 

 

The stitch of today June 11, 2013, Tast stitch 70

crested chain stitch

 

 

The leaf is lying upside down now -

the green stitches are

buttonholed double chain stitches (69)

 

 

 

Ball buttons and more...

Another kind of a button - a ball button -was shown by Karen Ruane in her class Buttons and more. Look at her blog if you want to know more.

Now this has nothing to do with a button -

 it is a fallen down leaf of my poinsettia

I like the shell appearance of this dry leaf

I changed it with my photo program

and I like it even more

A lovely surprise for me in our letter box:

 

A Christmas card flew in from Australia -

Linda made it - thank you so much  Linda -

The tree is gold-colour and has sparkling sequins

and a golden star on top of it. 

I like it so much that I took the photo on a luxury handkerchief

which might be more than hundred years old

because it shows the monogram of this lovely young girl

disguised as a dutchwoman

The handkerchief was probably made by Sophie,

a great-grand-aunt of mine, for her wedding.

The picture was taken in 1901.