After a long time ....

... posting again. 

I am taking a class with Karen Ruane "Embroidery School". Here is the link to her

very inspiring site: http://karenannruane.typepad.com/karen_ruane/

We are stitching by hand but also by machine - FME - free machine embroidery.

I always liked to make holes and then surround them by buttonhole stitches.

French knots never fail to be applied - they are so decorative.

We can also play with paper strips - also fixed by FME

and overlayed with homemade lace

Fabric is a great theme, too. Hand sewn seams.

Embellishment with bullion knots and beads. 

Appliqued octagons - the English paper piecing comes in handy.

I surrounded them with rope stitch. If you would like to know how to

make rope stitch - here is the link to SharonB's stitch dictionary:

http://pintangle.com/2014/04/29/take-a-stitch-tuesday-110-and-111-rope-stitch-

and-zig-zag-coral-stitch/

It is 1" in diameter

More embellishment - a fabric buttonhole and as a gag a little

square piece of lace on the point - from a secondhand shop in France.

A hexagon filled with silk with some beads and next to it

a little pocket - it is open on top

I embellished it later with bulllion and French knots.

You can find all those stitches in SharonB's stitch dictionary.

These silvery beads are called "smooth purl" - they come as a long string

and you cut them as short or long as you wish. Normally used for gold work.

I ordered them at 

http://www.sarahhomfray.com/shop/search.php?q=smooth+purl 

(absolutely no affiliation).

This time it is the chain stitch which is framing the hexagon. 

I use fil à broder no. 16

A buttonholed loop which of course is never intended to 

be pulled over the square pearl-of-mother button

The embroidery school will still be running for 8 weeks - so there is

more to come.

My pocket

A pocket which I started when Karens Ruane's class "swathed in stitch"

was still running - and then a long interval of no sewing.

But I finished it at last.

The piece of white machine-made lace

- broderie anglaise - was part of the christening robe

of our daughter - when she was a three months old sweet baby.

It was hanging long from the arm of her goduncle who carried her to

the altar in church nearly exactly 49 years ago.

I stitched yellow and green embellishments on it. There is a strip of

yellowish-greenish fabric fixed with French knots and buttonhole stitches.

Fly stitches into the holes.

I made bumps which I learned from Karen. And points of

fine handkerchiefs, cutting them apart mercilessly.

 

It is hanging at the shutter of our farmhouse.

We are awaiting new neighbours for coffee and cake

 

 

They came and we had a lovely talk.

Then we made a walk - oh my, how lovely this tree is with its moss.

We are looking on a neighbour's farm - about 900 m high.

 

Farmers can't have more than 25 cows - there is not enough

pastureland. They sell the milk and are producing cheese -

Münsterkäse. They are very much supported by the state

as no family can live of only 25 cows, not in France and nowhere else

in Europe.