Potholders for Sue

I’m starting to feel like myself again. We bought our first home in May, and the summer has been full of moving and settling in to our new space. I plan to post on my new sewing set up soon.

The last thing I sewed in my previous sewing studio were a pair of potholders for great aunt Sue. A few years ago I made her a pair for Christmas, and when we visited most recently, she had used them down to nothing.

I love when something I made is used so much! With much pleasure I played with a few scraps of color, and soon had a pair of potholders to send to her.

Not too long after, I packed up all my sewing supplies, and said goodbye to my studio set up as it was. Now I’m thoroughly settled, and look forward to showing off my new place!

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July and August Swatch of the Month

July and August swatch of the month were a joy to stitch. I now carry this project with me everywhere, and each moment I have a few extra minutes I sew.

I have to be honest, that seeing July and August were more polka dots… Can you guess? It was so disappointing. I am done with polka dots! But perhaps continuing to work in a simple theme allows more creativity?

At a ladies’ night, I was sharing this frustration of mine with polka dots, and one woman said wow, polka dots, that’s so cool, kind of like spirals. And I was thrilled. Spirals!

So with that, the July swatch of the month polka dots became spirals, and I stitched with beads and a running stitch spirals over it all and loved it. I also threw in one extra dot not matching the pattern just because I could.

While the August swatch of the month was still polka dots, this time it combined many of the previous techniques, which perked my interest. I also chose to embellish with sequins and running stitches, combining many colors of thread to mix things up.

I’ve really been enjoying stitching repeating rows of running stitches, in addition to using beads for embellishments. Probably because of my quilting background! I am drawn to the texture and simplicity of multiple rows of running stitches next to each other.

Now I’m off to September’s swatch of the month, which while still polka dots, is using the couching method, which I’ve always wanted to do. More on that when it is complete!

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