Here they are, back from their travels, edged in a rather daring shade of lime green. The idea was to give a hint of the greenness that you see in young immature cones. Also, I didn't want them to look too heavy, which wouldn't be in keeping with the rest of the quilt, where I have used lighter, fresher colours rather than the autumnal tints of this particular panel.
We dropped through the clouds today and found ourselves back on home ground, feeling that familiar chill and trying to be philosophical about the fact that it is still raining.
The pine cones have enjoyed their holiday and are looking much better for it.
Look what came sailing past on Friday evening. The wind brought a great flight of balloons over our house. All I had to do was grab the camera and run upstairs and hang out of the attic window. It was very obliging of the Team GB balloon to fly past over the fields and beyond the neighbours' roofs, dangling over a sunlit slice of English landscape. Far less scary than the two balloons that flew directly over us within scraping distance of the chimneys.
There will now be a slight interruption to this blog. We are going away for a couple of weeks to stay with my husband's relatives. If the technology (ie. a cousin's computer) allows it, I may be able to put up some posts while we are away. The sewing machines will lie idle today while I pack the underwear, toothbrush and hand sewing. The pine cones are travelling with me.
To demonstrate this little trick I have used green for the new thread.
On the back of the work, pass the needle through the loop of the new thread...
... then bring the old thread to the back of the work with the next stitch.
Now take the needle off the old thread and put it on the new thread, and carry on sewing.
Welcome to JeanInMaine - thank you for following!
For the blanket stitch around appliqué I always use four strands of stranded embroidery cotton. It has to be an even number of strands because I start it off with a loop. Leave the loop showing at the the top of the stitch on the right side and pass the needle through the loop to make the first stitch.
The fun starts when you need to start a new thread.
If you want to add detail and keep the result accurate, then make a stencil of the pattern and pin it to the back so that the bobbin thread shows on the right side. With so many lines of stitching there are bound to be tiny shreds of paper which can be difficult to remove. Because the stencil is on the back it does not matter so much about little shreds being left behind, because they will not show.
I have now nearly finished these pine cones - just the blanket stitch is left to do.
Hello Raghuvansh - thank you for joining as a follower!
A bit of machine stitched detail can liven up the appliqué. These veins on shamrock leaves were added from the right side, so it is the top thread showing. A bit of uncomplicated detail can be added without a pattern - just make it up as you go along.
Hello Linda! Thank you for following.
