Needle Books Next Steps

Needle Books Next Steps

Continuing on from my last post about making felt for needle books, Felt for Needle Books  I started sewing them together. Well,  first I had to iron them all which always takes much longer than you think it will. Everyone forgets to mention this step or they just say iron your pieces like it’s nothing at all. There are no pictures of ironing, as fascinating as that might have been, I didn’t take any pictures.

I also only took one picture when I was sewing them together. There was much swearing, and unpicking that you didn’t need to see.

After sewing them together I had to think about how to decorate them. I went online and looked for line drawings.  You can find them in any theme you like. I looked for sewing. I also used some I had saved from other projects. I traced them onto a nonwoven dissolvable stabilizer.  This is great stuff and it doesn’t take much to dissolve it. You can’t use a marker for tracing, it dissolves the stabilizer. I used a thick pencil to trace my designs.

On to the stitching. The first one is a snail. I picked a variegated embroidery floss. I used all 6 threads because I wanted a heavy line.

You will notice that in the first of the snail pictures the book is sewn together but in the other 2 pictures, it is pinned together. After stitching the snail I realized I stitched it so the inside is upside down and so I have unpicked the thread holding it all together and will sew the inside in the right way.

This one I really didn’t know how to embellish, I have another one almost the same. I decided on a backstitched chain stitch using 2 similar colours. I didn’t need the dissolvable stabilizer for this one. It’s a bit wonky, but there you go.

I also did the smallest book.

Closed the little book is only 2.25  inches (5.7cm) square. That is big enough to hold some needles and a thread saver. This book only has one double, needle page. All the others have two, and they all have 2 pockets. I have one more smallish one and the rest are all bigger. The biggest ones are 4.5 inches (11.3 cm) square so big enough for a small pair of scissors. After I get all of the embroidered I will have to add some buttons and ties or elastics to them. Elastics can look messy if you don’t have layers to hide the ends between. How do you deal with cut ends when adding them to a project?

This is what’s new on the farm this week. These are baby chicks.

And these are baby turkeys. There is not much difference between them as day olds. But only a few days on and the turkeys have grown necks.

Five of them got stepped on by there friends and had isolated themselves away from the heat so they had to come inside and live in a box with a heat lamp, in my sewing room for a few days.

Here they are all better, in a bucket for their trip back to the group. this is the safest way for them to traves without getting hurt or too scared.  You can see how they have grown in just a few days. Not sure why the look so grubby in the picture because they weren’t, just the light I guess.

 

 

 

16 thoughts on “Needle Books Next Steps

  1. Yeh, like it’s pretty normal to have chicks in your sewing room !?! They are cute.

    Your needle books are lovely – something about the pinked edges of the insides that takes you back a few decades to happy childhood sewing memories.

    Will you be adding them to your stock for shows/fairs? They would make pretty gifts.

    1. Don’t you have baby turkeys in your sewing room? Mostly it is the room that the cats can be kept out of. We didn’t want any snacking. LOL. Yes I remember when my mom pinked the edges of things and playing with her pinking shears. My plan is to add them to the sale table. Now to figure out how many I should have on hand.

  2. These turned out really nicely Ann. They look very neat even though they caused unpicking and swearing. We have wild turkeys around but I have not seen any babies yet. Should see some soon though. I will have to invite some in to my sewing room 😁

    1. Thanks Ruth. the unpicking was my own fault so I can’t complain to much. I would like a picture if you have wild turkey babies in your sewing room. Maybe a video of you trying to get them out again. LOL

    1. Thank you. They are very cute little things. I will try to take a picture of them as they get to their ugly stage and then again when they have all their feathers.

  3. Your needle books are a great collection for your stock, I’m sure they will be snapped up.

    Pinking shears….definitely has brought back memories of a time when everything had that edge.

    Your chicks are so cute & again has brought back memories….of the abandoned Days old baby duck we found in our garden. I became it’s mum. It nestled in my elbow & would run up my shoulder & would If I let it (!!!) into my long hair….a feather nest substitute maybe. We have videos of it following me everywhere. After 3 wks, of nurturing (heat lamps, regular feeding, cleaning), knowing it would survive, we passed it to a bird sanctuary.

    Ha, the thought of ‘loose’ cute chicks running around in anyone’s sewing room….think….poop!

    Hope to see more photos

    1. Thanks Antje, you chick sounds adorable. And yes poop. You can’t house train a chicken. if they are in a box the poop is contained but they generate an incredible amount of dust. best to keep them in the barn if at all possible.

  4. The needle books look ideal, Ann. I particularly like the tape measure – I must have a very literal mind! The baby birds are SO cute, and I can just imagine the cats eyeing them longingly. As for bird stories, we looked after a rescued baby magpie when I was young. Fortunately it lived in the garden shed rather than a sewing room. I remember we had to tempt it to open its beak then when it did, shove food quite firmly into its throat. Happily it wasn’t anxious to get in my hair & we were able to it set it free when it could fend for itself.

  5. The needle books are lovely and a great idea. The chicks in the sewing room wow!

  6. the Needle books are a grate idea.

    you have the best decore, lambs decorating your living room and now turkeys in your sewing room! i cant even talk my hubby into a clidesdale in the garage!! ok we live in the capital city and the garrage is sinking so it would have to be a vary short clidesdale now. i suspect bylaw would notice eventualy. (what if i called my horse Spot or rover and clamed it was just a vary large breed of non-barking dog?)

    1. Thanks Jan. Lets hope the fall sales happen so people can buy them. Once the new commuter train goes practically past your door you can sell your city home for lots of money and move to the country where a clydsdale is a perfectly acceptable pet.

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