Happy Dance for My Lovely Sewing Tools

Warning  - Photo Heavy!

This is what I wrote back in October 2011:

The new SAL is from the fantastic Gift of Stitching online magazine.  I found this magazine a while back via various blogs.  They were offering 3 issues for $3 which was too good to resist so I signed up.  The magazine pops into your email box at the beginning of each month full of tempting designs.  They are very keen on part works (encourages people to keep buying each issue!) which is great because it makes the larger designs easier to stitch.

I saw a post on Kathy's Blog A Stitcher's Heirlooms about her indecision regarding which project to start next.  I said I wanted to start My Lovely Sewing Tools myself and we went from there.  If you'd like to join us pop over to Kathy's Blog and let her know.  We're also posting our progress on FB if you're a member.  Just search for Gift of Stitching and their page comes up.

I decided to use the DMC conversion as I don't have any Valdani threads.  They are £2.29 each from SewandSo which isn't the most expensive thread but I am supposed to be on a stash diet until Christmas!  I used my Willow Fabrics' voucher to treat myself to some 40count Newcastle linen.  The service was great, I had a glitch on the computer so phoned up the old-fashioned way, had a nice chat with the lady about the project and my fabric duly arrived, nicely packaged and labelled.  It was £13something for a FQ plus P&P so not the cheapest but not bad, and the service was good.

Here is my progress after one evening.  I've started in the middle as I always do.  This is actually Part 3c of the chart.  The charts start at the top left of the piece but I like to start in the middle.  I've used an anonymous variegated thread for the darkest red.  The label is long gone but it came from my now closed LNS.  One strand is about the same as 2 strands of DMC so where the chart calls for one strand I will use the DMC 315 they recommend.

Badly scanned image

So many changes since then, I no longer scan my work for one thing.

19th October, 2011 I wrote - I have also discovered something new to me - size 28 needles.  I kept seeing reference to size 28s so got a pack - aren't they amazing!!   I love them.  And you can use the thread down to the last mm as they're so short.

28th October, 2011:

11th November, 2011 with Madame Muriel the Travelling Granny:

15th March, 2012 (slight break there):

21st April, 2012 as my monthly TUSAL post:

25th April, 2012:

And that was it!  The last of the regular posts.  I did stitch on the border for my Longest Days SALs but other than that it languished rolled up in a tube along with my other UFOs.  Until this year when I decided to make it one of my "19 in '19".  I'd thought I didn't have much more to do but as ever, it took longer than I thought!

May 2019:

June 2019:

July 2019:

End of August 2019:

And now:

Close-ups of the main sections:

One of the things that took the longest was going back to the beginning after I had finished the border and checking I had included everything.  Some things were intentionally left until the end (the beads in the centre of every flower) and some things were not (there is an extra spool in the model that wasn't on the chart so I added it).

I made a few changes apart from using the DMC conversion.  I used a mixture of one strand and two to create texture.  I added the beads in the border, the flower centres and the heads of all the little pins.  Those pin heads are on of my favourite things.  I added charms and buttons according to what I had which would fit.  This is 40 count so I needed tiny things.

Details:

This part was charted for a brass heart charm, a key, a flower charm and a button:

This part was charted for a crown but I really wanted these scissors to be near the S:

This part was charted for the scissors but I had the yarn charm so I wanted that to be near the Y.  It was a little bit big so I frogged the row of stitched under the herringbone and put it there.  Then added a button where the original charm had been:

This is another favourite part.  My original idea was to add the needle I had been using but as I mentioned above, I use 28 petites and it looked too tiny.  So I added a 24 needle I used on a different project.  The chart showed a stitched needle not a real one.

Cute buttons from the local haberdashery, chosen by my friend's daughter with the instructions "they must be under 8mm"

All the spools were satin stitched:

Adorable tiny over one stitches on 40 count and a sweet little tassel:

Finally, the whole piece once again!

  What is your favourite part of the design?