Winter Quaker Exchange

I saw on the BB today that my 'Winter Quaker' exchange had reached its destination which is always a relief :-)) This is what I stitched for Veronica on our theme of blue and white. It is The Needleworkers Pocket by designer Ellen Chester 'With My Needle' from the JCS 2003 Ornament magazine. I used antique white 32ct linen and an Anchor thread 921 as that shade of blue was very much like a denim blue...seen as I love the colour of my jeans :-) I had also figured that with Veronica being a Spanish American she might like quite a strong colour.

The front of the pocket

I loved stitching this quaker design but I did especially love doing the finishing as I had never made anything like this before. It was quite a challenge but to be honest I like to challenge myself and I like to try to improve my skills. I got some lovely striped, faded denim blue and white fabric in a soft cotton for the lining, the day I was in York, from The Viking Loom. I had also got some blue silk for this but the stripe fabric looked better with it :-) This was made as the finishing instructions with the 'warm and natural' batting inside the layers to give it a slightly padded look. It took time in trying to get the measurements spot on so that with 8 layers in total, 4 each side, it laid nice and smooth and not wrinkled as it has no card or board in it for stiffening. For the back I kept it simple and personalised it with our initials and the year.

The back of the pocket

I made my own cording using the same 921 colour thread that it was stitched with, as I have no special tool, I do this by knotting my lengths together at one end then putting it on my curtain tie-back hook and then twist and twist and twist...

This is the second try I have had at making a tassel and feel I have improved on this. I got a little tip from a friend ;-) so thanks for that :-) The trick here was to try to get two matching ones....hmmmmm... this took a good bit of time and fiddling about but luckily I managed :-)

My tassel

I completely hand-sewed the whole thing from start to finish...so now you know what finish took me from the morning until the night to do. I really fancy to make myself something with this finish at some point :-)





Hope you all have a nice weekend with lots of happy stitching time ;-)

See you soon and I will catch up with all your blogs in the near future, I think I am in this year now...!!