Thursday, August 7, 2014

Cottage Garden Needlebook


Here, at long last, is my Cottage Garden needlebook, made up and ready for service. It is the cover project from Inspirations #53, designed by Kris Richards. I bought the kit in 2007, started the embroidery shortly thereafter, and finished the stitching early last year. 18 months ago!!

It's been languishing because I wanted to change the inside design to add pockets for needle packets, but there wasn't really enough fabric in the kit. And I really liked the pink and cream yarn dye that came in the kit:


But finally I realized that with a basement full of fabric, I could surely find something else that would also be nice. I came up with this romantic print from the Mary Rose collection by Quilt Gate:


The needlebook measures about 6" x 6" closed. I'm using it to keep all my milliner's needles in one place. So I added three 2" x 3" pockets to the inside front...


...and the inside back:


A nice thick wool felt came with the kit for the pages, which I cut to 5" x 10". It stays well inside the cover, which was my intention!


There is a three loop closure made from ribbon and beads, which was only partially successful. My first plan was to use elastic. That would have been better, but I couldn't find it in the right colour. Next time!

With this design, the back cover is just as nice as the front:


So, there it is, only my second finish for 2014, and it's already August! Time to pull up my socks and finish off a couple more that are close to the end. Now the challenge is to avoid pulling out another Inspirations kit from my stash until I get at least a few more things done!

13 comments:

  1. How lovely! Your embroidery is so intricate and exquisite!

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  2. So pretty! I love the fabric you chose for the inside. I have a small one that I embroidered that was a Lynette Anderson pattern. I like the idea of one a bit bigger!

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  3. It turned out beautiful! Lovely stitches!
    I too have this issue and got it precisely because of this needle book which is in the magazine's cover.

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    1. Thank you very much! I also have the kit for the thread cutter cover, *and* I also really like the koala needlebook in this issue too. It was a great issue!

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  4. Congratulations! A beautiful needle book. Your choice of the romantic rose print inside the cover is perfect. Time to celebrate a beautiful finish.

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  5. This is so pretty! You did a fantastic job on the embroidery! I have a needle case on my to do list.

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  6. Great idea to use for all milliners needles. I agree that having space for packets in a needle book improves usability no end. The fabric is a great match. I also love cottage garden embroideries. It's good that you hung in there to get exactly what you wanted - and still finished it! Enjoy using it.

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    1. LOL, thanks very much, Jillian! It is nice when things work out as planned. I hope to get a lot of use from it!

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