I have joined a wool felt embroidery group this year. Each month we get a new tree pattern and very basic instructions on how to stitch them. I ask a lot of questions and take a lot of photos of other participants’ projects and somehow muddle through. I know I won’t keep up with the monthly schedule but I enjoy working on them.
At the Guild’s 2023 quilt show there as a display from Woolies on the Coast of a chicken block done in wool felt embroidery. I couldn’t get it out of my mind and before I knew it I had convinced Stacia and Deloise to stitch along with me. Not only did we get that first block but we bought the entire series of six, and each of those six had a bonus block.
I was very tentative in starting out and really didn’t have a lot of confidence when I got to the end. I enjoyed the stitching but was thankful for the pile of embroidery books and youtube videos to help me with the various stitches. I also admit I copied some of Stacia’s ideas.
When it came to putting it all together I made up my own version. I wanted to add all the bonus blocks in with the main blocks so added some appliqué vines and flowers. In the end, I was very happy with it.
The next chore was to figure out a way to quilt the project. For the appliqué blocks I as able to do a mattress stitch but I didn’t want to stitch over the embroidered blocks. I decided to hand quilt those larger blocks. I used a big stitch hand quilting technique to finish the project.
This was an entry into the Guild’s 2025 quilt show.
I saw one block of this on display at the 2023 quilt show and before I knew what I was doing I had ordered kits for six blocks. It is my first attempt at wool felt embroidery. I quilted some of this by hand (another first for me) and some on my domestic Janome.
This is one of the books included in Kathryn’s 2025 birthday bag. I saw the idea on Facebook and decided to pass it along. On her birthday Kathryn received a bag of books (second hand that I’ve pre-read) each wrapped in brown paper. The idea is that once a month (on her birthdate) she can pick a book to read. Each book includes a bookmark of some sort.
This was her January (blind) pick.
Click here to see my book review.
January 4, 2025
Kathryn’s birthday is usually the first time I will write the new year – and then forget for a week or so after New Year’s Day. Her birthday present went in the mail yesterday and I think she will receive it before her big day.
I liked the idea of using the flower of the month for my cards this year. I was also making a card for Taylor and I put the stitching too close together. I didn’t have time to make another one for Kathryn so hers ended up being a bit of an odd shape!
Kathryn’s birthday present was from an idea I found on Facebook. I wrapped up twelve books in brown paper and she gets to pick one book each month. Whether or not she reads it doesn’t matter but I tried to find books that I enjoyed. I’ll admit that I read some of them before I wrapped them up, and some of them were rejected. Each book comes with a little surprise inside.