Cross stitch floss tag sent - Tiny Treasures Exchange

Cross stitch floss tag sent - Tiny Treasures Exchange
Originally uploaded by bluecornflowers

The other side of the floss tag. Thanks so much to Sharon for the free pattern - have a look at her website she has loads of fabulous patterns she has designed herself! And they are all free! http://www.xstitchhappy.com/

Cross stitch floss tag sent - Tiny Treasures Exchange

Cross stitch floss tag sent - Tiny Treasures Exchange
Originally uploaded by bluecornflowers

My very first floss tag made by me - ever! You can't see very well from the phot but the top is white ribbon. I decided against using eyelets as I couldn't find the right size - they were either too big or too small to fit the floss ring. I think the ribbon is a nice option! I have never made a hexagonal thing before - I used the same technique as on the biscornu to stitch the two sides together, inserting a piece of card inside for strength. My partner likes dragonflies, so this free pattern from Sharon's website was perfect. I had to use beads of course, plus it gives the dragonfly a lovely blue and gold shine!

My first tiny biscornu

Made for a tag swap with "moosemama" in Canada. I really liked making this - its another Aurelle biscornu pattern and is only 20 stitches square. It was quick and easy to sew - until the final bit of sewing it together! It is a lovely size, and fits into a floss box to hold all your needles. My model is Max - so bear in mind the size of a 5 year old child's hand when you see the picture!

Bottlecap pincushions

I made some bottlecap pincushions for another swap on swapbot. For these ones I had a brown felt base (flowerpot), green leaves cut from felt (and just tacked on in 4 places), and then cut out white flowers and secured them with tiny yellow buttons. They are so cute! They are really easy to make, use bottlecaps from water or soft drink bottles, and only use tiny amounts of fabric, threads etc so are ideal for using up your scraps. You need to use felt for the bottom to cover the bottlecap, but the rest is up to you. There are some fantastic tutorials online to make these and if you look at flickr there are some beautiful pincushions being made by people. I will put the tutorial links to the sidebar. The great thing about these pincushions is that they are ideal for putting into your floss box, as they are the perfect size - so no more loose needles! Once you put your needles or pins into the bottlecap they are really secure and can't come through or come loose. Great recycling!

My first biscornu

I made my first biscornu and sent it to BW in the Tiny Treasures Exchange. Unfortunately BW's computer is down so she hasn't emailed me or posted pictures of it yet. So here are the first pictures! I used freebie patterns from the Aurelle site pattern numbers 8 and 9, varigated thread from Anchor and Mill Hill beads. I was really pleased with my first biscornu, and made another for myself!

The tutorial I used to make the biscornu I have put on my side tab called "Biscornu tutorial". I was quite scared of doing this, and started off working in front of my PC with the tutorial in front of me! The basic principle was to stitch 50 straight stitches around your finished pattern on each side. Then line up the top left hand corner of your bottom piece to the centre of one side and start whipstitching the two together. You end up the biscornu shape which is really pretty.

A wonderful swap I received from Karen

One of our neighbours came over with a big box for me the other day, and I wasn't sure what it was. It was a fantastic swap that Karen sent from the US - the biggest pincushion I have ever seen, plus a small pincushion for your thumb, a Christmascross stitch magazine full of great new projects for me to do (only problem, where to start?), and a DMC metallic thread. This package really made my day! Karen even kindly let me know where the pattern was that she made the pincushion - the link is http://www.fatquartershop.com/Free-Quilt-Patterns/Free-Quilt-Patterns-Homespun-Hearts-Pincushions.asp

Just the scraps Ma'am!

This is probably one of the most interesting swaps I have done on swapbot, you had to use only scraps and create something to send to your partner. I made a pincushion and a needlebook to send to Daiva. She liked these too - I got the idea from one of my flickr groups to use the printing strips on the side of fabric. I am so glad I got Daiva as a partner as she is in the USA so would appreciate the "Made in United Kingdom" strips! I really liked these when I had made them - I used some buttons I had got from button swaps as well. I am still waiting to see what my partner is sending to me - the swap isn't due for sending out until 16th April so I may have to be paitent for a while!