Sewing Guild Competition

It was a very rainy and cold night tonight. Tornados spotted in Denver and hail. I was a little worried that we would not have a good turn out for our little competition. Well, I was amazed at just how many of our members braved the weather and came out to our event/meeting. Our local American Sewing Guild Chapter had a challenge at tonights meeting. The challenge was to buy something at the Good Will for $10.00 or less and use 50% of it in a project. The catagories were,
Home Decorating, Wearable Art, Accessories and Toys. The prizes were $20.00 for the first place in each category. It was so much fun.

This is a doll based on the idea of a Kachina doll.
All the parts were found in the yard or some stach fabric.The face is off a metal lid. The feathers came from a pigeon.

     This picture shows pillows made by members. The white pillow is made from scrap sheets. The round pillow is made from men's ties and won first place in the Home Dec department.

 

This is a view of a few purses and an apron. The apron is with all the many many pockets. The white purse with flowers is made from pants found at the Good Will.

The jacket is re-constructed from a full length jacket. The member made the hand knit scarf also. It has side slit pockets, bound button holes and felted flowers on the collar. There are two collars. The larger collar is original to the jacket and now is detachable.

The t-shirt on the far left is embellished with elastic rhinestones. This t-shirt created a discussion where the members are asking for a class on t-shirt embellishments. The black shirt in the middle is a western shirt made out of 3 different fabrics with adjustable sleeves and a rhinestone zipper for the front closure. The garment on the far right is a tunic that can be worn over a bathing suit or around the house.

The stuffed animals are made out of socks and are so adorable. This also created discussion on a future workshop in the guild chapter. The blanket is a stuffed animal sewing on the blanket. The blanket is stitched on a long arm quilting machine. Our member made so many of them and shared them with all the members.

The apron is a custom designed pattern by our member. She used a crochet doily on the pocket. There is a strawberry pin cushion hanging on the top of the apron. She created a unique ruffle for the bottom of the apron using modified squares.

The purse is using left over fabric from the jacket and the flower is a felted flower. All the members had so much fun making these creations. Our little competitions are bringing out everyone's creative side. Several suggestions were given for future competitions.

Hardanger Embroidery

I know have finished my first piece of Hardanger."Hardanger embroidery is named after a region in southwest Norway in the county of Hardaland by the Hardanger Fjord. However, it is thought to have orignated from the Middle East. From there it spread to Eruope with ties to the Reticella and Venetian needle laces. Reticella is a very geometric style with foundations in squares, diagonals, triangles, and arcs. Venetian lace dates from the 16th to the 19th century characterized by deep, acute-angled points stitched in separate pieces and linked together by a narrow band with buttonholing." (information from the Sons of Norway organization) I love doing this style of emboidery and now sewing my way through all the levels in the Sons of Norway to become a teacher of Hardanger. The piece I have done is a cream and sugar doily. The stitches I used in this piece are: Kloster, Dove's eye, Cable stitch, Button hole stitch, Woven bars, Eyelets and of course cutting threads. This is done on 22-count Hardanger fabric.

Here I am just starting to layout what I am going to do. I serged the edges of the fabric to keep it from fraying.

I started doing the Buttonhole stitches to set up the pattern.

Close up of the work.

This is the finished piece, cream and sugar doily. It measures roughly 4" by 6". 

The next piece I have done is heart shaped and will be part of a sampler I am making.

Almost done with this piece.

Close up of the heart done in cross stitch, kloster, woven bars, dove's eye, picots, cutting of threads. I will be adding more pieces over the next few months.