All of my hand stitching time this week was spent finishing an embroidered pillow that a friend of mine made for a gift and asked me to finish for her. The deadline for gift giving was yesterday, and it took way longer than you could ever imagine. I was getting a bit panicky that I wouldn't be able to finish it in time. It was NOT relaxing sewing!
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| adding piping |
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| wrong foot to join pillow sides |
Also I don't have the correct sewing machine foot, and couldn't get the piping attached properly using the walking foot or the free motion foot.
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| correctly attached piping |
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| incorrectly attached piping |
SO much better.
I tried "self threading needles" that I bought at Fabricland thinking this might be a really great thing for my old eyes.
Nope it wasn't.I could not figure out how to make it thread itself. I thought of making a video of my attempts because it was quite comical, but I didn't since it might make me look ridiculous if there was something obvious I was missing about this process!
I hand stitched the side opening. This loose weave Monks cloth was so hard to deal with, and frayed every time I looked at it!
Finally it was finished!
My hands were aching and my nerves (and the cloth!) were frayed by the end.
What a relief to be done with a couple of hours to spare!
Today I'll be relaxing with some easy hand quilting on my Friendship Album quilt.
What are you hand stitching today? Link up your project below and share your progress with us.
18 comments:
You were a very good friend to turn the counted cross stitch into a pillow for your friend. I always have piping too when I made dresses for my daughter oh so long ago. Happy Stitching!
Very nice finish on the pillow. Today you can slow down, breathe and relax with hand quilting. :-)
So nice of you to be dedicated to get it finished in time. You deserve a slow, relaxing stitching project for today. Glad the piping turned out nice after the hard work of hand stitching it. I am not a fan of the self threading needles. I bought a bag of cheap needle threaders and they are my friends when my Bells Palsy flare ups make it so that I can't thread the needle. There were almost always self-threading needles on the "free" pile at our guild meetings. Seems like others in our guild didn't like them much either, but there was always someone that wanted to try them (often times to return them the next time we had a "free" pile.) Happy stitching.
You did a wonderful job on the pillow! It is frustrating not to have the right foot. On those self threading needles, I have the same ones, and love them. There is a notch at the top of the needle, lay your thread across the notch and pop it into the eye. Works beautifully, and the only way I can get a needle threaded to tie off threads on the longarm.
nice looking pillow!
Definitely not relaxing!! But it turned out cute!
That pillow looks beautiful. I usually use a zipper foot for putting on piping. It works pretty well. I have yet to try those self-threading needles.
I tried self-threading needles, but the thread (Auriful) kept shredding so I gave up. I also gave up burying all the thread ends from FMQ. Life is too short and I'm not making show quilts. You are a dedicated friend to finish that pillow.
Pat
Great job on the pillow. I think I usually use a zipper foot also. You did wonderfully though by hand. I know what you mean about eyes. I keep waiting for my eyes to be bad enough to get cataract surgery, but it hasn't happened yet. I got one of those things to help thread the machine needle and haven't figured it out yet. My machine is supposed to have a threader too, but haven't figured that out!
It took me a while to figure out the self-threading needles, too! Once I found this explanatory video, I finally got it. I use them to bury threads after quilting, but I don't think they would be great for lots of handwork. The thread pulls back out of the eye almost as easy as it goes in.
Here's the video that gave me the "Aha!" moment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn-1RDKKcOU
Your post made me smile. I really felt your pain! But the pillow looks great so job well done!
You are such a wonderful friend to finish the pillow which turned out lovely. to use self threading needles just lay the thread on top of the notch and push down you will hear a slight snap and the thread is in place. My only draw back is sometimes the thread pops out of the needles eye but that's just me pulling to tight.
Yes, you are an awesome friend to finish that pillow--I hate installing piping! You did a great job ! Happy stitching!
The pillow came out lovely - very pretty with piping. Perhaps I will pick up my hand quilting pillow - you reminded me that if we stick with a project despite the challenges, we will have a beautiful finish. Thank you!
I am impressed that you were able to make a pillow with piping. It looks great. I don't know how to use those self threading needles either, but I tend to look up directions for pretty much everything on youtube. I did see someone thread a regular needle bu resting the thread on top of a toothbrush which looks like it might work with a couple of tries.
What a great pillow!! the thread in rainbow is really pretty!
Well done with the pillow, even if it did cause you some angst, it looks amazing.
I have several packages of pre-made piping (thrift stores are great) but I've never tried using it yet. Maybe one of these days.
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