My Stitching Box – Jeanette Douglass

It seems like I’ve been missing in action for ages, but in fact it’s only been just under a month since my last post.

I’ve actually been enjoying a short break on the Isle of Wight and despite it only being around 4 hours away from where I live, I’ve only ever been there on a day trip.   This time, my cousin and I took a five day break and got to see a lot more of island, including the donkey sanctuary and some of the pretty villages, 

as well as enjoying the beautiful gardens of our hotel,

and waking up to this amazing view from my balcony every morning.

There wasn’t a lot of time for stitching while I was away but I did manage a new start, which I will come to at a later date, but over the past month I surprised myself and managed quite a bit, including a big finish.

As you probably know, Cross Stitch Camp 2025 is well underway and when Sheri, Colorado Cross Stitcher told us that the July challenge was to stitch something from our favourite designer, I knew straight away I was going to be working on  ’My Stitching Box’ from Jeanette Douglass again.

I originally started this project as my Leap Year Day start on Feb 29^th 2024, and started and finished the band sampler, although I never FFo’d it at the time. 

I also finished the box top  before putting it away to stitch on other things.

Once I knew what the July challenge was going to be, I decided to pull it out again and stitch Pin Cube.

Now, I know I have said this before, but Jeanette’s colour schemes are always beautiful and once again she has hit the nail on the head with this collection.  They especially come together in the 1 over 1 flower on the top of the cube. 

When it came to the fully finishing, I decided that I wanted it to be firm and opted to use crushed walnut shells for the filling.

I was enjoying working with the silks so much that I decided to keep stitching on the other parts of the box and eventually finished stitching and fully finishing them all.

First was the needle case.

The chart didn’t suggest adding beads to the front, but I had a lot left over from the band sampler and decided to use them.

Then came the scissor case,

Two scissor fobs,

and lastly the pin pillow, which was also filled with walnut shells.

The final thing I had to do was to add some backing and ribbon to the previously stitched band sampler to complete the roll.

And there we have it........a completed Stitching Box!

Happy Stitching!

Sue

x

 My Stitching  Box  

Designer – Jeanette Douglas

Fabric – 32ct Zweigart Evenweave – Antique White

Threads – Classic Colorworks Belle Soie, NPI Silk, Gloriana Silk Floss & Rainbow Gallery Splendor

‘Bee Contained’ Etui by Betsy Morgan

When I started this project back in August 2023,  it was on the back of finishing the 'Virgin Queen's Stitching Wallet' , from the first ‘Willing Hands’ book.

There were so many beautiful Etui and Sewing Box projects in there, and I wanted to stitch them all.

Then I saw somewhere on line, a photo of the ‘Bee Contained Etui', in the Willing Hands Book 2, and knew I had to stitch it too!

I can really recommend these two books if you are looking to stitch a sewing box because there are so many beautiful designs in them.

I collected all the materials together and started stitching, but what I hadn’t realised at the time was that the designer, Betsy Morgan was inspired to design it by my wonderful and very talented ‘on-line’ friend Stasi Buhrman, who is a long time friend of hers.    

Stasi is better known in our community on Instagram as  #stasibee  and she has a blog, Bee-mused and Bee-stitching.

I stitched the larger piece for the box itself first

and put it away for a while, but then in February this year I decided that I needed to get it finished and quickly finished all of the remaining pieces.

After that, it was put away again because I was worried about the detailed finishing that was needed, but this past weekend, I took the bull by the horns, so to speak.

The Etui consists of a six sided box, topped with two sweet Bee charms.

A Needle case

A Scissor Fob

A Thread Winder

Two Measures, one in centimetres and the other in inches

And last be not least is the cutest little Pin Cushion, in the shape of a tiny Bee Hive.

All that remains to do, is to acquire a couple of 'Bee' counting pins and I'll be extremely happy!

I already have another Sewing Box in progress but it’s not from either of the books. 

This one is from Jeanette Douglass, so I’m going to start working on this one again!

 

Happy Crafting!

Sue

x

 

Chart – Bee Contained – from Willing Hands 2

Designer – Betsy Morgan

Fabric – 32ct Linen – Lemon Squash – Nicholas Flamel Designs (Etsy)

Threads – Gloriana Florimell Silks

 

 

 

My Sewing Box

Started 29/2/2024

Designer -  Jeanette Douglas

Fabric – 32ct Murano Linen

Threads – Called for Classic Colouworks Belle Soie, NPI Silk, Gloriana Silk & Rainbow Gallery Splendor

Beads – Mill Hill

 

‘Bee Contained’ Etui by Betsy Morgan

At last my extra skeins of thread have arrived from across the pond , so I knuckled down and finished all the stitching related to my ‘Bee Contained’ Etui.

These are the components that will make up the box.

The pretty hexagon shaped box is edged top and bottom (although it looks like the sides on the stitched piece) with a honeycomb

pattern and the panels that make up the sides are decorated with 1

over one bees, bee hives and crowns, as well as over 2 bees, some blackwork lace, the year and my initials.

Then we go on to the goodies that go inside the box.

 First up is the needle case

Scissor Fob

Ruler

Thread Winder

And finally, the tiny pin cushion

and of all the pieces, this was the piece that gave me the most problems.

I’ve never stitched long arm cross stitch before,  and although we did look at it while taking part in the Academy of Needlework  last year, with Nicola Parkman, I had so much trouble stitching it and just couldn’t  get it right.

If I frogged it once, I frogged it at least half a dozen times, so in the end I found a tutorial that Jean Ferrish had done on her floss tube. . 

If I didn’t already have completely grey hair, I’m sure I would have had a few more by the time I mastered the stitch, Lol! 

But in the end it was so worth the effort, because I love the texture it gives,

Next comes the finishing, which I hope to make a start on next week.  I have the feeling it's going to take some time  but I already have everything gathered that I need, except for the beehive charm that goes inside the lid which I’ve been unable to find so far, but I can always add that at a later date. 

Happy Crafting!

Sue

x

 

Chart – Bee Contained – from Willing Hands 2

Designer – Betsy Morgan

Fabric – 32ct Linen – Lemon Squash – Nicholas Flamel Designs (Etsy)

Threads – Gloriana Florimell Silks

 

‘Bee Contained’ Stitching Box by Betsy Morgan

 Are you the same as me?       

You work on a bigger project and the more you stitch on it, the more you want to finish it.

That’s exactly how I’ve been feeling while working on my stitching box ‘Bee Contained’ by Betsy Morgan.

When you last saw it, I was stitching on the last panel of the hexagonal box.

This week I added my initials, date and the final border, as well as the last 1 over 1 black bee in the panel above.

With that done, I was eager to carry on and continued to stitch the front and back of the needle case,

the front and back of the scissor fob,

and made a start on the two pieces of the ruler, which also have 1 over 1 stitching, but then I run out of the silks.

At that point I continued to stitch the outlines for the thread winder and pin cushion, because they were stitched with cotton pearl thread.

I tried to source Gloriana Florimell silk here in the UK but everywhere seems to be sold out or they only stock the standard Gloriana and not the Florimell that I need, so I’ve had to order from 123 Stitch and wait a week or so, until it arrives before I continue working on it………….so frustrating.

Oh well, it’s not as though I have nothing else I can stitch on, is it?

 

Happy Crafting!

Sue

x

 

Chart – Bee Contained – from Willing Hands 2

Designer – Betsy Morgan

Fabric – 32ct Linen – Lemon Squash – Nicholas Flamel Designs (Etsy)

Threads – Gloriana Florimell Silks