Day 5 What is Your Superpower Stitching Hop

It's here!  It is my featured day along with some other talented blog hop participants. But first, a big thank you to DMC who is sponsoring this round, a good tie in since they make such lovely floss, perle cotton and all those good things we stitchers love.  Did you see their cross stitch pattern for Super Emma on Tuesday?  What fun!  Of course, Mdm Samm of sew we quilt is the one who comes up with these great ideas.  This round  Pauline of The Quilting Queen is our head cheerleader.

Once you get done looking at my attempts at photography, then I hope you will pop on over to see what the others have done today.

THURSDAY APRIL 17

Kathy's Quilts

Made by Me in Red

life, quilts and a cat too

Val Spiers Sews

Quilt Doodle Doodles...

Quilting My Way-5th Generation Quilters Blog

So what is my Superpower?  Like the others before me, none of us seems to want to brag about ourselves or maybe imply perfection at any given task.  There are things that I enjoy doing like cooking and baking, though I have found that is more fun when you can share the results.   I always try to do my best on any stitchery,  sewing project or knitting project that I undertake. However, I find there is always something that needs tweaking, improving, more practice.  Well, you get the idea.  Not going to brag or claim to be an expert.  You think that is a woman thing or just how we were raised??

I didn't struggle long finding something I wanted to stitch up.  Good old Google and an image search led me to this design from Verna Mosquera of the Vintage Spool of the We Love French Knots blog.  I decided to do mine in representational colors rather than the lovely pink Ms. Mosquera used.  Here is a closeup shot of the roses and a bit of the spool done up in variegated floss.  I also used a mix of floss strands to work the parts that were to be metallic.  (Sorry about the shadow marks)

So I stitched the motif all up adding my super power which is stitching, of any kind really.  I love to do "redwork" embroidery but I also love to sew and quilt, even if production has dropped off dramatically in recent months.   I won't get into the why though faithful readers know already.   I chose not to narrow my options and just said "stitcher"

I intended to turn this into a wall hanging but at the last minute decided to make a tote bag instead.    I did not have enough of the red fabric because it was originally to be the  outside border!  I did a search through quiltshops.com for sewing related fabric which led me to the Henry Glass "And Sew On" fabric line and placed an order through Sauder's Fabric.  However, I had bought plenty of the scissors fabric since it was supposed to be the backing with a little leftover for the stash.  It became the interior and accent color instead.  I had a black scroll like print for binding but elected to go with a separation of colors with jumbo rick rack instead.  I have a small stash of black and white fabrics for a sometime down the line project so this will not go to waste.   If anyone wants some of this black jumbo rick rack, let me know as I have a ton of it!  Why did I think I needed three rolls????

I looked at several patterns, took suggestions from my pal Norma via Skype and then ended up with this two tone fabric tote from Make It & Love It  .  I believe she suggested using some fusible interfacing or some such thing to give it a bit more body.  I did not have any nor did I feel like chasing around the county to get any either so I elected to quilt the top layer only.  I did not use their methods for the straps either and by that time I had to piece them to even squeeze them out.  Also it made more sense to me to leave the opening for turning the lining at the very bottom of the bag interior than up along the top edge where errant stitching would show.  The side would have worked too, like you would do with a vest.  Some days those old sewing lessons from Mom come in mighty handy!  BTW, the camera angle is making this look un-square.  It is evenly cut!  You can see the stitchery a bit better in this shot though the pictures is a bit dark.

 long beauty shot on the neighbor's fence

Closer in

Now, did you see what I did wrong??  When I boxed in the bottom of the bag the prescribed two inches, the word "Stitcher" disappeared about right where you see that crease.  What did I say about bragging on yourself? Those words will reach up and bite you right in the backside every blessed time, LOL.   It looks good from the back side!

No complaints about the pattern as written.  The things I tweaked were personal choices.   Had I used this pattern before I would have known to shorten the top cuff and got more of a red print frame around the stitchery. My first thought was to use it as a pocket on the bag but that was before colors were switched up.  I am a bit mathematically challenged at times so I may have still had a misstep along the way.  Let's call this a "prototype"  because I can see trying this again for a knitting bag.  Think I can find a motif to embroidery with yarn, knitting needles and all that???

No matter, I still like the bag and will use it to cart my bag of stitchery around.  Right now I have three different projects in there----a Bird Brain Easter piece that is marked but not started, a basket block from Bee Tree Designs in greens and a Bird Brain Designs "Snow Happens" in blue.  This is large enough to hold my entry in last years stitchery blog hop that I posted about HERE.   I like things to be used in a practical manner, after all!  I'll post the two main pictures of the stitchery organizer from March 2013

opened up but the camera angle is making it look "un-square"   errr un- rectangular

 Folded up in my embroidery kit with all the stitching goodies inside

So why are you hanging around here, LOL?  Hop on to see what the others have in store for you!  Thanks for dropping by today and I hope you enjoy the remainder of the hop.