A Quaker Pinkeep

Although I didn't post all summer due to a lack of blank CD's (to back up all photos), I was busy stitching. I made this pinkeep for the HOE Summer Quaker exchange, but realized that I did not like the floss colors against the background. The background isn't really blue-grey--it's more of a mottled neutral. The reverse is covered with the batik yellow fabric that you see.

I gave it as a birthday present to someone with a summer birthday. They never responded, even to say whether or not they liked it. It took me a long time to stitch this with my aging eyesight. I have to wear magnifying glasses.

Memo to self: I will cross-stitch handmade gifts only for family and close friends who appreciate my work.

I took the pattern from an issue of the digital magazine "The Gift of Stitching."

Summer Quaker

This is the jewelry pouch that I stitched for April for the HOE Summer Quaker Exchange. The eight-petal flowers, the enclosed swan and the enclosed birds/flowerpot are from a freebie, "Six Mains," by A Mon Ami Pierre. I chose to fill in the swan and make the background look like a pond, just to add variety.

The vase is my own design; the key, initials and letters from a book of charted designs by Dover Publication.

The interior is of the finest silk, from the blouse (choli) piece of an Indian silk sari. I've had this silk for years and use it sparingly for special projects. I stuffed it with flat quilt filler and added buckram for stiffening.