Sweet and Rosy Needle Wallet

My first gift for the Stitcher's Angel Swap is complete! It was a fun little project designed by Natalie Lymer of Cinderberry Stitches for this swap. She called hers Sweet and Spotty, and if you look at her pattern, you'll see why. But I called mine Sweet and Rosy. Here it is...


Here's the first Sweet part, stitched on unbleached muslin using 3 strands of DMC embroidery floss. I changed up the stitches from Natalie's pattern just a little, using some chain stitch for the lines, and instead of satin stitch on the flower petals, I used lazy daisy stitch.


Here you can see the Rosy part of the wallet. I thought this fabric would suit the recipient while still keeping with the rose theme of the swap.


And here's the inside with the other Sweet spot on a rosy background. The solid pink fabric was from my stash, leftover from a quilt I had made years ago as a wedding gift for one of my sisters. The rose print fabric was one of the lovely fat quarters I bought this past summer from Grace Full Creations.

This project was my very first attempt at needleturn applique. I have purposely avoided any projects using this technique because I thought it would be hard to do and I didn't think I would enjoy it. I was sad to discover that my fears were not unfounded. Fine hand stitching is something I used to do quite a lot of many years ago, but now it is hard for me to hold a needle and stitch like this for any length of time. But I think if my fingers and hands could handle the strain, I probably would enjoy doing needleturn applique because I really liked the process of turning as you go, and I thought the results were quite satisfactory.

After doing the embroider on these two little sweet circles, I very badly wanted to complete the project as Natalie had planned it. So that was my motivation to give needleturn a try. I don't think it is a technique that I would use on a large project, but at least now I know I can do it and have it turn out half way decent. This should open up quite a few more possibilities for my stitching pleasure.

Do you use needleturn applique in your projects? If so, do you enjoy it? Have you shied away from it as I had done, even though you love projects that use this technique? If you have not used it, what are some of the reasons you have avoided it? I'd love to know.

Happy Stitching!

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