Vietnamese Bib

My younger brother's work in South Korea is almost over. 

I have really benefited with him being there with the wonderful textiles bits he brought me last Summer. 

Recently he and a friend made a grand tour of other Asian countries and sent me this wonderfully hand-crafted bib from Viet Nam.

The white design is handwork while the red braid appears to be machine made.  The shiny neck bit has little bells hanging on it while the two rectangular pieces are sewn to the bib only on one side.

I see a baby wearing this bib and being entertained all day chewing on the neck bit, jiggling the bells and trying the tear off the rectangular pieces.

I do not see a child wearing this while eating! 

I currently have it hanging in Sweet Sadie's and several customers have asked about it agreed that it would distract a baby for many moments.

Fiber Challenge

Up for a Challenge? This looks like it could be a real challenge for the knitters, weavers, felters and other fiber junkies out there. The prizes look wonderful and whatever you come up with would be a wonderful gift for yourself or that certain someone special this holiday season.

I am intrigued...or simply sleep deprived.

Sublime Stitching

Many of you know that my first love is counted thread embroidery. I don't do a lot of it these days as my eyes and hands just can't take long periods of such close work any more, however I still enjoy an hour or so a month working on a stitch sampler that has been on the 'to do' pile for a couple of years now. At this rate, it probably won't be done until the next century and then by someone else. Here is a link to the actual pattern I have been working ... my progress is at the letter J.

For a while now I have been intrigued by a company called 'Sublime Sttching' that has been promoting hand embroidery of a more free-form style than I usually enjoy. For one thing they promote the use of a hoop to hold your cloth while I prefer holding my fabric in my hand. The owner also likes embroidering along lines.. many of us grew up knowing this style as Crewel Work, others as Redwork. This style does not meet my need for more precision in my work. The best part of Sublime Stitching are their great designs that are a little funky, a little wierd and definitely stylish.

They have a contest going right now for people to create miniature monograms on teeny tiny pillows. I thought it was a little nuts but then I remembered that I still have examples my own work done on 40 count silk. That means the base fabric was worked at the rate of 40 stitches per square inch. I used one ply of silk embroidery floss to create this brooch quite a few years ago.

The whole design is smaller than a penny! I can't believe I used to love doing this kind of work. I even have some more blank fabric like this just waiting for me to take up my needle and thread again on another intricate design. I have one other piece done on this scale but I can't lay my hand on it right now.

I think I will load this picture onto the contest page understanding that it does not meet the requirements but just to show a different approach to embroidery.

I hope you have warm plans for this weekend. It is a three day weekend for us here in the U.S. and I intend to get a lot of sewing done... and maybe some vaccuming as well. One can hope!