~ In the Making ... ~

~ Good Morning Friends & Folk ~ 

Lately,

I have been trying desperately to keep my mind occupied 

with my work, but I can't stop worrying about dear Joan & Arthur...

he was hospitalized recently with pneumonia, and test results have come back saying that the brain/lung cancer has now spread to his bones.

Please keep them in your continued thoughts for healing and peace ~

I am almost finished with this punch needle project

"Birds & Bees"

I decided to make it into a small mat,

 and I added two little appliqued honeybees made from scraps of fabric ~ 

they were done using the double-applique method;

where you take the pattern and lay it on doubled fabric {right sides together} 

trace around the template, then machine stitch or hand stitch completely around the design.

then you trim away excess fabric,  make a slit in on one side and turn right sides out.

Once that's finished, 

you simply whip-stitch the motif to your fabric backing ~

...I like the look, as it makes the applique piece stand out from the backing a little more.

I also stitched my finished punched portion to the backing fabric, in this case old ticking ~

ans wanted to border it with something, so I used wool strips leftover from a rug hooking project.

 

I pinned the strips into place along the edges of the punched portion, 

then whip stitched the strips on using my favorite thread: 

Gutermann Col. 3400 ~

 a nice linen-colored 100% cotton thread that blends well with all of my work.

I will add tiny black beads to the bees for eyes too ~

the punched portion was done using all Valdani threads from my Spring collection ~

and I chose to use two different colors for the background, 

~ punching one half of the design with one, and then the other half with the second color.

this gives it a nice antique-look to the background...

my inspiration fro the design came from an antique hooked rug.

Once the wool strips are in place,

 I'll back the mat and add a binding to it using cotton fabric.

This will be available as a Paper {mailed} pattern and as a PDF pattern

 in our Etsy shop soon :)

Blessings from the Farm

 ~ Lori