Treasures in my Sewing Studio

 I've been in my home for nearly five full years now.  During that time, my sewing studio has gone through many changes.  I've had four, maybe five different sewing tables, but I hope that I finally have one that will last for a while.  Each of them has had issues, namely being too small or rickety, or with the last one, far too squeaky for filming videos!  Today, I finished adding things to a display wall behind my table, and I thought I'd share it with you!  

Here is an overall look at the wall.  This corner tends to pile up with trays of works in progress, so always looks a little messy.  But it's a space I love to stitch in.  Let's take a look at most of the things on the wall. (In no particular order!)

This little filet crochet bunny was sent to me by one of blog readers when I was working on my Woodland Purse project.  I thought I was going to add it to that, but it didn't work out and I've been saving it ever since.  I found a nice little frame that it fit into and so I tacked it onto a piece of linen and framed it!  

This is my Gentle Blue Dreams piece that I stitched in 2010 I think.  It's a cloth weaving piece using scraps of worn out linens and scraps of silk, lace, and other bits I came across.  I embroidered and embellished it with a variety of techniques that I learned mostly from crazy quilting, but also from slow stitching.  It needs a different frame, but I haven't found the perfect one yet, so this will have to do for now! 

I went through a phase of making "Inchies" around 2009.  I've had these sitting in a baggies for ages.  As I redecorated this room, I really wanted to get them framed.  The original plan was to stitch them in a rectangular grid on a piece of linen.  But I didn't have a frame and didn't want to attach them until I did.  Then I found this frame at a flea market and knew it would be a good size.  In going through my stash of fabrics, I found this tucked silk fabric and realized it would be perfect to frame the inches and I loved the diamond orientation! I need to adjust this as I got it slightly off center, but right now, done is better than perfect!   

Two or three years ago, my friend Carol gifted me several pieces from her large collection of antique French men's shoe ornaments.  I stitched them onto a piece of course ramie or linen and framed them in an oval frame. The frame used to hold a portrait of a couple of family members from a century ago, but I sent that portrait off to other family members a while back.  I loved the frame, so had held onto it to use it for something special!  I'm so happy with how it turned out! 

After years of not stitching, I got involved with a swap group and we swapped "Dotee Dolls" for a couple of years.  Along the way, I became enamored with making little mermaids!  So much fun!  It didn't take long for this interest in Dottie Dolls to turn into an interest in Crazy Quilting! 

One of my early crazy quilt projects was the bluebird pincushion on the left.  This led to me creating a CD Pincushion Tutorial, which is the most viewed post on my blog!  It still gets many views a month, even after many years!  The pincushion on the right was the January pincushion I stitched for the 2014 Crazy Quilt Journal Project.  To date, I have made 37 CD Pincushions!

My Uncle Jake had a great Aunt who was a missionary to Persia around the 1900s.  She brought back a tiny box of these beautiful tiny needle-woven and crocheted medallions.  So dainty and delicate!  I've used several of them on crazy quilt projects, but wanted to showcase a few of them.  They are only about 1 ¼" to 2" across!  Amazing!  

In 2009, I decided to learn silk ribbon embroidery in earnest.  I stitched up a bunch of silk scraps and started embroidering.  I call this piece "Spring Garden" and it's been a favorite for a long time!  I recently did a video on YouTube about finding the shelf and framing it.  I'm so glad to have it out where I can enjoy it.  If it seems familiar, that's because Crazy Quilt International has been using a photo of the embroidery in their header on Facebook for several years! 

My friend Carol recently moved into an assisted living facility and needed to downsize her studio and condo dramatically.  Two of her nieces and myself were the lucky recipients of her collection of antique fabrics that used to form the backbone of her fabric archive when she was in New York City.  The archive was used by designers and design houses to inspire new fabrics.  It's quite a collection and thankfully, some of the best pieces have gone to museums.  But there was still a lot left and this basket of antique silk brocades and damask fabrics were among the things that I was able to bring home to use in my stitching!  Wow!  It was a gift I never could have imagined!  Thank You Carol!  

Among the fabrics I received was this fragment of 15th century Italian Silk Damask.  The back has been reinforced somewhere along the way.

The front is still exquisite with golden yellow silk warp and olive green silk weft.   Can't you just imaging this as the fabric of a houppelande worn by an upper class Italian?!  

Rather than hiding it away in a box, I wanted to be able to see and enjoy it, while also preserving it.  Using cotton thread, I gently invisibly basted it to a muslin backed piece of vintage linen, which I stretched over a piece of acid free mat board and then framed.  I live in a dry climate, so I did not put glass over it.  I'll dust it periodically with a puffer used to clean camera lenses.  It's truly a treasure to have this piece of amazing antique fabric!  A real treasure!   

And last we come to another treasure.  This is a fragment from a piece of 18th or 19th century silk brocade, also from Carol.  The portion that is more blue, is where it was concealed and didn't get dirty from use.  The small hole at the lower right was caused by a furniture tack when it was upholstered.  I had a couple of. pieces of this fabric, but it was so, so dirty.  I cut a small corner off and tried washing it using Synthrapol.  This is a soap that is used to clean wool fleece before spinning, and also to prepare fabrics for dying and then again after dying to help remove excess dye and set the color.  It is very good at getting out oils and dirt and it doesn't take much.  Since the fabric was silk, I wasn't sure how it would go.  But I was really please at how well it worked on a tiny fragment.  I washed one of the two larger pieces in the same manner.  It brightened the color and removed a fair amount of dirt.  Thankfully, the fibers still seem strong and in good condition.  I dried the fabric by rolling in a towel to remove excess water and then laid it out flat to dry on a waterproof surface.  Once dry, I set my iron to the silk setting and gently ironed it through a slightly damp press cloth.  

While doing all of this, I discovered the bunny hidden away in a corner of the design.  If you've been here before, you know how much I like bunnies!  I went hunting through my supplies and found two sets of 5" stretcher bars and made a 5" square frame from them.  Then I backed the silk with washed 100% cotton muslin and stretched it over the frame.  I also stitched a dustcover of muslin for the back.  The edge needed something, so I found this ruffled Mokuba ribbon in my stash and it finished it off beautifully!  I'm so happy with how it turned out.  

I do have one more project to finish up, and you can see it in the upper right of the first photo.  I have a lovely white and blue crocheted doily that I'm attaching to a piece of muslin backed linen.  This will be stretched in a hoop and hung where you see it in the photo.  I'm not quite done stitching it down yet, but that's my current project to finish when I need "mindless" stitching!  

I hope you have enjoyed this look at some of the treasures on my sewing studio wall!  

Happy Stitching!