Posted on December 28, 2017 in sewing

Two Everyday Totes

Goodbye 2017 and thank you for the many lessons over the past year!

One of my goals is to be busier and I wanted to make something special for my Aunt, a person I admire greatly from her loving and proactive spirit. After puttering around their website, I found Purl Soho’s “Everyday Tote” pattern.

I made my own binding using Cotton + Steel’s “Fiskers” in lavender.

The pattern calls for some beautiful cotton webbing handles, but I decided to use some of the extra canvas to make handles. I also put binding on one tote’s handles, and really like the look.

The sewing took under an hour for each bag. I used a combo of Aurifil thread and Gutermann.

Cricket loves the camera.

The contrast between the gold corduroy and the blue canvas is one of my favorite parts of each tote.

I ran out of the Cotton + Steel binding and found some of this extra binding, and though why not? I’m pretty happy with the pop of color and how it adds more to the tote’s character.

I highly recommend this, and any pattern, from Purl Soho!

Thanks for stopping by all year. It has been a monumental year for Brambleton Threads. This year we not only became an LLC, had our first gallery showing, but also completed a successful Kickstarter. We are grateful for the continued support on the blogging communties, Twitter, and from Kickstarter.

For any new eyes stopping by, thank you and enjoy!

Have a calm and safe end of the year.

Posted on August 23, 2017August 23, 2017 in Quilting, sewing

Crib Quilt

This crib size baby quilt is 54″ x 41″ and has a cotton batting. We aren’t sure if our friend’s baby is a boy or a girl, and not knowing that allowed for me to play a lot with color and some prints. I pieced together the top earlier this year, of course using Aurifil thread. The binding are batiks I had left over from another quilt.

This quilt reminds me of watching the sunrise over the Atlantic ocean, something I’ve been able to enjoy pretty often lately. The quilt backing fabrics are both Cotton + Steel. I love the pink’s lushness.

I used a deep gold thread to machine quilt this. In all spots that looked like a square I made an X and filled in the rest of the quilt with lines. The ocean often has pockets of smooth water on the surface and I thought of those spaces while I was making X’s.

A thank you to my husband for holding up the quilts!

I find machine quilting on cotton batting to be a lot smoother and quicker experience than with wool batting. The fibers in wool are much more like a bramble. Cotton typically settles down with itself. What do you like to use for batting?

Thanks for stopping by!

Posted on August 21, 2017 in sewing

Business Cards Arrived!

Last week we spent a couple of days pondering over business cards. I wanted something simple and thick enough that I could stitch across the top of the card. These cards are just what I was in the market for. They are lovely!

Where do you order cards from? Let me know if you have a favorite!

Posted on August 16, 2017August 16, 2017 in Embroidery, watercolor

Materials for the Kickstarter Project

This Spring we launched a successful Kickstarter project (thanks again, everyone!) and are now in the process of creating the pieces. I’ve been brainstorming about each element all year and I’m thrilled to start stitching soon.

The fabric is a Kona solid in Snow. I’m pulling thread from 454 colors of DMC floss!

Lately I’ve been using watercolor to sketch out ideas, and the process has been rewarding. Here are some of the ideas I have for the elements I’ll be embroidering.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are having a wonderful August.

Posted on July 18, 2017 in Improv, watercolor

Watercolor Postcards

After a trip to the art store I came home with watercolor postcards and a small travel watercolor set. I haven’t used watercolor since I was in high school, but I’m back at it. To shake of the cobwebs I used Creativebug‘s Beginning Watercolor tutorial by Yao Cheng. Her teaching style is welcoming and clear.

This is a travel set offered by Winsor & Newton plus a pencil from Camel Pencil Company. I love the portability, and the affordability.

As some say, this palette is becoming seasoned!

These crescent shapes are something I’ve been playing with in pencil and pastels. The shapes came out nicely with watercolor. Yao Cheng demonstrates in her tutorials how to let colors bleed in to the other, and the effect is stunning to me.

The crescent shape is one that I love, maybe because it is almost a circle.

What have you been getting in to lately? Thanks for stopping by!

Posted on April 17, 2017 in Quilting, sewing

Quilt Completed

This quilt started last year as two separate pieces from an in-person class at Country Roads Quilt Shoppe and a Carolyn Friedlander paper piecing creativebug tutorial. After combining the two pieces into one I added a border to even out the prints and piecing.

From West Virginia to Las Vegas and then to Virginia, this quilt was snuggled under after becoming only a sandwich! It also had a lot of machine quilting removed and redone; I found this task trying, but necessary.

For the paper piecing I used the scrap stash, with many of the fabrics being from Moda.

Quilting free form lines mesmerizes me because of the movement given to the quilt.

Many of these fabrics are from projects I completed prior to making this blog. It’s wonderful to see those scraps from previous projects, efforts, and little things of love I sent off in the world.

The main border fabric is from “Honeymoon” by Sarah Watts for Cotton + Steel. It reminds me of James Wright.

Since I’m a Robert Kaufman and Carolyn Friedlander fan this wide backing was perfect. It adds a nice softness.

The sunlight gives the machine quilting great shadows. Aurifil thread was used on this quilt.

One quilt done and another one on the way.

Our Kickstarter is going amazingly well. Thank you to all the supporters and those that have enjoyed the work. We’re really excited to being working on a new series of embroidery projects, and to be expanding Brambleton Threads.

Posted on April 11, 2017 in Embroidery

Our Embroidery Kickstarter Launched!

Thanks to all of those in the community that have already joined in to make this project happen. I’m going to hand-embroider one-off pieces for each element in the periodic table. The treatment of each element will not be a one to one draw and stitch: each piece will be inspired by an element; it will not necessary depict the element, although it may.

If you’re interested or want to tell a friend here check out the project here!

The Mitosis phase continues.

Seed stitch is playful.

Moles.

Posted on April 10, 2017April 10, 2017 in Quilting, sewing

Flannel Baby Quilt

This flannel quilt is simple in its appearance and construction. I was thinking a baby’s close up view of the world, about the spaces between the meeting of matter, and how those meetings blur into lines.

The finished size is 57″ by 58″. Robert Kaufman flannel is the front fabric. Aurifil thread is used for the sewing and quilting.

For the back fabric a plain blue Robert Kaufman quilting cotton. The print fabrics used in the backing and binding are from Abi Hall’s collection “Jurassic Jamboree” for Moda.

Here is the original concept. Creating one-off designs is one of the reasons I love to make quilts and embroidery pieces. Translating an idea from one form to the next presents a natural challenge for me.

We are launching a Kickstarter later today for a one-off embroidery series! Click here to check it out. Thanks for the support and kind words.

Posted on March 29, 2017March 29, 2017 in Embroidery, Improv, sewing

Mitosis Phase One: WIP

Mitosis Phase One is near to my heart. In December I put the first stitches down, and realized I was looking at a bunch of cells. The void in all the cells started to make me wonder about what’s happening inside of each one. I decided to investigate and found a cell hot with division.

Back Stitch looking fluid front and back.

Notice the voids between the cells, the Back stitch, and the weave of the fabric.

The cell starting up Mitosis.

The colors soften as the process picks up momentum.

All of this creating has helped us get to a new point: we are going to be launching a Kickstarter project soon. It’s an embroidery wall art project focusing on science and art. Keep an eye out in the next couple of weeks for updates.

Thanks for stopping by!

Twitter: @BrambltnThreads

Posted on March 20, 2017June 30, 2017 in Drawing, Embroidery

Embroidered Penguins

This piece is inspired by Nana, one of the most wonderful people I know. She loves penguins. She loves the way they nest, eat, and make community. Penguins are captivating. I think it is safe to say the penguin is cute. I started to sketch a few ideas for a piece.

Then I refined and simplified the idea.

After a recent blue thread disaster with another project, I keep much better records. DMC is currently my thread company of choice.

During the sketching period we made a visit to the glass studio demo at the Chrysler Museum. At the studio there is a wall for visitors to leave a sketch and it may be grabbed by a glassblower and made during one of their daily demonstrations. I drew a penguin, and here are the amazing results.

A view inside of the glass penguin.

And here is another inside of a project. Although many embroidery backs are covered I often find myself falling in love with them. What I enjoy is the relaxed version of the image, sort of like a watercolor.

A metal D ring for a hook.

The front of the piece. It is filled with a thin layer of wool batting.

Seed stitch and St. George Cross stitch.

Stem stitch gold rings.

Coral stitch for a pebbly beach.

These penguins have French knot eyes and Satin stitch bodies.

Thank you for stopping by and for all the support.

Brambleton Threads recently became an LLC, and my husband is helping with the business. We hope to have some more information coming up soon on projects focusing in embroidery and quilting with custom designs.

Check us out:

Twitter @BrambltnThreads

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