New Home - A Stitchy Make by Barbara McNaughton

Itching to take on a stitchy project after visiting the amazing Festival of Quilts show recently, I was delighted when my daughter asked me to make a card for a friend who is moving house, as this presented the perfect opportunity.  

This new home card combines sewing and cardmaking skills, but could just as easily be adapted to make a small cushion, bag panel or quilt block instead. 

What I used:

·      A4 sheet of plain paper

·      Pencil

·      Ruler

·      Bondaweb

·      Iron and ironing board

·      Scissors

·      Fabric scraps

·      Embroidery thread

·      Hand sewing needle

·      Assorted colours of cardstock for layering

·      8x8 card blank

1. To start – measure out and draw a square the size that you would like your finished project to be. I chose a square 6 inches by 6 inches. 

2. Now plan your design, keeping your choice fairly simple. I chose a basic house design since it is a new home card, but you might decide to do something entirely different like flowers in a vase, or a celebratory bunch of balloons. Sketch out your design in the square you prepared earlier. 

3. Then, trace the key parts of your design separately onto the paper side of a piece of Bondaweb. 

4. Cut these out roughly, leaving a border of at least ¼” around each shape.

5. Next, iron each of these pieces to the wrong side of your chosen fabric scraps. 

6. Cut out each shape along the original pencil lines. 

7. Choose a fabric colour for your background, which will also be the base layer of your design. (I chose blue as I wanted this to double up as the sky in my design). Cut a square the size of your finished piece.

8. Now layer up your design to get an idea of what the finished article will look like and also to establish which layers will lie behind, and which will come to the front of your design. 

9. Working from the back most layer to the front, remove the paper backing from each of your shapes and iron into place. In my design, the main part of the house is the layer right at the back. TOP TIP: To assist with removing the paper backing from your shapes, drag a pin or the blade of your scissors across the paper to form a slash which then easily enables you to peel the paper from the centre of the shape outwards and avoids causing the corners and edges to fray.

10. Continue ironing your pieces in place until the design is complete.

Draw in pencil, iron or air erasable lines where you would like any additional elements to be embroidered on your design. I have drawn in the stems for a few flowers at the side of the house and some birds in the sky. I also fussy cut some flowerheads from a piece of floral fabric and ironed them onto my design in the same way as the rest of the shapes.

11. Now starts the embroidery fun … choosing tonal or fun clashing colours and blanket stitch around the outline of your design. In this example, that includes the roof, main part of the house, window, door and along the hillside too.

Then use other stitches such as backstitch, daisy chain and French knots to add the final details. I used backstitch for the birds, flower stems, window panes and around one of the flowerheads. I used daisy chain on the petals and French knots for the centre of my flowers and for the door handle.

12. All that is left, is to mount and frame your design which I did by cutting an aperture out of my card front and layering up appropriate coloured frames between it and the design at the centre of the card. 

I hope you have enjoyed this stitchy make. I’d love to see some of your finished examples, so please do post any that you make.

Best wishes,

Barbara