Naaldboek

Happy Easter! In celebration I thought I'd share my own little bouquet of spring flowers. 

I've been working on these little guys on and off for the past few weeks. I was so happy with how my first one turned out I decided to keep on going. I have several types of needles (embroidery, quilting, yarn), so why not? As I've mentioned previously, felt projects are one of my favorite things to do. Hand embroidery is newer to me. I worked lots of counted cross stitch projects since I was a kid, but have not ventured into this freehand type of stitching until now. 

Here are my happy little companions all lined up on the card table. (The one on the right was a work-in-progress at the time this photo was taken). I really like these because they are portable projects. For sewing the book pieces together I use the machine, but all of the fun detail that is worked first is done by hand with little pieces that 'travel' well. This means I can sit on the couch next to my husband (and under my cat) rather than spending solitary time in the other room. 

This one is Dutch-inspired (hence the post title, needlebook in Nederlands). I tried to stick with blue/aqua/red to keep it in line with the more traditional designs I saw while in Amsterdam, but I couldn't resist that pop of magenta for fun. It will likely hold my quilting betweens. 

This little pretty was inspired by the colors in the fabric collection Summerlove. I had a lot of fun working on this one, though I must have gone through 3 or 4 layouts and color combinations until I was happy. It has been sent to another home! 

I'm sure more of these will be popping up here in the future. They're like little pieces of sewing candy.