The garden has begun - lace cottage tutorial - part 6

Well I "planting" my cottage's garden...starting anyway.  I have no plan and just grabbing colors as the spirit moves me.

 I dry brushed some dark green fabric paint where I want the back shrubbery... Adding the color will mean less French knots.

I also found a piece of inexpensive nylon lace and cut a strip for the lace and I will leave the lower edge raw.

I'm using the silk ribbon I dyed last summer.  I love it but don't have enough colors.  I am going to dye and overdye a lot of ribbon this summer.  Unfortunately the big storm last fall blew the top off my greenhouse so I will miss having the dry sheltered work space.  It is too expensive and too much work to replace it.

I'm also using perle instead of floss.

Remember these gardens by picket fences that were my inspiration...  One had the garden mostly inside the fence and the other had the garden mostly outside the fence.  I want my garden BOTH INSIDE AND OUTSIDE the fence... like Bette Midler, I want it all.

We are going to Seattle this weekend to a granddaughter's graduation and this little garden gives me something relaxed and easy to work on.  Hope to have it done by the time I get back.  The whole piece is only 6" by 6"....

Lace Cottage tutorial continued...part 5

The actual cottage part of this piece is complete.  Besides finishing the door and the windows, I added a tiny lace along the left end of the roof and I did a chain to secure the lace on the corners of the house.  I wove a thread through the chain to catch even more lace...than I trimmed the lace close.  Any little fussies will be concealed by shrubbery later.

Now I can turn my attention to the fence in front... Visually I want the fence to cover the area in front of the house because I don't want to spend months doing French knots although the possibilities for a front garden area are great if I positioned the fence farther front.... I want to use a small lace for the top rail of the fence.  I want it to be rather bold to separate it from the lace on the house since they will be touching.  I want to bring the fence to the forefront and a strong lace could do that.

 This is my drawer of small laces from years of collecting.  It is very easy to overlook small edging lace  on ugly linens. You just see the stains and terrible embroidery and tend to put them aside.  But that's where I find some of my best small edgings.  You can also find some new machine laces that are cheap and fantastic.  Again I remind everyone not to be a lace "snob".   Not everything has to be handmade to be wonderful..
embrace them all.



So I start trying different laces and it makes it easier if I can see them all at once.  So I take photos so I can compare.

The bottom two were my final choice and the one bottom left won out as it was the laciest and I could envision roses spilling over it.  I am also trying out laces for the lane in the foreground.  Just as I wanted the fence to be heavier, I want the lace for the lane to be very delicate and unassuming...  This will be a hard one to find.

Lace cottage tutorial continued...part 4

I spent most of last evening on the curtains and one window.
Tonight I hope to finish all the windows and the door.  I am anxious to get to the fence so I can start on the garden... the fun part.

I don't know how large this looks on your screen but the entire cottage is less than 3" tall...very tiny indeed.

The lace I used for the curtains is just a hair over 1/4".  It is a machine lace and very intricate.  I am using the band part of the lace as my guide for my shutters.  Notice I did a tight chain stitch around the door to secure the lace before I start stitching the door.

And remember all this narrow trim I gathered to show you..?   Well I put it in that famous "safe place" and I need it now and can't find it..

We seldom eat out except for special occasions like birthdays and Christmas eve... I hate paying for a meal that I could cook better at home and I love cooking it.  Yesterday I spent most of the day cutting up scrap wood for winter and working on bills and budget....both odious chores.  So I am treating myself to a day of play in the kitchen.. I splurged and bought a duck for company coming this weekend and am cooking the duck confit today.  It takes 11 hours in the slow cooker.  I will be serving duck crepes with a plum sauce.  I did it last winter and served them with bok choy and mango salad.  Also making kale, prosciutto , parmesan pin wheels with puff pastry dough.  You make them ahead and freeze...cut and bake and serve as appetizers.  New recipe which sometimes sounds so good but not...we'll see...  And I have a big batch of turkey minestrone cooking away for tonight. Next to a day of stitching, a day in an apron cooking is the best.

Lace cottage tutorial continued....part 2.

Second Stage:

Step 1:
At this point I use a black sharpie pen to darken the windows  Very little of it shows when finished but it makes the sashing on the windows pop.

Step 2:  Once you decide on your lace, put a large enough piece to cover with excess on the top of the cottage.  Depending on the size of the cottage, baste or pin in place.  My cottage is quite small so I just pinned it down.

Step 3:  Turn your needlework over and from the back, baste just around the wall area.  With my particular lace I could have seen  through the lace to baste from the top but it is neater and works better doing from the back.

Step 4:  Turn the needlework right side up and trim leaving at least 1/4" outside the basting line.  Now the fun begins..

I can guarantee that if you trim the lace to exactly fit that it will pull loose.  I work with lace a lot and the biggest problem  is stabilizing a cut edge.  I have a few tricks I use that I will share as I go along.

Step 5:  Choosing laces for roof and trim is fun because as long as it is in scale, the possibilities are endless.

On the left is a 1/2" piece of crocheted lace that I have dyed and antiqued for the roof.  On the right is an assortment of very narrow braid, soutache, cording, and rat tail.  I will antique small pieces of these for trim around the doors, windows and the edge of the roof.

Before I start on the roof I will satin stitch the chimneys and the tiny roof over the door.  I'm hoping to find time to do that this evening.

Another lace cottage..

 I will be soon starting on my second cottage book.  I made the original lace cottage block for the cover when I was only going to make one large book with the 12 CQJP cottage block pages ... Now that I'm making two books I need another cover and thought I would do a simpler lace cottage and do it step-by-step tutorial with a pattern.

I worked on this one for 2 years.  Except for the cottage, the garden   is ALL tiny French knots.  I plan to use lots of ribbon embroidery on this next one..it will go faster.

So I'm looking for inspiration and I find these images in my picture file..  First here is a garden in ribbon embroidery.  I just love the picket fence and all the flowers peeking through.

I want a simpler roof line this time.  I really struggled with the roof on the first cottage...and I do like the double chimneys but not crazy about the stone wall. In fact I really like the lines of this cottage though...

Here is a simple roof and a picket fence but I'd like a little different angle to allow a climber on a side wall.  It also has a stucco finish similar to lace.  And the detail on the front entry would lend itself very well to lace.









Now this one has a simple roof,  two chimneys, a side wall and a picket fence....but it is two stories.  I love the bird houses.  Since I had a lace bird house  on my first cover I need at least one lace bird house on this new cover.

So this evening I will sit down and draw my own pattern for my new lace cottage but these images have given me lots of ideas and direction.....  I hope you  follow along on this new project.