Earlier this year, there was a little addition to our family – my sister had a little girl! Such an exciting time for everyone. And in keeping with my own little tradition, I wanted to make her a baby blanket. I had made the decision on what to stitch up quite a while ago, I just hadn’t got around to actually making it until recently. And with winter almost finished in Australia, it might still get a little bit of use this year!
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A Purple Duck
There is a little story on the purple duck. I had decided I wanted to stitch her the little duck blanket from the Inspirations Book ‘The Worlds Most Beautiful Embroidered Blankets’. It is such a cute little duck. Sneakily, I also suspected it would be quite a quick finish too. After the sheep blanket dragging on for a long time, I didn’t want this one to suffer the same fate!
The only problem? The blanketing fabric I had was yellow – not a colour that was going to work well with a yellow duck! So I thought I could do a purple duck on the yellow blanketing, and we would have ourselves a satisfactory solution! I have plenty of purple crewel wool, so it was also a solution that helped curb the ‘stash’! I did check with my sister that having a purple duck wasn’t going to be too strange, and she happily agreed that it would be fine!
Another change…
There was another change I needed to make to the original pattern and design. The original design calls for yellow homespun to be used to construct the feet and beak. Except I didn’t have purple homespun, but I did have purple felt. I didn’t think twice about substituting it over! This was where I ran into a few little problems.
When you make the beak and feet from homespun, the instructions say to stitch two pieces of the fabric together, stuff them, and appliqué them on. So I decided I would do the same with the felt! What I failed to take into consideration was that felt is considerably thicker than homespun. This meant that when it was appliquéd on, it looked more like mountains for feet and a beak! Now whilst I’m all for going and trying different things, I decided quite quickly that if these mountains didn’t come off, this would be one ugly duckling.
Since I was using felt and didn’t have to worry about the edge being exposed, my next solution was to buttonhole the elements on, with sufficient stuffing in them. At first I thought this was ok. But after adding a few stitches on the face, it quickly became apparent that this wasn’t going to be a viable option either. It just looked messy!
And in true ‘third time lucky’ style, I finally reached a solution that was going to work! And probably the simplest of them all. I simply stitched the felt on using small stab stitches and stuffed it sufficiently. That was it! When I added in the beginnings of the face stitches, it didn’t seem to look strange or messier than it was meant to look anyway. So at last, I could really get on and finish her!
Stitching the Face and Body
The instructions said to use long and short stitch to fill in the body and face. But when you look at the picture, it is not a tidy, silk shading style of long and short stitch. A much more haphazard, just got out of bed look. In some ways this is easier, but in others, being so random is a little difficult. Most of the stitches are quite long, but with a slight variation of length and direction. It was actually quite fun to stitch in this way!
Adding the eyes is always the part which worries me a little. I was able to (just!) draw the eyes on with a water soluble marker. I could just see the markings to be able to stitch in the outline before filling it in. As you have probably guessed, I wasn’t paying particularly close attention to the instructions. And here was no exception! The instructions said to use a padded satin stitch, but I wasn’t sure that was really necessary. So instead, I used a satin stitch only, and that seems to have worked. After adding the little glint, she really came to life!
The Garden
You will probably have noticed some similarities with this garden to the one I popped the sheep in! I liked the whimsical way their garden ended up, and I thought a similar approach would work well here too. The only difference is I added in quite a few French Knot flowers for the duck garden – there was no risk of French Knot overload in this piece!
The long pink daisy has a lovely cord that the little ducky is holding onto. I love making these cords! They are always so much fun to make. I chose two greens and a yellow to spin together to make the cord. I have a ‘fancy’ tool called a ‘Spinster’ to help with this process. It makes it quick and easy to make lovely ropes and cords, and is actually quite reasonably priced! As the blanket is for a young one, I couched it down in a few spots. But if it were for an older child (or an adult!), you could leave it quite loose which would be fun and add that extra dimension too.
The buzzing bees
I quite liked the way the bees buzzed around the duck in this design, and I really liked their trailing! The two longer bees were supposed to be butterflies, but I wasn’t a real fan of the way they looked on the original, so I decided I would just do a slightly different bee for them.
My bees are made up of two bullion knots with a couple of straight stitches for the stripes. The pattern uses four bullion knots with alternating colours. I made the change for no real reason, mine are just not fat bees.
To add just a little sparkle, the wings and trailing are stitched with metallic threads. I find these metallic threads are always a little difficult to get to behave themselves (especially the DMC one!), but after a few attempts, the chain stitch wings eventually worked.
Finishing the blanket
After washing off the solvy I used to transfer the design (it was quite a plastic feeling one, and I didn’t enjoy stitching through it), it was time for the dreaded backing of the blanket. I’m sure this stage took just as long or longer than the actual embroidery did!
I would have liked to have had a purplish backing fabric, but the only real viable option I had in my supply was a blue polka dot fabric. I contemplated buying some new fabric, but decided in the end the blue would be just fine! There is a bit of blue in the garden, so it’s not a completely new colour added right at the end.
The process, whilst taking a while, was all going along well until it came time to stitch the dreaded mitred corners. Whilst I’ve always struggled a bit with this in the past, this time I just couldn’t work out what I was doing wrong! For some reason, the corners just wouldn’t ‘fit’ if I stitched and cut along the line I was supposed to.
But, I could successfully mitre the corners if I treated it as if it were a piece I was mounting! Eventually this was the route I took. I decided that it had to get done eventually, and I was just going nowhere in my attempts to do a ‘real’ mitre corner. So a little unconventional but at least it was finished! Hopefully next time I’ll be able to work out what I was doing wrong!
At last it was ready! One purple duck for a special little girl!
That’s a lovely fluffy duckling, and I’m sure your baby niece will love it…
Thanks Rachel – just plump enough I think!
Your ducky is so cute and I think the purple makes it more special. Congratulations for the addition to your family. I’m sure your niece will cherish her blanket.
Thanks Peggy, I’m quite pleased my purple duck! If her siblings are anything to go by, just giving it the occasional wash will be a challenge!
Your blanket is beautiful…and I always love when people make changes to their pieces and make them their own. Lovely gift!
I’m just pleased I’ve finally got the courage to actually change things and make things my own now!
She is perfect.
Thanks Cathy
This is absolutely adorable!!!! You did a great job!
She is quite cute isn’t she?!
This is really gorgeous, and has inspired me to think about a blanket for a new introduction to our family (well a Christmas introduction). I particularly like the random nature of the long and short stitches. Showing my ignorance – but what exactly is ‘homespun’.
Oh, I would love to see what you come up with for your new little addition! Depending on what you would like to make, Inspirations magazine and this book have quite a few lovely blankets, and Jan Kerton from Windflower Embroidery has some really cute animals.
Homespun is essentially a light calico and comes in a variety of different colours. It’s great for things like this, or for stumpwork as you can colour match to your design.
She is absolutely gorgeous! Such a cutie 🙂
Thanks Margaret- I think she’s quite cute too!
Your purple duck is absolutely adorable! What a beautiful, beautiful gift!
Thanks Renee! I’m hoping she likes it. A nice unique gift I think ?
Your purple duck is adorable! I love the way you achieve a field of flowers with simple stitches. This is going to be treasured.
Thanks Sue. I’m quite a fan of these whimsical gardens on the baby blankets!
Purple and yellow make such a great pairing! I love that little duck and the flowers are the perfect final touch. The blue polka dots set it off so well, and they are so happy, and won’t show the dust, grass stains or dirt that will inevitably come, because this blanket is probably going everywhere with your niece, at least until she starts school! ?
Thanks Kathy – it is definitely a colour pairing that works well together! I admit I didn’t consider the dirt factor when I thought about it, but you have brought up a good point!
This is gorgeous, what a special gift.
Thanks Julie, a nice fun one!
Hi Catherine, Just stopping by to let you know that your lovely blanket is one of the features at #HandmadeMonday this week 🙂
Thanks so much Julie! That is very kind of you ?
Gotta love a purple duckie! Darling blanket.
Thanks Susan. I think it is quite loveable!
Oh my goodness, that purple duck is adorable. That blanket will be well loved.
Thanks Cathie. I’m sure it will be!
Purple is a fabulous colour for a just-crawled-out-of-bed duckling and I love the bees and flowers. It’s cute enough for a baby but also sophisticated enough to not look out of place in a teenage bedroom.
Thanks Alex, I was really pleased with the end result. I’m hoping it is cherished long enough to make the teenage years!
This is so pretty and a perfect keepsake. I love the colours as well. Thank you for sharing at #overthemoon link party.
Thanks for hosting! Thank you for your kind words. It is quite a pretty piece I think!
It’s such a cute ducky, and purple is so much better for a baby girl than yellow – or so my daughter tells me, but then, purple is a favourite colour anyway…Thank you for joining The Really Crafty Link Party this week. Pinned!
Thanks Teresa, and I’m glad to hear that purple is a favourite colour of your daughter’s!
Thanks for hosting.
So cute! What a gorgeous gift for your little niece, one she can keep forever 🙂
Thanks Bella, I’m hoping it is something she will be able to make happy memories with!
So cute! Thanks for sharing @ Vintage Charm !
Thank you! It is a very cute little blanket.
Thanks for hosting!
Oh so cute! and the blue polka dot has a purplish hue so certainly does not look out of place. I am sure your new niece will treasure this lovely gift when she gets older.
Helen x
Thanks Helen, I’m sure she will make many happy memories with her purple duck! I don’t think the blue polka dots turned out that badly in the end! A happy ending for it all.
Amaziiing! I visit you from the Really Crafty Link Party 83.
Oh thank you! Quite a cute little blanket ?
Aww…your duck is adorable1 Congratulations on the addition to your family, I’m sure her family will just love this little blanket!
Oh thank you so much! She has now received it, and I’m happy to say, it has been warmly welcomed!
Thanks for taking part in GG this month. Would you mind adding a link to the GG post so people can find my blog and identify the SAL? Thank you!
I love this little fuzzy duck and all the thought you put into making him. I am sure he will be greatly loved.
Thanks Jo, I have already heard it is being well loved!
I have put a link to your blog and link up on my parties page. Thanks for hosting!
What a beautiful baby blanket, Catherine. The embroidery is exquisite. Featured today…
Thanks so much Pam, and thanks for the feature!