I've been gradually building up the needlework stamp sets from Paper Artsy for a few years now as vintage sewing is one of my favourite themes, and then I spotted that That's Crafty, one of my favourite retailers had a couple of sets in their Clearance section. In fact, they have a few Hot Picks sets at a bargain price! So I now have all of them. I had been working on a heart shaped needlework case and coincidentally their challenge at the moment is
All You Need is Love. I wanted to show lots of different things you could do with my canvas transfer technique which you can see on the Paper Artsy
blog here. I used a pack of Papermania Bare Basics Canvas Hearts and transferred a mixture of Chatsworth and Thorndon Hall papers onto one side of them, and on the other side I stamped a selection of the sewing images using archival Potting Soil.
I then painted two pieces of shrink plastic, one with Fresco in Dolly Mix, and one in Guacamole, and stamped the largest button in Potting Soil, cut it out with a circle die, and hole punched the holes. I then stitched them onto the different layers.

Sewing always makes me think of love. When I was a child my Mum used to make my clothes and then matching sets for my dolls. I used to go to sleep to the whir of her sewing machine, which she inherited from my grandmother. Such a gentle sound. She has been doing a lot of hand sewing recently as she has lost several stone in weight and has been altering her clothes. I suggested it might help with her Raynaud's, and amazingly, the pain has nearly gone! I guess it has helped the circulation. Her old sewing machine remains a problem, though. It is a BSM in a silvery blue colour, with a wheel, not a treadle. I am guessing it might be around 1930s. It has a bullet bobbin. She wants to use it again but can no longer remember how to thread it. I have searched the internet and looked on You Tube. Any thoughts would be very gratefully received!