magdalena horses finished…

Here, at last, is Magdalena Horses.  What a fun, educational project this has been!  I finished this one just as I would a pillow without the stuffing.  First, I stitched the right side of the punch needle to the right side of the wool I chose.

stitching right sides together

Then, I cut along both short edges of the wool, close to the stitches.

cutting short sides

Next, I cut through the middle of the wool, length-wise.

cutting long through middle of wool

I’m left with two flaps, one on the top edge of the punch needle and one on the bottom edge.

two flaps

These flaps will become my lamb’s tongue edging, eventually.  Before I steam the flaps open with my iron, I add another piece of wool over the wool that I just stitched in place.  I place my stitches just inside those of the flap-wool stitches.

second piece of wool stitched in place

This second piece of wool will become the backing of the finished punch needle.  Now, I cut a slit in the middle  of the back of the wool and turn the whole piece, so that the flaps are sticking out and the right side of Magdalena Horses is facing front.

front

Front with the flaps open.

back

Back with the slit I cut for turning purposes.

Now I snip the flaps using pinking shears, fairly close to the edge of the stitching.  Then, using a sharp pair of little scissors, I snip between each pinking, cutting a bit of wool away from each pinking so that they are separate lamb’s tongues.

tiny lamb’s tongues

The back gets a weavers cloth label stitched over the slit in the wool.

back view with label

The entire piece gets a good, hard steam/press with my steam iron, and my Magdalena Horses is complete!

ta da!

I think I will be including Magdalena Horses in my Primitive Handmades Mercantile update this coming Friday.  🙂

Thank you to all of you for your kind comments and encouragement! If you have done or are planning to do Magdalena Horses, I would love to share your pictures!

Enjoy your week!

rebecca