First finish of the year

And here it is, Medley by Carol Tinson of Heirloom Embroideries! It was started on Christmas Eve and finished on 2 January.


It had been in my stash for a while and I'm glad I finally got round to stitching it. I found stitching the border a bit tedious, but enjoyed stitching the inner motifs. The only difficulty I have with it now is that I find the colours very cold!


After my finish, I drifted a bit, not sure what I felt like stitching next. However on Friday, after admiring Karen's Holly and Ivy Sampler, and having drooled over someone's Quaker Heart (oops - just can't remember where I saw it now, I know it was in a blog header - gorgeous too!), I was in the mood for some Shepherd's Bush stitching. So, over the weekend, I rediscovered my SB Family Sampler! I haven't stitched on it since early last year, but am quite enjoying it so far. Most of the motifs are complete, and for now I'm working my way round the border.

What a finish!

I ended up having another couple of days off work last week. And although I was choked up to my ears with a streaming cold, I had a couple of nice, relaxing, really productive days! So now I get to show off what I did with my time. If you haven't guessed already, I'm very very pleased with the end results!

I finally finished off my Huswif which I stitched in the first half of the year. The design was a mystery by Carol Tinson of Heirloom Embroideries. I made a number of changes to the charted design as I was stitching it which I described in this post in May.

Last week, I started with this -


And over a morning, transformed it into this -


I used a piece of my own fabric for the inside, rather than that supplied by Carol.


And I stitched a small pin cushion and scissor fob.



I really am very pleased with the end result - it's gorgeous! The photos just don't do it justice - even at 9.30am this morning the light was still too dull and dingy!

In a fit of enthusiasm, I also stitched a little beaded Mill Hill ornament. I have to confess that I think this is the first time I've stitched a Christmas ornie!



Finally, I had to go to the post office this morning to collect some parcels which the postman had been unable to fit through my letter box. I was expecting a number of Christmas presents which I've ordered for friends and family. However, I was surprised and pleased to find a parcel from Edgar waiting for me.


I haven't opened it any further yet, but thanks so much Edgar! You really have been very kind and generous.

My DS was also very impressed (as only small boys can be) with the box it came in and with the polystyrene packaging which he immediately put to use as a camouflaged bed for a toy baby seal!

A sense of achievement

WARNING - THIS POST HAS LOTS OF PHOTOS!

I feel quite a sense of achievement! I’ve finally caught up on all the stitching on my huswif. AND this includes the stitching on the alphabet bands which I omitted and had to invent something to fill. I’m really pleased with the end result.

The bands I added came from a combination of browsing on the internet and flicking through a couple of books, the Proper Stitch by Darlene O'Steen and the Embroidery Stitch Bible by Betty Barnden. I just picked out a few stitches or designs/ideas I liked and had a go.

Band C - should have held the first part of the alphabet. I've stitched instead some Celtic knotwork, the design for which I found somethere on the web and adapted to fit this band. It's stitched with the Hazelnut thread.

Band G - second part of the alphabet. This is a Rice Stitch variation from the Proper Stitch which I've stitched in a combination of French Artichoke and Light French Artichoke. In between each diamond, there are a couple of smaller rice stitches in Burnished Gold.

Band J - This one I'm really pleased with - I love the Interlaced Herringbone! And I'm so chuffed that I finally got it right this time, thanks to Darlene O'Steen's instructions. The herringbone is stitched in French Artichoke with the interlacing in Light French Artichoke.

Band L - this is a lattice stitch stitched on a diagonal with the long stitches of the lattice in French Artichoke and tie-down crosses mainly in Verdigris with some also in French Artichoke.

Band P - this one is a bit of a mixture as I changed my plans for this band at the last minute. There are three rows of Smyrna Crosses with the bottom 'normal' diagonal cross stitched in Verdigris and the upper upright crosses stitched in Burnished Gold. Below that is a row of hearts in French Artichoke and/or Light French Artichoke stitched using different techniques, the inspiration for which came from a Drawn Thread freebie, Heart Throb.

I may still add a few beads to my custom bands, but for now, the end result looks like this!


You may notice that I also changed the colours used in one or two places as I went through a phase of hating the colour of the Hazelnut thread.

I've heard that some stitchers have been running out of thread on this design. I've come fairly close to it myself, mainly with the Burnished Gold and the French Artichoke. I would have liked to use the Verdigris more. The only frustrating point is that I broke my gold needle!

Now I just have to add the fasteners for the huswif, and then I'm ready for the final part next month.

A sampler of sorts

I love speciality stitches! They are often an important factor in what draws me to a design or designer’s work. I love the way they add texture to a piece, the way the light reveals different parts of the stitch or highlights the thread in different ways.

It's one of the things I really like about Carol Tinson's designs.

Rhodes diamonds in Carol's huswif.

The range of embroidery stitches to try is immense and to date, I’ve been rather limited in my experience. I’ve come across Sharon Boggon’s classes at Joggles, particularly her “Develop a Personal Library of Stitches” and I’ve drooled over the idea of taking her “Encrusted Crazy Quilting” class, but I’ve never got there, whether through lack of confidence, laziness, or lack of time. I also regularly read up on her “Take a Stitch Tuesday” challenge which gives a fantastic introduction to many stitches and how you can use them.

Last weekend I set out to explore some stitches with a piece of linen, some perle cotton, and a little stranded cotton.

This is the end result and I had a lot of fun! It is still a work in progress, and will probably continue to be so until I fill the entire fabric.

Some of the stitches I've come across before - the Rhodes diamond, spider's web rose (woven wheel), chain and blanket stitch. Many of them are also completely new to me - the interlaced herringbone, lattice, Queen stitch.

I know many of the stitches are a bit irregularly shaped or lopsided - the point of the exercise was to learn about how the stitches are constructed, not to get them perfect.

The Interlaced Herringbone was a bit tricky. I still haven't got the underlying herringbone quite right. But I do love the effect of it, particularly when I've used such contrasting colours.

The Queen stitch I'm a bit disappointed with, it just doesn't grab me at all.

I'm also working speciality stitches into Nova which is mainly stitched in Scotch, Mosaic and Tent stitch. Some of the blocks are simple tent stitch in one colour representing quiet areas of the design. There are roughly one or two of these blocks in each row. Now, I want to keep those areas relatively quiet and will minimise the introduction of new thread colours, but what I am going to do is, in something like one block per row, use a speciality stitch for one of these blocks. In this way, I'll also learn new stitches and techniques.

For the first row, I've used Rice Stitch, mainly because at the time I wanted to use a stitch I was already familiar with, but to use it on a larger scale.

Next row, Norwich stitch, I can't wait to give it a go!

Stitching alfresco

I've picked up my Mystery Huswif again in the last week and am relieved to be enjoying it again! When I last stitched on it, stress at work was translating into stressful stitching at work and I therefore just wasn't enjoying it.

Over the Easter holiday, I decided I needed to get away from my office more at lunchtimes, particularly as I'm so near to a park. So last week, as the weather was good, I took my huswif and went out and sat in the park for a spot of alfresco stitching.

I've made good progress on my huswif, completing band I. I changed a few of the colours and am rather pleased with the result. I've now also started thinking about the alphabet bands that I've omitted and have ideas as to what to put in their place. I particularly fancy doing an interlaced herringbone band.

The light outside really brings the thread colours to life and I liked the design a whole lot more when I saw it outside. The Burnished Gold thread really does look like burnished gold when you see it in good light. The fabric too is a mich nicer colour when seen outside.


But I have a problem with this. A huswif is a sewing accessory and not specifically designed for outdoor use. Most of my stitching takes place indoors and in the evenings when the natural light is fading. So why should I stitch a stitching accessory whose colours I can only really appreciate outdoors?

And who is to say what is the 'true' colour of a fibre or fabric anyway?

I'm glad the alfresco stitching was a success. The wind wasn't too distracting and I didn't see or hear anyone commenting on the wierd woman doing sewing in the park! I went back to work far more at peace with myself than when I'd arrived. Unfortunately, the weather this week isn't so good, so I'm back to office stitching for now!

Any other alfresco stitchers out there?

Oh, and note to self, don't iron spider's web roses again!

March roundup

There are a few things I've been stitching that I haven't got round to posting photos of, so I thought I'd sum things up here.

Watergarden - I haven't stitched this since the beginning of March and am going temporarily retire it from my WIP list as others will be taking priority.

One of the things with all Chatelaines is the amount of beading involved. I didn't fancy the idea of leaving it all to the end, so decided that I'd add the Delicas in stages. At the end of February, I reached a point where I'd finished the central blue section and started the surrounding border, so I decided it was time to do a little beading.



Part 1 of St Petersburg became available at the beginning of March and I was really pleased to complete the stitching and add the Delicas on schedule, even with a week left over at the end of the month! My monster scroll frame made an enormous difference.



Part 2 was released last weekend, so I'm hoping to get started this evening!

In the last week of March, I picked up Medieval Town Mandala again. Actually, I completely restarted it having decided that I really wanted to do it on opalescent fabric. The amount I'd completed previously was minimal, so it wasn't a problem. I'm really pleased with the progress I've made to the extent that I've almost finished part 1 and the photo below is becoming out of date!



I'm also very pleased with the progress I've made on Nova over the last month. In October, I'd completed the first 3 blocks. In March, I added another 7!



On the down side, I haven't been able to keep up with Carol Tinson's Huswif as I would have wished. Part 3 is due this month, and I've only just finished part 1. This one has been my lunch time stitching at work where I've been feeling a bit stressed and not much like stitching recently. Sometimes even, it feels like the stitching adds to the stress. It gets confusing when I actually enjoy doing it yet feel stressed by it at the same time. So I think I may take a break from the lunchtime slot for now. Maybe when the weather is better, I'll get out to the park at lunch time and do a little stitching there. Sorry I don't have an updated picture!

Stitchin' Pretty

This is what I love about Carol Tinson's designs - you're challenged as a stitcher to learn new stitches and techniques in order to complete her beautiful designs.

My current favourites in the Mystery Huswif are the Spiders Web Roses.


You can see instructions at http://www.hand-dyedfibers.com/spider.html

Before I completed my first one, I was a little worried about what would happen if my thread got twisted while I was making the rose. I railroad all my top stitches and sometimes the bottom ones too (depends how the thread is behaving), and I didn't want to spoil the effect of the roses with twisted thread. However, I soon realised that it really doesn't matter. In fact, a little twisting can add extra texture to the rose and even improve the look of the end result. The main thing to do when stitching these stitches is to have plenty of thread on your needle!

The main point with this stitch is not to get your tension too tight - then I think you would have difficulty with the texture and overall look of the rose.

I've nearly finished part 1 now, although part 2 arrived by email earlier this week. Here's where I've got to so far.


The photograph makes the colours look much lighter than they are in real life.

I've switched around some of the colours - I think the HDF Hazelnut is my least favourite. I've also left out the alphabet in the centre but have one or two ideas for other things to put in that band, as well as in the alphabet bands of part 2.

I just have to finish the leaves on the right hand rose and a herringbone band below, then I'll be ready for part two!

Ooh - and I've even managed a stitch or two on Nova this week!

It's a mystery!

This year, I've joined my first mystery group with Carol Tinson at Heirloom Embroideries. The mystery for the first half of this year, is a sampler which can either be stitched as a sampler with a drawn thread border, or finished as a huswif. I've chosen to work on the huswif as I've never made something like that before.

If you don't know what a huswif is, it's a kind of old fashioned, stitched, folding sewing case. There are some lovely photos of a sailor's huswif here (front) and here (back). Modern huswifs have also been designed by the Needle's Prayse and Sampler Cove (see the Quaker Huswif and Today's Heirloom Collection).

The reason it's a mystery is that when you start, you don't know what the design will look like. As you go along, parts of the design are revealed, but only those that you're currently working on, so that it's not until you complete the design that you know what it looks like! The risk is that you may not like the final design.

I stitched a number of Carol Tinson's designs last year, and I like most of her designs, I felt the risk of not liking the mystery design was fairly minimal.

My favourite - Carol's Peachy biscornu

In joining the mystery group, I paid for both the chart(s), instructions and all the materials required. Carol usually offers excellent value for money, so I was quite happy to do so.

The first installment arrived round about the 7th February and I was certainly not disappointed! My pack contained an introductory letter, full and detailed instructions for this part of the design, a chart for this installment as well as materials - Hand Dyed Fibres silk threads by Vikki Clayton, a one-off hand dyed linen from Polstitches and a little gold needle.

My first step was to oversew the linen using my sewing machine to stop it fraying while I'm stitching. By the middle of last week, after finishing 4 Wishes, I was ready to get started.

As usual, Carol's instructions are very comprehensive and beautifully presented and laid out. The variety of stitches used looks intriguing and will offer some challenge to achieve.

The colours are all beautiful in antique green, red/pink and gold. The fabric complements the threads very nicely, varying in colour from similar to the HDF Verdigris to more of a parchment colour. I'll be very interested to see the effect of the shading of the fabric as mine seems to be fairly dark at the top and the threads don't stand out particularly.

I've also found the Vikkii Clayton silks and the linen very luxurious to stitch with - they feel wonderful in my hands. I'm using silk on other projects (my Chatelaines) they don't feel nearly so good! The little gold needle too just seems to add to the luxury. So a good experience so far.

My only small small gripe is the alphabet band which may be continued through the design. I'm just not particularly keen on alphabet samplers. However, it's early days and far too soon to judge without seeing any more of the design.

Now I just need to remember to go and pay my February installment .......

Ta-da!

Here's my completed Peachy, and I'm really proud of him too!

.....

The slideshow comes courtesy of Photobucket.

Edited 30 mins later -

OK - I give up! I have a lovely little slideshow on Photobucket that just won't work when I paste the TAG code here!!!!!*$$$?**! Boo!! Here's a photo instead.

You should be able to see the slideshow here.

If anyone from Photobucket's looking, here's what happens with the slideshow. Straight copy & paste of the TAG info -

I had a bit of fun taking the photos, how do you like my 'studio'? Although I don't think tissues wrapped round spotlights is entirely safe, somehow!

Peachy weekend

Back at work now after a fantastic weekend's stitching! I'd been so down on stitching last week, it was such a relief to get the bug back on Friday evening and I spent lots of time working on my Peachy biscornu. I could have done more, but as it's a SAL, I thought I'd wait for Friday's instructions and give myself something to look forward to next weekend. Here's a piccie of the front -

We also had a great family afternoon on Saturday at the golf range. My son had a sulk because he couldn't hit the ball as far as me or his dad! But we've all signed up now for some lessons at the end of the month which I'm really looking forward to. I played a lot of gold as a junior, but not a lot over the last 20 years, which is a shame because I really enjoy it.

My son and I also shared our first cycling expedition on Sunday morning. My husband doesn't have a bike so he wasn't allowed to come. We went to a local park which is just out of walking range and which we would normally visit by car. Once at the park we cycled around and played at the play area and visited a small nature reserve before cycling home again. Parks like this aren't generally my favourite place to visit but I really enjoyed being able to do this with my son and is exactly the reason why I own a bike!