Today is...

a goo'd' day. 

Yes, it really is.

I am, really getting into the embroidery piece 'Today is a Good Day' (designer Hannah Dollery), it's taking a little while to get back into the habit of doing padded satin, but I am really loving it now. Like visiting an old friend.

So here is a super close up shot of the piece in progress. 

It will, and I really mean this, be finished this week. Whether that also means framing it I am not entirely sure, we'll see I have a super oval shaped ring frame which I think it would slot rather nicely into. But who knows...I am fickle when it comes to how I want to finish something off.

For those who aren't signed up to my newsletter, the latest copy went out on Monday, and you can now view it online. I recommend having a peek as I revealed what the latest 'Honeycomb' Tutorial piece was going to be covering. Go on, have a look, you know you want too...

See you at the weekend folks x

All and Sundry

Golly, it's another Bank Holiday over here in Blighty, and finally there is even a bit of sunshine to go with it. Who else is keeping their appendages crossed that it might last till Tuesday? I am in spirit but not actually as it would make typing this blog post rather tricky.

I've actually had a longer break than most, as I had decided that on Monday (just gone) that I need a bit longer than 3 days, so I took Friday off too. Just as well I did, the heavens well and truly opened on that day, and there is nothing worse than walking about London in the pissing rain. Granted that is the same for anywhere really. Anyway, I was nice and wrapped up in the warm working on a sample. Now for those who follow me on Facebook, you will have seen said sample already, as I was gauging people's opinions.

And for those who have yet to see it, here it is. Yep, it's a cushion. It's not an area of home-wares I've ever delved into, which is why I was seeking people's thoughts. I am fairly happy with the overall finish. There are couple of things I want to change, such as I don't think I will go down the route of purchasing cushion blanks, unless I can find a UK handmade supply. The quality of the blank I used for the sample is fine, but part of me feels guilty. Why? Well if your buying handmade then the whole thing needs to be handmade. 

Anyway, I would still like to get people's opinions on the design which is the same as the wall clock (just with a different Liberty print), size (sample was 16"), with a filler or without (the latter reduces postage costs). If you can spare a moment to drop a comment that would be fantastic.

What else have I been doing, well I've finally finished my entries for the Survival Arts - Bee Competition, now all I need to do is get them posted and once I've done that I'll show them off to you all. 

Oh, I almost forgot to say, that one of my clocks, Ring of Bees was featured in a fab article called 'A to Z of Time Keeping' in the latest issue of Pretty Nostalgic. Which is rather swell, I had been contacted for images a while ago, so I almost forgot about it! It's a nice magazine if you've not picked it up before, very little in the way of advertising so you get a decent read.

For now, it's time to finish off the next e-newsletter (goes out tomorrow, and you get a sneaky peek at the next tutorial with this one) and then carry on with my 'Today is a Good Day' piece. 

Sunday: One down...

Bit of a nutty week at work, thus resulting in not a lot of stitching. 

But, I have managed to get at least one thing finished and a future project prepped. 

Firstly, the little bee that I briefly featured last week has finally ended up in it's finished form, a wall clock. Rather pleased with the outcome, so cheerful and friendly...and useful to boot. This also gave way to another idea for a new selection of items to go under my product line aptly named 'bees'. And the below shot is another sneaky shot of what's to come. I hope to have at least one completed, if not two, by the end of the next Bank Holiday weekend. Can I just say another three day weekend can't come soon enough. Tempted to make a four day.

Oh there was one other thing I prepped for this week, and that was the next newsletter, which will be going out in the next week. Thanks for all the lovely new newsletter followers. If you want to join, then do pop you email into the box on the top right hand of the screen.

Today...I try not to waffle.

Hey look it's another Sunday! This means that it's time for a blog post, sure came round quickly. I'll ignore the fact that it will soon be Monday...

I'm going to skip a bit of my normal waffle because words are seemingly escaping me today. the weekend has been good and productive, and so let's get to the juicy bits and some photographs. Because as we know a picture tells a thousand tales or in this case what I've been stitching. Although I have to admit with the somewhat dull/overcast weather the photography isn't at it's best, even after a bit of photo editing.

So my personal project is coming a long nicely, I've finished the first section of trailing, 'Today', and now working on 'Good'. The lettering will be a combination of diagonal Satin, chain and trailing stitch. You can't really tell but the thread colour for the 'G' is in a hot coral pink, the padding is in a different shade because I'm not wasting the silk thread, in the coral, for the padding. I should use a matching colour for the padding but I'm resorting to using what I have to hand, and to be honest if stitched well enough your not going to see the padding.

Patchwork Bee

The other project that I've been working on is coming on rather nicely, it's the design for a new clock, and I'm rather enjoying the look of it. Here is a bit of a close up look at it. I wish I had some more of this flowery fabric but it's only a sample piece that came with a magazine from Japan. That said, I've seen the new Liberty Tana Lawn prints, and I've got my eye on a couple. Next month I'll treat myself to a couple of 1/2 metres, it will take me an age to get through, and it's been an equally long time since I purchased any new prints. 

And that's near enough everything I've been doing this weekend, aside from tidying up, shopping and doing bits and pieces on the internet.

Ah, before I shuffle off, there are a couple of UK Government petitions flying about here and enough to make me want to get on a soapbox here, beautifully crafted one, and say if your in the UK, and your a crafts person or know someone that is or love to buy from them then please sign this petition to get the government to change  its mind on reclassifying craft as non-creative. Seriously, where do they come up with these things.

Granted I'm sure there will be some that will wonder what's the point of worrying about it, people will forever call it crafts, because lord knows Handmade Manufacturing really rolls of the tongue.

Okay, I started out saying I wasn't going to waffle, and near enough ended on a rant. Oops.

Anyway, if you are in the UK click here - http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/49537 

Today is a Good Day

Nothing like a Bank Holiday weekend to get recharged and raring to go once more. Admittedly it took until today to finally pull my finger out and get going but I felt as though I made up for lost time. Many projects were progressed, prepped and started...

One of the projects I prepped today, and started was one that I mentioned the other week (Stitching Sundays), which was turning a rather fab computer wall paper into a hand embroidered picture. I sought the permission of the designer Hannah Dollery who kindly said I could. Yesterday I started a bit of the prep work for it, playing around with how I was going to stitch the various typed of font and today was all about getting the fabric started. I was going to hold fire and start it over the next weekend but I was chomping at the bit to get started.

Starting of the trailing stitch, what I like to call Barber Shop Pole Stitch.
Using a combination of stranded cotton and silk thread

Doesn't take me long to get one letter complete

Where I am currently up to, the aim is to get the trailing completed by the end of the week...hopefully

It feels good to get back to doing a meaty project, and something that I get to chart its progress.

As for what else I worked on today, I prepped a few bits for a new prototype clock, I'll talk about that another day, when I've got a bit more to show. At the moment it's just a stack of tiny bits of fabric and some thread....but hopefully it will be a bit more than that soon enough. 

I also whizzed up a small embroidery, for the sheer hell of it mainly, not sure what I am going to do with it yet...any suggestions gratefully welcomed. It's just under an inch on the width, so it's teeny tiny. And you'll hopefully recognise it as being part of my branding. Some point I would love to stitch the full thing, on a bigger scale for stall sign or something...one day, but not at the moment.

That's it for now!

Honeycomb Tutorial Time: Snazzy Stem Stitch

Time to embroider your second patch! 

I did gave a sneaky heads up of what the next stitch we will tackle in my recent  newsletter, but in case you didn't get it we will be doing Stem Stitch..or as I like to call it Snazzy Stem. 

For those new to Honeycomb Embroidery Tutorial series, I recommend taking a look at the first part, which goes into more detail on the equipment needed and picking your colour palette. Click here to take a look.

So let's crack on....

You will need:

• Embroidery hoop
• Scissors 
• A sharp needle
• Select three stranded cotton colours, from your palette
• A piece of calico that fits your hoop
• Sharp HB pencil
• Machine thread 
• Print out the template, click here.

Now for the stitching...

• For those interested I picked the following colours from my palette; brown (DMC 938), pink (DMC 29) and green (907). 
• Draw the design onto your fabric, don't draw the outline of the shape. Keep the template for later use.
• Order of stitching and direction: 

• Chose a colour to work with first, cut a length of thread and split it so you work with two strands. Start your thread off on the line, were indicated in the previous drawing, either secure your thread with a knot, or two tiny stab stitches on the line and cut away the knot.
• Now your ready to start the stem stitch: 

Come up at A. and go down at B, I find it easier and neater not to pull the thread all the way through, instead keep a bit of a loop on the right, and bring your needle up half way between A and B, as shown on point C, then pull the thread all the way through. To carry on, take your needle down half a stitch length again beyond point B. Repeat.

Keep your loop to the right! 

If its on the left, then it's outline stitch, which isn't as snazzy...

• Work the stem stitch to the end of the line, take the thread to the back and weave the thread through the back of the stitches till your happy the thread is secure and snip off the tail. 

• Hot Tip: Keep an eye on the state of your thread, it will get fluffy and messy quickly, you can use thread conditioner but just keep your thread lengths short and change often. When you change your thread, this is how you carry on the stitch without making it look messy. Secure your thread as if you were starting from the beginning of the line, bring your needle up on the right of the stem stitch line, just at the end of the second to last stitch. Then slide your needle under the last stitch and pull through thread, now carry on as normal. 

• For the second line, we are going to make it a little snazzier, your going to work it in three threads, and one of each thread colour you've selected. It will look like a crazy barber shop pole. Start the wavy line as before and carry onto the end.

Stitching over a line is easy, almost pretend the other line isn't there and carry on your way. If you need to stitch through it, in order to keep your stitch lengths the same, then just do it, it won't mess up the line below.

• The final line is worked in two strands of one colour. As you work towards the loop, shorten the length of the stitch by a fraction to make the stitching tighter.

• The circles....are also in stem stitch, a little challenge for you to attempt. The circles look tricky but it just comes down to making small stitches like you did for the loop. To close up the circle neatly, by angling your needle under the first stitch.  

Showing how to join up the circle

Finishing Off

You have a couple of options for finishing off this hive piece, you can do the reverse applique as shown in Eyelet Polka, or you can do a version of English Paper Piecing, which is a quilting technique. 

• Grab your template you printed out earlier, and cut out the hexagon shape.
• Take your fabric out of the hoop, turn to the back. The lines on the cut out shape can be used to match up with the stitching on the fabric, simply holding both up to a window or using a lightbox will allow you to do this. Then pin the paper to the fabric to keep it in place, mind your stitching.
• Trim back the fabric to about two centimetres from the edge of the template edge. Thread up a needle with machine thread, knot one end. The basics of English Paper Piecing is simply neatly fold the fabric, one side at a time around the paper template  and stitching through the folds to keep it in place. 
• As shown below, fold one side over top edge (diag. 2), sew through the layers (from back to front), turn the shape and fold the fabric over, sew through the corner this time going from the front to the back. The stitches should be nice and long, and you'll have three on the back and three on the front (diag. 4).

• Now you can leave it this point with the paper within the template, and when you make more of the tutorial pieces you can sew them together as if you were making a quilt. Or if you want to use your piece to sew directly onto something now, then you can very lightly press the edges of the piece with an iron to keep the hexagon shape, avoiding putting pressure on the stitches. Remove the machine thread and pop out the paper template, you will find you have nice crisp lines from the folding earlier. To make it easier for you to then apply to something I would just do a loose running stitch, as shown below, attach it to what you want it to with small stab stitches around the edge. Then remove your machine thread again. 

Do let me know if you have any questions, or queries. Leave a comment or nip over to the Flickr group.