A Little Dragon

Taking a break from the quilt project I started over the summer, though its not far away (on the table behind me...) I have started on a small embroidery project. Now some time I go I did doodle a design of a medieval inspired piece of a dragon, looking at illuminated manuscripts, but I never finished it largely because I didn't like where it was going. Now move forward several months, I find myself doodling another dragon. This one I am pleased to say showed early signs of potential and thus it will get finished!

As with anything it started with a little spot of preparation, in the form of little satin spikes, and several layers of felt padding.  

Over top of which I then placed a layer of silk dupion, without any soft/ light-weight vilene I had to settle for bondaweb (wasn't about to stop and wait till I could get some...I wanted to get on with it!). With that stab stitch down, I then set about cutting out the head with the help of the bondaweb again, now this was the third attempt as I kept drawing the head in the wrong direction. Got the reverse wrong....

A spot of silver passing couched down...

With the body couching down I heat applied the head to the body, you can't really see in this shot but one of the dragon's ears was stitched, as was the chain stitched tongue, before I properly applied the head, which was then stabbed stitch down. 

I toyed with leaving the teeth as they were, just green silk but I opted to do a spot of padded satin stitch instead, and I am rather happy with the outcome.

Once all the teeth are complete, there will be further work to do...including working out how I am going to do his eye. Now, I have an idea involving a Swarosvki crystal, and some stitching...but you'll have to wait and see the outcome!

Museums and Dragons

I'm pleased to say that I've had a rather successful weekend, not feeling so foggy of the mind, everything that I wanted to do, I've done. Feels good. Sometimes there is that worry if you make a plan to do something, especially at the weekend, it doesn't always go to plan. But largely speaking, for a change this weekend has gone the way I had hoped.

From getting all my housework completed on Friday night, to allow me then to nip up to London first thing to head straight to the Wallace Museum. I wanted to get up early before Oxford Street becomes completely impossible to navigate. And as it was a really sunny day it was going to bring everyone out. Which it did. 

If you've not heard of the Wallace Museum, you might have at least heard of one of it's most famous artworks, the Laughing Cavalier and the Swing. It's certainly not the biggest of the galleries or museums' in London but it's one of my favorites. I think this is largely because it's not as well known, it's easy to navigate and the collections are not overwhelming. That isn't to say it's not extensive, not at all. They have a beautiful collection of illuminated texts, Dutch paintings, miniatures, and arms and so forth. In the center, is a rather beautiful covered courtyard, perfect for a spot of afternoon tea. 

After a couple of hours of doodling and drinking tea, I nipped off to get some of my favourite popcorn from Selfridges, special treat. A quick drool session over the beautiful watches and jewellery then dodging all the tourists to get to my fave stationary shop in Covent Garden before heading home to pass out...no not quite, was shattered though. A spot of stitching, milling about the flat, talking to friends in the States then I settled down to watch Grande Budapest Hotel, love Wes Anderson films, and pampering my rather tired feet. 

As for today?

Well more decorating, yeah the hallway...still not finished BUT I have now sanded down the woodwork ready for painting, hopefully next weekend. Hopefully.

I also cracked on with the Dragon stumpwork, and have finally got the embroidery part of the shield complete, I now just need to add a quick bit of ribbon detailing at the top, then I can crack on with the Dragon itself. Can't wait to crack on with the dragon, it will be made up of lots of different pieces, some of which I haven't fully decided on how they will be stitched, so nothing like a working progress!

Hexies a Plenty

Hi!

Yes, I am still here. 

I was going to write a post on Wednesday, I was mean too and was going too but then things sort of got in the way, was busy with family and life in general. But I am back. Today I actually sat down and did some proper stitching, feels so good. 

It's not to say I've not been stitching, if you follow me on other social platforms you'll see I've been somewhat suckered into the sweet life of Hexies. I think there must be some sort of medical condition for the compulsion to make hexies...

and keep on making them....

all the time and still not get bored??

Now these aren't just ordinary hexies, these are my uber cute hexie pouches. Originally made one for myself to hold my gum and mints in. Somewhat sick of the mint packets falling a part in my handbag. Also to curb the boredom of my commute. Then when with one made, another followed, then another and now I've made six, and put some up for sale over on Etsy, and now onto making a prototype pouch for a mirror....SEND HELP.

No, it's all right really. I really do love making them. It's nice way to break up a journey or two. It also helps to make a dent, albeit a small one, on my quilting fabric stash. 

As I said earlier I did also do some proper stitching, and that saw me return to working on the dragon embroidery. I have cut out, again, the felt pieces that will make up padding for the body of the dragon, and started the satin stitch on the shield part of the design. 

Body is in there somewhere.

It took five attempts or more, to get it to a point where I was happy with the direction of the stitching. I was in a very, very fussy mood today.

I now have a couple of weekends free so I can get cracking on it some more, in-between decorating the flat (hallway still not finished). My aim is to get the shield completely stitched, at least the areas I have padded. There will likely add more detail to the shield beyond what's been padded out but that's still to be worked out. I'll keep you posted!

Stumpwork Progress: Dragon Preparations

The preparation is finally, and properly, underway on the stumpwork dragon, which according to my mum is called Cedric. Not sure why, but we'll go with it. 

I'm quite glad that I have had quit a bit to sort out in terms of prep work i.e. padding both felt and stitched and other minor background details to work on as I've been pondering over the colour of the silk threads I want to use for the main details. It's taking me a while to make a decision, partly because I'm relying on computer screens to see colours, and types and it's a little frustrating when the photographs aren't clear and as silk threads can be on the expensive side I don't really want to go down the path of ordering a bunch only to find they aren't what I've been looking for. Its times like this when I REALLY, REALLY, wish there was a damn good haberdashers // craftstore in Farnham. Perhaps one day I'll be the one to run it but until then, I'll have to make do with the internet and attending the occasional fair.

Anyway, back to the thread selection, I'm just waiting on some samples to come through, and I have my toes and fingers cross they are a match. 

Back to the prep layer, thus far I have stitched the padding for the satin for the shield details, and applied the maypole fabric and vintage gold thread. 

I've done the maypole a little weirdly, in that there is a felt layer which has been wrapped round by the silk dupion, only one side of the pole can you see the stab stitches as the other side has been secured underneath the silk....probably the worst explanation ever!

Weird abstract art....otherwise known as padding.

The next bit is the blue felt padding which will make up the dragon, then I'll have to wait till I finally decide on the silk thread, bit annoying having to put it away again, but I do have the Frida pattern to get on with, and oh, and  I might have purchased a few items over the week, so I have them to play with too:

Four fat quarters of various weight printed cottons from Village Haberdashery, I didn't really need them but the excuse is one of them might be chosen to be the curtain for my bedroom. Otherwise, they were really, really pretty and I haven't purchased fabric in a while. Don't judge me. The other, perhaps slightly unnecessary purchase was some new art materials. I've been itching to get back to drawing, and it came about from doodling coats of arms, a bit of a small love affair of mine. I just love the way they are structured from the use of a limited colour range (tinctures) to the symbolism of the images used. I've stitched one or two coats of arms in the past, but I've gotten into the love of making my own up so I've been using watercolours, inks and promarkers. The latter I wanted a few more colours to add to my stash for use when I am designing embroidery patterns and so forth. So they were my naughty spends for the weekend. Which will and are being used.

This one eventually went really, really wrong owing to an accident with the ink but it was good to play around with paint and ink again. 

Do you have a secret passion or not so secret one that's perhaps not entirely associated with what you make create? Or have you purchased any materials lately that you didn't really need, but wanted anyway? Do share!