So long cold and hello stitching

Finally I feel slightly more human, well as much as I am normally, had a head cold for most of the week. This morning however, I've found that I can focus on things for longer than a second and whilst I don't want to over do it....I've managed to do quite a few things this morning. This afternoon I'll ease back off again and simply make some soup. 

I've retaken some photographs of old stock, I hadn't realised just how dark they looked in the photographs I had taken. So my Paradise Bird Christmas baubles have been re-shot, and as I've been making calico bags, these decorations will also now come with one, to help keep them protected when not in use. 

Talking of Paradise Bird, which I have once again revisited, when I've not been feeling poorly this week I've managed to make more of the new brooches in an array of colours:

What do you think? They are £14.50 each, and again come with a little calico bag. I'm really loving how simple, yet effective they look. Which makes me love the design even more. I wasn't sure how further I would develop the Paradise Bird design but this has reinvigorated me to use it some more. I am thinking a small batch of Tissue Holders next. 

Speaking of that, I'm going to make more of the wordy Tissue Holders soon, so keep eyes peeled for more Snotty, Drippy and Achoo designs. Which will be stitched on rather lush linen and lined with bright Liberty print.

I will also be making more Queen Bee Tree decorations, I was awaiting delivery of some materials and for my eyes to be focus able to stitch, before making more. I know several folks have asked about having it as a design. I would really love to offer it as a design but at the moment I am really behind on Christmas stock making and need to focus on that. If I feel I am making some headway on the stock then I may well do so.

Though I have to ask would you want it as a kit? Full materials etc, and making instructions, the embroidery design on it's own, or a complete patten (no materials). I would really be interested to know.

I know I've yet to progress with making a stitched example of my last free Little Planet design, and the long overdue Honeycomb Tutorial. I may well push those back to the new year. I do so hate to promise things and not deliver, but I'd rather not keep offering up dates and not reaching the target. I hope you don't hate me too much for that. 

I will be writing a new e-newsletter later this month, as next month the Crafty issue with my project that I still can't tell you about is in it, and I promised a competition to go with it (this I will deliver on!). 

Now time for me to toddle off, I want to sort out my to do list for the week, and rest for a bit. Before I do, I was having a mini clear out and came across these rather forlorn buttons. I made them a long time ago and have yet to either use.

If you would like any of them, either leave me a comment or email info (at) masonbee.co.uk. If you want more than one lot then I'll sort you out a special rate. 

Little Sewing Buttons £3 + P&P

Petite Flowers (Liberty Tana Lawn) £3 + P&P

Sunburst (Liberty Tana Lawn) £2.50 + P&P

Red Berry (Liberty Tana Lawn) £3.00 + P&P

Christmas, New Stock and a Vow to Buy Quality

It feels nice to be working on a blog post during the day and not at night as with my previous weekly musings. The sun is still shining and the sky is blue. Thus far it's been a rather productive week and a bit of a rallying one too. I'll get to the latter bit a little bit later because first I really, really want to show you what I've been working on this week. 

I'm utterly stoked with the way my new Christmas bee design has turned out. I made the decision quite early on that I wasn't going to do the same design as last year and I was prompted to get drawing again when I sold the very last Merry Bee. I had actually tweeted the design I came up with the other day and so this weekend I set about making the sample. Well, the sample turned out to be beyond my expectations and as such its' up for sale already, complete with a little pouch to store it in. I've been mulling over packaging lately and I thought about buying in a load of already made calico pouches and perhaps in due time I'll do that but till I've sourced ones I'm happy to pair with my own work I've opted to make my own. Now the one shown below is completely made by hand, and yes you can imagine it took a wee while to sew it which isn't practical but with a sewing machine I'll get the time way down. It also meant I could also use my massive stash of bakers twine and my wee custom made stamp. So all in all it's rather perfect.

Queen Bee Tree Decoration £15.00

The bee wasn't the only thing I've been working on. Last week you'll recall my mentioning playing about with the Paradise bird design again, this time making some rather swanky looking brooches. Well I think I can safely say I've cracked it. It took some attempts and alterations but I've finally got it to fit neatly and securely into the brooch setting. It will be made in other colours, peach, pale pink, lilac, turquoise, hot pink and mint...actually I might still play with the combo's but at least you get the idea. I've not listed this one for sale as of yet, but will be in due course. So keep an eye on the store!

So yes, it's been a rather busy weekend, amongst all that lot I also managed to fit in a trip to Farnham's Food Festival (spent a small fortune on yummy produce), finally settled on how I am going to make a blind for the study, massive clothes clear out and made a concious decision in regards to clothes buying habits. 

Now I know that's a weird thing to do, the latter that is, but this week I finally had enough of buying cheap clothing. What did it for me? A pair of boots, which I had ordered from New Look and realised you really do get what you pay for. Now, yes I know if you buy cheap you get cheap. I've know that, occasionally though you buy cheap and you can get good quality too but like many you get pulled into the need it now situation and forgo buying into investment pieces because it involves searching, saving up and waiting. Not to say I am not patient (mostly) but well it's easy just to find something that vaguely does the job, that might last the season and get rid. But I am feeling really uneasy about that lately. More so now I have my own place, and the whole buying bits for it, be it a lamp or the paint. Now part of me wants to rush out and fill the place completely with everything I need but that's both unrealistic financially but more importantly where's the fun in that? I've been on the hunt for a console table pretty much since I moved in but I'm not rushing to IKEA to get one. I'll wait till I find the right piece that could be several more months down the line but that's fine by me. 

So going back to the clothing I've decided that not only a small wardrobe (not talking about the furniture) made up of pieces that are really well made and fit properly is the way to go. The first thing I'm saving up for is a pair of Grenson Chelsea Boots 'Jessie', aren't they just lush! I've just popped some bits on Ebay that I don't want any more and the money from that is going in the pot. Hopefully be able to afford by the next pay cheque. 

Then saving up for a new leather handbag....

So here is to saving and buying quality. 

Powering through

As I had hoped this week I  managed to finish several projects and on Saturday not only did I managed to photograph them but list them too.

So what did I get up too?

Well I created one more of the delightful Paradise Bird hand embroidered peter pan collars, and rephotographed the ones I had made a few weeks back. I am much happier with the outcomes, the images are crisper and brighter:

They just look so cool grouped together!

Lovely triplets!

But it doesn't stop there, I also finally mounted up the Paradise Bird hoop art, and it's looking rather snazzy in the variegated blue thread. I love this linen fabric it's light weight and wonderful to stitch on. 

I think I am getting better at photographing my work, and editing in Photoshop.

It doesn't finish there, I worked on another piece this week. It was another Peter Pan Collar, but a different design to the birds. Following on from the Honey & Bee Clock, I created a sweet little design incorporating tiny little buzzing bees. Like with the other collars, this is reversible so you can show off the bees or you can show off the monochrome flowers. 

I love stitching bees in the way I mastered some years ago, just works perfectly, you might notice that it's a slightly different way to the bees on the clock.  The bees are linked up on either side of the collar, by running stitch around the edge of the collar.

Phew...

*insert deep breath*

I hope you like the photographs. I have one more to share with you, call it a first sneak peek at the pattern I am working on....

Hope you like what you see.

If your interested in the collars or the hoop art then click here.

Paradise Bird Reversible Peter Pan Colour Series 1

Sometimes you have to suffer for your art...

In this case I had to bite the bullet and take a photograph or two of myself.

This is the first in the series of Peter Pan Collars I will be creating, they are hand embroidered and not only that reversible. Delicate embroidery for night time gatherings or special events, and bright bold liberty tana lawn print for the day.

As I am yet to decide what I want for a fabric label I have reverted to simply stitching my initials. Simple and effective.

I'm checking out the view from my bedroom window.

You can purchase this very first collar from my Etsy store for £35.00

Click me.

Mmmm Honeycomb

I've certainly been making the most of the evenings to get stitching done. I am switching between about four projects, the cross-stitch, mending dino, blackwork and the collar. All projects I am pleased to say are progressing a long nicely.

The cross-stitch is on a temporary pause for a few days as I need to get the dino done, who I am happy to say has a mended mouth, though he's missing his teeth and a patch of his head but he will be quite the different t-rex. Think collars, moustache, top hat....need I say more? I am seeing my nephew on Saturday and I promised I would have it ready for then. So after this blog it will be back to it.

The honeycomb/black work stitching is also coming along. Now that I have the patten well and truly licked its been pretty easy to get into the swing of stitching it. Although I will admit to going wrong in a few places so a bit of unpicking has had to occur. But as you can see from the picture below there is the start of subtle shading in both the colour and the stitch, fading now.

The aim is to get to at least the next colour in the shading by the end of the week. Which in theory could see the end of the stitching because I am still flitting between a 4" or a 6" hoop, do we'll see.

The fourth and final project for this week is the Peter Pan collar, the embroidery for both sides is complete, and its so diddy. I selected the backing fabric, worked out how its going to fastened when complete, and on the train today I stitched the two pieces of fabric together and when I got home turned it inside out. Now this is a bit of a see how it goes one, as I've never made a collar before and working out how to complete the collar for turning inside out proved interesting and this I admit isn't perhaps the easiest way of doing it but I think I can get it to work and look good.

Once I have hit this lot on the head, or as much as I can, I will be working on the next free patten sample, the next bee related item and doing something about promoting what I am doing. Because I am sure not doing as much as I should!

What you lot up too?

Paradise Bird Stumpwork Framed

Cor, blimey. 

I got there, the piece as I promised earlier this week is nicely framed. I have to say it nearly caused me a headache or two. From choosing the right frame, mount colour to actually framing it. But it's done. It's all nicely safe behind glass, ready to go to a new home.

And here it is, photography took a while, and I think I need another frame shot, as I thought it looked okay but staring at it again now it's a little fuzzy. Darn it!

Anyway, I am very pleased with the outcome, but onwards to the next project as they say!

It will be available to purchase over the course of this weekend. Keep an eye on my Facebook page for the announcement. 

Paradise Bird - Thinking...

The embroidery is complete but the actual finished piece, the mounting, is yet to take place. 

Whilst stitching the stars and applying the crystal details, I had a thought, instead of stitching it on the round like the last one, I would mount it square in shape and get a round mount cut, so it looks like its in a round window. My embroidery hoop is demonstrating the idea, sort of.

Thinking...

Busy Bee - Project flying

Okay, I'll admit there was a lot of things done on this project between last night and this afternoon, that I didn't take photographs of, now some of that was partly down to dodgy lighting and being wrapped up with what I was doing, that I forgot. 

So some of yesterday's afternoon/evening was taken up with stitching the wing. Worked separately in order to give the bird more height. The wing has extra form, this comes from stitching over a very thin paper covered wire, this was shaped to the outline of the wing. Make sense? Basically couched down some wire onto silk. The stitching is very close together, which means I can then cut the fabric away, right up against the stitches which is always ruddy nerve wrecking. Before I got to that stage I stitched the middle lines, back stitch with silver thread weaved through them. In this shot you can see I also stitched some beads on it....

Your probably wondering how I got the wing attached to the body. Allow me to explain. 

I used a great big needle (mislaid my stelletto at this point) to punch a hole into the right place on the body, to keep the opening neat I then did a quick buttonhole edge round it. The wire on the wing was tightly bunched together and plunged through the hole, its then bent back on itself and stitched down on the back of the fabric.

Pretty shot...look at that wing. Just checking the head still works.

Told you the tail wasn't finished. I couched down some silver passing around the left of the trailing to act as a highlight. Don't it look pretty.

Actually at this point the silver passing had been stitched down, and the head has also been very carefully stitched down into place, something else has occurred to and I will explain that bit in the next picture. However, in this shot I am using six threads of stranded cotton and carefully couching that around the edge of this silk, this is to cover my stab stitches. Neat, huh?

There is a lot in this shot. But you might notice a couple of things, one the wing appears to be missing its beads. This is correct, I took them off. It wasn't a simple undertaking as it meant I had to take the wing off, and stitching back down. Not easy but I am happier with the results the beads just weren't doing it for me. 

I also added to the thighs of the bird, or trousers as I have now called them. Made them jazzier by adding some lasy daisy stitches in silver, I love them.

Around the body to hide the stitches I couched a double row of silver passing around it. 

The head has it's prong things (technical term), these are wrapped wire. Now like the tail feathers they need one more thing, a bit of sparkle. But that's enough for one weekend, and I need a few days to ponder what else needs to be done, how I am going to mount it. Thinking like with the last stumpwork on the round. I also have a wedding to attend so maybe a wee break will aid the thinking.

Although, open to suggestions?