In Which I Stitched a Flower...

I'm going to skip with a usual opening of..my its been a while, as it is fairly obvious with the last post being back in October. I'll simply say I took a step back and let myself get on with other things. To be truthful I am not entirely sure if I'll ever get back to regularly blogging and making again, but I'm not going to let myself get caught up in feeling any guilt. It's funny how not doing any of these things can leave you with that sense of...'what if' or 'if I don't do anything people will forget...' in a nutshell, this has only ever done to keep me happy, and if your not happy with what your doing why let the guilt bog you down? Not worth it.

Anyway, enough of the introspection...I've actually made myself do some stitching, and it's been rather nice to do. What the hell I am going to do with the thing I've done, I'm not entirely sure, suggestions on a postcard??

Where did I begin?

As with most things I make, I started with a doodle. This one was inspired by a rather snazzy calendar I picked up during a visit to the States last year from Paper Source (WHEN WILL YOU EVER COME TO THE UK??). I think it was a Rifle Press design, but bugger me if I can find the makers mark on it. Anyway, a doodle and a play about with colours. I began the process of turning it into a piece of embroidery...cue some soft swearing and a 'why am I doing this' moment(s).

Looks so organised...stays like that for about ten minutes before each project.

I started with a single thread of floss, and split stitched around the outside of the shape, or in this case petals. Note, I didn't separate each of the petals, this was for a reason...well I had an idea and just went ahead with it. Once the split stitching was complete, I marked the order of the petals with some thought (ish). 

Each petal was then padded out in the middle with long stitches using two /three threads of cotton stranded. Now I know what your thinking, cream padding when your going to do satin stitch in bright pink over it?? Yes, I am a nutter, has been said many a time. I did because I had loads of cream thread, I wanted a challenge and lastly, I knew I cover of it (so modest).

By the way, that shiny thing at the top of the picture is my stainless steel mellor, or laying tool, normally I use it for gold work but it works a treat for threads using it so that they lay flat. Also it's shiny...*_* I have a sterling silver one too.

With each petal I used a different number of padding layers, between 3 - 5 to give it a bit of a my realistic finish. By the fifth petal I had hit my my stride, which is typical.

So shiny...I do love a spot of silk thread.

Time for the middle section, I started it one way and then started it again. Yeah, I had thought to use chain stitch padding for the middle but when I tried it out it wasn't giving me the height and frankly it looked rubbish. So well over an hour later, with copious amounts of swearing, I unpicked the chain stitch.

Once calm again, I opted for a simple approach...couching the padding, using around 12 threads of cotton thread, in a long length I couched it round and round the middle, so it looked like a doughnut. Once I was happy with the height and the filling, I started to satin stitch over the top.

Then the question of what to do next? I had a small idea that the flower needed stamens, and after a brief reminder how to do it, I used a thicker weight yellow silk thread, and pistol stitched the stamens.

And now it's complete....

Now do I add more flowers, leave it be...make it up into something.

I have some pondering to do!

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!

Goldwork A Look Back

Getting back into the rhythm of things of late sees me first taking a look back at past projects. Seemingly have a raft of work in progress or completely abandoned pieces of work. Recently whilst having a check at what pieces I have that I want to sell, I came across this piece of gold work, (see above) a Tudor Rose sampler, stitched in the first year of my apprenticeship at the Royal School of Needlework (sadly, they dropped the apprenticeship in favour of going the University route). 

To be honest it slipped my mind that I had even done it. To be fair it was 12/13 years ago. I do recall the first year being a bit tricky for me, the whole doing pre-scripted designs didn't really appeal to me. Still I did each of the projects. 

If you wondering it's purposely left unfinished, some in my year did go on to finish it but I quite liked the fact you can see the layers, which was the purpose of the piece. Goldwork looks really tricky but with practice you can get the basics down pretty quickly. Most of  the problems come from when you don't do the prep work properly, from the padding layers to working out the order of work. For instance you wouldn't necessarily start with the gold that is more delicate and liable to crack (i.e. in the case of the image above, the stem which is cut work), in an area that you also need to do a lot of other embroidery. Also simply taking your time with it.

It's been nice to look back at this piece, and perhaps it's about time I got it framed. For the time being though its time to look ahead.

Too the next post. 

A Little Hope and Wanderlust

With one project now properly concluded, finally sewn on the backing fabric, I can now really start to concentrate on the new piece, 'Hope'. There was a bit of a stumble with getting the pace and flow of this piece, but I am starting to get somewhere with it now. Two letters are near complete and the shapes, and curves of the letters are working better, though I say that, and looking at the shot below I am still a bit iffy about the top part of the 'H' but we'll leave it for now and see how the other letters look before I start messing with it any more. It is yet more split stitching, and two colours merging into one another. 

Once all the lettering is complete then I'll start to look at the border, which I envisage to be made up of oodles of little eyelets, and star-bursts in various shades of purples, lilacs, and pinks. 

This week I even made my way back to the Royal Academy, one evening after work, to check out the newest exhibitions, 'Wanderlust' on the works of Joseph Cornell. One thing I would say, if you are planning on visiting it does involve walking  up several flights of stairs, frosted glass stairs...which for me wasn't the best thing to be walking down (not a fan of any glass stairs, frosted or not *shudder*). 

Now onto his work. I'll admit I had never heard of the man nor seen any of his work before. This I feel is somewhat of an oversight on my part as his works are extraordinary. In more than one ways. Fantastical and whimsical. Makes you wish you could lay your hands on just a fraction of his paper ephemera collection. The lengths he went to construct some of his works are amazing. I was especially drawn to 'The Crystal Cage (Portrait of Berenice), 1943, not least for the work itself but it was the layers of back story that he constructed around the story of the girl called Berenice. 

I also rather liked the astronomy based works as they pull me back to my love of maps and navigation.

If you get the chance, perhaps combine it with going to see the Summer Exhibition at the RA, go and take an hour out of your time to view. Oh, and take a minute to watch the video of a man boxing with a Kangeroo...

Additional links

• Peabody Essex Museum
• Wanderlust Exhibition

A momentary Sunday Pause

My mind has been a bit befuddled this weekend. I had planned to write a small post on my visit to the Royal Academy on Friday, but instead I am going to mull on that a bit more, in order to do it some justice, and write it up during the week.

For now I need tea, shortbread and a return to a bit of bright stitching.

Just a small reminder, there are only a few more days left to enter my mini competition.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend.

Stitching Frustrations Out by Stitching Love

You may recall from a previous blog post of my frustrations at not being in the zone for embroidery, and in the past couple of weeks I've been endeavoring to knock that on a head. Enough, is enough. Despite whatever wibble I am in, embroidery/ stitching in general puts me in a happy place. And that, my friends is what we should do a lot more of. Feeling frustrated, do what you love, sod everything else. Unless it involves breaking the law....don't do that...stroke kittens instead.

Anyway, before I completely go off topic. I finally got over my not feeling able to come up with an embroidery project, a drawing/ concept if you will. Then I picked up the latest copy of 'The Simple Things' Magazine, the colouring in pages drew me in. Then, then I got this need to doodle and colour. I did and the above design came about. Simple. That's what I love most. 

I started working on it last week. Got the fabric all prepped, a linen mix if your wondering. It's got a bit of a slightly open weave, so to support it I placed a piece of light weight muslin behind (with a finer weave), I didn't herringbone it to the other fabric as you would do normally (properly). Sometimes, sometimes, it's okay to skip a step. Plus it's in an uber tight frame so I am not worried about it shifting about.

To get my started I roughly drew on the design, and roughly stitched various rows of running stitch in green threads round, and around on an oval shape. It not being dead on perfect was intentional,  somewhat out of my comfort zone...

I'll likely add more rows, but I wanted to try out ways of stitching the numerous leaves that will be dotting it, returned to the raised fishbone stitch, and satin for a starter for ten. Though I will probably look at lazy daisy and some other isolated stitches, just to give it some depth.

Happy with the leaves, I've moved onto starting the main bit of the project, stitching the lettering, I wanted to get this done before I put any more leaves, and long before I start the flowers. Rows, upon rows, of tiny split stitch in two colours, this is going to keep me quiet for a bit.

And its a perfect way for me to chill out on this rather glorious sunny, Sunday morning.

A Little Flower

A little flower sprouts a little bit of energy and motivation to get back into embroidery. Not done much in the way of intricate stitching for quite some time. As you will have noted that my blogging fluctuates with the posting, matching my mind set and projects. I've been working on getting myself out of the rut and looking after myself, first and forth most, and doing a little bit of what I love to do. 

To stop myself procrastinating about what I was going to stitch yesterday, I pulled out an old design, based on a Liberty fabric. Grabbed out the fabric and the colour threads I wanted to use, bright colours helping a lot to get this done, and just go on with it. 

It's tiny about an 1 1/2 in height. With padded satin leaves, back stitch stem, and a flower head incorporating trailing border, padded beadwork centre and little French Knots. I did it slowly over a course of an afternoon, maybe a few hours in total if that. I had no initial idea of what to do with it, frame it, turning into a part of a patchwork panel, or as my mind thinks about it, a wee little fabric covered box. I've not done one in an age. The mathematics to make one will certainly tick over a few grey cells.  

A for Alphabet, B for Birthday....

C for Certainly been a full on fortnight between birthday, now Easter and projects. So here is a little round up of what I've been up too. 

• You know my sneaky shots from my last blog post, well heck I finished it! I am so super happy with how this Alphabet display piece turned out. 26 individually stitched letters. Yes, in my favourite trailing stitch, think I need treatment for this addiction. Loved making it so much so that I want to do another one, and I will because I've already purchased another display rack. Thinking a different colour way and different stitch. Interested in purchasing, head over to Etsy. 

Q for...uhm...Queue? Qwerty...

Now you know your A, B, C's...next time...

• Who knew about laminating fabric could be so much fun...now have a fab new mousemat! Go on, crack out that laminator.

• What did I do for my birthday? Lots of hanging out with my family, yay! And double yay, as I went to the freakin' Harry Potter Studio. Cue feeling like a massive kid, and I was, so many small people...still it was so much fun. And totally worth the ticket price. Totally rode a broom, wore a Slytherin cloak, and bought a chocolate frog.

Sort of loving the pink ombre tiles...

Squee, Dumbledore's Office...

• Enjoying the Easter break! Not one to like keep still or anything, I've been flicking between decorating my bathroom, which I can now say is finally complete! Huzzah. I do not want to see a paintbrush for a while. Eating chocolate has been the order of the day, as has drinking copious amounts of tea (duh), and stitching. Just flitting about playing about with things half finished. Like rather large 1 1/2 inch hexie's I had the fabric cut out for an age, and I really couldn't remember what the plan was, but heck I thought do something or put it away. So out came the lovely rainbow coloured threads again. When it's spring time, you just need to bust out the colours even when it's a grey, April day. Tomorrow there will be more working on this random project, and if it looks good I'll give you more of a heads up on how you can make a totally random hexi thing too! 

• Think also get the Wonderland piece back out to see about getting that a little closer to finishing.  
• Oh! I managed to give my website a little bit of love. Updated pictures, and tweaked the little store that's on that site too.

For now my dearies, I need tea and some more chocolate! Happy Easter xx

Trailing, Trailing, Trailing...

...Rawhide!

It's been in my head all week that line, as I crack on with yet another craft project, Wonderland is on hold at the moment as the sudden urge to stitch on the commute to work has overtaken it for the time being. Will be back on it very soon!

So what's up this week...

• The closest I got to the eclipse was via the computer. I have to say, that the coverage was pretty good on the BBC website. 

• Taken to stitching on the train once more as I've got a project, yes I've started another one, that I can carry about with me. I am not going to go into too much detail on it but you can see a few sneaky shots, and I am sure you can at least gather that the alphabet is involved. Or it's a name with an interesting spelling...Oh, and yes it's trailing. Okay, can't help it! Threads, in case you were interested are DMC white for the core thread, and over the top I am presently using cotton hand-dyed threads by Zoe Acketts, and also one colour is using vintage silk floss, brand unknown.

• Got a little fidgety the other week, Sunday night wobbles, and so I found myself knocking up a little floating cloud with crystal raindrops, just to keep my hands busy. For once, the inspiration /mood board in my study/guest room came in handy. Wish I could tell you who to credit, but all I can say the instructions were in issue #32 of Mollie Makes, on page 62. That's it, as I ripped it out when I was having a clear out of old magazines. In those instructions they make it into a super cute mobile, but for me I just went for the one solitary cloud in uber wicked liberty print. Finally starting to cut into the Tana Lawn stash again.

• It's my birthday next week, and whilst I run about the Harry Potter Studios, like a loon, I've decided to offer 31% off everything in my Etsy store. Simply use the following discount code: 31ROCKS.

Hope everyone is having a fab March. 

The Three F's and a T.

A hodge-podge sort of fortnight, full of threads, fabrics, flour and family. 

• A random little patchwork project for no other reason than I fancied doing it. Started as a doodle, and then ended up as a near 12" square. Rather pleased with it too. If your wondering it's a quote from the Mad Hatter, Alice in Wonderland. A quote I can get behind "It's Always Time for Tea". Here, here!

• More thrifty finds - Went in search of shelving units for the bathroom and instead came back with some cheap reels of Sylko thread for my aunt, a rather lovely plain white linen table cloth for £9 and a thimble rack; no I haven't started collecting I have other plans for it.

• I love, love, love Nigel's Lazy Loaf - Lives up to it's name. Second week I've made it now. I have found I had to play about with the amount of flour as Sainsbury's only sell Buttermilk in 300ml not the required 350ml. And I don't like to buy more than I need. So chopped down the flour to 175g and I think it's worked even better this week. Either way, it's super yummy....and toasts nicely too.

• More adventures into Wonderland - The quote that I featured on the little patchwork piece is back again, and this time I've decided to embroider it. Currently work in progress. 

 

Can never find my white tissue paper, so pale pink was used. I tend to find it easier stitching a rough outline on linen that can't be drawn onto, rather than using the prick, pounce and paint method. It's quicker, well for me, and less messy. If your interested in the other method, my good friend, Jen Goodwin, has an excellent tutorial. 

Of, course my favourite stitch is back, trailing for the win! And there is going to be quite a bit of it. Can't help it.

See, I told you there was going to be more! You can just make out the start of a clock, with multiple hands. 

• Giving child marriage the finger! And you can too. Let children, be children. I have recently supported this campaign, and you can too. If you can't donate, but have a social media account, a blog even. Post a link to it. Spread the word. 

Biscuits, Quilts and Tea

Another week has flown by, I was rather caught up with last minute decorating ahead of my carpet being fitted, more on that later. Feeling a little bit crook but at the same time determined to finish a longstanding project. I feel more energized of late to stitch and well do things. 

Get things done! 

• The sheer relief of finishing a quilting project! Having started it, or at least gathered together all the fabric back in 2013, the quilt for my bedroom was completed last week. Can't say how bloody awesome it is to actually finish such a long project. The hand sewing the binding certainly took a lot of patience, as I was so ready for it to be done. And can I say why did I not get the Clover Wonder Clips sooner! But it is, at long last now adorning my bed. Which means I'll be getting ready soon to getting that room decorated. Speaking of decorating....

I love my little red and clear wonder clips, they are so freakin awesome and totally limit the amount of times I am normally stabbed with pins whilst sewing on bias binding!

Bob, I can see you.

• My hallway is finally finished! Talk about a relief. The carpet was fitted, along with the laminate in the bathroom, yesterday morning. Knowing that one room(ish) is complete, and that I am now keen to crack on with the next project, which will be the bathroom is really great, and I think I have to say the spring sunshine is certainly helping with the motivation to get on. 

• Other decorating based news. My biscuit collection is ever growing, the lovely designing talents of Nikki McWilliams has extended to these lovely range of foil letterpress designs, Jammie Dodger, Custard Cream and recently a copper Bourbon biscuit. Hard to resist. These will eventually be framed and will go on display in the livingroom. Hoping that there will be a party ring on the horizon. 

• Watch the process of handcrafted quilts. Simply stunning.

• Got the idea for my next embroidery project, follows on from a mini quilt/patchwork which I am going to post about during the week, once I've properly completed (nearly there!). Let's just say, tea is featured. 

• Things I am thinking about a lot lately: changing direction, closing Etsy store, getting rid of Facebook (company page) love Instagram more, focusing on making things for me but perhaps looking in more detail about what is I am making, and how I do it. Essentially, figuring out do I want to make to sell or simply just make? Perhaps the sunshine had woken up long dusty brain cells. What are you thinking about at the moment?

Tidy Up and Exciting Adventures Booked

Tidying up and getting things in place seems to be the general theme of this weekend. From finally pulling my finger out and getting the last of the hallway decorating jobs done, it wasn't really a sudden desire more the case I actually got the carpet ordered. 

So the woodwork is sanded now (thank gawd for liquid sander), ahead of priming and painting next week. 

Trips galore booked with my best mate, because having things to look forward to is the best thing ever. Firstly, we are going to... 

HARRY POTTER WORLD

HERE WE COME....Oh yeah, I am totally excited!

And, in July we are on a quilting trail which involves visiting three stores, with demos, goodie bags and cake. I will admit the latter swung it for me.

And, other than that it's working on projects again, picked up the little quilting patchwork panel, and have begun adding small details and tidying up. I am feeling that there is going to be a few embroidered details dotted about using the colours and the patterns from the fabric as inspiration. So probably cute little dots, flowers and simple shapes.

The compass piece I started is still about, just been musing on what I want to do with it still. But it will be making a return as soon as I get this blasted hallway finished....

So come on then, do you have any fab trips or adventures planned? Projects working on at the moment. 

Charting New Courses

So my sample compass idea has progressed to what I think is near completion. A spot of less is more. I want to do more along this type of work, and a few ideas for custom work is still brewing away.

However, I am going to take a small break from 'charting' new courses, to start doodling new typography based ideas. Linen, and silk threads are calling to me in this idea.

If there is a quote or a saying that you love, share it with me I might well make it my next design.

Set Sails for New Projects on the Horizon

A new year, and new projects.

I've started to find my embroidery mojo once more. 

And the result of this new found energy is the start of a new project. 

Originally was just going to be a play about, to work out how I was going to do certain areas of the design but is slowly becoming I think probably at the very least a finished example piece for a range of custom items. But we'll see...I am just going to go with the flow on this one, and at the rate I am going stitching it I am sure it will end up being complete next weekend.