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!

Summer Holiday Unwind

Cor, blimey. 

It's been a while since I posted!

I am very much here, and stitching but the blog is pretty much in its summer hibernation mode as is my website and Etsy store. That being said I thought I would give an update...

I've working on the new quilt project, called 'Gossip in the Garden' it's by Hatched & Patched. It was tea related and had bees on it, so I had to do it. This weekend I managed to get all the appliqué completed for block A, I just need to finish the small patchwork block detailing before I move onto the next block. 

What's been nice about this project is the opportunity to use up scraps, and that it's forcing me to start making some sort of dent into the rest of my fabric stash. It's also been nice to do as it's making me stop and think about colour and print combinations too. Getting the old noggin working!

Lots of fiddly needle turned appliqué. 

When I haven't been playing with fabric, I've also been making a bit of a dent on my jewellery making stash. It was high-time I broke out the Swarovski Crystals. A made a rainbow inspired bracelet, see below, a long chain necklace and updated another long chain I picked up recently in the summer sales. 

Also celebrated Hamish the Hamster's 2nd Birthday. Still going strong my little ginger furball. He's currently on vacation with my Best Friend. 

And I've taken a small break from eyelets but it's coming along rather nicely. I can't quite decide whether to go all the way round or keep it to one side of the oval shape, a crescent of eyelets. But post my break I'm sure I'd have made my decision. 

And that my friends, is where I am currently at. I'll be back in proper blogging mode in September!

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 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

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. 

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!

All About the Flowers

I hadn't realised till I dropped various images into this blog that there was a inadvertent theme to my Bank Holiday weekend. As it turns out it was all about flowers, in some shape or another. I've really come to love flowers more and more since moving to my current abode. I love nothing more than buying a bunch of flowers to brighten up the hallway or add a bit more life to the livingroom, aside from Hamish. And yes, whilst I do suffer from hayfever, thankfully its more from grass than flowers. 

Anyway, the Friday kicked it all off. I've lived in and around Surrey for well over a decade now but had never been to RHS Wisley, passed it on many trips to Kent, or driving home late on Sunday back to East Molesey ready to begin another week at the RSN as part of the apprenticeship. But aside from saying should go and have a look, never have that was until last week.

Thinking of a way to celebrate my mum's birthday we decided to hit several things with one stone, to see the gardens, attend the Contemporary Craft and Design fair and to have a spot afternoon tea. The weather wasn't exactly on our side for walking about all day, it was frickin cold and I wasn't entirely dressed for it. Still we were thankful we didn't get wet, even though it was threatening to do so all day. There was some interesting items on display at the fair, some amazingly draw dropping and others not entirely to my taste but still it was a good mix. Also taking place at Wisley, but not part of the fair, was a mini silver exhibition called 'Festival of Silver' held by the Goldsmith's Company. Needless to say the work was utterly jaw dropping. My inner magpie was drooling.

Oh and the flowers were pretty too...

I'll certainly be going back to Wisley, this time to venture out into the gardens and to do some drawing and painting. Something I've not done in a rather long time. Despite always having a sketchbook with me, I didn't take it on a Friday. 

On a non-flower related note, just wanted to share a wee shot of the finished monogram that I've been working on for the past couple of weeks, it is now all packed up and ready to wing it's way to my friend in the States. After a small discussion it's been mounted into a round, wooden hoop, and I've attached the embroidery in a way that if she wanted to paint the hoop she can, without damaging the fabric. Managed to get it all finished before a friend of my came down for the weekend. 

Which was how I came to have these rather wonderful flowers, which was rather thoughtful and are looking blooming lovely in the livingroom, pardon the pun! The coral coloured roses are becoming my fave. Needless to say little in the way of stitching was done for majority of Saturday and Sunday, as we were mostly consuming lots of yummy food, drinking plenty of tea and watching silly flicks added with our own commentary. Which comes easy when your watching Disney...

But of course, I always end up reverting back to stitching. So once I cleaned up, sorted out the boring chores and did some more painting (at last the walls are all finished, oh god just the woodwork left...GAH). I played about with quilting fabric for a design I doodled last week for using with the bag handle. I started it last night and had originally thought about using Liberty fabric to make the flower shapes but by this morning with a little help from my mum who had briefly popped by to pick something up, and my own thoughts on it, the flowers changed from...

...this.

Granted didn't mean I toned down the colours, rather opted for a slightly less detailed fabric, and one that I had originally purchased with pink and lilac fabric. It's not entirely like the design I had doodled, and I realise now that the completed paper pieced flower is bigger than I had originally planned...but I still love it and it will be interesting to see how it turns out when complete.

I've got a busy month ahead with work and family commitments, I also have the next season embroidery pattern to sample to stitch but I hope to make some time for finishing it because I really want to get it hung up on the wall!

Did you find you had an unexpected theme to your weekend? What lays ahead for your May?

Decorating and Stitching

This has seemingly felt like a long and also short weekend at the same time. I suppose that's what you get if you decide to spend five long hours painting your hallway. I haven't even really finished yet. Christ painting can be so bloody boring, and tedious when you have a headache for the entire time. Whinging aside, it's complete and I've even come to the conclusion that it doesn't need me to spend out on fancy light reflecting paint to make the hallway brighter, because the basic white has done a fab job, and has made such a difference! It was so dingy with the cream coloured walls, and now can't wait to paint the skirting and door frames, which will be in either gloss or satin wood pale grey just to give it a different finish. 

The painting has pretty much eaten up most of the weekend, because with the painting you have the cleaning up, and generally passing out from the smell. 

That aside I did get round to finishing stitching the monogram:

Something very satisfying about stitching over thread so it's hidden and has a nice neat finish

So close to finishing...sort of...lots more Satin Stitch to go..

And it's all done. 

Well, not exactly, the image above is the stage before the finish. The finish sees it with a small golden bee and is temporarily held in a frame. I've sent a picture to my friend to have a look at as I'm still a bit iffy about the bee. I did various types, sizes and put in different places and I'm not a 100% sold on it, but you know sometimes you have to take a step away. So everything is tidied up and put to one side. 

And whilst I wait to hear what she thinks, my mind wanders to not just finishing the hallway, or cooking dinner though I am getting hungry, its to what I want to start working on next. Several things are already on the go from the quilt to playing with hexies, I have also three embroidery designs to stitch, one is the next free tutorial so I should be starting that one next (and will)...but I've finally figured out what I am going to use my small stash of these bag handles I picked up seven years ago at M&J Trimming in New York. They are going to be used to hang mini art quilts for the study. Not worked out the design of the mini quilt but I am sure something will be thought of soon. Something bold and bright...

What about you, have you finally figured out to use a very old piece/item from your stash?

Easter Crafting

Happy Easter everyone! 

Or for me happily getting on with things that make me happy weekend. 

Although that was intermingled with quite a bit of things that didn't...such as re-caulking around window and door frames, filling in holes in the wall, doing my laundry and food shopping. Still I now have two windows looking a lot tidier, a hallway that's now prepped for painting and most of my household chores are complete. Really haven't been one to sit still, runs in the family! 

My idea of resting is getting out the sewing and I've thus far managed a lot this weekend so I suppose I have been resting :)

I've finally gotten around to giving Calico the Flying Pig a bit of a holiday makeover, and is now sporting bunny ear headband and a new pink ribbon. This pig his getting quite the wardrobe. Those ears were fiddly as heck to make and made from scratch, I now feel I could probably make myself a pair but I'll leave that for another lifetime. 

When I wasn't working on Calico's fashion fix, I was cracking on with my friend's monogram, with the trailing complete I moved onto stitching the padding. Lots and lots of rows of chain stitch using several strands of cotton. You might note it's a different colour to the other blue used to stitch the outline. That's because I don't like to waste the thread I am going to use for the satin stitch in case I run out, and because I have loads of anchor thread I don't particularly like to use in odd colours. If you stitch the satin (top layer) correctly you shouldn't see the padding stitches anyway, not that I would recommend using a red thread with blue, unless your looking for an interesting effect. 

The satin stitch is now under way and you'll note it's slanted so that it follows the flow of the shape, rather than straight satin stitch (going straight across). I do have to stop myself from stroking the stitching. 

When I found myself going a little blind from tiny stitches I returned to piecing my quilt. One of things I am determined not to happen is to totally forget about it, cosigning it to the pile of unfinished projects. I want it finished this year, ready for when I come to decorate my bedroom next year. So I have until the end of the year!

Which given we are not far away from heading into May I had better start getting a wriggle on again. With the fabric cut for the 3rd and 4th row done the other week, I've been setting about piecing them together, only one more another four blocks to go then that target is complete. After that it will be cutting and piecing one more row, then sorting out the sashing. It will be a little while before I get to that stage, which is fine because I keep changing my mind about how I want to quilt it. 

Going back to the monogram for a minute, when it is complete I'll be sorting out the sample for the next season embroidery pattern, you might recall the free embroidery spring pattern I released the other month. I also want to stitch my own monogram in a similar style to the one I'm stitching for my friend. With two then complete it will mean I can perhaps look to release it as a custom order option, depending on the level of interest. 

For now though, it's time to chill out with a film and another cup of tea.

I hope everyone is having a relaxed and happy Easter xx