Needlequest Progress Post - 6 January 2014

Welcome to the very first Needlequest Progress Post!  Participants, please leave a comment with a link to where we can see how you're getting on with the challenge.  Non-participants, please leave a comment to cheer us all on.=)

I'm sorry to say that, owing to being horribly busy and tired over the weekend as well as trying to get my stumpwork ladybird finished, I haven't got any further than this with my first first floral project.  However, that took less than half an hour (I spent an hour stitching and worked on three projects), so there's still hope!!=)  I plan to finish this one before the next update.

Something I have spent some time and energy doing though (albeit before the challenge actually started) is fishing out all the smooth silk fabrics I owned to be washed and pressed up ready for use.  I feel they need this as otherwise, smooth silk can feel frankly like paper.  When I was carrying the pieces in one hand from my own room to the ironing board for this photo, they were stiff enough to be horizontal!  Here are most of them before treatment:

Two of the fat quarters, the light bronze and the turquoise shot with white, that I bought at the Harrogate Show drying off on the airers:

I rinsed the pieces through in cool water and Ecover's delicate fabric liquid which removed a few manufacturing smells, then left them to soak in some nice fabric conditioner/softener for a while.  After rinsing them thoroughly, but gently, I then squeezed them out by laying them on a thick towel one by one and rolling it up.  By the time I unrolled it, the piece was almost dry and not too badly screwed up.  I then steam ironed them whilst still damp and used extra water directly on the piece of fabric to at least try to remove some stubborn packing creases.  Some came out, some are still somewhat visible and I'll need to cut along those lines and avoid having them in the middle of an embroidery!

Here's the whole collection, which I keep rolled up and wrapped in brown paper to protect it and keep it clean.  As you can see, I have quite a log of pieces that are suitable to use and I've realised that I really don't need to buy any more.  Drat!!! LOL!

So, what have you been doing during the first five days of the challenge?  And what are your plans for the next week?  I hope to finish my peach rose and get the second piece chosen and prepared.

Please leave a comment with your link and on your own posting, please do leave a link to either this post or the main challenge page so that your readers can find out more and join in too, if they want to.  We now have 11 joining in so far and more are always welcome.  So, if anyone's still toying with the idea, feel free to sign up any time you like.  There's a list of the participants so far on the challenge page, complete with links to their blogs etc.  Take a look!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014