Needlequest - Mon 10 Feb 2014

Was that a week gone by already??  Help!

So, it's Monday again and time for an update on everyone's Needlequest work.  Has anyone managed to accomplish much this last week?  I confess, I haven't!  I did a fair bit on my Welsh Poppy last night, but as that was January's subject/technique, I don't really class it as Needlequest work anymore.  So, I'll be showcasing that in a Friday/Saturday post soon instead - once it's finished, of course.=)

As far as my Japanese design work is going, well I managed to make a start on tracing and simplifying the kimono piece.  After a lot of comparison with my own photos and others on-line, I think this tracing here is more or less correct for what I want.  I also want to change the hairstyle to make it a more traditional bun style.  As you can see, I make my tracing paper last (expensive stuff!), and there are the wings of a dragonfly goldwork project from back in 2008 visible top right, the tracing for last year's stumpwork rabbit's ear top left and a travel map outline in part at the bottom.=)  The Welsh Poppy is also on this sheet!!

I also spent some time with my Japanese fabric collection and fished out these fat quarters and patchworkers' pieces that I bought in Taiwan, (i.e. likely to be really Japanese).

I then narrowed them down to these two pieces - the red for the kimono and the black for the obi (the wide 'belt' part).

I noticed from some of the participants' comments over the last week etc, that there may have been a bit of misunderstanding on this month's theme.  'Japan' doesn't necessarily mean using Japanese needlecraft and embroidery techniques.  One said she didn't have time for a full silk work piece, so she would have to settle for something in Sashiko and others mentioned other things they planned to use.  Of course, there's nothing wrong with doing that if that's what the design theme 'Japan' says to you, but the idea is to create or work designs where the picture itself is something Japanese.  Thus all my photos 10 days ago of iconic Japanese things as an appetite whetting exercise.  If you want to use a Japanese technique this month, there's nothing stopping you doing that, it's just fine, but I just wanted everyone to know that, when the design theme is a country, it doesn't mean that our work that month must be that country's traditional stitching style.  So, if I wasn't clear on that in the first place and you were concerned about it feeling that you might have to sit certain months out, please breathe again!=)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014