Work in Progress Wednesday - 22 April 2015

Hello everyone!

I finally managed to get in a handful of stitching sessions and here's the result.  Yes, I finished that bottom left-hand corner, a milestone I'd been wanting to reach for several months!

As you can see, the fabric has become stretched in part, but not in the corners.  That means that I'll need to damp stretch the whole piece once it's complete before I can make it into a cushion/pillow cover.  I'm hoping that, once we move, we can get a nice, new, red sofa and that this will look great against that background.

Not surprisingly, as it's been hanging around for a while, the fabric on both this and my other neglected WIP had become bitty.  So, I used a very simple technique to remove the dust and so on, which is to wrap some sellotape around my fingers with the sticky side out and to let it just roll gently over the surface.  I normally choose a relatively un-sticky type of tape for this as it's kinder to the surface and any stitches it touches.  If you have some fabric that needs de-dusting, this is a good way to do it.

Anyway, spurred on by my success so far, I'm hoping to get back into stitching things as much as I reasonably can soon and also to reinvigorate my blog.  It certainly needs it after this last six months!  With that in mind, I've started a special Instagram account for my blog, which will show various things in my embroidery world from a highlight photo from each new blog post, to stash shots, older project shots and anything that I come across that I can share quickly there.  If you're on IG and are interested in following, I'm @sew_in_love_blog
Search 'Sew in Love blog', not my name.  I do have a personal stream, but it's private, so, if you're greeted by 'This User is Private', then it's not the right one.=)  Of course, it's only just started and a photo from this post will be the third one I've uploaded on the blog's IG, but it'll soon grow.  Please also tell me if you know any good stitching streams I can follow.

You can also find me here on Pinterest.  I have 44 boards at the mo, the first nine of which are for stitchy things and arts.  Most of the others are for language learners and attract quite a following, especially the Chinese Language and Culture one, which shows me what a real demand there is for Chinese learning, and encourages me to think more seriously about writing and publishing on Kindle Direct etc.  You can also find stuff on travel - places I've been/lived, places I'd like to go; minimalism, quotes, cutes and various other interests.

Other news is that Mum has been home for the past two weeks, is still eating well and is quite perky at the moment - much more like her normal self than she has been for a while.  She's still very limited and not best pleased about it, but having realised on a big scale how much difference eating as much as she can makes, she's moving forward a little.  We hope to move back near her this summer and will be applying for housing in that area again soon.  It's not easy to get social housing these days, but we've a good reason for being there (which may help us get a higher priority level).  I'd quite like to move back into the same building we used to live in.  It's not glamorous, but it's cheap, near Mum, warm and comes without all the added privatge rental expenses of a deposit/bond, application and referencing fees and then contract renewal fees every so often - along with the danger of sudden rent hikes.  I've enjoyed having my own room, but have realised that what really matters to me is having my own table so that I don't have to keep clearing up for meals!!!  As I'm expecting to need around half the current number of bookcases we use (from 10 to 5 or 6), there should be room in the kind of place we used to live in, which would be around 55-60% of the size we currently have.  We don't really need all this space and I'd rather save £250-300 or more each month and be able to travel with it!=)

I'll leave you with a shot of the whole Paradise Island project thus far and look forward to seeing you on Instagram and Pinterest as well as trying to get back to regular update postings here.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015