Paradise Island - Ever deepening waters....

An update on my pretty cross stitch picture today with work done over most of the last two weeks.

As you can see in this first photo, I completed the final leaf on this side of the piece first.

After that, I spent a couple of stitching sessions on the watery deep:

And then a couple more:

Here's the overall state of progress as it stands right now, excluding the tiny bit of land and sea that I chopped off with the camera at the top right-hand side.

It's coming along nicely, although it is a bit dull just alternating between two shades of blue and nothing else.  Having said that, it works up fairly quickly as it's less bitty than some of the other parts with lots of odd stitches in plenty of different shades all in close proximity.  I want to get through most of this big blue section, which will link up with the blue above, then move on to the trees in the top left hand quarter and work across the top as much as possible.  I plan on leaving the other flowers until quite a bit later on in the project as they're the other highlight and, if I do those now, I'll just be left with the duller parts to stitch and that leaves one at risk of UFOs....  Having said that, it's hard to consider such luscious, bright blues and greens in any way dull! =)

Have you ever worked a piece like this?  Which part did you like best?

Oh, a quick PS:  There are some stash sales going on this weekend.  Sew and So are offering 10% off again until close of play on Monday 25th May (enter STITCH10 at the checkout in order to qualify, and sign up for their newsletter to be kept in the loop about further offers and discounts), and Nordic Needle in the States are giving 20% of your entire order today and tomorrow (20th & 21st May) only.  Use coupon code 2DAY20 for that offer.  I doubt I'll be taking up these offers myself as I really have way too much stash already, (and £15-20 for shipping nullifies most of the savings from NN for me here in the UK), but I thought you'd all like to know.=)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015

Stash Sunday - Anchor Pearl Cotton #12

I'm really quite a fan of Pearl Cotton #12.  I like the gauge (similar to two strands of stranded cotton), the texture and plenty more about it.  To be honest, my use of it thus far has been limited, but there have been plenty of ideas: Needlelace things in stumpwork, parts of freestyle designs that needed a little more texture than stranded cotton provides, as can just about be seen in the streambed sections of this Helen M Stevens' design I used it in back in 2008, and also fine filling stitch work for hardanger, for a start.

The only thing I didn't like about it was how few colours it came in.  The first picture above shows the entire of the original Anchor Pearl #12 collection including about a dozen colours that weren't available in the UK and I had to have shipped from Nordic Needle in the States.  No proper yellows or oranges, no browns beyond a few beige shades, no grass greens.  It was a really limited selection.  Even DMC couldn't help much.  They had some other colours available, but still no oranges, yellows etc, and a selection of only the same size.

Imagine my delight one day when browsing the Sew and So thread section I saw that the whole collection had been thoroughly re-vamped and considerably enlarged!

Of course, there were some casualties and the colours shown here in this selection of muted greens, blues, pinks and purples, along with a slightly deeper than vibrant red shade were all retired from the range.  I must remember not to use these in anything I might design for sale later on, although DMC still seem to have some comparable hues.  Shame about that red, though - Anchor shade 47, as I find it more useful than the brighter 46.

These were the first balls of the new set that I invested in.  I chose landscape colours mostly so that I could continue to use them in Helen M Stevens' style pictures, where she represents fields, water and so on in long stitches of twisted silk.  This would work well as a substitute thought I.

Of course, me being me and a complete thread-head floss fanatic, I didn't stop there and, two or three hauls later, I found myself with this as a personal collection:  

Certainly a much better selection of shades than used to be available!  There seem to be about 117 (only 40 in DMC just now) at the moment, and I don't have all of them.  There seem to be about 30 I haven't yet bought, but I'm out of space for now, although I could create it within the system I already own.  I don't want to need to look for new thread storage solutions as, much as I don't mind filling up the drawers and workbox that I have, I'm not interested in buying more.  I have a LOT of thread, and much more could get beyond ridiculous, no?  As you can see in this last shot, what I own just now fills the available space nicely, with room for two, three or four more balls at some point.

I have my Pearl Cotton #8 balls in the other cantilever section on the other side of the workbox and those could be rehoused if need be, i.e. if I ever wanted to expand this collection again.  For now though, it stays as it is.

What about you?  Have you used Pearl Cotton #12?  What for?  What other uses can you think of for it?

BTW, I won't be doing Stash Sunday posts every week!!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015

Leafy greens ... and oranges!

Take a look at the other end of our sofa.  I'm sitting in the bit that remains.  So much for a workroom of my own, I hardly ever actually stitch in there!!

Actually, I don't mind not having my own room anymore (I'll probably lose it when we move), as long as I can have my own desk and a decent amount of storage space.  I realised that it doesn't matter about having things all 'drawing room proper' for guests as we have them so infrequently and, as an old friend said, 'You live here, don't you?'

Back on topic.....

Here you can see the whole of my two current WIPs and what stage they're at, although we're just going to talk about the green and orange leaf on the freestyle piece today.

To be honest, the idea of getting both shades of the leaf in line bewildered me somewhat (and that's nothing compared to the butterflies later on!)  So, I decided the only way to get them in line was to draw some lines onto the fabric.  I think Trish Burr does this, so it's hardly an 'unprofessional' way to deal with the problem.  It's just that Helen M Stevens seems to have a natural flair for just getting stuff in perfect line.  OK, she stitches all day every day and has a real gift for it, but I need help!  The next few shots will show how the leaf developed and how I managed to keep it in line.

Inner section more or less in line with the drawn guide markings (above) and how I managed to adjust for deviations from the guidelines (below).  The few helper stitches I put in at this stage were done more in line with the green stitches than anything else.

Here's the main shading on the leaf complete.  Of course, there'll be a vein to add, which will bring it to life much more.  The odd thing was that, although both 'rings' were worked in one strand, the outer one appears thicker.  I suppose this is more to do with the 'geography' of the work than the fact that the green is DMC and the oranges are both Anchor.

Here's most of the piece with the newest leaf in the foreground.

The next things to do are the stems and then the rest of the plant bits - leaf veins, trims on the berries and the vine-type parts that are wrapped around the lower stems.  I hope to have that complete for the next update.

To close today, here's Sir's current WIP - his entire PhD spread across two screens!!  He's done the first draft and is now re-working the newest sections, and fine-tuning and finalising the rest.  He hopes to be in a position to submit at the end of the month.

All being well, I'll be back Sunday with my Anchor Pearl Cotton #12 collection and early next week with some WIP photos from the cross stitch piece.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015

Stash Sunday!

Ugh!  I've got sinusitis, so I've been sitting quietly, cross-stitching.  I'm getting along quite well with my picture (update some time next week), but I thought I'd break off to share some recent stash haul shots.

This first lot, a bumper cross stitch magazine containing all manner of lovely wildlife pictures, many of which are those glorious Anchor designs, and three offer priced packs of Mill Hill beads came from Hobbycraft a couple of weeks ago.  Those of you who live in the UK and have a Hobbycraft in reasonable distance may want to pay a visit to your local branch soon as this is a good deal on Mill Hill beads.  Some of the more expensive items (crystal treasures, economy bead packs etc) are going for £2, but regular sized ones are just £1, which is a decent price for the UK.

I inadvertently duplicated a shade as it seems I already had the red ones.  However, I thought I didn't have frosted red as I couldn't remember owning a matte red like this.

As you can see, I didn't own one!  The two production runs were quite different and even in this photo you can see the difference in sheen on the beads, no?  So, I'm keeping them both in my red bead box.

A week or so later, I took up the Sew and So newsletter 10% discount in April offer and ordered this little lot, several Anchor pearl cotton #12 shades, more Mill Hill beads, a reel of Kreinik cord and several different gauges of DMC Coton à Broder.

The coloured Coton à Broder threads are all in weight #16 and plug a few gaps in the Anchor #16 collection, (which is totally devoid of yellow-greens!).

I also treated myself to these basic shades in #20 and #30 as well as a purple Kreinik cord I bought for the sheer love of purple!! =)

As far as Pearl Cotton #12 went, I filled in a few more gaps in my collection and got a new black, as I've used quite a bit of my old one and am likely to need another at some point in the reasonably near future.

This is the whole of my recent bead haul.

I'm toying with the idea of some fruit tree designs and so I wanted some orange beads (for oranges, of course!) and also some smaller gauge ones.  Sadly, there weren't matching orange ones in the Petite range, but at least there are some dark orange ones here and I was able to get some good yellow and greens too.  The purple, again, was for the sheer pleasure of my favourite colour!

So, now Kathy's saying to herself, 'I thought she wasn't going to be buying more stuff and was cutting down?!'  And she'd be quite right in the main.  I'm not accumulating as a general rule at the mo, but I confess to being unable to resist that 10% off offer from Sew and So.  Besides, I'm not expecting to cut my stitching stash down much, if at all, although I have already divested myself of a fair quantity of books, pens/pencils/paints, make-up products and clothes, as well as used up a number of perfumes and other things.  There are still 400-500 books to go, as well as numerous magazines, tapes and much more before we move in about 3 months' time.  My original aim was to halve my personal possessions for the move and I may well succeed, or close to it. I may grab some more beads from the Hobbycraft Mill Hill offer, as £1 is a real snip, but I doubt I'll be getting much or any more stash this year, with the possible exception of a few bits and pieces at the Harrogate Show in November.  For me, it wasn't about saving money as we have no debts and I just used the money I earned in selling some of my surplus stuff to buy these, so buying something isn't a problem generally.

A later post will cover more about the Anchor #12 Pearl Cotton collection.  In the meantime, why not have a Stash Sunday yourself and share a photo or two of some new or current stash?  Not to show off or anything negative like that, but just for the fun of sharing and eye candy. =)  I love to have a nosey into others' thread collections and so I'd love to see some of yours!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015

Works in Progress Report

I'm not sure which piece readers are most interested to see first, so let's start with how the Paradise Island cross stitch looks these days.  I've put in another leaf, as you can see on the bottom right hand side and have started another.  I'm hoping I might get that one finished later on today, but I'll have to see how much time I have for stitchery.

The other current project is the Helen M Stevens' design, 'Painted Ladies' from her book 'Embroidered Butterflies'.  The last in progress shot I posted about this was more than 6 months ago and just featured some of the berries in the right hand cluster.  This is how far I've got up to yesterday tea time:

It's interesting to see how much the greens in this large leaf shine, which could also be because the greens in this project are DMC and that has more sheen than Anchor.  The berries are in Anchor (as are the orangey bits), but they haven't come out well in these shots.  Red is a nightmare to get clear!  I use a special camera setting for the cross stitch to get the various coral-reds to show up at all (instead of one indistinct mass).  Maybe I should try it on this piece too....  Any ideas??

I'm hoping to get the larger leaf that you can see the top of underneath the butterfly outline in the larger picture done later on today, so it's a leaf day today.

I'm not 100% satisfied with the quality of the stitching so far, but then I never am when working these designs.  Once the fine details are added, however, they look a great deal better, (cover a multitude of sins - I'd better start calling them love-stitches!!), and I always feel happy with the completed piece.  For now, I'm just pleased to be getting on with it and trying not to worry too much about unsatisfactory mid-way things.

I also need to remember to use my sellotape trick to de-lint the fabric before the next WIP photo shoot!!

I've also been doing quite a bit of Stash Enlargement of late, more on that in a later post, and also making a start on planning my entries for the Sheffield Fayre this summer.  I'm thinking of doing two pieces for the 'own design' cross stitch - one adapted from a needle-painting design in a book and the other adapted from a photo of a stumpwork floral ring, to which I plan to add some hardanger and beaded sections as they went down well last year.  Again, more on that in a forthcoming post.  For now, I've e-mailed the organisers to see if the Show Schedule is available yet.  I need to know if there's a general embroidery category again this year before I start on my piece, which I'm planning to be a Korean lady.  I want to do it during August so that it'll qualify to enter into the Leeds Flower Show in 2016 too.

The blog Instagram account is going very well indeed, attracting 67 followers in just the fortnight since I started it.  Don't forget to look me up there, if you're on IG. Find me at: @sew_in_love_blog  I check out the stream of everyone who follows me or even marks a 'like' or leaves a comment. =)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015