Coming up on Sew in Love this autumn!

Mary Corbet of Needle'n'Thread and Kathy Andrews of The Unbroken Thread both recently posted their 'coming up on' articles, which reminded me that I had been wanting to do my own for some weeks already.  So, without further delay, here it is!

As you might know, my friends and their kids have been keeping me very busy indeed stitch-wise this year with all the weddings and baby arrivals.  There's no end in sight just yet as there are two more weddings to go - one in just over 3 weeks and the other in mid-December.  So, most of my stitching time until the end of November will be taken up with wedding gifts etc.  Here are some of the projects you can expect to read about.

The first is rather overdue as the wedding took place in mid-July, but I wasn't able to get anything gift-wise done around that time.  As the bride loves purple, I'm making a lilac, purple and green version of this bellpull from Patricia Bage (of Patricia Ann's Designs)'s book 'Beginners Guide to Drawn Thread Embroidery'.

In tandem with that, another wedding souvenir pillow/cushion is under way.  The couple love woods and leaves, so this is their design:

The December wedding is taking place in Ghana where bare backs are a big 'no-no', so I was asked by the British bride to embroider a modesty panel to go in the back of her dress.  The whole of the bodice section and some of the skirt is encrusted with beaded embroidery, so she was hoping for something that would co-ordinate.  Here's the design for that so far.

This is one of the flowers from the dress itself.

Finding the right thread is a bit of a challenge and I may have to go and buy one tomorrow, but I think I can manage.  You'll understand the trepidation when I tell you all about that project in a few weeks' time....

In tandem with that one, I'll be working a slightly adapted version of the Victoria Sampler 'Renaissance Lace' bellpull design.

So, lots to do and some pretty tricky projects they are too.  Not one of them is simple and straightforward, all are either very challenging, or at least need adapting and altering.

After those are done, I plan to complete the things I started the year not having done - the needle painting of the violets, the small hardanger card pieces (which are actually done, just need mounting) and the Paradise Island cross stitch, which I am looking forward to relaxing with in December.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2016

Bingley Show - 23 July 2016

I can't believe it was almost two months ago, but it's my great pleasure to wish you a warm, if belated, welcome to the handicrafts tent at this year's Bingley Show.  It was my first year in this Show - first in any other than the Sheffield Fayre (which, owing to diary clashes, I wasn't able to enter this year....waaaaahh!), but it was a good one!  Let's join these ladies photographed kindly looking at my entries (at least the visitor in the foreground was), and take a look around some of the tent.

First let's look along the 'Piece of Counted Thread Embroidery' class displays.  This was a really good class with plenty of potential for variety (as opposed to the usual 'piece of cross stitch' in many other events), and had a decent number of entries, of which 5 were mine.

Because there were a good number of pieces in this class, the judges were able to award a couple of 'Highly Commended' tickets as well as the regular first, second and third prizes.  As you might be able to see here, my Tudor Lady was commended and....

Martin caught my stunned smile as it sunk in that the 'Sunshine and Flowers' sampler had not only won its second first prize, but also took the trophy for the 'most outstanding exhibit' in the handicrafts section!!  Wow!  'Handicrafts' covers all fabric, paper and embroidered items as well as an 'any other crafts' class, but not yarncrafts, art, photography or, of course, junior classes, all of which have their own cup or plate.

You can see my 'also rans' here in the shape of the narrowboat cross stitch, the bellpull that took a second in Sheffield last year and the peach hearts hardanger cushion cover.  There was one other piece of hardanger (see three photos up), which was commended.

Here are the entries in the freestyle class where my stumpwork bunny hopped off with third prize.  Another lady won the first and second, as well as the third in the counted section and plenty of others.  I saw her later on clutching a fistful of prize tickets from several classes and categories.  A very skilled and productive rival!!! =)

Looking back now at this display, I notice that the prize winning items were all nicely framed and it makes me wonder just how big a contribution proper framing makes in the awarding of points.  I hadn't formally framed my knot garden and goldwork viola pieces as they normally just live in my portfolio and I don't have any suitable frames for them (and don't really want to buy any - surprise, surprise!)  Worth bearing in mind for future events though.

Above are many of the entries into the general fabric crafts class and the red scatter cushion in the back row is one of mine (and now on our sofa).  We urgently needed new scatter cushions and the Show provided the impetus to get one made up quickly.  I just love the colour co-ordinated pen roll in the middle of this collection.

Below are the five entries into the child/baby knits class.  I didn't win anything here, but I'm not at all surprised.  You see, I'd not realised until my friends, Emily and Wanjun pointed it out a couple of months before, but my purl stitches are twisted.  I borrowed 'The A-Z of Knitting' from the Leeds Art library recently and from the photos in there, realised that I'd been winding the yarn the wrong way around the needle.  No wonder every second row looked so skew!  Next time I'll get it right.  Just hope I don't forget and slip back into bad habits....

Here we have the top two entries in the 'Hand Knit or Crochet Group' and the yarncrafts section trophy was taken - for at least the third year running - by the same lady.  She must be a real force to be reckoned with in the local yarncrafts sphere!  Her knitted toys are delightful!  I'd love to have a go at this type of work some time, but I'm hesitant to start at the moment as it would mean accumulating more yarns in several colours and I've recently reduced my supplies down to one scrap end and two part balls.

The 'Other Yarncrafts' section yielded some real treats, including this incredible crocheted Bingley Five Rise locks (by the lady who took stacks of prizes, I think), a crocheted wedding cake, and owl and pussy cat in their 'beautiful pea green boat.'

This class also attracted a number of felted pieces, which were superb!  When an e-mail from the Handicrafts secretary came out to all those who'd entered this year and asking for suggestions for classes, I suggested having 'Felted Item' as a separate class as there seemed easily enough entries to justify it.

Moving away from needlecrafts to the other side of the tent, and here are some of the paintings displayed.

And finally, next door to the horticulture tent where I just loved the juniors' fruit and veg animals

It was a great Show and a big success for me too, winning the handicrafts section trophy!  At first I was almost disappointed at getting the biggest prize first time as it kind of felt like there was nothing left to strive for, but there is, of course.  Not only do I want to defend it next year, but there are also prizes in other sections to aim for, especially the first prize in the freestyle and I'd like to aim to win something in the art and yarncrafts sections.

I also learned what wins trophies when it's a 'most outstanding exhibit' type, (as opposed to exhibitor with the most points, which can depend as much on sheer quantity of entries as anything).  From looking at the prize winning entries across numerous classes I could see that pretty pieces, well worked win prizes, but if you want the trophy, you need a piece with the 'Wow!' factor.  There were some truly lovely items displayed and all beautifully made by very skilled hands, but the 'Sunshine and Flowers' piece had that 'Wow!' effect.  It had nothing to do with me really - beyond my not gaffing it up too obviously.  It was simply the design that was the winner.  So, if you're after a trophy some time, that's the formula.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2016

Peach hearts hardanger cushion complete!

Here it is: the completed peach hearts hardanger scatter cushion cover. =)

I'm really pleased with the finished look of this one.  It was hard to get a good picture, because of the light in our current home.  I find it either too dark or too bright to get a good shot, but trusty Photoshop Elements is at hand to save the day, so you can see it in a respectable amount of light and detail.

I wanted to do a more detailed post on how I put this cover together, but unfortunately forgot all about taking the necessary photos until I'd almost finished.  Sorry!  Next time....

This is the backing fabric I chose - a sort of peachy beige based fat quarter which I bought in Taiwan.  It's been nice to use so many of my oriental fabrics recently, although I confess to having sold the majority of them (and others) last month.  Actually, I've halved my fabric stash - what an enormous relief that was too!  More about that another day though.

I didn't have quite enough of the plain peach fabric you see through the cutwork areas, so I used it where it was needed and put a border of white around it.  The backing is also lined so as to make it a bit less flimsy, especially in comparison to the backed piece of Oslo fabric on the front, which is quite rigid.

The last step was a 10"/25cm white zip.

This was a lovely project to work.  I hadn't done a decent sized piece of hardanger for such a long time and it was a real pleasure to do this one.  I loved using the Anchor peach multi-coloured pearl #5 and also putting one of my old Six Strand Sweets to use.  Later on, when I was sorting out which threads to sell last month, I found that I actually owned the matching Anchor multicolour stranded cotton and could also have used that, but I don't think anything was lost for not having done so.

The cushion/pillow's new owners are very happy with it and recently sent me a photo of it in situ on their sofa, (which you can see on my Instagram - link in the sidebar).

What's next?  The Bingley Show handicrafts tent displays.  Roll up, roll up!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2016

Peach Hardanger Cushion - cutwork and fillings

Hi everyone!  Sorry about the long pause in reporting on this project.  I actually finished it almost two months ago, have since exhibited it in a local agricultural show and handed it over to its new owners last month!  I just hadn't got to blogging about it until today.

Things are nothing if not mad around here these days and I'm finding myself without much chance to post on my blogs.  I can keep up with my Instagram OK, but it's a little harder to find the time etc needed to sit down, edit photos and then create posts - something that almost always takes a lot longer than one would expect.

Anyway, enough of all that.  You want to read about the project, right? =)

When I last wrote about it back in mid-July, I left it at the surface work done and cutting out complete stage.  Next stage was, of course, the filling stitches.  Sadly, I didn't get a lot of WIP photos during this stage, at least not decent, blog-able ones (one or two were OK to use on IG), as I was working on it quite intensively.  There were basically only two types of filling in this design: woven bars with dove's eye filling in the large diamond section and Greek cross fillings in the squares.
  

Here's an angled view where the lovely texture of hardanger shows up well.  I loved using a little bit of colour in this piece as well.  White on white is beautiful and so classic, but a splash of colour is always welcome, I feel.

Next time I'll share the completed scatter cushion with you. Hope you like it so far. =)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2016