Sew in Love

Assembling a Wired Stumpwork Flower

2012-01-18T08:15:00.015Z

A couple of days ago I posted a tutorial on creating wired needlelace elements for stumpwork, which you can use for flowers, leaves, insect wings and several other things. Now it's time to fasten the detached elements to the main fabric and complete the motif.

This is the piece I was working on, the now deleted (waaah!) DMC Stumpwork kit 'Poppy and Beetle'. Those of you who've been following this project will notice that I re-worked the bud to the original design after all!! Anyway, the poppy was the only part left to complete and you can see where it's to be located, top left..

The first thing to do was to as near as fill that oval shape with beads as the supplies in the kit allowed. The instructions actually suggested you do this after attaching the petals, but there were two reasons why I decided to work it the other way around: 1) I think it would be very hard to attach or stitch anything when there are going to be a lot of wire ends from the petals in the way on the back; and 2) One can never be sure that the beads provided would fill the space and, if the petals were already in place, then there could be a gap and/or pattern lines showing. Yikes! So, beads came first and were attached with one strand of black thread and a beading needle.

Here you can see me preparing the holes for the third petal. Using a thick needle, such as a chenille type, punch a couple of holes where you want the wires to go through. I did this as close to the beading as reasonably possible so that printed pattern lines weren't visible afterwards (I can't tell you how much I hate being able to see that sort of thing on a finished piece, it SO spoils it!)

When the holes are ready, poke the free ends of the wires through and pull them from the back so that the petal (or wing, or leaf etc) sits on the fabric. Don't concern yourself with the angle it sits at just yet.

When all the detached elements are in place, turn the work over and pull them through as far as you can. Then bend the wires to stop them from going back through again and trim off some of the excess using wire cutters or goldwork scissors (anything toughened, but NOT your regular embroidery pair!)

Using the black thread I still had attached from the beading, I secured the wires to the back of the fabric by weaving it around the wires and taking it through the back of whatever stitches I could. Whatever you do, take care not to allow the securing stitching to show on the front (which is possibly what motivated DMC to suggest doing this before the beading, but you can see how easy it would be to attach beads through this lot, right?) Trim the wires as much as you can, but leave enough to make sure they're secured.

Turning back to the front and you can now arrange the petals in any way you like. The wire bends easily, so it won't be too hard to have them at any angle you choose.

I hope that was helpful and that it's inspired you to have a go at wiring a flower or something similar. If you do, please leave me a link to see your work. It's rather hard finding blogs of active stumpworkers!

Here's the final piece, the bottom photo of which surprised and delighted me by remaining at number one on the Stitchin' Fingers content and photos leaderbeards for a couple of days!

I still have two more of these kits (see the 'Stumpwork page for the first two that I worked - 'Bee' and 'Ladybird'), which are 'Dragonfly' and 'Butterfly', so look out for those coming soon!

© Elizabeth Braun 2012

Wired Needlelace Elements for Stumpwork

2012-01-16T07:38:00.044Z

Whilst I was working the stumpwork poppy recently, I took some photos of the technique for one of the petals, which I thought may be of interest to anyone who wants to know how to create a wired element for a stumpwork piece using needlelace. (I'll do a fabric based one later on.)

The first step is to create a wire outline for your selected shape. In this case, I had the printed guide in the kit to help me, but you could also be working from something in a magazine, book or even your own drawing. Naturally, it needs to be the exact size and you simply bend the wire to fit. It doesn't have to be too exact a fit at this stage. Stumpwork wire bends very easily too, so no special tools are needed.

The next stage is to couch the wire shape to a needlelace pad. You make this pad yourself by folding a rectangular piece of fabric (here, lightweight calico is used) and tacking along the edge opposite the fold. You will need two layers. Couch the shape in place and at this point you will need to be as exact as you can manage in getting your shape correct. It was easy for me at this point in the process as I could still see the impression of the shape from where I'd worked the first three petals.

Fasten on a length of thread by simply taking the needle under the couching stitches along one side of the shape. Don't worry about any ends as they will be taken in later on. Take the thread under the wire and into the shape and begin to fill in with your chosen stitch (in this case, detached buttonhole stitch) using the wire itself as the anchor for the first row.

Continue until the first row is done and, oh, don't pull these stitches too tight or work them too close together. When you get to the end of the row, take the needle back under the wire and then start the next row taking it over the wire back into the shape.

Anchor future rows onto existing stitches and keep on going until you run short on thread (or finish the shape, whichever is sooner!!). It's good to use fairly long pieces of thread for this type of work, but that depends on how durable your thread is. If you're working with a more delicate thread, such as silk or a metallic, then you'll need to take that into account.

When you come to the end of your piece of thread, anchor it off in much the same way you started the piece by running it under the couching stitches and along the stitches at the side of the shape.

Fasten on a new piece in the same way and continue working the filling stitch until you can't reasonably get any more stitches into it.

When your shape is full, then begin to work close buttonhole stitches all the way around the outside of the shape completely covering the wire and taking in any lose fastening on and off threads. Fasten it off finally by hiding the thread as best you can among the stitches wherever there is a reasonable space that will not show.

Your shape is now complete, but still couched to the pad. So, now snip away the tacking stitches holding the pad together and pull the two layers apart as much as you can to reveal the couching stitches between them. Snip through some of these and pull them out.

Your shape should now come away cleanly in your hands and all you need do it pull out any odd couching threads (using a contrasting colour couching thread can make this much easier to do).

This method can be used with a variety of shapes as you can see here from a photo I took whilst working on the stumpwork bee wings a couple of years ago. In this case, the filling stitch was working around in an almost complete oval along the wires and then just pulled together with a suitable stitch or two in the middle.

I hope this has given some insight into how these detached elements are made and has been helpful! See the next post for how to assemble a wired flower!

© Elizabeth Braun 2012

TAST Week Two and so on...

2012-01-14T15:42:00.002Z

If you were one of the many kind readers who enjoyed and commented nicely on the last TAST posting, then I'm afraid that today's may prove rather a disappointment as I've only done the doodle-pad this week. So, to answer your question, Cynthia, no, I won't be doing a picture every week. I'll just do them when I feel sufficiently inspired and I have the time and umph.=) I do plan to do the stitches themselves each week, but will be happy with doing about half in some sort of pictorial form (which I plan to make a sort of portfolio affair of, or may even mount some into cards etc). At the moment, I have a number of gifts I want to make and other things to do, so I decided against the blanket stitch based picture. To be honest, I wasn't really excited enough about it anyway, even though I found a good few variations, as you can see here.

So, here are samples of plain blanket stitch, double blanket stitch, knotted blanket stitch, what would have been a blanket stitch pinwheel had it not been worked on Aida and therefore turned into a blanket stitch diamond (which I liked a fair bit and felt had some potential in counted work), long and short blanket stitch and a raised blanket stitch bar, which was rather rushed off and so didn't really cover the threads it was stitched over very well. Why blanket and not buttonhole? Well, in the form buttonhole was introduced on Pintangle, it's exactly the same, but there is a traditional buttonhole stitch which is actually somewhat different, so I chose to be pedantic!!=)

One of the first of the other things I need to do stitch-wise is a 'thank you' card for friends who gave us a most unexpected gift the other day. So, I fished out this old magazine freebie kit that I'd part-worked to finish off and got on with that a bit yesterday. I also want to do a cross stitched bookmark for another friend and, after that, a nice cushion cover for the couple the card is for. I'd planned something like that anyway and now I feel I have good impetus to do it. I also want to get the dogrose made up into its final form and get that needlepoint giraffe sorted as well. So, there are many projects clamouring for my attention and that means that it's not likely that TAST will be a major priority as far as really taking it as far as it goes each week goes.

And what do you think of these fellows?

These are for a magazine - 'Crazy Quilt Gatherings' Issue 4 - and the tutorial that was requested will be just for the central, larger red ladybird, but with instructions at the end for the other variations. You can find out more about the mag and order a copy when I can find where the editor has hidden the info I got from her site before (LOL!!!), but I will be reserving rights to re-publish the tute on my blog, which I plan to do in the summer. So, that's something coming up later on.

In the meantime, I have stacks of photos to chose and edit ready for that tute, plus one on general wired needlelace elements for stumpwork (yes, using a poppy petal from my recent project), then the assembling of the poppy itself along with the finished piece. And that's before I even start on....

Yes, I'm feeling busy again!

© Elizabeth Braun 2012

Yay! Completed needle painted dogroses

2012-01-12T07:40:00.000Z

It took something to get me to get on with the side elevation rose on the back of this project (by which I mean it will be on the back of the manicure set, not that it's on the reverse of the main embroidery!!), and there have been a few false starts, but it's finally done.

I got stuck at this point pictured <- here for a while as I just could NOT get the last petal to look decent! I tried it twice and pulled it out in exasperation. You would have expected it to be the easiest, being more or less flat, but it was a real challenge to get a flat petal with no real colour change to look even passable! In the end, I just did it - not exactly 'third time lucky' as I'm still far from content with it, and it'll have to do.

It got to this point and then I realised that the centre and the stamens really weren't the right shade of green and certainly didn't match the corresponding section on the front. This second shade was much bluer than the very yellowey, browny green of the full flower centre and, as it was supposed to be all the same flower and a matched set, I fished out the original colour and re-worked it in that. This-> is the finished back of the piece.

Then it was on to the spider's web. This was a bit challenging as there is a slight give in the fabric and, if I had it taut in a hoop, then when it was released, the long stitches in the web would certainly sag. So, I put it in a snap frame and have it held firm, but not tight, then caught in the slack on the reverse for anything that hung a bit. It looked at first like it went a little too far the other way now and seemed a bit too tight, but it ironed out just perfectly. It's not needed for months yet, but I'm not keen to re-do parts - I have other projects planned!

The gauge of the Kreinik Cord can easily be seen here. It's rather fine, isn't it? I think it works perfectly here. I didn't have the prescribed Madeira thread and hadn't access to any - and I didn't want to spend money on any more stuff when I surely had something perfectly adequate in my ridiculously large stash!! So, it was good to finally have something to use the Kreiniks on as I stocked up on a goodly number of those a few years ago in about two thirds of the shades they do. Time to try and use them more, methinks!

So, drum roll please - here's the finished thing:

Hope you've enjoyed the WIP discussion and like the finished embroidery and also that I can produce one or two in the months to come.=)

The year that was and the year that will be (hopefully)!

2012-01-10T09:44:00.004Z

I'm a good few days late with this, but I didn't feel like blogging much lately and, to be honest, I couldn't persuade myself to do a lot of stitching either after my stitch-and-blog fest in November! Boom and bust, perhaps? Well, one thing that I decided to do in future is to spread my posts out a bit when I'm on a stitching roll so that I can keep the blog going more when I'm going through a dry phase.=)

So, what did I achieve embroidery-wise during 2011? Well, most importantly, I did a great deal better than the previous year when I had a record low of only 3 finishes! This year witnessed 13 or 14 completions, a vast improvement!

Carried over from 2010, I finished off:
*The fish and waterviolets design from a Helen M Stevens book and made it into a scatter cushion.
*The goldwork viola, which is still waiting to have something final done with it; and
*The narrowboat cross stitch, which I hope to get framed at some point and hang in our living room.

Carried over from childhood (so UFOs for nearing 30 years!), I finished:
*Needlepoint giraffe, now waiting to be finished up into a cushion; and
*2 needlepoint birds, one which needed half the background completing whilst the other needed some repairs.

Started new and completed in 2011 were a number of smalls:
*2 cross stitched cards - one for DH's anniversary card and the other for a wedding;
*A cross stitched bookmark, which was finished up and given to Charlie;
*Hardanger card for a Chinese couple whose wedding I was a witness at;
*Ribbon embroidered gate and flower piece, mounted in a card
*A keyring for DH for said anniversary; and
*Silver and violet heart, mounted in a card for a 25th wedding.

Started, but not quite completed as of 31 December 2011:
*A dogrose needle painting, to be finished up into a manicure set holder; and
*A small stumpwork poppy and beetle from a deleted DMC kit.

And what of the year to come? What's planned for 2012?

Well, first of all is, of course, to finish what's already been started, so:
*Dogrose needle painting and finish up
*Stumpwork poppy and beetle
*Make up giraffe cushion

Other than that, the big project of the year is to do as much of TAST 2012 as I can. I made a good start with the week one stitch(es) and hope I can keep up both the getting it done the same week and being able to produce something pictorial with it. The fact that there are others doing the challenge and trying to do roughly the same means that I have a 'group' to work with and lots of others' ideas to enjoy.

Something else that I have in mind (and which may even be done by the time this post goes live, as are 2 of the above listed projects! Patience, patience....!!), is to do some stumpwork bugs which were requested for the 'Crazy Quilt Gatherings' magazine. More on that soon...

I also want to work a few more pieces of stumpwork and some more needle paintings. I got the 'Fresh Ideas For Beginners' book for our copper anniversary (12½ years - yes, really!), so I want to have a go at one or two of those projects, although the smaller pieces don't sit quite right with me. It's hard to get a good design balance with just one bloom and I often feel that Trish's singles are a bit lop-sided, but I can soon change the layout. I do need the practice with shading though. I've also got a copy of Hazel Everett's goldwork book on the way....

So, it should be a productive year! Let's see now....

© Elizabeth Braun 2012

TAST 2012 - Week One - Fly Stitch

2012-01-08T14:28:00.001Z

When I saw the ideas and examples Sharon had put up for the first stitch of the TAST 2012 re-run, I was immediately inspired with plenty of ideas. I also got out my two stitch guides and found enough variations to fuel the creative process further and, soon afterwards, came up with a design plan for my first TAST sampler. I know that most of the notes didn't show up well, so I must remember to use pencil in a better contrasting shade if I want everyone to be able to read what I've written!

Like Jules (whose wonderful dandelion seed head worked in fly stitch you absolutely MUST see!), I plan to do a doodle pad type stitch sample, then try to work it up into something pictorial. I can't promise that I'll always manage the pic, but I can try and at least got off to a good start this week.

Here's the quick test run of the stitches to make sure I'd got them sorted worked with scrap ends of no.5 pearl cottons on a piece of rather stiff 14ct Aida (that there was no chance of my using for anything 'polished'). The first few are just plain fly stitches, then a few with longer tails, then a few twisted fly stitches. The second row shows a rather open worked fly stitch leaf (which does not work well on Aida) and then two rows of fly stitch filling. This is done by working a row of regular fly stitches with the tops of the Vs touching, then working the next row upside down with the bottoms of the Vs joining and the securing stitch being made over the pair of touching stitches. This filling spoke 'fence' to me.

First I painted some habotai silk to give the relevant colours to the background. I made the mistake of putting the whole thing rather too far to the right of the hoop. It would have been better to have been more central. Still, I soon realised both the error and that I couldn't really do anything about it, except to ditch that piece and start again, but although I found I had more habotai than I'd feared, I'm still not up for wastage. It was good to try silk painting again, even though I found it a fair bit harder than I'd remembered. Need more practice, I know and having more fabric than I thought means that I can try this kind of background again soon.=)

So, here's the finished fly stitch pictorial piece. Most of the stitches are some form of fly stitch, except some stem stitch for the foreground roses and, of course, the ribbon work (although you can work fly stitch in narrow ribbon to good effect). The peach flowers are just straight stitches in ribbons, and the roses are spider's web roses. Let me know if you want to know how the latter are done as they're easy, quick and effective. The grass tufts are individual twisted fly stitches and the rose leaves are worked in closed fly stitch.

On the whole I'm happy with the piece. The bit I'd most like to change (and could have if I'd been up for a lot of un-picking and re-stitching) would be to work the fence in a narrower gauge of thread. I feel it's far too prominent, although the basic idea etc is OK. Even with that, I'm pleased with this first week's work as I've been able to use fabric colouring again, I've designed something completely from scratch with little more inspiration than the stitches themselves and I worked it completely freehand - no pattern transferred to the silk. Oh yes, and I really know fly stitch and a few variations of it quite well now!!

What's that just about the roses? Well, of course it's a FLY!=)

© Elizabeth Braun 2012

Why I'm Looking Forward to TAST 2012

2011-12-09T13:54:00.002Z

If you haven't heard that Sharon B from Pin Tangle is re-running Take a Stitch on Tuesday next year, then where have you been??!=) Umpteen stitching bloggers have posted about it already, but in case you've missed it, then here's the challenge home page and there's also a permanent link to it in my sidebar.

So, there'll be a different stitch posted and demonstrated each Tuesday, giving a whopping great 550 (and increasing) stitchers the chance to learn new skills and find new points of departure for old ones. For some, almost every stitch will be a new challenge as they're new to surface work. Others will revisit old friends and make new and yet others will just join in for consolidation and fun. I fall into the middle group really as I have a passable repertoire, but still have plenty to learn and discover.

What I'm really looking forward to about it is not actually the learning of new stitches - as I have a number of stitch guides and I learn stuff here and there when working new styles/designs etc and that's fine. I suppose I learn what I need to as and when I need it. For me, the big thing is a bit beyond that -more into creative design and usage of the stitches covered. In effect, I'm looking at it as a sort of City & Guilds samples project revisited. Throughout this posting, you can see some of the small pieces I did whilst working on the City & Guilds level 3 certificate in embroidery, (which I, sadly, wasn't able to finish) and you may have seen already on my C&G page here.

Working through the design module and samples project, we had five design elements and five major themes, broken down into smaller areas each time and a type of work and/or number of stitches learned with which we were to interpret our designs. To make that clearer, the syllabus requires that you cover line, colour, shape, form and texture. Our teacher chose big themes for each area, so line was living creatures, colour was gardens and flowers, texture was buildings, shape was Art Nouveau and form was landforms. Each week we then had a smaller area to produce some artwork and a design from which we would then interpret in textiles and suitable stitches. Here you see my shell as part of the line module interpreted in linear stitches. Above are samples from the colour section, one topic being flower borders, which was then worked in knot stitches on painted silk and other was hedgerows being worked with broderie anglaise stitches.

What I'm trying to say here is that I would like to do something like that again. I think it will take a few weeks of the challenge to see how well it can be achieved as I don't know how much can be done in this way with just one major stitch (although there's no reason why one can't use others to support it, as long as the main TAST stitch of the week is the central thing, no?), and I'll have to chose my own themes and topics, which could lead to less creativity in that I may just settle for the easy option instead of challenging myself like the C&G classes did. The sample you see here is a section of snakeskin done in loom bead-weaving! I was rather disappointed when I went to the local C&G micro-centre last summer to see their exhibitions and could see none of the obvious design inspiration that I was used to from my old course. Everything looked like shapeless masses of stitches instead of resembling something and that just wasn't what I wanted...=(

I also want to use more of the lovely fabric colouring things I bought for the C&G course, such as these silk paints, fabric paints and dyes. I also have watercolour paints, which Kit Nicol (amongst others) uses in her pieces to colour her backgrounds, and some Derwent Inktense pencils, which can be used in a similar way to silk paints and dyes.

Here's something quite novel that I thought would make an interesting fabric colouring method. Can you tell what it is? To the left is the matte palette and on the right are the shimmer shades

Yes, you're right! It is, indeed, eye-shadow! And look at all those useful brown and green shades! I got these two palettes on e-bay and, aside from the feeling that they could have made more of the 88 shades they had (given a better spectrum, and certainly fewer greens!!!), I love them and am keen to put them to other uses than what they were originally designed for - although I like them as make-up as well.=) Despite being quite cheap, Chinese made products, they're actually quite good and, with a layer of primer, last surprisingly well and have plenty of pigment so give a good colour pay off. Not that I've been brave enough to use that vibrant emerald green on my eyes...

Speaking of things Chinese, I'll leave you with this wonderful example of Oriental initiative and multi-tasking. Here's one of our Chinese friends, Yufei, selecting from the menu, whilst balancing her 4 month old son's bottle with her chin.=) Priceless, isn't it??

And it's snowing.....

Of course, by the time I'd finished the fine-tuning of this posting, the snow had stopped and the sun came out!!!=) Never let it be said that British weather is monotonous!

© Elizabeth Braun 2011

Kreinik thread gauges etc

2011-11-25T16:01:00.001Z

Isn't 'gauge' an oddly spelled word? (Aren't many English words??) I always want to write 'guage' instead.

Anyway...

Sorry for the quiet spell. I've actually had a nasty bug all month (hoping this has been my 'flu month for the winter, so I've already got it out of the way), although I was better than usual with them and was able to stitch and blog and so on. Over the last week I've been either busy catching up with domestic stuff, being away in Wales or just plain wrecked! However, partly thanks to Megan down under, I've put my copyright thingy-whatsit in a template so I no longer have to keep scratting around to find a © each post!!

The roses project has been taken out of the hoop, pressed and the small back flower re-drawn in and then mounted as you can see here. I've rolled up the other part and paper clipped it out of the way (using plastic coated clips just in case of staining) as you can also see, but it won't stay like that for long, as it should be done soon.

As the fabric has a very slight give in it (NOT really the ideal embroidery canvas!) I was glad that I took it out of the hoop before I put in the spider's web! Had I not, then the long, straight stitches would have hung loose once it was let out. So, I'll put that in holding the whole thing semi-taut in a plastic snap frame instead. And that brings me on to the business of thread gauges.

I decided against using the prescribed Madeira #40 thread for the simple reason that I don't own any and the nearest stockist I know of is two counties away in Ripon. That's too far to go to see if there's any real difference between that and Kreinik Cord! I don't want to buy in new stuff anyway, I want to use the enormous collection of threads I've amassed over the 9 years I've been stitching. One commenter suggested using the Madeira over the Kreinik, leading me to wonder if it was commonly known how fine Kreinik 1-ply Balger Cord actually is. Now this was a very hard photo to take, so forgive the gaps and the diagonals etc, but here's a comparison of some Kreinik thread gauges.

You can see at a glance how relatively thick threads like #8 Fine Braid and #4 Very Fine Braid and/or Cable (which is 3 plies of Cord, I think) are when put alongside Cord and Blending Filament. Bear in mind though, that this photo is showing them all larger than life and I've noticed that the Cord looks about twice as thick as it realistically should!! For this kind of thing (the web), I prefer to use Cord as it's more 'unified' than BF, which easily separates into it's two elements - the colour and the cellophaney bit. Anyway, Cord is very fine gauge and this shade here should knock up a fairly decent web. I've gone for 105C, a black and silver blend.

I like the corded types of Kreinik braids as well. Here you can see a reel of regular silver 001 Very Fine Braid alongside it's 001C, corded version. The finish is more even and the colour is often stronger. Some of the 002 golds look OK in their own right, so to speak, but once you compare them with 002C in the same gauge of braid, they seem very scrappy and patchy indeed! The photo doesn't really do the difference justice in the silver, but I only had a dog end left on my current reel of 002.

I've been working a bit more on the poppy petals and have got half way through the third one. I'm hoping I may get both of my current embroideries done ready for showing early next week.

Gail asked what I was doing with my old needlecase after moving my everyday supply to the new hardanger one. Well, it's still in use housing the overflow. I still need it really, and I can't think of how better to use it and have no idea of throwing it away.=)

Finally, here's the my tool section of my main workbox, which I cleared out and tidied up yesterday. Let me know if you want me to take out all the things and explain what they are - as best I can anyway, as I've had some a while and not really used them yet....

Back on Monday, all being well. Have a good one.

© Elizabeth Braun 2011

Needle Painting Progress and Splog Warning!

2011-11-16T11:56:00.001Z

Here's how far I got with the needle painting project by the end of the day of the last post (Monday, two days ago)

Then yesterday, whilst watching BBC's 'Land Girls' on the iPlayer, I managed to put in the main bloom

And this is how it looks right now:

I'm undecided on whether to put the spider's web in, or consider it finished here. I'm veering towards putting it in, and I expect I'll have that sorted, one way or the other, very soon. I think that element will balance it up nicely and my only real concern is whether or not the Kreinik cord I'm planning to use will be too thick when compared to the Madeira thread used in the book. I'm thinking it will be OK...

So then I'll have the bloom profile to work on what will be the back of the pouch.

Changing the subject completely from the pleasant one of embroidery to the unpleasant one of copyright infringement and theft - I was splogged recently. 'What is a splog?' I hear you ask. Apparently, that's the name given to a fake blog where the entire contents are stolen from somewhere else. I'm not sure if they used one of those software nasties that will download your entire blog/site or hacked into my Blogger account (yes, I've changed my password!), but somewhere between the 11th and the 21st of last month, someone stole my entire blog content - 361 postings and re-published them on a fake blog template, re-arranging the order of some postings as if that, in some way, gave them a right to the copyright sign they had the nerve to put on the bottom!

How did I know this? My blog is registered with Fairshare, which I recommend all of you do with your own blogs/sites. They then send a notification via Google Reader for each page or excerpt that is re-published elsewhere. Some may be perfectly legit and some even come in error (one of the RSS feeds on one of the my other blogs was flashed up once), and mercifully they only sent 39 notifications, not all 361. Anyway, after a few reports to Google, they have removed the offending site. At first I feared I would have to send in 361 separate reports, but I asked them if they seriously expected that and did they really want to wade through them all, and back came a confirmation that the splog had been dealt with faithfully. And indeed it has - I checked!

Why do folk do this? Well, search me, I wouldn't have ever considered it, but I understand some do it to pinch advertising revenue etc. This wasn't the case with my blog as I've never allowed ads to be shown on my blog and the thief loaded it onto a template claiming to be about pressed flowers and some Fairshare reports were referring to an already deleted blog about where to stay in Paris, (which seemed familiar actually). So, I have no idea why and when I feared having to file 361 reports, I just reported the URLs of the postings that got me the most traffic so that they at least couldn't steal my readership.

Apart from the slight flattery that my blog was considered worth nicking, (I mean, who'd want to think that their blog was passed up with, 'Who'd want to read that rubbish? Glad I didn't write it!' LOL), this is of course a case of theft and copyright violation. I know some are, rightly, very concerned about that, considering the amount of time and work they put into their blogs, so I wanted to share my recent experience in the hope it might be useful. I'll be adding in copyright notifications on all postings from here-on-in (if I remember each time.....)

© Elizabeth Braun 2011

A new needle painting project in progress

2011-11-14T13:16:00.005Z

I actually started this one on Friday night and the first five photos were taken under the light in my study, but have surprised me by coming out quite well. It's not a Trish Burr design, although it does look quite like her lovely pieces, it's from 'The A-Z of Thread Painting' and is called 'Spun Silk' by Australian June Godwin. This is the photo of the piece as taken from the book.

I'm going to be making this one up into the manicure set that I originally intended a blackberries stumpwork design for and this single open rose will go on the back of it, no leaves or anything included beyond a few stitches of stalk.

This is my tracing of the design onto the cotton-based fabric. I don't use any special methods, this was just traced directly from the pattern at the back of the book onto the fabric (which was light and fine enough to see right through without 'lightbox' style aid!) with a mechanical pencil. I like those for tracing work as they have a lovely fine point and are not so soft that they smudge. This photo has been 'touched up' somewhat so that you can see the outline more clearly, thus the fabric appearing relatively yellow (compared to the photos below). It's antique (warm) white (DMC Blanc, Anchor #2 shade) really.

The first stitching session got as far as this

With a (larger than life) close up of the buds

Over the next couple of days I filled in the majority of the leaves

And this is where I left it when I stopped to take photos and post about it

And now, back down to it... I'm really enjoying working this piece and I'm also, much to my surprise, enjoying working with just one strand. I thought it would take forever - twice as many needlestrokes as with two strands etc, but I'm finding time is saved by not having to make sure the two strands lay perfectly flat next to each other and don't get crossed over each other, thus spoiling the appearance and even the sheen on the threads. I could be a convert!

PS The stumpwork poppy is also in progress, but the needlelace petals are rather a bore to work all in one go!! However, I have replaced that blurry side view of the beetle with a nice, clear shot and added in a view from the front too, so feel free to revisit the stumpwork beetle.=)

© Elizabeth Braun 2011

Stumpwork Beetle

2011-11-11T07:29:00.004Z

I completed the stumpwork beetle yesterday afternoon and, whilst I think I need more practice, I'll share with you how it was done here. Hope you enjoy and find it at least a little interesting, and maybe even useful too!

The kit came with just an oval outline on the fabric. The first thing to do then, was to pad the outline with felt. There was no pattern given for it, so I just guess-timated and then trimmed to size. Then you stab stitch it in place. No need for lots of stitches, just a few are OK. You could even just put a few stitches in the centre of the felt and that would be fine too, but I prefer to have the edges secured so they don't get in my way when I'm working the next part.

The next step is to work satin stitches all across the body, completely covering the felt shape. Here you can see me working with three strands instead of the prescribed two again. No need to worry about covering outlines here, but it both saved needlestrokes and may even add to the height of the whole element.

The next photo shows the next two stages. First, five stitches were made from 'toe to head', fanning out at the bottom, but going into the same hole at the head. It's rather hard to photograph well, both lines of stitching being black, but I think you can just make it out here. After that, re-thread the needle with two strands of metallic green floss and put a few satin stitches over the front to form a head.

Next we move on the green wings and, as you can see in this shot, the satin stitches are worked from top to bottom, along the diagonal line formed by the five black stitches. You need to close them up slightly at the head end to both fit them all on and to stop them slipping off the side of the body.

Here you can see the completed satin stitches.

The next element is the legs and antennae. These were worked in just one strand of black stranded cotton and done in straight stitches and detached chain (lazy daisy), thus making the 'double' look of the first section of each leg. The antennae, of course, are just one straight stitch each coming out from the front of head (where else???!)

Finally, just stitch the eyes, two blue- or green-black seed beads, on to the front of the head and here he is, your stumpwork beetle!

I do apologise for the slightly blurry quality of one or two of the photos, but he's quite a simple little fellow and I'm sure you can find the materials for him easily, if not from the stash you already have. The green thread is the dark green one from the DMC Light Effects range and I daresay Kreinik will also have something that answers.

Flatwork on the DMC Poppy and Beetle Kit

2011-11-09T19:30:00.003Z

I decided to make a start today on the small stumpwork kit I posted in my last. It's one of the six kits that DMC used to make, but has long been off the market. I bought five of them, two of which came from a discount seller on e-bay who'd clearly got hold of a lot of end of line kits to sell on. They do still crop up on e-bay from time to time, for anyone whose interested.

I like kits as a general rule and feel a good deal more relaxed when working one than I do when working my own design. It's the security of having full instructions, and even some illustrations, that makes the difference, I think. There are kits and kits though, and this is definitely of the mass produced, cheap and (usually) cheerful type. The things I dislike most are the thin, cheap looking pieces of calico you're given to work your piece on and the fact that pattern lines are printed so thickly onto it. I decided to work the stem stitch part in three strands as opposed to the recommended two just so as to have some hope of full coverage! It didn't quite work, but it's near enough for what I'm thinking of as more or less a practice/learning piece.

The large leaf presented a slight challenge in that you're expected to stitch at an angle. As you can see here, I drew in the centre vein and some angle stitch guidelines to help. Outlining in stem stitch wasn't part of the instructions, but I feel that doing this both helps make sure you cover the printed lines and also raises the edge of the stitches somewhat.

The bud was a point of interest too. I felt that the way it was done on the model in the photo looked rather bad, to say nothing of probably not very lifelike, so I changed it. Here you can see the process of doing one part, the under sepal, in one layer of satin stitch, part of which provided padding for the top layer. I'm not sure I'm wholly impressed with the final result of it. In fact, I'm wondering if it's any better than the original! Still, this is a learning process....

Here's the status at the moment of the whole piece with all the flatwork completed. It didn't take very long to do, especially as there's just one large leaf as opposed to the several small ones on the last DMC kit I worked. If all goes according to plan, tomorrow I hope to get to the green and black beetle and, if possible, make a start on the detached poppy petals. See you then!

Some needling problems

2011-11-07T20:43:00.004Z

And that's not all meant as a pun. (Which bit is, you'd best decide for yourself!)

I've had this old needlecase for a few years. I actually made it myself when I was in primary school class 3 at the tender age of around 7, so 1978/9. I even remember being disappointed when I went wrong on the dark green/peach line, but it was rather a complex stitch for a tiny tot to do, no? Well, my mum used it for years and then washed it out and gave it to me when I made her a new one back in about 2005/6.

You can see how untidy it'd got inside as well. Bits of thread hanging around, flannel insert all rusted, needles all over the place in not much order, except that most of the top right section was blunts - tapestry needles.

Whilst we were in Taiwan I worked a nice new one in a hardanger design. I'd done an identical one in pink (which, OK, means it wasn't really identical.....) and gave it to my mother-in-law, and that after promising myself I was going to work that needlecase and NOT give it away. I felt sorry for her as she'd had a rough time of it just previously, so I thought I'd give her the choice of colour and have the other one myself. 5 years later and it's been made up and waiting for needles for about the past 18 months. So, last night I finally got around to populating it.

On the top left hand side we have tapestry needles in sizes 20, 22, 24, 26 and tiny 28s. Under that come crewel/embroidery needles in sizes 10, 9, 7 (which is my preferred size - not too fiddly to work with), 5 and a couple of 3s.

Moving on to the right hand side and, from the top, three beading needles, 4 straw/milliners ones in sizes 3, 5, 7 and 9, then two other large needles that I don't really know what to call, followed by chenilles in sizes 18, 20, 22 and 24, then a few general sharps for sewing.

So, now I just have to get used to the sight of my new needlecase. At least it's still green!

I've been thinking about the berries design and the problems associated with it. First of all, the silk (backed with interfacing) feels very stiff and rather like paper. Not nice to work on. And, as I had it out of the frame for a while, there are nasty buckles in it, which just won't do. You can see a bit of how it's got spoiled here.

Also, to be honest, I'm not that pleased with the design. It's all over the place with no real sense of balance and I just can't find any enthusiasm to work it. I started on the monogram a few weeks ago but, as the letters are half the dimensions of the ones I took the design from (Susan O'Connor's book), they really are too small to do properly and, when I tried, they just looked so scrappy that I would have done better when I was seven! If not, then at least there would have been that as an excuse. So, with all that in mind and the fact that silk on silk was really not at all practical for an everyday manicure set, (I mean, we're talking about a normal, modern woman here, not Lady Mary Crawley!!), I decided to take the piece out of the frame and take the whole thing back to the drawing board. Perhaps a larger monogram with the berries around it?? I'll see what I can come up with.

In the meantime, I went through my kit box and fished these two out.

I could wish that, when kit makers were putting these things together, they'd spare some thought on how well the colours in the design go with the fabric they provide. It always seems to be a cream colour that gets used (and the piece in the Brazilian kits is rather rough and rigid as well), but it seems to me that these purple roses and the light, blue-ish greens that are with them would be much better suited to white. I laid the threads against three fabrics for comparison. The first from the left is white (cool), then an antique white (neutral) piece, then the cream (warm) from the kit. I know it doesn't show up as well as it could here (the original fabric is a bit yellower in reality), but the cool shades match the white so much better. Colour is very important to me and I can't feel comfy with 'it looks OK' when it can look better! Perfectionist? Well, perhaps. In some things anyway. A pass grade won't do for me when a distinction is available.;)

I haven't started either yet, and I also want to have a go at a berry or two, so I can't say for sure what's coming next, but something will. Soon....

© Elizabeth Braun 2011

What makes a great needlework blog?

2011-11-06T11:25:00.008Z

Thanks very much indeed to the 15 ladies who kindly took the time to leave their comments on yesterday's survey posting. What struck me as the bottom line as to what you regular readers think is that you like what you see, you just want a good deal more of it! Photos, commentary, design notes (where relevant), some background and cultural articles and tutorials, but especially more photos. Well, I shall do my best to oblige and I hope you're enjoying the photos of my latest finish alongside this post. Look! Three instead of the usual one!=) I think photos can be overdone, so maybe I won't post as many as some do (I realised I need to get a good balance between what readers like and my own tastes and preferences), but I like the idea of some close-up shots as well as some angle shots. I've done both before, but I think I'll try to make more of a habit of it.

I've switched to the newer Blogger post editor as that allows more freedom with photo sizing, so that should help with the problem I mentioned yesterday. Failing that, two of you mentioned a third party service that I could try out, but I think this is working so far.

I've also made some changes on the blog layout and appearance, mostly to simplify. In my opinion, there are some great and skilled needleworkers out there whose work is all but lost against the high impact graphics and multi-coloured layout of their blog template and sidebar content. Even the post text can be in so many colours that the eye doesn't naturally settle on the photos of their beautiful work! So, to my mind, a great needlework blog is first and foremost simple and uncluttered. It has a plain, either very light or very dark background, perhaps with a simple border if liked, and keeps the visual focus on the photos in the main posts. It's also free of mouse pointer graphics, things drifting across the screen and little tinkling sounds, and no music starts up when you land on the homepage. Great content needs no gimmicks.=)

I also feel strongly that the sidebar should be a reasonable length - preferably shorter than the space needed to display the number of posts you've selected per page. To keep the whole layout easy on the eye, sidebars are best kept to one and only in single columns. There are all sorts of multiple column layouts available, but I recommend avoiding these and going for just one. I personally much prefer not to have a long list of blog feeds on my blog sidebar (you can see which blogs I follow by looking at my Blogger profile), as it can get to a great length and can add too many distractions. To be honest, I also would hate to cause offence by omitting anyone's blog....LOL!

Another common problem with blog layouts can be the header design. Some are just so big that they require you to scroll horizontally to see the full thing and others are so long that you have to scroll quite a way down to get to the start of the blog proper! So, I also recommend keeping the header section a reasonable size.

Oh yes, and I think that proof-reading and carefully previewing and amending layouts is vital too (this post is taking ages to get 'just so'!!). Mistakes, gaping bare spaces and other gaffs are distracting and unprofessional, so spell-check, proof-read and adjust! (Now watch there be an awful blunder somewhere, like once on my travel blog when I missed the 'r' out of 't-shirts'!) And text is best left- or fully justified. No-one right justifies, but there are some where all text is centred and it can make it harder to read, so I recommend that only if needed for a photo caption/section heading or something like that. A great needlework blog is always easy to read and easy on the eye without irritations, don't you think?

So, I now have a white background, (although my backgrounds have always been light and contrast reasonably good), and the text, apart from links, is all black and dark grey. Links are a petrel blue and I've changed the title font and colour too. I also thought I'd see how I liked the photo borders (thanks for the idea, Leftsox). The sidebar has lost about 3 of its elements so far and others have been condensed: I changed the labels list to a cloud, removed the numbers and only chose to show the textiles related ones; my other blogs have been cut down to just title and photo; and the Blog Archive has been changed to a drop down list. I also moved the blog navigation elements up to the top and added a copyright line at the bottom. Two of the pages have also gone and I've added to what remains (some of which has been shifted around and renamed) there by putting in the photos that used to be in the sidebar gallery. Hope to improve them soon with more text.

Tutorials are an interesting idea. I do plan to do a few more, but I daresay there won't be a huge quantity of them as I don't feel as skilled and qualified as some seem to think I am! Still, one can but have a go. One e-mailed comment suggested that I might want to try plugging the gap between the 'doodle stitching for beginners' tutorials that abound and the very advanced, verging on professional level of instruction that the very serious hobbyists post, but which may be above the confidence and commitment level of some. I like that idea, and am open to suggestions! Caroline, you read my mind in suggesting the dragonfly as a possible tute! I had that sort of thing in mind to try more of and to show how to do it. It was a steep learning curve producing that baby though, so I need some time...

A few ladies expressed and interest in seeing and learning more about the Taiwanese and Korean pieces that I photographed in East Asia last year. Great, yup, I'll have a stab at that, but be warned - I am NO expert and the info I provide alongside will be of the the simplest kind. It would be a interesting diversion from the better known Japanese and Chinese work though, so I think it's worth doing and, yes, I'll do a little research as well.

I finally finished the narrowboat yesterday afternoon after deciding that the top stitching on the water looked tacky and that the greenery didn't need any more detail. I also elected to use the prescribed three strands for the French knots on the boat (the flower pots on its roof), but to drop to just two for the flowers on the right hand side in the hedge area. I felt that this would, along with a half stitch background instead of the full stitches suggested in the pattern, create an impression of texture and depth. I appear to have started this one about 17 months before it was finished, so that was a LONG time, for a medium sized cross stitch.

Don't know if anyone remembers this photo from a post just under a year ago entitled 'Too Many WIPs'? I had these four skeletons of pieces all laid out on our ironing board! Well, I've now managed to flesh out and complete three of those projects (as well as a number of smalls and three childhood UFOs posted over the summer), and so now it's onto the stumpwork berries piece. Working the beaded berries will be a new one on me, so I hope to get a grip on that and then post a simple tutorial so you can have a go too. Sounding good? Will be back soon, have a great Sunday.=)

Reader Survey

2011-11-05T09:14:00.012Z

Dear Readers,

Hi! It's a dull and slightly misty Saturday morning here on the very southern tip of Yorkshire and I've been thinking about my blog - what I want to do with it and how to take it forward. All good magazines do a periodic reader survey to make sure that they meet the needs and wants of their readership, so I thought I'd try the same. Success depends upon response, so do click through from your reader screen etc and tell me what you think!

I've noticed that some of the most popular blogs, Needle'n'thread and The Unbroken Thread feature lots of photos of various aspects of their work - different angles, close-ups of certain elements etc, and that's something I want to do more of. I'm limited by the sizes that Blogger allow for photos and, whilst you can alter them on the 'Edit HTML' tag, I find that most of the time I try to increase the size (and, yes, the original is big enough), the photo blurs. However, one can keep trying!! It has worked on some, but is particularly unhelpful on evenweave fabrics. If anyone has any ideas on how to overcome this problem, I'd be most interested!

Something else that the very popular sites do is concept posts - articles etc about embroidery, book reviews and different local styles as well as aspects of technique, so that's something else I can give some thought and time to. I'm not as dedicated a stitcher as some are, but I do have, for example, a decent collection of photos of Korean and Taiwanese embroideries that I can share and write a little about. Thread storage is another, ditto needles.

So, what do you think? What would you enjoy? What, in your opinion, makes a stitching blog really stand out from the crowd? Please take 1 or 2 minutes out of your busy day to leave a comment (in any language - I can always use Google Translate to help!) and tell me!=) THANKS!

© Elizabeth Braun 2011

Goldwork viola

2011-10-24T12:57:00.006+01:00

And I managed the strings! I didn't think they'd ever work out, but I ended up putting two rows of bright check purls over a small piece of felt to give enough height for the strings to both catch on the bridge and get over the bottom part of the finger board. If you don't look at that part too closely, it's OK!!

The background is now totally done on the narrowboat piece, but as it's not much different from last time, it's not really worth a new picture yet. Hope to show more of that later in the week.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the sense of accomplishment that came from having finally completed that viola. I started it in Taiwan back in mid February 2010, so it's taken 20 months to get it from re-working the design to completing the stitching! I hope I don't have too many more projects that progress so shakily...

© Elizabeth Braun 2011

Two things actively WIP!

2011-10-21T15:57:00.006+01:00

Wow! Two pieces currently being worked on! I've been putting in most of the half stitch sky on the narrowboat cross stitch piece. You mayn't be able to see it very clearly, but it's there in two shades of light blue. Not much further to go on that, and then it's on to the top stitching.

Much to my amazement, I had the urge to get on with the goldwork viola too! I put in this long piece of almost vertical pearl purl #1 and hope to get the other side done over the weekend, and maybe also some other bits. I'm really unsure of how the strings could be worked so that they look realistic, so it may be that I have to omit them. I'd rather leave something out than have that element spoil the whole effect by it's weakness!

I really need to get the slight white flecks (dust??) off this piece before it's finally photographed!

Digging around on YouTube (which I've begun to do too much of lately.....) I found this video, which some may enjoy. Also worth looking up is their 2009 display, which I actually preferred as it has some wonderful caskets, boxes and an album cover as well as a quilt that is a mosaic of a face! Well, head and shoulders really. The reason I've embedded this one though you can see from about 2.19 mins onwards for a while. There you see vertical rows of small square embroideries, probably worked by different members, on the same fabric background. I was struck by the potential of this idea for around the house! Perhaps I could do another piece or two on black silk to go with the viola?? A way to display samples of things and small pieces without having the expense of buying a frame. See what you think:

Hoping to get back to my old, pre-Taiwan posting schedule of bi-weekly WIP updates on Mondays and Thursdays. Perhaps I can accomplish this goal by the end of this year? Let's see! I'm feeling quite enthusiastic at the mo, but next month my umph could be stolen by other interests.....

Cross Stitching Complete

2011-10-11T09:16:00.003+01:00

Wow! This feels like a real milestone - having completed the main stitching on this piece that I began in Taiwan in summer 2010! I can see the end now coming closer and am beginning to even feel a little stitching enthusiasm returning!

I think that part of the embryonic re-beginnings of enjoyment has been that I've decided to shelve the idea of kit making for now. It's still there and I hope to come back to it later on, but I simply don't feel that I'm competent or confident enough to be teaching stumpwork to others as yet. I want to do a lot more in the way of learning and practice first. Maybe that might include a City & Guilds, who knows? There is a Level 1 stumpwork course available on-line, so we'll see. Need money to spare for that too.

In the meantime, I might have a go at selling hand-dyed and hand-painted fabrics and threads, including pieces of painted silks, dyed cottons - both plainweave and evenweave for counted thread work, and maybe even look at dyeing some threads when I get the hang of dyeing at all!! Let me know what you think...

Working on the Narrowboat

2011-10-03T16:34:00.003+01:00

Well, a little bit anyway. It's been a while since I last posted an update on this piece, but, as I've now made it to 150 Blogger followers (thank you all!), I thought I'd make a celebratory post and give an update on the only thing I've really been stitching at all.

Last update showed much the same status, just without the bridge on the top left hand side. Not very far to go now with the main cross stitching on this one, then it's on to working the sky in half stitch. It was originally meant to be in regular cross stitch, but I like the slightly textured effect one gets from doing a one strand half stitch background. Some of the flowers are to be done in French knots too, so more depth and texture there.

Maybe I'll finish this one and the other 2 WIPs this year, who knows??=)

COMPLETE change of mind!

2011-08-30T20:03:00.005+01:00

Friends of our are celebrating their golden wedding on Friday and, well, you just can't get that go by without a card, right? I thought I'd use Mary Corbet's charming tudor style rose and work it up in yellows and outline in gold. Here's the pattern traced and the threads selected:

And I was going to mount it in a nice, square, gold card blank. Was going to look stunning!

However, as soon as I'd got a few little bits of the darker yellow in, although the colour looked great, I simply wasn't working it well and wasn't really in the mood for that type of work..... So, out it came from the hoop, it got put away for later use (I still love the idea and my colourway for it, so I hope to come back to it some time later on), and I got out my pastel pencils and ribbon collection. This is the result:

A BIG change in direction, huh??!

Simple ribbon work flowers

2011-08-18T19:38:00.008+01:00

Here's a small ribbon embroidery design that I did about 2 weeks ago (and have only just worked up the courage to edit and upload all the photos!). I took plenty of in-progress shots so that it could be a little bit of a tutorial. The design is one that is no longer in production, 'Garden Gate' by the UK company Crafty Ribbons. I bought it in an end of line sale about 4 years ago, but they do have some nice ribbon embroidery kits still on offer. Nice designs and good instructions.

First we have the gate design itself worked in plain old backstitch and the spiders web inserted using straight stitches of varying lengths.

Here you can see how to 'thread up' the ribbon. Using a normal embroidery needle and a co-ordinating colour thread, go in and out of the ribbon alternating edges. The thread should already be coming through the fabric at this point really.

Gather up the ribbon into a little flower....

...and secure with another stitch just next to the flower, making sure the stitch is hidden underneath and that any scrappy ends of ribbon are taken to the underside as well.

Moving on to the leaves and this time you thread the ribbon through a chenille needle (about size 20 should be OK, depending on the width of the ribbon). When you make the gathered flowers, you just need to cut enough ribbon for each bloom. With the leaves, you can cut enough for several as the ribbon will go in and out a few times before getting tatty.

A simple straight stitch creates a nice looking leaf.

The add some more straight stitches, this time in stranded cotton or coton a broder to create the impression of grass and some French knot flower centres and this part is complete.

Moving onto some larger blooms to be created in ribbon stitch. Again, thread the chenille needle with enough ribbon for a few petals and come up through the fabric. Go back down, not beyond the ribbon, but through it to create the folded back look....

...that you can see here.

Add in a few more to create full flowers, some straight stitch leaves and also French knots using white ribbon as a flower centre and that completes this side.

Here's the full thing shown slightly at an angle so you can enjoy the three dimensional aspect to good effect. This piece was then mounted into a card.

Hope that's been of interest to some of you. I'm no ribbon work expert, but a number of folk do come here after searching for 'ribbon embroidery', so I thought a picture post would go down well.=)

I haven't been doing much stitching of late thanks to yet more bugs and nasties (I've come to conclusion I'm a germ goddess and the dratted things love me and want to nestle close....), and I'd like to get some mending and altering done soon, if possible, so as to clear the decks (literally!!) for more interesting things later on.

© Elizabeth Braun 2011

Yippa-doooo!

2011-07-07T20:13:00.007+01:00

YAY! The water violets and fish are finally done and finished up into a nice scatter cushion:

I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever see the end of this one, but I suppose it might help if I were get on with stuff faster....

The piping (which was the main reason I put doing this one off) is made from the ribbon that came on a box of chocolates, folded in half and 'trapped' between the front and back layers of fabric!!

Six Years of Blogging!

2011-06-27T19:03:00.003+01:00

So, according to the counter thingy at the bottom of my blog, this is my 'blog-o-versary', the day that marks 6 years since I started to blog. For the first couple of years, I used to changed the layout/template and/or colours of the blog, but I don't feel the need to just now. I just do it when I get sick of the current scheme and ready for a fresh look these days!! My very first post got deleted when I trimmed out all the irrelevant and/or personal stuff from my blog about 18 months ago, so that can no longer be seen.

I also have nothing to show needlework-wise, unless you count the sewing prep on the ironing board, which will be the completed water violets cushion sometime over the next couple of days.

So, how to mark this event? It is, of course, unnecessary to do anything of the sort, but I may as well say something and it may as well be a piece of news which could affect my stitching blog content in the months to come.

We visited what probably passes as my LNS last week and the chap there, whose been in the business quite some time, knows the territory and whose shop has won multiple awards, told me that he likes to get new designers started. He showed me the latest newbie's kits and offered to give constructive feedback on anything I might like to design - given that the embroidery kit selection is somewhat limited, esp. when it comes to surface embroidery and stumpwork - and help out by selling it for me. So, I've got a list of ideas down already and DH is keen to help out with the business side and has even fairly promised to put kits together (following in the footsteps of Mr Jane Nicholas!!).

I need to get one or two WIPs out of the way first, but then I hope to get down to some serious designing and sample stitching. They won't be large projects, but I hope they will attract buyers in time. I hope to get something on the market for the Christmas present buying season, but I'm not committing to anything just yet.

Wait and see!

Chinese Wedding Card

2011-06-21T19:47:00.004+01:00

Just a quick post today to show a card I made over the weekend for a Chinese couple I was asked to stand witness for at their legal wedding ceremony yesterday, (if you can follow that!!) Red is the Chinese colour for celebrations and they often trim that red up with gold, so I mixed that colour scheme with our traditional white for weddings and did a quick hardanger piece.

DH typed up and printed out a nice something in Chinese which he stuck on the inside as a flysheet sort of arrangement too so, for an impromptu piece, we were quite proud of it.=)

Here is the final card mounting of the heart I did recently as well. This was for a silver wedding anniversary, but I found that I didn't actually have a silver '25' sticker, so just left the front plain. I think the stitchery is fancy enough anyway.

Next thing I hope to do it to get the water violets and fish piece made up into the final cushion/pillow cover. No estimates on when yet except that it must be done by 7 July.

5 Smalls, 3 Styles

2011-06-14T08:44:00.009+01:00

Here are all my other recent finishes, most of which were worked on whilst I was working in Leeds recently.

The first is a cross stitched bookmark made for an elderly friend of ours, Charlie. He was delighted with it when we gave it to him last night.=)

Next we have the two printed canvas needlepoint kits that my mum found a few months before we went to Taiwan (about two years ago now!) and that I recently finished off and 'repaired'. On looking at the top one again the other day, I realised that there are more repairs to make, i.e. when I decided, in my 11 year old wisdom, that it wouldn't matter if one or two stitches went \ when all the others were / as it filled in the shape better....

Here's a wedding card done well in advance of the big day on 20 August this year. Now like me to get things done in good time (Prince Albert would have approved: 'It's always better to complete a task well ahead of schedule.'), so I now have this to keep clean and safe (in its envelope) for the next 2 months and to think of a gift to make.

The last photo shows the circular card mount I chose to put the silver and purple heart in. I took pix of both this and in a square mount and, as soon as I could see them side by side in my photo package, there was no contest on which looked best. (I'll post a better photo when I've taken one.)

Next task is to get on with the blackberries and make up the two cushion/pillow covers etc, but I'm rather busy preparing for software and secretarial exams (plus going to classes and so on) just now, so I mayn't get on as quickly as I'd like... So what's new, huh?!

Anniversary gifts

2011-06-11T09:54:00.006+01:00

Here are two other things that I've stitched recently. It's our 12th wedding anniversary tomorrow and, as we haven't any money to spare for regular gifts, I finally got around to making up the keyring I'd been planning for Sir for a couple of years. I bought the 'frame' two or three years ago!

This is the traced initials outline:

Then we have the filling in with directional satin stitch, which, as directional stitching is anything but my forté, I pulled out a few times during the whole process. I was getting annoyed with it....

Then I outlined it in Kreinik cord with stem stitch. Stem stitch is great when you're able to work from the outside in (as you should), but that's not easy when you have an inside curve to cope with! Especially if you need to change direction.

And here's the finished item:

I think it worked quite well, it's just a shame that the keyring itself got a bit scratched. If I ever buy another, I'll make sure it's as scratch free as I can. As Sir himself says, 'You live, you learn.'

Here's the anniversary card I made for him. It's from one of those Jeanette Crews 'One Nighter' chart leaflets, the 'Tropical Birds' one. Cute, or what?

I hadn't made a small cross stitch item for ages and, I must say I really enjoyed it! There's more to show you soon too, as soon as one of the items is finished up. Look out on Monday, all being well.

A design's not final 'til the stitching's finished!

2011-06-07T20:02:00.008+01:00

This was the design I initially created for friends' Silver Wedding (25th) anniversary card, to be worked in silver goldwork threads and Anchor Marlitt:

The changes started when I went to my LNS only to find that, although they stocked plenty of gold goldwork threads, their supply of silver was very low indeed. I wasn't able to get pearl purl and so had to adapt straight away to twist instead. I managed to get the silver kid leather, but when I tried to cut it out into the inner heart shape, the result was so creased and, frankly, cheap and nasty looking that I couldn't bear to use it. So, that bit got dumped too and I decided to move the trellis from over the purples, to filling the inner (now middle) heart. The tiny heart in the centre was to be filled with silver bright check purl.

However.... I noticed that the silver of the bright check was not as cool as the rest of the silver threads. In fact, it was relatively yellow. That bothered me, so I ditched that idea and decided to fill in the space with French knots in DMC metallic floss.

Above you can see the first stage of the purple shading completed and the second layer underway. The top right hand side ended up so un-even that, when I'd done the lot, I realised that, not only would I have to outline the inside of that section with Kreinik Fine Braid, but that I needed a line of it between the two purples as you can see below:

By this time I'd also decided that I wasn't going to fussing around adding in accents in pink Marlitt either!!

So, much changed from the original design, here is the finished item. It's a little puckered, sadly, but that came from my not getting the silk fabric totally flat on the backing cotton when I was sewing them together - a problem I've had before.=(

And here's a side view. Of course, it isn't possible from this angle for my camera to focus everything perfectly (so I had to cut the bottom section off!!), so the right hand side is a tad blurred, but I hope you like the effect all the same. All that remains now is to decide whether to mount it in a round or square aperture card.

So, although I haven't blogged my work for a fair few weeks, I have been stitching! This isn't all I've been doing either, there's more. I'll post about that in the days to come.

A bit more goldwork

2011-05-05T15:09:00.005+01:00

Another rather disappointing photo, (I can't tell you how much better it looks in real life!), but here are the latest two (counting both f holes as one element) additions to the goldwork viola picture. -> I was pleasantly surprised how smoothly these sections went. Next up is the whole fingerboard and neck/scroll area in no.1 pearl purl. The smaller detail will be done in a pearl purl of smaller guage (but I don't know what it actually is), then the nuts will be done in Coats Ophir (like a very fine Jap) - like the f holes have been - and then filled in with bright check. Then I have to think of how to manage a convincing bridge and strings....

Considering that I have a number of time sensitive things to do over this summer, I have actually no idea why I'm concentrating on finishing the two that have no deadlines and are just for our home! I've two cards and, assuming I can find the keyring 'blank', a small monogram to go in it to do for various points in June, the violets/fish cushion and the blackberries pouch to have done by July and another gift for mid August. Hmmm! If anyone's seen my common sense roaming free anywhere, do send it back express!;)

I think I use too many brackets - just looking at my first paragraph! Recently I was reading a book review by someone I know and found it really hard to follow as they had far too many asides and big words in their sentences. Simple, plain, concise. That's the mark of a good teacher/writer. Got it, Lizzie? Good!

Kid it is!

2011-05-03T19:15:00.005+01:00

The vote went for a kid leather chinrest on the goldwork viola and, as I agreed with that - even though kid is a beast to stitch through - here it is in a side view to show how raised it ended up (only one layer of padding):

Rotten photo, I'm afraid! My photography seems to be going through a bad patch just now.=) Anyway, there's a border of Kreinik Fine Braid in 102C around the kid. I also finally managed to get that little bit of copper border that had frayed re-done without it going nasty again.

I had hoped to get more done before posting again, but it's been a busy week. A week full of surprises too. The greatest surprise, beating the runner up by a small margin, was going into Sir's study on Friday lunchtime to find him on-line watching live coverage of the Royal Wedding on German TV!!=)

I've managed to get a bit more of the water under the narrowboat done and here it is, pretty much afloat. There's still more to do on that part, then a bridge and small tree etc to fill in on the left hand side. The main stitching must be about 70% done now. LONG gone are the days when I would get something like this finished within two or three weeks.=)

Thanks for the ideas on how to stretch and straighten the giraffe. I'll try that - when I get the necessary things. Might have to use a kitchen shopping board and wash out a cleaning fluid bottle thoroughly to use as a spray as I've nothing that will pass for a plant spray or cork tile at the mo. Will report back on that one once I've had a go at it.

Two finishes. Yes, TWO!

2011-04-24T10:13:00.004+01:00

So, I really got going this week and finished two things! No, not the narrowboat - I haven't had that much stitching time.=) In fact, I've only put a little bit of water in on that, so it isn't worth showing, but as I've run out of ideas for 'information posts' for the time being and have got back into my own embroidery work somewhat (could be famous last words.....), I hope to post WIP shots more often instead.=)

The first finish was the giraffe needlepoint that I was given as a 12th birthday present by Nicholas Cook! I remember him explaining why he chose it out of the series (it was the only one with a girl's name, bless him!). I decided not to save it to complete whilst I'm away doing exam work in May, but rather to make use of mum's sewing machine those 3 weeks and get it finished up into the cushion cover I've planned. I'm going to give to a disabled girl (I say 'girl', but she's not much younger than me!!) who likes cushions on her bed. Had I given it to a little girl as I'd originally thought, she would have grown out of it in time, but Georgina won't as she will always have a mental age of around 13, so it's perfect.

As you can see, it's got a bit warped. I know that this wouldn't be a problem had I been planning to frame it as the stretching process would correct it, but I'm going to be using it in a patchwork. Any ideas on how to straighten it up a bit??

Now then, here's the finish of the month, the water violets design! I put the last stitches, the water lines, in on this early yesterday afternoon. I decided to exclude the mayfly after all. It would have looked better, more balanced with it, but I really had had enough by then and just wanted it complete. So, this is it:

This too will be made into a cushion cover and I'll do that at the same time as the giraffe. I'll need to get some backing fabric for it. Oh, the design is in the right hand half of the cushion, in case you're wondering why I was doing such a long, thin cushion.=)

I've also got re-started to some degree on the goldwork viola (don't anyone dare call it a violin!). I put the felt padding on the chinrest yesterday, but I haven't finally decided on what to overlay it with. The options are rough purl and kid leather of which I have silver and gold. I know very little about goldwork, but I have two or three useful books that can help. I'm undecided on many parts of it - what threads to use etc. Anyone with more experience care to comment? Mary? Ruth?

All the best with a dog design, Linda and, go on, start a blog! If you do that kind of work, then I want to see it!=)

Poor Fish!

2011-04-22T19:55:00.008+01:00

Look at this poor chap, does he look miserable, or what?

Actually, he's not going at all how I wanted him to and so his expression reflects quite well how I feel about my work on this piece. Hmm! He's a far cry from the beauty in my header photos. Sigh! Good thing it's for someone who won't notice!!!=)

Anyway, he's not finished yet, he still needs to be filled in and a tiny fish outlined for him to be swimming after, so I hope to get a bit more done this evening etc. I will be VERY glad when this one's done and out of the way!

'lewmew': You asked about the dog design. It came from the book 'Royal School of Needlework's Embroidery Techniques'. It's quite a size and was worked in, I think, a 12" hoop. It took a LONG time, even when I was in intensive working mode and, unless you're really quite experienced in thread painting/silk shading, I wouldn't recommend tackling a project of that size and complexity. I spoke to Tracey A Franklin, the RSN graduate who stitched the model for the book, about it once and even she found it rather hard going at times! However, if you're very brave.... PS I would have left the answer to your question on your blog, if you have one, but as your profile is set to 'private', I couldn't look to see.=( It's a shame, as I always make a point of checking out my followers' blogs.=)

From UFO to WIP to Happy Dance - How?

2011-04-21T09:50:00.001+01:00

When I posted last week about getting WIPs finished and not going in for UFOs at all, I had some interesting responses. Some agreed and felt the same way and some had a veritable stack of UFOs, ever increasing and quite probably nattering them more than they realised. So, that got me thinking about how to get UFOs (UnFinished Objects that are not current Works in Progress (WIPs)) out, re-started and, very importantly, finished, leading to that Happy Dance! Illustrating this post you'll see two large projects that spent quite some months in the UFO state, showing where they got stuck, then a post-restart WIP shot and finally, the end result.

A good place to start is to think about exactly why that piece got laid aside indefinitely to start with. That is very important and may be quite different for each UFO you consider. The reason you gave up on it will give the key as to how to get back going on it too.

Some examples of reasons are:

1) It became boring or monotonous - a common problem with single colour backgrounds once the main picture/design is stitched in cross stitch or needlepoint pieces. It could be that it's the same technique over and over and is dull when you want more variety, or it could be that the colour(s) don't inspire. Whatever the detailed reason, boredom is the main thing. This was part of the problem with my dog thread painting.

2) You made a mistake with it, had to pull a large amount out and got disheartened. Some pieces you make a good and motivated start on only to have the wind completely knocked out of your sails by seeing all that input wasted. That happened with the hardanger piece you can see here. I miscounted in the centre, ended up having to frog about 75% of the work thus far and got fed up and put it on one side for about 7 months. If you look closely at the photo, you can see the holes where I removed threads!!

3) The project has outfaced you as it is either too large, too hard or both. This was the other half of the dog problem. Being overwhelmed by a task can be totally paralysing.

4) You just have no motivation to finish it. You may not even like the design anymore, or it may have been a class piece that you had the impetus to do whilst attending the class, but now don't feel any push to complete. Or it may be just a piece you liked, but that lacks purpose, so you feel no urgency to get on with it and other, more interesting or more appealing projects have pushed it into the UFO basket. This was also relevant to my hardanger piece as, originally, I'd intended it for someone's wedding gift, then I gaffed up and realised that I didn't feel I even liked them enough to go to all that trouble....

5) You simply have far too many things on the go at once and therefore you just can't work actively on them all. You have a dozen or so WIPs and you try to put a stitch or two in on those, but you know that several of those will have become UFOs over the next few months because you will have started a number of new things and they will push current WIPs off the production line.

Sounding familiar at all? Do you see yourself and any of your UFOs in the above scenarios? I'm sure you do. So, how do you get back going again? Well, here are some suggestions to get each category of UFO back to WIP status.

1) A boring UFO can be finished slowly and steadily by working one or two lengths of thread on it before you move on to more pleasant and interesting projects. You can also take a boring project in hand when you're watching TV (it's all tent/cross/basket stitch in one colour, so you don't need to concentrate greatly), or when you have someone to talk to. You're giving the other activity most of your attention, but your hands can be productive without you really missing the show or being too pre-occupied to be good (and polite) company. Another take on this one is to do 10 minutes on it at the start of each stitching session or a certain amount of time per week to it. Whichever works best for you, but make sure that it does work! That's why I suggest working on the boring project at the start of your session as it makes sure that it happens.

2) A disheartening project can be approached in much the same way. Take it out and do a little - paying very careful attention to how it went wrong in the first place. Work at it little and often and, who knows, once you get past the problem area, you may well find that you're enjoying it again and you can go full steam ahead.

3) Dealing with an overwhelming project can be more tricky. Generally, if it's too large, then the above mentioned 'little and often' approach will soon see it come down to a more manageable size, both in your mind and in your hands. Feeling that it's too difficult may be another matter. In this case, building confidence is key. You may need to try small sections of the piece and allow your success to build your confidence, or even leave it for the time being and work on smaller projects/samples of a similar type until you have the needed know-how to approach your more major piece with confidence. To be honest, the method I used with the dog was to simply force myself to do it. The most major spurts in progress were done on two holidays when I really only had that piece of stitching with me and plenty of time to do it, so I just pressed on with it and saw it working out fine section by section.

4) A piece that you have no reason to bother working on requires that you find one! I had nothing to finish my hardanger for, until I realised that another friend who I was happy to put in effort for was likely to get engaged within the next few months. That got me going again. So, look at your 'no umph for' UFOs and see what you could finish up for whom. Does someone who would like that piece have an event coming up? A big anniversary? A new home? Whatever else you could make it into a gift for. Another good thing about stitching for events is that it provides a deadline. "The wedding is on 12 June, so I have 6 weeks and so I'd best get right down to it!" A piece you don't really like can easily please someone else too, so this method can also take in those things you've gone off.

5) Last up is the uncontrolled project starter. The answer to this is to develop some control! If you know you are liable to get sidetracked by yet another new design, simply stop looking at them! Don't buy new kits, magazines, books etc until you've finished a certain number of things. Tell your family and stitching friends so that you can have someone to answer to and who can remind you, and even get tough with you, when needed. Look through your WIPs and UFOs and take out all those nearing completion. Finish those first and get some accomplishment under your belt. Next up get out those about half done and work on those, then move on to those which are only just started (which will be almost as good as a new start anyway). If you don't blog, start one and show off your finishes. Join in, or even start, a 'Finish What you Start' challenge and get tough with yourself. Use some of the suggestions above to keep you on track and to help in each specific case.

If you follow some, or all, of the above suggestions, you can soon see your home become a UFO-free zone and have the pleasure of being able to use the space they're taking up for something else and give joy to friends and family as they receive beautiful, hand-made gifts from you! We can often downplay our work, but to others, it's really something. Let yourself have the opportunity of feeling a sense of accomplishment, not only in having finished things off, cleared the decks and had something to show for it, but also in having identified and met a personal challenge - seeing what prevented you from completing a task and overcoming that problem. And then you can perform your happy dance!=)

© Elizabeth Braun 2011

Stitching for Men - Part 3

2011-04-19T08:44:00.002+01:00

OK, here we go with the third instalment of my showcase of things stitched for men. Today I'm showing the hardanger cards I've done for blokes over the years. These are all exclusively for a chap, not for a couple (as are all the items in this series.)

This last one was a fairly large scale piece mounted into a card that dozens of people signed.

Hardanger is a good, geometric technique that lends itself well to masculine sorts of things and appears to be 'technical' enough to be impressive even to our menfolk!!=)

I won't post the photos again, as they're already on show generally, but the raised work damselfly in the header was also done for a man, as was the stumpwork strawberry card and the 'tree' card you can see on the My Own Designs, Stumpwork and Masterpieces pages.

PS I've added two projects to the 'Forthcoming' page here on my blog. One is a drawing I did - so my own design this time - and it's to be done in rayon and silver goldwork threads, a heart design for a Silver Wedding card. The other is a Helen M Stevens design I've been wanting to do for years and have now thought of someone to do it for.=) The carriage returns problem seems to have resolved somewhat too - which is a great relief. Still some hitches (such as returns now going in all over the place (as usual!!) and being signed out everytime I view the blog), but more workable post-wise now.

More narrowboat progress and help with the fish

2011-04-17T11:53:00.005+01:00

My narrowboat is coming along nicely. As you can see from the latest pic, the boat itself is complete, as are the two darkest shades of blue in the water. So, I've been able to totally finish with a couple more colours (which feels good!!).

I decided that the fish was driving me nuts and that I was just finding it too hard, so I set out to find another suitable motif that I could put there instead. However, the only thing I could find was another little fish that didn't really fit and would probably be very little easier. What I did find though, was this piece in "Helen M Stevens' Embroidered Animals" book, which breaks down the process and helps to get it in the right order etc. Slightly contradictory in a way as, when I did the 'Ornamental Pool' design from the "Gardens" books, the instructions certainly took one through stitching the fish body before the outer trimmmings. Anyway, I'll give it a try this way and hope to get to it today, at least a little.

I've been listed quite a bit recently, which has been nice. Craft Gossip's Needlecraft blog included a link to my recent intro to stumpwork and ribbon embroidery, my stumpwork bee posting (from late 2009!) made it to a needlewrok resources blog in Turkish and someone posted a link on a French language forum here for stumpwork. So, lots of new-comers have been around of late and there are still more following those links and calling in. It's a good incentive to get on and complete WIPs, then move on to other interesting new projects!!

For those who are at all interested in our travels, the Far East and so on, I've just uploaded the final photo collection from Japan to Brauns on Tour. I'm also just about to start sorting out the Korea photos, the last things from Taiwan and then our stay in Germany and the couple of UK places we've been to since getting back, namely Durham and Edinburgh. Posts will be scheduled to appear every couple of days, if all goes according to plan!! I said IF!!!

Blogger has been having very annoying problems with hard/carriage returns. Absolutely none carry through to the actual post, so I'm having to draw on my (limited) knowledge of HTML in order to get my posts to look decent. =( Either too many lines, or none at all. I also had to manually insert the link to the travel blog. Ack! Hope they get this sorted soon, or is this a ploy to get us all onto using the new editor?

Stitching for Men - Part 2

2011-04-12T09:47:00.000+01:00

Hello again and welcome on board for the cross stitch collection of things stitched for men! We start off with two pictures, one done as a leaving gift for a young bloke we were pally with, then a piece I did for kid bro's first flat (doubt he ever framed or used it though!!!). After that come a few bookmarks and cards. Enjoy and hope there's some useful inspiration if you're looking for an idea of what to stitch for a bloke in your life.=)

I stitched this week!

2011-04-10T16:22:00.007+01:00

Yes! Really, I did! I've barely touched my embroideries since early/mid February, but I actually got on with the narrowboat this week and am enjoying it. I suppose if I was enjoying the others, I might get one with them too!! Still, enjoyable or not, finished they must be and so I've set myself the goal of completing the water violets and fish one within the next fortnight.

After that's done, I'll move on to getting on with the goldwork viola and have hatched a plan for moving that one forward as well. I might enjoy it better when I see progress - it was constantly fluffing one small bit and thus getting nowhere that got me annoyed with it and led to neglecting it in the first place. Once I get the WIPs done, then I can see what I want to do in future and can see myself doing more counted work for a while, but I'll take it as it comes. It's supposed to be a hobby, so when it feels like a chore, it's time to re-assess what place an activity should have in one's life. We shall see.

I don't believe in UFOs - UnFinished Objects - so I insist upon completing what I've started. There are two other thing that rather need the same treatment hanging around awaiting completion - an easy tiny cat cross stitch and a City & Guilds sample that got neglected as it was a bit long-winded. Yes, I will complete them both. I love the sense of achievement that comes from a finish - even one I haven't really enjoyed (but still feel proud of later), and also from having cleared the decks and my conscience). I know others work differently and feel differently about it, but this is how I work best and what I know I'm going to do.=) No need for 'don't do what you don't want to' comments as I DO want to, and I shall, whether or not someone else would. =)LOL! I remember one lady commenting that she'd never finished a project in her life! I am quite happily at the absolute opposite end of the scale and intend to never fail to finish a project.=)

So, that's the stitching gospel according to Lizzy Dripping (as I was rather absurdly called as a child sometimes!!). I don't mind not doing a craft or hobby for a while, or even giving one up completely, but I will not tolerate half completed things hanging around. Just ain't in my nature.

Anyway, off the soapbox and onto the current WIP:

So, it's coming along quite nicely and I seem to have finally finished about four of the colours and approx half of the main stitching. The sky is supposed to be fully cross stitched, but I'm considering just doing half stitch in one strand for it, or perhaps even cross stitch in one strand. I like the contrasting sense of depth that gives.

Hope to have some freestyle to share next week as well as more on this one!=)

I've set up a Goals 2011/2 page over on Fluffy Little Idiot, which includes all my current WIPs and a number of other things. I really find these lists helpful and motivating. I just adore crossing tasks off a 'to do' list, it gives me a real buzz, so a good, long goal list like this one is just what I need to really get productive.=) If you think it might work for you too (I know it doesn't for everyone), then why not try and set one up? You can pick any timescale you like, i.e. this year, this decade (if you're really a long-term planner) and some have picked stuff they want to achieve by a certain age - 'Before I'm 30' is popular among active young bloggers. Having a dedicated page on a blog is a real help to me too as I not only feel I'm achieving stuff, but I'm also kinda telling the world how I'm getting along with it and there's a regularly updated (each Sunday) status report for me to check back with too. If you do one, leave me the link. I'd like to see what your goals are and cheer on your progress.

Stitching for Men - Part 1

2011-03-17T10:39:00.015Z

It can be hard to embroider something for the men in our lives without fear of giving them something too 'girlie', can't it? So, I thought I'd quickly showcase the things I've made for blokes in the past. Start at the top, and here are all the things I've stitched for my hubby. These are some of the anniversary cards I've made for him (others have been other crafts or even, shock-horror, bought!) along with two graduation cards (that man has more degrees than he knows what to do with!). He sometimes gets them out to proudly show off to visitors. I must say, that warms the heart no end, especially as he doesn't compliment me or praise me to others very often!

He collects bookmarks and, whilst the majority of his collection are those embossed leather ones, he's also made use of the two I made for him.

Finally, here's a cross stitch that took me ages and will, eventually, be framed and hung in his study.

To be honest, I think 90% of the 'too girlie' fear is all in our heads as men like birds, animals, flowers etc just as much as we do. In the 21st century, they may not decorate themselves and their surroundings with them to the degree we might, (although floral bermudas and shirts are seen, to say nothing of some terrific ties...), but they do like them and generally won't object to being given them within reason. So, go on, make something for your man! Believe me, he'll love it.=)

Struggling with the fish

2011-03-09T12:38:00.004Z

Urgh! I'm really not getting along with this piece at all! Especially not the fish! It's just not flowing well and I can't get into it. I'll be really glad when it's done and out of the way, but that won't happen until I sit down and manage to make myself focus on completing it.

Sigh!

Anyway, you can see how little stitchery I've got done over the last few weeks since I last posted a WIP update. Haven't touched the cross stitch either. I've been in a book mood of late and have been reading and studying to my heart's content. Of course, I've been doing one subject, then another, then back again later as an how the fancy took me, but that's just fine as I don't have to do any of them, it's all for pleasure and those things I do really have to do, I do OK anyway.=) So, if anyone's thinking of posting the usual kind, but unnecessary comforting comments, there's no need. I'm NOT feeling guilty and I'm NOT being hard on myself about it! LOL!

Something else I've been getting into more of late is art and, although I set it going about 9 months ago, I hadn't yet posted the link to my art learning blog. There, I have now!! There's not a great deal on it thus far beyond a few bits of pastel pencil work and a pen sketch I did the other day, but there's a small gallery of past pieces of work that may be of some passing interest. As anyone who takes a look will see, I'm no great shakes at art, but I'm never going to be unless I do more of it and that's where I always come undone. If I'm not great at something first time, I find it hard to go back and keep at it. Never learned to work as a child as the first ten years of school was easy for me and I either got top grades or ones good enough for no-one to spot I wasn't making much effort and was, therefore, actually underachieving! I actually should have got As for all my subjects.....!!! So, get on with it for a change, huh??

I'm going up to Leeds for the rest of the week and I think I'll take the needlepoint giraffe with me to finish if I feel like it. I've thought of someone to make it into a nice cushion/pillow for, so there's more motivation to get it done now and a finish would be a nice thing. It's been rather a long time..... (I didn't take it after all. My hand was hurting, so I decided against it.)

Threadfest Part 4 - Ribbons, Accessories and B/Ws

2011-02-19T14:33:00.005Z

Here's the fourth and final part of the 'Threadfest' series. This time we're looking at embroidery ribbons, black and whites and the accessories part of my workbox.

First we take a look at my ribbon collection. It's a fairly varied assortment as, as I mentioned in my last post, ribbons can get expensive, esp. if you want to build a versatile collection. I've really just picked things up here and there. The YLI silk packs you can see at the top were either sent to me in an exchange game (that's the 3 green packs) or bought when Hobbycraft were selling them off cut price (the reds and pinks). I've used only a little of the over-dyed green. The other greens are a bit vibrant to be much use, to be honest.

The bobbins of ribbon on the left hand side, labelled 'Petals' I bought in Taiwan on our 2008 trip over there. They were a pretty decent price, so I got a fair few, but regret not getting a more fully balanced colour range. They're a semi-sheer ribbon, so like organza, but with a good depth of colour. The other packs and 'cards' you can see came mostly from stitching shows. I haven't got to use many of these yet - hardly any in fact, but they are lovely.....

This is the top right hand section of my cantilever workbox and it contains my blacks and white in many types of thread. The stranded cotton and coton a broder B/Ws are in the relevant packs as shown in the first part of this series, but most of the rest are here: pearl cottons (3 thicknesses of white at any rate), Pipers silks and Marlitt rayons.

Along with those, in the lower part of the photo, you can see a reel of 'invisible' thread (sort of a see-through plastic stuff that comes in 'black' and 'white') and four reels of DMC metallics. The top left silver one actually contains real silver! I'm a total pushover where metallics are concerned and I own more shades and types of gold thread than I'm sure can be good for one!

I hope, over the next week or so, to get the Kreiniks out of the workbox and photograph them too.=) Some are out 'on location' in the materials bag for the goldwork viola (see 'Forthcoming' Page), so I need to be careful not to mix them back in and lose the stuff I need!

Last of all the photos is the top left hand side of the workbox where I keep all my needles, scissors and various other bits and pieces. Normally, they're all squashed into the same size of area as you can see the black and white threads occupuying, but I've spread them out a little for this exercise.

On the left you can see a plethora of needles, most of which are DMC branded. There are varying sizes of tapestry, embroidery, chenille, millinery and beading needles here, as well as a pack of general sewing needles. The ones that are in current and regular use tend to be kept in my needlecase, (see 'Early Pieces' Page), but the back-up collection and things I don't need constantly are kept in here.

On the right hand side you can see some of my scissors, including the specialist petit point/hardanger pair (brown cover, 'silver' handles) and goldwork ones (grey cover, 'gold' handles). In here are also things like dressmakers' pencils, a tub of Thread Heaven (which I don't use much, it was included in an exchange parcel), and several specialist tools such as a hedebo stick, stiletto, stuffing tool and three half cone stickes. There are also a pair of snips, a thimble and two short rulers - one 6" regular one and one pink, folded type one. There appears to be some stumpwork wire in here too, so that needs re-housing!! Actually, I could use a better place for things like that, as I have some cotton moulds that I want somewhere better to keep etc. Maybe a Really Useful Box will do.

I didn't take photos of my beads and charms as quite a number of bead packs are out of the box waiting to be used in the forthcoming stumpwork and counted pieces, so that'll have to come sometime later.

I've finally finished messing around with the layout, colours, pages and photos on my blog. Those of you who haven't visited directly for some time may notice some changes. There are a total of seven new 'Pages' and the header photos have been changed in part. The sidebar gallery has also been downsized as I didn't want the same photos to appear in more than one place more than could be helped. So, anything that's been put on one of the new 'Page' displays no longer appears in the sidebar gallery or is featured in the header photos. I've also made the link colour stand out better from the regular text and de-pinked some of the purple shades which were looking too red for my liking at the mo.

Stumpwork and Ribbon Embroidery - Where Does One Start?

2011-02-17T16:03:00.012Z

First of all, I'd just like to announce that I've added several new Pages to my blog, which you may want to check out. 'The Embroideress' one has been re-written and gallery style pages of past work and forthcoming attractions have been developed, as well as a wish list, which is mostly just threads, beads and fabrics.

Apart from those searching for my blog by name, most of the searches that bring visitors here seem to be connected to stumpwork and/or ribbon embroidery. Although I'm no expert in either, I thought a post on some resources for both styles might be useful to some.

First up - STUMPWORK

By far the most common websearch enquiry I see on my Analytics stats is for stumpwork wire, so if that's brought you here, let me help you at once and say that what you need is florists' or cake decoraters' wire, usually 28 or 30 gauge and you should be able to get it from any shop that deals in supplies for those crafts as well as generalist stores like Hobbycraft in the UK, Michael's in the States and so on. I ordered mine from Surbiton Sugarcraft, who do silver, gold, metallic green and red plus paper covered wires in green and white. Those packs of 20 or 50 will last for a good long time. Those closer to it, may prefer to look at Jane Nicholas' site, where she also sells wire of this sort.

I also got some beading type wire in a few other colours that seems to be a similar sort of thickness and added pink, blue and so on to my collection. Those came from the craft section of a discount bookshop and an art shop in Taiwan! So, hope that helps anyone needing wires for their work. If you are here for that, please leave me a link to your blog or photo album so I can admire your pieces.=) Finding blogs and bloggers who have an active interest in stumpwork (i.e. actually do it, not just admire it) is not easy.

The question I often see asked on stitching groups etc is how best to go about learning the basics etc. Whilst many experienced stumpworkers frequently share their favourite book titles, my advice is the same here as it is with any new technique that seems rather challenging to you: Get a kit and start with that. It's best, in my opinion, to get something that will talk you through the whole process plus provide you with all the materials you need for it so that you're not having to spend a fortune or drive yourself nuts trying to track down specialist items. OK, the most common things to look for seems to be wire, as above, but there are often beads and other things needed that you may not have to hand, or have in the right size or colour. These days, many of us are on a budget and it also, frankly, works out much cheaper to get a ready-made package in and work from that than to source umpteen new items yourself. This is especially important if you want to take your first tentative steps in any given technique and are not sure you'll take it on on a large scale.

Which brings me to another point about your first project(s): Make it simple. I know most of us have done it, bought a kit or set up a project that we loved the look of and would be delighted to be able to do, only to have it honestly outface us and paralyse us at the outset. I learned from experience that it's best not to set oneself a professional level project as a first attempt! So, try a small to medium sized design that you like, but that doesn't have to be the design of your life. Leave that one until you've more skill and confidence.

What about designs in books and magazines? I think they're great for most people, especially if they have a little experience. Those who buy that style of magazine are often keen and fairly accomplished embroiderers anyway with sufficiently plentiful resources so that they don't need to buy everything from scratch. However, I would still go with the kit idea to start with (there are kits available for some book and/or mag designs). See how you like it, then have a go at something a little more challenging. After that, you may even want to move on to working one or more of your own designs, but I wouldn't recommend that as a place to start to anyone but the most confident amongst us. I would say that I've reached a fair skill level in several styles, but I still feel extra 'aware' when I'm working my own design and not as confident of the outcome.

There are a few distinct styles in contemporary stumpwork and they tend to be seen in the work of the few prominent stumpworkers the world boasts. Probably the best known would be Australia's Jane Nicholas, whose style is pretty much what I like - lots of wired flowers and insects and tending more towards realistic interpretations of nature. A totally different style is worked by the UK's Kay Dennis, who does a good deal of figurative work and loves needlelace. To the best of my limited knowledge, Ms Dennis' work seems closest to the traditional stumpwork style, creating whole pictures and including plenty of people in them.

Moving away from pure stumpwork, South Africa's Di Van Niekerk has become well-known for her combination of small, simple stumpwork elements with ribbon embroidery and Australia's Alison Cole has pioneered some stunning work combining quite realistic stumpwork with goldwork techniques and has published two books on the subject already.

I own books by all four of the above ladies and you'll find a wealth of interesting information, resources and kits and supplies on the sites. Clicking on any of the names will take you straight there. Knowing a little of what each artist does in the stumpwork field may help you in making a decision on whose books to buy.

Another personal favourite when it comes to books is the 'A - Z of Stumpwork' by Country Bumpkin's team. Although I can only see myself actually working one or two of the designs, (and maybe some small elements of some others), this book scores in my opinion by the almost 40 pages of step-by-step photos of the stitches, wiring and beading techniques used in raised embroidery. For a good reference work, you couldn't do better than add this title to your stitching shelf. When it comes to designs that I would be likely to work in their entirety, I'd go for Jane Nicholas' books and you can get kits of all the needed supplies through her site. I don't think I'd try working her pieces as a beginner though.

What are the main advantages of stumpwork? Well, it's an incredibly impressive style and you'll create things that will stun your friends and that you can be truly proud of. There are a range of different styles within raised work, so there's no need to feel constrained by a set method and, although kits and some materials need looking for, i.e. you won't find stumpwork kits on the shelves as easily as you'll get cross stitch or needlepoint, they can be sourced on-line, at specialist embroidery shops and also at needlework shows and fairs quite easily.

Disadvantages? It can be quite a fiddly style to work and thus also rather time consuming. It's also a fairly advanced technique and, whilst I wouldn't want to actively discourage new stitchers from having a go, it does help to have a fair background in flatwork etc. One or two of the larger beads and moulds needed for certain designs can also be a bit tricky to find.

Moving onto RIBBON EMBROIDERY

This is something I have much less knowledge of, but it's something that brings a fair number of visitors, especially from Malaysia and the Far East. I've only worked a couple of small pieces myself and also a few small elements on band samplers etc have been in ribbon work.

Again, if you're looking for somewhere to start, I'd recommend the same place as with every new technique - get a kit and try with that first. Ribbon embroidery kits aren't that easy to find and one of the few places I know in the UK that deals with ribbon work to any great degree is Craft y Ribbons who I've met at several stitching shows and bought a few things from. The books I have on my shelf are by Ann Cox, who has a lovely style combining ribbon work, simple embroidery stitches and outside elements, such as painted backgrounds etc. Her website also sells kits and supplies. I also have a book combining quilting with ribbon work to make sweet bags etc, but that's the Chinese translation of a Japanese book and so won't be much use to many readers here!!!

Pros and cons? Pros are certainly that ribbon embroidery is effective in reproducing flowers and is very quick to work. Whereas it can take quite a while to stitch a small flower in other styles, you may need as few as 5 stitches to create a ribbon work flower complete with leaves! Like stumpwork, it's relatively seldom worked, so many people will be surprised and impressed with your creations.

Cons are really the limited repertoire - mostly flowers, limited availability of supplies and the expense involved in building up a stash. Although you can get organza ribbons at many craft places and I've bought some great bargain colour packs at fairs, generally speaking, you don't often come across silk embroidery ribbons (except on-line) and they can work out very pricey indeed, especially if you want to get a good collection. Bearing in mind that ribbon can be needed in 2mm, 4mm, 7mm or 13mm and that it uses up fairly quickly in comparison to threads, one can envisage needing a lot of colours in a lot of widths in order to have a reliable collection that will supply most needs and having to restock frequently. Still, if money is no object, or you can find a good value supplier, then this disadvantage won't matter so much.

I hope that info has been some use to folk and that the links provided are helpful as well. As I said, I'm no expert, especially not in ribbon embroidery, but as searches for both styles bring so many stitchers here, I hoped it would be of some interest.=)
All the photos on this post are from pieces worked by myself.

© Elizabeth Braun 2011

Flowers are finally done!

2011-02-13T10:52:00.004Z

Hurrah! The floral part is finally done. I did make a start on the mayfly, but it was a lot harder than it looked and, after having pulled it back out twice, I decided to move on to the fish next and come back to the fly later on!! All in all, it seems to be coming on quite well, although I still feel that much of it isn't worked well and I can quite see how inexperienced I am at getting the line of the stitches right. I do a lot of comparing angles to those in the original in order to get them something like satisfactory, but I fear I couldn't do it cold. It'd be a long time before I'd have enough skill to come up with something like this myself. Anyway, I'm not really planning to at the mo, so it doesn't matter. I don't mind working others' designs most of the time. Actually, it's a great deal less stressful and I can always adapt things more to my liking if need be. The stumpwork piece is going to be hard - especially getting all the shading in the leaves right.

Below is the current state of things on the narrowboat cross stitch. I've put the whole working frame in this time so that you can see it more in context, i.e. how much more there is to go. At this speed, it really will be a long time before this is complete. In fact, I seem to stitch at speed of snail these days!!

Next update will probably be next Sunday afternoon as has become a pattern lately. I don't get much done each week really, so it seems like once a week is about right just now.

Threadfest Part 3 - Overdyes and Metallics

2011-02-11T09:53:00.007Z

Greetings on a dull, drab morning in northern England! I can't see much of the nice view from our windows today, so it's a good time to create some on-line eye candy with the next part of the threadfest series! Today I've got three photos to showcase.

This first one is what remains of my collection of Gentle Arts Sampler Threads (GAST), Weeks Dye Works (WDW) and Six Strand Sweets (SSS) after I sold a huge number of skeins prior to going to Taiwan. I just kept what I needed for certain projects and colours that I felt I could really use in the sorts of work I wanted to do - and one or two that I just like too much to let go of!! (Well, one or two for fun is fine. Boxes and boxes of un-used and probably never will use stuff is NOT!)

I really enjoy looking through this sort of thread, but I do feel that, outside of counted thread work they have limited usage. I know there are some stumpworkers, like Kay Dennis for instance, who use a lot of space-dyed threads in their work, but I feel that the effect is too random for my liking and I prefer to have more control over it as I want to produce the most realistic effect possible. Of course, sometimes, an over-dyed shade is spot on. I once used a dark green mix for some rose leaves and it came out very well indeed.

Next is another section of my workbox and this time it's the cantilever part on the other side of the box to where I keep the rayons and silks I showed you last week. Here you can see the Caron Collection threads I own (although not terribly well, I confess) and a few dozen Kreiniks. I know, I should have taken them out and showed them off to their fullest advantage, but it would have been a bit more than I feel up to this morning, so maybe another time.....

As you can see from the different label colours on the Kreiniks, there are a lot more than just blending filaments (the turquoise labelled reels on the right) here! I have quite a few very fine and fine braids, but also a fair number of cords, which are the pale pink ones on the top left. Many of the braids are also the 'cord' version as it's a smoother finish and I really like that. Most of the colours are varying shades of silver and especially gold, but also other things like browns, blacks, greens, blues and so on. Yes, one day soon I will take them out and show you the lot.

This last photo for today is really my odds and ends box with the non-Kreinik metallics collection. In the box you can see a few duplicate threads such as duplicate Anchor, (which have the only seven skeins of DMC that I own on top of them here), several skeins of #5 pearl cotton in bright white, black coton a broder and some gold very fine braid by Kreinik. There are so many of these three last mentioned threads as the black and gold were bought with a particular large blackwork project in mind and the pearls came with a New Stitches hardanger kit. Also in this box are a few Pearl Sweets skeins and part-skeins, ten of the DMC linen threads (I mean to complete that collection when practicable), some of the DMC Colour Variations threads and quite a lot of the Anchor Multi-colour skeins.

Onto the other bags etc. Here you can see a small collection of goldwork threads - mostly a thread sample selection from Dinsdales Embroideries, I think. There are also quite a number of the DMC Light Effects skeins and some skeins of Anchor metallics as well. There's a Kreinik scrap bag in the middle there, which although it contains a lot of uninspiring plain stuff, has provided the odd end of something special I needed. There are also about 6 packs of over-dyed Needle Necessities threads and a couple of packs of hand-dyed ribbon seem to have sneaked in as well, along with one complete and one 'left-overs' Victoria Sampler Accessory Pack.

Hope this has given you some nice eye candy for the weekend.=)

My cross stitch is coming on OK - no more mix ups thus far, but I realise that I really must get on with the other things as well or else they'll never get finished and I don't want another 'dog' scenario where the embroidery in question got neglected for so long that the finished item was over 3 years late!

Not my fault! (For a change!)

2011-02-08T09:04:00.010Z

Don't you just love it when two colours on the chart key are mixed up and so you end up putting them into your design the wrong way around? I was a bit suspicious when I started putting deep blue into the hull of the narrowboat, especially when it was matched with grey. However, when I was directed to put grey in as the deepest shade in the water, I thought, 'There really must be a mistake in this chart!'

So, I went off to find the actual magazine that I'd scanned the design from before we went away August 2009, and, sure enough, the colours are the wrong way around in the key! The magazine photo clearly shows the hull in three shades of grey and a distinctly blue shade in the water. Out came the all the relevant stitches and then back in in the right colour!!

From this

Through this

To this

And a bit more now as I've put some of the correct water in as well.

It's bad enough when you mess up and have to frog through your own carelessness, but this was a real pain! Oh well, it's corrected now.... [Rolls eyes]

Weekly WIP Posting

2011-02-06T15:35:00.005Z

So, here's the current status on my two active WIPs as of about 20 minutes ago when I took the pictures:

As you can see, I've finished the triplet of flowers I was working on (the lower lilac coloured ones) and re-drawn in some other parts that had either faded or got missed when I was initially tracing the design, i.e. one of the flowers and the mayfly in the upper left hand section. I hope to get the final water violet triplet done this week and the mayfly as well, then there'll only be the fish and a few stitches to suggest water etc left.=) I don't mind just doing a small part of it then moving straight on to something more relaxing. It's working quite well and I hope to get all my 3 freestyle WIPs finished this way.

This is what our narrowboat looks like at the mo. Not coming on at any great speed, as you can see, but I am enjoying working it. I think it'll take me months to complete it, to be honest, as it's such a bitty design, with a few stitches here, then a colour change, then another few stitches. You can only do so much of one colour without risking going badly wrong - which I already did (as mentioned last post!).

More on these next Sunday, all being well and now I'm going to update my Booklist and current studies pages on the Fluff.

Threadfest Part 2 - Silks and Rayons

2011-02-04T17:04:00.006Z

Hurrah! I put a flower in on the Water Violets design today! That's the first time I've worked on it for about a month! I must be feeling good.=) I've also re-started my viola practice and have done about an hour of noise pollution creation throughout the day. Some was quite hard, but I can feel it coming back and getting a little bit easier as I keep on with it. There's hope yet, see?

I won't post photos of my current WIPs until the weekend (Sunday, most probably), but here's part two of the threadfest series.

I keep some of my silks (Pipers, as used by the illustrious Helen M Stevens) and the whole of the Anchor Marlitt rayon collections in my wooden workbox. I took this photo of them, then realised that it as much hid as showed them off - rather like the stranded cottons packaging from last time, but everyone knows what they look like, right?=)

So, I just took this one instead. Sorry about the flash bleaching out part of the pack of green silk cops, but the light wasn't good enough to take a semi-decent shot without flash. Should have taken them out of the packs, I suppose.

The Pipers colours you see here are the Project Palette I bought from Ms Stevens' website a few years ago. I have used them on two projects, DH's 10th anniversary card and the waterlily in Luke's Damselfly, part of our gift to an old friend on his wedding. Other than that, I haven't really touched them much. The rayons have had even less airtime, if I'm honest. They were used for the dragonfly and goldfish (one of my current blog header photos) on the Ornamental Pool I did for MIL's 20th wedding present, and I did start to use them for a City & Guilds peacock feather sample (which I never finished, but plan to at some point).

You might notice that there are no blacks, whites or greys here. That's 'cos I have a special section for those and that'll form part of another post.

I also have the complete collection of Madeira stranded silks, which I keep in one of the boxes in the blue workbox. I've pulled out two skeins at random to give an idea here. Putting these all out so all the shades could be seen was beyond my patience level!! If I had done that, well, I really ought to have used the time and energy for something more important!!!!=) You can see 8 skeins of regular Eterna-silks, getting steadily more scuffed over the years and crying out for a little bag of their own (note to self - see to this!) and two small bags of over-dyed Eterna-silk which were sent to me as part of an exchange parcel. I certainly got some great things through those games, I rather miss them. Most of my partners were American ladies who were charmed with any British items and didn't mind that I couldn't spend a mint on them, but they always seemed to send me a small fortune's worth of stuff. Still, I know many of the things cost about half the UK price....

I haven't used these much more than the above threads. They featured a little on Luke's Damselfly and are used more extensively on this card which features a couple of Helen M Stevens design elements. Anyone familiar with her work will recognise the style at once. However, these threads aren't totally neglected as they're out 'on location' for the Blackberry Stumpwork manicure pouch project. More on that one in the weeks to come.

Threadfest Part 1 - Plain Cottons

2011-01-31T16:44:00.009Z

I got the idea for a 'threadfest' series of posts (and the others that will follow) partly from Cynthia's recent question about the materials I'm using on my narrowboat counted cross stitch piece. I thought I'd do a bit of a series on my thread collections. The other parts of the inspiration came from Mary Corbet's showcasing one or two of her thread collections and the fact that I had a good look through one of my workboxes and that's usually inspiration enough!! =)

So, let's start with the simple threads. I've always used Anchor threads, rather than DMC, although as you'll see later on in this series, I do have some of the more specialised products from DMC such as linens and metallics. Why did I choose Anchor? It was mostly a case of 'carry on with what you start with'. When my mum gave me a mixed bag of old embroidery threads, they were Anchor branded. Later on I found out that, like my marriage, Anchor is an Anglo-German co-operation, being manufactured close to where DH grew up, so that was a nice thought too. So, where there's a choice, I go for Anchor by habit now, although there are some things and shades where I have to buy a DMC product.

This is the deep, central section of my cantilever 'wooden' workbox. Here you can see several ziplock type bags holding the entire collection of Anchor stranded cottons (except those which are 'out on location', i.e. in use on my current WIPs). They are stored in strict colour number order so I can locate them easily. I also own a thread sample type colour chart, so I use that when I need to find a specific shade rather than getting all the bags out!

The three bags at the rear of the box (seen here on the left, owing to the orientation of the photo) hold the complete collection of Anchor Coton a Broder, (amusingly mislabelled as 'Border Cotton' in Leeds Hobbycraft!!). I like this thread, it's a good guage and is easy to work with. The only down side is the limited collection of colours. For some reason, Anchor seem to select greens and blues the same way a small child might when they're only going to offer a limited selection - a spectrum of the brightest and, often, most unuseful in natural studies shades (see shades in next photo). That probably wasn't a very grammatical sentence, but perhaps I can save it to parse on my language blog sometime..!!!

Moving on to the pearl cottons and we also need to move to my other workbox, one of those bright blue things with 6 trays in it!

Here you can see the trays containing my Anchor no 5 pearl cotton skeins and the overflow of the no. 8 and no. 12 supply, the main collection of which is shown below in the bottom drawer of the first workbox. There are some variegated skeins and balls here that I used to use quite a bit in working small hardanger pieces for cards, but don't really stitch with so much now. Frankly, although variegated and multi-coloured threads look great, they have fairly limited usage and the plain, solid colours are the best.

I really enjoy working with pearl cotton no 12 too, although I have the same colour selection complaint as with the coton a broder. Neither range has a decent selection of browns and greys and there is no yellow in pearl cotton 12 in either the Anchor or the DMC collections!=( I love yellow too!

Next time we'll look at the rayons and silks....

Cynthia: The fabric is 28ct antique white Jobelan evenweave.

Carol R: The kimono card is made by sticking a kimono shaped golden outline sticker to a piece of fancy paper, cutting around it, then glueing it to a plain card and trimming up with matching outline stickers. If you need more info, feel free to ask.

Progress on the Narrowboat

2011-01-30T09:36:00.005Z

Not much to report today after my blog-a-thon a few days ago, (a post here, and two each on Language and The Fluff). I've done a bit of stitching on the narrowboat design, but haven't touched the freestyle - any of it - again yet.

Cross stitch may be easy, but it doesn't stop me making plenty of mistakes. I'd done all the red you can see here before I realised that the entire lower section (so everything below the top red line) was one stitch to the left of where it should have been. Hard lines though, with so much work done on it. I decided to compensate by filling in the extra space to the right with extra green and to miss a line to the left at some point.=) I like to work accurately, but there are some times when you just have to keep going or end up working huge areas twice. When it doesn't matter, just move on regardless.

Two weeks' work

2011-01-23T18:42:00.004Z

Hi again! I'm back from our fortnight's working in Leeds and staying with mum. We managed to earn about enough to pay for the expensive car repair that became needed the day after we finished, so so much for our getting some needed funds on one side for foods, energy bills and so on over the next three months. Oh well, such is life. We're not dead yet, so, where's there's life there's hope.=)

I managed to get a fair amount done which away and, most usefully, away from the computer. DH said the same!! I got all the socks darned, all my journal reading up to date, reviewed one and a bit important brochures and got this done:

The last time this giraffe featured on here, the foreground was all completed (worked when I was given the kit as an 11th or 12th birthday present nearly 30 years ago!), but there were only a few lines of background stitching done. Almost done now.=)

I've no more progress to show on the other WIPs as I haven't touched them, except to move them from one place to another and put away the threads I'd finished with. However, I did make this card last weekend and, as it wasn't really art as such, i.e. not drawn or painted, I didn't quite know which blog to put it on, so here it is!!

If you take a look over on the Fluff, you'll find some tips on living on a budget over the next few days. Today's is an intro, there's a general money saving post tomorrow, full of all sorts of ideas and then there'll be one on cutting down on your grocery spend a day or so after that. Hope that will be of interest and use to some, especially as tomorrow's post contains some tips for craft work on a budget.=) I've also got some posting done on my language blog, for those of you with an interest in things like that.

Hope to be back soon with some more stitchy things to show.=)

Stitching - the new beginning

2011-01-08T21:25:00.007Z

Well, I think I finally worked out why I was 'losing interest' in embroidery and why I just wasn't enjoying my needlework anymore. DH said he thought it had run its course in that I took up stitching as something to do whilst stuck at home with CFS/ME and, now that I didn't have that condition anymore and had other things I wanted to do, stitching had, basically, outlived its usefulness. Whilst I can see his point, I don't think that's entirely it as I've worked several projects since then, including almost everything that I've ever blogged about (just a few 'Show and Tell' items from before and a few WIPs that I was trying to get finished up featured in the early blogging period from my ME/CFS days). I think it's more related to the phenomenon that many stitchers have experienced in their less experienced days. You remember the time when you bought a kit, got it all set up to work, started a few parts of it and then got stalled? Totally paralysed by it. Why? Because it outfaced us. It was just plain too hard for our ability or confidence level. The same goes for when we're tired. We just want to relax with something easy and anything that's harder, that needs more concentration and skill, well, that's just 'too hard' right now and needs leaving for a better time. That's what's been going on with me.

I noticed when we were in Germany that I was really getting enthusiastic about the cross stitch I was doing and was challenging myself to get so much completed by the time we left. That was the last time I remember enjoying it too and wanting to do more. My batteries are just so darned flat that, whilst I know I still enjoy stitching and am still interested in freestyle, stumpwork and many other 'harder' forms of stitchery, I just find them too much work right now. On the other hand, I did enjoy the two sessions of cross stitching I did this last week.

So, here's the plan: Basically, I'm going to stitch for enjoyment for the time being - until I feel more like my old self and can face more complex things. Of course, I have projects in progress at the mo and I'm not the type who can stomach UFOs - I'd rather force myself to complete something I'm not really enjoying than have UFOs hanging around! Also, the water violets cushion is promised, so that must be done and finished up. What I decided to do was, starting with the water violets, I would do a little bit on each 'hard' WIP, say one tiny flower or one length of floss, then relax with my cross stitch for as long as I feel like working. That way, both types of projects get done and I can rediscover the enjoyment. It may even help me to get back to normal again. Having said that, it's been so long since I felt normal for more than a short while that I've almost forgotten what it feels like!!LOL!=) The manicure pouch isn't expected, so I can delay that one as long as I like (for when my sister comes home on a visit, or we next go out East and see her) and so I'll complete the viola after the water violets.

Anyone who has come directly on blog will be able to see that I've purpled it up a bit - i.e. changed the colours from turquoisey and petrol blues to blue-ish purples. I've also changed two of the header photos. I'll update that part again soon when I've something more recently completed to showcase there. I like to have three or four pieces from the last year up there, but given the paucity of my finishes during 2010 (and 2009 not being a great deal better), that wasn't really feasible!! This new way of working should see my stitch productivity begin to soar. Here's hoping anyway.

Anyway, that's it for me for the next week as we'll be staying with my mum, (no WWW) and working at the University of Leeds looking after Special Circumstances exam candidates. We'll come home for the weekend in between and I'll try and update then. I'll take my water violets and my narrowboat XS with me (as well as lots of mending and those boring needlepoint backgrounds I mentioned last post), so there should be something to see next weekend. Have a good week all!

Next day:

I had to add this in last time I posted about motivation and stitching etc: I am NOT agonising about not being into stitching at the moment. It simply isn't my style to tie myself in knots about hobbies so please don't feel the need to encourage me not to give myself a hard time about it. I am not doing so and never have! I'm sure my interest in more complex work will return when I'm feeling better and it really doesn't matter a hang if it doesn't! I'm just talking about what works for me. No need at all to worry that I'm being hard on myself or anything of the sort, but thanks for the kind concern to anyone who has that feeling when reading what I'm been saying about loss of interest.=)

That was 2010, now what about 2011?

2011-01-03T20:23:00.006Z

Yup, here I am, jumping on the 'review of 2010/preview of 2011' bandwagon to present my 'achievements' to the world!

So, stitchwise, what did I accomplish this year just ended? The short answer is, not much!=( In fact, a mere three pieces finished, an all-time low for the years that I've been stitching.

*Field mice and blackberries cross stitch, finished up into a sofa cushion cover for a Taiwan friend;
*A small, white hardanger doily for another TW friend; and
*A pretty, green hardanger needlecase for myself, which I still haven't put my needles in.

I did all of those whilst I was over there, up to late August.

Added to that, the following are WIPs carried over from last year:

*Goldwork viola, started last February
*Narrowboat cross stitch, started last summer
*Water violets and fish freestyle cushion cover (update on which is pictured on the right)
*Blackberries stumpwork manicure case

So much for last year! What about this? Well, of course I want to finish all the above WIPs, starting with the last two (as they are now overdue wedding gifts, but my sister knows all about it and doesn't mind). Then I'd like to get the goldwork to completion as it's been in progress since last spring and I'd like to get it a) out of the way; and b) hung on the wall above my music stand.

The cross stitch I'm in no rush for and I expect it'll end up on one of our living room walls - we have a LOT of blank wall space in this new home! It'll look lovely when it's done with lots of bright colours. I haven't started that piece I posted about for my mum, so that's on this year's 'To Do' list as well.

About 18 months ago, I posted on some childhood UFOs that had come to light and I want to get those finished up this year as well. The two bird pieces I plan to get mounted and framed together once they're tidied up/finished, and the giraffe I'll make into a cushion cover for whichever little girl I think will like it best. I have one in mind...=) We'll be doing some largely brain free work soon where I should be able to do some dull, quiet stitching, like plain backgrounds in needlepoint, so that's an ideal opportunity to even finish all those 3 pieces. Look out for updates on that one before the end of this month.

My interest in stitchcrafts waxes and wanes a lot these days. Yes, some of it will be to do with health - all the bugs I've had and the fact that, the flatter my batteries are, the less I seem to be bothered about stuff I'd normally be really keen on. So, the fact that I've lived here for well over 2 months and haven't been into town (downtown, for US English speakers) yet, is something that doesn't bother me as much as it normally would!! I wasn't able to go to the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show last November and wasn't too concerned about it either. Sigh! Once I'm feeling more myself, I'm sure things will come right. In the meantime, I'm enjoying reading a great deal and trying to take life in small doses and get plenty of rest.

So, other than finishing off WIPs, (and I HATE having half done jobs hanging around, so they must be finished, whether I'm 'into' it or not!), I don't know what I'll accomplish in textiles and embroidery this year. We'll have to take it as it comes.

Thanks for all the well wishes! I'm afraid it's been a long fight with the seasonal viruses etc, and doesn't seem to be over yet (I get something else the second I go anywhere near people), but I'm still alive and, usually, kicking!! I decided not to take the job application any further if I am invited to interview as I really won't have the strength for it and, if I have, it'll end up being about the only thing I can do and, frankly, that's not what I want out of life. It was doing that 3 years ago that got me in this physical mess, so I am NOT going there again! I think I've learned something at least!

Illness is a waste of time!

2010-12-11T09:10:00.003Z

What a time we've had of it since my last post! We've both had feverish colds, but I decided to branch out and develop a vicious sinus headache for almost 2 days, and now am fighting with tonsilitis that doesn't seem to wish to clear. Hmmm. Well, at least I got back to the water violets yesterday afternoon and evening.

This photo shows progress from the last two stitching sessions. I don't think it's terribly well worked and I'm dismayed at how little I'm enjoying it really.=( I guess I just have so many 'brain' projects going around in my head at the mo that stitching isn't top priority and I feel like I'm being kept away from my reading and study!! I haven't the least umph to get on with the other project(s) either...

I've just applied for a job in the local university library looking after the East Asian Studies collections, which requires reading ability in Chinese/Japanese/Korean. I'll probably not have too much competition for it, unless there's a PhD student in the School who needs funds and/or someone's been telling the Oriental students about it. Still, precedence should go to Brits unless no suitably qualified local can be found. Anyway, we'll see. It's so hard to get a job that I'm by no means holding my breath, but you never know.

Getting sick of stem stitch

2010-12-01T09:28:00.007Z

I've moved on a bit with the Water Violets and fish design, but still wading through all the copious stem stitch on the underwater fronds! Still plenty to go.... I'm hoping that I can get most of this design done within the next week as it's the main wedding gift from one couple to the other and is also the simpler to work. Slightly depressing that a few commenters liked this design and didn't say my own was nice. Sigh. Still Ms Stevens has considerably more experience and knowledge of nature than me, so I can't expect too much more!!=)

As many will know (and be experiencing themselves), winter has hit here. It's pretty unusual for snow to start in November. In fact, it's only the last 2 years that we've really had old-fashioned winters again in the UK - the last I remember was when I was about 15 in 1986/7. These were taken through our living room window about 5 minutes apart this morning. Snow was actually falling in the first shot, but not enough to show up. Good studying and embroidery weather!! Glad we did the shopping on Monday and that we don't have to go out until tomorrow evening. There is an advantage to not having got work yet!!=)

Too many WIPs!

2010-11-28T09:21:00.008Z

I usually make it a rule to have no more than two decent sized projects and one small one (such as a bookmark or a piece for a card) on the go at any one time. At the moment I am in serious violation of that with four projects in progress and none of them qualify as a 'small' piece by my standards. Here they all are laid out temporarily on the ironing board. (Through the window you can see what very wintry weather we've having at the moment too!)

There are to be two gifts for my sis, the personal one from me to her that I showed the design process for yesterday, and the promised blue cushion cover which I agreed with her as the 'official' wedding gift before I left Taiwan. I bought a piece of blue fabric over there which is lovely, but I just couldn't get it to work with the sorts of designs I had in mind, so it's been put aside, perhaps to be used as a backing, in favour of a plain old navy blue. I've settled on a Helen M Stevens design from her 'Masterclass Embroidered Flowers' book. Here's the fabric ready and threads to hand (good old stranded cotton as usual - I've enough on with the silk on silk on the pouch!) with the piece I'm working from on the right.

Here you can see the first bits of stem stitch that I put in last night whilst relaxing in front of the telly and our old favourite 'Pride and Prejudice' video. (Yes, we still have videos!) Looks more black than blue here!!

Above we have the design traced onto the silk for the manicure pouch and the padding for the leaves and the upturned edges of flower petals attached. I plan to press on with the monogram part of it this evening as well as completing the stem stitch on the cushion cover. With an outside temperature of -7C at the moment, it's an ideal time for embroidery!

Designing a manicure set pouch

2010-11-27T08:00:00.001Z

About five years ago, when my second sister announced her decision to (finally) stop biting her nails, I promised her that, when she cracked it, I would buy her a nice manicure set as a reward (and to fill a new need!!). I confess that it slipped my mind at the time and when I did remember (long after she no doubt forgot - she doesn't have my elephantine memory, lucky girl!!) all I could find on the market were trendy teenage designs that I frankly wouldn't insult her with. So, I realised I was going to have to make one myself. I bought all the things I planned to put in it - scissors, emery boards, tweezers etc, and did a design.

OK, so the project went no further. Problem I think was that, unless there's a discernible deadline, things rarely happen with me, so it got kind of unintentionally shelved and the manicure tools hujng around on my bedroom shelf for a long time. Well, she gets married out in Taiwan next month and alongside the 'blue cushion cover' we agreed on as her wedding gift, I decided it was high time that this other one was made and it's a great occasion to give her a personal something. Naturally, now the time is finally upon me to do the project, I can't find the manicure stuff!! I've seen them since we moved and I put them somewhere just too safe!!

I looked at the design I drew back in '05 or '06 for the pouch and decided that it was cluttered and just wouldn't work after all, so set out to rework it yesterday afternoon. When I went with Rosie to a stitching and craft show once, she'd admired the stumpwork blackberries on display in one retailer's booth and said, 'They look good enough to eat!' So, I there and then decided to do some for her at some point. Marrying the two ideas, we get the following design process.

I don't go for drawing things out and then re-doing it until I like the layout, so instead I drew a box the correct size and cut out a few berries, leaves and a flower (yes, I know blackberry flowers are long gone before the berries ripen, but this is only art...) and played around with them until I had an arrangement I liked.

The next stage is to draw out the best layout and colour it in (got a chance to use the yummy Derwent Coloursoft pencils I treated myself to on my last full day in Taiwan). This is basically what I'll be stitching, only the flower will be moved to the right a little so as to be at the end of the stem and thus look more realistic. I consulted my 'British Wildlife' book quite a lot during this design!!

This is the floss toss showing the Madeira silks I plan to use, the beads for the fruit and 2 options of lining material. Now the pink looks a bit nicer with the antique white silk - just matches better, but I know Rose likes green more, so I won't decide on that one yet, but will see how it looks when the embroidery is done.

I've cut and washed the silk fabric (which I think shrank a bit!) and I just need to check with Rose that she will take her hubby's name before I put her future initials on the back. I can't see her not taking it, but you just can't be sure, so better safe than wasting time on a 'G' when an 'E' was required.=)

Stitching due to start over the weekend, all being well!

My new pad

2010-11-26T10:05:00.014Z

Does anyone else have this exasperating problem? That when you manually highlight the whole post, just to make a copy in case the publishing goes mad and deletes/connection times out etc, it just deletes the whole thing anway? I just watched that happen and, as I was taking it in and thinking, 'Quick! Take advantage of the 'draft save' facility, the dratted thing kicked in all over again and saved the now blank screen. Talk about raging!

Anyway.... This may well be shorter than the original was!! Click on the photos for clearer views if you want them.

Here we are all settled into our new home, which is somewhat bigger than our last and has given me my own study/studio AT LAST! As many bloggers seem to be reporting on their creative spaces right now, I thought this was a good time to get back to my long neglected blog. It's a very small room, as you're about to see, so you may have to breathe in...

This is my desk area. Thankfully, I have a big desk that can fit lots on it and still give plenty of room to work.=) On the front wall are things like favourite bookmarks and some souvenirs from our travels. I like the Korean dress (hanbok) best and plan on finding out a good deal more about things Korean in the future.

On the windowledge I have pots of pastel pencils (and brushes) and tubes of paint and the yellow container there is mostly flashcards for language learning - many of which are crammed with vocab I encountered on my recent course in Taiwan. On the right hand wall you can see scissors and tape measures for ease of access and there's my laptop open at my Google and Blogger homepages.=)

On the desk are the materials and initial design things for me next project. Not that I've touched the current two WIPs lately, but....

To the left of my desk I keep these three silver grey stacker boxes. The bottom one contains mostly regular fabrics, (although there are some nice cotton oriental rolls in there and some lurex seriously fancy things that I got direct from the mill that produced them as a child. My dad had his workshop just above the mill and rented from them. They gave me offcuts sometimes and odds and ends on reels of lurex!). The middle one holds mostly embroidery kits along with a bag of felt pieces and a folder of odds and ends of patterns - old iron-ons, for instance. In the top are counted thread fabrics, black, white and cream surface work fabrics and 'helpers' such as Vilene, Bondaweb and so on. There are also zips, trimmings and a few other things in there too.

Next to that we have a basketweave bag of hoops and frames and then my 'outdoors' bags, such as my handbag etc.

Onto the bookshelf space:

It wasn't possible to get a full length view of the shelves as the room is just too small and I was sitting well back on the desk in order to even get these! So, this is the top half. On the very top of the right hand one there are two baskets, one with my lovely oriental fabrics and the other containing my silk, satin and sheer fabrics - all carefully stored in clear plastic bags. The cat litter tray on the other side holds the audio components of some of the many language courses I own - cassettes and CDs aplenty.

The sun bleached out Japanese - Thai on my upper language shelf, (languages are stored alphabetically, but Chinese is kept mostly elsewhere) and the linguistics end of the lower shelf, so that's what you can't see well here. Science is at the top and in the box on the lower left shelf are my silk and fabric paints.

At the bottom here we have mostly needlework and art stuff. Lots of magazines as you can see and also many pads of multi-coloured art papers and tins of pencils. In the little 2-drawer arrangements are my pan watercolours (as opposed to tubes) and top quality pastels as well as a number of things like stumpwork wire and so on.

I'm hoping to get some shelves above where the stacker cartons are to get the boxes of greetings card blanks, papercraft materials, general stationery, pens and pencils off the floor under my desk!!

So, hope you're enjoyed this brief visit. I'll be doing my art, craft and design work in here, (as well as plenty of language study and some science stuff), but stitching will be on the comfy sofa in the living room as ever.=) Hope to be sharing the fruits of my labours in here via my various blogs over the months and years to come. Today I hope to get on with the finalising of the design here on my desk and get that into commission and will post more about that soon.

Cross stitch and Korean embroidery

2010-09-21T14:35:00.006+01:00

So, here I am in the public library, using one of the internet access PCs there and just taking a few minutes to post some recent photos.

The first four are from our trip to Korea late last month. These top two were taken through a shop window (it had lots of horizontal bars across it as it was closed at the time and so I couod only get these close-ups without the bars spoiling things), which seemed to be selling very richly embroidered 'hanbok' - traditional Korean dresses. I think these are likely to be wedding clothes.

Later on we visited a tiny knotwork museum where there was an embroidery display. These items here were used by the owner for her son's first birthday traditional celebrations.

This was the corner with several lovely embroideries and knotwork examples. Aren't they gorgeous?

Just before leaving Taiwan, I finally managed to get the field mice cushion made up and sent. It's been received and its new owner is delighted with it, despite it being somewhat uneven at the bottom, but she would never notice that!!

And this is how far I got with the narrowboat cross stitch piece whilst we were in Germany for the first 12 days of September. The last time I posted about this piece it was just the green blob on the right, but now, thanks to the brown and grey bits, it actually looks like a tree, bushes and a bit of a fence!

Thanks a lot for all the well wishes that came my way following the last post. Thankfully, it wasn't neuralgia, but a tooth nerve that had actually been sensitive for a whole year. After a deep filling coming very close to it, it went potty, but I've had the initial treatment done and, except some post-op type of discomfort, I'm pain free again.=)

Anyone whose been reading for more than a year will know that we had trouble getting our shipment through customs on the way into Taiwan. Well, our return one has been stuck there again for the past fortnight plus and they even planned to send it back, despite instructions on the address labels under no circumstances to do this! Anyway, we seem to have stopped that and are literally praying that they are finally satisfied with the documentation and can get the boxes to us soon! Also having trouble getting the new car insurance sorted, finding a new home, getting work organised and what have you, so all is anything BUT smooth right now! Still, the weatehr's nice, we have a place to stay for as long as we need it (within reason) and we're keeping on trying to get stuff done. It will feel all the better for the amount of work it's needing.....

We're home!

2010-09-17T09:02:00.002+01:00

So, we finally made it back to the UK in the relevant two pieces and with all bags safely in tow.=) I won't be posting much, if at all, until we get totally re-settled in a new home as we only have a very slow dial up service here at my mum's and that's no longer really any good with today's web functionality!

We spent a weekend in Seoul, then almost a fortnight in South Germany and have got back just in time to miss all the flats/apartments we were interested in in the pre-univeristy term housing rush, but we'll find something in time.

Other than that, I have appaling neuralgia in my lower left face after having two deep fillings done in my teeth 2 days ago. I've been haviung nerve problems there over the last year and now they seem to be shot to pieces and giving my real hassle. Anyway, that should settle over the next few days and I see the doc on Monday about it too.

Will post more when I can! Hope everyone's well and will catch up with you when I get bcak to good old broadband!

So, what's next?

2010-08-24T14:26:00.002+01:00

There are now only 3 full days left before we leave Taiwan and you should see our living room! It's absolutely covered in things waiting to be packed into the 2 big, strong packing boxes I got from the Post Office. Looks like we're going to need a third really, but we'll take that as it comes tomorrow, when I/we plan to try and get the stuff into them.

We've had a number of invitations to farewell dinners for this week etc, so I've not had to worry much about cooking, but the friends who came to our little 'open house' do on Sunday brought so many goodies, that we sent the last few away with a good number of slices of cake etc and are still giving stuff away now after off-loading all the pop (soda) etc onto Sir's old teacher who hosted a lunch for her students yesterday!

I've saved the goldwork viola, the narrowboat cross-stitch and this new project on the right for the journey home. I don't expect to get a great amount of any of them done, but at least I have some variety in there. Hmm, looks like including my hardanger scissors might be a good move too. Best not put those in a box! Anyway, this is one of the Cross'n'Patch designs that I'm planning to stitch up for my mum - the green version of what you can see in the photo here.

Below are the paper things I got in Japan - a few origami papers in delightful designs and a set of bookmarks, which I daresay will provide inspiration for some future projects. I really like Japanese art much better than Chinese and am looking forward to seeing what Korea has to offer next weekend whilst we're there.=)

More soon, but I can't say whether it will be from here (should be as I need to get the fieldmice cushion finished up - planned for tomorrow, if poss), from Seoul or from Germany...

Japanese Kimono

2010-08-20T17:22:00.010+01:00

I'm rather badly behind with blogging at the mo, especially here and on Brauns on Tour, but I'm just so wound up with the conclusion of our Chinese classes here (finished this lunchtime) and now the preparations to leave. Be that is it may (and it is!!), I thought most readers would enjoy some photos from Japan in the form of my being dressed up in a traditional kimono! It starts with these amazing socks that make your feet look so odd (I saw a local chap here in Taipei wearing leather boots like this recently too!):

Then you move on to the underwear stage. There's a special, cotton undergarment that forms a base layer to the whole thing. This photo also shows that you don't need to speak the same language well in order to share a laugh! My 'dresser' here only speaks her native Japanese of which I know only a little.

Next comes the white layer you can see here with the red belt, which seemed almost an outfit in it's own right to me. I rather like the colour scheme too.=) Here you can see the patterned top layer going on as well.

Here's a shot of the trickiest part, tying the big 'obi', the belt. I think that took almost as long as the rest of the dressing process put together!

After having a fancy hairdo done - plaited across the back and then formed into a side ponytail, which is a very trendy style in Japan (mostly without the plait though as you need someone else for that), this was the finished look, complete with the correct sandals.

And here from the back out of the local street. Our, mercifully, Chinese speaking Japanese friends wanted me to go out onto the Shiji Dori, Kyoto's main shopping street and walk down there, but anyone who knows me well would know how little I would enjoy that! As a rule, unlike the Chinese, the Japanese don't stare at white people, but they do when one appears in a kimono!!

Hope you've all enjoyed our little excursion into traditional Japanese culture!

I've no stitching to show at the mo, although the field mice are further on in terms of being finished up. However, we took a trip to Tokyo on our last full day in Japan and visited the Okadaya textile crafts emporium. I was really inspired by all the lovely embroidery threads available on the 5th floor (there were also trays full of Japanese embroidery silks, which I've always wanted to drool over) and that fired my enthusiasm again.=) I didn't buy anything, but it was fun and here's a photo of a class that was being held during my visit. I think they're doing crochet or something like that.

Hope to post soon with the completed cushion cover and progress on the goldowork which, ideally, I'd like to have done before we head back on 28th.

Last stop before Japan

2010-07-26T16:03:00.002+01:00

Just a quick post to show off my latest finish - the hardanger doily! I completed the edging whilst enjoying a TV mini series and it was all quick work from there. Well, all except the weaving, which I always find long winded and which I regret not dumping in favour of plain old wrapped bars, as I usually do. Here it is anyway and I hope you like it!

I'll be taking the narrowboat cross stitch to Japan with me even though I really should get the goldwork done out of the way before working more on this one. It's not a project I feel will travel well, so the cross stitch is better. I rarely get much stitching done when travelling, so I don't expect to make great strides with this one either.

The field mice has been about half finished up into a cushion/pillow cover. I've done the front (which was 4 sections) and now just need to get another piece of fabric for the back and put it all together. I've decided against the piece I bought a few weeks ago and just need a nice cream piece now. See what I can find in Japan??

A finish - gasp!

2010-07-10T07:21:00.006+01:00

Yup, I finally got something finished up - the hardanger needlecase. A couple of weeks ago I got some green fabric to use as a backing for the actual stitching and also found the cotton doctor's flannel that I'd cut and brought with me specially. Here's the finished results.

Front:

Back:

Centre with the green backing showing and the cotton doctor's flannel 'pages':

I've also done a few more lengths of thread on the current hardanger piece and got about half way through the buttonhole edging. I think I'm more getting the hang of it now, but it's still a bit uneven in parts. I'll get there and no-one but me will notice anyway. Sigh! The curse of perfectionism!!!

Next up is to get the 'field mice' finished up into a nice cushion/pillow cover. I've got the first few pieces of fabric cut and pressed and should have that started over the rest of the weekend.

Too busy to stitch again!

2010-06-17T07:22:00.007+01:00

I did spend a little time on the hardanger piece the other day, (I gave myself an hour's 'weekend' whilst watching a Sherlock Holmes on Youtube on Sunday!!), but I ended up having to pull a lot of stitches out as I'd gone wrong. I don't like buttonhole edging, grrr! So, nothing to show there.

We've had unexpected guests for the past three days which, along with being back at language school, (I was able to stitch and post a lot during that last lot of holidays), has kept us very busy. Anyway, yesterday was a public holiday - the Dragon Boat Festival, so we went up to the Yangming Shan national park, which is all within the Taipei city limits, and visited one of Chiang Kai-shek's 15 homes there!!! This was his 'guesthouse' apparently, and it's green! Had it been white or stone coloured, it would have been nice, but the green was a bad, BAD choice. So bad that I won't post a photo!! Whilst we were looking around the rooms, however, I got a lot of great design inspiration photos from the artefacts and trimmings there, such as this firescreen:

And this red vase:

And the set of 4 seasonal blue glass internal windows, of which this is one:

I can see that done in silk and sheer fabrics in appliqué etc, can't you?=)

Hope to get back to being able to stitch something soon, and at least get poor Dianne's package in the post, then I can show off the nice fabrics I bought last Thursday. It mightn't seem much, going to two hours of class a day, but add in transport, extra classes and/or library time etc and we're out of the house for at least four hours per day, and up to seven!

Now, Carol S asked me about the field mice cross stitch chart and where it came from. Carol, I can't tell you exactly at the moment as I don't have my mags with me and I'd been using a copy I made to bring with me, which has no indication of date. All I can tell you is that it's by Maria Diaz and it appeared in 'Cross Stitch Crazy', probably some time in 2003, (I bought a fair few cross stitch mags 2002-4, but very few since). As it's an autumnal sort of design, it might be something like the September issue. I checked on the publisher's website, but they don't have it available as a download to sell. Leave me another note with contact details and I'll see if I can help further.=)

New works in progress

2010-06-03T09:44:00.008+01:00

Made a start on both new pieces. Here's what I did on Tuesday on the cross stitch, i.e. part of the tree bit in the upper centre. Doesn't look much thus far, but new cross stitches rarely look anything to shout about. It'll look much nicer once I get some more done, I'm sure.

The hardanger doily's shaping up nicely and I've got to the border part. Actually, I hate buttonhole stitch edging as it's relatively slow going and it's really hard to make my stitches as neat and even as I'd like them to be and turning corners and fastening on new threads is a bit of a pain. Thankfully, I found a good tutorial page here and printed off the relevant bits to use.

I haven't done any more on either of them since I put my needles down 2 days ago, but I think I might just have a go at putting in a stitch or two when I've finished here. But I doubt it, I'm pooped!

Rachel has been kind enough to give me one of her home grown 'Blog Inspiration' awards. She's come up with several categories and what I like about this logo in particular is that she's created it herself and the hardanger piece you see in the background is her own first forays into the world of counted thread work with a very pretty hardanger kit I look forward to seeing her complete.=) So, many thanks to you, Rachel and I'm glad to have been of use to you in getting you started in stitchery. It's not anything like as hard as it looks (as indeed most things aren't), but we Brits do tend to be scared of our own shadows and will more easily believe that we can't do something than that we just might be able to, if we can only persuade ourselves to try!

Field Mice Done - YAY!

2010-05-30T07:37:00.006+01:00

I can't believe how long this piece has taken me to finally complete the stitching on! I started in in January, I think, and it's now almost the last day in May! The pattern estimates that it will take '15 evenings', but I sometimes wonder both how long those evenings are expected to last and whether the stitcher concerned is expected to have anything else going on in her life, such as making meals, doing dishes, dealing with other stuff and, of course, the small matter of family!! Anyway, whatever, it's done and I hope to get to the fabric market within the next week or so to get the material I need to make it into a sofa cushion/pillow. Anyway, click on the photo to get a better, larger view.

Whilst I'm there I also want to get something to back the hardanger needlecase with, although I may just use the doctor's flannel. Yes! Good news! I found out today, whilst looking out the stuff for my camera case, that I had actually brought the piece of cotton doctor's flannel needed for the pages of the needlebook/case, so I can finish it up after all. Margaret was so kind as to send me a piece of the woolen doctor's flannel, but it wasn't quite what I needed. However, it will come in for something and I've, at the very least, learned that there are two types of this particular cloth.

Here's the next project I want to start, a hardanger doily type thing. A local friend has been great recently, dropping in every so often with big bags of fruit. The funny thing is, she often seems to do this when we've run right down and I don't feel really up to lugging heavy bags around. So, I want to make her this little piece as a 'thank you'.

The next cross stitch I have in mind is this lovely narrowboat design I've had my eyes on doing for years. It's another 'Cross Stitch Crazy' magazine design that I copied out of my own mag before coming here, and, although the chart makes it look considerably larger than the field mice, it's as wide as they were high and so not so very big after all. The chart has larger squares. This one will be for me to put on the wall of my study/studio when we get our new home.=)

This is the book I plan to take most of the pattern for the camera case from and also some of the small pieces of fabric I brought with me for it. The shiny one is the outside and the other one the lining, which I bought here just over 2 years ago.

New blog link now working=)

2010-05-29T00:55:00.003+01:00

Thanks to Jules, Rachel and Dian for letting me know that the in-text link didn't work for the new blog. It does now, as I'd just input it wrongly!!! Told you I was an idiot!!!!!!!!!!!=) Some managed to find their way over having followed the RSS feed link on blog itself, but anyone trying to access via reader software would have come up against problems. Anyway, all up and working now on the last post and I've checked it to make sure too! Now then, let's see if I can get it right here too.....

PS Field mice almost finished! Just another hour's work needed on them and I'm ready to display.=)

Some changes on blog

2010-05-28T09:28:00.005+01:00

Nothing directly craft related in this post, but just a notification really.

I've finally got my newest blog going, which is called Fluffy Little Idiot and is devoted to non-craft things, such as reading, learning, (will cover my studies other than art and needlework, so my music etc), human potential and intelligence and a fair few other things that interest me - including how I succeed in developing a good recipe or two for vegan ravioli! I've also got a blog outline in prep for if and when I'm able to start the Open College of Arts drawing and painting courses, but until that happens, art work will stay on this blog.

So, I've moved my CV and Goals pages to the new blog and added in a '2010 Goals' page which also includes what I want to do craft-wise. I've also moved the Reading List to there from the Google Sites page I've been using for a while. I've got feeds to all my other blogs active now here and on the new one and will put them on the other two later on.

Made in Taiwan will soon be re-named Brauns on Tour and kept for travel photos and notes in the future. There'll be pix from Taiwan, Japan, Korea and southern Germany, plus wherever we move to when we get back to look forward to during the rest of this year on that site. I hope to use the language one more as time goes on and I develop my interest in linguistics and creative language learning and teaching (possible research degree on the horizon....).

So, please visit me all over, add yourself as a follower on any and all sites that interest you even a little and leave comments when you have chance. It's lovely to know folk are reading along and it makes blogging extra worthwhile. An explanation of the new blog's name appears in the very first post there. Curious? Go over and see!=)

Oh, and yes, it's raining cats and dogs here at the mo!!

Finally.....

2010-05-26T10:14:00.012+01:00

....term is over and we're on the first full day of 8 days off school. Hurrah! However, you can tell it's our school hols as the rain is due to start tomorrow and last until we go back. Happens every time....Grrr!

....I got to go around the other large bookshops looking for 'Inspirations 66', but it seems not to have arrived in Taiwan at all, so I've given up on it.

....I got around to going to the 2nd nearest library and borrowed 3 books - 2 stories and 1 guidebook on Japan, where we go in just about 2 months.

....I've got around to starting revising and developing my Japanese language in earnest. I even bought the CDs for the course I've had hanging around for the past 6 months!

....I got on with the backstitching on the Field Mice, but I'm not showing that off until it's totally finished. I've done all the blackberries now and also about two thirds of the rose leaves.

....I bought two of the 'local' stitchcraft books. I put 'local' in inverted commas as they're not Taiwanese at all, but translated from Japanese books. There's an enormous collection of patchwork and quilting titles in several series', many of which are the muted 'country' style, which doesn't float my boat much, but seems rather big in Japan! Anyway, these are the two I bought, one on simple Japanese embroidery and designs and one on patchwork items decorated with embroidery and ribbon work.

Below are some spreads from the Japanese-style embroidery book, which I thought were rather nice, although I know they'll seem terribly over-simplified to those who've been taking the specialist JE courses!!=)

And here are some spreads from the patchwork/ribbonwork book. There are some really lovely things in this book and, despite the instructions all being in Chinese, the diagrams look pretty clear and I should be able to make good use of it - in good time!!

Aren't they all lovely?

No focus, no stitching

2010-05-06T09:13:00.005+01:00

I've been wondering why I seem to do next to no needlework these days and also thinking about why, if I'm interested in a subject and have lots of books etc on it, do I just leave them on the shelf when I have some free time and just read an easy novel etc instead? Also, since I've been out here, I've done only one piece of artwork (the butterfly you can see at the top of the blog), despite having brought lots of art pencils and a quantity of new, artists' quality watercolours and 2 of my favourite art books. I've come to the conclusion that, without a definite focus, I don't do stuff.

I think it's safe to say that many of us do more when we have a reason to, or a deadline for something, and I seem to have an outsized case of this. I remember saying on-blog some months (even years) ago, that there was to be no more 'obligation stitching', ie that I wasn't going to make something for everyone's event etc anymore, but since that came into force, so to speak, I simply haven't stitched much! What I have done has been mostly for other people anyway, or for things I've got planned for our new home later this year. Although I have lots of ideas, unless I have a reason to do them, they'll go no further.

I realise this may sound like 'not doing anything for myself', or something like that, but it isn't that at all. I just don't have the desire or motivation to do something I don't see a final destination or purpose for. So, whilst I'm interested in lots of languages, I only get on with learning one if I'm either going to classes, or have an up-coming trip where I need that language. When I was in my late teens and early 20s, I had lots of penpals and I would write in their language wherever possible, so that provided another motivation.

So, it looks like I'm going to have to take City & Guilds courses again and/or start stitching gifts and cards en masse again in order to produce any work!!! I wondered if I was actually losing interest in the art and craft of embroidery etc, but I don't think I am. I've just nothing to focus it on - no brief to work to (as with C&G samples and pieces), or no person to create for (as with gift pieces). Ditto the artwork. I did some encouraging stuff for my C&G, but have only done one piece in the year since. So, I really do want to do those Open College of the Arts courses as I know it's the only thing that will provide sufficient of both instruction and focus for me to develop as an artist. I was thinking about a stitched piece I planned to work for my mum the other day and, yes, I was interested in doing that and I can see myself getting down to it, but finishing the goldwork, which has no end purpose other than I like the design, is going to be harder to achieve.

Language and other interests-wise, there's the wonderful Open University and it's BA(Hons) in Modern Language Studies (German & Spanish, I think for me) and their BSc(Hons) in Environmental Studies for the budding scientist and eco-warrier in me!!

All in all, a very useful piece of information I've gained about myself. All that remains now is to put it to good use.=)

DH and I have decided that, owing to my continuing health problems here (I keep getting bug after cold after virus and am remaining badly run down because of it) and my being rather homesick as well, we will be going back home after the scholarship period is up in August - as originally planned. We're going to Japan in July for a break and then home in late August via Korea (for more tourism - so 2 languages to have a purpose for!!), then DH's mum's in southern Germany (to catch up with her and recover from jet-lag in the lovely high, clean air where she lives), then back to normal life. So, before we leave, I'd better get this field mouse design finished and sewn up into a cushion/pillow cover!! At least that one is for someone, so there is motivation to get on with it, even if the deadline is more than 3 months away....

Anyone else have this kind of situation, with needing focus and distinct motivation, by the way? I'd be interested to know your thoughts and experiences. There are few things more interesting than the human being.=)

Added in later on after first 3 comments: Please don't think that I'm upset, anxious or feeling guilty about any of the above, as I'm not at all! I'm just interested in finding how I work best.=)

Free-IQTest.net

2010-04-30T12:32:00.007+01:00

Free-IQTest.net - Free IQ Test

(Got 134 first time) I often have to guess the number sequence things, so I suppose, if I knew how they worked, I might have got a slightly higher score - assuming I didn't guess them correctly,that is!!=)

Try the test, it only takes less than 5 minutes and is quite fun.

EDIT: 13 May - test re-taken after I learned a bit more about how some of the number sequence things worked. Actually, I felt it only helped with one question, I still had to make guesses at the other 2, but I know I was now able to get that one right and got 144! Well chuffed! I've up-dated the above graphic to reflect this, with a small adjustment for the fact that I remembered one of the pattern questions and one of the number sequences and was able to do them faster than I would have done had it been fresh. I always did think there was a distinct element of education/experience in IQ tests as opposed to 'raw' intellectual potential. This experiment kinda proves it...

The Ebbs and the Flows

2010-04-15T11:32:00.009+01:00

Well, it seems like I'm far from the being the only one whose finding their stitching motivation a bit slack at the moment. In fact, quite a number of bloggers I follow have been quiet of late or are finding that life is getting in the way of their arts and aren't producing much to blog. I've only done the outlining on two of the blackberries since I last posted. Sometimes it's lack of time, sometimes lack of umph and sometimes that I'd just plain rather watch a YouTube film!!!

School is quite a lot of work trying to keep up with everything and keep head above water with the tests that are fired at us on a three times fortnightly basis - two sentence dictations (quite a challenge in Chinese characters at times as it's so easy to forget how to write them, even though you can read them fine) and a written paper. Still, they make one learn and, with someone like me, that really is needed, so on the whole I don't mind. However, it does leave one a bit drained at times - mentally, if nothing else. So, not a very productive time creatively just now. Having said that, I did manage to get the next issue of 'Creative Embroidery and Cross Stitch' at the Eslite bookstore nearest to school (they're great for foreign magazines - including titles I can't get at home, so that's something I really like here!), and so I now have full instructions for that fantastic little house you saw on the cover of the last mag show.=) I don't think I'd make it exactly as it is in there, but the idea is great and I hope to do one one day. Perhaps a timbered house. You know, those white ones with the black timbers on, Elizabethan styling. I want to have a go at an embroidered garden one day too, so that super book, 'Embroidered Knot Gardens' is going to the top of my wish list.

We've decided to get a place with an extra room when we go home. Said extra room will be my studio, which will double as the guest room (i.e. the sofa bed will be put in there and we'll get a new suite for the living room). So, guess who's all excited and has the whole thing almost all planned out in her head? Just what I've been wanting for years, I'm so pleased about it. All I need now is for it to come to fruition.=) Look out for more on that early next year...

So, I think things will be fairly slow stitch and arts wise during the rest of our time out here, but I will be keeping up as best I can, so please don't give up and unsubscribe/delete your RSSs or links etc. In fact, the more readers there are, the more I feel duty bound to entertain you, so don't leave, but join up en masse instead, and let me know you're there.

Here are a few nice photos of places we've been in Taiwan for you to enjoy in the meantime. Some of the hundreds of pix I've accumulated so far will no doubt end up as inspiration for later work. (The photo above is an 'old' stumpwork piece I enjoyed doing 5 years ago.)

Stitching again

2010-04-08T13:36:00.005+01:00

So, I had a couple of weeks off! I just lost interest in my needlework, but I think that, like Carol-Anne with her recently illness related stitch lethargy, mine was caused my viruses and the general tiredness inside and out that accompanies them. Added to that that I'm sick of Chinese classes and really keenly looking forward to going home to a sane country where I don't have to fear there are roaches in my kitchen cupboards, I can get food I can relate to as food and things in general are just a tad more 'with it'. I've been reading an ex-pat forum thread about some of the dumb traditional health beliefs that people around here have, and they really do believe them quite passionately! There are married couples disputing regularly over whether or not one should drink cold water.....

OK, moan over and I'll show you the first half of the back-stitching that I've been doing over the past few days on the field mice. I've done all the dark red (on the flower and rose hips) and the brown on the mice and stems, and just have the white outlining on the berries and the greens around the leaves and leaf veins to do. I did pick up my goldwork the other day only to find that the copper Jap thread went bad again. The metallic wrapping stuff keeps coming off on the very short length I need for that back part. Well, I'll just have to keep trying until I succeed, but, as failing with that makes me put the project straight back down in annoyance, I think I'd better stitch a new bit first and then have a go at re-doing that copper Jap!=)

I finally joined the local library and read a new US teen book called 'Viola in Reel Life' by Adriana Trigiani, who some of you may know from her novels (which I haven't read). It was an interesting excursion into the world of US teen-dom, but I rather doubt that a 14 year old really knows as much as Viola sometimes seems to and I wonder if the author really remembered the time zone differences when she has Viola video-conferencing with her parents in Afghanistan and old chums in NYC at times that seem to be me to be very antisocial for the other party. She also seems to me to be marvellously logical and to reason things through in a way many adults couldn't manage. Anyway, it made an entertaining read and, as it'd free, who can complain!? I also got Oscar Wilde's Complete Short Fiction, but the other classics they had at the local branch were all things I knew well already. Might do for light reading sometime, but I feel ready for something fresh and I'm not really into contemporary things, by and large.

And I really want to get a viola.....

Background stitching done

2010-03-16T08:56:00.010Z

Here's the current field mice photo. I finished the background half stitching a little while ago and so am now ready for all the backstitch outlining there is to do, and there's quite a lot! Still, it won't take long once it's started - as with most things - especially homework and ironing!!!

No more done on the goldwork, I'm afraid, I just don't feel like doing anything that intricate and fiddly at the mo as I'm down with a bout of tonsillitis, but on the mend.=) Actually, once I've got started on a goldowrk piece, i usually find it hard to keep going with it. I guess it's really not my thing, although I admire the look of it tremendously! How Mary Corbet has the patience to do the lucious pomegranate she's working in silk shading and goldwork, I can't imagine! Maybe I should take 'The A-Z of Goldwork' off my Amazon wishlist after all.....

I won a give-away recently (possibly by virtue of there only being 4 participants and 3 prizes!!) and here it is. It's the needles really, but she kindly included the DMC floss as well.=)

I also got these 2 magazines at one of the big bookshops here in Taipei, neither of which are available in the UK. Well, one of them is, but only in London, I think. Just look at the cottage on the cover of the Aussie mag! Talk about wow! Daresay I'll never make it up, but I'd like to do something like that at some point. I was thinking of a cottage style jewelry case as a C&G assessment piece, but that kind of pre-supposes I'll ever get around to taking C&G!!=) I'm bacl to thinking about language based studies again now, but there's no need to decide for a long time and, as I've been reading all the Wiki How Tos on not worrying about the future, being patient and so on today, I will not fret about what I may or may not do in a year or more's time! There's a dictation tomorrow and I will work on that instead!!!=)LOL

I now have 65 followers, many thanks to all and also to the other almost as many who follow through Google Reader and anyone still tuning in via Bloglines (don't! It looks rotten on there!!)

Field mice cross stitching finished

2010-03-10T13:08:00.002Z

Yay! I've finally finished the cross stitching on this piece. Next up is the half-stitched background colour (a paler green), and then I make a start on all the back stitch top-stitching of which there is quite an amount. Still, it'll bring the piece to life, even though it's very cute already, don't you think?=) I hope to have the background done over the weekend and get the back stitching done over the following week or so.

I did a tiny bit on the goldwork yesterday in that I took out the offending piece of copper Jap thread on the left hand side and cit another piece ready to 'fit'. I'm afraid it will 'fray' again, but I'll just have to keep on re-doing it until I'm happy with it, then I'll move on to the f-holes in gold Jap.

I'm not sure if many of you know about it yet, but there's a new ning stitching community that was started just last December called Stitchaholics. It caters for all forms of stitchery, but is more chatty than Stitching Fingers (which I enjoy as a more serious forum for needlearts), and the creator, Caroline from London, is looking to expand the community in the future. It's a 'by invitation only' group, so if you'd like to join in, please leave me a comment with your e-mail addy if your comments don't normally send it (ie if you have no e-mail addy available on your public profile here), and I'll send you an invitation.

The weather has gone mad here again recently and, although it was in the early 30sC at the weekend, it's now in single figures again - but, set to start to rise back to late 20sC+ from Friday. Then, of course, back down to about 12C middle of next week! As soon as the cold and rain started, so did my cough, and I took a day off school to rest today. We've been back a week and my new term enthusiasm is flagging somewhat already!!

On a stitching go slow...

2010-03-06T01:14:00.007Z

Badly timed one as well considering that the TAST2 challenge has started. Still, I never expected to be able to join in all of it, esp. given that Tuesday is a rather impossible day to give a lot of time to needlework and always has been, but I plan to try and do it about once a month all being well.

Haven't done enough on either of my projects to merit a photo, only a little bit on the 2nd mouse on the cross stitch and have only touched the goldwork to move it to a safer place in the living room, but I hope to get on with both this weekend. I'm now back at language classes and trying to get into a good routine of study. Last term was silly, trying to cover far too much material and not enough time to practise using it or really learn it. This term looks much more balanced and I should even get a grammar book worked through.=) I'm trying to get almost all of my school work done actually at school, so that I can relax more at home and not feel I can't stitch as I haven't done my homework yet!!!

We went to a national park and the coast last Sunday - Tuesday (photos soon to go up on the Taiwan blog), and I bought some tribal inspired stash whilst I was there. There are 2 packs of quilting fabrics, one which looks typically Eastern and the other rather tribal. The chap assured me they were Taiwanese made, although they have Japanese on the label. I wasn't sure whether or not to believe him, but I remembered that quilting crafts are BIG in Japan and so the main market for those products will be through exporting up there. Anyway, either way I liked them. The bands are used extensively in Taiwan Aboriginal tribal clothing etc and so I got some of those as samples. Don't know what I'll do with them beyond using them as examples in my later C&G diploma country studies (although Taiwan is not strictly a country....), but they make a colourful addition to the stash, no? The picture above is the shop's display of the bands, or at least the top half of it. The bottom half was covered as it was raining. Fancy that! The weather is still totally mad here with torrential rain one day and temperatures soaring the next. A dull, overcast and drizzly time was forecast for our trip, but the sun came out with a vengeance and I, who wasn't prepared at all well, got rather nasty sunburn! Thankfully, although I've never had it before, knew how to treat it by applying cold, wet cloths to get the heat out and using lavendar essential oil etc. Peppermint oil soothed the itching later and the patch is beginning to heal nicely without any blistering or peeling.=)

I added some Pages to my blog recently. Nothing really exciting on them, just a start made at introducing my stitching history and so on. The page on goals is general, not just embroidery, and there's my CV for fun!! Might put more on it later on, we'll see. I also cleaned up the sidebars to just display a Gallery of favourite pieces rather than 3 years' worth that took an age to scroll through.

Goldwork in progress proper

2010-02-17T07:53:00.006Z

Here's the viola in the hoop and a start made on the stitching. The photo isn't clear (as is to be expected when having to take it in artificial lighting, it doesn't seem to be get very light today), but you might be able to see that I've done the foreground outline in gold twist thread and the outline of the back of the instrument in Kreinik #7 Japan thread in copper. The small bit on the left went rather bad, so I'll be taking that out and re-doing it. I've also just noticed that an angle in the copper outlining on the right hand side doesn't match the gold. Grrrr! Perfectionist, me? Not that you'd notice - if you were blind!!!!=)

I plan to do around the scroll, fingerboard and tailpiece in the pearl purl that came with the kit and was originally meant to go in these places, just putting the scroll detail in in finer Jap thread. The f holes I'll do in Jap thread too and the chinrest I'll probably fill in with Jap thread, kind of in or nue style, but I'm not sure about this yet. I could even be persuaded to do this in kid leather, but I may leave it almost to last. The big issue is how to get the bridge higher than the pearl purl will be so that the strings will look right and not go upwards when they get to the edge of the fingerboard. Sometimes it's easier not to feel such a commitment to getting the details right!=)LOL!

It's absolutely slinging it down here in Taipei and the Gov't issued a cold weather warning on Sunday as temperatures dropped to just under 5C overnight in the very north of the island. That may not be cold for those who have -20C to deal with in the winter, but this is a sub-tropical island with the southern third fully tropical and there is no heating installed in the vast majority of buildings. I just read that about 10000 fish died in Changhua county thanks to the cold! Our two heaters are doing sterling work and we're OK and even getting our washing dried, but it's a bit boring having to waste the whole week's holiday stuck indoors! Nothing much to do but read, study, stitch, watch DVDs and listen to music. We've just braved the rain to get some groceries in, but the local supermarket is v low on fresh produce given that it's still officially New Year's holidays. Thankfully, I stocked up well before the break.=) So, plenty of chance to get on with my embroidery, but I doubt I'll do anymore on this viola today. I'm really dopey at the mo, would prefer to work on the mouse for a bit and, frankly, I forget how monotonous goldwork can be!!!

A bit stumped

2010-02-13T07:45:00.005Z

No, not with stumpwork, but with the goldwork. First though, thanks to Carol-Anne for the idea on getting the crease out - sounds like a plan!

I'm not at all sure how to re-plan the design beyond the outline. I'd like to have some filled in areas as the original does, but, as you can see from the photo above, gold is not just one colour! The gold kid leather is really a very different shade from the regular goldwork threads' shade and there are Kreinik and Anchor threads to both match and fill in any gaps! The piece of gold kid leather I have is very much a green-ish gold whilst the rest of the goldwork threads are getting towards the orange shade, (with the copper threads showing up the real red gold). The Japan threads in the middle are a great yellow gold and then there are greenish and white-ish shades on the right of the photo. So, I need colours that co-ordinate well and, as I want to use copper for the 'back elevation', I really need to be looking at the orange-gold selection, saving one of the whiter shades for the strings. I just don't know enough about goldwork to plan ahead with confidence and have no good references with me. So, I'm still far from ready to set off with this one!=(

I've done a bit more on the little mouse though - put in his tail and the flora around him, part of it for the second time.

My blog hits have really gone up over the last couple of months, so many thanks to all visitors and those who have been kind enough to list me as 'worth a visit' on their blogs and other sites recently. I need to live up to that, don't I??=)LOL! Well, I've just been visiting the blogs of several ladies who list 'stumpwork' and/or 'goldwork' on their Blogger profiles in the hope of finding some new eye candy, but I find that there's a world of difference between being interested in something and actually blogging about it!! Can't really complain as there are any number of interests on my profile list that I don't blog about much, if at all!

Re-designing a goldwork kit

2010-02-09T13:06:00.008Z

This afternoon and evening (in 2 sessions), I made a start on the Benton & Johnson Goldwork String Instrument kit that I'd brought with me. I remember buying this one as part of a real retail therapy session - serious comfort shopping - during the time I was horribly unhappy doing my old teaching job, along with several others. I spent as much at that one stitching show as I would normally do at two or three - a whole year's worth!!

This is the original design of the kit, although the one I bought came with black silk as a background fabric, which is what I wanted.

Anyone who knows much about modern string instruments would see at a glance that this design is far from accurate and, whilst I'm no expert player (yet!!!LOL), I do actually own a viola and so I always intended brushing this design up a bit. Well, a lot actually!! I know it's meant to be a generic sort of stringed instrument, but I wanted my own instrument represented in goldwork, so it needed a chinrest for a start. The body shape also needed refining and the pegs needed to match the strings - 4 strings (very badly placed strings at that) and 6 pegs, since when?? Recently, via the Pin Tangle blog, I came across a blog posting by Kirsty on the 'Feeling Stitchy' team on how to turn a photo into an embroidery outline and so I followed that wonderfully simple and effective process as follows.

Find the photo you want to stitch from. This is one I found via Google images of a viola, complete with chinrest (some are pictured without, some folk even play without one, but I'm not up for that!).

Using Photoshop Elements' 'Filter' tab, select the 'Sketch' type and then pick the one that best suits your needs from the list given. The tutorial I read said 'Pencil Sketch', but my version doesn't have that, but the 'Photocopy' option worked beautifully and, after increasing the contrast to make the outlines really stand out, I was left with this image:

Print it out at the relevant size, take a tracing from it and transfer the design to your background fabric in your preferred way (mine is good old dressmaker's carbon paper in white for dark backgrounds, although yellow would have been good too), the results of which you can see below.

That's it, ready for stitching and not needing to go to all the fuss of drawing it out myself.=) This really is a good method, try it and see for yourself some time.

To my delight, I found that I'd actually brought some of my goldwork threads with me - 3 colours of Bright Check (chips) and a thing of Twist, as well as the Kreinik Japans and other Kreinik cord type metallics, so I can adapt the threads and actual working of the design as well. Haven't got that far yet, will work up a stitching plan tomorrow, but the design is on the silk, which is tacked to the backing fabric ready to go in the hoop for working.=)

Sometimes kits provide the needed inspiration and materials and you can do the rest yourself. Oh, if anyone knows how to get the strong packing crease out of the middle of the fabric, please let me know ASAP!

Last night I added yet more eye candy to my blog sidebar in the shape of some of the 2007 finishes. Putting them all on would have meant that it was ridiculously long, so I dropped some of the cards and monograms. In time, I'll merge all the three years' worth of finishes into a single 'Gallery' bar, but not until I've got something to show for this year. The needlecase isn't considered a finish proper until it's made up. Many, many thanks to Margaret of NZ for kindly offering to send me the needed doctor's flannel (which I didn't see anything like whilst out at the fabric market last Friday), and also to Nic for offering to send more novels. If the postage hadn't made me feel uncomfy, I would have accepted this last offer too, but I just wanted to publically thank you wonderfully kind and generous ladies.=) Mwah! xxx

Editted to add in credits for the transformation method, Friday 11:43 am

Hardanger stitchery complete

2010-02-03T11:24:00.007Z

Finally got the hardanger stitching done on the needlecase. All I need to do now is get some doctors' flannel type cloth (which I rather stupidly didn't bring with me, considering I knew I was going to stitch this and have brought all the stuff I (thought I) needed for several other pieces), and I hope to find something that will answer on Friday at the Yongle market, which is the place that sells all the fabrics etc. I'm planning on going there with an English friend I first met in Dublin, but have caught up with again here, of all places!!

Made a boo-boo with the lower part of the cross stitch in that the most southerly blackberry and leaf were stitched one hole too far north, an occupational hazard with evenweave fabrics! Anyway, I've done most of the first mouse and the plant life is un-picked and ready to be re-stitched, when I finally get back on with this one.

I also got some tracing paper at last, thanks to DH's electronic dictionary helping me find the Chinese for it, and am now more or less equipped to get on with the other projects I mentioned before - the Brazilian roses and the goldwork viola.

I got through Burney's 'The Wanderer' in record time (good book, that, give it a try some time, if you don't mind 18th century lingo and nearly 900 pages to wade through), and am now out of novels. Well, I would be had my English chum here not given me hers the other day!! She also assures me there are English books in the local libraries, so I plan on calling in and registering with the local branch pretty soon, if not faster.

Thoughts on studying embroidery

2010-01-23T02:44:00.012Z

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been doing a lot of on-line research into formal embroidery studies, mostly with City & Guilds, but also with the RSN and even higher education level things. It seems that there are ample opportunities for City & Guilds study with plenty of in person classes running all over the UK and also a few decent distance learning opportunities. Sadly, WS-Touchbase is finishing City & Guilds at the end of this year and there are fears that that would see the end of the stumpwork programmes.=( However, as DH is wanting to move somewhere where I've found a recently opened studio offering Levels 2 and 3 Embroidery Certificates and also the Level 3 Diploma, I could also go to classes later on as well - when we get back home.

I was disappointed to find out just how much the RSN's courses were though. I knew they were expensive, but found out that they were 2 or 3 times as much as I'd thought! Each technique is £960, with 4 needed for the Certificate alone! On the good side, they don't charge more for paying in instalments and you can pay for one technique at a time without ending up, as with some on-line schools, paying almost twice as much as someone who can pay the full figure up front. I was rather shocked at how much the School of Stitched Textiles wanted for buying one module at a time for their Level 3 C&Gs. It was something over 210% of the up-front price! Anyway, maybe I can do the RSN Cert later on, fairly slowly, but I daresay the Diploma at nearly £8000 is going to be beyond me. We'll see.

Now I know what to expect of a C&G course, I feel in a better position to plan and prepare for taking one - hopefully more than one. I also know what sort of workload and time frame is expected and have a much clearer idea of where I fit into that pattern. A very important aspect I've got from it is that Level 3 courses, despite claims to the contrary by several course providers, are NOT suitable for beginners in embroidery, (unless one is very experienced in art/design and sewing). I wasn't a beginner when I started, but I would have been paralysed by the level of work expected if I had been. Basically, C&G, esp Level 3 C&G, will not really teach one embroidery as a skill. Ideally, it teaches someone who already has a decent grounding in embroidery, design skills and practice, along with introducing some of the more contemporary textile techniques. In order to succeed without a large amount of stress, I wouldn't recommend anyone, other than someone of extraordinary confidence and huge amounts of time, to start that level of course without having a good bit of experience of working others' designs and also of a bit of basic sewing and machine usage. Working the assessment pieces requires that you have to make those embroidered pieces up into things like bags, hangings and so on which you're to have designed and prototyped yourself, and, if you've next to no experience of construction techniques, then this part is only going to add to the stress.

So, my plan is to consolidate my own stitching skills by working as many of the kits and designs that I've brought with me as I can, to have a go at making up some little bags etc (I've brought a book with me and the stuff needed for my camera case), and to work on my drawing and painting skills as well as collecting plenty of design source photos etc. In addition, were I to do the Level 3 Diploma, there's a lot of more academic work to be done in creating the History of English Embroidery project as well as the embroidery traditions of 3 countries, so I can also make a start on collecting info etc for that. There's a fair amount of 'folder work' to do in terms of design, ie colour theory stuff, line and mark making and all manner of things too that I can begin to get done working from the syllabuses. Having said that, I plan to start with a Level 1 or, max, Level 2 anyway!

Higher education level courses, by and large, don't really appeal to me as they're very much contemporary styling and there's only the RSN's FDA (foundation degree) in Hand Embroidery that looks up my street. The location is in London at Hampton Court Palace, it would be horribly pricey and I'll have to shelve that sort of idea until they've got the course well established (it started new this year) and offer it in more formats and locations. Again, we'll see, but no holding breath on this one, which is a real shame as they specialise in what I like best! I did read Tanja Berlin's account of her time at the RSN on their former apprentice programme and it was fearfully intense, so that's another downside. 9-5 daily with up to 5 hours expected per evening. Basically, you'd sleep and stitch. No time for anything else! Still, there are plenty of good books around, even though I was only able to bring what you can see above with me. Oh, how I miss my books and the rest of my stash! Sigh! Still, looks like we may well be home by the end of this year, so I reckon I can make do until then and I can get 'Inspirations', 'Classic Stitches', 'Stitch with the Embroiderer's Guild', the Italian mag 'Rakam' and several cross stitch mags out here, so that's a big comfort.

The photo at the top of this post is the back of the needlecase, which I got completed yesterday. I hope to have the full thing stitched before the end of the month and then hope I brought the doctor's flannel needed to put the 'pages' in. Last night I also added in a side bar feature of my 2008 stitched pieces, so more eye candy on permanent display, but you need to visit the blog 'for real' to see them as, of course, reader software won't show them up, even Bloglines. Does anyone know why Bloglines displays your header photos in reverse order??

WIPs: Current status

2010-01-20T07:02:00.005Z

Nothing much to report WIP wise. I've done all the cutting and removing of threads on the hardanger needlecase, so that's now ready for the weekend and I should get that finished on the long-distance bus rides!! I hate the weaving bits, so doing those during 'trapped time' will both get them done and pass the time much more quickly.

The cross stitch is still progressing slowly. Is it just me, or do others find that greenery seems to work up far slower than other parts? Green is known to be an actively relaxing colour, so I was wondering if that slowed down stitching in some way. DH said, 'There's a PhD in that!', so if anyone fancies doing some stitching related research and calling themselves 'Doctor' ever afterwards, there's an idea for you!!!

I've sent, via e-mail, to a couple of schools re embroidery courses, such as the new City & Guilds programmes being run at Space2Create and the Certificate and Diploma courses run by the Royal School of Needlework. Just waiting for responses now, but I fear the latter programmes will be prohibitively expensive. Shame, as the courses they offer are most in my line, but who knows what may be possible at some point?=)

I finally finished 'Sylvia's Lovers' by Gaskell recently and made a good start on Frances Burney's 'The Wanderer', which unlike the former, had me gripped from chapter one! It's much easier to persuade myself to get to bed very early if there's a good novel on the go!! I think the Gaskell was really written by a Chinese author and then Yorkshire-y-fied by Gaskell as, in true Chinese literary fashion, everyone dies in the end!!!

Sheila, I've been thinking about your comment about 'typical Brit, unable to learn a language'. Oh so many Brits think that about a number of things too! So many of us are totally convinced we'd never be able to do any number of perfectly achievable things - often before even trying it ourselves! Sometimes, at craft/stitching shows, I get talking to some of the other ladies looking at the goodies on the stands and there's usually a seasoned cross stitcher looking doubtfully at a freestyle kit she wants to try, but lacks confindence. 'But do you really think I could do this?' she asks, 'I've only ever done cross stitch before.' I normally encourage her that, yes, of course she could do it, but if she lacks confidence she might want to try a small piece/a doodle pad first and so on. Many cross stitchers fear they wouldn't be able to do surface work, but think about it - the techniques are very similar to counted thread ones, and they already have almost all of the necessary equipment and skills, so why fear to move onto pastures new?

It's much the same with language. We've all already got almost all the equipment, skills and experience we need to learn another language as we'd be using the same mouth, vocal chords, brain, concepts as we already do with the very complex language we already learned in childhood! And think about how many versions of English there are: UK, US, Canada, Aus, NZ, South Africa, India, Singapore and a whole host of official language speaker variations on top of those and we can understand them all! Next to no-one can't learn a second language!

A lot of folk then point to their shaky experience with French in school and say, 'I was no good then, so why would I be now?' Basically because teaching methods and materials have improved enormously over the last 30 years and, frankly, did you do French in school because you wanted to or because you hadn't any choice?? Motivation makes all the difference!=) Try it and see...

Hardanger Progress

2010-01-12T13:39:00.004Z

Here's what the hardanger needlecase looks like at the moment. I decided to work on it as a 'Sunday project', but won't this coming week, I shouldn't think - unless I think of something else to do on the 9 or so hour bus ride to and from Kaohsiung the weekend after, that is! Needs to be counted thread and preferably not too big or too complex. Hardanger is perfect really. I'll do all the cutting out before we go as I certainly wouldn't risk that en route!

Haven't really had time or umph for any more stitching since this work on Sunday, I've been trying to get up to date with housework, laundry and preparing for a test tomorrow, (which I feel anything but prepared for, if I'm honest), but I hope to get back to more creative stuff just as soon as I can. I have a lot of catching up to do school-wise after being off with a cold and so on.

Still reading 'Sylvia's Lovers', but have really got going on it now - when I have chance to just sit and read for pleasure, that is. Not through with the Chinese version of 'Anne of Green Gables' yet either. I don't understand every word of it by a long shot, but I can make out about 2/3 I think and, as I know it well, it's no real strain. Next up will be 'The Secret Garden', which I haven't read for decades, (although I've seen the film of within the last few years a couple of times), so that will be a bit harder. Make language learning fun - read kids' books!!

We had friends 'round for dinner last night and I showed them the bee. I was right in thinking that the Taiwanese would be blown away by stumpwork. He asked me if I hadn't bought something and stuck it on and she said I ought to put it in the museum!!!! I could sell stumpwork pieces here, I think!!!

Not as much progress as I'd hoped

2010-01-08T10:07:00.003Z

Well, to be honest, I rarely get as much stitching done as I'd hoped. The trouble is I think I still judge the length of time needed by how much I could get done when I was home with CFS/ME and could, basically, stitch most of the day, every day. Completely different now, but I still underestimate time needed. Actually, I do that with a lot of things, don't you? Anyway, here's how far I've got and I can see pretty clearly that it won't be done in time for next Thursday evening, but there's always a postal service, or we can go and visit.=)

Nic asked which thread I was using for the hardanger piece I showed you last post (which I haven't done any more of yet), and it's Caron Watercolor and Wildflower thread in 'Blossom'. Bit pricey, but worth it for something you especially want to stitch.

The weather seems to be mad everywhere, if what I hear on the on-line news is true, so I hope all are coping well. I have a cold at the mo and am afraid I'm going to have a nasty cough for a while, but I can't get what I need to deal with it out here....=( I usually chase a cough away with home-made fruit juices, but I've no juicer here and the stuff you buy won't do. Besides, there are very few pure juices here. Oh, but there are some pure fruit smoothies to be had, so maybe those might help. I'm eating a bowl of fresh pineapple, papaya and grapes as I type.=)

Travel Stitching

2010-01-04T06:01:00.005Z

I got a decent start made on my hardanger needlecase, but didn't get as much done as I'd hoped or planned. With about 5 hours of stitchable in-transit time, I'd hoped to get much of the outlining done, but thanks to the lack of light on board the coach at times, (the driver left the main cabin in darkness when it got dark and didn't even give us access to our own reading lights for a goodly while!) and the fact that I dropped off to sleep a bit on the way back, I just got this far. On the outward journey I did almost all the outer border, save 3 'boxes' and just completed that small bit and started the inner border on the way home once I realised that we could use the reading lights! Working with thick threads, tapestry needles and counted thread fabrics is quite possible in-transit, but I doubt I'd attempt much in the way of fine work with its sharp needles on the move!

Now it's back to the cross stitch as I only have less than 2 weeks to get that stitched and finished up. Hoping to find some sort of hanger on Friday afternoon when I plan to take a trip to the craft shop area. I hope the quilting section has something that will do. They do a lot of things like bag handles, so I'm hopeful....

Last Posting of 2009

2009-12-31T08:59:00.005Z

As you see from this photo, I chose to start on the cross stitch and I've also thought of someone to give it to. My local friend, Meishan, who's really helped and taken an interest in us since we've been here is moving next month, so I thought I'd give her this cute pic as a little something to put in her new room over in Ilan. I must try to find some sort of hanging mechanism here, like a bell-pull end or something so I can give here a complete piece ready to display. I know where I can get handbag handles and that sort of thing, so there may be what I need in that craft shop. Anyway, I've already applied a bit of unintentional artistic license to this piece - got the 2 pink shades in the rose bloom the wrong way around. Numpty! Anyway, I got quite a bit done owing to having taken last night and this morning off.

I forgot last time to thank everyone for the kind comments on the bee finish. He isn't really that realistic though as DH and I had a look at some real bees on-line and found that mine was really rather too fat and also the wings are incorrectly proportioned and placed. Still, it was only a simple kit and done mostly to get to grips with the technique. I've thought of someone to give that to as well - a local busy bee who always looks stressed out! Just need a small, round frame of some sort now.

I'm planning to take the hardanger away with me this weekend as it will be easier to work in transit being just 2 threads, ie none of the constant colour changes you get with cross stitch etc. Should have something to show there early next week, all being well.

I've never celebrated new year, never saw anything in it really, but I still wish everyone all the best for the future. Thanks a lot for all your interest in and support for my blog and stitching projects and may we all get lots of needlework done this coming year!=)