Yippa-doooo!

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!!

© Elizabeth Braun 2011

Poor Fish!

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.=)

Struggling with the fish

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.)

Flowers are finally done!

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.

Weekly WIP Posting

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.

That was 2010, now what about 2011?

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!

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

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!

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!