VS Renaissance Rose Bellpull - bullions!

I mentioned in my last posting on this project that I'm often wary of bullion knots.  I think that, with a combination of Kathy's extremely helpful, 'alternative' method of working them (compare how the needle is held in this, more traditional approach, which I find overly awkward to work and leads to puckering)and the sheer quantity of knots that I had to work on my one and only piece of Brazilian embroidery and the 'Sunshine and Flowers' sampler, I've managed to get a fair grip on how to get them to work out OK.  I was really quite pleased with how the majority of these came out.

Having said that, I still wouldn't call myself confident with them, but I'm certainly getting there. ☺  I need to try the same do it over and over again method with cast on stitches and flowers next as I'd love to master those.

You may have noticed especially in the big heart, but also in the other two, smaller motifs with the bullion roses, that there were some pink lazy daisy stitches to insert too, which also add variety and balance to the piece.  Having said 'balance', I realised, looking at this photo, that the roses are much more numerous on one side than the other, but oddly, I didn't notice when looking straight at it.  Maybe this angle of photo has highlighted it.

This is the last section, (which I actually did first) and you can also see that I also worked the outer border as far as I could ready to make the piece up into a bellpull.  The original design was to be framed, so I had to think carefully about how to go about it.  More on that in the next in this series.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2017

Welsh Poppy revisited

As it's Sew in Love's eleventh blog-o-versary tomorrow, I thought I must mark occasion with a post!  What better thing to talk about than revisiting and improving a project from a couple of years ago that I wasn't very pleased with.

The problem with this one was the leaves, especially the darker one.  I just couldn't seem to get the shading right and it only looked decent upside down!!!  Also, it's a teeny bit puckered (a problem I constantly have with heavy embroideries, despite backing my fabric and making sure it's all held very taut in a hoop) I was wondering what to do with it as I didn't want to display it and it didn't seem to fit anything else.

Recently I needed a small piece to put into a baptism card and this one, turned on it's side so as to both fit better and to lead the eye more to the flower than it otherwise might have, met my needs about as perfectly as it could as long as you ignore the fact that the main stem shading is clearly upside down!!  The good thing is, by far the majority of people wouldn't notice that at all. =)

I'm almost out of white card blanks and I can't get any more as the company who made these seem to have long since disappeared from the marketplace, so I had to paint around the rim with white acrylic (not terribly well, I'm sorry to say....), in order to have a white 'mount' effect.  I liked it, just need to make sure and get it without any spills next time.

So, happy eleventh blog anniversary to Sew in Love and here's hoping that the next eleven go ever better!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2016

Wedding pillow - lettering and finishing up

The final stages of the project coming up today! I managed to transfer some of my mobile phone photos over to the laptop too, so have included one of those shots here as well - one of me working on the lettering!! =)  As you can see, I have an incredibly high-tech, fancy, professional set-up - balancing my plain old embroidery hoop on the edge of my desk!!!

I was working on a lilac and light cappuccino shot silk fabric and so I chose a light gold thread to stand out well against the mid-toned background.  I tried a few metallic shades against it, but this was the one that really stood out - Kreinik Very Fine Braid in 102C couched down with coordinating Kreinik Cord in 102.

This third photo really shows the sheen on the flowers and also the good contrast of the pale gold.

I had originally planned to work the letters and numbers in a sort of solid method, probably by couching in rows, but owing to time limitations and, if I'm totally honest, complete lack of confidence in being able to pull off my first idea (and no time to trial it), made me think that outlining would be best.  I owe that idea to Amber of Ambrosia Stitches who, when I asked for ideas on Instagram, asked me if I was going to outline or fill the shapes, thus planting the idea of simplifying in my mind.

Here's the completed embroidery in the hoop before I removed and trimmed it for finishing.  As you can see, there were two lots of different light when I took these photos as they were done at different times of day and also in two opposite windows.  I've yet to work out the best lighting in our new home!!

Below you can see the completed pillow.  Sadly, I didn't get a very good full frontal shot of it as there was too much light bleaching out one side (as you can see a little here too), and I couldn't wait for a better time as I was about to hand it over!!

The finishing process was fairly simple.  After pressing the backing fabric and as much of the piece as I could (I was most disappointed to see I'd failed to avoid puckering....), I trimmed the surplus fabric away from the work and placed a line of tacking style stitches along the line I'd marked on the front when first transferring the design.  Then I placed the right sides together with a small piece of cotton based fabric (a reject square from one of the baby quilts!!) in between and tacked to the backing to protect both the stitching and the cream backing silk from getting scuffed on the metal work stitches.  They were tacked just next to the marking stitches, leaving the bottom open except for a centimetre or so each side of the corners.  I machine stitched just inside the marking stitches, trimmed off the corner excess and pressed back the edges of the open side.  After removing the tacking and marking stitches and putting some toy stuffing in to make a proper little cushion shape, I slip stitched the bottom edge closed.  Done!

I was delighted to hear that the bridal pair were thrilled with it and this photo was kindly sent by the groom's mum the day before the wedding.

You can also get some idea of the size from this shot too.  It's only a 7"/18cm sided square, so only a souvenir size.

Glad to have a big project done and so it's on to anniversary things for Sir and also making things for the two or three shows I hope to enter this summer.  More on all of those soon.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2016

Wedding pillow - white roses

Part three of the wedding pillow.  Today let's look at the roses.

I didn't seem to take many WIP photos with my digital camera, but there are plenty on my Instagram stream, if anyone would like to see more.  @sew_in_love_blog

Instagram is great and easy to use.  All you need is a simple smart phone to set it up, then you can also follow your selected accounts on a computer if you want to.  Quite a number of needlework bloggers already have accounts and we often post there well before blogging as it's so quick to do, whereas a blog posting can take quite a lot of writing and tweaking.  I didn't have time to stop and blog during this project, but a quick shot on my phone camera and upload to IG meant that followers were able to track my progress in real time.  It was quite fun!!!

I've now filled in the Pipers Silk colours for the rest of the project on the previous post and the white rose petals were worked in White, Ecru, Pale Mushroom, Pale Sycamore, Sycamore, Lime Yellow and Bright Lime, with some tiny stitches in China Pink at the base of the rosebud.

This last one shows some of the sheen nicely, although it isn't the sharpest of photos.

Next time I'll share the lettering and the finishing up into a small cushion/pillow.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2016

Wedding pillow - stitching the lavender and greenery

Part two of the wedding pillow piece coming up......

I decided to start with the sprig of lavender as I thought it would be the most bitty and also, in a way, the most challenging to stitch.  The rest would be needle-stroke heavy (i.e. time consuming), but this was the part I was most uncertain of.

I started with the blue and purple flower section and used the A-Z book I mentioned last time and my own colour plan as guides.  Working to a smaller scale, I had to simplify somewhat, but it worked out ok in one shade of purply blue: Flax Blue, two bluey purples: Pansy and Pale Pansy, and one light, reddish purple: Crocus.

The greenery was worked in two shades of green: Pastel Green and Peppermint, and a tiny bit of brown: Mid Brown was added at the bottom.

The next part was the rosebud and I went for the sepals and stem before the petal section.

Greens were a bit of a problem as, whilst I have more greens than any other single colour in my Pipers Silks box, there are still nowhere near enough to get the shades right.  There are only about 21 greens as opposed to about 80 in my stranded cotton collection!  As far as I can discern now (I neglected to take colour notes at the time), I used seven shades: Leaf, Pale Leaf, Fir Green, Dark Green, Pale Olive, Muscat and Bronze Gold

These green parts were a lot trickier and more time consuming than I'd expected, especially with the tiny touches of Dark Terracotta and Dark Cerise around the edges which, if I'd honest, hid a multitude of uneven edges!!

It was much the same story with the open rose greenery.  I did the stem first and then completely forgot the thread-painting rule of working back to front and did the sepals before the leaves.  I think I was on a 'finish with this colour' role and just forgot how important it is to observe that working method if you don't want problems with abutting edges later on.

Would you believe that the lower leaf here took two hours to work?  TWO HOURS!!

In this photo you can see how incongruous some of the greens really are - especially the stems. =(  It didn't look too bad as a whole, but the rose greens are really too lurid to be realistic.  I was very tempted to order some more shades, but not only did I remember that I am NOT buying any more threads - 1632 is more than enough - but also that I was working under time pressure and couldn't really wait several days for the order to arrive, so I escaped an illicit thread splurge!

Here's the whole piece as I ended it that day having made a small start on the back petals of the rosebud.  More on the roses next week and on my baby projects over the weekend.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2016

Rowandean piece complete!

This is how far I got on the lovely little Rowandean piece at the Knitting and Stitching Show.

The first thing I did once it was remounted in a hoop to work was to remove the yellow flowers on the far right as I felt it was going to end up looking far too 'stripey' if the colours just alternated.

The second photo is how far I got after the second working session having finished the main flowers and added in a few leafy/grassy sorts of motifs at the bottom.

Here's the final look of the piece with all embroidery completed.  I put in a couple of daisies as well as a few more green bits and white french knot flowers/berries.  Please don't ask me what they or any other stitches are supposed to represent as my knowledge of flowers and plant wildlife is nothing short of pitiful!

I could have brought all the threads I wanted to use to finish the piece with home from the Show, but I decided not to (except a piece of the light blue and lilac variegated one), and to use some of my own stuff instead.  So, I used 4 Coton à Broder #16s and 1 #25, plus some Kreinik gold cable to add in some more sparkle and highlights.  Delighted to have used 3 threads for the first time.=)

When it was all done and I'd even trimmed some of the organza edges, I mounted it in a card as you can see here, followed by a couple of angled close-up shots.  I was quite pleased with the final effect and I hope you like it too.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015

Needlequest Update - 18 August 2014

Hi!  Welcome to another week and another Needlequest update and piece completed.=)  This is a rather experimental small piece, but I'm quite pleased with the finish,

First I painted the whole flower using the paints I showed you last NQ post.  I was amazed at just how pearlescent the pearl paint is, even more than the metallic, I think!

I created the colours I wanted by mixing pearl, metallic and regular fabric paints together and, although one of the greens came out a little more lurid than I'd wanted, (I should have added red earlier than I did!) I was favourably surprised at how well I'd remembered colour mixing theory!!!

The next stage was to select some colours to stitch with.  I decided to use some of my new DMC threads for two reasons: 1) I bought them and want to use them; and 2) They're easier to select from as they're still all hanging around in clear plastic bags in colour groups, so I can just pick them up and see what I want straight away, rather than mess around with the Anchor colour chart and then fishing the skeins out of the box.  Oh, yes, there's another reason for choosing DMC for this project and that is that, as several other experienced stitchers have noted, DMC shades are brighter and just that little bit shinier than Anchor ones.  One project needs one type and another project the other brand.

Here are the colours I pulled out.  I used five of them - both yellows, both pinks and the brownest green, #580.

Here are the results, the top photo showing detail and the contrasting textures and the second shot giving an overview of the whole piece.

I just need to mount it in a card blank now and get it in the post to my brother tomorrow as his anniversary is on Wednesday.=)

Something for my fellow Needlequesters to think over:

I've noticed that techniques and styles seem to attract better levels of participation than design themes do, so I'm planning on changing the topics for two of the four remaining months of the challenge.  I'm going to leave September as 'Autumn' as that's a fairly easy design theme to work with and, of course, 'Stumpwork' will stay in.  Other than that, I'm considering two from '3D Stitches', 'Hardanger' and 'Miniaturisation' for the other two months.  Any preferences?  Also, as stumpwork and 3D stitches are related, which order should it all go in if we had both of those, would you say?

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

'Welsh Poppy' finally complete!

A mere three weeks after the needle painting part of the Needlequest finished, I finally completed my second small piece!  I had to force myself to get on with it - I don't much like doing the leaves in so many shades, but I'm glad I did and it's now finished.=)  I'm now back to my preferred two WIPs.  I don't like to have more than that as it makes me feel stressed and leads to over slow progress and/or certain things being plain neglected whilst I do the easier one(s)!

Here are full frontal and side views.

Working these two pieces was quite a steep learning curve.  Although I'd done some of this type of work before, I still felt I was learning a lot, and quite intensively too.  I'm more or less happy with the flower on this piece, except that I keep on making my first row of stitches too wide and end up leaving little room for the denser shades of the colour later on (note to remember next time!),  but the leaves - esp. the small one - leave something to be desired.  Sir said that the large one was well done and, yes, that's not too bad, but we both agreed that the small one was, well, naff!!=)  The bud comes close to suiting that title as well, esp. in this next shot where its deficiencies are highlighted!!LOL!

I've come to the conclusion that I prefer leaves to have less shading in them.  There were meant to be five shades in the large leaf.  I narrowed it down to four.  There are only four yellows in the petals and I can't help feeling a bit that, if the leaves are so super-shaded, it may detract a little from the flower.  This is something I need to think about and plan much more carefully next time.

Another aspect that needs more thought in advance is colour choice.  It was OK sorting out the petals for both my recent pieces, but greens are another pair of pyjamas altogether!  It seems that you never can have enough greens and I'm considering doing some serious research into plugging some gaps in the Anchor colour range with DMC shades.  Working out which shades are needed is going to be a real headache as I only have the Anchor colour chart and lighting in shops isn't the most helpful.  If anyone has any suggestions (I'll also post to Stitchin' Fingers and HEN about it), I'll be happy to have them.  The main problem with this one was that two of the shades of green seem to have got reversed in the book instructions and, as I was also using conversions from DMC to Anchor, I was tired and stressed by the time I'd finally fiddled out a combo that would pass muster.  Not ideal, but it'd do.  I'd already worked two sections and had to unpick them, so I wasn't out to create yet more work!!  So, shade selection needs a lot more careful work in future, and that before I start to stitch.  With days getting longer now, that will be easier to fit in.

This is kind of an odd angle to take a photo from, but I like it!  The badly done bits are played down and the light falls just on the part where contrast with the fabric is lowest and so shows it off in, literally, its best light.=)

So, yes, I'll be coming back to needle painting in the not too distant future - there are five more pieces I want to do from this book, but with extra care in colour choice and leaf working.  I'll be visiting the bricks and mortar Sew and So shop in a few week's time, so I'm saving to get the DMC shades I need then.  Hope their in-shop prices are as good as their on-line ones!  Anyone know?

So, now I need to get back to poor Hanako who has been neglected this week.  I'd like to finish the February challenge on time as there's nothing worse than always trying to catch up all the time.  The key, I think, is the same as it was when working the weekly samples for the City & Guilds level 3 course I started a few years ago - small and/or simple!  As one of the upper year students said to me, "I soon learned to keep things small."  One to bear in mind when choosing my Needlequest pieces, methinks!  What say you?

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

Needlequest Progress Post - Mon 13 Jan 2014

So, how are you getting along with your Needlequest piece(s)?   I've been really enjoying it so far and have managed to complete my first little flower and make a start on the preparations needed for the second one.

Let me walk you through each day's work.  Come and see....

I'm quite pleased with it, although there are one or two things to bear in mind for next time.  For one, the petal outlines are a bit more jagged than I would like in places, so I need to concentrate more on getting those straight.  Second, this flower is really too pale.  It would have been better to have used the very pale peach colour as the lightest shade, rather than white.  The bud looks overly coloured in comparison.  Also, the fabric was too thin to totally avoid puckering.  It isn't too bad, but it is there - and not really wanted!!

On the whole though, I'm satisfied with it (and there's nothing wrong with striving for perfection, before anyone tells me off for being 'too hard on myself'!!!LOL!!)

Here's the second piece.  First up is the photo from the book:

These next two shots are me trying out the threads against five different shades of brown silk (some of them would have worked well with the peach rose too), and then the threads laid out on the chosen piece.

Above here is the silk cut and backed with iron-on interfacing.  I often use this as I find it's easier to keep the whole thing in line than using a backing fabric.  I've never managed to get the two layers completely flush, but that's never a problem with interfacing - unless, of course, you get a crease in one of the fabrics!!  I used a thick piece of baking paper on the ironing board to stop the extra part of the interfacing from sticking to the ironing board cover fabric.  The silk itself will be very slightly too small for the hoop, so an excess of backing was needed.  I didn't want to use any more silk than necessary as it's not cheap and the strip that would have been left wouldn't have been much use for anything else.

Below is the outline traced onto the fabric.  It's not so easy to see in some lights, and in others it's perfectly clear!  Might be a bit of a challenge to work, but we'll see.=)

So, that's how I'm getting on.  How about you?  What have you got to share for this week?  Anything?  Please leave a link to anything you'd like to show us in the comments section and please also remember to link back here on your post if you can.  Of course, you don't have to be a Needlequester to comment - all are welcome!!=)

If you'd like to join in the Needlequest, full details are on the challenge page.  Feel free to sign up anytime!

PS.  A note for Deborah from South Africa re. the needle painted dog on the technique intro page.  That piece came from the Royal School of Needlework's book and wasn't a Helen M Stevens' design at all.  In fact, had she worked it, I doubt she would have used more than two or three different shades as she uses that glorious floss silk which reflects the light so well you can get away with few shades, or even just one!  She's great at directional stitching though, you're right, but this one was pure RSN and the original was worked by Tracy Franklin, one of the School's graduates and now a professional embroiderer and teacher.=)  She also keeps a blog.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

Retake: 'Ornamental Pool' piece

Fans of hers will immediately recognise Helen M Stevens' wonderful 'Ornamental Pool' design from the book 'Embroidered Gardens'.  I worked this for my in-laws for their 20th wedding anniversary, but never got a really good photo of the finished item.  We took the original pictures in over-bright sunlight and the end result wasn't as distinct as it could have been.  So, I took the chance whilst over at their place earlier this month of getting it down off the wall and getting some better photos for my own enjoyment.

As you can see, it had never been properly stretched as MIL did it herself rather than having a pro do it (which was both a shame for the finished result and good in that it was easier for Sir to remove the glass for photography!!), so there are some 'waves' showing in the fabric, esp. the top half.  However, try to ignore that and see if you don't love this masterful design as much as I did.=)

Here are some detail photos of various parts:

Worked in 2008, in Anchor stranded cotton, Anchor pearl cotton #12, Anchor Marlitt and Kreinik cord.

To be honest, the light was still a little too bright, but, for the first time that I can remember, I reduced the brightness on Photoshop Elements and then increased the contrast slightly and sharpened some shots a little.  Have you ever had to do this?

I'm quite pleased with the results and will have to remember to try that again when something looks rather bleached out.

By the way, have you updated your RSS reader links to Sew in Love?  I noticed on the last day of Google Reader's 'life' that I had 591 subscribers on there.  Imagine how desperately gutted I was to see only 124 when I checked on Feedly today...=(  So, don't forget to update your feeds so you can keep up to date with what's happening in my textiles world.  I'm hoping to make it well worth your while over the months to come, and feel free to make reader requests too as I'd like to know what you like to read and see.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013