Quite a week!

Well, I can safely say that the Staff Festival last Friday changed my life. Why? Well, as I was walking around the Arts & Crafts market section thinking 'I can do this too', I didn't really take it that seriously, but now things have changed somewhat. After talking to DH about it a bit, we decided that I may as well try and 'go pro' as it were and, after all manner of last minute arrangements, I started at Harrogate College last Thursday on their C&G level 3 embroidery course. It takes 4 years to do the complete cert and diploma, but I may only have 2 years at college, so will have to do the rest by distance learning, (i.e. at least twice the price for less personal attention!!!), and I wouldn't mind still doing the level 2 stumpwork course as well, but we can look at that later. I felt I needed more training and experience before I could really design and sell things, so this should help enormously.

So, much to my surprise, I am now a City & Guilds student! Here are the things I did at the first class. The first year is devoted mostly to doing the Design for Craft module and the samples needed for assessment. Basically, you do the art and design work, then adapt it into stitch straight away. In year 2, students do their 4 big pieces. Year 1 seems to be quite a learning curve and so I hope to be able to do something alongside it in year 2, but that's a way off yet. We did shells and sea creatures, so I did this drawing of a shell, (from the real thing - I don't like working from photos, they're so flat!), and then made a start on this stitched piece. I didn't get very far with it as there's really only so much you can do in a 5 hour working day, esp. with intro stuff as well. Anyway, the first design section is concentrating heavily on line work, so here you can see the outline of the shell couched in Anchor Pearl Cotton #5, the white with the gold thread running through. Some classmates thought I'd couched in gold and over-complimented it, but I couched on in one strand of plain white stranded cotton taking care to not cover the gold thread in the process. I plan to do the top bits of the shell one in white and one in gold and really go to town with linear stitches in the shadow part, leaving the shell itself mostly as outline. Might put in a few flecks of brown here and there. I hope to get some more work done on it over the next few days and certainly to have it finished by next week's class. Mustn't get behind as there's a lot of work!

Here's the hardanger cushion sewn up and modelled on my mum's sofa this afternoon. She has bigger cushion pads than ours here, so I went to her place to get a good photo. Will give it to its new owners tomorrow afternoon.=)

All stitched and ready for finishing!

Yippee! Got the stitching completed. Actually, I got it done in a little over 3 hours in total on Saturday, but just took a photo this afternoon. I've had a foul headache since Saturday evening and it's just relenting now. Should be OK tomorrow.=)

What you can see through the cutwork is our living room carpet, although the backing, (which is pinned in place so far) is about the same colour. As you can see from the adjustments I made to this picture, the fabric is really cream, so neither pink nor white! LOL!!

Nothing much else to report for now. Should be able to post the sewn up cushion photo later this week, but think I'll have to go to mum's to get a photo as it's actually somewhat larger than our cushions, but she has some that should do to model with.

Surface work FINALLY complete!

I can't believe how long this piece is taking me! Still, I have been working (albeit part-time) over the last 3 weeks, so that's taken some of my stitching time away and the people I've been temping with want to keep me another week or more in addition to the original booking. So, that's good anyway - I must be doing OK.=)


Back to stitching things and here's how it's looking right now. When I finish on-line and get one or two other tasks done, (like last night's dishes - tsk!), I'll get on with the 12 small areas of cutting and I could even conceivably have them completed over the weekend! I bought the backing fabrics and the zip the other day too, so should be able to forge ahead on this one and then get one with the next, which is slightly smaller and hasn't got anything like the quantity of Kloster Blocks that this one has. Man! If I never stitch a Kloster again..... Anyway, as can be seen here (in contrast with the last photo), it's cream, not pink. It was just really bad light last time!=)


Yesterday was the Uni's Staff Festival, which seems to have become an annual event on an early Friday in September, (so most staff are back from their hols, but most students aren't). Most folk stop work at 3pm instead of 5 and head off to see what their colleagues have been creating and so on, (see an example here). There are also activities to join in (there was a circus workshop!) and an Irish barndance in the evening. I only went for an hour or so with a former Language Centre colleague, who seems to like many of the same things as me, and then she kindly brought me home. Given the state of the weather (Noachan rain storms) and that I'm really tired at the mo, it was a real blessing to get door-to-door service, I can tell you. Julia tops the Love List this weekend!!

Two thirds of the year are already gone!

At the risk of sounding monstrously clichéed, (is that spelling anything like correct??), doesn't time fly? It does fly when you have things to stitch for certain dates. I had 4 projects scheduled for completion/delivery from July - September. I did get a bit behind with #1 and that's largely my own fault, but MIL seemed to enjoy watching it develop as I completed it at her place. #2 was totally beyond me though as I put in my order for the supplies needed for #2 and #3 in good time, but had to finally give up on that ONS after 2 months of non-delivery (and non-communication after their response to a chase-up email). That got me nicely behind with #2, which is now 12 days late and here is a slightly out of date pic of it. Since this was taken (in very bad light, sorry), I've completed all the cream around the main border bits and even done some of the last line of Kloster blocks which will outline the whole square and, this evening, I put in the last 3 flowers and have done almost 2 of the 6 leaves. So, it's further on than this, but I'll post that and what gets done before next post on Thursday, all being well.

Project 4 is also under way, (you might remember the start on Patricia Ann's 'Silver Frost' in this post, and I may even get that done on time. I expect #3, another hardanger cushion to be a little quicker to work up as many of the satin stitch elements are quite large and there aren't large cutwork areas on that one either, but I'm not holding breath to get it done in time.

I made a whole load of cards for many the anniversaries and the November wedding that are needed for the rest of the year. The first was delivered yesterday. It's papercraft cards now in most cases as I no longer have the time to stitch all cards. It was OK when I was ill and had little or nothing else to do, but now it's getting too much for me to keep up to and that means that this load of anniversary gifts is going to be the last for a while too. In future, only really big things for close friends will be marked this way and for the rest, I'll buy things where felt appropriate. I love stitching and I know these things are special, but time no longer allows and it does get too much at times.

The October 'Awake!' magazine had an interesting comment to make about blogs as it said that some prospective employers will check your blog when considering whether or not to emply you. I can say that I think this is true. A couple of weeks ago, I sent an enquiry email from my private account about a job, (which I later decided not to apply for), and noticed from my Google Analytics and Feedjit stuff that the recipient had clicked on the link in my signature line and looked at 2 pages of my blog! Given that their response to my questions 2 hours later was very encouraging, I can only assume that she liked the look of me from my blog etc, but it certainly gave me pause! Normally, I only send this kind of email from my work account (esp. as I'm most interested in jobs on-campus), but this time I forgot and gave them my web links. So, if anyone's job hunting, you might want to think about if you want prospective workmates to see your blog and if and how they can get to it. Of course, for some folk, it may even be a selling point!!=)

So, stitching plans for the rest of the calendar year are:

* Finish 'Flowers and Leaves' hardanger cushion

* Stitch 'Soft as Snow' hardanger cushion

* Finish 'Silver Frost' and make up as wide bellpull

* Finish 'Goldfinches and Thistles' cross stitch, then prepare all three of these for framing, (at least 2 need washing to remove marks)

Half asleep

But here's the current status on the cushion anyway (and thanks for all the nice comments on the last photo):

It's going so slowly that I sometimes wonder how I ever though hardanger worked up fast! Still, some bits are a bit fiddlier than they look. Hope the next one is a bit speedier.

~mj~ of The Sampler Stitcher kindly gave me this award, which was very nice of her. Yet another to add to the list! I just can't think straight at the mo to pass it on, but you never know, one day I might just do it!!

A bit of colour!

Well, better late than never. I didn't get to update on Thursday for a number of reasons including that I was working, that our Internet connection is frightfully slow much of the time, (engineer coming tomorrow), and that I'd next to nothing to show. Anyway, now I've done a bit more and, although it's not as much as I'd hoped for (this is a slow border to work up), here's something anyway:

Quick 'Hi!'

Oooof! What a busy week! Not got as much done as I wanted cushion-wise, but I have done the first part of the border on the cushion and started the 2nd. Will update with photo on Monday afternoon as we're away until Sunday night now. Hope to get something more done in the evenings over the weekend. The project is 'due' next week, but I fear it will be late...

I had to ask a friend to be a personal referee for me for an employment agencies' requirements. I told him they'd just 'phone him up and check there was no danger of my pilfering hadbags. He replied that there was more danger I'd embroider their bags than steal from them!!!=)

A little progress to report

But only a very little! As I've been recovering from some odd virus over the weekend, I haven't really been up to stitching much, so I've only done the second row of Kloster blocks in the big central diamond, the 4 eyelets in the smaller diamonds and then finished off the piece of #5 pearl cotton I'd been using by starting on some of the inner line of the border work. Anyway, I think I'm free of the bug now, just totally exhasuted, so I'll have to be careful, but can still do stuff. I've set my mobile phone alarm for 10pm every day as a 'Go to bed' reminder!!

New hardanger in progress

Thought I'd just post what I'd done (during the first 2 days' work, whilst I've also still been ill and not able to work on it for very long at any one time) on the current hardanger cushion/pillow project. This is the central diamond. There are some coloured bits to do as well, but I need to do a discreet colour match with a certain sofa, hopefully this evening, so that I can decide which thread to use for best results - I think the terracotta one that came with the kit will be too dark. Also, I've decided to do the leaf elements in green, not cream, to warm the whole thing up a bit and add a splash more colour. Hope to have more to show on Monday when you'll be able to see the weekend's work. Seems to work well posting on Mondays and Thursdays at the mo.

Of course, this now means that I have 3 large WIPs! Eeek! I always limited it to 2 and now I'm at 3. Still, it couldn't be helped under the circumstances. I also got the Caron threads through for the next project and tried to get a photo of them, but the colours didn't come out well and I just couldn't adjust them to show their full glory. I've got 'Iced Lavendar', which is a glorious mix of pale pink and lilac.

Bands 9-13 done, band 8 in progress

Here's the work I did over the weekend on the 'Silver Frost' piece. I've started just above the middle and worked up a bit. The top band here, band 8, took me about 100 minutes to do and there's still about half the work left on it! (I know that as it took the entire of watching a 103 minute film to do!!!!) Don't know how much more of it I'll get done in the immediate future because:


I finally cancelled my order with the ONS who have kept me waiting for over 2 months for my hardanger supplies. I won't say who they are in case there's some serious reason for their neglect, (like the lady who runs it has died etc), but I doubt I'll be shopping there again! I got this great cushion kit instead from Nordic Needlecraft in Scotland. They aren't the cheapest by a long stretch, but their customer service is second to none and I can't recommend them highly enough for that. The colours are precisely what I was looking for and the hardanger fabric included is quite a bit softer than I'd feared. Oslo would have been a little nicer, but this will do just nicely and will soften a little through washing and also working on, even though I'll be using my great big, unwieldy 17" R&R frame!!! Anyway, this piece is needed in about 2 weeks, whereas the 'Silver Frost' isn't wanted until late next month. There is another piece to do in between as well, (which also got held up by the ONS not responding), but I've just ordered those threads too and should be able to get that done OK as well. Hardanger works up quickly - mercifully!