Welcome visitors from Pintangle!

Thank you very much for clicking over to see me. ☺

I was very flattered when Sharon asked to include me in her TAST interview series, especially as I haven't been able to join in as much as I'd have liked to.  Also, if you've read the interview you'll know I'm not very good at the exploratory process - I'm very different from many of the artists featured thus far!  However, I do like to learn new things and develop as much skill as I can, so TAST is one of the challenges that offer a constant opportunity to move forward.  I'm planning on looking more closely into the Embroiderer's Guild distance learning courses towards the end of this year, so they may provide the needed impetus.

If you'd like to know more about the wedding dress panel, you can see my series of seven posts on the project, or hop over to the Kreinik Threads Blog to read their interview with me about it. ☺♥☻

I'm having some technology problems at the moment - both my laptop and my digital camera urgently need replacing (the camera I can only use if I seal the battery door up with duct tape, and the laptop is exasperatingly slow, no matter how much I delete, disable or otherwise clean up), so blogging has been rather neglected of late.  It takes a lot of patience and planning to get anything done, so there are a few projects waiting to be published.  Assuming I get my tech up to speed in the next few weeks (as I very much hope to, and Sir has agreed the funds for it ☺) , here's a sneak peek at what's coming up soon:

Here you can see some previews of counted thread and freestyle embroideries, sewing and knitting projects, and preparation for entering some local summer shows.

I'll be blogging all of these projects and more in the near future, including my sewing workshop days and some overviews of all the handicrafts exhibits at the Bingley and Ryedale Shows held later this month and the Shadwell Flower Show in mid August.

You can subscribe using the e-mail service (just remember to complete the verification process, or you won't be signed up), or any of the usual reader services.  There are widgets for some of the most popular part way down in the side bar.  I'm also on Instagram.

If you'd like to know more about my work, please do feel free to have a look at the gallery pages which you can find links for just under the blog header image.

My apologies for a relatively short and dull intro post, but I seem to be in for a bout of tonsillitis (or a cold at least) and I'm feeling just that little bit ropey today. However, thanks very much again for calling in and I hope to host you in my web home often. ☺♥☻

If you haven't seen the interview I'm referring to in this post, click here for a look!


Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2017

Work in Progress Wednesday - 15 February 2017

I confess, I'm not getting a lot of embroidery done at the moment.  To be honest, I'm more into knitting just now as I'm doing baby projects both for this year's Shows and also for friends' newborns.  I've also been stashing some yarn for some knits for myself.  More on those projects on Sunday...

At least I've got a little more progress on the everlasting violet thread painting to share.  I'm expecting to need this for a special greetings card in May, but there may be up to two more also needed, so I really should get back going with it.

I took this photos with my phone, so the colour isn't quite as faithful as I can get it using my camera.  I need a few things sorting on my technology - camera battery door fixing, new laptop battery and the power supply 'pin' thingy fixing, so I hope to get to that as soon as I can and be able to work more comfortably instead of having to compensate for some problem most of the time.  Frustrating!

Join me again on Friday for the next instalment in the wedding dress modesty panel series.

☺♥☻

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2017

Autumn Leaves Wedding Pillow - Leaf 5 and Complete Sprig

Welcome to part four and we start with part of the outlining of the fifth leaf (and some lovely sheen on the silk threads).

This was the last section of thread painting on this project and here are a few shots of how it was done.

Not much out of the ordinary to report this time, except the usual working and re-working of the leaf veins.  I don't miss that, I can tell you!! ☻

Next time we add the metallic parts.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2017

Work in Progress Wednesday - 25 Jan 2017

It's been a long time since I did a 'Work in Progress Wednesday' post, but I'd like to get back into it.  I really miss Sharon Boggon running it as a weekly challenge/link up event.  If you're reading this, Sharon, there are still people doing WIPW posts and I'm sure they'd love to join up with you again.  So, if you ever wanted to re-start it, you'd have some interest.  I always found it very helpful and I completed a number of stalled and slow projects in order to join in.☺

I last posted on this piece right at the beginning of last year, so here's a recap.  Fellow fans of Trish Burr's work and books may recognise this little violet embroidery from her 'Fresh Ideas for Beginners' needle painting book, which I'm slowly working through some of the projects from.  I first blogged my first - terrible - attempts at the bud back on 11 November 2015 and the last photo on blog was the one here with the part worked leaf.

Here's the leaf completed

I have since worked the purple parts of the bud again, but didn't realise that I hadn't photographed it yet.  My camera battery door is broken and I'm having to make do with holding it together with a combination of duct tape and main force when I need to take decent pictures, pending Sir having a look at some of the on-line tutes there are for fixing the problem.  I really don't want to bin my otherwise fully functional camera because of such a small, mend-able problem, but it does mean that I find taking just one more shot when I thought I'd done and uploaded them all a bit of a nuisance.

I've just finished a moderate revamp of this blog.  I changed some text colours, deleted some out of date sidebar stuff and finally got around to staging and photographing a new header image.  I'm not 100% happy with it, but it'll do for the time being.  The next digital skill I want to develop is banner and logo creation.  If anyone has any tips to do this cheaply - preferably free - please share!  I have Photoshop Elements v2.0 from about 15 years ago, MS Publisher 2007 and that's about it for creative software.

More on the autumn leaves project coming up on Friday.  I have 12 past project posts created and scheduled for publication between then and early March and there are still three to do.  Plenty to read on Sew in Love coming up!  Enjoy. ♥☺♥

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2017

Autumn Leaves Wedding Pillow - Leaves 3 & 4

Welcome to the third part of this project series.  Today we'll take a simple photographic journey through the creation of the third and fourth leaves.

With the vein gauge sorted, it was time to move on to shading the next couple of leaves, both of which were green based.

I wasn't happy with the leaf veins on the the third one either - too straight.  It was rather hard to get them sorted though, and I'm not sure I cracked it in the long run, but you can see what you think in later photos.

On to leaf number four now and some lovely yellows and soft greens this time:

The end of the needle painting in sight.  Join me next time for the fifth leaf. ☺

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2017

Autumn Leaves Wedding Pillow - Leaves 1 & 2

Thanks to all of you who commented on the last post.  It was a clear vote - one project at a time.

So, here's the first of a series of photo heavy posts showing most of the process of shading the leaves, then the numbering and then finally the whole piece made up.  Some stages didn't get photographed very much, so there are a few gaps, but I'm sure there's enough to get the idea. ☺

As it takes such a long time to choose, edit and upload the photos in order, (which is something that puts me off blogging a lot these days....), I'll be keeping text to a minimum - just the stuff that really adds something to the understanding of the project.

Let's make a start on leaves numbers one and two.

At this point I felt that the leaf veins were too heavy.  I'd been working them in the same thread as the shading was done - one strand of Madeira Silk, but it just seemed to overpower the leaves, especially the yellow and orange one.  Whilst walking up the road, I picked up a couple more leaves to have a look at the gauge of the leaf veins in nature and so decided to change to one strand of sewing cotton instead.

First came the delicate task of unpicking the original stitches, which wasn't easy!

Then came the re-stitching of the veins.  I know they're not a great deal finer, but, if nothing else, I got a chance to alter the colours and make the veins more curved and less stick-like.

Next time: Leaves three and four. ☺

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2017

Autumn Leaves Wedding Pillow - Design, Transfer and First Steps

It's finally time to get going on all the un-blogged projects that I've been working over the past three or four months.  It was rather hectic for a while, but now I feel that I've more or less caught up with myself and am ready to start documenting what I can remember of the process of creating three wedding gifts, one wedding dress modesty panel, one wedding card and a 'finishing up' project where I mounted or otherwise dealt with things where the stitchery had long since been completed, but was awaiting being made into something.

Let's start with the autumn leaves wedding souvenir pillow for the younger brother of the groom who received the white rose and lavender pillow back in May.  You could say that the pillow itself was the first one's little brother too as it was a little smaller, the design was simpler and quicker to work as I was using wider gauge threads.  More on that later.

The green leaves emoji you see above and may recognise from WhatsApp et al was, basically, the commission I received back in August, along with the wedding date and a 'neutral colour' for the background.  The bridal pair are very fond of leaves, woods and that kind of thing, and they often used this emoji as their symbol during their courtship and engagement.

The groom's mum initially asked if I could do it just as in the emoji - all rich green, but, as you can see, there simply isn't enough detail in it to make a worthwhile embroidery of any size.  It'd be ok as something about an inch square, but it's much too stylized to be any good as a thread painting.  So, I changed it to a more autumnal mix of colours, using this image I found on-line as a bit of a guide.  I zoomed the emoji to the right size on my tablet screen and traced it off there.  (Do you know how hard it is to trace off a screen?  Never mind one that keeps altering the size and jumping around if it feels too much pressure from your pencil!!?)  I then typed the numbering using the most rustic and woody looking font I could find, printed it out and made the following working design diagram, which, unless you're very new to my blog (in which case, Hi! Welcome☺), you'll have seen a few months ago.

The '10' was just that tiny bit too high up, so I compensated a bit when tracing it off onto the light beige/cream slub silk in my usual, high-tech, no expense spared style! ☺

I chose Madeira Silks to work with this time as they're much thicker than Pipers Silk Floss and have less sheen - perfect for the more rustic look needed for leaves.  Ok, yes, much, much faster to work with than the finer ones too.  Definitely no complaints there!

Here is the initial palette of autumn leaf shades I chose to work with.  It's also quite clear in this photo why I needed to re-wash and press the light silk.  Actually, I'd forgotten, but this fabric can be awfully 'papery' to work with.  I actually threw the last piece I tried to start a project on away as it was so unlike fabric and I couldn't bear the texture.  I'd worked on enough pieces of silk to know that it shouldn't have been like that, so, suspecting an over-zealous application of something with a stiffening effect, I headed to the washbasin with my trust Ecover delicate fabric detergent and some regular laundry softener, and gave it a good rinse out - after having washed a sample of the same fabric and pen to make sure I wasn't about to mess up my tracing.

The brown fabric shown underneath the main piece is a lovely, rich, reddish brown shade that came in a theme pack from The Silk Route a few years ago.  It was great to be able to use it for a perfectly matching project as the colour is really a dark copper tone.  Gorgeous!

Next up was making a start on the stitching by working the leaf sprig stem and beginning to outline one of the leaves.

The next day, I had to go and visit my mum in hospital and picked up a yellow and dark orange leaf of a similar type to the ones I was working as a colour and shading reference.  (My well-informed-on-nature friend, Emily, helped me to identify beech leaves as a possible type.)  As you can see from the outlined first leaf below, I'd woefully missed the mark when it came to how bright the colours needed to be!  Back to the Madeira Silk thread drawer and out came some much more vibrant shades to work with.

Here's the final line-up of colours and tools that were used in this project - including the sewing cottons that were needed for the finer leaf veins and the cute chocolate cupcake pincushion that a friend made me last spring and that really came into its own during this project.

Next time: progress on the leaves!

UNLESS you'd like me to mix the projects up a bit??  I have six whole projects to blog, including the finishing up one.  Would you like to see one at a time?  A mix of two or three at a time?  Or all of them in rotation?  What do you think?  Click over from your reader software and let me know.  They've all to be done and are all complete, so any order is fine with me.  You say.....

I also have a year end summary and projects planned for the year ahead to post (as well as how the ones I've started are coming on), plus a report on how I managed to downscale some of my stash - halved my fabric, can you believe?!  So, lots coming up.  Hoping to get my blogging umph back.  It's been gone for about two years now and it would be nice to get well and truly back into it.  No promises, but I'm going to try. ♥

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2017

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