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

'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 - 3 Feb 2014

 It's Monday again and it's update time!  I did hope that I would get this piece finished at least in time for this post, if not by the end of January, but it's still not complete.  It's coming along quite well, but I expect I'll only be able to show the finished thing next week.  Feels a bit bad being behind on my own challenge, but that's life, huh?

This month we're looking at Japan as a design inspiration theme.  This is the piece that I'm using as a rough pattern.  It's 'Hanako's Dream' from 'Inspirations' issue 48 (I think).  I won't be doing it anything like as in the original as that required having to buy the printed silk outline and a great many fancy beads and buttons as the embroidery is mostly beading trims.

What I'm thinking of doing is creating the kimono from some pieces of Japanese cotton fabrics I've had for a while and using appliqué to 'fix' them in place, then do the rest of the figure in simple embroidery stitches and trim up as and where feels right when I see how the piece is working out.

Of course, it might not work out well at all, but the idea is to give it a try and see what happens.  You don't grow if you don't take risks!

What about you?  How are you getting on with your Needlequest work?  Do leave a link in the comments section on this post so we can share what you've been doing.  Of course, other comments are most welcome too!  If you're creating a post to share your work so far, please try to include a link back here so that your readers can find out about the challenge too and, if anyone else would like to join in, feel free to add your sign up as a comment on the challenge page.=)

PS Update on Mum:  She's improving slowly and should be off the High Dependency Unit and back onto a normal hospital ward as soon as a bed becomes available. She's feeling much better than a week ago and was able to chat a bit on Saturday.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

Needlequest Progress Post - 27 Jan 2014

Hi everyone!

I'm afraid I've nothing new to share with you today, just the same post as I included on the Grow Your Blog Party post (which is under this one, for anyone visiting from that event).  I'm hoping to get a little more of this one done later on today whilst sitting visiting my mum in hospital.  Poor girl didn't get long at home....=(

Can you do any better?  Have you anything to share with the rest of us this week?  If so, please leave your link (and/or any other comments) below.

Sorry for the brief post, not much time to spare today!  Hope to be back with a Work in Progress Wednesday post in two days' time.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

Needlequest Progress Post - Mon 20 Jan 2014

It's Monday again and time to share what little I've managed to do on the Needlequest piece this week.  The main reason for the lack of really impressive progress is that I was out of action for a good few days and I can't stitch when horizontal in bed!!  Sadly...=(

One of the challenge members said last week that she was impressed at how much I had been able to do up to that point.  Well, it might help to know that we have a small and simple home, no kids or pets and I work one morning every two months.  Thanks to that, I can probably stitch more than many can.

As you can see, I haven't really got very far on with this piece.  What you're seeing here is each day's work from Saturday at the top, Sunday above and what I've just finished off this morning below.

I wanted to get the outlines all worked as quickly as possible as they aren't easy to see.  You would think that they would be, the fabric being, basically, dark brown.  However, as you can just make out at the left hand side of the second photo by the hoop part, the fabric is actually shot silk, so the white marks show beautifully against the dark brown threads, but very poorly against the light tan ones.  Depending on how the light is hitting the fabric I could either see the lines quite clearly or not at all!!=)  Now I have a nice stitched outline.  As you can see under the bottom leaf, I also have a nasty mark....=(  I think something got dropped on it, but it should wash out when the piece is finished.

What about you?  Have you managed to get anything done/posted over the last week?  If you have, please leave a comment with a link on this post.  If you leave it on any other post or page it'll get missed by anyone wanting to see others' work and that would be a shame.  However, If you'd like to sign up to join in, then leave a comment on the challenge home page, and I'll gladly add you to the list.

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