Autumn Leaves Wedding Pillow - Numbering and Metallic Leaf Flecks

This is where we left off in part four of this series, the completed silk thread painting.  Part five takes a brief look at the metallic work.  I say brief as I, sadly, didn't take many WIP photos during this part.

I love metallic touches in my pieces and am a big fan of Kreinik threads.  The numbering was done in copper coloured #8 fine braid in shade 021C, couched down with cord shade 021C.

Numerals complete and time to add a few metallic flecks to the leaves.  These were the threads I chose from my collection of Kreinik Cords:

At this point, the piece is still in the hoop.  Part six, next time, will showcase the completed little cushion/pillow.

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

Stash Sunday - The 500 Thread Challenge (simplified version)

Last Sunday I was thinking about the large quantity of threads I owned and what I might let go of if I ever had to minimize the collection.  Remember?  In the comments section that day, wenhck said she felt that her stash was more than sufficient too, Glenis was delighted to have cleared out 4 boxfiles of surplus patterns recently (well done!) and Jules of Needle and Pen is cutting down her threads to reflect only what she uses.  I hope she'll do an update stash collection post on her blog soon as I love seeing that sort of post and am curious to see what she has left.... Hint - hint!!!

To be honest, I tend to agree with lewmew who said she'd have to keep all her threads as she never knows what she wants to stitch next, and  Rachel  of Virtuosew Adventures who said that it's not really possible to have a minimal stash if you're into multiple embroidery styles.  Even just one, (unless it were whitework or blackwork), can see you with a meaningfully plentiful collection.  I mean, have you seen how many threads one can use for cross stitch?  Besides stranded cottons, there are metallic braids, blending filaments, silks, over-dyed cottons etc etc etc.  I reckon there'll be some passionate cross stitchers whose thread stash easily rivals mine. =)

Having said that, for interest's sake I decided to do a simplified 500 Thread Challenge to see which 500 items I would definitely want to keep of my over 1600 if it was ever necessary.

Why simplified?  Only that, if I were to do this for real, I would take longer than about half an hour checking colour charts and would go through the whole lot very carefully determining the actual usefulness of almost each and every shade.  This time I just decided that I would want to keep the whole of my complete Anchor thread collection and then choose a few extras that would allow me to do as many different styles of work as possible.

You can't beat good old stranded cotton for general purpose use, so selecting mostly from those was a no brainer.  As there are 444 shades of Anchor (aside from the variegated ones), that left me with just 56 items to choose, and here they are:



I was surprised at the number of DMC skeins I owned that were substantially different from Anchor shades.  There will be plenty of others in other colour families of course, but I only have 86 DMCs, which were all chosen for being 'gap pluggers' - esp. the greens, which you can never have enough of.  I don't know why it is, but I can settle for a passably close match with most other colours, but I absolutely require the correct shade of green!  To be honest, I feel fairly similarly about brown and grey too.  Natures basics, I suppose.  If I were working abstracts, patterns or stylized designs, it would concern me less, but for representing nature, the basics have to be right. How do you feel about that?  Similarly?  Or do you go more for getting the brights spot on?  Or maybe you're ok with whatever you have??

Besides the DMC stranded cottons, there are a few basic Anchor Pearl Cottons in all 3 thicknesses in both bright and antique white (as well as a ball of #12 in black for blackwork), and those plus an ecru shade - #926 - and black in Coton à Broder.  Lastly, I had space for only 2 metallics and chose Kreinik silver and gold Cable as it's 3 ply and possibly could be separated for finer strands.  Of course, DMC stranded metallic would do this as well and probably separate more easily as Kreinik Cable is designed to be used all in one go.

Of course, whilst doing this exercise, I started wondering about completing my DMC collection.  Later on, whilst looking up designs I wanted to work soon, I began to think about getting one or more of those oval embroidery 'hoops'.  So much for no more stash!!  I haven't bought any, and wasn't really planning to get any more threads just now, but the idea began to appeal again and the large collection felt more comfy.  Phew!!  =)

I've sold a lot of threads in the past, anything from surplus duplicate stranded cottons through silks to hand-dyed threads etc.  I remember getting a complete set of 20 hand-dyed cottons at a show and never using one of them.  They sold well on e-bay.  I also sold all the GAST, WDW and SSS (remember them?) shades that I was never going to use a few years ago before we went for the year in Taiwan, along with various other stash items.  I've also sold all the kits I was never going to work, fabrics I knew I would never use and part-kits and charts that I had already completed, but that would be of interest to someone.  With one exception, they all went and I'm pleased I did it.  So, you could  say that my stash is maybe 20-30% smaller than it could have been.=)

So, what about you?  What could you absolutely not do without?  What do you regret having bought and did you ever clear it out?

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015

Stash Sunday - Coton à Broder #16

Continuing in last week's 'theme' of coton à broder, today I've got a photo of all the skeins of the #16 gauge
that I own.  I'm unlikely to expand this much, if at all, as there's not much to expand with.  As you can see, there are a handful of DMC skeins in there too, but their collection is more or less as limited as Anchor's, but at least they had some nice, warm greens and a couple of cooler pinks.

This is another set of threads that I've had for several years, built on when the chance arose (i.e. when I found 11 shades I'd never seen before available via an e-bay seller and I grabbed them), but rarely used.  The ends of thread wrapped around the colour number the label shows that I've used two reds and one green, which I think all went on the C&G sample you see here back in 2008 (red French knot sections).  I also remember there being a small section worked in #16 in an old RSN stumpwork kit that I did about 10 years ago. What about you?  Ever used this kind of thread?

I had what you might call a near miss with stash building today as we went down to Bakewell for the afternoon and I had hoped to spend a very pleasant half hour in Wye Needlecraft.  However, they've gone!  According to a websearch, they sold up and the new owners opened up in Mansfield, but the person writing about it felt it was nowhere near as good as the old shop and seemed to be hardly ever even open!  Soon afterwards the new management decided to take the whole operation on-line and so one more LNS bites the dust, and an award-winning one at that.  They had a really good specialist stock - you could even buy goldwork threads there, but no longer.  Sad. =(

Having said that, and having just watched a video segment on simplifying one's life, esp. materially, I couldn't help but feel that it wasn't such a bad thing for me.  I mean, I own way too much stitching stash!  I know that there are stitchers who own far more, (we've all read stories of clearing out whole rooms/garages full of stash when an embroiderer has sadly died), but it's beginning to feel uncomfortable in the same way that the book collection that I used to love and swore I could never part with began to feel within the last year.  My whole view of stuff is rapidly changing and I'm pretty sure I'll be buying very little at the Harrogate Show.  My goal is to come back with less in my bag than I went with (I'll eat my packed lunch and drink all the water and juices that I need to take with in order to stay hydrated in that awfully dry environment that makes me feel ill otherwise!), and just to take a few notes, sketches and ideas away.  I'm not going to deny myself anything I *really* want, but I'll be doing a lot of questioning of myself as to why and whether I'm going to buy anything.

I. Just. Don't. Need. Any. More. Stash.

Whilst I'm not planning to de-stash to any great degree in the immediate future, I am still keeping an eye on what's used and what's worth keeping long-term as well as giving some thought to what a minimalist kit would be, both out of pure interest and also with an eye to possible changes in the long-term.  So, everyone get your thinking caps on this week and be ready to comment on what your 'must keep' items would be ready for next Sunday when I'm going to be posting about what I would keep if I were to par right down. What couldn't you do without?  What could you lose?  How much do you think you keep 'just in case', 'for the pleasure of owning/collecting it' or rather regret buying?

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015

Stash Sunday - Coton à Broder #25

I finally got around to getting out my entire Coton à Broder #25 collection and laying it out in colour groups to look at the spectrum available (and just because I enjoyed playing with them!!!).

As you can see, I merged the two brands together.  I don't have anything like all of the DMC ones as there are something like 180 in their selection of shades and, including the 79 (I think) Anchor ones I got, my whole collection is only around 125.  I might complete it one day, but as I don't really use them that much just yet, it's not likely to happen in the near future.  I fear that it may be a case of 'just for the sake of it', which isn't good sense either financially or space-wise.  Hoarding yet more thread would hardly contribute to my minimalist goal.  Having said that, many creative pursuits really aren't very minimalist, but there are degrees to which these things can be taken.  Some are happy with the core essentials at any given time, some want everything on the market.  Most of us fall somewhere in between.  I do have a tendency to horde stuff I like, but I'm aware of that and try to control it, at least!!!

Anyway, all that aside, I do like Coton à Broder #25.  It's a nice gauge, a nice texture and seems to be replacing the formerly popular #16 gauge thread, which I also have a collection of, but probably about half this many.  They're threads that seem to me to have a lot of potential and I hope to do some experimenting with them in the near future.  Have you used Coton à Broder much, or at all?  Which gauge(s)?

I've also just been doing an inventory of things I've bought this year so far and, apart from embroidery supplies, I'm doing really well at not buying stuff.  I've been given three books, but bought none (and one of the give-aways I won't be keeping), given one bottle of perfume and bought one cosmetic item that I needed, but returned it as it was terrible!!!  Embroidery supplies-wise I've bought one piece of linen (which I used half of for the recent L*K piece), 37 DMC Coton à Broder skeins, 19 balls of Anchor Pearl Cotton #12, 3 spools of Kreinik Cord and 23 packs of Mill Hill beads, mostly in the sell-off event at Hobbycraft.  Oh, I also bought two bumper cross stitch pattern magazines.  I'll be doing a Project Minimalist update on my lifestyle blog soon, which will detail the stuff I've cut down too.

I was brave and did an approximate thread inventory recently.  It turned out that my estimate of around 1600 threads was more or less accurate.  I can see myself letting go of as many as 400 in the medium term if I continue to not use them, but I'm not forcing myself to.  I don't plan on buying (m)any more though.  I ordered my ticket for the November Harrogate Show this week, but it'll be a pleasure and inspiration trip as much as anything and I hope to come back fairly empty handed.

I have been doing a bit of cross stitch - my big WIP and a card for Sir - recently and hope to show you both of those during the next week.  I'm still having headache troubles, although some days I can use my glasses OK.  Trouble is, they're usually days that I either haven't time for blogging, or just don't really feel like it.  How typical is that? LOL!  Anyway, I know what causes the trouble and am working daily on resolving the problem.  It takes time, but progress is being made, so I'm happy with that.  I've just managed to edit lots of photos and write 4 blog posts (3 in advance), so things aren't bad today.=)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015

Stash Sunday - Anchor Pearl Cotton #12

I'm really quite a fan of Pearl Cotton #12.  I like the gauge (similar to two strands of stranded cotton), the texture and plenty more about it.  To be honest, my use of it thus far has been limited, but there have been plenty of ideas: Needlelace things in stumpwork, parts of freestyle designs that needed a little more texture than stranded cotton provides, as can just about be seen in the streambed sections of this Helen M Stevens' design I used it in back in 2008, and also fine filling stitch work for hardanger, for a start.

The only thing I didn't like about it was how few colours it came in.  The first picture above shows the entire of the original Anchor Pearl #12 collection including about a dozen colours that weren't available in the UK and I had to have shipped from Nordic Needle in the States.  No proper yellows or oranges, no browns beyond a few beige shades, no grass greens.  It was a really limited selection.  Even DMC couldn't help much.  They had some other colours available, but still no oranges, yellows etc, and a selection of only the same size.

Imagine my delight one day when browsing the Sew and So thread section I saw that the whole collection had been thoroughly re-vamped and considerably enlarged!

Of course, there were some casualties and the colours shown here in this selection of muted greens, blues, pinks and purples, along with a slightly deeper than vibrant red shade were all retired from the range.  I must remember not to use these in anything I might design for sale later on, although DMC still seem to have some comparable hues.  Shame about that red, though - Anchor shade 47, as I find it more useful than the brighter 46.

These were the first balls of the new set that I invested in.  I chose landscape colours mostly so that I could continue to use them in Helen M Stevens' style pictures, where she represents fields, water and so on in long stitches of twisted silk.  This would work well as a substitute thought I.

Of course, me being me and a complete thread-head floss fanatic, I didn't stop there and, two or three hauls later, I found myself with this as a personal collection:  

Certainly a much better selection of shades than used to be available!  There seem to be about 117 (only 40 in DMC just now) at the moment, and I don't have all of them.  There seem to be about 30 I haven't yet bought, but I'm out of space for now, although I could create it within the system I already own.  I don't want to need to look for new thread storage solutions as, much as I don't mind filling up the drawers and workbox that I have, I'm not interested in buying more.  I have a LOT of thread, and much more could get beyond ridiculous, no?  As you can see in this last shot, what I own just now fills the available space nicely, with room for two, three or four more balls at some point.

I have my Pearl Cotton #8 balls in the other cantilever section on the other side of the workbox and those could be rehoused if need be, i.e. if I ever wanted to expand this collection again.  For now though, it stays as it is.

What about you?  Have you used Pearl Cotton #12?  What for?  What other uses can you think of for it?

BTW, I won't be doing Stash Sunday posts every week!!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015

Stash Sunday!

Ugh!  I've got sinusitis, so I've been sitting quietly, cross-stitching.  I'm getting along quite well with my picture (update some time next week), but I thought I'd break off to share some recent stash haul shots.

This first lot, a bumper cross stitch magazine containing all manner of lovely wildlife pictures, many of which are those glorious Anchor designs, and three offer priced packs of Mill Hill beads came from Hobbycraft a couple of weeks ago.  Those of you who live in the UK and have a Hobbycraft in reasonable distance may want to pay a visit to your local branch soon as this is a good deal on Mill Hill beads.  Some of the more expensive items (crystal treasures, economy bead packs etc) are going for £2, but regular sized ones are just £1, which is a decent price for the UK.

I inadvertently duplicated a shade as it seems I already had the red ones.  However, I thought I didn't have frosted red as I couldn't remember owning a matte red like this.

As you can see, I didn't own one!  The two production runs were quite different and even in this photo you can see the difference in sheen on the beads, no?  So, I'm keeping them both in my red bead box.

A week or so later, I took up the Sew and So newsletter 10% discount in April offer and ordered this little lot, several Anchor pearl cotton #12 shades, more Mill Hill beads, a reel of Kreinik cord and several different gauges of DMC Coton à Broder.

The coloured Coton à Broder threads are all in weight #16 and plug a few gaps in the Anchor #16 collection, (which is totally devoid of yellow-greens!).

I also treated myself to these basic shades in #20 and #30 as well as a purple Kreinik cord I bought for the sheer love of purple!! =)

As far as Pearl Cotton #12 went, I filled in a few more gaps in my collection and got a new black, as I've used quite a bit of my old one and am likely to need another at some point in the reasonably near future.

This is the whole of my recent bead haul.

I'm toying with the idea of some fruit tree designs and so I wanted some orange beads (for oranges, of course!) and also some smaller gauge ones.  Sadly, there weren't matching orange ones in the Petite range, but at least there are some dark orange ones here and I was able to get some good yellow and greens too.  The purple, again, was for the sheer pleasure of my favourite colour!

So, now Kathy's saying to herself, 'I thought she wasn't going to be buying more stuff and was cutting down?!'  And she'd be quite right in the main.  I'm not accumulating as a general rule at the mo, but I confess to being unable to resist that 10% off offer from Sew and So.  Besides, I'm not expecting to cut my stitching stash down much, if at all, although I have already divested myself of a fair quantity of books, pens/pencils/paints, make-up products and clothes, as well as used up a number of perfumes and other things.  There are still 400-500 books to go, as well as numerous magazines, tapes and much more before we move in about 3 months' time.  My original aim was to halve my personal possessions for the move and I may well succeed, or close to it. I may grab some more beads from the Hobbycraft Mill Hill offer, as £1 is a real snip, but I doubt I'll be getting much or any more stash this year, with the possible exception of a few bits and pieces at the Harrogate Show in November.  For me, it wasn't about saving money as we have no debts and I just used the money I earned in selling some of my surplus stuff to buy these, so buying something isn't a problem generally.

A later post will cover more about the Anchor #12 Pearl Cotton collection.  In the meantime, why not have a Stash Sunday yourself and share a photo or two of some new or current stash?  Not to show off or anything negative like that, but just for the fun of sharing and eye candy. =)  I love to have a nosey into others' thread collections and so I'd love to see some of yours!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015

Is it December already?

Goodness me!  Have I really neglected my blog for a whole month?  Wow!  That must be a record.  Well, here I am in the usual one piece.

My main reason for not posting was lack of anything interesting stitch-wise to report.  There have been other things - illness, being busy with day-to-day stuff, stress etc, but plain lack of productivity (related to the other reasons!!!) is the main cause.

Anyway...

I made it to the Harrogate K&S Show this year after being afraid I couldn't go.  In fact, I had a better, longer day there this time than I had for a while.  I also realised how dehydrating the place is and made a mental note to pack twice as much liquid next year so as to avoid the feeling of being very achey and tired most of the day.

I also got some great new stuff.  The first picture is the threads and the lovely, fine-point scissors.  I bought my first Stef Francis threads (the gold one) and also my first Japanese thread (the multi-metallic one).

The second shot is of the contents of a bargain pack of light evenweaves I picked up for only £8.  There are 8 pieces in there, all good project sizes, some larger, and some even seem to be linen or linen-look fabrics.

I also got a couple of packs of small pieces from a different stall.  I enjoyed looking at Jane Greenoff's little fabric sampler books and thought these smalls would work well to make up one of my own. =)

The next photo, and the last from the Show, is of the four pieces of silk I got from The Silk Route, one of my favourite stands.  I'm still interested in making miniature textiles for doll's houses and I thought the one on the far right especially would be great for 'the gentleman's room' stuff.  The piece on the far left is actually lemon, not cream, and I just bought that for the sheer pleasure of it. =D

As I'd recently made a fair bit of pocket money on e-bay and Amazon, I still had a decent amount left after the show and so put in a big thread order with good old Sewandso.co.uk  I more or less completed the Anchor Coton à Broder #25 collection (just omitted 2 shades I couldn't see myself using) and then plugged some gaps with some DMC ones.  Sadly, their skeins are a completely different shape, so I wasn't able to store them together.  Other than that I grabbed some more Pearl Cotton #12 balls and discovered that I still have room for about another 15.  The beads are Mill Hill Pony Beads in sizes #6 and #8.

So, just a quick stash posting for now as I still have nothing to show you and hope that the stitch-itch might strike again soon.  It always does, never fear. =)  No 'mojo' comments though, please!  I'm quite passionately against magic and related things, so that expression doesn't sit well with me, although I appreciate the thought behind it. =)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

Needlequest November - Stumpwork

Here we are at the beginning of a new month for the Needlequest - the second to last one.  This month's theme is stumpwork.  A few years ago I wrote an introductory article to stumpwork (and ribbon embroidery) with some suggestions on how to get going etc, so some readers may like to (re)view that.

Stumpwork is terrific and is a favourite with many stitchers - just to look at and admire, if not to have a go at themselves.  However, this month's challenge is try it out for yourself.  How?  Well, why not have a go at one or two of the tutorials for stumpwork elements on Sew in Love?  I've tried to keep the materials needed just to things you'll already own - cotton threads, a bit of felt and maybe some beads in most cases, so they may be a good place to start.  You can, no doubt find some elsewhere too, if you have a good poke around on-line, in magazines and in books.  Your local library may be able to come up with something that will help you as well.

As with most styles, I suggest starting small and, if at all possible, with a entry level kit.  The advantages of a kit are manifold, but just take supplies as one.  Many keen stitchers have a good supply of fabrics, needles and cotton threads, but not necessary much in the way of beads, metallics, wires and so on.  A kit can solve this problem by providing you with everything you need for that design without you needing to go out and buy a whole pack of something you may never use again.  Also, kits often have good, clear instructions.  I learned a few good techniques using five of the old DMC kits, now long since deleted.  (If you're reading this, 'Emma Brodery' the DMC threads' blogger, suggest some new ones!  People want to learn raised work and, whilst they won't fly off the shelves like cross stitch kits would, I'm certain there is a market for them.)  Ditto (including the bits in brackets, just aimed elsewhere) for the old RSN kits, where the dog rose you can see above came from, and from which I learned the technique for my needlelace strawberry tutorial.

Originally, I had planned to work the Colleshill Collection butterfly and sunflower kit I have in stock for this month's NQ, but I really don't want three fair sized projects on the go at once.  It just gets too much, esp. when one other project is time sensitive.

So, in order to keep thins simpler, these oranges are the sort of thing I plan to do this month.  I've done a fair amount of wiring things before, but I want to have a go at using my paper/cotton moulds to make oranges etc.  I've had the things in stock for a long time, but have never got around to trying them out.  I don't think I'll do as many as five and probably not all the same size, (as I have three different sizes of paper/cotton balls on hand), but we'll see how it goes and how quick they are to work.  I have some ideas that I may want to use them for later on.  Kits/designs-for-sale sorts of ideas.

BTW, this is from Kay Dennis' "Beginners' Guide to Stumpwork"

I hope I can use some of these lovely coton à broder #16 shades that came this morning for my sample.  I got them on e-bay UK and was thrilled to find these 11 shades that I hadn't come across in this gauge before.  The two orange shades, and maybe the greens and even the yellow, may just come in handy this month.

What wonderful retail therapy stash shopping is!  20 days to the Harrogate show.....

November is also 'Art Every Day Month' as hosted by Leah Piken Kolidas, the lady who also hosts the 'Creative Every Day' challenge.  I'd forgotten all about it until I saw her post in my feedly earlier on.  Last year I was all gung-ho to join in and found it went like a complete damp squib for me, so I hope I can do better this year.  My first day's participation will be to relax with a little on my cross stitch later on, but I hope that I can revitalise my art blog during this month too and get some paper-based work done too.  I'll let you know if and when there's anything to see over there.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

Work in Progress Wednesday - 8 October 2014

I have some progress to report! AND I seem to have managed to get a couple of passably decent photos of the work so far.  How's that for news?=)

I've been playing around a little bit with some of my camera settings.  Rather blindly, I'm afraid, as I really don't know what I'm doing with it, but having a good play around has helped me get some shots that seems to distinguish the different reddish shades.  The light's not quite right yet, but it's moving in the right direction and, well, there's always Photoshop!!!

I had quite a surprise the other day when I finally got around to putting the threads from the stumpwork face kit away.  I matched them up via my thread colour chart and found out the dark pink was shade #76.  However, there was no #76 in my thread pack (#s 52 - 100).  A missing colour, no less!  I thought I had the lot.  I then picked the shade card back up and looked through the whole of the section checking to see if any others were missing and there were two more in that pack.  A couple of days later I went through the rest of the collection and found another two missing.  A nice parcel of threads arrived from SewandSo this lunchtime with both the five missing stranded cottons and 14 more of the Anchor Coton à Broder #25 shades that I'm collecting.  About two dozen to go now....

To see what the rest of the WIPW team have reported on this last week, hop on over to Pintangle.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014