Pencils, Pastels and ... wow!

Sacreligious, I know, but I haven't touched a needle since finishing 'Branches'! I don't intend to give it up though, but I have been quite slack with stitching of late - unless I had to, that is!! I hope to get that 'Child of Spring' cushion finished up over the weekend, but I wouldn't hold your breath as it looks like a busy one in general. So, now what's new, huh??

I've been having a bit of a pencil and pastel fest of late and <-here's what I've been buying.

I love these Derwent sets of things, so I bought both of these (the 24 piece Pastel and Drawing Collections) on e-bay for about 35-40% of the retail price including the postage costs! They come up all the time there, but are often almost full price, so it's just a question of knowing what you're looking for and waiting for a decent offer. The set of 64 pastels here is only cheap, bought it at one of those bargain bookshops for £6.99 yesterday, but I thought they would be good to learn with - along with the other set of 24 kids' things I've got. I'm kinda saving the Winsor and Newton set (another e-bay bargain a while ago) until I can paint something more worth the quality pigments! I did Armes Mäusle with the good stuff. Shown here are also the watercolour postcards and the fab square sketchbook I got from the art place in Salts Mill about 7 or 8 weeks back.

'Branches' lands tomorrow lunchtime. I do hope that everyone remembers whose show it is (i.e. not mine!) and nobody makes a fuss!

Jane has kindly nominated me in the 'You Make My Day' awards. Thank you SO much, Jane! I'm sorry I won't be going to the M'cr show next weekend after all, so I can't meet you, but I really am stunned and delighted that someone would put my blog in for this! Again, thank you so much! I'll have to think about who I'm going to 'vote' for now....

"Branches" is done!

There were times when I thought I would never see the end of this one, but here it is completed. Fanfare please:

Later on I'll post it to my Webshots along with close-up pics of many of the individual elements. I'm still not au fait with Photoshop Elements, so this is not the best of pics. It seems to bleach out at the edges, esp. the lower one when you lighten the picture. Still, must be done as it looks awful when flash is used on it!

Click on the image for a better picture, (except I've just noticed a stray piece of thread under the branch the bird's on!!).

All that remains now is to deliver it and to make the inserts. I discovered that the paper I had that I was going to use was creased and unusable for this last night, so I'll have to risk doing part of it where it's future owner may see, but I've already thought of a cover story, (one that's true as well....)

Later on: All done and delivered. His nibs was out today, so I could show it off in safety and didn't have to keep a look-out!! Now then, I'm about to enter it in the Hobbycraft Big Arts and Crafts Challenge. The winners are to be decided by vote after the judges have picked a shortlist of 20 entries, so I'll post the link to the voting if I get through and then, if you think mine is the best (and I hope you will!), please vote for me! I could win £250 of vouchers for art and craft things! Their prices are high, but who cares if it's free, huh?

Not too far to go on 'Branches' now.....

It's moving very much towards completion, I'm relieved to say! Yesterday I finished the tree itself, put in several foreign language letters and a German flag, (the recipient did his first degree in German and is still fluent), put the tassles on the Leeds Uni scarf and generally got very stiff around the upper and neck with it and had the worst headache!!! DH gave me a good rub on my neck etc, which helped quite a lot!! Bless the man!!

Today I expect to have the metallic letters completed - about another 4 to go for Hebrew, Arabic, French and Polish, then the slip football (which needs re-stitching), the 3 boules and the gold kid leather saxophone putting at the base of the tree as well as the doorplate and possibly uni logo attaching. That will just leave the bird to re-stitch and the twigs and foliage to put on the tree and some grassy bits to add at the bottom for general effect. I've also asked DH to help prepare the card blank. I've got a pre-made aperture card, which is great, but the backs are too weak for one this size and so I also got 2 sheets of extra matching card to strengthen it, as well as mountboard needing cutting to size (this is probably going to need stretching a bit and proper lacing etc), then the inner sheets for the signatures need preparing.... Lots to do yet. It's amazing anything else is getting done!

So, 'Branches' should be completed sometime Monday or Tuesday. I've given up on the idea of delivering it tomorrow as it's just too rushed. One more day won't matter that much and no-one's been nagging me. I'll be glad to get it done though as it's been taking up so much of my time this last week that I'm unashamedly sick of the whole thing! That, however, is the fault of a double dose of the 'flu and a bad cold, not the project itself, which is a lot easier than I'd feared.=)

Thanks so much for all the encouragement, including that to join Webrings! I haven't applied to Around the Block as they're a very much CQ ring who require 80% of posts to be CQ related and I've never posted about or stitched any CQ in my life, so I can't expect them to approve me and fair enough not!=) Similiar with the Stitchy Fingers ring. I've looked it up, but I can't honestly describe myself as a 'quilter who blogs'. I'm not a quilter. I've only ever done one piece of patchwork in my life. The description says, 'we may do other stitching, but we always quilt' and so, as I never do, I can't qualify here either. I might later on though as I hope to take a City & Guilds level 1 in P&Q to learn the basics.

Some more progress shots

Here's the latest overall shot of 'Branches'. I don't seem to be able to do one in decent light! I always have to make a lot of modifications to the image and then it gets bleached out. Hmmm. I'd better get it sorted by the time it's final photo time! As you can see, I haven't re-done the bird yet, but I will later on today. I've also done 3 boules and a football to apply as slips, but at least the football will have to be re-done as it's rubbish too!!

I'm pleased with this area though ->
It's not finished yet as there are tassles to go on the scarf and some letters to hang off the middle branch you can see here. I at least finalised the design yesterday and that helped a bit. I'll be simplifying a bit of it.

Much to my enormous relief,
<-these arrived in the post about half an hour ago. I can now get the tree itself completed!

So, let's hope I can get it DONE today and only need to mount it tomorrow. Well, let's hope.....

Sandra, I know what you mean about not being able to find what you want in embroidery shops. It's not just that one either, it's a common problem. I suppose the real issue is that papercrafts are what many people want and, if the trader wants to stay in business, then he has to stock items that meet the majority demands. Makes it blinkin' hard to get the threads you need though, when the nearest retailer is two counties away!

Home, plus the latest on 'Branches'

Just got back from our happy hols (vacation) a few hours ago and got all the usual getting-home type sorting out done. DH cooked tea, (bless him!), but he's done a lot of that lately whilst I was ill. Still fighting the nasties off, which I think is getting a bit much now that it's well over 3 weeks, and I was very cross to realise that it was coming back whilst we were away....Grrrr! Still, people have been saying how vicious the current set of bugs are..... Oh joy!

Anyway, managed to get a fair bit of 'Branches' done, although not as much as I wanted. I ran out of WDW 'Bark' thread with a fair amount of tree left to insert. Anyway, got 4 of the other elements stitched on and there are another 3 prepared ready to apply last thing.

I'm most unimpressed with the bird at the top which, as you can see here, is rubbish! I intend to unpick that bit and re-do it else it'll spoil the whole thing for me.

I'm happy with the other 3 elements though, the Yorkshire Rose looks quite nice and the scarf was a lot easier and more effective than I'd feared. Need to do another one, so I won't be so concerned about it.

Have put in a rush order with good ol' SewandSo for 2 more skeins of 'Bark', (although I don't think it will even need a whole one more, I just want to have plenty in as it's a fantastically effective shade), but that won't come until Saturday! I just missed their daily post collection, but that was because we'd stopped in at York to try and get the thread from Viking Loom, but guess what they don't stock!? Tja! More soon..... Most of Fri and Sat will be devoted to getting this baby finished, then I can put it all together on Sunday and hand it over on Monday. Don't you just love tight timescales? If it hadn't been for this dratted bug......

Stitching Review for 2007

Thanks for all the lovely comments on my last posting, wow! I haven't had that many responses for a LONG time! Anyway, I'm almost better now, just very tired indeed and looking forward to a week of healthy sea air from this Friday. We've booked a nice little house to stay in and are both ready to go!

Just fished back to the 'goals for the year' posting from early January and, well, let's see how I did:

To finish:

*Dog portrait (freestyle - silk shading) - YEAH! (Photo above)

*Blue tit (cross stitch) - YEAH!

*Delicate Dreams cushion cover (hardanger with beading) - YEAH! (Part photo above)

To start (and finish as well!!):

*Child of Spring (Victoria Sampler counted thread piece) - stitched, but still needs sewing up.

*Blue tits and Seedheads (Derwentwater cross stitch) - WIP

*Cataflute (Margaret Sherry cross stitch) - YEAH!

*Mediæval Flowers (Textile Heritage cross stitch bookmark) - YEAH!

*Baby Quilt (Vintage Quilts book - first go at quilting) -YEAH! And put to good use too!=)

*Hardanger Bell-pull (Mary Hickmott) - YEAH!

*Berry Parade pouch (stumpwork, own design) - didn't get to this one.

*10th & 20th anniversary cards (both hardanger with floral bits and bobs) - did the 10th, but it was bargello with ribbon work, but I had too much on with other stuff to get to the 20th, so that poor couple got neglected!=(

*8th anniversary card for DH (blackwork) - didn't do this in blackwork, but did the stumpwork ladybird you can see in the header photos instead as his card.

Other things stitched during the year:

*5 hardanger sympathy cards and one 5th wedding card in hardanger with floral trims.

*1 freestyle engagement card (part photo in header above - the roses bit) and 1 ribbon work card.

*A bedding set with a monogram on each pillowcase and 2 on the sheet, plus 2 related small motifs in the centre of the sheet.

*A stumpwork waterlily and damselfy picture.

Currently in Progress:

*Bluetits and Seedheads cross stitch pic as mentioned above.

*'Branches' card, on which I've done no more work since the last photo posted as I've been horizontal fighting off viruses most of the time! I'll have to take it on holiday with me, which is a shame as I wanted to hand it over before I went... I've recovered from the shock of finding out that the recipient's wife is 'a professional stitchie who teaches textiles', as a mutual colleague put it and am eager to get on with it!!! At first I was gutted as I wanted it to be something really out of the ordinary, some of which will be lost if stitched things are kinda normal to him, but I decided it didn't matter after all. It's gonna be an original whatever and it'll be out of the ordinary for the majority of the folk who sign it.=)

*Just need to finish up 'Child of Spring' into a cushion/pillow (depending on which side of the Atlantic you speak) and hope to do that whilst we're away too.

Planned for 2008, (other than finishing above WIPs):

*Cross stitch the final in the birds trio, 'Goldfinches and Thistles', which can all be framed together and put on the wall of our newly papered bedroom, (which is what DH has been doing whilst I was too ill to move!!!)

*Learn blackwork. I'm gonna take this from the very simple stages, just as I did with hardanger and get it firmly under my belt. Shouldn't be very hard at all. Trouble with me is that I tend to go at things at too high a level when I need to start much nearer the beginning!

*Do some more of the DMC stumpwork kits that the ladybird came from as well as some more of the those Crafty Ribbons kits I bought. They all fit beautifully into cards too. I have other kits that I want to try as well, such as a goldwork stringed instrument card, a small spray of flowers in Brazillian work and so on. Easier on me than trying to start with something like Ariel's Heart!

*Start a City & Guilds course, probably level 1 stumpwork and, if I get a sewing machine in time, the level 1 patchwork and quilting too.

I really want this coming year to be relaxing on the needlecrafts front and really be a learning year as much as anything.

Progress temporarily halted....=(

No, nothing to do with Christmas, which, as you may have noticed from the lack of seasonal things here, doesn't feature with me, it's just that I've been laid flat in bed over the past 3 days. I had a virus the week before and was stuck in really sick with it from Tuesday night to Sunday. I went out then and wished I hadn't. It might be that it's one of those that you need to totally rest out before it's safe to re-start life or it could be that I got re-infected, but I ended up even worse! So, no more elements from 'Branches' to display at the mo, but I'm beginning to feel better now (can sit up for more than 30 seconds!!!) so I may be able to get the actual tree outline finalised today as well as getting on with the 2 musical instruments. I did get all the elements I needed sorted out the other day in that I made a Word document with correctly sized images to copy in stitch. So, I've done something, just nothing that you can see.....=(

Hope everyone else has managed to avoid the bugs and hasn't over-eaten too badly!!!

Second element completed

Here's the doorplate. Both it and the Uni logo will be 'cropped' down to the outlining by folding back and glueing or stitching the surplus fabric to the rear of the motif. Both are backed with Vilene (isn't that a horrid name??).

In case anyone's wondering what this nameplate says, it's DH's sense of humour. He thought that the chap who this card is for's name sounded like 'octagon', so he translated the whole thing into German, including titles and it came out as Herr Doktor Achteck - (Mr) Dr Octagon. I daresay he will see the funny side of it, thankfully it's hardly insulting and not the kind of thing that any sane person could take offence at!!! DH was once called 'Mr Coffee-Coloured' (brown) as a direct translation of his name into Taiwanese Mandarin!!=)

Finally, 'Branches' goes WIP!

Yes, at last, I've finally managed to get a proper start on 'Branches'. I've done the first of the appliqué/slip elements, the University of Leeds logo worked in white Anchor stranded cotton and outlined in Anchor Ophir on dark green, and it's now safely stored ready for when it can be attached to the main card. Funnily enough, it's one of the last things that will go on!! I'm currently working on the octagonal doorplate, which I don't think will take me too long either. Should be ready to display that tomorrow, then it's on with the two instruments. One will just be a case of cutting out the right shape from a piece of gold kid leather, but the viola will be an interesting challenge!!

Other than that, I've made two 'thank you' cards in papercraft today as well.

End of an era....

So, full-blown teaching is finally over now for me=). Last week saw me out with my post-grad group for an end of class meal together on Monday night. I've had some nice responses from the students in the class about how much they'd enjoyed it etc and that was touching to read. One of my friends told me last night that I was 'visibly relieved' and lighter for the teaching being behind me.


Apart from a few other things that need doing,
'Branches' is the next big project and I got the initial prep of the fabrics done the other day. Each piece has interfacing/Vilene ironed on the back of it to strengthen it. The smaller pieces need it in order to be stiff enough to pass as hard slips and the main fabric won't last at all well without something to make it more durable under the weight of what will be quite heavy embroidery. Hope to get it properly WIP over the next few days.

Haven't done a thing more on the Bluetits. In fact, I haven't put in a stitch on anything for quite a while! WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME????!!!!