Samples 3, 5 & 6 complete

Thanks for the compliments on Sid the Snake (not Wily, Susan!!!), I rather enjoyed working on him from start to finish. Only sample number 2 to get finished now, the long overdue peacock feather. In the meantime:

Here's the finished, 'distressed' version of the tiger skin piece. Not very impressive is it? Wasn't anything special to start with, but now it looks a real mess!!!

This is the small, simple sample we did in class yesterday and I think many of us will use our wrapped cords to decorate the boxes we'll be submitting our 'Line' modules in. When I look at several of my samples etc, I really do fail to see any real, concentrated linear work in them, but I'll try and bring some of that out more when mounting the pieces etc. I picked my favourite pink and purple colours to use here and it was good to get some more of my Pearl #5s into use.

This is sample #3. It's meant to be of appliqué and layering, but whilst there are certain areas that have about 6 layers of sheer fabric, I think the peacock feather (#2) will answer this technique as well. It's supposed to be a butterfly near some buddleia, but the plant is really not well done and I know the butterfly is rather over-simple. Lack of time and umph, I suppose. When you're not really happy with a sample, you don't much feel like putting loads more work into it!! The leaves are much nicer colours in the real thing. Light was poor when I took the pix. This is the drawing, (done with Inktense pencils and black felt tip pen) that I took it from. I confess to having traced this from the source photograph rather than waste loads of time trying to get the shape right.

The bulk of yesterday's work was on the so-called 'resolved piece', design board exercise. I have trouble with this description as it's really just a number of pieces of art based on one or two source photos and, given that we aren't really meant to develop it for stitich - not even to plan it to stitch, I can't see how it's in any way 'resolved'. Sometimes the logic behind the terminology escapes me, so if anyone can clarify this, please do!!=) I didn't get far with it as art is not my string point as yet and I had an accident shortly before leaving the flat yesterday morning. My right little toe had a high speed collision with the edge of the fireplace and would now make a great source for a colour module exercise!!! I can walk better on it today and it should give little trouble by Monday, but I was feeling rather worse for the shock to the system etc yesterday. It's certainly not broken anyway, so there's nothing to worry about and I had my viola lesson sitting down afterwards!!!

We're hoping to go and spend a year in Taiwan from Aug/Sept next year, so I hope that works out. Whilst I'm there, I'll be able to have a go at some of the bead based crafts that are big in that part of the world and also do some research for the C&G Diploma level written work, when you have to produce studies into three countries with strong embroidery traditions. I'm planning on doing China, Norway and Brazil. If funds allow, I'll see about doing C&G level 2 stumpwork during that year away too, but money is always a major factor, so I may well not get to that and just end up taking lots of kits with me to work through and enjoy.

Hoping to get the peacock feather done over the weekend and also a couple of pieces of seahorse-y art done for this design brief business, then I just need to get and cover a suitable box and mount all the work so far. Ooof, there's a lot to do! I've had no chance to do more than a single row on my band sampler!

Sample 4 completed - snakeskin beadweaving

I seem to be catching up on my C&G samples in reverse order just now!! I put Sample 5 (see last post) through the wash this weekend and it is now frayed and, whilst it was never overly impressive, it now looks really rubbish! Just need to trim a few stray threads and press it, but I will try to avoid that kind of thing where possible in future. Really not my scene at all.

Sample number 4 was based on reptiles, so I hunted on-line and found a terrific snake to work from. What do you think of this chap? He's rather cute in his own way, isn't he?

From our source material we had to do some artwork as ever and I just did a section of the last 2½ coils, from which I drew up a beading chart. This kinda taught me how to do charts for things like cross stitch, needlepoint and so on as well, so I think I may well be able to do that after all. Given that cross stitch is about the world's most popular form of embroidery, being able to create charts may even create some income one day?? But I wouldn't hold my breath there!!

Using a beading loom, which you can see here all threaded up and ready for use, the chart was then turned into a piece of beadweaving. I took this photo whilst doing one of the later rows. You string all the needed beads for one row onto the needle, then, from underneath, slot them between the warp threads. After that, you go back through the row with the beading needle and thread, taking care to go over the warp threads this time. Then it's on to the next row.

This is the finished piece, with each bead kind of representing a scale on the original picture and this is the beading needle when I'd finished. It was straight when I started!!! I didn't think I'd like this and most of the ladies in our first year group were saying that they couldn't see themselves doing this again, how it hurt their eyes etc, but I really enjoyed this and didn't find it any bother to my eyes at all. The only hassle was that the beading thread I used, a nylon wire sort of thread, may have been rather thicker than would have been more comfy to use. One of the other teachers who popped in last week to see what we were doing etc said that you had to take the needle back through the whole row at once, but I wasn't able to do that as it got caught and was impossible to pull through. Don't think it made any difference to the finished sample though. I'm hoping to get a nice, little bead loom as I think this type of this has definite potential, as long as you don't mind using lots of beads and remember that the beads are higher than they are wide, so about 2 high would equal 3 wide. Different from the exact squareness of your regular cross stitch!

Lots to catch up on.....

I still haven't finished the feather sample (Sample 2), but have done a little more on it. I'm also well on with Sample 3, which is a butterfly and that should be ready to show off very soon. Sample 4 is of bead-weaving and I've done the artwork and the beading chart for that and am looking to getting stuck in with the beads and the loom. In fact, I've got through so many other tasks recently that things seem nice and peaceful and perfect for getting all caught up soon. So, I'm hoping to make several posts over the next week or so.

The one thing I can show you is the first sample I actually got done in class. It's a stitch and slash technique sample and the original source was to be animal fur. Silly me went and left the photo I planned to work from on the sofa instead of putting it in my college bag, but managed to scrounge this lovely pic (which you can see part of here) to work from. We had to make a felt-tip pen design from it, which is here and is not exactly impressive, I know, but my artwork is never really going to set the Thames on fire, is it??=)


The next stage was pressing then pinning together 3 or 4 fabrics in similar colours to the design, then to machine stitch (ordinary sewing foot and straight stitch) the lines on. After that, the fabric is cut away to reveal layers of the underneath colours. Here's the sample so far, (it's supposed to be put through the washing machine cycle to 'fluff' it up a bit - ie fray and wreck it!!!!), and it does look a bit like tiger skin. I confess, this kind of work is not really my thing - bit too large scale and 'rough' for my tastes.



I got some more fabric and silk paints in the post today, along with 3 bottles of silk paint gutta. Haven't much of a clue how to use it, but we'll be starting that in class in about 3 weeks' time.=) Also got some silk habotai, some green beads needed for my beadweaving sample and some beading thread for that.

It's show time!

This weekend was the Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch show up at the Great Yorkshire Showground, Harrogate. I can't say I enjoyed it as much as last year and I didn't feel there was as much for me to buy directly stitching-wise as it's more a exhibit and buy supplies type of event. So, you can get all manner of fancy stuff to stitch with and on, but I confess, I rather wanted to treat myself to a kit or two. Still, time and opportunity enough for that in late November at the Knitting and Stitching Show.=)

What I did get was all either for my C&G course or for stuff for my stand at next year's Staff Festival, if I go through with it. Here are the fabric colours I got, a starter set of dyes and 3 each fabric and silk paints. I just got the basic primaries that can be mixed to more or less anything, but I think I may get the other primaries as well next time - the warmer colours. We'll have to see how I take to it. They weren't really that expensive, but I didn't have enough money to buy any more.

I also got these bits and pieces - soluble film, some small embroidery frames, some roccoco gold thread (the only thing I bought for personal project interest), a fat quarter of silk habotai ready for the silk painting stuff and some buttons. Here's a close-up of the buttons as well, as they're really cute! They're for small, garden-ish embroideries I'm hoping I may be able to sell. Knowing me though, I'll probably never get the time to do them and, even if I do, I don't dare hope to really be able to sell very much! I'd have to charge quite a lot, even for a simple piece, in order to make it worth my while.

No more C&G work or other stitching to show as yet as I've had the most yacky cold etc. Quite a few in my circle have been down with it and it's the type that seems to get better, then flares up again. Anyway, I'm hoping that I'm at the end of it now and can get back on.

Finished shell sample and other C&G work

Finally got the shell sample done after almost 2 weeks. It hasn't taken me that long in itself, (as most things don't when you get on with them!!!), but I've put in 4 sessions of work on it and here's the finished item. I rather wish I'd added some colour to the fabric in some way or used something other than the prescribed calico, which is rather too dull for this piece, especially as it doesn't have much colour in itself.


Last week's work was on birds or feathers, so I took some images found on-line of peacock feathers and was also able to work from a real one that Diane, our teacher, had brought in. That really helped to get the feel of the texture and the full effect of the sparkle of the thing! It also means that both of my designs so far have been taken largely from real objects rather than copying photos (which are so flat, aren't they?) and that's good as many later things will have to be from photos etc and the course requires some direct observation stuff. Here you can see my efforts at quickly reproducing a peacock feather in oil pastel, then in pastel pencils, although the long, green fronds on this one were hard pastel block as I didn't have the right colour pencil. Actually, I don't think the soft texture of the pastel pencil would have been as good, so all's well that ends well there.

The idea of this exercise is still to work on line (we'll be doing that up until we start 'colour' in week 7), but also to use appliqué and I finally learned how paper-backed Bondaweb is used! I also discovered that my fusible web was not paper-backed, so I've since ordered some from an E-bay seller. It came yesterday, but, as the seller is one of these with a Recorded Delivery fetish, I'll have to wait until tomorrow to actually get it. I've stopped asking these sellers not to use 'signed for' services as they're not at all flexible in meeting customer requirements on this! Since when do I want to pay for a service I do not require and will entail me either having to go to the Delivery Office to collect my package or arranging re-delivery when I can be certain there's someone in to sign?? They ought to pay me for the trouble...... Grrrr!!! Anyway, this is how far I've got on the sample piece - just bonded the fabrics and back-stitched around the edges in one strand of matching cotton. It was really hard to do this as our teacher wanted us to use thin wadding, plus a calico backing, so, especially when it came to the inner motif, I was trying to find my place through 6 layers and it wasn't fun. We're doing appliqué again this week, (although I'll be working from home this time), and I will not be using so much backing, if any at all!


Hope to get that sample complete v soon. Am planning to do the feather fronds in varying shades of Anchor Marlitt to get the colour variations and the sheen, but I'm waiting for the 'invisible' thread I ordered on Friday to come. Hope it arrives today! We have no class next week, but I don't want to spend that time playing catch up!

No more on the band sampler as yet, but I hope to have some more done over the weekend, when we're away again, but I'm not planning on taking my C&G work with me as I did to Scotland last w/e.

Finished Band 8

Decided to do a bit more on the 'Silver Frost' bellpull piece and this is what it looks like at the mo. The large band at the top will have beads in the centres of the 3 large snowflake motifs, but I'll get the beading done all in one go once the main stitching is done. Well, depends. A band or two up from here looks like it's best to do the beads along with the backstitch, but I'll decide on that when I get to it.

I haven't finished my shell sample yet and it's class again tomorrow. We're doing appliqué with bird or feather designs, so I've got 3 photos of peacock feathers to work from. I'm looking forward to that as I've never done appliqué before. So, the kind soul who said I 'had the skills' for the course is proved mistaken!!! I have a lot to learn from it and, frankly, sometimes it scares me how much I'm expected to produce and take in over the next 8/9 months! Will post photos when I have some to post.=) Maybe tomorrow or Friday morning. We're going to Scotland this weekend and I'll take either my shell to finish or 'Silver Frost' to get on with.

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)