Tutorial - simple stumpwork face

Better late than never, and I hope you find it worth waiting for...

Today's tutorial is to create a simple, whimsical raised work face.  I don't often do this sort of 'cartoon' look, so it was an interesting challenge for me to learn too!

I hope you enjoy it and will have a go at making your own cute little face embroidery and will leave a comment with a link to a photo of it.=)

First of all, this piece was worked largely from one of the, sadly, deleted Coats 'Card It' kits.  Here are the contents of that kit and, in the second photo, the changes I made to the colouring of the girl's face.  This was to be a little congratulations card for my niece who got her good GSCE results last Thursday and she isn't a blue-eyed blonde, so I changed to brown thread and beads to match her more closely.  (GCSEs are the national exams all English, Welsh and Northern Irish youngsters sit at age 16.)

Of course, you can do that with the skin tone as well.  So, if you wanted to work an Oriental, Indian or black face, you'd simply select the correct shade of brown for the skin fabric and browns and black for the hair and eyes.

Mount your main background fabric into a small hoop.  I used one just 10cm/4 inches in diameter.

Cut a 5cm/2inch circle from the contrasting fabric you plan to put behind the face and a 4cm/1½5inch circle from your face fabric.  As you can see here, the kit used evenweave fabrics for all three pieces, but I don't see any reason why plainweaves won't work just as well.

Attach the contrasting fabric to the main fabric using random straight stitches and a co-ordinating thread.

Of course, this stage is optional as you don't have to have this contrast trim at all.

Now we move on to creating the head.  Above are the instructional diagrams from the kit (which I thought were pretty good).

Using a matching sewing cotton, stitch a line of running stitches all around the face fabric circle about ½cm/just over ¼ inch from the edge.  Make sure that you secure the thread well at the start with a knot.

Pull the thread up tight and, after having inserted a tiny bit of cotton wool or toy stuffing type material, secure the  back well.  Be careful not to put very much stuffing in, or else you could be dealing with an unnatural protruding face which will be hard to shape later on.

Using small stab stitches and a matching sewing thread, attach the stuffed face to the backing.  Where you position it in the circle will depend on whether or not you want to put some lettering underneath and/or something on the head - a hat or, in this case, a crown.

When you've been all around the edge of the face, this is what it should look like.  Don't worry if it's a little uneven.  You can probably shape anything too odd looking with your fingers and/or a few extra stitches.

Next are the eyes.  Take a beading needle and some matching sewing or embroidery thread and attach seed beads about a third of the way down the face.  Eyes are about half way down a real face, but you may not want all that room above this for this cartoon-style face, especially if you want to add some type of headgear.  If not, place them a tiny bit further down and bring the front hair down further too.

Try to make sure the beads sit well, (one of mine is a little skew...), and pull the thread quite tightly so that the beads pull the face in a little and give it more shape.

Using the same kind of well-pulled stitching, put in a mouth outline using small running and back stitches.

Take care not to pull too tight for either of these stages.  You want to aim to create a little realism in the shape, not to have steep dips - or break the thread!

Now is time to start on the hair section.  There's a lot of room for variety here, so experiment a little and use your imagination.  Afro hair could be created with thicker threads, perhaps pearl cottons which have a good bit of twist and/or French knots.  Here, long, straight stitches using three strands of regular floss were used.

Make sure you cover in the sides well by putting some stitches along the side of the head.

When you've more or less finished, have a good look at the face and see what needs to be adjusted.

I felt the the hairline at the left hand forehead part was a little too angular and my girl looked a bit pale.  So, I put in some more stitches for the hair and, in proper womanly style - painted in her cheeks with a tiny bit of blusher on a small eyeshadow brush!!  Apart from the bead that doesn't sit well (and makes her look cross-eyed - you could even do that on purpose, if you wanted to!), below is the finished face:

This kit was for a head with a crown on and a small piece of pink felt came with it to create that.  I drew out a crown shape on the small square provided using the template in the instructions as a rough guide.

If you want to create a hat, you can use much the same method and cut the shape out of any suitable material: felt, leather, some low- or non-fray fabric, or even a more delicate fabric that you've stabilised by putting some iron-on interfacing or Bondaweb on the back of.

Stitch down the headgear shape using whatever colour and type of thread seem to best meet your requirements and with a size and quantity of straight stitches that you think will fit in with the look you want to create.

Add in some beads and trims as you like.  On the crown, there were six beads to be spaced out along the bottom, which also removed the need to stitch down the bottom edge of the crown shape.  If you do want to stitch down the lower edge of your headgear, take care not to pull too tight or the hat will look like it's squashing the head rather!

Each point of the crown had a start sequin with a bead on top too.  Come up though both then go back down under the bead, but back through the sequin hole to secure the whole trim.

Above is the finished face with crown and below, complete with some lettering (which would have been better done in a darker shade!!) and mounted in a small, circular aperture greetings card blank.

What do you think?  Could you manage to have a go at that?  It only takes about 60-90 minutes to complete, so may be the perfect project for a 'me time' evening.=)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

Work in Progress Wednesday - 27 August 2014

I haven't made a great deal of progress lately, but I simply haven't had the time.  As you can see, I got a bit bored of blue, blue and more blue, so I decided to do a bit on the foreground flowers instead - yellow!  Shades of the Tudor Lady!!!

As ever, please pop over to Pintangle to find out more about the WIPW blog-along.

Thanks so much to all of you for your kind congratulations on my show wins post on Monday.=)  In all fairness, I should tell you that the Sheffield Fayre horticultural show is a relatively small and 'young' event (this was it's 14th year, as opposed to the huge Leeds Flower Show, which had it's 150th anniversary this year), run by a relaxed and encouraging team.  Judging won't be anything like as stringent as many of the bigger, longer established affairs, teh whole place is just too friendly.  Just very Sheffield, really!=)  Fun though, and I'm looking forward to next year's event already...

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

I won, gosh!

Wow!  I won!  I got first and third prizes in both the categories I'd entered - 'Embroidered Item' and 'Cross Stitch - not from a kit'.  The second category was a little ambiguous as I interpreted it very literally indeed, whereas it seems that the actual meaning is something one has designed oneself.  The second prize entry was self designed and I did 'fess up and say that mine were slightly adapted from commercial charts, but as the category wasn't clear, it wouldn't have been fair to penalise me, so I won instead!!

The stumpwork bunny rabbit came first in the 'Embroidered Item' category and the recent wedding ring cushion won third prize.  I should have tidied the display up a bit before the photo was taken, but I was so excited at having won that I didn't even notice the rabbit's rather perpendicular ear and the ring cushion being upside down until afterwards.LOL!

In the cross stitch section, the Tudor Lady came 'only' third, whilst the 'Sunshine and Flowers' sampler won the first prize.  I'd only entered that one for the sake of it and as it qualified for the timescale (which is 3 years in this show - most unusual!)

So, I came away walking 10 feet tall (that's 3 metres for those of you who speak metric), with £10 of prize money in my pocket and a feeling that this was a most successful first year in the show!=)

Aim for next year?  Win the Best in Section (Craft) rosette....

PS Sorry for the delay in getting the new tute out to you.  It's in progress, but I haven't been able to finish it up just yet.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

Work in Progress Wednesday - 20 August 2014

I'm taking a blog writing break just now.  No, not a break from blog posting, but a break from proof-reading a chapter of Sir's doctoral thesis to write my blog!!=)  It's not time for a holiday from my blog just yet.  I might take a week off every quarter or so.  At the moment though, I've too much to show to want to get that far behind with posting.

I've been working a little on the Paradise Island cross stitch and there's still not so much to see.  The first picture is how far I got on the last day I posted about it, a week ago.  The second one is after two  more sessions' work.  It looks a bit like a map at the moment.  The 'V' at the bottom left hand side reminds me a bit of the outline of India on a proper globe, but the wrong colour, of course!!

This piece is the complete opposite of the Tudor Lady.  This piece is whole cotton cross stitches only, whereas the last one was cross stitch, petit point, satin stitch, beading, rayons, metallics and what have you.  This is simplicity itself and will make a nice change to stitch.=)

As always, head over to Pintangle to see what the rest of the WIPW-ers have been doing.

There should be a tutorial coming up this weekend!  I'm just going to make a start on writing it/preparing the photos, so look out for that, Friday or Saturday.=)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

Needlequest Update - 18 August 2014

Hi!  Welcome to another week and another Needlequest update and piece completed.=)  This is a rather experimental small piece, but I'm quite pleased with the finish,

First I painted the whole flower using the paints I showed you last NQ post.  I was amazed at just how pearlescent the pearl paint is, even more than the metallic, I think!

I created the colours I wanted by mixing pearl, metallic and regular fabric paints together and, although one of the greens came out a little more lurid than I'd wanted, (I should have added red earlier than I did!) I was favourably surprised at how well I'd remembered colour mixing theory!!!

The next stage was to select some colours to stitch with.  I decided to use some of my new DMC threads for two reasons: 1) I bought them and want to use them; and 2) They're easier to select from as they're still all hanging around in clear plastic bags in colour groups, so I can just pick them up and see what I want straight away, rather than mess around with the Anchor colour chart and then fishing the skeins out of the box.  Oh, yes, there's another reason for choosing DMC for this project and that is that, as several other experienced stitchers have noted, DMC shades are brighter and just that little bit shinier than Anchor ones.  One project needs one type and another project the other brand.

Here are the colours I pulled out.  I used five of them - both yellows, both pinks and the brownest green, #580.

Here are the results, the top photo showing detail and the contrasting textures and the second shot giving an overview of the whole piece.

I just need to mount it in a card blank now and get it in the post to my brother tomorrow as his anniversary is on Wednesday.=)

Something for my fellow Needlequesters to think over:

I've noticed that techniques and styles seem to attract better levels of participation than design themes do, so I'm planning on changing the topics for two of the four remaining months of the challenge.  I'm going to leave September as 'Autumn' as that's a fairly easy design theme to work with and, of course, 'Stumpwork' will stay in.  Other than that, I'm considering two from '3D Stitches', 'Hardanger' and 'Miniaturisation' for the other two months.  Any preferences?  Also, as stumpwork and 3D stitches are related, which order should it all go in if we had both of those, would you say?

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

Work in Progress Wednesday - 13 August 2014, plus a WIPW review!

The trouble with starting a new piece, especially a new cross stitch, is that there really isn't very much to show in the early stages.  Often, the first steps look much more like something very different from what they actually are.  Remember the 'cross stitched Emmenthal cheese' look in the first month of the Tudor Lady project?  Well, I'm not really sure what this section of tropical ocean looks like, but it's the first bit of my Paradise Island picture.  I've done quite a bit more since, but it was barely worth taking an extra photo, to be honest!  It's more of the same, really.  (OK, OK, it'll look more when updated next week too!!!)

So, as there's so little to show with this new endeavour, I thought I'd do a little review of what I've achieved in the just under two years that I've been joining in Sharon B's Work in Progress Wednesdays blog-along.  My first WIPW post was back on 6 September 2012 and I decided to enter two stalled pieces in the challenge, the first to be finished being the Rolled Roses Brazilian embroidery piece:

The other one, not finished for over a year more, was Cross'n'Patch's 'Sunshine and Flowers' sampler:

The next piece entered, and the most recent to be finished was my peacock feather, which you will remember from the WIPW post just last week.  It took me a long time to convince myself to finish that one, but I did work on it in two or three bursts of activity.  Reporting back to WIPW was a great help in getting both that and the other four pieces complete.

What about the final two?  Well, one is the Tudor Lady that I showcased just a couple of weeks ago and that is currently on my desk in the middle of being stretched pre-framing.  You'll see that again soon when I show my little collection for the Fayre just before the event itself.  I wasn't ever really struggling with this piece, I just decided to post an update most Wednesdays and stay in the WIPW 'group.'

The other piece was entered in two finishing challenges, WIPW and also Anna Scott's 'Finished in February' which she did last year, and was a stumpwork bunny rabbit adapted slightly from the design in 'The A-Z of Stumpwork' from Country Bumpkin (now known as Create in Stitch).

So, altogether, five pieces in various styles.  Having the semi-commitment of reporting progress each Wednesday (and, frankly, wanting to have something to post about at all at times!), has really helped and, if you're having trouble motivating yourself to finish one or more projects and would love to be able to blog/post to on-line albums etc about some stitching victories, then you just might find WIPW helpful.  Hop over to Pintangle and find out more!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

Needlequest update - 11 August 2014

Here we are again, working on a new theme/technique and I decided to use the lovely hibiscus thread painting from one of Trish Burr's books as the basis of my first (hopefully, i.e. I hope I'll be able to do more than one) experiment this month.  First I did a quick pastel drawing of it on some light blue paper.  The contrast is greater in reality, but it does show up a little here.

I've prepared this piece of blue fabric to work on and am thinking of using these pretty, metallic and pearl fabric paints to provide most of the colour in the piece.

I'll do the leaf in non-shiny paints, I suppose.  The metallic paint pack I bought didn't include the red or green shades, which I thought was a shame, and they only do larger sizes (the same size as the pearl white) in those.  I wouldn't mind that in theory, but in practice, my paint drawer is already full.=)

After painting the flower, I plan to pick out some details in stitch and, all being well, mount it in a card for my big bro's 20th wedding.  As that's in just over a week, I'd better get on with it....  

I had hoped to have got further along by now, but I've been spring cleaning (OK, just pretend I live in the southern hemisphere if you're picky!!), and have been devoting my time to mucking out the bedroom, living room and my study.  Ugh!  All that dust under the bedside tables (nightstands) etc.  No small wonder I was sneezing, dealing with itchy eyes and a runny nose!  I've been allergic to large amounts of dust over the past five years.  Strange.  I never was before.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

Introducing Hanako!

Remember this exotic lady?  I didn't actually showcase the whole of her when I completed the appliqué and so on back in late Feb/early March as I wanted to save her and display her in situ.  Well, the scatter cushion cover she was made up into was finally finished on Wednesday, shortly after my posting the feather finish.=)

She's worked on white fine cotton lawn fabric, which was backed with another similar piece of white.  The appliquéd fabrics are Japanese imports bought in a fabric market in Taipei, Taiwan.  They were sold in either fat quarters or rolls about an eighth of a fat quarter in area for patchwork and quilting (which seems quite popular in both countries).  The background to the hands and face was painted using Colourcraft's fabric paints and all the outlines were put in using good old anchor stranded cottons.

Sewing this one up was almost as bad as all those trousers! I think it was too much at one time.  It was also the most complex scatter cushion cover I'd ever done, having a border with mitred corners on, plus piping.  It was my first go at mitred corners and three of the four came out very well.  The fourth just missed, but the gap isn't really glaring, so I decided to let it go and put that down to experience.=)

So, what do you think?  Was she worth the five month wait?!!

Here's the top corner of the back so you can see the pretty backing fabric.  I actually used the same one that appears in Hanako's obi.

I think I'll send a photo to the 'Inspirations' magazine team , because I got the outline for her from a back issue and they may be interested to see what I've made of it.  I'm considering sending a shot or two of the ring cushion to Helen M Stevens too.=)  Have you ever sent photos of your work to the designer?  What happened?

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

Work in Progress Wednesday - 6 August 2014

The management are delighted to announce another misnomer of a Work in Progress Wednesday post, because: THE FEATHER IS FINISHED!

YAY!

The bottom is a little odd, but I decided that nature is rarely that 'even' and, whatever it looked like, it was finished!

I am now officially UFO free.  Not that I ever had many, just this hanging around from my C&G days back in autumn 2008 and a few painted canvas needlepoint kits from childhood (25-30 years old!).  The only thing I have now that's in any way started is the butterflies 'spring' piece that I made a rotten start in silks on back in April, then took all the stitches out.  I plan to work that one this month, but as the actual stitching's unstarted, it can't really be classed as unfinished either.  It's more like having a kit in stock, or a printed design.

Actually, I finished the feather a few days ago and have been busy clearing the sewing decks since - altering 4 pairs of trousers (NEVER again!) and making up the Hanako cushion (look out for her at the weekend....).  I'm wearing one of the pairs of trousers right now, the other three are residing in my recently cleared out wardrobe and Hanako is almost finished, just need to complete the zip insertion, which I'm part-way through, and then sort out the ends of the bottom seem.

So, what am I working on stitch-wise at the moment?  This is as far as I've got with anything:

An R&R frame loaded up with some 28ct black Jobelan!  Inspiring and informative, no?=)

Here it is again with some threads on it.  A floss toss, no less!

In case you're wondering what this little collection is all about, then look no further than the following image, a design from exactly the same cross stitch magazine as the Tudor Lady!

I thought it would make a nice scatter cushion for Sir's room.  Mine won't be precisely the same as some of the sky in the original is unstitched as the piece was designed in delft blue Aida, which is no longer made.  Also, I don't much like working on Aida anymore (except for blackwork, which I'm still in the infancy of) and SewandSo had no suitable blue evenweave available, so I thought, 'Bubbles to blue.  I'll do it on black.'  Also, I've changed some of the shades of blue and will finalise the greens as time goes on.  I'm very sensitive to greens being just so.

So, that's the next WIPW project.

To see what others have been doing this week, click on over to Pintangle and even leave a link of you own of work you've been doing on a large project.  WIPW is a kind of weekly Weight Watchers weigh in for stitchers and is very handy for providing the impetus to get on with a project that may have been dragging for a while, or even a UFO.  I find I have a lot more motivation as I want to post about it each week and have already finished quite a few things that may have otherwise got neglected.  I'll do a WIPW review soon.=)

Yes, Glenis, I could be persuaded to complete one or two of your projects, as long as I like them and I don't have loads of things that I need to get on with, that is.

Right.  Time to get away from my laptop and get Hanako's zip fully done and then, wow! I've nothing more in progress!  Clear decks.

Wow!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

Needlequest July round-up and August intro - fabric colouring techniques

Another quiet month for NQ participation, but here's what we do have for the theme of Crockery and Tableware:

* I finished up my little blackwork cup.  Thanks for the comments about wonky being OK, I appreciate your encouragement.  Having said that, I do prefer straight myself so, when I re-do and develop this design (as I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would), I'll straighten it up somewhat!!=)

* Pamela worked a cross stitch trim for a kitchen towel for her piece.  She used the design from an old favourite crock set as her inspiration and pattern.

* Dorte has posted photos of her finished up pouch made from the blackwork pieces she did for the May Quest and also an experiment textile sample for her line work for June.  She's been on holiday on the island of Rhodes recently and has posted some glorious photos.  The text is Danish, but the photos are universal.=)

My stitching plans for July with results follow:

* Finish the wedding ring cushion.  Done!
* Finish this Tudor Lady piece.  Done!
When those two were complete, then:
* Do the blackwork pottery sample for the Needlequest.  Done!
* Complete, or at least substantially progress, the feather.  Done!  (It'll be complete to show you on Weds)
* Make up the Hanako scatter cushion (and do my trouser alterations) whilst I have the machine out for making up the ring cushion.  Finally chose the finishing materials, but haven't started any sewing yet.

Had I not lost about a week in total to illness, I would easily have finished this list, so I do still consider it a victory and any and all pigs may take off at their earliest convenience.=)

So, onto August's theme: Fabric colouring techniques!  Time to experiment with anything and everything that will change the colour of your fabric.  Here are some rather vibrant samples from my C&G days:

Painted silk habotai ready for embroidery

A rather over-lurid fabric painted sample.  It was meant to be autumn leaves, but the vibrancy of the sky made it look more like a brilliant spring day!!

Hand-dyed fabric with some Broderie Anglaise stitching on it.

My plans are to try a bit more with fabric and silk paints, maybe do one or two simple flowers and stitch in some outlines.  I also want to try more dyeing of fabrics, both a few pieces to stitch on and also some clothes that have got stained and aren't wearable in their present state anymore.  I need to get a larger dyeing vessel first though, maybe just a big bucket!!

Other than that and getting the leftover sewing from July done, here are my plans for August needlework-wise:

* Start tropical island cross stitch (for WIPW)
* Work butterflies small piece (the one I planned for NQ April)
* Stumpwork face card for my niece
* 20th anniversary card for my bro

* Find a way to create a single image banner for my stitching blog (ideas welcome!)
* Try to mend Sir's jumper (doubtful)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014