Soooooo frustrating!

Ugh!  So many things going pear shaped these days.  Ready for a good bit of moaning (interspersed with some stitching progress) etc?  OK, here goes:

First of all, October was a wash-out for most things.  I was ill 28 of the 31 days in the month, which was a total waste of time.  Better now, thankfully.

I made a start on the simple Trish Burr piece that you see here, the violets in section one of her 'Fresh Ideas for Beginners' book.  I thought, 'I'm not too keen on spilt stitch stems, let's do it on stem stitch instead.'  So, I did and it ended up being really much too thick.  I then went on to make a real mess of the bud.  This is as far as I got that day and it's all coming out.....  Time to start again.

These photos show the counted work fabric inventory I completed recently.  As you can see, I wrote all the types, sizes and so on on these pieces of paper, then transferred the details to the correct bag.  No more wondering what's in each bag as I can see at a glance.  That went well, but the frustrating part for this (and other things) was that the photos I'd taken throughout some of the process all ended up corrupting.  A whole batch I'd moved into a new folder went wrong and so I lost the lot.  Thankfully, there was nothing really important in there, but it was a shame nonetheless and rather a nuisance having to re-take some of them to post today.

Something I noticed whilst doing this inventory was that I had a lot of scraps of Hardanger and Oslo fabrics, so I fished them all out and decided to make up some small pieces to mount in my small (and tiny) cards or even bookmarks.  I'll probably try and sell them as, with hardanger being so quick to work, I can possibly even charge a price that's fair to myself and the potential customer.  If they don't sell, I'll have a set of nice cards to use up for friends. =)  The designs I'm using have come from some old 'New Stitches' magazines and I'm adapting them with colour changes, introducing metallics and changing the shape of the outer beading trim to fit the circular mounts better.  Another good thing about this project, as well as using fabric and card blanks up, is that I'm getting some threads and beads that I either have never used or not touched for a long time into service.  I estimate that I've used a quarter or less of all the threads that I own and that's not very sensible.....

In the batch of photos that I lost was a midway shot between the last update photo and this one.  Of course, I couldn't go back and retake it, so here's the whole piece at the moment.

I haven't done a lot of needlework of late, esp. as I've just started another book reading and studying up drive, but I'm getting some things slowly done.

Other results of my counted thread fabric inventory were that I realised I no longer use Aida at all and listed all my scraps on e-bay to sell.  Also, I decided to get on with projects I'd long been planning to do and even collected the materials, but never yet got on with.  One is the lovely blackwork runner here some of you might remember that I included about about 18 months ago during the Needlequest blackwork month (photo and pattern is from 'New Stitches' #75).  I've got all I need for that, although I may swap the Kreinik Very Fine Braid for DMC stranded metallic as I have enough of the latter for the whole design, but would need to buy three more spools of the prescribed Kreinik.  I'm not sure yet as the single thread VFB will probably look nicer than two strands of DMC Light Effects.  I'll try a sample and see.  The idea is to use things up though, so I want to try and use what I have wherever possible and I'm unlikely to need almost two full skeins of the DMC long-term, esp. when I have so many gold metallics that I can't imagine ever running out.

I also have enough white 22ct Oslo fabric for a couple more cushion covers and/or a small table runner.  There are several skeins of #5 pearl cotton in white and another ball of matching #8, so it looks like the traditional white on white look will have it with at least one piece.

I'm not really expecting to start those hardanger and blackwork projects until the new year, (by which time I hope to have the above etc finished) but it will be nice to work on something with a view to using it in our new home - whenever we finally get to move!  The final frustrations are that Sir still hasn't been able to get a longer term job in the right area and homes of the right spec are not plentiful at this time of year.  We looked at one last week, but it would have taken more than a few pieces of pretty needlework to make that look less shabby.  You know how some places are old fashioned in a classic and charming way?  Well, this one was old fashioned in the badly needs modernising and redecorating way.  Looks like we'll have to wait a couple more months, by which time we hope to know how much we can spend on housing.  As little as possible, I hope as who wants to waste all their cash on rent when there are so many more interesting things to spend it on?? =)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015

Needlequest - November round up and December intro - Miniature Work

Sad to say that November was a bit of a dud month for most of us on the Needlequest.  =(

* I meant to do the orange(s) piece and still will (with a new finish date of 3 Jan 2015 or before), but I didn't get to it last month.  Actually, apart from a bit of knitting, I barely touched a needle of any sort last month!

*  Pamela did a little bit on her stumpwork WISP, a pretty floral, but found she couldn't get into it either!!  However, she did get the piece she got back into commission during her first NQ month in May completed, a coloured blackwork alphabet sampler.

* Dorte did quite a bit of catching up and completed some leaves for the September autumn topic, which she plans to use on her stumpwork sample for the November topic, when she can get to it, and worked a fluffy thistle piece for the October 3D stitches theme.

Moving on now to the last topic of the year, which is miniaturisation.

What does miniaturisation mean?  Well, it can mean whatever it means to you, as is often the case.  The only requirement is that it's something smaller than usual.  For instance, those keen on thread painting may like to work a small piece like some of Trish Burr's miniature designs.  Perhaps try some half size cross stitch or another counted thread technique and finish it up into something tiny as well.  There are so many options!

A classic area of miniatures is, of course, things for dolls and doll's houses.  That's what I'm planning to do as, as many readers know, I'm hoping to get into miniature textiles production and sales in the near future, so I'm planning to use this month's challenge to help me develop some ideas.  Below you can see one of them in the shape of a tiny sample of hardanger worked on 40ct linen over only 2 threads as opposed to the usual 4 and in much finer gauges of thread than normal.  You can compare the size against this full scale 22ct piece.

I'm hoping to produce a few tiny hardanger soft furnishings in the fullness of time and a few other things as well.

Some time ago, Kathy of The Unbroken Thread blog (which I'm sure many of you follow already, and if you don't yet, I encourage you to start now), sent me these tiny samples of high count linens from her own fabric stash so I could get an idea of what they're like.  As she lives on the European continent, her counts are per centimetre, so I've measured them in the the more familiar (in much of the English speaking world) counts per inch and noted them down.  High count linens are fabulously expensive, so I greatly appreciate Kathy's generosity in sending me these samples!  Mwah, Kathy!

I also want to have a go at some 1:1/12 scale doll's house bedding and scatter cushions, as well as some tiny blackwork etc.  I don't expect to get all that in this month, but I have so many ideas that it'll be hard to get them in at all, never mind just this month, especially as I'm experiencing a language learning and writing fit at the mo and others need me for proof-reading a bit too.  The real proof-reading extravaganza will come in the spring when Sir's doctoral thesis will be being finalised for submission....

Finally, for general interest and information: I mentioned about the word 'mojo' last post, which some readers were unsure of, so here's the definition from good old Wiktionary:

mojo (plural mojos)

1. A magic charm or spell.
2. Supernatural skill or luck.
3. (slang) Personal magnetism; charm.
4. (slang) Sex appeal; sex drive.
5. (slang) Illegal drugs.
6. (slang, usually with "wire") A telecopier; a fax machine.

The idea in talking about "getting one's mojo back" for something, seems to have something to do with the first two definitions, perhaps coming from the idea that one could, by some magic spell or other, induce interest in oneself or others.  So maybe that explains why I'm not so keen on its usage.   =)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

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 Progress Post - 6 January 2014

Welcome to the very first Needlequest Progress Post!  Participants, please leave a comment with a link to where we can see how you're getting on with the challenge.  Non-participants, please leave a comment to cheer us all on.=)

I'm sorry to say that, owing to being horribly busy and tired over the weekend as well as trying to get my stumpwork ladybird finished, I haven't got any further than this with my first first floral project.  However, that took less than half an hour (I spent an hour stitching and worked on three projects), so there's still hope!!=)  I plan to finish this one before the next update.

Something I have spent some time and energy doing though (albeit before the challenge actually started) is fishing out all the smooth silk fabrics I owned to be washed and pressed up ready for use.  I feel they need this as otherwise, smooth silk can feel frankly like paper.  When I was carrying the pieces in one hand from my own room to the ironing board for this photo, they were stiff enough to be horizontal!  Here are most of them before treatment:

Two of the fat quarters, the light bronze and the turquoise shot with white, that I bought at the Harrogate Show drying off on the airers:

I rinsed the pieces through in cool water and Ecover's delicate fabric liquid which removed a few manufacturing smells, then left them to soak in some nice fabric conditioner/softener for a while.  After rinsing them thoroughly, but gently, I then squeezed them out by laying them on a thick towel one by one and rolling it up.  By the time I unrolled it, the piece was almost dry and not too badly screwed up.  I then steam ironed them whilst still damp and used extra water directly on the piece of fabric to at least try to remove some stubborn packing creases.  Some came out, some are still somewhat visible and I'll need to cut along those lines and avoid having them in the middle of an embroidery!

Here's the whole collection, which I keep rolled up and wrapped in brown paper to protect it and keep it clean.  As you can see, I have quite a log of pieces that are suitable to use and I've realised that I really don't need to buy any more.  Drat!!! LOL!

So, what have you been doing during the first five days of the challenge?  And what are your plans for the next week?  I hope to finish my peach rose and get the second piece chosen and prepared.

Please leave a comment with your link and on your own posting, please do leave a link to either this post or the main challenge page so that your readers can find out more and join in too, if they want to.  We now have 11 joining in so far and more are always welcome.  So, if anyone's still toying with the idea, feel free to sign up any time you like.  There's a list of the participants so far on the challenge page, complete with links to their blogs etc.  Take a look!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

Dyeing to stitch

We had a go at Procion dyeing in class this Thursday. I didn't have much in the way of interesting fabric to hand and wasn't really in the frame of mind (or body!!!) for anything adventurous, so I just did some random space dyeing with ultramarine, turquoise and a green mixed from ultramarine and lemon yellow. I thought they would be useful for sky and greenery backgrounds and I should be able to use one or two of them in my samples soon.




The weather has been so grey here that it's barely been light enough to take photos, but trusty Photoshop has enabled me to correct the colour casts and show where I am with the band sampler and cross stitch pieces, both of which you can see here.


Jane of Craft Therapy has kindly nominated me in the latest 'Kreativ Blogger' awards, which I've added to the rest of the accolades down the sidebar!! Jane's blog is quite varied, although her main interest to date has been a number of papercrafts. She's done some pretty scrapbooking layouts, greetings cards and ATCs and is planning on branching out into more artwork - drawing and painting.

Boxes arrived from Taiwan!

At 5:30 yesterday afternoon the intercom went and 'Parcel Force' was declared to be the culprit. I thought, 'I'm not expecting anything except....' and went to the door. I looked over the balcony-thingy to see a brave postie lugging in 2 white and green Taiwanese postal boxes!=) I've put the language related stuff on the 'Polyglot' blog and just saved the textiles stuff for here, so here goes:

First up we have the fanciest of the fabrics I got out there. These are to be made into little bags/purses like those in this photo, which you might remember I posted whilst I was actually in Taiwan.

Below are the cotton fabrics, both Taiwanese and Japanese.

Here are the trimmings - mostly ribbon-type things to trim up the little bags and zip-pull things and tiny fans and butterflies to put on the zips to make the whole thing more special and oriental looking. When I finally get chance to get some of these made up and ready for sale, they'll be advertised on Etsy with a note saying 'Materials personally sourced in the Far East'!!!

These are the sheer fabrics I also got. I don't know why I bought the red and gold one, but the other 5 are more for stumpwork than any sewing and/or patchwork projects. They're either actually organza, or something very like it.

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????!!!!

Ribbon Embroidery!

I haven't done any more on the stumpwork as yet as DH is often around when I want to work on it. However, he'll be out tonight and so I can get it completed. Don't know when I can post the photo as he'll also be around most of the time tomorrow and it may be hard to get a chance without him seeing it. Will think of a sneaky something though.

I finished the ribbon piece last night and here it is full frontal and also from the side so you can see the elevation of some of the parts of it. It's far from perfect. A close-up examination shows scrappy ends of ribbon that ought to be have been well hidden, but that this beginner struggled to manage with this gathering technique.

I enjoyed doing this, but am not sure I'll get very much into ribbon work. It's mostly that there are just so many different guages of ribbon used and I'd need quite a large amount of both cash and storage space in order to get a workable basic stash. Might do a few kits here and there and some other little bits with theplentiful leftover ribbon you get with VS accessory packs.

Margaret, you asked about fabric, esp on the Stumpwork Strawberry posting. Well, I almost always use plain old polycotton. If it's good enough for Helen M Stevens, then it's good enough for the likes of me!!! If I'm going to be doing heavy embroidery, (say raised work or a lot of silk shading), then I apply a piece of iron-on interfacing (Vilene) to the back to give it more strength. I also put this on silk when I stitch on that. Does that help??

Fabric Storage

Basically, I have 2 supermarket carrier bags in the under-bed drawer on my side. One bag contains all the evenweave fabrics for counted work and the other plain/fineweaves etc for surface and raised work.

In the counted bag there are various colours of Aida, 28ct Jobelan/ evenweave, some pieces of linen and some Hardanger/Oslo fabrics for hardanger work. The fabric is quite neatly stored in there and I can see what's where at once.

In the 2nd bag are several colours of polycotton, some cotton twill type stuff, calico, various shades of felt and some silk (dupion) and organza pieces. Don't think this bag is quite as well organized as the other.

Stitch and Creative Crafts Show a week on Saturday, so I daresay that I'll be adding to the stuff I already have FAR too much of!! Yes Lili, you're right - new stash does help. It's just a problem when there's not much £$£ around and the guilt of spending money you shouldn't takes away the pleasure of stash enhancement!!!!!!!

Oh, I got Helen M Stevens' latest book through from Amazon yesterday, 'Embroidered Gardens'. It's lush! Looking forward to the next one on landscapes too, esp. as it promises to be in a similiar style to this one.=)