Retake: 'Ornamental Pool' piece

Fans of hers will immediately recognise Helen M Stevens' wonderful 'Ornamental Pool' design from the book 'Embroidered Gardens'.  I worked this for my in-laws for their 20th wedding anniversary, but never got a really good photo of the finished item.  We took the original pictures in over-bright sunlight and the end result wasn't as distinct as it could have been.  So, I took the chance whilst over at their place earlier this month of getting it down off the wall and getting some better photos for my own enjoyment.

As you can see, it had never been properly stretched as MIL did it herself rather than having a pro do it (which was both a shame for the finished result and good in that it was easier for Sir to remove the glass for photography!!), so there are some 'waves' showing in the fabric, esp. the top half.  However, try to ignore that and see if you don't love this masterful design as much as I did.=)

Here are some detail photos of various parts:

Worked in 2008, in Anchor stranded cotton, Anchor pearl cotton #12, Anchor Marlitt and Kreinik cord.

To be honest, the light was still a little too bright, but, for the first time that I can remember, I reduced the brightness on Photoshop Elements and then increased the contrast slightly and sharpened some shots a little.  Have you ever had to do this?

I'm quite pleased with the results and will have to remember to try that again when something looks rather bleached out.

By the way, have you updated your RSS reader links to Sew in Love?  I noticed on the last day of Google Reader's 'life' that I had 591 subscribers on there.  Imagine how desperately gutted I was to see only 124 when I checked on Feedly today...=(  So, don't forget to update your feeds so you can keep up to date with what's happening in my textiles world.  I'm hoping to make it well worth your while over the months to come, and feel free to make reader requests too as I'd like to know what you like to read and see.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013

Yippa-doooo!

YAY! The water violets and fish are finally done and finished up into a nice scatter cushion:

I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever see the end of this one, but I suppose it might help if I were get on with stuff faster....

The piping (which was the main reason I put doing this one off) is made from the ribbon that came on a box of chocolates, folded in half and 'trapped' between the front and back layers of fabric!!

© Elizabeth Braun 2011

Two finishes. Yes, TWO!

So, I really got going this week and finished two things! No, not the narrowboat - I haven't had that much stitching time.=) In fact, I've only put a little bit of water in on that, so it isn't worth showing, but as I've run out of ideas for 'information posts' for the time being and have got back into my own embroidery work somewhat (could be famous last words.....), I hope to post WIP shots more often instead.=)

The first finish was the giraffe needlepoint that I was given as a 12th birthday present by Nicholas Cook! I remember him explaining why he chose it out of the series (it was the only one with a girl's name, bless him!). I decided not to save it to complete whilst I'm away doing exam work in May, but rather to make use of mum's sewing machine those 3 weeks and get it finished up into the cushion cover I've planned. I'm going to give to a disabled girl (I say 'girl', but she's not much younger than me!!) who likes cushions on her bed. Had I given it to a little girl as I'd originally thought, she would have grown out of it in time, but Georgina won't as she will always have a mental age of around 13, so it's perfect.


As you can see, it's got a bit warped. I know that this wouldn't be a problem had I been planning to frame it as the stretching process would correct it, but I'm going to be using it in a patchwork. Any ideas on how to straighten it up a bit??

Now then, here's the finish of the month, the water violets design! I put the last stitches, the water lines, in on this early yesterday afternoon. I decided to exclude the mayfly after all. It would have looked better, more balanced with it, but I really had had enough by then and just wanted it complete. So, this is it:


This too will be made into a cushion cover and I'll do that at the same time as the giraffe. I'll need to get some backing fabric for it. Oh, the design is in the right hand half of the cushion, in case you're wondering why I was doing such a long, thin cushion.=)

I've also got re-started to some degree on the goldwork viola (don't anyone dare call it a violin!). I put the felt padding on the chinrest yesterday, but I haven't finally decided on what to overlay it with. The options are rough purl and kid leather of which I have silver and gold. I know very little about goldwork, but I have two or three useful books that can help. I'm undecided on many parts of it - what threads to use etc. Anyone with more experience care to comment? Mary? Ruth?


All the best with a dog design, Linda and, go on, start a blog! If you do that kind of work, then I want to see it!=)

© Elizabeth Braun 2010

Poor Fish!

Look at this poor chap, does he look miserable, or what?

Actually, he's not going at all how I wanted him to and so his expression reflects quite well how I feel about my work on this piece. Hmm! He's a far cry from the beauty in my header photos. Sigh! Good thing it's for someone who won't notice!!!=)

Anyway, he's not finished yet, he still needs to be filled in and a tiny fish outlined for him to be swimming after, so I hope to get a bit more done this evening etc. I will be VERY glad when this one's done and out of the way!

'lewmew': You asked about the dog design. It came from the book 'Royal School of Needlework's Embroidery Techniques'. It's quite a size and was worked in, I think, a 12" hoop. It took a LONG time, even when I was in intensive working mode and, unless you're really quite experienced in thread painting/silk shading, I wouldn't recommend tackling a project of that size and complexity. I spoke to Tracey A Franklin, the RSN graduate who stitched the model for the book, about it once and even she found it rather hard going at times! However, if you're very brave.... PS I would have left the answer to your question on your blog, if you have one, but as your profile is set to 'private', I couldn't look to see.=( It's a shame, as I always make a point of checking out my followers' blogs.=)

'Ornamental Pool' - the Great Leap Forward

Well, it feels like a great leap to me and it's a fitting expression for a stitching sinologist to use, isn't it? (If you don't get this one, do a web search for 'great leap forward' and you should soon see what I mean!!) Anyway, the rayons and metallics are now done and the rest is mostly good old stranded cotton and relatively simple embroidery instead of all this couching and messing with tricky threads. It feels good to be getting on with it though and I must say that my music lesson on Tuesady afternoon did me the world of good. Just doing something purely for me for an hour just scratched the self-nuture itch and I felt much more like doing stuff straight afterwards. So, the appearance of a picture of my viola at the top of my 'bits and bobs' sidebar is in grateful recognition of her contribution to keeping me the right side of insanity boundary!!!

Back to the 'Pool', I'm hoping I haven't made a goof in choosing to use rayons for the coloured sections of these elements as the contrast between their sheen and the ordinary cotton is quite stark. Still, they go well with the metallics, which may have looked out of place with cottons, had I used those instead. I wanted the fish etc to stand out, but I may have overdone it. We shall see when it's complete. Here are close-ups of the two recently completed bits. I just need to get the embroidery done by Saturday, I've decided, as it doesn't take too long to finish it up (less complec than COS was!) and I can even do that en route to Germany. Wouldn't be the first time as I distinctly remember finishing up a wedding bell-pull in the car on the way to the ceremony!!!

Well, it's mid-year and time for a stitching review. Actually, I really haven't accomplished much at all, but here's what there is:

*Finally got 'Child of Spring' finished up into a scatter cushion.

*Finished Derwentwater's 'Bluetits and Seedheads' cross stitch, which was started last July.

*Started and worked about 40-50% of Derwentwater's 'Goldfinches and Thistles' cross stitch, but that's now on hold whilst I get all the obligation stitching done, (so much for my 'learning year' without multiple events to stitch for!).

*Worked one small ribbon piece, 'Rose Arch' and mounted it in a card.

*Worked one small gold- and rayonwork dragonfly, but haven't used it for anything yet.

*Worked the 'Branches of Your Life' as a leaving card for my old boss.

So, not really that much in total. Come to think of it, there wasn't much movement in the six month period before that either, with 'bluetits' being started, some bedding made for one wedding and the waterlily and dragonfly pic being done for another, and that was it!

I finally delved into the murky depths of the laundry basket and dealt with all the 'special treatment' stuff in there - hand-washing and bleaching, so that's something, but all that ironing, yack!