'Sunshine and Flowers' Sampler Framed!

And here it is, back from the professional framer's, complete with two mounts and a nice wooden finish frame.  It cost me £43 to have this done and would have been a bit more had I not prepared and laced it up myself.  Up close, it would've been better to have used an off-white board to lace it around, as the pure white is a little too stark, but it doesn't show too much - and I daresay next to no-one will even notice it at all.  Just my perfectionism again.=)

Actually, I collected it a good week ago, but I didn't manage to get a photo even as good as this one (and it isn't the best, I know....) for a few days.

As I type, it's in mum's room in a care home near Leeds ready to be taken back with her to her house on Monday.=)  Glad to both see this project come to final fruition (as well as to see that mum liked it!) and to get mum out of residential homes and back into her own.

I realised that I also haven't shown you the completed Lizzie*Kate 'Autumn' button-up piece and that the last update was 'at about 85%'.  Just need to re-press it and then I can share it with you.  In the meantime, here's hoping I can get something done on my second needle painting piece as I've been out of action the past few days.

Have a good weekend!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

What's new in my stitchcrafts world

I remember, several years ago, someone saying to me that when someone goes all out on something one month, they tend to drop to lower than average levels the following month.  My recent blogging history would seem to bear that out, wouldn't it??=)  Actually, I've had some rough spells during November, but seem to be pulling up somewhat now, so here we are again, getting our act together and posting.

The first thing I have to show is the recent sampler finish all laced around a board.  Sir and I spent some time together working on framing issues on Monday evening - that is, he cut six pieces of card and I mounted the sampler onto the largest one of them.  Here are the front and back views.

After he'd cut that first piece, he then did me five squares on which to mount my little DMC stumpwork kits, as shown completed here.  Only four are shown here although I did work five of them.  One was mounted in a card for Sir, so I'll need to re-work one so that it can complete the set nicely.  I have a wall mounting idea for this series that will look much better with five than four pieces, so it'll be delayed a short while whilst that gets going.

This is how far the Lizzie*Kate 'Autumn' piece has got.  I didn't touch it for a fortnight and still haven't got much done since re-picking it up!  However, as there's an extended free listing event over this coming weekend on e-bay UK, I must press on so that I can get it sold on.  One lady has bought all the other three, so I expect I know where it's going next...

Something I'd like to do is really master needle painting, so I've got my Trish Burr 'Beginners' book off the shelf and decided to pitch in on this one to start with.  I also decided to have a go with my Pipers silks on it, which may turn out not to have been the wisest of decisions...  They're really quite fine and two strands of Pipers floss silk is equal to just one of regular stranded cotton.  Could be ideal for very fine work, should I ever feel the urge!

Below is the 'floss toss'.  I've drawn the design out twice as I may have a go at doing it in another colour way as well.  The appallingly blurred shot at the bottom is how far I've got - not very!

Last Friday saw me heading up to Harrogate for the Knitting and Stitching Show.  It was quite a day and not for the expected reasons!  Three out of my five buses were late, causing me to lose an hour of my precious little time at the Show and then to get home an hour late.  If that weren't frustrating enough, my complimentary ticket was thoroughly non est when I got the desk!  I couldn't say what had happened to it and who, if anyone, messed up, but the clerk on the desk, despite it not being at all busy given that it was 12:30pm already, declared it 'wasn't his responsibility' and declined to help me get in touch with the exhibitor who'd promised the ticket.  (Yes, in his position, I indeed would have!)  Anyway, I was just thinking that I had to choose between £15 for the ticket and slinking off with my tail between my legs, when I remembered that I had the mobile number of the blogger who I'd arranged to meet for a cuppa and a chat.  So, Rachel Wright of Virtuosew Adventures was my good angel that day.  She hared off to the relevant stand, explained the problem and then came over to where I was waiting with one of the team's own exhibitor pass to get me in.  Whew!  Was I ever grateful!=)  Rachel, mwah!=)

Here's what I bought:

The silk fabrics on the left are fat quarters and they're to be used as backgrounds for the needle paintings I hope to work in the fullness of time.  The other packs are some organza pieces from the Rowandean stand.  I thought they might be fun to play with and they were only £1 per pack.  Two of the overdyed threads were for pieces planned/in progress and the other two were 'useful greens'.  Softly variegated greens, like some of those by Gentle Arts Sampler Threads, can work well in freestyle pieces.

I also got a couple of fabric paint things - a mixing grey, a transparent extender (to make pastel/more transparent shades etc) and a pearlescent paint, and some four seasons type buttons which I got in the hope they would do on my Lizzie*Kate pieces.  However, what didn't click at the time is that the original buttons have holes in them and so lay quite flat on the fabric.  All these that I got are the type with a lump behind and almost certainly won't do.  Drat!  I'll have to think of something else now!

Anyway, I think that's all I have to share for now.  This has been my 500th post!

What have you been doing??

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013

Completed sampler photos!

Well, this is it, the finished thing.  It's not mounted/stretched yet as I don't have the necessary size of board in stock, but I gave it a press the other day and took some shots anyway or else I may have had to keep you waiting ad infinitum!

I started to blog about this piece on 9 April 2012, so I will have started to stitch it around the 7th.  It was finished on 21 October 2013 meaning that it took about 18 months to complete.  However, that's a bit misleading as I didn't work on it actively for about half of that time, so it was more like a 9 month project in reality.  It was rather challenging in parts and I learned some new things and simplified others so that I didn't have to learn too much new stuff!  Hope you enjoyed it all anyway.=)

Now, time for something new.....

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013

Belated Work in Progress Weds Post - 24 Oct 2013

Yippee!  The last Work In Progress Wednesdays posting I will ever need to do on this piece!  Yes, it's finished and I am THRILLED to have got through to the end of it.  It took over 18 months, although there were two long periods when I didn't work on it, but even so, it was a long project and it feels great to have it all completed at long last!=)

Above you can see the side trellis areas cut and below shows them all filled in.  I confess to having departed from the pattern here as, although the main trellis stitch wasn't hard to work, the length of the bars required working a sort of half stitch at the top and that led to my having trouble attaching it securely to the top section without pulling the stitches down badly.  I realised later that I could have done that OK by actually putting the threads through one of the fabric holes underneath the satin stitches but, a) it's too late now; and b) who knows if it would actually have worked that way either??=)

Above here is the bottom right hand section and below the bottom left showing the completed beading and the large X shapes that the side trellises would otherwise have been worked in - I managed them fine here.

Here's the gate area all cut out above and, below, you can see the first parts of it complete, although I did take that top left part out and did it again later on.  I was just taking all the shots I could up until we left for London on Monday morning.

Later on that day I finished it off in the Travelodge room and then took it out of the frame and took it to show show Sharon Boggon, who I met in person in London on Tuesday for afternoon tea!  Sir and I had an interesting few hours' chat with Sharon and her hubby, Jerry.  We learnt quite a lot about aspects of life in Australia - something we rarely have chance to find out about here.  One sees plenty of US related things and we have experience of life in continental Europe and the Far East, but Aus was a relatively new subject for us, so it was great to hear more.  I came away feeling that I understood another view of life so much better and had really learned something worthwhile!  Sharon and I also compared notes on our stash and how Brits, Americans and Aussies approach stitching materials and stash collection, whilst our blokes discussed PhDs, academia and joinery.=) Here are Sharon and I together with the finished sampler:

I consider this piece to be a tribute to the effectiveness of the Work in Progress Wednesdays idea!  I've finished three projects over the last year thanks to the weekly update deadline - this one, the Brazilian 'Rolled Roses' piece and the stumpwork rabbit (this last also spurred on by Anna Scott's 'Finished in February' event earlier this year), and have one left to go now - the peacock feather.  After that, I'll have to start something new in order to keep on joining in!

"Where are the finished samplers photos?" I hear you cry!  Well, I haven't taken then yet.  I want to get the piece properly pressed and then stretched around a mounting board ready to take to the framer and will take a good number of shots then.  Can't promise when just yet, but it will be soon, that's for sure.  At the mo, it's a crumpled mess that needs a bit of TLC before being fit to be seen.

On Saturday, I'll be updating you on the cross stitch piece and introducing you to 'Art Every Day Month', which I hope some of you will be inspired to join in.  Until then!=)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013

Work in Progress Wednesday - 16 Oct 2013

Almost there!  As you can see, I've simplified the top section quite a bit, but I think there's enough going on up there for no-one to feel there's any lack.  Maybe it would've looked better with all the filling stitches put in, but, to be honest, it was getting a bit much learning so many new things on one piece.  I like to have some challenge and to learn a new technique during most of my pieces, but to have so much new stuff to assimilate all in a row was really getting to me and scaring me off.

This row of three squares contains a few new things for me.  I did the outer two as per the pattern, but the central one I chickened out and simplified!!

And here's the top half completed!

So, if you'll excuse me, I've no time to talk today, I must get straight on with cutting out the long border trellis sections.=)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013

Work in Progress Wednesday - 9 Oct 2013

Sorry to disappoint anyone, but I haven't got very far on with the filling in of cutwork sections.  I've just managed to do the basic needle-weaving on the top section, which was quite tricky being so close to the edge of the frame.  I've decided to simplify this bit and not put in the picots or the buttonhole bands.  The simpler the better, I think, as there's a lot of detail already and, frankly, I can do without having to move so far out of my comfort zone on every filled section on this piece.  There'll be plenty that are outside it, but I want to keep them to a minimum, if I can.  I guess, at the end of the day, one could say that hardanger has more or less had its day with me.  I've done a lot over the past decade or so, but I doubt I'll do too much more now.

Anyway, I'm still hoping to get this piece finished in the next ten days or so and will be very glad to see the end of it.  It's dragging on now and I'm ready to change the subject stitch-wise!=)  I have so many lovely, new threads and so many ideas from books, magazines and much more, that there couldn't be enough hours in a 60-hour day to come close to touching them all.  Don't you often feel that way too?

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013

Work in Progress Wednesday - 2 Oct 2013

Hi!  It's Wednesday again and here's the update on the sampler work.  This first photo above is the completed garden section which will show through the cutwork to be done in the large square section you can see lower right in (almost) the full piece below.

In the shots above and below, you can also see that I've been getting well on with the cutting out.  I won't do any more thread snipping now until these sections are done and, having had a good look at the pattern etc, I don't think they will be much of a problem, as I'm quite used to hardanger sections.  I've never done buttonhole bars or picots before, so I want to practice those before putting them in the real thing though.

Next week I hope to be able to show these 12 sections filled and the long side bar sections cut - maybe the square section too.

Now that the surface work is finally complete bar a few beads in the bottom section, I thought it was high time to put away all the stranded cottons that had been used in this piece.  Most of them had been out in the kit bag for over three years, (yes, you read that correctly!  I had the piece kitted up for about 18 months before I started on it - I did it in August 2010 in Taiwan!), and it had been as long as that or longer since all my stranded cottons were neatly in their bags.  I don't need regular Anchor cottons for any of the three projects that are unfinished at the mo.  The L*K is using GAST - Gentle Art's Sampler Threads, the sampler now needs only pearl cotton #12 and a few stray strands of cotton left out for attaching the beads, and the old peacock feather uses three shades of Anchor Marlitt and some plastic/nylon sort of invisible thread, which is horrid stuff!!

This is the pile I put away this morning:

First I laid them all out according to colour number so that it was easier to get them into the right bag, but I thought they made an attractive display in themselves (even though the light was terrible first thing this morn!)  I can't think why black was there as I haven't used it in this piece.  Must have been hanging around from something else.

I had to re-lay out several of the bags, which were first done the best part of a decade ago, and it made me think that I need a more user-friendly storage solution for them than in grip-top bags in the centre of my main workbox.  Trouble is, I can't think of anything that would work!  I want to keep them in shade number order as it makes them easier to find when I'm working a design that just gives a list of numbers - and besides, I like it that way!  So, I don't want to start moving them into colour families and I don't have much more space or money to invest in anything fancy.  I also definitely don't want to be spending hours on end winding 450 or so skeins of thread onto floss bobbins, so that idea is out and wouldn't be space effective anyway.  If you can think of anything that will work within the parameters of what I already own, then please share...

My Lizzie*Kate cross stitch is coming along swimmingly and has been terrific to work on when the big sampler was out of the question at any given time.

I've also been spending some of the cash I made from my recent e-bay auctions on some more threads this morning.  I've ordered 17 more Pipers shades, which should fill in many of the gaps in my colour spectrum there and also some more Anchor Pearl #12 in landscape shades.  They should come within the next day or two and, if Susan from Pipers is as quick off the mark as she was with my last order, then I hope to see those threads here in about a week too.  I haven't put in an order from Sew-and-So since well before we went to Taiwan, summer 2009. I think I may have ordered some Caron Watercolors for a hardanger project I was doing at that time, but no collection building stuff, so it was really fun to do it this morning.=)

Oh, and talk about exasperating:  I had my Boot 'flu jab yesterday lunchtime and what should arrive in today's post but my latest lot of Boots Advantage Card offers with '250 points for buying your winter 'flu jab at Boots'!  Oh well!  I'll ask them if I can add it on retrospectively.  They'll almost certainly say 'no', but they won't have a chance to say 'yes' if I don't ask, will they?=)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013

Work in Progress Wednesday - on Thurs 26 Sept 2013!!

I haven't made huge strides this week and I was too busy yesterday to post an update, but here it is a little late (and still Wednesday somewhere just West of the International Date Line....).

I inserted the french knot lupins, which I can't say I enjoyed.  I don't mind french knots in small doses, but these were a bit of a bore to stitch, so I was glad to get the out of the way.

On these two shots, you can also see that I put in a few of the remaining beads, just leaving the section near the bottom scroll to do after the upper section has had the cutwork done.  Of course, you can't put beads under a snap frame bar, although ordinary stitches don't suffer by it too much.

I also discovered and inserted a few missing 'x's from near the beaded area and, as you can see below, made a start on the 'look through' piece that will be fixed behind the large square box when that's cut out and a few filling elements put in.

So, apart from those last beads, (about 15 mins work), the surface is now complete - HURRAH!

Time to get the trusty old petit point scissors into action.  I'm not nervous of cutting threads as a general rule, although I will feel a little more cautious than I normally do when doing the larger areas.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013

Work in Progress Wednesday - 18 Sept 2013

It's that time of week again and here's the latest on the sampler project.

This first photo shows the girl with all the cross stitches completed.

Whilst I was working this section, I was paying great attention to the quality and neatness of my little 'x's.  This came as a result of reading some of the show judges' comments on one American lady's blog and hearing the judges at work on a TV programme I saw on the iPlayer.  They said, "If we're going to nit-pick, and we are supposed to, then..." followed by a minor flaw in the piece they were judging.  This was a relatively high profile event, but I understood that the blogged one was smaller scale (albeit one with far more categories going!), so it seems that standards can be very high no matter what type of event is in the question.

I took a couple of photos of a stitched area with some that looked a little uneven in places, but it didn't show on the photo!!!  However, one could see the flaws with the naked eye and, show or no show, judge or no judge, I like to do quality work so I applied myself to keeping things more even.=)

Points that came up for a bit of criticism by judges were flaws in mounting and framing (one wasn't properly stretched and so it was very loose in the frame), stitch tension issues and trailing threads visible from the front.  This latter really is easy to prevent, although it's more of an issue when using evenweave and linen fabrics than Aida.  One needs to always make sure that starting and ending threads are neatly trimmed and not left sticking out at the side of the body of stitches.  Also, finish off a thread and restart it in a new location rather than just trailing the thread across the back.  Especially with dark threads and a light fabric, this looks terrible and is so easy to prevent.

Here's our girl outlined with back stitch and given French knot eyes,

I've also put in the two lupins which are at the 'back' of the group in cross stitches in order to create a sense of depth.  The more foreground ones will be done in French knots.  I just need to experiment to get the right combination of strands and wraps so that they cover well and look neat enough.

Here's our gardener in context and you can see from this that, apart from finishing the lupins, there are only the beads to add in the lower section and the surface work is finally complete on the main piece!  There's just a square to do which will fit in behind the large box next to the girl as a 'look through' element.

Cutwork coming up soon then!  Some of it looks a little scary as it means trying out new filling techniques, but I plan to do some dummy runs on a scrap of hardanger fabric.

Speaking of hardanger, Wendy, I totally agree with you about the so-called 'hardanger' scissors being useless.  The blade tips were so wide that you couldn't even use them on 22ct hardanger fabric, never mind this one, which is 32ct linen!  Happily however, Sir managed to fix my old petit point scissors and they're fine again.=)  They had got a bit blunt, but every time I ran the blade against the knife sharpener, it pushed it back slightly, so that the two blades ended up too far apart to be able to cut properly.  He pushed them back together and they work!=)  I suppose this could happen with larger scissors too, but these being so very tiny, it made a real difference.  Anyway, that's that problem solved, I'm delighted to announce.
=)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013

Work in Progress Wednesday - 7 Aug 2013

It's that time of week again and I have two sessions' worth of progress on the eternal 'Sunshine and Flowers' sampler to share with you.  Above you can see the cross stitches complete in the lower area of roses.

Below, you'll be able to see where I added in three fly stitch leaves, one cream woven rose, a larger cream and beige flower and made a start on the lower ribbon.  Sadly, I managed to miscount something somewhere along the way and the ribbon doesn't quite match the pattern.  Having said that, I don't think that will be a serious problem, but I plan on taking out the start I've made on the second 'run' and starting again from the bottom centre part.  Then, even if I find I don't have enough space at one or both sides for all the stitches the pattern leads me to expect, at least the important parts will be even,

Floozina, you asked me what the white flowers were, and so I've taken this close up for you (assuming these are the ones you meant).  They're woven roses.  You start by making five 'spokes' in a circle and then weave in an out of them with whichever thread you like to create a nice, raised effect rose.  They can look really nice when worked with thicker threads too and are especially good with ribbons.

So, I hope that helps to demystify what those are.  I plan on writing a tutorial for creating these very effective little flowers soon.

I haven't made a start on the Helen M Stevens' piece(s) yet as I've only just received the answer to the colour enquiries I made of Pipers Silks, which I needed to know before I can even order the floss!  Then it's up to three weeks before it comes.  So, perhaps my estimate of putting in that order not being the hardest item on my goals list for this month was far from accurate!!=)  Having said that, I've had time to look and see that, yes, Pipers do some wonderfully fine gauges of thread which I intend to order samples of for future miniature (1:12 and 1:24, even 1:48 scale) pieces.

Floozina, I have to disillusion you on something though: Ms Stevens is British.=)  Unless anyone knows anything authoritative to the contrary?  She says so little about herself in her books and on her website.=(

After finding links to three of my stumpwork element tutorials on someone's page (or 'lens' as they call it there), I signed up with Squidoo and have written a couple of 'lenses' of my own: One on stumpwork and one, just today, on designing and writing a good needlework (or art/craft) blog.  Feel free to check them out!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013

Work in Progress Wednesday - 24 July 2013

Just a little bit of work on the sampler to report back on today.  As you can see, I've done a couple of sessions of inserting the purple roses into the spaces in all the greenery.  I haven't got a great deal done owing to a few social engagements and another jolly old virus!  These two photos are rather like those 'spot the difference' quizzes, aren't they??

Sometimes I really do wonder how long it's going to take to finish this piece.  I seem to have started it back in early April last year, I posted my first WIP report on the 9th of that month and have fidgeted with it during breaks from other projects since then.  I suppose that's part of the key - crack on with it instead of letting other things push it out of the way, but I *want* to start something new now!  Look at these:

They're from Helen M Stevens' 'Embroidered Gardens' (the same book as the lovely pool design in my last post) and I confess to being most tempted to have a go at one or both.  I was even considering how I could turn the white cat picture into a raised work piece!!  I haven't done an animal for a long time and these are just so much simpler than the first one I did - a large, thread painted dog!  I think I can manage to embroider from the sketch above, esp. using the embroidery photo as a guide.

Then I found these in some of her older books:

I especially like the second one, although the blue butterflies in the first are most attractive.  Maybe I could combine the two concepts into one piece.  What would you say?

Anyway, I thought I'd try and set some needlecraft goals for the next month and a bit and see how I get on with them.

* Complete all the surface work on the sampler (i.e. sampler then about 75-80% complete)
* Complete all the remaining mending tasks
* Put in from 30-60 minutes per week on the peacock feather piece
* Order more Pipers silks and a storage box for them (not the hardest item on the list!!)
* Make a start on one of the HMS designs

That seems achievable, health permitting, so let's see how it works out!  The sampler and the feather will continue to feature in this WIPW series, the cat(s) will be separate, as will those glorious silks when they come and I also hope to share one or two other articles.

What are your stitching plans for the rest of the (northern) summer?

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013

Work in Progress Wednesday - 17 July 2013

It's been a long time since I was able to post to this challenge as, up to this month, I hadn't worked on my sampler since mid February and didn't want to include my three recent stumpwork pieces in it.  The photo above is the last one I posted a few months ago.

I was hoping to get quite a bit of work done on it whilst I was away in Germany earlier this month, but as so often happens when I'm away, I didn't get much stitching done at all.  In fact, I only got to replace the first three of the five words here:

I'd long felt that the purple just didn't 'go' here and so the first thing I wanted to do was to replace it with green.  Got that done just this afternoon and I think it looks SO much better than the purple did.  Although it was a nuisance to unpick and restitch a section, I think it was really worth the time and effort.

After that was done, I moved onto working on the final part of the pale green scrolling and the green part of the cross stitch pattern in the bottom left hand corner.

And that's as far as I've got so far, but I'm delighted that it's back in progress and moving on towards completion again.  Here's the whole piece as it is at the moment:

I hope to have more to share with you about this time next week and to keep up with the Work in Progress Wednesday reports as regularly as I can until both this piece and the old peacock feather are done.=)  The next part to do is to fill the flowers in the gaps in the green sections at the bottom and insert the lower 'V' shaped scroll part, which is just like the one near the top, but without the large leaf motifs.

What have YOU been working on lately??

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013