Stash Sunday - The 500 Thread Challenge (simplified version)

Last Sunday I was thinking about the large quantity of threads I owned and what I might let go of if I ever had to minimize the collection.  Remember?  In the comments section that day, wenhck said she felt that her stash was more than sufficient too, Glenis was delighted to have cleared out 4 boxfiles of surplus patterns recently (well done!) and Jules of Needle and Pen is cutting down her threads to reflect only what she uses.  I hope she'll do an update stash collection post on her blog soon as I love seeing that sort of post and am curious to see what she has left.... Hint - hint!!!

To be honest, I tend to agree with lewmew who said she'd have to keep all her threads as she never knows what she wants to stitch next, and  Rachel  of Virtuosew Adventures who said that it's not really possible to have a minimal stash if you're into multiple embroidery styles.  Even just one, (unless it were whitework or blackwork), can see you with a meaningfully plentiful collection.  I mean, have you seen how many threads one can use for cross stitch?  Besides stranded cottons, there are metallic braids, blending filaments, silks, over-dyed cottons etc etc etc.  I reckon there'll be some passionate cross stitchers whose thread stash easily rivals mine. =)

Having said that, for interest's sake I decided to do a simplified 500 Thread Challenge to see which 500 items I would definitely want to keep of my over 1600 if it was ever necessary.

Why simplified?  Only that, if I were to do this for real, I would take longer than about half an hour checking colour charts and would go through the whole lot very carefully determining the actual usefulness of almost each and every shade.  This time I just decided that I would want to keep the whole of my complete Anchor thread collection and then choose a few extras that would allow me to do as many different styles of work as possible.

You can't beat good old stranded cotton for general purpose use, so selecting mostly from those was a no brainer.  As there are 444 shades of Anchor (aside from the variegated ones), that left me with just 56 items to choose, and here they are:



I was surprised at the number of DMC skeins I owned that were substantially different from Anchor shades.  There will be plenty of others in other colour families of course, but I only have 86 DMCs, which were all chosen for being 'gap pluggers' - esp. the greens, which you can never have enough of.  I don't know why it is, but I can settle for a passably close match with most other colours, but I absolutely require the correct shade of green!  To be honest, I feel fairly similarly about brown and grey too.  Natures basics, I suppose.  If I were working abstracts, patterns or stylized designs, it would concern me less, but for representing nature, the basics have to be right. How do you feel about that?  Similarly?  Or do you go more for getting the brights spot on?  Or maybe you're ok with whatever you have??

Besides the DMC stranded cottons, there are a few basic Anchor Pearl Cottons in all 3 thicknesses in both bright and antique white (as well as a ball of #12 in black for blackwork), and those plus an ecru shade - #926 - and black in Coton à Broder.  Lastly, I had space for only 2 metallics and chose Kreinik silver and gold Cable as it's 3 ply and possibly could be separated for finer strands.  Of course, DMC stranded metallic would do this as well and probably separate more easily as Kreinik Cable is designed to be used all in one go.

Of course, whilst doing this exercise, I started wondering about completing my DMC collection.  Later on, whilst looking up designs I wanted to work soon, I began to think about getting one or more of those oval embroidery 'hoops'.  So much for no more stash!!  I haven't bought any, and wasn't really planning to get any more threads just now, but the idea began to appeal again and the large collection felt more comfy.  Phew!!  =)

I've sold a lot of threads in the past, anything from surplus duplicate stranded cottons through silks to hand-dyed threads etc.  I remember getting a complete set of 20 hand-dyed cottons at a show and never using one of them.  They sold well on e-bay.  I also sold all the GAST, WDW and SSS (remember them?) shades that I was never going to use a few years ago before we went for the year in Taiwan, along with various other stash items.  I've also sold all the kits I was never going to work, fabrics I knew I would never use and part-kits and charts that I had already completed, but that would be of interest to someone.  With one exception, they all went and I'm pleased I did it.  So, you could  say that my stash is maybe 20-30% smaller than it could have been.=)

So, what about you?  What could you absolutely not do without?  What do you regret having bought and did you ever clear it out?

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015

Stash Sunday - Coton à Broder #16

Continuing in last week's 'theme' of coton à broder, today I've got a photo of all the skeins of the #16 gauge
that I own.  I'm unlikely to expand this much, if at all, as there's not much to expand with.  As you can see, there are a handful of DMC skeins in there too, but their collection is more or less as limited as Anchor's, but at least they had some nice, warm greens and a couple of cooler pinks.

This is another set of threads that I've had for several years, built on when the chance arose (i.e. when I found 11 shades I'd never seen before available via an e-bay seller and I grabbed them), but rarely used.  The ends of thread wrapped around the colour number the label shows that I've used two reds and one green, which I think all went on the C&G sample you see here back in 2008 (red French knot sections).  I also remember there being a small section worked in #16 in an old RSN stumpwork kit that I did about 10 years ago. What about you?  Ever used this kind of thread?

I had what you might call a near miss with stash building today as we went down to Bakewell for the afternoon and I had hoped to spend a very pleasant half hour in Wye Needlecraft.  However, they've gone!  According to a websearch, they sold up and the new owners opened up in Mansfield, but the person writing about it felt it was nowhere near as good as the old shop and seemed to be hardly ever even open!  Soon afterwards the new management decided to take the whole operation on-line and so one more LNS bites the dust, and an award-winning one at that.  They had a really good specialist stock - you could even buy goldwork threads there, but no longer.  Sad. =(

Having said that, and having just watched a video segment on simplifying one's life, esp. materially, I couldn't help but feel that it wasn't such a bad thing for me.  I mean, I own way too much stitching stash!  I know that there are stitchers who own far more, (we've all read stories of clearing out whole rooms/garages full of stash when an embroiderer has sadly died), but it's beginning to feel uncomfortable in the same way that the book collection that I used to love and swore I could never part with began to feel within the last year.  My whole view of stuff is rapidly changing and I'm pretty sure I'll be buying very little at the Harrogate Show.  My goal is to come back with less in my bag than I went with (I'll eat my packed lunch and drink all the water and juices that I need to take with in order to stay hydrated in that awfully dry environment that makes me feel ill otherwise!), and just to take a few notes, sketches and ideas away.  I'm not going to deny myself anything I *really* want, but I'll be doing a lot of questioning of myself as to why and whether I'm going to buy anything.

I. Just. Don't. Need. Any. More. Stash.

Whilst I'm not planning to de-stash to any great degree in the immediate future, I am still keeping an eye on what's used and what's worth keeping long-term as well as giving some thought to what a minimalist kit would be, both out of pure interest and also with an eye to possible changes in the long-term.  So, everyone get your thinking caps on this week and be ready to comment on what your 'must keep' items would be ready for next Sunday when I'm going to be posting about what I would keep if I were to par right down. What couldn't you do without?  What could you lose?  How much do you think you keep 'just in case', 'for the pleasure of owning/collecting it' or rather regret buying?

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015

Stash Sunday - Coton à Broder #25

I finally got around to getting out my entire Coton à Broder #25 collection and laying it out in colour groups to look at the spectrum available (and just because I enjoyed playing with them!!!).

As you can see, I merged the two brands together.  I don't have anything like all of the DMC ones as there are something like 180 in their selection of shades and, including the 79 (I think) Anchor ones I got, my whole collection is only around 125.  I might complete it one day, but as I don't really use them that much just yet, it's not likely to happen in the near future.  I fear that it may be a case of 'just for the sake of it', which isn't good sense either financially or space-wise.  Hoarding yet more thread would hardly contribute to my minimalist goal.  Having said that, many creative pursuits really aren't very minimalist, but there are degrees to which these things can be taken.  Some are happy with the core essentials at any given time, some want everything on the market.  Most of us fall somewhere in between.  I do have a tendency to horde stuff I like, but I'm aware of that and try to control it, at least!!!

Anyway, all that aside, I do like Coton à Broder #25.  It's a nice gauge, a nice texture and seems to be replacing the formerly popular #16 gauge thread, which I also have a collection of, but probably about half this many.  They're threads that seem to me to have a lot of potential and I hope to do some experimenting with them in the near future.  Have you used Coton à Broder much, or at all?  Which gauge(s)?

I've also just been doing an inventory of things I've bought this year so far and, apart from embroidery supplies, I'm doing really well at not buying stuff.  I've been given three books, but bought none (and one of the give-aways I won't be keeping), given one bottle of perfume and bought one cosmetic item that I needed, but returned it as it was terrible!!!  Embroidery supplies-wise I've bought one piece of linen (which I used half of for the recent L*K piece), 37 DMC Coton à Broder skeins, 19 balls of Anchor Pearl Cotton #12, 3 spools of Kreinik Cord and 23 packs of Mill Hill beads, mostly in the sell-off event at Hobbycraft.  Oh, I also bought two bumper cross stitch pattern magazines.  I'll be doing a Project Minimalist update on my lifestyle blog soon, which will detail the stuff I've cut down too.

I was brave and did an approximate thread inventory recently.  It turned out that my estimate of around 1600 threads was more or less accurate.  I can see myself letting go of as many as 400 in the medium term if I continue to not use them, but I'm not forcing myself to.  I don't plan on buying (m)any more though.  I ordered my ticket for the November Harrogate Show this week, but it'll be a pleasure and inspiration trip as much as anything and I hope to come back fairly empty handed.

I have been doing a bit of cross stitch - my big WIP and a card for Sir - recently and hope to show you both of those during the next week.  I'm still having headache troubles, although some days I can use my glasses OK.  Trouble is, they're usually days that I either haven't time for blogging, or just don't really feel like it.  How typical is that? LOL!  Anyway, I know what causes the trouble and am working daily on resolving the problem.  It takes time, but progress is being made, so I'm happy with that.  I've just managed to edit lots of photos and write 4 blog posts (3 in advance), so things aren't bad today.=)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015

Update on the Paradise Island piece

Recently, on my post about completing the butterflies piece, Glenis asked me, 'What next?'  Well, one of the first things I'd like to do is finish the Paradise Island cross stitched picture.  The first shot today is the last photo I posted a couple of months ago, then the second one is with all the water that I plan to do at this stage completed.

This third one shows how far I've got with putting in the trees on the distant shore.  There's just one colour here so far and I'm ready for the next one as I've done as much as I reasonably could of this shade for now.

Other than that, I'm also cross stitching a little card for my hubby as he's now had official notification that he's passed his PhD completely and is now entitled to call himself Doctor!  So, he's now Doc Martin, or Dr Sir!!!  He's trying not to make a big deal of it, but I can see that he's really rather chuffed just the same.=)  Anyway, I'll show the card when it's done as it's only a small design and not really worth doing a WIP series for.

I also went through the drawer which holds my kits and project ideas etc and found this little lot:

This is what's in stock at the mo, (i.e. what's left when I sold off most of the kits etc that I used to have in my stash, but realised I was never going to stitch).  I'm also interested in another Coleshill stumpwork kit and hope to get hold of that one soon.

Having posted those, there's nothing to say I have to do any of these next and I'm also really interested on some more thread painting sort of work, polishing up some skills there.

So, the bottom line is, other than the current WIPs, I really don't know what's next!  Any suggestions?  Ideas?  Requests?  What are you working on or hoping to work next?

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015

Stash Sunday - Anchor Pearl Cotton #12

I'm really quite a fan of Pearl Cotton #12.  I like the gauge (similar to two strands of stranded cotton), the texture and plenty more about it.  To be honest, my use of it thus far has been limited, but there have been plenty of ideas: Needlelace things in stumpwork, parts of freestyle designs that needed a little more texture than stranded cotton provides, as can just about be seen in the streambed sections of this Helen M Stevens' design I used it in back in 2008, and also fine filling stitch work for hardanger, for a start.

The only thing I didn't like about it was how few colours it came in.  The first picture above shows the entire of the original Anchor Pearl #12 collection including about a dozen colours that weren't available in the UK and I had to have shipped from Nordic Needle in the States.  No proper yellows or oranges, no browns beyond a few beige shades, no grass greens.  It was a really limited selection.  Even DMC couldn't help much.  They had some other colours available, but still no oranges, yellows etc, and a selection of only the same size.

Imagine my delight one day when browsing the Sew and So thread section I saw that the whole collection had been thoroughly re-vamped and considerably enlarged!

Of course, there were some casualties and the colours shown here in this selection of muted greens, blues, pinks and purples, along with a slightly deeper than vibrant red shade were all retired from the range.  I must remember not to use these in anything I might design for sale later on, although DMC still seem to have some comparable hues.  Shame about that red, though - Anchor shade 47, as I find it more useful than the brighter 46.

These were the first balls of the new set that I invested in.  I chose landscape colours mostly so that I could continue to use them in Helen M Stevens' style pictures, where she represents fields, water and so on in long stitches of twisted silk.  This would work well as a substitute thought I.

Of course, me being me and a complete thread-head floss fanatic, I didn't stop there and, two or three hauls later, I found myself with this as a personal collection:  

Certainly a much better selection of shades than used to be available!  There seem to be about 117 (only 40 in DMC just now) at the moment, and I don't have all of them.  There seem to be about 30 I haven't yet bought, but I'm out of space for now, although I could create it within the system I already own.  I don't want to need to look for new thread storage solutions as, much as I don't mind filling up the drawers and workbox that I have, I'm not interested in buying more.  I have a LOT of thread, and much more could get beyond ridiculous, no?  As you can see in this last shot, what I own just now fills the available space nicely, with room for two, three or four more balls at some point.

I have my Pearl Cotton #8 balls in the other cantilever section on the other side of the workbox and those could be rehoused if need be, i.e. if I ever wanted to expand this collection again.  For now though, it stays as it is.

What about you?  Have you used Pearl Cotton #12?  What for?  What other uses can you think of for it?

BTW, I won't be doing Stash Sunday posts every week!!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015

Stash Sunday!

Ugh!  I've got sinusitis, so I've been sitting quietly, cross-stitching.  I'm getting along quite well with my picture (update some time next week), but I thought I'd break off to share some recent stash haul shots.

This first lot, a bumper cross stitch magazine containing all manner of lovely wildlife pictures, many of which are those glorious Anchor designs, and three offer priced packs of Mill Hill beads came from Hobbycraft a couple of weeks ago.  Those of you who live in the UK and have a Hobbycraft in reasonable distance may want to pay a visit to your local branch soon as this is a good deal on Mill Hill beads.  Some of the more expensive items (crystal treasures, economy bead packs etc) are going for £2, but regular sized ones are just £1, which is a decent price for the UK.

I inadvertently duplicated a shade as it seems I already had the red ones.  However, I thought I didn't have frosted red as I couldn't remember owning a matte red like this.

As you can see, I didn't own one!  The two production runs were quite different and even in this photo you can see the difference in sheen on the beads, no?  So, I'm keeping them both in my red bead box.

A week or so later, I took up the Sew and So newsletter 10% discount in April offer and ordered this little lot, several Anchor pearl cotton #12 shades, more Mill Hill beads, a reel of Kreinik cord and several different gauges of DMC Coton à Broder.

The coloured Coton à Broder threads are all in weight #16 and plug a few gaps in the Anchor #16 collection, (which is totally devoid of yellow-greens!).

I also treated myself to these basic shades in #20 and #30 as well as a purple Kreinik cord I bought for the sheer love of purple!! =)

As far as Pearl Cotton #12 went, I filled in a few more gaps in my collection and got a new black, as I've used quite a bit of my old one and am likely to need another at some point in the reasonably near future.

This is the whole of my recent bead haul.

I'm toying with the idea of some fruit tree designs and so I wanted some orange beads (for oranges, of course!) and also some smaller gauge ones.  Sadly, there weren't matching orange ones in the Petite range, but at least there are some dark orange ones here and I was able to get some good yellow and greens too.  The purple, again, was for the sheer pleasure of my favourite colour!

So, now Kathy's saying to herself, 'I thought she wasn't going to be buying more stuff and was cutting down?!'  And she'd be quite right in the main.  I'm not accumulating as a general rule at the mo, but I confess to being unable to resist that 10% off offer from Sew and So.  Besides, I'm not expecting to cut my stitching stash down much, if at all, although I have already divested myself of a fair quantity of books, pens/pencils/paints, make-up products and clothes, as well as used up a number of perfumes and other things.  There are still 400-500 books to go, as well as numerous magazines, tapes and much more before we move in about 3 months' time.  My original aim was to halve my personal possessions for the move and I may well succeed, or close to it. I may grab some more beads from the Hobbycraft Mill Hill offer, as £1 is a real snip, but I doubt I'll be getting much or any more stash this year, with the possible exception of a few bits and pieces at the Harrogate Show in November.  For me, it wasn't about saving money as we have no debts and I just used the money I earned in selling some of my surplus stuff to buy these, so buying something isn't a problem generally.

A later post will cover more about the Anchor #12 Pearl Cotton collection.  In the meantime, why not have a Stash Sunday yourself and share a photo or two of some new or current stash?  Not to show off or anything negative like that, but just for the fun of sharing and eye candy. =)  I love to have a nosey into others' thread collections and so I'd love to see some of yours!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015

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

Work in Progress Wednesday - 8 October 2014

I have some progress to report! AND I seem to have managed to get a couple of passably decent photos of the work so far.  How's that for news?=)

I've been playing around a little bit with some of my camera settings.  Rather blindly, I'm afraid, as I really don't know what I'm doing with it, but having a good play around has helped me get some shots that seems to distinguish the different reddish shades.  The light's not quite right yet, but it's moving in the right direction and, well, there's always Photoshop!!!

I had quite a surprise the other day when I finally got around to putting the threads from the stumpwork face kit away.  I matched them up via my thread colour chart and found out the dark pink was shade #76.  However, there was no #76 in my thread pack (#s 52 - 100).  A missing colour, no less!  I thought I had the lot.  I then picked the shade card back up and looked through the whole of the section checking to see if any others were missing and there were two more in that pack.  A couple of days later I went through the rest of the collection and found another two missing.  A nice parcel of threads arrived from SewandSo this lunchtime with both the five missing stranded cottons and 14 more of the Anchor Coton à Broder #25 shades that I'm collecting.  About two dozen to go now....

To see what the rest of the WIPW team have reported on this last week, hop on over to Pintangle.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

Various stitching sorts of things

Hello from wet and windy South Yorkshire.  Nothing like as terribly wet and windy as those poor souls in the south of the country, Wales and western coastal areas who are flooded out of their homes and/or assessing damage from the strong gales that were battering their homes and businesses the other day.  In that, we count ourselves lucky.

Anyway, I promised a little while ago to share the completed Lizzie*Kate 'Autumn' piece and so here it is.  For any newcomers, late last year I completed the 'Button Up' four seasons series (I'd done 'Winter' and 'Spring' a few years before), but didn't use the novelty buttons that came with the charts.  Two of them I didn't really like and so I decided to find another way to add a special touch to this series.  I'll be adding in some stitched elements in a different style from cross stitch to create a special part.  I'll do this one when Needlequest covers autumn, the 'Spring' one in April and fit the other two in as an when, sometime in between.

Last time I posted this piece, it was almost done, but I wasn't sure about the yellow and orange lettering at the bottom.  As you can see from the comparison with the rest of the series below, it doesn't stand out as well as the others do, but I don't think it's too bad, so I'll keep it as it is and won't be adding anything to it.  Some suggested outlining it (I also thought of this one myself), but none of the others are outlined and I wanted to make sure that the series matched well too.  The contrast isn't as great as those with darker shades, but it could also be a great deal worse, so it goes forward as is.=)  Many thanks to those who gave opinions and made suggestions a few months ago.=)

When i was up in Leeds the other week I grabbed the chance to visit my old favourite shop there and bought most of the bits and pieces that you can see here.  I finally found somewhere that wasn't out of stock of Anchor #1 stranded cotton - bright white (=DMC shade B5200), although they didn't have #2, antique white, I noticed.  I have a spare of that one though, so I was content with my find.

I also bought these three lengths of ribbon, which will become piping for cushion covers.  I have two planned for this year - the Japanese kimono piece is to be made up into one and a butterfly piece that I'll be doing in the autumn is the other.  I got the third length of ribbon as they were '50p each or 3 for £1'.  Silly not to!!

The fabric they're resting on is a 30cm strip of white organza, which I got to have a go at Rowandean style 'see through' work (like Rachel showcased after her trip to the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate last November), which will be another part of my spring themed work in April.  I also have Gary Clarke's 'Embroidery Illusions' on my wishlist and wanted to have some useful fabric in to try something like that.

The last four skeins of thread are the missing DMC Linen shades I was looking out for and which Cynthia very kindly sent to me from her own stash.  They came with a note expressing the hope that she'd soon see them featured in a pretty project, so I must get my thinking cap on.  Can't let such a generous soul down.  Don't forget, Cynthia, if there's anything fairly light in weight that I can send you from the UK, you've only to ask!=)

Wish there were more greens that these two wishy-washy ones, but at least that's another thread collection completed (even if it is discontinued now).  Not that I have a vast array of complete collections - just Anchor stranded cottons, Anchor Marlitt, possibly Madeira Stranded Silk - unless they've added any new shades and almost all Anchor's Coton à Broder #16 - minus one or two shades that I'd never use, and now these linen threads.  At one point I had all the Anchor Pearl Cotton #12 balls, but then they re-vamped the range and extended it enormously.  I've got some of the new ones, but don't need all.   OK, I suppose that, whilst that might not be a vast number of collections, it does constitute a rather vast amount of thread!!LOL

What about you?  Do you have any complete collections?  What would you like to have the whole set of?  I'd like the new Anchor Coton à Broder #25 set, but the colours are little limited at only 40.  Mary Corbet was understandably bewailing how limited the DMC collection was recently and there are about 175 shades there, so this one is really small!  Still, I think they could have use, although, as usual, they haven't really brought out colours that say 'buy and use me' to me.  Some, yes.  Many, sadly not.  I'll probably get the greens, yellows and red-shades (including pinks, lilac and peach). It's a new venture for Anchor, releasing colours in this range, which used to be white and black only, so I hope they'll expand it in time.  Hardly anyone's stocking it yet and the only on-line retailer I've found has, unhelpfully, omitted the colour numbers.=(  I may have to get it from Hobbycraft.

I fancy treating myself to the four Kreinik Sacks O'Silk, and, as they go up in price every time I look at them, so it seems, I'd best be quick, although I don't have £70 to spare just now.  I'd also like the DMC Satin range, I think.  I wonder how very different they are from Anchor Marlitt.  Anyone know?  Could they be used together without very obvious discrepancies?  They only have 60 shades to Marlitt's 90, but I think there's a lot that can be done, even with a limited palette.  I'm willing to try, anyway!!

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

Stitching and Threads

This part of my Lizzie*Kate Summer Button-Up cross stitch is cute, isn't it?  I love this bottom corner with the lil' kitty peeping out.  It's only very simple, but it works well, I think.=)

This is how far I've got with the whole piece.  Not too far off completion, probably at about 65-70%.

I was working on the red border at the bottom and wondering why red, white and blue had been chosen for summer, and then it dawned on me - of course, 4th of July colours!  Well, that doesn't work for me either by nationality or the fact that I'm not patriotic at all, so I decided to leave that bit unfinished for now and, once the rest is done, I'd see about picking some more summery shades that co-ordinate well with the whole piece.  Also, the 'Spring' pattern has lettering in blue, so I want this one to be different.

It's been another good stash week as the day I put in the order for the #12 pearl cottons I showcased recently, I also ordered a few more Pipers Silks to a) plug the gaps in my collection colour-wise, and b) to fill my box.  This is what I enjoyed receiving on Thursday - 16 beautiful, gleaming cops of silk floss.

Below are the sections of the newly filled box just sitting on my desk, waiting to be put to good use in a project or four.

The 'Yellows' tray, photographed at this unusual angle as it produced the best distinction between the yellow shades.  Clockwise from top-left: oranges and peaches, warm yellows, cool yellows, warm browns, cool browns, and black, white and greys.

The 'Reds' tray contains, again clockwise from the top-left: purple pinks, red purples, blue purples, bright reds, dark reds, and red pinks.

The 'Blues' tray features: yellow greens, bright greens, blue greens, green/aqua blues, cool blues and black/white in narrower gauges.  If I get any more greys at some point, I'll move the regular black and white down here too.

If anyone would like any more information on the silks, or any of the colours etc, feel free to ask.  In the meantime, I need to think of something to use them in, right?=)

Sadly, I doubt I'll get my sampler done as planned as I'm rather out of action this weekend, down with something and just taking a few minutes out of bed now to do a few on-line things.  I want to get as much rest as I can so that I can go to London etc as planned on Monday - I do NOT intend to miss that trip!  It does mean not much, if any stitching will happen over the weekend, although I've made good progress since Wednesday's posting, so there'll be something to show whatever.  And you never know, I might feel up to more later on in the day...

Have a good w/e and I'll head back bedwards with some fun children's detective stories to amuse me and thoughts of all the art and stitchy projects I have in mind for the next few months.=)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013