Some needling problems

And that's not all meant as a pun.  (Which bit is, you'd best decide for yourself!)

I've had this old needlecase for a few years.  I actually made it myself when I was in primary school class 3 at the tender age of around 7, so 1978/9.  I even remember being disappointed when I went wrong on the dark green/peach line, but it was rather a complex stitch for a tiny tot to do, no?  Well, my mum used it for years and then washed it out and gave it to me when I made her a new one back in about 2005/6.

You can see how untidy it'd got inside as well.  Bits of thread hanging around, flannel insert all rusted, needles all over the place in not much order, except that most of the top right section was blunts - tapestry needles.

Whilst we were in Taiwan I worked a nice new one in a hardanger design.  I'd done an identical one in pink (which, OK, means it wasn't really identical.....) and gave it to my mother-in-law, and that after promising myself I was going to work that needlecase and NOT give it away.  I felt sorry for her as she'd had a rough time of it just previously, so I thought I'd give her the choice of colour and have the other one myself.  5 years later and it's been made up and waiting for needles for about the past 18 months.  So, last night I finally got around to populating it.

On the top left hand side we have tapestry needles in sizes 20, 22, 24, 26 and tiny 28s.  Under that come crewel/embroidery needles in sizes 10, 9, 7 (which is my preferred size - not too fiddly to work with), 5 and a couple of 3s.

Moving on to the right hand side and, from the top, three beading needles, 4 straw/milliners ones in sizes 3, 5, 7 and 9, then two other large needles that I don't really know what to call, followed by chenilles in sizes 18, 20, 22 and 24, then a few general sharps for sewing.

So, now I just have to get used to the sight of my new needlecase.  At least it's still green!

I've been thinking about the berries design and the problems associated with it.  First of all, the silk (backed with interfacing) feels very stiff and rather like paper.  Not nice to work on.  And, as I had it out of the frame for a while, there are nasty buckles in it, which just won't do.  You can see a bit of how it's got spoiled here.

Also, to be honest, I'm not that pleased with the design.  It's all over the place with no real sense of balance and I just can't find any enthusiasm to work it.  I started on the monogram a few weeks ago but, as the letters are half the dimensions of the ones I took the design from (Susan O'Connor's book), they really are too small to do properly and, when I tried, they just looked so scrappy that I would have done better when I was seven!  If not, then at least there would have been that as an excuse.  So, with all that in mind and the fact that silk on silk was really not at all practical for an everyday manicure set, (I mean, we're talking about a normal, modern woman here, not Lady Mary Crawley!!), I decided to take the piece out of the frame and take the whole thing back to the drawing board.  Perhaps a larger monogram with the berries around it??  I'll see what I can come up with.

In the meantime, I went through my kit box and fished these two out.

I could wish that, when kit makers were putting these things together, they'd spare some thought on how well the colours in the design go with the fabric they provide.  It always seems to be a cream colour that gets used (and the piece in the Brazilian kits is rather rough and rigid as well), but it seems to me that these purple roses and the light, blue-ish greens that are with them would be much better suited to white.  I laid the threads against three fabrics for comparison.  The first from the left is white (cool), then an antique white (neutral) piece, then the cream (warm) from the kit.  I know it doesn't show up as well as it could here (the original fabric is a bit yellower in reality), but the cool shades match the white so much better.  Colour is very important to me and I can't feel comfy with 'it looks OK' when it can look better!  Perfectionist?  Well, perhaps.  In some things anyway.  A pass grade won't do for me when a distinction is available.;)

I haven't started either yet, and I also want to have a go at a berry or two, so I can't say for sure what's coming next, but something will.  Soon....

© Elizabeth Braun 2011

A finish - gasp!

Yup, I finally got something finished up - the hardanger needlecase. A couple of weeks ago I got some green fabric to use as a backing for the actual stitching and also found the cotton doctor's flannel that I'd cut and brought with me specially. Here's the finished results.

Front:

Back:

Centre with the green backing showing and the cotton doctor's flannel 'pages':

I've also done a few more lengths of thread on the current hardanger piece and got about half way through the buttonhole edging. I think I'm more getting the hang of it now, but it's still a bit uneven in parts. I'll get there and no-one but me will notice anyway. Sigh! The curse of perfectionism!!!

Next up is to get the 'field mice' finished up into a nice cushion/pillow cover. I've got the first few pieces of fabric cut and pressed and should have that started over the rest of the weekend.

Hardanger stitchery complete

Finally got the hardanger stitching done on the needlecase. All I need to do now is get some doctors' flannel type cloth (which I rather stupidly didn't bring with me, considering I knew I was going to stitch this and have brought all the stuff I (thought I) needed for several other pieces), and I hope to find something that will answer on Friday at the Yongle market, which is the place that sells all the fabrics etc. I'm planning on going there with an English friend I first met in Dublin, but have caught up with again here, of all places!!

Made a boo-boo with the lower part of the cross stitch in that the most southerly blackberry and leaf were stitched one hole too far north, an occupational hazard with evenweave fabrics! Anyway, I've done most of the first mouse and the plant life is un-picked and ready to be re-stitched, when I finally get back on with this one.

I also got some tracing paper at last, thanks to DH's electronic dictionary helping me find the Chinese for it, and am now more or less equipped to get on with the other projects I mentioned before - the Brazilian roses and the goldwork viola.

I got through Burney's 'The Wanderer' in record time (good book, that, give it a try some time, if you don't mind 18th century lingo and nearly 900 pages to wade through), and am now out of novels. Well, I would be had my English chum here not given me hers the other day!! She also assures me there are English books in the local libraries, so I plan on calling in and registering with the local branch pretty soon, if not faster.

Hardanger Progress

Here's what the hardanger needlecase looks like at the moment. I decided to work on it as a 'Sunday project', but won't this coming week, I shouldn't think - unless I think of something else to do on the 9 or so hour bus ride to and from Kaohsiung the weekend after, that is! Needs to be counted thread and preferably not too big or too complex. Hardanger is perfect really. I'll do all the cutting out before we go as I certainly wouldn't risk that en route!

Haven't really had time or umph for any more stitching since this work on Sunday, I've been trying to get up to date with housework, laundry and preparing for a test tomorrow, (which I feel anything but prepared for, if I'm honest), but I hope to get back to more creative stuff just as soon as I can. I have a lot of catching up to do school-wise after being off with a cold and so on.

Still reading 'Sylvia's Lovers', but have really got going on it now - when I have chance to just sit and read for pleasure, that is. Not through with the Chinese version of 'Anne of Green Gables' yet either. I don't understand every word of it by a long shot, but I can make out about 2/3 I think and, as I know it well, it's no real strain. Next up will be 'The Secret Garden', which I haven't read for decades, (although I've seen the film of within the last few years a couple of times), so that will be a bit harder. Make language learning fun - read kids' books!!

We had friends 'round for dinner last night and I showed them the bee. I was right in thinking that the Taiwanese would be blown away by stumpwork. He asked me if I hadn't bought something and stuck it on and she said I ought to put it in the museum!!!! I could sell stumpwork pieces here, I think!!!

Travel Stitching

I got a decent start made on my hardanger needlecase, but didn't get as much done as I'd hoped or planned. With about 5 hours of stitchable in-transit time, I'd hoped to get much of the outlining done, but thanks to the lack of light on board the coach at times, (the driver left the main cabin in darkness when it got dark and didn't even give us access to our own reading lights for a goodly while!) and the fact that I dropped off to sleep a bit on the way back, I just got this far. On the outward journey I did almost all the outer border, save 3 'boxes' and just completed that small bit and started the inner border on the way home once I realised that we could use the reading lights! Working with thick threads, tapestry needles and counted thread fabrics is quite possible in-transit, but I doubt I'd attempt much in the way of fine work with its sharp needles on the move!

Now it's back to the cross stitch as I only have less than 2 weeks to get that stitched and finished up. Hoping to find some sort of hanger on Friday afternoon when I plan to take a trip to the craft shop area. I hope the quilting section has something that will do. They do a lot of things like bag handles, so I'm hopeful....

2009 Stitching Review and 2010 Plans

Many stitching bloggers do a review of their needlecraft year, so here's mine for this year about to end:

Finished projects can be seen in the sidebar on the left of my blog, under the Feedjit thingy. Altogether, there seem to have been 11, of which 4 were started the year before (2 C&G samples and 2 WIPs that took a bit of a long time!!) and 1 was stitched in early 2008, but just finished up into the casket this summer gone. So, there have been a grand total of 6 pure 2009 finishes. Not really a very productive year, but it's been a busy one with the international move and dealing with the boomerang 'flu in the spring and repeated viruses out here since October.

My goals set for this year at this time last year were:

* Finish all WIPs, including C&G stuff - I pretty much managed this as far as it went.
* Get my C&G work done in time, (mid-May for this year's work) - I didn't succeed here thanks to lousy health from January-May and then moving away. Might well come back to C&G in 2011.
* Do a hardanger cushion for my Taiwanese friend - yes, I did this, only I haven't given it to her yet!!
* Stitch something for my 2nd sister before she goes abroad for a year, preferably something with practical use. - I didn't get to this, I was just not up to it at the time, but she doesn't live too far from me at the mo and I have chance to do something special for her soon.
* Take several kits with me when we go back to Taiwan in late August/early September, should all go according to plan, that is!!! - Yes, all this went to plan and I've even worked one of the kits - the stumpwork bee and flowers from the last post.
* DH's 10th anniversary card - probably a CQ heart. - I did a strawberry heart in silks instead.
* Do some small pieces that I want to do. No more obligation stitching! - Ha! No, this didn't happen, I was just just busy or too unwell. Actually, I've decided that obligation stitching isn't such a bad thing after all. It gets stuff done and the 'need' for a gift gets my creative juices flowing, frankly, when I stitch something for the sake of it, I then have it hanging around whilst I think of something to do with it!

I also stitched 2 Lizzie*Kate seasonal thingies and that Anchor Creative Embroidery kit with the dragonfly and waterlily and was featured on Mary Corbet's listing in the summer, which caused an enormous increase in site traffic for 3 days!! Many thanks to Mary and to all the others who've listed me in one way or another over the past year. My blog made it onto Sharon B's 'S' list too, but that was in December 2008 and also created a fair amount of fresh traffic over a few days.

So much for 2009, what about next year? Well, mostly I'll be carrying on working through the kits and designs I've brought with me, but there are a couple of openings for some more design work. I have the Brazilian kit I posted about recently out to do soon, but I've realised that the fabric is really too yellow for my needs. It doesn't match the threads anything like as well as white will, so I need to organise another piece of fabric for that, (there are some pieces of silk in other kits I have with me that I don't think I'll want to do on silk, so one of those will probably do) and get the design re-traced. I also need to source some tracing paper.... There's also a goldwork string instrument kit out ready which also needs tracing and, as I neglected to bring the photo with me, an image sourcing as well!!

Whilst waiting for those to get going, I've set up a hardanger needlecase, a green version of this one (scroll down past the chaffinches cross stitch), and a cross stitch which you can see the floss tosses for below as well as a small pic of what the XS will be - a couple of cute field mice with some blackberries.



The only question now is which to start on first?? We're away this weekend, so I want to take one of them to work on whilst we're sat on the coach for 5 hours.

Two Finishes!

Yippee! Finally got the birds and the needlecase finished.=) The stitching show motivated me to get on with my WIPs (and at least one of the 2 chums I went with to get on with hers too....), and here are the results.

Here are the birdies: It's not at all a good photo as you can't really see the beading in the flowers at all. There are actually beads and long-stitches in there, which look fab in real life, but don't show well on here.=(

And here are the front and the back of the completed needlecase. I'm quite proud of it as the sewing is quite neat for a change and I managed to get the stitches that hold the 'leaf' in to be virtually invisible along the outer edge.=)

Stitched in 'Cotton Candy' Caron Watercolors and Wildflowers threads on pink Oslo fabric.

Progress on the Works in Progress

Here are the chaffinches as of 2am today! (I couldn't sleep!!!)

And here's the completed stitching on the hardanger needlecase. I just need to get some fabric to finish it up now (make the backing and the leaves to hold the needles) and then it can be sent over to my Mother-in-Law.



Still don't seem to be able to get rid of the lines on the photos and make the fabric look like it should. Anyone got any ideas?

Lilac Time

Here's the completed Lilac Time needle case. The fabric was stiffer than the Orange Blossom one, so I had to put it under 2 heavy dictionaries for hours and hours before it would lie flat enough to even be photographed!!! I adore the scent of lilac - it's my favourite perfume.

Here's the current status on the 'Welcome'. I'm not really that pleased with it as the goldwork is hard and is not as even as I wanted it to be and I'm struggling with the shading on the flower.


All right Lili, BE impressed, see if I care!!!!!!!!!=)LOL!!!!

All Stitched Up....

Well, I didn't get the 'Welcome' sign anything like finished last week, but I have got all the sewing up that I wanted to do done. Here are the two Orange Blossom pieces:


I still have to put s few stitches in the Lilac Time needlecase as the tassel cord is a bit loose and doesn't look very good at the mo. Will post that one tomorrow when it's finally done and photographed.

I've got 'elco' and about half of the 'W' done on the sign as well as the leaf and stem done, so really not much progress. It's very hard work and I think I might have bitten off a bigger chunk than I can chew, but I seem to have the habit of wanting to shoot for the stars with a kid's catapult!=( Let's hope somewhere local does last minute framing..... Planning on working on this one a lot today and getting the 'W' finished and the back of the silk shading on the lily broken.

Speaking of which: Lili, I don't design all my pieces, just a few here and there. I've done about 100 pieces of needlework since I started stitching and I think I actually designed about 10 of them, most of which are hardanger cards anyway! The only CS piece I designed was really only heavy adaptation of a freebie 'L' and adding to it. Don't be too impressed!!!=)

No, I'm not dead.....

...just haven't done much stitching this week. I did finish the needlecase stitching last night though and pressed that and the 2 other things that need finishing up ready for sewing. I also got on with the 'Welcome' sign design and that's more or less ready to start stitching on now. Just need to pick the threads now. Here's the current status on the OB needlecase.....

Ta-dah!

Finished the Poppies and Mallow design! I re-did the mallow flower centres with French knots as the original seed stitch was lost against my fairly dense opus plumarium. Hope it meets with everyone's approval anyway!!

Am I feeling pressured because of the goals? No, I can't say that I am. Motivated, but not pressured. There's not that much actually as the first two were virtually done, the fourth is about 20% done already, the fifth is only a small XS card and the third will take about a week's stitching at my current rate, so I might even get well into April's goals by the end of this month!!

I got all the Xs done on the needlecase and the blue back-stitch trellis work as well. Here's the latest.

Ugh, Wednesday!

That means work day, but thankfully a 'normal' (rather than long) day today. OK, OK, I know I only work 3 hours a week, but it cuts into my stitching time!!!!!!!

Didn't get the leaves finished last night, but I did get something done and here's the progress:

Thanks for the explanation of the laying tool, Terri! You know I was just teasing, don't you?=) Sounds like a good idea for something really special, but I think it would make the process of stitching quite a lot longer than normal, esp. whilst getting used to using it. This is the beauty of photography though - it doesn't show all the imperfections!!! My stitches lay OK, but sometimes the 2 strands get a bit twisted and it shows, if you want to look that closely anyway.

I got fed up of working on the leaves and decided to take a bit of refuge in cross stitch just before bed, so worked on a little more of the Orange Blossom needlecase. Just one more colour, (couple of dozen X's), and the cross stitching is done on this one and it's on to the copious BS! Here's the story so far:

Oh, Lili, I forgot to mention something. Thanks for the compliments on the photos of England etc on my Webshots. They were taken by my husband though, not me.=) Must make sure I put that on my album. I can't take the credit for his work!!!LOL!!!

So, hope to have the poppies and the needlecase stitching done as well as the Welcome sign designed by the end of this week. Might even get something sewn up too, but I'm not counting on that!!!!!! Anyone else not good at getting on with finishing off??

Some stitchy photos....

... for a change! Getting back on topic now!=) Here's the current status on the Orange Blossom needlecase:



And here are the things I bought at the Stitch and Creative Crafts Show in Manchester last Friday:

Photos - YEAH!

So, here's the latest. Not much up on last time, but......

The 'Lilac Time' needlecase:












The 'Orange Blossom' needlecase:



















And the Helen M Stevens' design:



I will have to get my needles in gear though as I now have 3 things that are ready to be made up, plus a card and some gift bookmarks that must be done in the next 10 days.....

Latest WIP photos......

Here's the latest on the Lilac Time needlecase....

......All the stitching completed on the Orange Blossom bookmark.

And the Helen M Stevens piece with most of the shadow lining in so far.......


More when there's more to look at!

I haven't posted for ages.......

Well, here I am again, with nothing to show for my silence! The cushion is frogged to within an inch of it's life and all the stitching is finished on the bookmark. I've also started another cross stitch needlecase kit and have traced the pattern for the Helen M Stevens floral design. I'm not going to get the dog out just yet as I feel the need for something more pleasant, colourful and easy to stitch for the time being!! Here are pix of the current WIPS purloined from certain websites!! I'll post my own pics over the w/e.

All Sewn Up!

Both the rose heart cushion and the rose needlecase are now sewn up into what they're supposed to be and ready to be given to their prospective owners.=)


Nothing much else done today - no other project work and not likely to be until tomorrow. Never mind, 2 out of the 7 stitching projects are DONE, so we are talking major advances in the right direction. YIPPEE!!=)