0 Needlequest - Mon 10 Feb 2014

Was that a week gone by already??  Help!

So, it's Monday again and time for an update on everyone's Needlequest work.  Has anyone managed to accomplish much this last week?  I confess, I haven't!  I did a fair bit on my Welsh Poppy last night, but as that was January's subject/technique, I don't really class it as Needlequest work anymore.  So, I'll be showcasing that in a Friday/Saturday post soon instead - once it's finished, of course.=)

As far as my Japanese design work is going, well I managed to make a start on tracing and simplifying the kimono piece.  After a lot of comparison with my own photos and others on-line, I think this tracing here is more or less correct for what I want.  I also want to change the hairstyle to make it a more traditional bun style.  As you can see, I make my tracing paper last (expensive stuff!), and there are the wings of a dragonfly goldwork project from back in 2008 visible top right, the tracing for last year's stumpwork rabbit's ear top left and a travel map outline in part at the bottom.=)  The Welsh Poppy is also on this sheet!!

I also spent some time with my Japanese fabric collection and fished out these fat quarters and patchworkers' pieces that I bought in Taiwan, (i.e. likely to be really Japanese).

I then narrowed them down to these two pieces - the red for the kimono and the black for the obi (the wide 'belt' part).

I noticed from some of the participants' comments over the last week etc, that there may have been a bit of misunderstanding on this month's theme.  'Japan' doesn't necessarily mean using Japanese needlecraft and embroidery techniques.  One said she didn't have time for a full silk work piece, so she would have to settle for something in Sashiko and others mentioned other things they planned to use.  Of course, there's nothing wrong with doing that if that's what the design theme 'Japan' says to you, but the idea is to create or work designs where the picture itself is something Japanese.  Thus all my photos 10 days ago of iconic Japanese things as an appetite whetting exercise.  If you want to use a Japanese technique this month, there's nothing stopping you doing that, it's just fine, but I just wanted everyone to know that, when the design theme is a country, it doesn't mean that our work that month must be that country's traditional stitching style.  So, if I wasn't clear on that in the first place and you were concerned about it feeling that you might have to sit certain months out, please breathe again!=)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

Detail: Needlequest - Mon 10 Feb 2014

0 Work in Progress Wednesday - 4 Dec 2013

Helloooooo!

I'm in a good mood today.  After being able to collect Nectar points on e-bay for a while already, now one can finally spend them there too on a the same sort of voucher system they used to use for Amazon.  That means that I was able to get my own copy of the Trish Burr colour book as well as the Redouté flowers one for fewer points that it would cost me for the colour book alone on Nectar's own books affair.  Even if I'm getting something for free, I want to get the best value out of it!!  I get a fair few things via e-bay, as one can often get hard to find and discontinued products there.  So, consider me well pleased!

So does the fact that I'm on the home stretch of this L*K piece.  Just one more leaf, three leaf stalks and the 'Autumn' logo to go now...

Here's the cute kitty bit!

This is as far as I've got with the peacock feather, i.e. got it all laid out on my desk and getting in the way.  I haven't put in a stitch on it yet, but I have cleared it out of the way a few times...  I'm planning to do a little on it when I've finished this posting.  Wonder if I will....??!=)

My stitching goals for this month look like this (complete with status thus far):

* Finish the L*K 'Autumn' piece  - About 85% complete and must be done this week as it's listed on e-bay and has been bid on already!
* Finish the peacock feather - Hoping to complete the left hand side before next Wednesday's update.  I do actually believe in miracles (esp as Sir actually managed to get hold of his teaching certificate mentor on the phone the other day!!), so this may even happen!  PS - it did!  I put in two lengths...=)
* Finish the red alpine rose tiny needle painting - Just the stem done so far.
* Re-work the DMC ladybird stumpwork design
* Mount and display all five DMC stumpwork pieces.

I should be able to manage that lot, but whether or not I will depends on a combination of self discipline (laughs wildly) and successful avoidance of germs.  I can't really stitch when I'm horizontal in bed!!

That list should have answered your question, Wendy.  Yes, I'll be totally reworking the ladybird piece as, even if I was willing to break up the card, there wouldn't be enough fabric to mount it on its cardboard square.  It shouldn't take too long to do and I can turn the wired ladybird into a blog tutorial shortly afterwards.  Look out for that one some time within the next six weeks or so.

Juno asked if lacing the sampler was my first attempt at it.  No, it's my fifth one.  I got the instructions from the back of one of Helen M Stevens' books, probably one of the 'Masterclass' series and just followed those.  This piece here was my first and I've also done two cross stitch pictures that Sir then mounted in spare frames and which are now hanging in our home.  The other piece was the one I used as a tute for mounting finished pieces into a plastic flexi-hoop frame.  The technique is very similar although it's a rounded edge finish instead of a square or rectangle.  We got a quote for the final framing of the sampler yesterday and should get that sorted very soon indeed.  Looking forward to getting it to my mum as soon as practically possible.

Right, best crack on!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013

Detail: Work in Progress Wednesday - 4 Dec 2013

0 TAST 2012 - Week One - Fly Stitch

When I saw the ideas and examples Sharon had put up for the first stitch of the TAST 2012 re-run, I was immediately inspired with plenty of ideas.  I also got out my two stitch guides and found enough variations to fuel the creative process further and, soon afterwards, came up with a design plan for my first TAST sampler. I know that most of the notes didn't show up well, so I must remember to use pencil in a better contrasting shade if I want everyone to be able to read what I've written!

Like Jules (whose wonderful dandelion seed head worked in fly stitch you absolutely MUST see!), I plan to do a doodle pad type stitch sample, then try to work it up into something pictorial.  I can't promise that I'll always manage the pic, but I can try and at least got off to a good start this week.

Here's the quick test run of the stitches to make sure I'd got them sorted worked with scrap ends of no.5 pearl cottons on a piece of rather stiff 14ct Aida (that there was no chance of my using for anything 'polished').  The first few are just plain fly stitches, then a few with longer tails, then a few twisted fly stitches.  The second row shows a rather open worked fly stitch leaf (which does not work well on Aida) and then two rows of fly stitch filling.  This is done by working a row of regular fly stitches with the tops of the Vs touching, then working the next row upside down with the bottoms of the Vs joining and the securing stitch being made over the pair of touching stitches.  This filling spoke 'fence' to me.

First I painted some habotai silk to give the relevant colours to the background.  I made the mistake of putting the whole thing rather too far to the right of the hoop.  It would have been better to have been more central.  Still, I soon realised both the error and that I couldn't really do anything about it, except to ditch that piece and start again, but although I found I had more habotai than I'd feared, I'm still not up for wastage.  It was good to try silk painting again, even though I found it a fair bit harder than I'd remembered.  Need more practice, I know and having more fabric than I thought means that I can try this kind of background again soon.=)

So, here's the finished fly stitch pictorial piece.  Most of the stitches are some form of fly stitch, except some stem stitch for the foreground roses and, of course, the ribbon work (although you can work fly stitch in narrow ribbon to good effect).  The peach flowers are just straight stitches in ribbons, and the roses are spider's web roses.  Let me know if you want to know how the latter are done as they're easy, quick and effective.  The grass tufts are individual twisted fly stitches and the rose leaves are worked in closed fly stitch.

On the whole I'm happy with the piece.  The bit I'd most like to change (and could have if I'd been up for a lot of un-picking and re-stitching) would be to work the fence in a narrower gauge of thread.  I feel it's far too prominent, although the basic idea etc is OK.  Even with that, I'm pleased with this first week's work as I've been able to use fabric colouring again, I've designed something completely from scratch with little more inspiration than the stitches themselves and I worked it completely freehand - no pattern transferred to the silk.  Oh yes, and I really know fly stitch and a few variations of it quite well now!!

What's that just about the roses?  Well, of course it's a FLY!=)

© Elizabeth Braun 2012

Detail: TAST 2012 - Week One - Fly Stitch

0 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

Detail: Some needling problems

0 Goldwork viola

And I managed the strings! I didn't think they'd ever work out, but I ended up putting two rows of bright check purls over a small piece of felt to give enough height for the strings to both catch on the bridge and get over the bottom part of the finger board. If you don't look at that part too closely, it's OK!!

The background is now totally done on the narrowboat piece, but as it's not much different from last time, it's not really worth a new picture yet. Hope to show more of that later in the week.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the sense of accomplishment that came from having finally completed that viola. I started it in Taiwan back in mid February 2010, so it's taken 20 months to get it from re-working the design to completing the stitching! I hope I don't have too many more projects that progress so shakily...


© Elizabeth Braun 2011

Detail: Goldwork viola

0 Chinese Wedding Card

Just a quick post today to show a card I made over the weekend for a Chinese couple I was asked to stand witness for at their legal wedding ceremony yesterday, (if you can follow that!!) Red is the Chinese colour for celebrations and they often trim that red up with gold, so I mixed that colour scheme with our traditional white for weddings and did a quick hardanger piece.


DH typed up and printed out a nice something in Chinese which he stuck on the inside as a flysheet sort of arrangement too so, for an impromptu piece, we were quite proud of it.=)

Here is the final card mounting of the heart I did recently as well. This was for a silver wedding anniversary, but I found that I didn't actually have a silver '25' sticker, so just left the front plain. I think the stitchery is fancy enough anyway.


Next thing I hope to do it to get the water violets and fish piece made up into the final cushion/pillow cover. No estimates on when yet except that it must be done by 7 July.

Detail: Chinese Wedding Card

0 5 Smalls, 3 Styles

Here are all my other recent finishes, most of which were worked on whilst I was working in Leeds recently.

The first is a cross stitched bookmark made for an elderly friend of ours, Charlie. He was delighted with it when we gave it to him last night.=)


Next we have the two printed canvas needlepoint kits that my mum found a few months before we went to Taiwan (about two years ago now!) and that I recently finished off and 'repaired'. On looking at the top one again the other day, I realised that there are more repairs to make, i.e. when I decided, in my 11 year old wisdom, that it wouldn't matter if one or two stitches went \ when all the others were / as it filled in the shape better....




Here's a wedding card done well in advance of the big day on 20 August this year. Now like me to get things done in good time (Prince Albert would have approved: 'It's always better to complete a task well ahead of schedule.'), so I now have this to keep clean and safe (in its envelope) for the next 2 months and to think of a gift to make.


The last photo shows the circular card mount I chose to put the silver and purple heart in. I took pix of both this and in a square mount and, as soon as I could see them side by side in my photo package, there was no contest on which looked best. (I'll post a better photo when I've taken one.)


Next task is to get on with the blackberries and make up the two cushion/pillow covers etc, but I'm rather busy preparing for software and secretarial exams (plus going to classes and so on) just now, so I mayn't get on as quickly as I'd like... So what's new, huh?!

Detail: 5 Smalls, 3 Styles

0 A design's not final 'til the stitching's finished!

This was the design I initially created for friends' Silver Wedding (25th) anniversary card, to be worked in silver goldwork threads and Anchor Marlitt:


The changes started when I went to my LNS only to find that, although they stocked plenty of gold goldwork threads, their supply of silver was very low indeed. I wasn't able to get pearl purl and so had to adapt straight away to twist instead. I managed to get the silver kid leather, but when I tried to cut it out into the inner heart shape, the result was so creased and, frankly, cheap and nasty looking that I couldn't bear to use it. So, that bit got dumped too and I decided to move the trellis from over the purples, to filling the inner (now middle) heart. The tiny heart in the centre was to be filled with silver bright check purl.


However.... I noticed that the silver of the bright check was not as cool as the rest of the silver threads. In fact, it was relatively yellow. That bothered me, so I ditched that idea and decided to fill in the space with French knots in DMC metallic floss.


Above you can see the first stage of the purple shading completed and the second layer underway. The top right hand side ended up so un-even that, when I'd done the lot, I realised that, not only would I have to outline the inside of that section with Kreinik Fine Braid, but that I needed a line of it between the two purples as you can see below:


By this time I'd also decided that I wasn't going to fussing around adding in accents in pink Marlitt either!!

So, much changed from the original design, here is the finished item. It's a little puckered, sadly, but that came from my not getting the silk fabric totally flat on the backing cotton when I was sewing them together - a problem I've had before.=(


And here's a side view. Of course, it isn't possible from this angle for my camera to focus everything perfectly (so I had to cut the bottom section off!!), so the right hand side is a tad blurred, but I hope you like the effect all the same. All that remains now is to decide whether to mount it in a round or square aperture card.


So, although I haven't blogged my work for a fair few weeks, I have been stitching! This isn't all I've been doing either, there's more. I'll post about that in the days to come.

Detail: A design's not final 'til the stitching's finished!

0 Designing a manicure set pouch

About five years ago, when my second sister announced her decision to (finally) stop biting her nails, I promised her that, when she cracked it, I would buy her a nice manicure set as a reward (and to fill a new need!!). I confess that it slipped my mind at the time and when I did remember (long after she no doubt forgot - she doesn't have my elephantine memory, lucky girl!!) all I could find on the market were trendy teenage designs that I frankly wouldn't insult her with. So, I realised I was going to have to make one myself. I bought all the things I planned to put in it - scissors, emery boards, tweezers etc, and did a design.

OK, so the project went no further. Problem I think was that, unless there's a discernible deadline, things rarely happen with me, so it got kind of unintentionally shelved and the manicure tools hujng around on my bedroom shelf for a long time. Well, she gets married out in Taiwan next month and alongside the 'blue cushion cover' we agreed on as her wedding gift, I decided it was high time that this other one was made and it's a great occasion to give her a personal something. Naturally, now the time is finally upon me to do the project, I can't find the manicure stuff!! I've seen them since we moved and I put them somewhere just too safe!!

I looked at the design I drew back in '05 or '06 for the pouch and decided that it was cluttered and just wouldn't work after all, so set out to rework it yesterday afternoon. When I went with Rosie to a stitching and craft show once, she'd admired the stumpwork blackberries on display in one retailer's booth and said, 'They look good enough to eat!' So, I there and then decided to do some for her at some point. Marrying the two ideas, we get the following design process.

I don't go for drawing things out and then re-doing it until I like the layout, so instead I drew a box the correct size and cut out a few berries, leaves and a flower (yes, I know blackberry flowers are long gone before the berries ripen, but this is only art...) and played around with them until I had an arrangement I liked.



The next stage is to draw out the best layout and colour it in (got a chance to use the yummy Derwent Coloursoft pencils I treated myself to on my last full day in Taiwan). This is basically what I'll be stitching, only the flower will be moved to the right a little so as to be at the end of the stem and thus look more realistic. I consulted my 'British Wildlife' book quite a lot during this design!!

This is the floss toss showing the Madeira silks I plan to use, the beads for the fruit and 2 options of lining material. Now the pink looks a bit nicer with the antique white silk - just matches better, but I know Rose likes green more, so I won't decide on that one yet, but will see how it looks when the embroidery is done.

I've cut and washed the silk fabric (which I think shrank a bit!) and I just need to check with Rose that she will take her hubby's name before I put her future initials on the back. I can't see her not taking it, but you just can't be sure, so better safe than wasting time on a 'G' when an 'E' was required.=)

Stitching due to start over the weekend, all being well!

Detail: Designing a manicure set pouch