Getting ready for Christmas

 

 

Over the last couple of years our daughters have put up the Christmas tree and decorated it. Usually that meant the tree was as colourful as the girls could make it. Every decoration they could find went on the tree. This year Jen decided the tree should have a colour theme and the chosen colours were purple, green and silver. I had a hunt through my beaded decorations and found a few that fitted the theme. This filigree crystal angel was kit from Bead Merchant and I think it is my favourite.

 

This angel, also a kit from Bead Merchant, was the first beaded decoration I made and was the one that got me hooked on beading.

 

There was even a place for the scary fairy, also a Bead Merchant creation.



 

I posted a picture of the Starry Night bauble, a Spellbound Beads kit, a couple of years ago but it looks so much better in its natural habitat on the Christmas tree.

The second Spellbound Beads kit is the Emperor bauble which I made about two years ago.

 

Last but not least there's the angel who sits demurely at the top of the tree. I must have made her about 15 years ago. I think she looks a little sad perhaps I'll have a go at cheering her up for next Christmas.

 

This year I haven't got a lot of festive stitching done because I have been concentrating on bigger projects. I've also been distracted by a new toy, a Silhouette Cameo, which was a birthday present. I made this vinyl window sticker using the Cameo. It was a design I bought from SAS Creative Designs on Etsy. It was quick to make but "weeding" out the unwanted vinyl took a bit of patience and an ultra fine pointed pair of tweezers, especially in the pine cones.

Finally here is the Christmas stitching I did manage to do - a felt redwork star. The design is from "Stitch with Love" by Mandy Shaw. I used the Cameo to transfer the design to the felt and once I'd done that, stitching it was a breeze. Unfortunately it doesn't fit this year's colour theme. Perhaps I should make a bid for a red and gold scheme next year!

Once Upon A Time Cake

 

Once upon a time - well last month to be precise - I decided to make a birthday cake for my eldest daughter's 18th birthday. Jen loves the TV series "Once Upon A Time", so I decided to use this as  a theme. The image that stuck in my head was the end of the opening credits with trees silhouetted against a night sky. I thought about stencilling the trees and then I remembered Karen Taylor's "Little Red Riding Cake" in Cakes and Sugarcraft magazine. I knew it would be a challenge but thought I'd give it a go. Like the path of true love in a fairytale, making this cake did not go entirely smoothly!

 

 

It all started well. I made the trees out of floral sugarpaste a couple of weeks ahead of time.

 

 

I was worried there would be some breakages, so I made a lot of trees!

 

 

 

 

I made the letters out of yellow florist paste and dried them around a cake time so they would fit on the finished cake. I smeared white vegetable fat on the tin to make the letters stick.

 

 

Then I painted the letters using a mixture of vodka and powdered gold food colouring. This was as far as I could go ahead of time.

 

 

 

This was where things started to go wrong. I made the cakes the evening before construction day, hoping they would be tall enough. I made a 9 egg Victoria sponge mixture, thinking that was sure to be enough. I was wrong - I was one inch short on the bottom tier. If I was doing this professionally, at this point I would have baked another layer. I'm not professional so I bodged it! After levelling the layers, I used the cake tops to patch together another layer. I knew I would be using dowels to support the forest canopy and as long as the dowels were held firmly, the squishy middle layer would only need to support the top layer.



 

 

A generous covering of buttercream filled in the gap at the outer edge and at this point I called in the cavalry.

 

 

 

My hubbie, Graeme, has a skill at smoothing buttercream which I need to learn when I'm not working to a deadline. 

 

 

 

The sugar paste covering was Cosmic Blue from Squires Kitchen. It reminds me of lace pillow cover cloths. At this point I remembered I had intended to cut my nails before I started. I looked at the thumbnail imprint and hoped I'd be able to cover it with a tree.

 

From this point it started to come together quite quickly. The first layer of trees went on.

With the second layer of trees, the bottom tier was finished. I added the top tier and stuck on the letters. The hug Jen gave me when she saw the cake made it all worthwhile. It was quite an investment in time and sugarpaste. but as Rumpelstiltskin says - "Magic always comes with a price"!

Sensu

 

Woohoo - after two years Sensu is finished! When the thread pack first arrived, I was surprised how many colours it needed but I've enjoyed using every single one. Sensu spans both phases 2 and 3 in the JEC curriculum, so it is packed full of new techniques to learn. I  learned a few additional things - such as long straight lines in couched goldwork are my arch-nemesis. I restarted the spine on the main fan seven times before I had a result I thought I could live with. I also learned that if I'm guessing where to stick my needle, it's time for a new glasses prescription. Alternatively, as I am short sighted, I could take my glasses off and get up close and personal with the fabric. There were some techniques like fuzzy and short-stitch holding I could only do without my glasses on.

 

 

 I think fuzzy was the new technique I enjoyed the most. Although I might change my mind if I have to do a whole piece in fuzzy. A technique I enjoyed returning to, was colour blending in the cord. Because Japanese Embroidery threads are twisted by the embroiderer themselves, it is possible to create threads to achieve different effects. Twisting 2 colours together allows even very different colours to be blended smoothly.

 



Another embroiderer commented that the colours look like autumn, so perhaps this was the right time of year to finish.

 

Nuthatch in Spring

At the beginning of July, I was lucky enough to be able to attend one of Trish Burr's London classes. Trish designed this piece especially for the UK classes because the Nuthatch is native to the UK. I would recommend  taking a class with Trish if you get the opportunity. She provides very clear explanations of the techniques and lovely kits. I particularly like the way she explains how her approach to needle painting is evolving.





This was my first completely silk shaded piece of embroidery. I have done smaller amounts of silk shading on previous pieces but my results always seemed a bit crowded and clumsy. I was a bit nervous attending this workshop because I thought I might be aiming a bit high. But what a surprise it actually looks like a bird! Trish's choice of colours really helps of course and the steps are broken down clearly.



It's always interesting to meet other embroiderers at workshops.  Over lunch I was talked to lady who had been retired for 20 years about how her list of UFOs had continued to increase (quite dramatically) since she had retired. She has come to the conclusion she will never finish all of her UFOs and she just enjoys working on them. I have completer/finisher tendencies or to put it another way, I like to tick boxes. I also find myself thinking about the next piece of embroidery which means I get stressed about finishing the current piece. Recently I followed the Here and Now Meditation guide on My Yoga TV which is all about being present in the current moment. The conversation I had with the retired lady reminds me that I need to enjoy what I'm doing when I'm doing it, in the here and now. Actually finishing something is just a bonus. I think you can tell I enjoyed embroidering the Nuthatch.



Happy Birthday to me

 

 

It wasn't a big birthday this year - unless you're a geek like me and occasionally quote your age in hexadecimal - in which case I was 0x30! However Jen still made me a lovely cake. This was her first try at proper sugarpaste flowers and I would  say it was a very successful first go.



Whitework Button - Buttercup

Last weekend I was lucky enough to attend a workshop with Jenny Adin-Christie  at Embroidery Now in Winchester. We were given a choice of 5 button designs. I chose to do one of the simpler designs to give myself the best chance of finishing it. The strategy worked because here is the completed button. The design is small (1 1/4" across) and for the majority of the stitching I found it helpful to use a magnifier. It was my first workshop with Jenny and the fact that I was the only first timer in the room demonstrates what a great teacher she is. Jenny's kits are beautifully put together and include very detailed instructions - well worth the money. It was also my first time at Embroidery Now. I have been thinking of attending one of their courses for some time but it took until this year for the stars to align enough that I was free at the right time and spotted the class before it booked up. Their venue in Winchester is lovely and Jane Bennett who organises the courses made me feel very welcome. I'm definitely hoping to mage a return visit - I just need those stars to align again!

Fishing Teddy Bear Cake

It was my brother's 50th birthday on Easter Sunday which gave us an excuse to make him a cake. As my parents live near a canal he has been an angler since his early teens and he has soft spot for bears. So it had to be a fishing teddy bear cake. My contribution was baking the cake - the rest was all Jen. She followed an online tutorial to model the bear but the hat and sandwiches were her idea. The bite out of the second sandwich was a particularly cute touch. The lake was flood filled royal icing and the waterfall was piped royal icing. The grass was done with a special purpose grass and fur piping nozzle, which worked really well.

Beaded Kumihimo Necklaces

 

 

After having some success with a beaded kumihimo bracelet, last year I decided to try a simple necklace with size 8 seed beds. This has proved to be a very useful necklace and encouraged me to try a few more designs. Around this time I found  the Kumihimo Beaded braids  Facebook page and was overwhelmed by the inspiration. 

 

 

The first design I tried was  the Kumihimo Twins Necklace by Yvonne Roseanna Reavis in Beadwork magazine October 2014 with topaz AB seed beads and amethyst AB superduos . Using the superduos proved to be a bit tricky but the result has a nice texture.

 

I've recently redone this design with silver lined crystal seed beads and indigo orchid superduos. The effect is more formal I think.

 

 

While I was at the Houston Quilt Festival last November, I made my usual visit to the Accent Bead stand and couldn't resist the Trellis necklace kit, which uses Czech spade beads and long magatanas. I love this necklace. Despite the spiky look, it's surprisingly comfortable to wear.



 



I like the magatana section of the Trellis necklace but it tends to be invisible because it is designed to be at the back of the necklace. So my final necklace is white and crystal AB long magatanas and aquamarine AB seed beads. My inspiration for this necklace was frosty mornings but it also makes me think of seafoam.  

Sweet Cherry Cake

 

 

The February half term holiday was good opportunity for Jen and I to co-operate on a cake. We picked the Sweet Cherry design by Linda Garnham from the Spring 2015 Cakes and Sugarcraft magazine. After the mad frenzy of her Art GCSE last year, Jen was missing painting and she made a fantastic job of the painting cherries. My contribution was baking the cakes and making the cherry decoration for the top. This was a simple design and fun to make.

 

 



Sashiko Pincushion

Here's my first finish of the year. It's a kit from Euro Japan Links. I actually started it 2 years ago but put it to one side because I wasn't particularly happy with my stitching. When I was in Houston last year I visited the KimonoMomo booth and bought some sashiko bits and pieces. Carol Ziogas, the owner of KimonoMomo has some videos on her blog, which are worth a watch. When I got home from Houston, the technique clicked. So I started afresh and I was much happier with the stitching this time. It's a small square of shippo design which wraps around the cushion.

 



I was particularly pleased with the back of the pincushion because the design centred well.

 



This project has had an air of serendipity about it throughout. When I drew up the shippo design at the start, I found I had the perfect tool - a sashiko template from Sharon Pedersen. This was part of the kit from the Sharon's Sensational Sashiko workshop, which Steph and I attended during our first visit to the Houston Quilt Festival in 2008. This workshop was all about sewing sashiko designs on a sewing machine - a great technique, which I'm hoping to come back to in the future. The table runner below was the result.