Holly and Mistletoe Pin Cushion

I had intended to post pictures of the Holly and Mistletoe Pincushion at Christmas but as the world is turned upside down at the moment, I thought I might as well post it now. The kit was from Lorna Bateman.  It was a fun, small kit to do and I enjoyed the combination of techniques.  I did have a couple of attempts at the fly stitch holly leaves. I found it difficult to get the angle of the stitches right and my stitches seem crowded.

It was a Christmas project and was finished in January 2019. As you can tell, I am working my way through my backlog of finished projects. You never know, I might it through to this year's completions by the time things start to get back on track.

Christmas 2019

It's been a long time since I updated my blog. I was really hoping to get this Christmas update done in January but it wasn't to be. The theme for the Christmas decorations this year was red, white and gold. I'd like to say it was planned, but in reality it was a happy accident which fortunately coincided with Jennifer and Christina's colour scheme for the family tree.

I bought the pattern and kit for the Poinsettia Angel from Stable Lodge Beads at the Havant Lace Fair in November 2019. The pattern is by Iceni Bead Designs and is available online as well. She was fun to make and very photogenic. There are a few things I would like to fix - the wings are a bit floppy and the halo is loose. If I am motivated enough, I will remake the wings using Fireline because it gives a crisper finish. There was one improvement I did make on the pattern. I felt the body was a bit squishy so Graeme 3D printed an angel torso for me. It worked very well and I think I will use more 3D inserts in future beading projects.

For a while I have been feeling the urge to go back to bobbin lace. I picked up Christine Springett's Seven Pointed Star pattern at Havant Lace Fair in 2018. It was a nice pattern to make and didn't take too long. Japanese Embroidery takes up most of my time these days but I see more lacemaking on my horizon in the next couple of years.

While I was busy making bobbin lace, my sewing machine was making free standing lace stockings and mittens. These designs from Urban Threads are very well digitised and worth the money, especially if you manage to buy them in the sale!

The final decoration I made was the Anastasia Bauble kit from Spellbound beads. It wasn't ready in time for Christmas but it will be ready in good time for next year. When I started the hanging loop I realised I had used the wrong beads for the finials on top of the bezelled rivolis. I toyed with the idea of completely remaking the kit but I think I will leave it as it is and adjust the hanging loop to use the beads I have left. Love the decadent fringe on this bauble. It brightens up my window sill quite nicely.

Peacock Bauble

This must be some kind of record. I finished my first project of 2019 at lunchtime on New Year's Day. Although in reality it is more of a late finish for Christmas than an early finish for the New Year. I enjoyed making the Dragon Bauble kit so much last year, I made a beeline to the Spellbound Bead stand at the Ally Pally Knitting and Stitching show, to buy their new Peacock kit. I was warned it would take a bit longer than the Dragon kit. It turned out to be true because I started both kits at the beginning of December. While the dragon was completed just in time for last Christmas, the peacock was still coming together on Christmas Day this year. 

There were some parts  I ended up redoing due to silly mistakes - the floral motif at the front of the net was done 3 times. It was the thorax that gave me the most trouble. If I followed the instructions I ended up with too much thread in the covered bead to pass the supporting wire through. After several attempts I came up with an alternative method which required fewer thread passes through the central bead. It looks a bit more organic that the original version but it does the job.

The tail is my favourite part. It used similar techniques to the Emperor Bauble It was however another reason for the slow progress. When I do these bauble kits I leaves the threads on as long as I can in case they are needed to attach later components. It is much easier to do this than start a new thread. But the loose threads were forever getting caught on the tail feathers - another exercise in patience.

I also bough the Vela Star kit at Ally Pally. This was a much quicker kit to do and I was able to make one star for my parent's tree and one star for my tree before I embarking on the great peacock adventure.

Like last year we had two trees in the house. The girls made a beautiful job of the family Christmas tree in a gold and white colour way. It went very well in out newly decorated playroom.

My resolution last year was to "Create a sacred space" by tidying something every day. I can't say that I achieved that but at least the playroom  looks better than last year. I will admit that was due to Graeme's efforts rather than mine. So I will continue trying to get on top of the clutter in 2019.

I am also going to challenge myself to get out of various ruts. Work was very busy last year, particularly in the first 6 months and I gave myself lots of free passes. I didn't exercise as regularly as I should and the weekly menu became very routine. I have already started addressing the exercise part. I started going to a Zumba class just before Christmas and am taking advantage of a small yoga studio which open on the High Street in town. The weekly menu is going to take a bit more effort because my family quite like the routine. Fortunately as none of them read my blog, they don't know what is heading their way!

Cedric the Dragon Bauble

It has been a very long time since my last post and I'm stretching it a bit doing a Christmas round up this late in January but here we go. Work has been super busy for the last 6 months and in the run up to Christmas, I wanted a fun project to maintain my sanity. I am fan of Spellbound Bead kits and their "Cedric the Dragon bauble" kept calling to me, until I finally gave in and placed an order at the beginning of December. 

Of course I couldn't just limit myself to 1 kit, so I ordered a couple more kits, Festive Beading Three and a selection of baubles for some other decorations I have in mind.

I finished Cedric just in time for Christmas. Cedric's position isn't quite right in my version. He should be sitting higher on the bauble but the way he's hanging on probably reflects my state of mind while I was making him!

Despite having a week's holiday from work, I didn't get as much time for stitching and beading as I hoped but I did manage to finish one of the beaded candy cane decorations. It's photographed here on a tree I bought in the sales a year ago. 

For a couple of years I have been thinking about having a tree specifically for my handmade beaded decorations, as  well as my collection of Swarovski decorations, many of which I've been given as presents over the years. I specifically picked a sparse tree, so that there was space for the baubles, which often have fringes or tassels. The tinsel was kept neutral, so that I can mix up the decoration colours as much as I want. It's very much a tree in progress at the moment and one of my goals before next Christmas is to make a tree skirt. 

This year, the colour scheme on our main tree was blue, silver and white. Even though I cropped this photo you can still see a pile of stuff hiding behind the tree. This is pertinent to my mantra/intention for 2018, which is to "Create a sacred space". As an introvert my personal space is important to me and having a cluttered environment gives me a sense of being out of control. My goal for this year is to do 1 thing every day to deal with the clutter. I can't say I've done a very good job of it so far but I'm not giving up just yet.

Red and Gold Christmas Tree

My wish to have a red and gold Christmas tree was granted this year by our resident elves, Jen and Christina. The ornaments they selected included named tree stockings made by my friend Steph. Each year Steph comes up with a new design, sending them to numerous friends and family. Each stocking is filled with chocolates and candy. It's great undertaking as the number of stockings has grown significantly over the years. This years delivery were a set of cute snowmen with a lopsided hat.  You can read about her stocking production line on her blog.

The next set of ornaments are the Spellbound bead designs I've made up. This one is the Art Deco bauble.

This is the Net and Tassle bauble.I have a bit of a love and hate relationship with this particular bauble. I struggled to get a good fit on the net. As a result this bauble has a definite front and back because a piece of the red coating came off in the process.

Finally there is this red blob of beads, which I think is called Sputnik.

The reason I wanted a red and gold tree this tear was for this small redwork felt star I made last Christmas from "Stitched With Love" by Mandy Shaw.

The small star was one of a trio and over the Christmas period I also completed the medium and large stars to go with it.

Graeme also came up with some decoration ideas to make using with his CNC router. These reindeer were very cute and went down a storm with the friends who received them.

We still have 2 from the herd and Graeme found a the perfect place to display them.