Sweet Molly's Heart Ring Cushion

Sweet Molly's Heart is was Mountmellick workshop with Nicola Jarvis at Embroidery Now in Winchester in summer 2018. I didn't know anything about Mountmellick work before the workshop apart the fact that it is a whitework technique. As always Nicola had lots of background information for the technique and was a great teacher.

We were taught the traditional stitches in the class but  were given scope to make the design our own, including embellishments with beads and crystals. Nicola mentioned that she had seen a finished version of the design with a lattice, although that is not a typical Mountmellick technique. I liked the idea of filling in  the heart, so I gave it a go.

Finishing off the cushion gave me an opportunity to practise beaded fringes. It took several attempts to get the spacing right but in the end I was pleased with the result.

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.

Sashiko Needlework Cases

At the Festival of Quilts a couple of years ago, I picked up a Lynette Anderson pattern for a set of covers for a needlework case. The back cover was pieced hexagons and it gave me the idea to do a sashiko design. It took me a year to decide exactly what I wanted to do, which was a diagonal line of flowers on the front and hexagons on the back. I wanted to do two cases, one as a present and one for myself. To make them different, I decided to have cherry blossom on one case and plum blossom on the other.

I wanted to experiment with transferring designs using my Silhouette Cameo, so I put created the front design using the Silhouette Studio software. The blossom designs came from Susan Briscoe's Ultimate Sashiko Source book. I used a Frixion pen in the Cameo pen holder and it worked very well.

The hexagon design for the back was created using a graphics package, which I imported in Silhouette Studio. That didn't work so well, because the Silhouette Studio software added some extra lines when it did the import. However, it was good enough and because I had used a Frixion pen, I knew I would be able to iron off the extra lines later.

I managed to transfer the design the weekend before we flew off to Tenerife on holiday, so it spent  some very enjoyable hours stitching on our hotel balcony listening to the soundtrack to Hamilton. This is one of those projects that will have strong memories of where it was stitched.

For the sashiko stitching I used some silk thread I had bought from Kimonomomo at the Houston Quilt Festival. It was beautiful thread to use but I used up most of a spool on each case.

I used a circular need to attach the covers to the cases. The black cases I had bought at the Festival of Quilts worked well for the plum design but didn't work at all for the cherry design. Fortunately I managed to find a cream case which suited the blue thread much better. That means I now have a spare case. I just need to decide what I want to do with it - maybe bead embroidery.

TV Projects

 

 

I almost called this post "So That's Where I Put It!". Earlier this year a couple of blogs I read have shown Anne's Orchard bead embroidery kits. I knew I had done one but I couldn't remember where it was. Then last month my friend Steph visited and brought 2 yummy balls of alpaca and silk yarn from NZ. When I put the yarn in my TV project bag, I found where my beaded fox had been lurking. Like most crafters I don't like watching TV without keeping my hands busy. My TV projects are usually knitting or cross-stitch but can be anything that doesn't require too much concentration.



 

This wasn't technically a TV project because I sat at a table to do the fox and only finished the background in front of the of the telly. But like many of my TV projects, unless it's done for a specific purpose, when it's finished it just gets left in the bag. It was a really fun project to do and I would recommend the kits.

 

 

This cross-stitch design is the Orangery at Dunham Massey Hall, a National Trust property near my parents. I bought the kit 10 years ago and it was on the go a fair amount of that time. I'm dreading taking those drawing pins out because I know they've rusted.

 

 

 

This bookmark is in better condition. It's the Sulu Islands Sash Panel from Travellers Tales. I remember starting this on holiday 2 years ago, but I bought the kit quite a while before that. 

 Finally here's the TV project bag itself. The pattern is Gracie from Lazy Girl Designs. Considering it's 10 years old I think's lasting quite well.

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!

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.



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.



Stupendous Stitching

 

 

Since the New Year, I have been finishing off workshop projects from my trip to Houston. On our first day Steph and I had booked ourselves onto Carol Ann Waugh's Stupendous Stitching class. We were wary of doing a class the day after a long haul flight but knew this class would be experimental and fun. The class followed a process of combining machine embroidery with hand embroidery. I find myself torn between the fun of machine embroidery and the meditative nature of hand embroidery, so this was something that satisfied both sides. The piece is finished by stitching rattail cord round the outside. It's a quick way to finish a piece and has a more contemporary effect than a standard binding. There is a video shoing how to do a Rattail Binding here. This class is available is available on Craftsy and I can recommend it to anyone who is interested

 

Harikuyo Festival

Today is Harikuyo - the Festival of Broken Needles. You can find the story of Harikuyo at PlaysWithNeedles.

The needles I treasure most are the hand made  needles I use for Japanese embroidery. Like all the other Japanese Embroiderers I know, I keep my needles in a piece of wool felt. I have spent a lot of time with these needles over the last year but nowhere near long enough to break any.

I thought about what I should post today because I don't normally blog about work in progress. I prefer to show completed items. But I thought I'd break my rules for once. So here is my second JE piece - Bouquet from the Heart of Japan.

I have been working on this since September. Life has been pretty busy over that time. With a business trip to India, a week at the International Quilt Festival in Houston and the mad preparations for Christmas, time has been freuently in short supply. The cold weather we had in January played havoc with skin and for a while I had to put my JE to one side because I could not keep my hands smooth enough. But I'm back on the path again.

 

 

As I'm showing my work in progress, I thought I would show another of my WIPs. This free-motion machine embroidery is put of a slightly larger piece which I am hoping to finish in a week or so.

The relationship I have with my sewing machine needles is a much more functional arrangement. I use good quality needles and replace them often. To store my broken needles safely, I use a plastic pot which originally held mini chocolate eggs.

When Graeme saw this picture, he asked my why I had taken a picture of a small dustbin!

Hari-kuyo Needlebook

Over Christmas week I managed to find 30 minutes to finish off the Hari-kuyo Needlebook from Susan Elliott's online course. I almost had the needlebook finished at the end of November. It got put on hold because I had one more beaded birthday present to make and then the pre-Christmas rush hit.

 

Hari-kuyo is the Japanese Festival of Broken Needles where needleworkers lay their broken needles and pins to rest in gratitude for good service. To honour this tradition, the needlebook has a piece of felt inside the back cover especially for broken needles.

 

In Susan's design the ties are wrapped with thread and then with ribbon. I had used green and pink thread to finish the flowers at the end of the ties, so I used both thread colours to wrap and rather liked the effect. For now I I haven't added the ribbon wrapping but I may do it later. I made the labels by printing cotton lawn fabric, which I sewed into a tube.

Hanazume

Here is Hanazume, my Japanese Embroidery Phase 1 piece. I have been thinking about trying Japanese Embroidery for the last 18 years, since my frient Steph headed off to Bournemouth to do her phase 1 piece. Intially I was put off by the cost and  I had just started bobbin lacemaking, so I concentrated on that for the next couple of years. With the arrival of my daughters, cost became less of an issue and time became more scarce. So over those 18 years, whenever I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show, I would linger by the JE stand and think "maybe one day". A job change in 2005, resulted in a house move to Fleet 18 months later and the end of a commute round the M25, which often took an hour and a half on a Friday night. So now I had more time and even better, a sewing room or as the girls called it, Mummy's play room! Around this time I discovered Japanese Bead Embroidery, which I thought I would find easier to get to grips with and it was. After completing Calm Flow earlier this year, I decided it was finally time to take the plunge. I was worried that after thinking about it all this time, it would all go wrong but I have really enjoyed doing this piece. It was a challenge. I would guess that I could have done 2 or 3 pieces, with the number of times stitches were undone and redone. Now it's finished and off at the framers, I am ready to start my next piece -"Flowers from the Heart of Japan". As well as being relatively local, my teacher, Jean, is generous with her time and her knowledge. What more can you ask for?

Gnome Needlebook

At the end of April I was able to go to a workshop with Lynette Anderson and started this needle book. It turned out to be a very relaxing workshop. I chose to buy the kit for the workshop so I only needed to turn up with the most basic sewing equipment. This kind of stitchery is typically done without a hoop. I found that a bit strange to start with but it made it easy project to travel with. It was perfect for the trip to Center Parcs the following weekend. Especially when we had to hang around the villa for the best part of a day because the main water supply to the entire site had gone off!

I was a bit of a rebel. Rather than stitching french knots in the sky, I added aquamarine hot fix crystals. Can't resist a bit of bling! I had a few problems making the ties. Turning the fabric ties with the end sewn up defeated me. So I left the tubes open and added fabric beads on the end. The instructions for the fabric beads came from Kumiko's Sudo's beautiful Omiyage book.

Heartsease and Eglantine Pinwheel

I started this pinwheel at a workshop with Susan O'Connor in London in February 2011. The design is from Susan's book, Flowers for Elizabeth, which is primarily a pattern for a wool embroidered blanket. Included are scaled down designs, which can be stitched with 1 strand of Au Ver a Soie, which is how this design is done. It was a sweet design to stitch and I am tempted to try some of the other designs in the book. The book is published by Country Bumpkin, so naturally it is beautiful to look at with very clear instructions.