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!

Rivoli Medallion

This was the beaded birthday present I made just before Christmas for my friend Jo. Again I used  hand dyed satin cord and a magnetic clasp from Accent Bead. The pendant design is by Ann-marie Williams of The Bead Barn. I used a 14mm light turquoise rivoli, 3mm amethyst bicones and 3mm tahitian crystal pearls.

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.

Crystal Burst Pendant

 

 

This necklace was an early Christmas present for my friend Steph. In late October we were able to spend a week together at the International Quilt Festival in Houston and I had this ready to give to her. It was very difficult to photograph and this photo was the best I could manage. The large stone is Crystal Vitrail Medium and changes colour significantly in different lighting conditions. The pendant is based on the Crystal Burst design in "Creating Crystal Jewelry with Swarovski" by Laura McCabe. I used Swarovski bicones in Topaz (3mm) and Montana (4mm). The idea for this colour combination came from the Maple leaves in Hanazume. I was reluctant to embroider a blue Maple leaf but I did as I was told. When Hanazume was finished, I could see the balance created by the contrasting colours and even the framer commented on the colour combination. The necklace is an 8 strand Kumihimo braid using hand dyed satin cord  and a 6mm magnetic clasp, both from Accent Bead. I discovered Accent Bead on our previous trip to Houston and I stocked up on satin cords and clasps again on this visit.

Hogarth Crystal Curve

I made this neclace as a present for my friend Hazel's birthday. The design is from Bead and Button April 2012. I used 8mm Swarovski cystal bronze pearls and 4mm Swarovski bicones in Topaz, Light Colorado Topaz and Smoked Topaz. Apparently it's a flattened Russian Spiral - I've never worked a Russian spiral rope, so that's another one to add to the to-do list. A Hogarth Curve is an 'S' shaped curved line also referred to as a "Line of Beauty". Each spiral is worked as an individual component, producing a very satisfying pile of beaded discs. I can see lots of possibilities with this design, particularly in the use of colour and it can be worked without the pearls in the centre of the spiral.

... and A Happy New Year

 

 

 

 

And now for this year's Christmas cake or more accurately cupcakes. The design is by Jan Clement-May and is in the latest magazine from Squires Kitchen. I have to confess my only contribution to this group was Santa. The rest was all done by Jen and what an amazing job she did!

 



Merry Christmas

 

 

 

 

Towards the end of last year I discovered Squires Kitchen in Farnham. Squires not only sells just about anything you could ever want for cake decorating, it also publishes its' own magazine "Cakes and Sugarcraft" including incredible designs. This family of polar bears sitting on their very own iceberg was our Christmas cake last year and was a joint effort by myself and Jen. It is a design by Carlos Lichetti, who manages to inject so much character into his sugarcraft creations. Jen and I are complete amateurs at sugarcraft, but we love the excuse to play and be able to eat the fruits of our labour later.