Dabbling

Good morning all!  I disappeared there for a bit.  I've been having some health problems since I quit smoking before Christmas (thought quitting smoking was meant to be good for you!!) and it's completely sapped my motivation to blog, craft, or really do anything...  I have managed to conquer it on occasion though, so thought I'd show you what I've been up to.

Work has continued on my craft studio.  I put up some shelves.  They had been in my old craft room and I felt like they needed painting.  I painted them the same colour as my floor, and then, just for the hell of it, stencilled the bottoms!  I LOVE them!  No, the stencilling isn't very obvious, unless you're sitting down or short.  I am short so it's a win for me.  Since this photo, I have done more.  I'll do a post about this soon.

Silversmithing class continues and I have been playing with some domed circles in copper, silver and a teeny tiny one in gold from my mum's wedding ring.  

This comes out now and again.  A pretty piece of fabric, some teal and pink threads, doing what I fancy.  I haven't worked on it much recently due to the ill health and have instead been either crocheting (post coming soon!) or working on a small cross stitch I started.

I'm starting to feel slightly better, so I'm hoping to be back properly soon!  

Mellerstain Parrots #9

I almost forgot to post for the three-weekly SAL!  Luckily I read a post and remembered, so here we go. There has been some progress!

I have been working on the wing of the left parrot, you can see the progress in the picture below.

I'm pretty sure I stitched this the wrong way round.  It is long and short stitch so I think I should have stitched from tip to top rather than from top to bottom as I did.  Maintaining those points was tricky.  I also didn't use the right colour for the third stripe from the bottom, there were 2 colours missing from my kit and that was one of them!

Wonder if I'll ever finish this parrot!



I'm stitching along as part of a SAL where we all work on our WIPs, you can go and see what the other participants have been up to here:
Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Kate, Jess, Sue, Constanze, Debbierose, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Helen, Steph, Linda, Catherine, Mary Margaret, Timothy

If you'd like to join in, please contact Avis

Mellerstain Parrots #8

Another 3 weeks, a very busy 3 weeks, another paltry progress on my SAL project!

Here's where I was:

Ready for a game of spot the difference?

How about a close up?

I finished the fourth and final tail feather and started on the wing...  hmmm. not great progress there Wendy!




I'm stitching along as part of a SAL where we all work on our WIPs, you can go and see what the other participants have been up to here:
Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Kate, Jess, Sue, Constanze, Debbierose, Christina, Susan, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Helen, Steph, Linda, Catherine, Mary, Margaret,  Timothy

If you'd like to join in, please contact Avis

Mellerstain Parrots #7

Good morning!  I'm scheduling this post as me and my trusty bottle of Ruski Standard are heading out on Saturday night and so I suspect Sunday morning will come very late for me!  Before we get down to the stitching, I bought this:

BEST THING EVER!  I just asked it what time it is, and she told me.  For those not in the know (which is usually me, very unlike me buying the latest gadgets!), it's a speaker which connects to my phone via the magic of wifi or blutooth and plays my music, responding to voice commands! She also looks up stuff on the internet for me... seriously, amazing.

Anyway, away from modern technology and back to the wonders of 17th century embroidery techniques - crewel work.  As part of the three-weekly SAL, this was where I was last time:

I did a bit of stitching on it:

I finished off the head and started working on the tail.  The head was long and short shading, the tail is satin stitch.  I didn't get that much done again this time.  Next time, my goal is to complete this whole parrot.  I know, ambitious, but you've got to be in it to win it!

Here's where I am overall:

I'm stitching along as part of a SAL where we all work on our WIPs, you can go and see what the other participants have been up to here:
Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Kate, Jess, Sue, Constanze, Debbierose, Christina, Susan, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Helen, Steph, Linda, Catherine, Mary, Margaret,  Timothy

If you'd like to join in, please contact Avis

Crewel Peacock

Last Saturday I went to an embroidery workshop at a new-to-me place.  The class was run by Cathy at Threads and it was one of the best workshops I've been to.  So well organised, well taught, lovely pattern and quality materials all provided.  Not to mention home-made cakes and biscuits!  It was a great group of ladies and I think we all enjoyed it.  It was also in the gorgeous Peak District, so I even enjoyed the drive there.  The only tinge of sadness was that mum was supposed to be there.

The class was on Crewel Embroidery.  As you know if you read my blog, I have done crewel work before, but as I'm self-taught, it's always good to attend a class and see how other people do things, and learn from the experts of course!

The pattern was this beautiful peacock which was printed onto a piece of twill linen.  We also received all the threads needed, mainly Appleton's wools, but also some 21st Century silks and a metallic thread.

We began by outlining the body with a split back stitch.  I like this stitch, it's so much easier to do that a regular split stitch and I do like the way split stitch looks, though this will be covered over in the next step.

The next step was long and short stitch to created shading.  Although I'm doing a lot of this on Mellerstain Parrots, it is an area where I need some work.  The way the workshop was structured was that  we did a bit of each part of the pattern to see the different stitches and techniques, so nothing got finished, though I did go back and do a bit more of the body later on.  I don't think I've included enough light blue so will have to add some more in.

The feathers are done in fly stitch, in three different colours, though I've only done the one colour here.  I like this stitch, but it was a bit stressful trying to get it neat around the eyes!

I seemed to have missed a couple of photos out here.  Next we switched to a blue silk and did closed fly stitch in the eyes.  They were topped with a bullion knot in variegated silk.  I used 26 wraps on mine and I have to say, I'm rubbish at bullions!  The spaces to the left and right were then filled in with french knots.  

Next we moved on to the base of the tail, the scallopy bit next to his bum.  Yes, that's the technical term for it.  We did this using long and short buttonhole stitch, back to using the wool.  I was rubbish at this!  I'm not very happy with what I've done and there's a chance it will come out.  It does have some long and short shading over it, so I will try that first and see how it looks.

Next the wings were outlined in split backstitch.  The next step was to whip this so I had to be careful I wasn't making the stitches too short, and that they were all a similar size.

Here it is all whipped.  You can probably see better in the photo below.

I have added a line of stem stitch in a slightly paler wool above the second outline in the photo above.  I have to fill the wings up with this stitch.

And here it is at the end of the class.  Clearly I've got a long way to go!  There are also beads to add and metallic stitches.  Cathy's example is stunning so I hope I can make mine even half as good.  

Now, you know how rubbish I am at getting things done?  It may be a while before you see this again... but you will see it!

Mellerstain Parrots #6

Another three weeks has passed since I showed my progress on this piece. It has been a very busy 3 weeks and I've barely had time to pick up my needle. As you'll see.  So this is where I was:



And this is what I've stitched:

Yep, that dark bit on his head.  

Yep, that's all.

So here's our overview now!



I'm stitching along as part of a SAL where we all work on our WIPs, you can go and see what the other participants have been up to here:

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Kate, Jess, Sue, Constanze, Debbierose, Christina, Susan, Kathy,  Margaret, Cindy, Helen, Steph, Linda, Catherine, Wendy

If you'd like to join in, please contact Avis

Some more sashiko

I wanted a break from my Mellerstain Parrots, so, instead of choosing one of the WIPs from my list, or one of the kits from my list, I dug in my drawer and found something else completely!

I bought this little Sashiko panel at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate back in November.  Having finished it by the start of March must be some kind of record for me!  I bought it from the Japan Crafts stall, you can buy it here.  As I had Sashiko thread and needles at home, I just bought the panel.  I think mum bought a kit of one of the other designs, I'm sure I'll come across it when I get round to sorting out more of her stash.  

Anyway, it only took a few evenings.

I took a photo before I began of the pre-printed fabric, but it disappeared from my phone.  As the lines were marked in white, I had to be careful to cover them completely, but I still found stitching it very leisurely using the technique of loading my needle with several stitches before pulling through.

My stitches are far from perfect, but I'm happy with it.  Now just to decide what to do with it - probably a cushion.

Mellerstain Parrots #5

Another 3 weeks have gone whizzing by so it's time for an update on my progress on Mellerstain Parrots by the Crewelwork Company.

Here is where I was last time.



I finished the berries at the top, and did the two leaves I'd missed under the parrots' tails.  Then I started working on the left hand parrot.  I was looking forward to using the lovely blues and reds on the birds... it hasn't happened yet!

Here's a closer look at the parrots and those two leaves.  As you can see, I never actually finished the right hand leaf - it's a good thing I take these photos or I wouldn't notice these things!

I'm stitching along as part of a SAL where we all work on our WIPs, you can go and see what the other participants have been up to here:

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Kate, Jess, Sue, Constanze, Debbierose, Christina, Susan, Kathy,  Margaret, Cindy, Helen, Steph, Linda, Catherine, Wendy

If you'd like to join in, please contact Avis

Sashiko with a difference

A couple of weeks ago I spent a Saturday at a workshop by the Living Threads Group.  It was a little sad as, of course, mum was supposed to be there with me.  The class was Sashiko with a difference - Hitomezashi.

Hitomezashi is similar to Sashiko, however where Sashiko is done by scooping several stitches onto a needle, Hitomezashi has each stitch stab-stitched individually.  

Using some squares of calico that I found amongst mum's stash and perle 5 cotton, I ironed a square of interfacing on the back (sorry, didn't think to take a photo).  To do this method, you usually need to mark out a grid on the rear, however the tutor, Gilli Theoritoff, had some smocking dots available for purchase. These were great.  You just iron them on the back and the dots are there ready for stitching.

The first example, above, shows 4 different patterns, each building on the last.  Starting with the simple running stitch, then forming them into crosses, then adding stitches diagonally.  I chose to use coloured threads rather than sticking to the standard blue/white combo.

I had a go at two different patterns above, one with single diagonal lines, the second with double lines.  I really like this pattern.  It's such a meditative embroidery method and the samples worked up pretty quickly.

The pattern above involves whipping some of the stitches.  The tutor had loads of examples and also had a copy of The Sashiko Sourcebook which has more examples.

I'm not sure what I'll do with these samples, though I think I have one more square prepared with the smocking dots.  I may make them into pouches.  As always with Living Threads workshops, the workshop was well taught and good fun.  I'll have to look out for more now I don't have mum on workshop-watch any more.

  (here is a tutorial by Sake Puppets if you're interested in this stitching method)

Mellerstain Parrots #4

As I'm now feeling loads better, I've joined in with the SAL again and continued working on the Mellerstain Parrots by the Crewelwork Company.

Here's where I was last time I checked in (November?)



Really blurry picture there!

Here's where I am now

I've completed all the acorns and oak leaves at the bottom - except I haven't !  I've just spotted that there is a leaf poking out behind each parrot's tail!

OK, so I've NEARLY completed all the acorns and oak leaves!  

I also did some of the berries at the top.  I'd like to get these berries and leaves finished for the next check in - then on to the parrots themselves!


I'm stitching along as part of a SAL where we all work on our WIPs, you can go and see what the other participants have been up to here:

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Kate, Jess, Sue, Constanze, Debbierose, Christina, Susan, Kathy,  Margaret, Cindy, Helen, Steph, Linda, Catherine, Wendy

If you'd like to join in, please contact Avis