pointsetta

Hello, I'm going to have a go at coming back to blogging.  I still have lots to show you... lots of things that wonderful mum and I did together.  I want to thank you all for the lovely messages of support on my last post.  It's been tough adjusting to life without my best friend, my wonderful mum, but messages of support really do help to comfort in times like this.  I won't forget what you all did for me.

The last workshop at The Bead Shop Nottingham was before Christmas and was a poinsetta flower beadweaving project.

This project was HARD!  It is odd-count peyote which is confusing enough, without the fact that most rows are increase or decrease.  I struggled with this.  I managed to get 4 of the outer petals done in the class and did the fifth at home shortly after.  Since then I've attempted to do the inner petals at least 6 times and ended up cutting out each attempt.  You can't unpick odd-count peyote due to the complicated thread path.

Here is as far as I can get.  I wanted to show the completed flower, but I think this project has defeated me!  

I've found lots of mum's WIPs around her house (and I haven't even started investigating her craft stuff properly yet) and some of them I will finish in her honour.  I won't be finishing her poinsetta!

I won't be posting for the 3-weekly SAL tomorrow as I haven't touched my embroidery at all.  I will try to get back to it ready for the next update.

Classes at the Knitting and Stitching Show

Happy New Year! I hope 2017 treats you all kindly (and me!)

Back in November last year, wonderful mum and I went to the Knitting and Stitching show in Harrogate.  We spent 2 days there, staying at the hotel across the road so we didn't have to take our coats with us and could return excess shopping to the room during the day!  We also took part in 4 classes.  I have to say, I do not know the names of any of the tutors, very lax of me, I know.

One of the classes was wet felting a flower.

This is slightly different from the wet feting I've done in the past as we used short strands of wool rather than merino.  The felting technique included picking it up and splatting it against the table repeatedly!

My finished flower came out too large for a brooch, though I would like to have another go with a smaller one.  This class was brilliant, we all had such a good time.

Another excellent class was Broderie Anglais, where we used a stiletto to make the holes in the fabric.  I hadn't realised it was such a simple (though time consuming) technique and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The tutor was great as was her assistant.  I think she was from Peru.

The classes were only an hour which is why I didn't achieve very much.

We also did goldwork with Sarah from Golden Hinde.  I remember her name as I have met her a few times, she's lovely and very helpful.  We used pearl purl to make these simple but effective goldwork brooches.

The finished piece will fit in this brooch back.  Of course, I haven't yet completed either of the pieces from the classes!  They will show up in this year's WIP list.

The fourth class was absolutely appalling.  The teacher was rude, confrontational, disorganised and useless as a teacher.  We were supposed to be making ribbon flowers.  Apparently there are 2 techniques.  The one she showed us was different to the one on the hand out and she got very angry if we tried to follow the written instructions.  I actually walked out of the class.  

I'm going to be back later in the week with my list of WIPs to be tackled this year.  Then I need to find some linkies to help keep myself accountable.  If anyone knows of any, please let me know!

Classes at the Festival of Quilts

We went to two classes at the FOQ.  The first was a half day workshop, the second a one-hour taster class.  The quality of the classes varied enormously, and not how you'd think.

On the Friday we did a Shisha mirrors class.  It was, hands down, the worst class we've ever taken.  We had three hours, the first 20 minutes was the teacher passing round the materials for us to choose.  She started with the fabric, when we'd all chose the fabric she passed round the threads... stuff that could have all been done at the same time.  The she gave the first group of ladies over the other side of the room a piece of fabric and a cotton reel to draw around.  She then demonstrated the first stitch to these four ladies.  We couldn't see anything.  Then she showed the next group of ladies.  Then the first group had questions, so she went back to them.  Then back to the second group to help them.  We just sat there twiddling our thumbs.  Finally it was our turn and we were taught this stitch.

I'm afraid I have no idea what it's called, we weren't told.  It has nothing at all to do with Shisha mirrors.  

After this we were told to get on with decorating our panels however we wanted.  It was a satiny fabric with wadding spray basted to the back.  She gave us silk threads.  Clearly she had not tested this combination as the thick fabric shredded the thread.  We were just left to "do what we wanted" for the next hour or so.

The elephant was block printed on the fabric so I was just stitching over the lines.  I added some beads and sequins too.

Finally, she started teaching the first group how to put on shisha mirrors.  Then the second group, back to the first, back to the second, back to the first, then over to us.  We had 30 minutes of the class left.  A few minutes into my first one, I realised I had a problem as the thread was falling off the mirror.  She told us to keep the foundation stitches taut, which she hadn't told us before.  At this point a couple of ladies left, saying they'd look it up on U-tube!

This photo shows my foundation stitches.

Above you can see the finished shisha mirror.  Not very neat and even, but then we didn't have long to do it!

Needless to say we were very unimpressed and I was delighted when she asked us to give online feedback, oh I'll certainly be doing that!

The next day we had a one-hour taster class which was brilliant fun.  Oh - before I tell you about this - people of Britain, did you know there is a lake at the NEC?  And a big shopping centre?  We had no idea until we stumbled into it and we've been going to the NEC a couple of times a year for about 12 years!

Anyway - sari silk flowers.

We were given strips of sari silk and a large bath washer to wrap them around.  The fluffy bits are just from where the sari silk is torn.

We then wrapped the smaller washer with thread, round and round, over and over.

Cut along the edges of the flower, take out the washers to use again and sew it all together.

Top with a button and sew a brooch back on - done!  It was good fun, though the finished flower came out a bit too thick for my liking, we used a 3m strip.  I've bought some more sari silk strips but will make future ones using 1.5m or even 1m.  I was thinking of using them to decorate the chalk board I showed you last week.

Beaded flowers

What happens when you take some size 6 beads and some 0.3mm beading wire?

In my case, this is what happens.

About 30 simple beaded flowers for a bead-bombing display at The Bead Shop Nottingham.

Craft Book Review - Pretty Quilled Cards

The lovely folk at GMC sent me another book to review.

Pretty Quilled Cards by Cecilia Louie
Before we go any further, the disclaimers.  I was sent the book for free to review but I was not told what to say and all opinions are 100% my own.  I didn't receive any monetary compensation.  Links in this post, as with all my book posts, are affiliated.  If you click over and buy something, I get a few pence towards an Amazon voucher.  

I have done quilling before, it's something I used to do a lot of as a teenager and I'm used to the traditional coiled shapes.  This style of quilling is a bit different.  It still uses long thin paper strips on their edge, but there is less coiling and more shaping.

The book has 25 designs, each one showing a large colour photo of the finished item, the lengths of each colour strip to cut and a diagram showing how they are put together.

The next pages are a written explanation of how to form each design, including more diagrams.  The instructions really are top notch.

There are a whole range of different designs in the book, including card designs for birthday, Christmas and other special occasions.  You could, of course, use the motifs however you like and aren't restricted to making cards.

Each design is rated out of 5 for difficulty and I, stupidly, chose the level 3 cherry blossom design.  It was tricky.  It was fiddly and frustrating at times, but I did it.

I wasn't very happy with my shapes as I was forming them and I didn't think I'd get a good result, but you know what?  I'm really chuffed with my final piece.  I don't think I've done a bad job.  It took a long time, nearly 2 hours, to put this together so it wasn't quick!

Whilst making the design, I was sure I'd never make another design from this book as it was just too fiddly, but when I'd finished, I rethought this and I think I might just tackle another!

The designs are lovely, I do like the style and the instructions are really detailed.  I think this book would be ideal for someone who's got some experience in quilling, but anyone with a bit of patience who is able to do fiddly work could make the designs.  My one criticism of the book is that there aren't enough designs suitable for me, the only one being a necktie.  

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Disclaimer:

I was given a review copy of the book by GMC however this review and all opinions are 100% my own, I was not told what to say.  Amazon links are affiliate links.

Craft Book Review - Felting Fabulous Flowers

Pavilion very kindly sent me a copy of Felting Fabulous Flowers by Gillian Harris to review for you all.

Before we go any further, the disclaimers.  I was sent the book for free to review but I was not told what to say and all opinions are 100% my own.  I didn't receive any monetary compensation.  Links in this post, as with all my book posts, are affiliated.  If you click over and buy something, I get a few pence towards an Amazon voucher.  

I'm embarrassed to say that it's taken me quite a while to get round to reviewing this for you and I'm not sure why as when I got started, I really enjoyed it.

The book has 23 different flower patterns and some leaf shapes too.  The flowers are divided by colour and each given a rating of easy, intermediate or advanced.

There are some truly beautiful flowers included.  Look at that amazing passion flower!  Yes, that one is advanced!

The cosmos flower is the bottom right of the above photo, this is one that I chose to make.  All of the flowers are a mixture of wet and dry (needle) felting.

I didn't have any green merino tops to hand, so I didn't attempt any of the leaves, but they'd look fabulous is a bouquet or with a flower as a corsage.

Each flower has it's own page of instructions, then there are instructions for the various felting techniques at the end, followed by the full-sized templates.

I decided to make the daisy and the cosmos (though in blue!), so I started making some felt.  My white felt ended up rather thick.  It's been a long time since I made felt and I overestimated how much it shrinks.

I actually used two different shades of turquoise for the second piece of felt.  One colour on the front...

...and the other on the back.

It's not easy to see the difference, but there is one!

I cut out the cosmos shape from the turquoise felt and decided the lighter colour would be the front.  I added some needle felted veins in the darker turquoise, which are hard to see, and did a simple needle felted centre rather than the balls in the original.  This flower needs shaping with some Mod Podge or fabric stiffener to give it more shape.

The daisy is made up of two layers of petals with a yellow centre needled to make it a dome shape.

I liked this so much I added a brooch pin and it's already on my winter coat.  I know, daisies aren't very wintery but I don't care!

I have a few of Gillian Harris's felting books and all of them are fabulous.  The projects are lovely, the photography is gorgeous and the instructions are good.  This book is no exception and I actually want to try each and every flower in this book.  I think they'd make a wonderful bouquet to put in a vase on the table.  

If you have any interest in felting, whether you're a seasoned felter or are completely new to it, I'd recommend this book.  The instructions are good enough for a beginner to make their first piece of felt and try their hand at needle felting, and the projects are varied enough to interested the more advanced felter.

Product details Hardcover: 80 pages Publisher: Collins & Brown (3 July 2014) Language: English ISBN-10: 1909397393 ISBN-13: 978-1909397392 Product Dimensions: 1.3 x 21 x 21 cm

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Something New for 2014

  

Disclaimer:

I was given a review copy of the book by Pavilion, however this review and all opinions are 100% my own, I was not told what to say.  Amazon links are affiliate links.

FAL 2014 - first finish!

I have actually ticked an item off my Follow Along list!  It was a crazy list, you can see it here if you're so inclined, which I fully expected to complete in January, by February I thought the whole thing was a lost cause!

The January challenge for Needlequest was silk shading, which I interpreted as long and short stitch. The perfect time to work on my V&A Scabious crewel work kit.  I put it on the FAL list and I'm glad I did as it's shaping up to be my only finish this quarter!  

Ta dah!  All embroidered and pressed, though you wouldn't guess that, and waiting to be framed as I will not be turning this into a cushion to be sat on!

I started the kit back in 2010 and ran out of the crewel.  I'm glad I did as looking back I'm keen on neither colours nor stitching.

My stitching vastly improved whilst embroidering this piece.  There was the odd boo-boo - see above.  The pale leave should be behind the stem, I embroidered it over the stem.  I attempted to cover it and it does look like I succeeded in real life, but not in this photo!

This stem, the one in the middle with the bud, concerned me whilst stitching.  I thought it was too thick and dithered about highlighting it for a few weeks.  I got the advice to wait until I'd done and I did and it doesn't look too thick to me anymore!

I'd stupidly started with the flowers so when I put the leaves in, the edges of the flowers that overlap the leaves kind of sank back.  I added some more stitches to try and bring them forward.  Lesson learnt.

I am so chuffed this is finished!  Now to find a frame... I should put that on my FAL 2nd quarter list...




Related posts

the beginning
flat flowers
finishing the stems