pulled thread at the RSN

Back in November, on Saturday 12th to be precise, me and wonderful mum did something very exciting.  It was my birthday.  Mr Ex-CA had left me a month before and I was in a bit of a state.  I didn't want to have a birthday.  Wonderful mum booked us onto a Pulled Thread class at The Royal School of Needlework satellite branch in Rugby. 

Our tutor was Becky, she was a fab teacher.  There was just me and mum there, and another lady doing Drawn Thread work.  We each got a kit and lots of individual attention.

I have put my in-progress shots in this post, intending to give you the lowdown on the stitches worked.  Alas, I am at work and I don't have my instructions with me so I don't remember what any of them are!

We worked a little on each different stitch, then there was time to go back and fill in the gaps as we went along.  We worked with white thread on a loose-weave linen.  Again, I don't remember what the thread is!

I've still got quite a lot to do, though I did get a reasonable amount done in the class.  I didn't feel like stitching for weeks afterwards and I still can't bear to think of my birthday.  I hope that passes in time as actually the class was brilliant.

If I get a chance, I'll update this post with the stitches and threads as that will probably be more interesting to read!

I can tell you that those stitches towards the top are eyelets and they are great fun to stitch.  All the stitches involve pulling the thread tight to compress the threads of the fabric and create little holes.

It's a really lovely technique and I enjoyed it.  I bought a clip on OTT light at the Knitting and Stitching show so that should help me work on this peace, hopefully over Christmas.

I've still got to fill in the gaps and then there is a starfish at the bottom. I will, of course, show you when it's done, AND give details of the thread and stitches!

I cancelled my birthday so only mum bought me any presents as she didn't want to ignore the day completely.  I think I might have cried as I undid them!

There was a whitework theme with this lovely kit and 3 whitework books - Beginner's Guide to Mountmellick Embroidery - Pat Trott, Pulled Thread Embroidery 64 Patterns used in Rococo and Today - Edith Blocher and Schwalm Embroidery Techniques and Designs - Christine Bishop.  The kit can be bought online here.

We have taken classes with Sarah Homfray (and I think we've booked a couple more for 2017, must sort my diary out!) and loved them.  I got this crewelwork hare kit.

And this beetle-wing embroidery kit.  How unusual is that?  You can buy Sarah's kits online here.

Sorry about a rather depressing post, but I hope you enjoyed the pictures!  I hope to become happier, more cheerful and more detailed in the new year!

Why I am a useless Crafter's Apprentice

Good morning ladies! In a future twist to the hit-by-a-lorry story, though perhaps unrelated, I broke down on my way home from work last night.  The steering went completely, it took all my weight on the wheel to turn it enough to pull over.  The dashboard was lit up like a Christmas tree BUT, that annoying high-pitched whine it'd been making had stopped.  That's got to be a good thing, right?   OK, so perhaps not!  Mr CA played my knight in shining armour and was able to get the car to the garage, albeit quite slowly.  He informed me when we got there that the car was overheating and smelt of burning!  Great...  Meanwhile I had fun driving his partner's car.  I managed to stall every few feet as he has a spring in his gear level (like most normal cars I believe), mine doesn't, never has had since I've owned it and so putting it in first is just a push upwards, on a "normal" car a push upwards puts you in 3rd...  Let's just say I'm glad the car's owner wasn't there to witness it!

Anyway, on with the post.  I just had a birthday.  Most of my family buy from my Amazon wish list (what an amazing invention that is!) so I get a lot of "craft stuff".  This year was no exception.  My wonderful parents bought me a Dremel 3000!  By "parents" I do of course mean that mum instructed dad to buy it and dad said "what the bleeding 'ell is it?"  I don't think I'm going to get a chance to play with it until the craft fair is done, but I'll certainly be showing you the results!

I also got a lot of books.  Crafty books:

Spellbound Festive Beading - full of wonderful
                                             Christmas decorations to bead
          (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)
The Art of Bead Embroidery - luscious eye candy
         (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

Embroidered Jewellery - more eye candy and tons of ideas
         (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

Patterns in Polymer - this book is amazing!  I had no idea you
                                             could do so much with polymer clay
         (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

The Beaded Edge 2 - I've already read this from cover to
                                             cover... expect to see lots of beaded edges soon...
      (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

Mod Podge Rocks! - some fun ideas
       (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

I also got a present in the form of a craft kit.

(courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

and this is where the useless Crafter's Apprentice bit comes in.  You see I want to try everything, and I mean everything.  So I collect stuff.  The one thing I don't collect, can't buy and won't be getting for Christmas is time, so a lot of this stuff stays on the shelf, or in its box.  Want to see?

(courtesy of amazon.co.uk) First up there is an enamelling kit - please excuse the formatting, Blogger is being an arse...

Then there's Little Beaded Boxes.  I bought the book, but never had Delicas which you need to make them.  I've finally bought the Delicas, wonder how long it will be before I get round to making something...

(courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

Drawn Thread has been on my shelf for a while...

(courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

I bought this lucet at a Craft Fair...  it looked so much fun.
(courtesy of the lucet.co.uk)

At that same fair I bought a punch needle kit.  I took it away with me a few times and took it on holiday this summer.  No, I haven't opened the packet! 

My lovely friend Cuckoo sent me her sharp crochet hook for making crochet edgings.  Did that happen?  Erm.... no.  But maybe I could team it up with the Beaded Edge book!

I haven't finished!

         (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)                       This book looks fascinating... so why haven't I tried any of the
                                                projects??



         (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)                               This one has crochet techniques galore, and yet it lives
                                                        on my dining room table... waiting.
I could go on, but I'm feeling such a failure right now I think I'll stop there!  If you are interested in seeing my shockingly long Craft book inventory, go here!

An order!! And I've been naughty...

I got a query through my Folksy shop last week.  A lovely customer had seen the peach coasters I have in there and asked if I did blue.  I have some aqua coasters, but she wanted a darker blue.  I took photos of my blue scraps and she chose the 8 prints she wanted.  I went straight upstairs and go sewing!

My sewing machine played up half way through the quilting, suddenly deciding I wasn't happy with the tension I'd chosen and making the stitches incredibly loose.  Choice words were said and the beast was manipulated back into submission.

I wanted to add a little extra, so I whipped up a lavendar heart using some of the same fabrics.

She's left me a message to say she got the coasters and is very happy with them.  I was so nervous waiting for her feedback!  I know it's crazy to be excited about my 3rd sale, some people have more than that in an hour, but I'm so chuffed!

I've also been doing some reverse-selling (that's buying by the way!).  I've been doing daily surveys about my television viewing.  Each time you do one, you get entered in a drawer and all of a sudden I won 3 which translated into Amazon vouchers.  Well, I was on Amazon immediately!  This is what I got:

         

About 3 minutes after I placed my order, I remembered I wanted a Hardanger book.  They are all quite expensive, so when I saw this book on an auction...

I decided to give it a go.  I've never auctioned before, I always go for the Buy It Now option as I'm very impatient and usually when I shop, I know what I want and I want it now!  This time my more relaxed attitude paid off.  I won the auction and only paid a couple of quid.  I'm now bidding on a Bliss FQ set... ooops, what have I started!

With the Amazon order, I also had to get the novel on the left below, The Help.  It's been all over Blogland, people saying it's amazing and you know what?  It is.  I love it.  I haven't finished it yet, but I find it hard to put down.

  

The book on the right was a giveaway win courtesy of the magazine Handmade Living, such a lovely surprise!

I'm writing this post on Thursday, it's 5:20 and I should be putting millions of boring numbers into a boring spreadsheet but I clearly can't be arsed.  Instead, I'm having a quick blog trawl, then I'm off home to read the latest issue of Cross Stitcher which I've been holding off on buying as I didn't know which issue my subscription started with and it only occured to me to check yesterday!

Oh, in other news.  Some cheeky bugger has stolen our compost bin.  It's a council one and we put it out weekly with the wheelie bin - it's for food waste only.  Our wheelie bins are always being stolen.  I emailed the council and asked for a replacement and they told me I had to pay £10 unless I'm on benefits (which I'm not)!  Cheeky sods!  How can they charge me for something someone has stolen?  And if I pay to replace it, who says they wont steal it again.  And no, I'm not keeping my dustbins in the house out of the way of thieves!  Damn council, profiting from my misery.  Sorry environment, from now on, my food scraps will be landfill.

FSNI results - September

Last night was September's Friday Night Sew In.  I hadn't really planned what I was going to do. In the morning I thought it would be nice to do some machine sewing, but by the time I got home from work I was tired and couldn't be bothered.  I procrastinated for a while, then allowed myself to do what it was I actually wanted to do.  Hardanger. 

I forgot to show you the books I have on my last hardanger post.  They only have a few patterns between them, but they seem to be a decent resource.  The DMC book is actually really good, and I picked them up for just a couple of quid each at charity shops. 

I had printed out some free patterns from the internet, but the one I wanted to do hadn't got any instructions and I'm no where near experienced enough yet to know where to do the cutting.  I'd bought some new threads to experiment a little with colour (unfortunately my colour choice was limited as Hobbycraft only sells 25 different colours of Anchor Perle Cotton 8 and most were in very bright colours) and the other patterns didn't seem to fit well with the colour.

In the end, I chose a pattern from the DMC book.  I don't really like the overall project, but I thought the pattern would look nice on a little pouch or something. 

I didn't get very far!  I got stuck on the threads which cross the open squares, I just couldn't seem to get the instructions to look like the picture.  Clearly I'm missing something here!  It took me ages as I kept having to unpick and resew.  Parts of the background thread started showing through and my scissors aren't sharp enough and you can see a bit of a mess of white fabric round my cuts.  It didn't show on the white on white as that is more forgiving.  I have ordered some fine pointed scissors so hopefully they will help.  I will not be beaten!

I have got a Hardanger book coming, it's my first auction win on Ebay.  I don't mean I've never bought anything on Ebay, far from it!  I've never attempted an auction before.  I'm a very impatient person and when I want something, I want to order it right now, not wait a week to see if I've won an auction.  Unfortunately, I wanted a Hardanger book and there were none on the Buy It Now option at a reasonable price, so I entered an auction and won this little baby for just £2.69!  Bargain!

By the way, my subscriptions for Australian Handmade and Homespun are up.  I'm going to re-subscribe to Handmade as I love it, but I'm not so fussed on Homespun.  Another magazine available is Country Threads.  Does anyone know this magazine?  Any thoughts?  Is it good?  I don't want anything that's just quilts.

New Year's Eve - some presents, some projects and lots of germs!

Happy New Year's Eve everyone!  I'm back with another post as I actually did some crafting yesterday.

But first - I have to show you this photo of the two beautiful scarves my mum made me for Christmas:

The gorgeous blue one on the left is crocheted, but it's crocheted the opposite way to usual, starting with several hundred chain and dc'ing into it!  It's actually a beautiful variegated wool in gorgeous shades of blue (my favourite colour) but the photo doesn't do it justice.  The red on is knitted, a fan stitch which does go up and down - again, it's gorgeous in real life, and it's finished with a pom-pom fringe!!

So what did I get up to yesterday?  Well the husband had to go to work, so I went upstairs and finally made up the crochet/knitting bag that I bought the Amy Butler fabric for ages ago!  I made the small version for mum for Christmas (at her request, not because I'm mean!) and made the tall one for myself yesterday.  What do you think?

As ever, the cutting took ages but it sewed up really quite quickly.  I changed the pattern for the cuff as I didn't quite understand the instructions, this time there's much less bulk in that top seam so it sits neater.

I also finally finished the bag/bed for the wierd little teddy I made.  This project has been the bane of my life the last few weeks.  It should have been really quick but took forever!  Far too much sewing up required.  Here it is in all its "glory":

As a bag...

... and as a bed.

Hm, don't think I'll be knitting this one again!!

Whilst I was upstairs sewing yesterday, my husband came home for work with presents for me!  He'd had them delivered to work and they hadn't arrived in time so he'd bought me other presents (I'd told him not to!) so here were my original presents.  And what a treat they were... more books!  (All book images from Amazon)

Around the Corner Crochet Borders by Edie Eckman

I (heart) Patchwork by Rashida Coleman-Hale



Sew Darn Cute by Jenny Ryan



Free & Easy Stitch Style by Poppy Treffry

This last one goes wonderfully with my new darning foot which was the other present!!

I was going to get started on this today but guess what?  The lurgy has got me.  I feel awful so I'm going to sit here in blogland until I feel better (or fall asleep as I barely slept last night).

I've already mentioned in previous posts that I am challenging myself to make things from my craft books, well it's been a bit unstructured so far.  My First Bambina is doing a Use Your Books Challenge for 2011, well I'm joining in but my rules are a bit different.  I already have more than enough books to last me forever, so I'm going to make something from a book each month.  After the second quarter, if I have 6 completed projects, I'll treat myself to some new fabric/materials to embark on more projects from the books.  If I've completed 6 projects after the first quarter, well then I get my treat early!  Sorry Bambina, I can't put your button in as I've never figured out how to do it!  Hope over to her blog (link above) and join in!

Happy New Year to you all!

Looking forward to 2011

I hope you all had a good Christmas.  Santa bought me some lovely presents including a whole cache of new needles and some stitchy books.  I haven't done any crafting at all since before Christmas, the last few days before the big day were taken up with baking and wrapping presents and then we spent a day with the in-laws, a day with my family and then a day with the whole extended clan.  Since then I've been reading!  I thought I'd catch up with some blog reading today - only 500 odd new posts in the Google reader - you lot have been busy!

I thought I'd write a quick post about my new year's resolutions (crafty ones of course!) but thought you might like to see the books I received (they've also been added to my Craft Book Challenge page):



Stitched So Cute by Mary Engelbreit

Cafting Christmas Gifts by Tone Finnager


Simple Sewn Gifts by Helen Philipps


Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson


Scandinavian Needlecraft by Clare Youngs - I've wanted this one for ages!

I thought I'd be desperate to dive in and get sewing now the pressure and deadlines are off, but no, I seem to be lacking in motivation now I've got all the time in the world.  Ah well, maybe tomorrow - I am off work until the 4th Jan.

I also received two beautiful scarves from my ultra-talented mum.  One crocheted and one knitted, I will take some photos to show you.

So, onto the resolutions.  I may well add to this list but here's to start:

1. Work through TAST1 and TAST 2
2. Complete my crocheted granny square blanket
3. Learn some new crochet stitches
4. Learn some new knitting stitches
5. Complete one project a month from a craft book
6. Try needle felting
7. Try beading flowers
8. Try silk ribbon embroidery again
9. Finish my crewel embroidery
10. Start and finish another dancer's cross stitch
11. Get Christmas presents made by the end of October

That should be enough to start, I'll probably make a page dedicated to them where I can log my progress!

If I'm not back before (i.e. if I haven't made anything) have a very happy new year!