Watch the birdie!

Got the final bird done on the bluetits and more of the background. It's boring me a little less these days and it shouldn't be too far off completion.

Thanks for the thoughts on the red cushion. The red looked 'worse' than it will be when finished as it was standing a bit proud of the stitched piece and was also quite a bit bigger than the finished item will be, so it shouldn't be too bad. I'm considering moving the side pieces out a bit before sewing them on though. Haven't done any more on it yet.

Got an Amazon order through today with these two books:

As I know some are interested in this kind of embroidery, here are the other 3 projects inside the 'Beginners' Guide to Silk Shading':

And here's a photo of the page showing all the main projects in the larger book:

There are also 3 smaller flowers and 4 beginners things to do. She does most of her work with only one strand of cotton, (which looks a lot finer and better than with two), so I must give that a go.

NB: These are all photos from the book, not my own work! I've put them up here so those who might be interested in these books can have a closer look than on-line bookstores allow!=)

Finished the Goldwork, plus other updates

I can't believe it's really been over a week since the last posting, but it has! I've had the worst head cold I'd ever experienced this week. My throat was that bad when I woke up on Tuesday morning that I actually thought I had tonsillitis! Anyway, it's 'just' been a bad head cold, but not fun. I haven't done a lot of stitching, but here's the goldwork dragonfly completed and a photo 'across' the piece, which seems to show the glittery aspect of it up better. I quite understand why Pierrette felt her goldwork photos didn't do her lovely work credit recently, it is SO hard to get the shimmer to show. On this piece, I also have the coloured part done in very shiny rayons, so it really has lost a lot in translation, so to speak.


I've been working on getting the 'Child of Spring' piece sewn up into a cushion/pillow cover, but am not too happy with it. I've only actually sewn the top and bottom red pieces on. DH thinks the red is too near to the pattern and that there's not enough border, but having already unpicked it once, I'm not keen on having to do it all again, so I'm thinking about adding some small white motifs around the edge of the red near the pattern, or stitching on some other sort of white border. What say you, ladies?

This is the current status on the 'Bluetits and Seedheads' cross stitch. Haven't touched it for weeks, but there was more to show than the last picture.

Thanks to Chiasmata and Pierrette (links on left hand side to both their blogs) for my 3rd and 4th 'You Make My Day' awards, and today is the deadline for submissions for the Hobbycraft Big Arts and Crafts challenge that I entered 'Branches' for. When the Hobbycraft judges have picked the final 20 per age category, (kids, teenagers and adults), then the public voting will open on 2 March. If I've made it that far, I will post the link as promised and hope to get one of the 3 prizes!=) Not that I need any more art and craft supplies, but winning would be lovely.=)

Awards and a Stash-over

Yesterday I got a parcel of threads from Nordic Needle in the States. They can get 19 colours of Anchor #12 pearl cotton that don't seem to be available in the UK, so I ordered all of them as well as 14 shades of GAST that I didn't have. Well, I thought I didn't have, but it turns out that I goofed and got 2 duplicates. Rats!


Later on, I decided that my workboxes needed a re-think. This first pic was taken in Sept 05, so almost 2½ years ago. Since then, my tastes have 'settled down' into what I really want to stitch and I've realised that the contents of my main workbox don't really reflect this and I spend more time fishing things out of the 2nd box than I would like. So, as my interest is mostly fine work and realising that plain threads are often the best for this, I took the whole GAST collection out of the bottom drawer and replaced it with most of my #8 and #12 pearl cottons - the most useful colours to me. I also went carefully through all my GAST and WDW threads, putting the ones I'm mostly likely to use on one side and then, when I've done a couple of cross stitch patterns that need mostly these threads and may require some colours from the 'I won't use these much, if at all' pile, I think I'll be doing some selling on of threads I'm really not going to use and have just been collecting for the sake of it. I came to that realisation when I looked at the new GAST threads yesterday and had to honestly admit why I'd bought them. Hmmmm. So, there will be sales soon... Also of cross stitch magazines as well as some other designs, mags and so on.

Anyway, this is what the main workbox looks like right now. Regular 6-stranded cottons are in the middle section in bags with the whole Anchor Coton à Broder collection at the back. Then on the right hand side in the cantilever sections is the whole Anchor Marlitt collection and a good few reels of Pipers Silks. There are white #8 and #12 pearl cottons in the top section too. I used to have a black and white section in that space before and rather liked it, so have put it back - kinda. On the left at the bottom are all my spools of Kreinik thread, including about 10 Silk Serica, then there are some of the overdyes (GAST and WDW) in the next section up, but they won't stay there long term. There wasn't room for them all, so they'll go somewhere else in time and I'll probably put #5 pearl cottons in there instead. The top left section is mostly needles and scissors with some charms etc as well. Eventually, I'll make a needlecase for myself and put any spare needles away somewhere as well as the charms, (which should be with beads, I think), so that will tidy that section up somewhat. We'll be getting something as a 'telephone table' soon, something like a bedside chest of drawers/nightstand so I'll be bagging a drawer in there for some stash and will also get the current little Ikea set of storage drawers for my things, so there'll be a lot more sorting out and clearing up done yet!

I haven't been stitching over the past couple of days, but I do seem to have been winning awards! Jeanne kindly gave me my second 'You Make My Day' award and I also got a Spanish bloggers' award called 'Arte y Pico', which is about creativity, from Doris. The general rules for the first award are to nominate 10 other blogs for the first award and 5 for the second one. I'm going to bend the rules a bit though and just say that, although all the blogs I have listed on the left hand side of my blog are well worth looking at and I visit most of them several times a week, I'm just going to select my one favourite, which is Pierrette's 'Love to Stitch 99'. Pierrette does a lot of different styles of embroidery, like me, and I love to see what she's been working on. So, my award goes to her.

Slow progress

Haven't done much more on the dragon/damselfly yet as I wasn't up to sitting up stitching much yesterday, but managed a little on the forewings as well as 2 legs and antennae. You can't really see the marks for the rest of the wings on this shot, but this isn't the finished story!!

I liked Doris's comment yesterday about when she only has one large project on the go, she gets bored with and neglects it. That answered why I wasn't getting on with the bluetits and why I've had repeated problems with that sort of feeling in the past. Yes, variety is needed and so, whilst finishing the brids trio (of which bluetits is only the 2nd piece), I intend to do as many small pieces as I can without totally neglecting the main items!!

Another quickie

Started stitching a 'goldwork' damselfly that I've been wanting to do for years - since I first saw <-this picture of the project in the Anchor Beginners' Guide to Freestyle Embroidery book. As you can see from my WIP photo, I've cut the design down to half as, pretty as it is, all the couching is a little dull and it's easier to use as a small design (can be mounted in a card no probs) than a larger one, which might need framing. £$£$£$£$£!! I've also made some colour changes. The book says that the fabric is deep blue silk, but this photo looks more like it's purple to me (if you saw the book proper, it's even more 'red' there!) so I fished out a very vibrant royal blue colour silk to work on, backed with dark Vilene, as ever! I also change the colours of the threads for the bodies from the blue and green cotton in the book to 2 shades of turquoise with black for the eyes of Anchor Marlitt (rayon) to increase the glimmer effect of the whole thing. Here it is so far and, if you look carefully, you can see the outline of the wings. I did this bit in about an hour and a half last night.

Oh, how I am enjoying quick projects at the mo, but after this, I must get that cushion/pillow cover made up for baby sis and then get back on with the bluetits cross stitch. I think that the latter is, frankly, boring me!! Still, I can do a bit on that and a bit on something else, no? Kind of a rotation. Do a few pieces of thread on the bluetits, then move on to something more interesting.

Ribbon piece done!

Here's the finished piece - Rose Arch:

I think I'll mount it in a card in due course as it's the right size for that and will make a nice tribute for someone's special something or other!!! Don't know what, when or who yet though....




Here it is from the side to show the nice 3D effect that Doris so rightly mentioned.=)

Thanks for all the lovely comments etc over the last couple of days. I must refute one of them though: I am NOT talented, it's just that I have acquired some skills over the 5+ years I've been stitching. Anyone who can hold a needle can embroider, it requires little more than patience, practice and the ability to follow instructions. So, no, it's not talent on my part, just something I've learned, that's all.

I did some work with the blog labels the other day and added in some general subject ones, such as 'Birds', 'Florals', 'Butterflies' and 'Insects'. That will be helpful for visitors wanting to locate work on certain themes. It also made me realise how few floral pieces I really have and that I want to do a lot more! I'm just about to create a 'Samplers' label as I seem to have done quite a bit of that type of work.

Instant Gratification

I remember 'meeting' another UK stitcher into many types of embroidery on a newsgroup who said she did 'cross stitch for instant gratification'. I knew exactly what she meant, but in terms of results in the short term, I think hardanger and ribbon embroidery come first. So, I did some ribbon work yesterday very much for instant results! Here they are: It's not finished yet as there are some hollyhocks to put in on the left hand side, (you might be able to see a few guide marks there), but I thought I'd showcase it thus far. It's done with organza ribbons rather than silk/satin ones and is a small kit by Crafty Ribbons. They do some great small kits for folk to get the feel of ribbon work. My only criticism is that they seem to operate a 'right first time' policy on behalf of their clients - they only include enough ribbon in each kit for you to work the design and make zero mistakes!!! So, one or two of the flowers can look a bit naff!!! The gate etc is worked in plain old backstitch.

The Friday Photo Shoot!!

No real stitching progress, but that's becoming rather a regular problem at the mo....=( I have, at least, bought the latest Classic Stitches. Love the look of the cover project, which I may just adapt to a more overt heart shape for a forthcoming silver wedding.


Had a play with my cheap pastels the other day and, in addition to the mark making and colour testing mess I made, I did this apple. Nothing special, but at least painting fruit and veg you stand a good chance of the finished piece at least looking like what it was meant to be!!!


I also got yet another set of Derwent pencils on E-bay. I've worked out that, had I payed High Street prices for the 4 tins of things I've got over the last month or so, it would have costs verging on £110, but I paid just under £45 including all the postage costs! So, I'm quite pleased with my 41% bargain there!! These are basically tinted graphite (the stuff in regular pencils), which are also watersoluble. When you do add water, most of the colours become more vibrant. So, they're very much like the Inktense range - both a fancy type of watercolour pencil, just different intensities really. Wonder if I'll ever really put them to good use??? Well, let's see, huh?

Mmmmmmmmm, nice day at home.

=)

Oh, how nice it is just to have a day at home! Got the place cleaned, did the washing, made out a proper shopping list (instead of a quick brainstorm on the hoof), read for a while, had a nice lunch as well as a homemade carrot, apple and lime juice this morning and did some needlework this afternoon whilst listening to parts of 'Wives and Daughters' and 'Anne of Green Gables' on tape. Lovely! A clean home, no dirty dishes, no ironing (I did it last Friday) and some stitching done. Some might say that I'm wasting myself, someone with an education like mine just being a stay at home, but, sorry, I'm quite content! There'll be more going on later on when I get a bit stronger, but I intend to enjoy the 'taking it easy' phase and, when I have to go and lay down, I'll be doing lots of reading I wouldn't normally have that much chance for. Looking forward to that too! That's the one thing I hold against stitching, I can't read at the same time!!! Glad we have so many classic novels on tape and CD.=)

First I took the dark red fabric off the 'Child of Spring' piece that I'd sewn on (badly) in Hamburg back in October. I didn't feel that the dark shade went well enough with the design anyway and I'd put one of the pieces on wonky. Don't seem to have enough bright red to do for the whole job now, so must wait to get some until Wednesday. I was rather pleased about that as I didn't fancy that job this afternoon! Will post a pic of that another time as it was badly creased and light's fading now.

Over the last couple of days I've been doing some more on the half stitching on the bluetits piece. Seems mad to be getting on with the background, but the third and largest bird of the three in this pic isn't joined to any of the other cross stitching, so I needed to put some background in so that I didn't put him in the wrong place! It's too easy to get the count wrong at the best of times and with the easiest of fabrics, (ie. Aida), but this is 28ct Jobelan, so I could even get him half a block out!! You can even see a little of the outline of where he will be at the bottom right of the block I've done.

<-Here's how they're looking just now.

More pencils, stitching mags and viola-versary

Ooof, yes, I've been buying again. I seriously suspect myself of engaging in retail therapy.... Here's the latest addition to the pencils collection, Derwent's Inktense the full range. You use them like a pencil, then you can go over the marks with water and it turns into an ink-like quality. If you use the colour lightly to start with, it looks more like watercolour. They're really good, it's just a shame I'm not brill at drawing yet!! Here's what I did last night to experiment with them. It's just a copy of this photo and far from marvellous, but it was late and I'm no great shakes at paper based art. This sort of thing takes a lot of patience and practise and I think that could well be why I tend towards needlework where you can get it right first time!!!















I've also been hoarding more stitching mags. Went to WHSmiths and found the latest issue of 'Inspirations' there, much to my surprise! I didn't think it would arrive for another week or ten days, but here it is along with the current 'Stitch'. I also got a copy of this book from the Country Bumpkin designer series. Don't know that I'll ever make it up as is, but it's a very interesting book and a brilliant design. Got the weekly CB webletter this morning, which was full of all the new books they're planning to release this year. There's to be a 'Needlebook Cottage' in this designers series and an 'A-Z of Goldwork and Silkwork', which I am going to be totally unable to resist buying. BAD Country Bumpkin!!!













Today is my viola-versary. I am officially now a second year viola student. Given how little ground I've managed to cover, part of me finds that a bit disappointing, esp. as someone I 'met' on the ABRSM forums started violin a month before me, got a distinction in her Grade 1 exam last June and is already preparing for her Grade 3 in March! However, then I remembered the kind of year I've just had - about 3 months lost to illness, if not more when all added together, narrowly avoiding a nervous breakdown owing to an ill-suited (to me) job and various other hassles. Put in that light, I'm doing OK and, yes, I'm quite reconciled to the fact that I'm going to learn slowly. As DH rightly says, it's the fact that I enjoy it that matters, not the race to get to Grade 8 standard!!! Funny thing is that I've been unable to practise the last week and had to cancel my lesson on Tuesday thanks to having hurt my neck! It happens from time to time and is on the mend now, so onwards and upwards!

The weather is odd at the mo, JK. The forecast promised snow, but it's lovely and sunny right now with only light clouds. We've had stormlike winds, fit almost to take you off your feet, (I nearly did take off last Friday!!!), but at least not too much rain. Hmm, actually, I prefer rain to wind and I really get fed up with both at the same time!!!

Heidi asked what my plans were. Well, I've nothing set in concrete just yet, but lots of ideas and so forth. First and foremost, (as without it I can't really do anything else), is to get my strength back. Whilst that's in progress, I intend to build slowly up on other things, esp the Bible teaching work I do. When I was language teaching and it was stealing all my time and strength, it just became so hard to remember my real priorities in life. Felt like I was living in two conflicting worlds and I was beginning to feel more at home in (and spending vast amounts more time on) the one I didn't belong to! Most uncomfortable! So, now that's getting back to normal again, I can get on with what matters most. Doubt I'll get another job, but I might help DH with some of his admin work as he's very busy and earns more than enough to keep us both. I want to make some progress with my musical studies, pick my languages back up (nothing killed my Chinese ability as stone dead as teaching it for a year!!!), maybe even work through some of the Open University science courses I have copies of and, of course, stitch! We're going to Taiwan for 3 weeks in March/April and, after that, I'll be making moves on starting some needlecraft studies. Problem with most of the stuff on offer is that it's so contemporary and, frankly, I don't like that kind of style. I prefer traditional, detailed work, so I daresay a lot of the City & Guilds programmes on offer aren't going to work for me. The stumpwork ones look good though, so we'll see. Will let you know when I do, basically!! One thing's for sure, I'm not going to suffer boredom or lack of challenge and purpose!=)