Embroidery Tools

This post is LONG overdue and is dedicated to Jules of Adventures in Thread who requested it quite some time ago when I mentioned that I'd cleaned and reorganised this section and then offered to explain what some of the things were.  So, without further ado..... (Sorry about some of the photos - too bright light!)

First we have a thimble (which I use on occasion), a pack of expensive Japanese pins from a quilting shop in Taipei, Taiwan, some Thread Heaven, which came as part of a cross stitch group exchange game and which I don't use much, a needle threader, which I never use and have only keep 'just in case' and the ubiquitous seam ripper.

Next is the scissors/cutters section and you can see here from top left a pair of goldwork scissors, a small pair of embroidery scissors I keep as a spare, petit point scissors used for cutwork in hardanger and drawn thread pieces, some more embroidery scissors which are a bit wrecked, a Clover cutter pendant for air travel and the general pair I use for most thread cutting work (and which aren't as dirty as they look - the white spots are actually the bright light reflecting on the 'textured' surface of the black plastic!)

This stuff is mostly measuring, marking and cleaning: 3 dressmakers' pencils, an ordinary 6"/15cm ruler, a ruler which you can use to measure angles with (that I got 4 years ago in Taiwan thinking it was nifty and that I would use it a lot - but never have!!), a toothbrush for brushing away fluff and carbon/chalk marks, tweezers which are more for bending things than picking things up and, finally, an old clothes price tag which is just the right size for making tassels around.  No, I don't wear XL.  This seems to have been something for Sir!!

Here are my stumpwork wires.  There are 4 coils from a set I bought - probably meant to be jewellery wire (as is the small reel, I think, which came from an art shop in Taipei), but will be just fine for most wired stumpwork elements and is also much easier to find than florists' and cake decorators' wire.  The front 2 packs are from a sugarcraft store and are paper covered.

Here we have some more stumpwork etc tools:  A hedebo stick, which is used for making circular elements around before attaching them to the main fabric, a set of 3 half cone sticks in various sizes, a stiletto for puncturing fabric (for Broderie Anglaise etc), and a stuffing tool for pushing toy stuffing into smaller spaces.

And that, apart from the pair of thread snips that got overlooked whilst doing the scissors photo, is it!  What's in yours?

I can't believe how long it's been since I actually did any proper stitching!  I've done a bit of finishing up this month (as you saw last post), but the only embroidery I did was to finish off the cupcake card.  Things are hanging around the living room waiting for me look:

This is one of what we call our 'intelligent bags' (an Oxford University Press bookshop tote - the other is from Cambridge!!) and it's good for housing the stuff I need for the projects on hand.  You can see various patterns, materials and so on in here - mostly upside down!!

And here are my poor, neglected work frames, which have only been touched to move them out of the way and back again recently!

I've been trying to clear the decks of things like finishing up, mending and so on of late, or else have been mad busy with something else and/or stuck with my nose in a language textbook.  Having said that, I feel quite impatient to get back on now with these two, the things that are in the bag (about 4 more - a camera case to make up, the rabbit, TAST stuff and an old C&G sample I mean to finish up as my last UFO to clear) and some baby knitting that I'm just waiting for the yarn for.  A Chinese friend here is having a little girl in November after 2 boys and so I thought I'd do her a couple of pretty things - with which idea she's thrilled.

Oh, speaking of being thrilled, Georgina the disabled girl loves her scatter cushion cover and has already had a cushion pad bought for it.=)

Other than that, what news?  I added a 'forthcoming' page to my blog, so you can easily see what's planned for the near future (where possible) and something which will disappoint some: I won't be doing the C&G after all - health's still too poor and I have really too many demands on my energies as it is.  However, I plan on developing a fair few ideas and new skills, so I hope there'll be enough to keep everyone's interest.

'Til next time, tinkety-tonk!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

Cushions and Cards

I may not have posted much of late, but I have been busy!  First of all I finished up the Ring of Roses scatter cushion cover by putting the zip in.  Here it is being modelled by one of our own cushions.

Then I moved on to the giraffe cushion cover.  The patchwork went relatively well, but is still a bit uneven.  This was the front when initially put together - showing off some wonders in uneven patching!!

Frankly, I prefer the back and wouldn't be at all surprised (or upset) if the recipient decided to display it this way around!

In the end I managed to find a way to improve the look of the front - put some trim around the main picture and extend it a little so as to cover over the worst of the bad joins.  It's come out OK, but it isn't exactly a masterpiece.  Mercifully, the disabled girl I'm giving it to has rotten eyesight, so she won't see it's many imperfections!!!

Then it was onto the next project - a cross stitched wedding card for a couple who are marrying on 31st of this month.  They're having tea and cakes as a simple reception afterwards, so I thought this display of colourful cupcakes was in keeping with the occasion.  It may be a simple and fairly small design, but just look at all the colours I needed!

This shows the cross stitching itself finished and the colours out for the outlining.  I decided not to use the prescribed dark grey for it, but to chose a darker shade of each colour family used for the icing (I tried to make every single cake a different colour and almost succeeded too!) and a brown shade for the cake bottoms.  The Kreinik is for the cake stand.

I think it turned out quite well, don't you?

Here are two books I borrowed from the library last week.  The hardanger one is mostly stuff I already know, but there are one or two ideas in there that I haven't come across before, including using beads in filling stitches.

Also, how about these for hardanger cards?  Creative, or what!  It made me feel that there was a great deal more to be done with a simple piece of hardanger than just to mount it in an aperture card.  I got some white card blanks yesterday to try painting up as three of these seem to have been.

I was also inspired by the cross stitch cards book.  Again, I've discovered that there's so much more that you can do with a small cross stitch than just bung it in an aperture card, so inspired by some of the designs in the book and using the technique explained there (putting bondaweb on the back of the Aida to 'stabilise' it, but not needing to bond the second side of it to anything - just cut out the shape, peel off the backing and then attach to your card), I made this with the 'cat in a basket' design I finished off a few months ago.

The cross stitched piece was attached using those glue pads you get for decoupage types of crafts and thus gives a bit of a raised look.  Of course, you can do it flat as well.

It feels good to have got a few projects finally completed and also to have some new and innovative ideas for fairly simple techniques.  I can develop quite a bit just with these counted thread pieces and am even considering trying to sell some of the hardanger ones, once I get something impressive stitched up.

What's next?  Finishing up the other WIPs, I hope!  I'm having a really good deck clear at the moment, trying to get long neglected tasks done and free my mind of all that clutter.  Next sewing machine job will be making some alterations and then I can get down to my camera case that I've been planning for over 3 years now....

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012