Big push to catch up on TAST - Weeks 17-29

I've decided to really get back down to TAST and get caught up as far as I can.  The last time I posted was for week 16 and this has been week 39, so you can see just how far behind I'd got!  Anyway, as it happened, I'd already stitched some samples for weeks 17, 18 and 19, had some older pieces that would sub for weeks 20 and 24, there was no week 23 and I didn't like or want to try the stitch from week 22, so that left only five samples to do today and two photos to show you.

Here's the first, my trusty piece of 14ct cream Aida that I've been using up for this challenge.  Ignore the twisted and alternating chain stitch samples at the top left as I've posted those before.  Directly under those are three types of wheatear stitch (wk 17), which I liked very much and saw quite some potential for.  I did the band version, the isolated stitch version and then an upside down one called tête de beouf stitch, all of which I can see myself coming back to.  Under that you can see two lines of crossed buttonhole stitch (wk 18) and then one of half chevron stitch (wk 19), neither of which inspired me greatly.

Moving on to the right hand column and we start with butterfly chain stitch (wk 21), which I struggled to get right, as you can see from four of the six sheaves, and then two rows of cable stitch (wk 25).  I liked this one quite a lot and can see how I might use it.  The second row I did with the horizontal stitches the same length as the full frontal ones so as to look like a real chain in terms of scaling.  This would look great in metallic threads, esp gold or silver.

Next down is palestrina stitch (wk 26), which I managed to work out OK and that could have something to do with it being in the Country Bumpkin 'Embroiderer's Handbook'.  I refer to this book if possible - its step-by-step photos and very detailed instructions are marvellous.  Then we have bonnet stitch (wk 27), which I had to refer to my Mary Thomas book for.  I often find that one harder to follow than the CB one (sometimes impossible) and, as you can see, it took a few tries before I sussed it out.  Next is up and down buttonhole (wk 28), which I followed Sharon B's stitch dictionary page for.  It took a while to figure that out too, but now I see it OK.  Lastly, there's basque stitch (wk 29), which I also rather liked and was able to use the MT book without any hiccups for.  I have ideas for this one too....

This second photo is a close-up of one I showcased for week 15, when French knots were the order of the day.  Quite apart from the bullions I've done recently on my Brazilian piece, here are some more in observance of week 20, and you can see three and a half (can you spot the half??) lilac buttonhole wheels as well to cover week 24.

Next Friday I hope to post all the stitches from weeks 30 to 39 (9 in total as week 36 was a break) or at least some of them.  After that, the plan is to keep up each week and, where possible, to try and work a more interesting, pictorial sample featuring that week's stitch with some of those from previous weeks that I feel have some mileage in my style of work.  Many of the band stitches have limited usage for me, although are wonderful for crazy quilters for seam treatments.  I'm interested in that sort of work and hope to get to it soon, but, for now, I'm still thinking general freestyle work with a distinct bias towards pictorial things.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

Work in Progress Wednesday 26 Sept 2012

A key part of my posting on Getting UFOs finished asks the reader to assess just why the project got put aside.  Was it through boredom?  Gone off the project?  Lack of motivation?  Project too hard?  There are a number of reasons and I thought it was time I thought about why I was struggling to get and then keep going on my WISPs (works in slow progress).

It's not boredom as I associate that with large, monotone backgrounds and things like that.  I haven't gone off either of them design-wise and there is motivation to finish them as they're both for other people and the WIP Weds posting idea also helps to have something ready to post each week.  So, I'm left with them being hard.

This is how far I've got on the Sunshine and Flowers sampler:

As some of you might remember from previous postings on the subject, I was doing quite well and then it suddenly seemed to get stalled.  Admittedly, there were other 'due soon' projects, such as wedding things, that intervened, but apart from the frame being too large and unwieldy as I mentioned last time, there is one other problem:  The chart is exceptionally hard to follow.  I find I have to read and re-read sections each time just to find out where I am and then I'm still puzzled.  There are two permutations and sometimes the chart instructions don't specify where there are differences and you can lose time working out that it's the other version that has 'four large flowers' whereas the version I'm doing has five etc.

Another thing that gets me is that it seems to assume that you know what the designer has in mind without you having to be told.  Section 5c says: 'Begin the Fly stitch center with a single Backstitch.'  Now, quite apart from the fact that stitch names do not need to be (and should be) written with initial caps, what fly stitch centre?  There's no indication on the graphic chart that any part is done in fly stitch (there's no key, apart from the usual symbols for cross stitch colours), either of this flower centre or anywhere else.  It just looks like small satin stitches there and it's only by looking through 3 different parts of the chart that you can just about work out what on Earth is required!  Frustrating, time consuming and puzzling.  That's why it's got neglected.  And these are relatively simple parts.  I dread to think what's it's going to be like when I get to the large, cutwork gate section!

The second WISP I'm moving slowly forward on is this Brazilian piece:

So, what's holding this one up?  Cynthia and 'Bunny' both asked about the thread last time.  It's rayon thread, specially made for Brazilian work (Edmar Lola, colour 007, variegated lilac), and is the world's number pain in the neck to work with.  Bullion knots are not my favourite things to work as I can't manage it without puckering the fabric to save my life (tips welcome!), but this thread is just beastly.  I can hardly describe why, but it seems to object to being wrapped and the part that hasn't gone around the needle then starts to try and twist the other way, thus making it a real challenge to get the needle and thread back through the fabric and the knot completed.  The thread looks gorgeous, but it's a real headache to work with.  The last two stitching sessions have been started with a rose and a half and then I moved on to the sampler, (frying pan to fire??).

So, I'm trying, bit by bit, to get on with these pieces and am looking forward to when I can a) follow the Cross'N'Patch chart without wanting to burn it; and b) get the bullions finished on the rose piece and can move on to the greenery!

Ooof!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

The Sunday Yarn - 23 September 2012

Introducing a new post series - The Sunday Yarn, which will be my weekly yarncraft update as I make progress with knitting and, in time, crochet.  It's also a play on words as 'to have a good yarn' is also a regional way of saying to have a good chat or talk.  Some, often in fairly rural areas of England, also use 'to yarn' to mean to talk, especially for a long time!!  So, that's what you'll be seeing many Sundays from now on.

To get the ball rolling (OK, the ball of yarn, if you like!!), here's how far I've got with my first baby cardigan. Essentially, it's finished.  All that needs doing now is to press it and to attach the buttons and a little embroidery to trim it up.  I've bought some little red heart buttons and plan on making 'flowers' out of them.  It's rather strange - one side seems to have come out so much more even that the other.  Part of that seems to be to do with taking less care than I should when assembling and the other part from, perhaps, not starting quite low enough down when picking up stitches for the border.  More practice needed...

These are the other patterns I have on hand with the yarns for them by the sides.  I also plan on doing another one of these fairly plain cardigans in mint green, perhaps even adding in the pattern down the sleeves as well and trimming it up with purple flowers.  I'll do that one in the next size up, I think.  So, I'm learning a lot and the good thing about doing baby clothes is that you can learn a lot within a few small garments.

I also borrowed this book from the library and plan to have a go at some of the patterns from it.  I can't crochet at all yet, (whereas knitting was largely resurrecting an old, childhood skill and then learning some more advanced things with it), so this will be something very new for me.  Exciting!  I'm quite keen to start and am interested in the pattern for a bath mat - of all the unglam things!!  A beginners' knitting book I've also borrowed from the local library has a lovely, lacy looking shawl that I plan to have a go at too.  It's only about 30 rows, but it's a decent size for a 'trim', i.e. it's not really meant to keep you seriously warm, just for decoration.=)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

Hardanger Floral Card

No WIP Wednesday posting this week or last owing to having nothing to post thanks to being away a couple of times.  However, I've been getting on with my knitting - only need to sew it all together now, and made this floral hardanger card:

It's from a New Stitches magazine, issue 88 from summer 2000 and I bought the materials pack, which included pearl and stranded cottons and the card blanks (there's also a blue one, but I worked that one years ago.)

Here's the finished thing, although, as ever, I had trouble getting the light pink of the card to show and couldn't make satisfactory adjustments on the image editing software, so you'll just have to imagine the card - including the bit showing through the cutwork - to be just that bit brighter than you can see here.

The close-up looks quite nice, and the peachy-pink of the background shows up passably well.

Until next time....

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

Belated WIP Wednesday

I've finally decided to properly join in Sharon B's Work In Progress Wednesday, although my first post is a bit late as it's Thursday here, but, if you live on the very westernmost tip of Alaska or somewhere else on the eastern side of the International Date Line, I'm home and dry!!  Anyway, the idea is to post on a large WIP or WISP (work in slow progress) on Wednesdays so that there is a sort of weekly 'report back' support and motivation.  I suppose it's rather like a Weightwatchers weekly weigh-in for stitchers!!!

OK, less of the nonsense talk and more WIPs, (the current state of which is always on my 'Current Work In Progress' page.).  I've nothing to report on two of them, but here's the current status of the Cross'N'Patch 'Sunshine and Flowers' sampler after I pulled out a part I'd mis-counted (not concentrating properly) and then re-housed the whole piece in a 14"x11" frame as opposed to the former 17"x11" one, which I was finding just too long to manage comfortably.  I think that awkwardness also slowed down progress as it's hard to get yourself going on an unwieldy piece.

And the Brazilian 'Rolled Roses' piece.  As you can see, I've done two more roses.  There were three, but I had to pull one out, it looked so bad!  This photo has been edited to show the outline of the whole piece as well, so you can get an idea of what's coming from it and how much is left to do too.

What else have I been doing?  Plenty of reading, of course, some lesson preparation as I now have two private students coming to me for Mandarin Chinese lessons and I've begun work on an exercise book to help people get a firm grip on Mandarin sentence patterns and so on, which I'm trialling on these two ladies!  So, that takes up a fair bit of research time etc. as well.  And would you just look at my desk!  I was sorting out my embroidery ribbons  ready for two small card projects as well!

On top of that, I've taken up knitting for the first time in almost 30 years!  A Chinese friend is having a little girl in November, so I thought I'd have a go at some baby knits for her.  This is how far I've got with my first one - the back, both sleeves and the left front.  This is, I think, the first time I've done a patterned knit like this (the bit with the decorative holes) and certainly the largest piece I've ever done.  Only one more piece to do, then it's on to the challenge of picking up stitches around the edgings etc.  I've borrowed a good beginners' book from the library to help.

I remember when I was a little girl, my mum, who was quite a prolific and accomplished knitter, gave me scrap ends of yarn and some basic needles and I used to knit very simple woollies for Sindy/Barbie dolls which had contrast trims and often had lurex knitted in with them (so, like Kreinik Blending Filament), and then sell them from the back of our car at the classic car rallies we used to go to.  They were quite good family occasions and little girls would sometimes buy them from me.  I was quite an astute businesswoman at age 11, wasn't I??=)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

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