Threads Across the Web

Floral Melody - finished

2012-01-31T23:05:00.005Z

Like most people, I associate the New Year with fresh starts and new beginnings but for the first few weeks of 2012 I am focusing on finishing.

First up, the big one! I had hoped to finish Floral Melody by Christmas 2011. I didn’t quite manage that deadline and FM had to go on hold over the festive period. It seemed to take forever for things to settle down and for me to get back into my usual routine but I eventually got there and Floral Melody eventually got finished!

It took 300 meters of thread, 138 hours of stitching time and goodness knows how many beads (and I have no intention of counting them). In addition to the beading techniques, one important thing that I leant at Phase 3 is that if there are two identical sides to a project, work on both sides simultaneously. If you complete one side then go back to work the other, you will certainly forget what you did first time around. Also, I needed to ensure that I had enough beads to do the same thing on both sides. I could have divided the beads up before I started, but I didn’t, so I needed to keep track of usage. Most importantly, I found that when I had completed the first side on Poppy Pouch, it felt like I had finished completely. I had to dig deep to find the resources to start afresh on the second side.

This time, I made sure that I worked on both sides throughout, ensuring that I never got too far ahead on one side. When the finish post was in sight, this time it really was the finish.

Over the past few weeks, I have focused most of my stitching time into this project and now that it is finished, I can reveal why. Phase V class is only taught in Atlanta by Matsukawa-san and I could only enrol for that class once Floral Melody was completely finished. In anticipation of finishing on time, I had booked my flight and reserved my hotel room but my heart was in my mouth until my place on the class was secure.

Last weekend I completed Floral Melody, sent of my booking form and have been accepted on the Phase V class. And tonight I have heard from my good friend and travel companion, Sue, that she has completed her Phase IV. For those unfortunate enough to have access to Skype, I apologise for the slightly disturbing image of me doing a happy dance earlier this evening.

Happy Stitching

Disco Donna

2012-01-30T22:14:00.010Z

The December meeting of the Embroiderer’s Guild, Oxford Branch is always a social event. Sometimes we have a members competition were we are asked to make something in advance. This year we were given instructions for a "Disco Donna" and asked to make a fairy version.

I thought that I might have a go at improvisational bead embroidery for my Donna. In her book, One Bead at a Time, Robin Atkins, advises that you start with a fabric that you love, so I had a rummage through my stash. The problem is, every time I found a fabric I loved, I had earmarked it for another project, or I considered it "too good" for a frivolous project. Eventually, I found a small square of silk, that Susan Elliot had given me as a 'bonus' for being her first customer on ETSY. There was just enough to make a Donna, I had no preconceived plans for it and I LOVED it. Next job was to pull all of the beads and sequins that I thought might work with the fabric.

I drew two rectangles (for the body) and two circles (for the head) onto the fabric and outlined each shape with beaded back stitch. Then, following the advice given in Robin’s book, I chose a bead that appealed to me and stitched in onto the body and just kept selecting beads and stitching them on until I thought I was done.

I drew Donna’s face onto fabric with coloured pens. I should have guessed that the ink would bleed but I thought that this happy accident gave her a more quirky look.

I added the hair after I had assembled and stuffed the head and body.

And finally, I added the arms and legs.

My Donna is more ‘Disco’ than ‘Fairy’, but then so am I!

You can see all the Disco Donna Fairies that came to our Christmas party here.

Happy Stitching

Doodle Page - Flower Bed

2012-01-26T09:00:00.000Z

For my own doodle page I had selected a piece of fabric cut from a thread-bare Liz Claiborne blouse that had I had been saving for just such an occasion. I asked the other participates to embroider me a garden and to get it started I doodled an aster, inspired by Lesley Turpin-Delport in Just Flowers. Then I sent my page on its travels starting in Australia.

Sadly, after Dian added her embroidery and sent my page on the next leg of its journey, it went astray. I cannot be too upset; this is part and parcel for Round Robins and worldwide exchanges. My main regret is that I will never get to see Dian’s original embroidery in my garden. Jo who was next in the Round Robin, made a replacement page from fabric in her stash and Dian very kindly embroidered some flowers for my garden a second time. Not only that, but Dian also did a doodle of an aster similar to the one I had originally done.

I am very pleased to say that my page then completed the Round Robin without a hitch before coming home to me.

Thank you, Robins, for the beautiful garden that you stitched for me.

Happy Stitching

Doodle Page - Why?

2012-01-12T22:00:00.002Z

This was the last page to come to me and, for me it was the most challenging topic. I find abstract subjects difficult to connect to. This page arrived while I still had some still to do. I resisted the urge to open the package and see the page so I would not distracted by it.

When I finally saw it and read the notes that accompanied it, I was quite moved. Everyone had clearly put a lot of thought into it. The creator of the page had asked us 'Why?' thinking particularly about the dreadful natural disasters that had recently affected Australia, New Zealand, Japan and other countries in that region. What I found most interested is that nearly everyone did not attempt to suggest 'Why' but instead offered comfort and support. Arlene’s troubled world was filled with love, hugs and cups of tea!

I added Fatima’s Hand to protect us all from the Evil Eye.

I had almost dreaded this page, thinking that I would not know what to contribute to it. In the end I felt inspired by the subject and the thoughts of those who had stitched before me.

Happy Stitching

Doodle Page - Music

2012-01-11T22:00:00.000Z

I have always enjoyed music but it was never a great passion of mine. I looked at what others had stitched and read the notes they had sent with the page. It was obvious that the artist/songs they had chosen to embroider had had some influence on them. I didn’t think that any artist or song had affected me so deeply. I tried to think what of my earliest recollection of music. I remember that my Mum had a china ornament, a Crinoline Lady, with a wind up base that played Swan Lake. I would sometimes sneak into her bedroom to wind the base and listen to the tickling music. Today, I mostly listen to Classical Music. I wonder if this early experience influenced my taste in music more than I imagined.

My Swan is outlined in stem stitch using flat silk. Her tutu is a katayori made from white silk and couched in a meandering line around her skirt.

Happy Stitching

Doodle Page - Triangles

2012-01-10T22:00:00.001Z

I’ll be honest, when I heard that the chosen subject for this page was triangles I thought "how boring". However, when I first saw the page, I thought that it was really vibrant and interesting. I decided to add something a little quieter to counter the stronger elements that were already on the page. I chose the silver thread to link with the silver sequin waste and hopefully maintain balance.

Happy Stitching

Doodle Page - Japan

2012-01-09T22:00:00.001Z

Of all the Doodle Pages, I think that this one was my favourite. The subject matter appealed to me of course, but I liked the scene that was developing when the page came to me.

My first thought was to do something in Japanese embroidery but I kept looking at the empty sky and thinking that I wanted to add some clouds and the sun. In the end I decided to use some of the kinsai techniques that I learnt from Midori-san. I cut masks from sticky back plastic. First I used a brush to stencil the clouds using silver paste, fading out towards the bottom edge. I then stencilled the sun with dark gold paste building up a solid covering. I make the sun look like it was shimmering I couched a twisted gold thread around the edge.

I liked this page so much I was reluctant to send it onto the next stitcher!

Happy Stitching

TAST Fly Stitch 2

2012-01-08T22:26:00.009Z

It seems a little strange to be doing TAST again. TAST was the incentive behind this blog in the first place. First time around I fully intended to do each stitch within the week that it was assigned but, of course, life and my natural propensity to take on more than I can realistically manage defeated me.

This time around, I intend to be far more relaxed about it. My aim is to complete some of the stitches that I missed first time around and, if I have the time, to experiment a little with stitches that I am already familiar with.

The first stitch for TAST 2012 is fly stitch. This is one of the stitches that I did in the first round, so I set aside one evening to play with the stitch.

I would have liked to show you the inspiration for my experiment but I cannot find the picture of it. It is a small sample of Japanese embroidery but the only image that I had to go by was my memory.

I began by working large fly stitches within a defined area.

I then divided the spaces between the stitches with more fly stitch.

And so on until I felt that the entire space was filled.

This certainly does not match up to my mental image of the original but I think that the effect is reasonably pleasing.

You can see what others have done with Fly Stitch by reading through the comments section of Take a Stitch Tuesday, Week 1.

Happy Stitching

Progress Report – December

2012-01-07T09:00:00.005Z

I have been setting myself goals and regularly reviewing my progress for a year now, so this month I want to review the last year and look ahead for the next 12 months.

My initial goals centred on my four Japanese Embroidery Frames.

At the beginning of the year Loving Couple was on Frame One. The embroidery was already done so I only had to do the finishing and mounting before taking LC to the framers. Next onto the frame was my Phase VII piece. I started Camellias at my Japanese Embroidery class in March. The long and short stitch techniques learnt at this Phase proved very challenging for me and I have not made much progress with it. I would like to start the next Phase in March, so my aim is to finish Camellias completely by the end of February. With everything else I would like to finish this spring, that may be a bit tight but this is my second highest priority deadline.

Embroidery Bridge Between East and West is on Frame Two. My goal was to finish this by the end of 2011. Not only have I not achieved that, I have done very little stitching on this piece during the past 12 months. Completing this piece was not my highest priority and other things came up that I wanted to do first. It remains a low priority but I would like to finish it. I don’t see that happening anytime in 2012.

I have spent far more time on Frame Three than any other. I have a bigger goal than simply finishing current projects that centres around this frame. In April Matsukawa-san will be teaching Phase V class in Atlanta. I want to be in that class but I cannot enrol until I have completed the beading on Phase IV. My goal was to finish Floral Melody by Christmas 2011. I did not make that deadline but I was really close. I estimate that I have 20-30 hours beading left to do. This is currently my top priority.

Floral Melody was on Frame Four at the beginning of the year. That frame has remained empty since I moved FM to Frame Three and I still have not decided what to put onto this frame next.

One of the 'things that came up' was Floral Glove. This took me far longer than I imagined it would but I thoroughly enjoyed the class, learnt a lot from it and am delighted with my finished etui.

Another 'thing' was Chinese Flower. This also has taken far long than I thought it would and is not yet finished. I am nearly there and would like to finish it soon, say by the end of February.

Neither of these was something that I had planned to do but proved to be too tempting when I heard about them. They did however, fit with my learning plan for the year. They both included instructions for long and short stitch, the very technique that I was struggling with on Camellias. From those two on-line causes I think that I have learnt a lot about LSS and one of the things that I learnt is that the Japanese method is different from the western method. It will be interesting to see if all that I have learnt will be of help or a hindrance when I return to Camellias.

Other plans for 2012 include an on-line course with Tanya Berlin. This is another LSS project – I think that I am becoming a little obsessed with this stitch! The course begins in February which is not ideal timing for me but this was another 'unmissable' opportunity!

I have also enrolled for the Cabinet of Curiosities online course – yet another 'unmissable' opportunity. What embroiderer hasn’t dreamt of making their own embroidered casket? This is a big investment in terms of time and money but, if the two courses I have previously done with Thistle Threads are anything to go by, it will be well worth it.

Finally, I have also signed up for TAST 2012. I never did complete all of the stitches first time around and I would like to fill in the gaps. I don’t intend to as much as I attempted to the first time, except for maybe for a few stitches that I feel should be in my set of samplers.

I already know that I have taken on too much and will struggle to meet all of my goals but there is nothing that I want to cut from my list! It looks like being a busy year.

Happy Stitching

Small Flowers, 12

2012-01-06T09:00:00.006Z

The space between the large motifs, the small flowers and the twigs and leaves is filled with silver beads using a technique called Tataki-ume. I have used this method on both Calm Flow and Poppy Pouch. On both of those pieces the beads are tightly packed to completely cover the fabric. On Floral Melody the beads are slightly spaced to allow the background fabric to show through. The spaces should be consistent so it is more difficult to do than the variation taught in the earlier phases. (n.b. Usually slight variations of technique have a different name but I don’t if that is the case here. I tried to research Tataki-ume on the internet but could only find references to food so I may have the name completely wrong!)

I discussed how the thread colour could affect the appearance of the beads in an earlier post and wondered if the silver beads would look better stitched with white thread. I did some stitch samples on the edge of the fabric using four different coloured threads; white, cream, pale blue and pale grey. I thought that there was a barely noticeable difference between the samples with the white and pale blue threads giving the brightest, most silvery effect. The pale grey thread gave the beads a darker, steelier appearance and the cream thread gave the beads a softer creamy look. In the end decided to stick with the cream thread that I had used throughout because it is the least noticeable against the back ground fabric.

As I started to fill the background, I was amazed at how the whole appearance of the design was altered.

All of the elements became unified.

Some of the small flowers that I had thought were strong accents, simply melted into the background.

And this is how Floral Melody looked when the entire background done!

As I said at the beginning of this series of posts, these small flowers, twigs, leaves and the back ground have taken several weeks to stitch. I certainly have not done them during the Twelve days of Christmas that these posts were sent to you! Even the posts were done in advance (mostly on Christmas Eve) and scheduled to be delivered one at a time while I was busy with Christmas celebrations and away visiting family in Amsterdam. When I returned, I was delight to see the lovely comments that had been left and thank you all for your kind words.

Floral Melody, when finished, will be a handbag with both sides beaded with the same design. Although one side is now finished, I still have some beading to do on the second side.

Speaking of the Twelve Days of Christmas, you probably know by now that Mary Corbet is running a TDoC give-away with some wonderful prizes on offer. If you did not know, do not despair, you have until January 9th, 2012, at 5:00 am Central Standard Time to visit Needle’n’Thread and leave a comment on the posts to have a chance to win.

Happy Stitching

Small Flowers, 11

2012-01-05T09:00:00.002Z

When all of the small flowers were completed, it was time to start work on the twigs and leaves that fill the spaces between the blossoms.

At first I was quite daunted by this. I have pictures of four versions of Floral Melody completed by other stitches and there is quite some difference between how they have done the foliage. I was not sure which version would suit my Floral Melody the best.

But once I had made a start, I just kept going ... and going ... and going. And before I knew it, all of the foliage was beaded and I hadn’t taken a single picture!

This is how Floral Melody looked with all of the flowers and foliage complete.

Happy Stitching

Small Flowers, 10

2012-01-04T09:00:00.000Z

While checking that I had completed all of the small flowers, I noticed that I had missed a couple of things on the main motifs. Firstly, I had not finished the right-hand edge of this leaf.

When I had added the orange seed bead edge, I realised that I also needed to finish filling the centre of the leaf with the pearly seed beads.

Between two of the large leaves there is a partial leaf that I had missed completely.

I soon fixed that.

Now all of the flower motifs are definitely finished.

Happy Stitching

Small Flowers, 9

2012-01-03T09:00:00.002Z

This is how Floral Melody looked before I added the small flowers.

I worked a couple of flower types at a time, starting with the largest. When I had completed all of the same flowers, I stood the frame up and reviewed my progress.

I wanted to make sure that I had enough beads to do all of the same flowers in the same colour way and that the overall effect was balanced.

The first few flowers were predominantly red or orange and at that stage the overall effect was very orange.

But gradually the smaller blooms, worked mainly in the blackberry, blue and green beads began to make their presence known.

This is how things looked with all of the small flowers added (including one that I forgot to write about!).

Happy Stitching

Small Flowers, 8

2012-01-02T09:00:00.003Z

The last of the small flowers were these small daisy-like blooms. There are a dozen or so of them scattered all around the bag. They were very simple to do. An orange seed bead in the centre ...

... then one, ...

... two, three, ...

... four, five, six stitches with two bead on each.

I did roughly half of them in the blue-lined, crystal seed beads and the remainder in the bright blue tricuts, randomly distributed!

Happy Stitching

Small Flowers, 7

2012-01-01T09:00:00.002Z

Another flower that is not like any that I know.

The actual flower is rather like a daisy with petals radiating out from the central bead.

There are two different green beads on the whole design; the moss green seed bead used on Small Flower 3 and these emerald green tricuts.

Happy Stitching and Happy New Year

Small Flowers, 6

2011-12-31T09:00:00.001Z

I didn’t take any progress shots of these flowers but they could not have been any simpler – a ring of blackberry coloured seed beads around a dark orange seed bead. I love those blackberry beads; they look good enough to eat.

There are a few of these little flowers dotted around. Sometimes singularly, sometimes in strings as they are here.

Happy Stitching.

Small Flowers, 5

2011-12-30T09:00:00.001Z

I’m not sure what flowers these are meant to be but they were fun to bead.

First, a circle of red tri-cuts around the central bead. The centre bead is a blue lined crystal seed bead.

Then their stems – a row of orange seed beads atop of a peacock blue tricut.

I really don’t know what this part of a flower is called – the part were several small flowers emerge from a single stem.

And finally some leaves in those pale blue tricuts.

This sequence of pictures shows how much lighting can affect the colour balance in photographs. The time stamps on them shows me that the motif took a little under 30 minutes to stitch, even though I kept stopping to take pictures. There must have been patchy cloud that morning and you can see in the middle sequence that the sun was shining brightly enough to backlight the fabric. In the first and last pictures the sun must have been obscured by cloud and the fabric does not appear so transparent. However, there is still sufficient light to make the beads sparkle and give good colour rendition – the colours in the final shot are the most accurate.

Happy Stitching

Small Flowers, 4

2011-12-29T09:00:00.005Z

This little flower was very similar to the previous one. The only difference, except the colour scheme, is there is not ring of beads around the central bead.

I really like these bright blue beads. They act as an accent colour amongst all of the hot reds, orange and amber.

Just a little shaping is needed on the petals so they are slightly curved.

Happy Stitching.

Small Flowers, 3

2011-12-28T13:00:00.001Z

Continuing on the theme of what each flower reminded me of, these are like little daffodils or narcissi.

Despite there being several steps, they are quite straight forward and quick to stitch.

Forming a nice ring around the central bead is a little fiddly.

I have pictures of four different completed bags and between them there were several different colour combinations used for this flower.

I wanted to introduce a little more green to my bag so stitched all of these flowers in the same red/green/orange colour scheme.

Happy Stitching

Small Flowers, 2

2011-12-27T00:03:00.000Z

This flower also reminds me of pinks although it is very different from the first flowers. There are two on each side but only half of each flower shows. They were done using the moriage technique so are a bit more difficult to do but I enjoy this technique and like the added dimension that it gives to the beading.

I also like the combination of the orange beads with the blackberry beads.

I would have said that orange is the colour I am least attracted to but there is a lot of in on this bag and I really like it.

Happy Stitching

Small Flowers, 1

2011-12-25T23:52:00.007Z

Although the large central flowers are the main feature on Floral Melody, there is a whole supporting cast of small flowers, twigs and leaves surrounding them.

These were a delight to bead. Most of the smaller elements could be completed in a short session so every time I sat down at my frame I was able to add another flower. It was very satisfying and encouraged me to do some beading whenever I had a few minutes to spare.

Over the next few days, I want to share with you a series of short posts, mainly pictures, which show the progress I have made over the past few weeks.

I started with the larger of the small blooms. These flowers with their bronze centers and red, tricut petals took about an hour each to bead. They were great fun to do.

The effect of the staggered petals is very different from that suggested by the drawn outline. They remind me of pinks.

Happy Stitching

Happy Blogiversay to me

2011-12-09T00:11:00.004Z

It is that time of year again when I look back at previous Blogiversary posts, take stock of where I am and take a look into the future. Gosh, when I read last year’s post, I think how bold I was talking about naming dreams, making plans and setting goals.

I haven’t yet had the courage to name my dream on the blog but I have spoken to a few dear friends about it and set some goals related to it.

Making plans and setting goals have really been the focus of my blog this year writing a monthly progress report has really helped me stay focused on what I need to achieve. It hasn’t stopped me from overloading, prevaricating or looking for obstacles but it really has helped me prioritise.

In the comments on last year’s Blogiversary, Rachel said "I suspect that setting goals is something that only works when you relly want it to". Well, I really want to reach my first major goal. She also said the "Keeping to them requires self-discipline". Jon says that I am tenacious. I’m not sure that equates to being self-disciplined but the end result is the same.

Sue commented that she is teaching to say NO. That friend is, of course, me. Sorry Sue, I’ve not mastered that one yet but I am getting better at it.

In January, when I set out my goals for the coming year, typically, I glossed over my main goal (fear of failure). Even then I knew that my main objective was to finish Floral Melody by Christmas. Every other thing that I have done this year has fitted around that and I have marked out, and more or less stuck to, a clear timetable for that project. Christmas is fast approaching and I may not be completely finished by then, but I will be pretty close.

So what of the next 12 months? Well, lots of things are in the pipe line. I have signed up for two on-line courses (overloading) and I am planning the next step towards my dream (very exciting but still afraid to name it) and ... I have signed up for TAST 2012. This makes me smile because TAST was the reason for me starting this blog in the first place. I never did complete all of the stitches first time around and it has been on my 'to-do' list ever since. I really would like to complete at least the original set of stitches so I am going to try to fit them in this year. More people than ever have signed up for TAST this year, over 400 at the last count, so even if I don't join in by stitching some weeks, there will be plenty of new ideas and delightful stitching to inspire me.

If I am totally honest, I think that I have too many goals for the coming year but I suspect that I will always have too many things on my to-do list. Tenacious I may be, but I’m still a girl who can’t say NO.

Happy Stitching

Progress Report – November

2011-12-04T00:00:00.008Z

Life continues to be busy and I continue to make as much time as possible for embroidery.

Various factors meant that Jon and I did not get a much longed for holiday in the sun this year. The upside for me was that I had a few days holiday to use up so I myself onto a couple of embroidery workshops. Until a few weeks ago I had never heard of Hazel Everett. The first I heard about Hazel was a gushing review of her new book by Mary Corbett. Then a chance meeting with one of her students led me to an exhibition of her work and the fact that Hazel teaches a gold work class practically on my doorstep! I should have spent the holidays working on my beading but instead I signed up for two 2-day classes in November.

During the first class we worked on a poppy which is mostly done in chip work. The class is very friendly and informal. Many of the group have been attending for several years and already know quite a lot about gold work but Hazel has the knowledge and experience to guide both the novice and the more experienced at a pace that suited each individual. As you can see, I didn’t get much done but I am a slow worker and gold work is a slow process. I don’t find chip work overly difficult but it is time consuming cutting the very fine purl into chips and sewing on each chip individually.

At the second class I started a Christmas ornament. We had a choice of two designs, one based on holly leaves, the other on a poinsettia or working on a UFO. We were also given a free choice of how to edge and fill the leaves. This meant that several different designs were being worked in a number of different techniques but again Hazel coped easily with keeping us all working steadily. I worked fairly constantly during the class but of course did not manage to finish my ornament in the two days!

Both of these have been put aside while I concentrate on Floral Melody. I did put in slightly more time than last month but seemed to make less progress. I am not sure why that is. Up until now, I have been fairly confident that I could complete this by Christmas but now that there are only three weeks before my target, I am beginning to have doubts.

I have also continued to make slow progress with Chinese Flower. I am really pleased with how this is working out and am gaining confidence in this method of working LSS. I just wish that confidence would spill over into my Camellias!

Happy Stitching

Doodle Page - Insects

2011-11-29T23:10:00.004Z

The next doodle page arrived a day or two before my Mum’s birthday. One of her gifts was tied with a butterfly ribbon. Mum kindly gave me a length to use on Isabell’s insect page.

I added a few beads to create their bodies.

I wanted the butterflies to look like they were in flight so I distorted the ribbon and stitched beads under some of their wings so that they would be raised from the page.

Happy Stitching

Doodle Page - Exotic Swirls

2011-11-22T23:20:00.004Z

For her page, Kim asked for Exotic Swirls. I think this was the most vibrant of all the pages. For me it was one of the easiest to decide what to do ... I love paisley and it is a ready-made exotic swirl. I drew around a template I made some time ago to create the outline and them I just started doing rows of stitches.

I think this is the closest I came to ‘doodling’ on any of the pages.

Happy Stitching

Doodle Page - Flowers

2011-11-20T18:45:00.006Z

The next page to come my way belonged to Jules in Scotland. I really cannot remember what Jules’ theme was but I do know that it was related to flowers. I took my inspiration from the notelet that Elizabeth had put in with the page when she sent it on to me. It had big yellow daisies on it.

I couched a length of green silk ribbon along the stems then formed the petals with woven picots in yellow cotton floss.

I first covered the flower centres with satin stitches then added some French knots for texture.

The last thing that I added was a butterfly that I had painted some weeks before.

I was quite pleased with my doodle and felt that it fitted well with Elizabeth’s contribution.

Happy Stitching

Doodle Page - Tropical Forest

2011-11-17T22:43:00.005Z

The first Doodle Page that visited me came from Elizabeth in Australia whose theme was a Tropical Forest.

Some years ago, I was fortunate enough to visit Australia. While staying in Cairns we took the scenic railway to Kuranda Village in the Rainforest. I recall that the train journey was wonderful, with amazing views of the rainforest and some of its waterfalls. During the day we took a guided walk through a part of the forest and were shown some of the unique flora and fauna. For some reason one particular plant had stuck in my mind above the rest – the Strangle Vine. The vine starts innocently enough growing up a tree for support but as it grows it begins to restrict the growth of its support. Eventually the host tree dies and decomposes leaving the vine like a grotesque external skeleton.

Because I was the first guest stitcher to doodle on Elizabeth’s page, I wanted to do something that others could add to or stitch over to give a coherent page. I used #1 Japanese gold thread to stem stitch the outline and add the criss-crossing stems in feather stitch.

At the end of the day we returned to Cairns on the Skyrain that carries you over the canopy for a unique view of the forest and Cairns on the coast far below.

Happy Stitching

Round Robin Doodle Pages

2011-11-15T23:39:00.006Z

For the past 3 months most of my stitching time has been dedicated to Floral Melody but I have still made a little time to work on some other projects. During the summer I took part in an exchange called Round Robin Doodle Page. On the Embroiderer’s Guild forum we have been exchanging Travelling pages for a while but this was the first time we conducted a Round Robin where all the participants contributed a little to each page.

We started our own pages by selecting a fabric and a theme, and then stitching the first doodle. The pages then travelled from one person to the next, collecting a little embroidery along the way.

This was a very challenging project for me on several levels. First there was the time scale; we were asked to complete and send on each page within 2-3 weeks of receipt. Then there was the aspect of working to someone else’s theme and fitting in with (and around) everyone else’s embroidery. But the biggest challenge for me was the notion of doodling. There is no way that I could do something unplanned and freehand, especially on a page that belonged to someone else. Instead of doodling, I resolved that my contribution should be simple enough to complete in one or two embroidery sessions.

For my own page I selected a piece of fabric cut from a thread-bare Liz Claiborne blouse that had I had been saving for just such an occasion. I asked the other participates to embroider me a garden and to get it started I doodled an aster, inspired by Lesley Turpin-Delport in Just Flowers.

Happy Stitching

Floral Melody, Leaf 9

2011-11-14T22:30:00.007Z

There are two part leaves on each side that I originally outlined in orange beads and filled with the pale topaz tricuts.

Later, I wondered if the inner curve should have been outlined with the small silver beads. I decided to give it a try so out came the row of orange beads ...

... and in went a row of silver beads.

But ... I don’t like it so the silver beads will be coming out and the orange ones are going back in.

Happy Stitching

Tricut Beads

2011-11-10T22:33:00.002Z

Tricuts are similar to seed beads and come in many of the same finishes but whereas seed beads are (should be) rounded, tricuts have three facets on the surface. The cuts are irregular so no two beads are the same. Charlottes are similar but only have a single facet and triangular beads are, as their name suggests, a triangle shaped bead.

Matsukawa-san seems to have a particular liking for tricuts; I think she uses them in nearly every design. And who can blame her? Any bead will add glimmer and shine to a design but tricuts add something extra. When the light strikes the rounded surface of a seed bead there is a relatively small area of reflected light. When the light strikes the flatten surface of a tricut there is a much bigger area of reflected light and because the facets are irregular the tricuts glitter and sparkle.

Most of the beads used in this flower are seed beads but even the metallic gold beads around the central green bead cannot compete with the glitzy red tricuts of the petals.

Happy Stitching

Floral Melody, Leaf 8

2011-11-09T22:00:00.005Z

After filling in the large leaf on the left I decided to make change to the other large leaf. On the left-hand leaf I had radiated the tri-cut beads to follow the curve of the outline.

On the leaf that I had beaded previously I had stitched them in parallel lines.

I think the radiating lines flow better and enhance the shape of the leaf.

Happy Stitching

Floral Melody, Flower 2

2011-11-07T21:34:00.006Z

I’m pleased that Marjolein mentioned the beads “with no specific colour” because they are the subject of this post. In fact there are two different beads in the background of the leaf. I have used tri-cut beads along the bottom edge, as viewed in this picture, and seed beads elsewhere. Both beads are light topaz in colour but the seed beads are slightly paler than the tri-cuts.

When I stitched the first large flower, I used the tri-cuts to fill the background.

When I stitched the second large flower, I used the seed beads and filled the background more densely.

I decided that I preferred it this way so reworked the first flower to match.

Happy Stitching

Floral Melody, Leaf 7

2011-11-06T23:08:00.005Z

The large leaf on the left was one of the first motifs that I beaded but I had not filled in the background. At first I was not certain which beads and which techniques I wanted to use. Completing the other large motifs helped me reach a decision on how to proceed. I forgot to take progressive photographs but the two pictures below show the leaf before and after I have beaded the background.

After beading a couple of partial motifs I reached the first land mark on this piece, the completion of the large motifs.

Happy Stitching

Progress Report – November

2011-11-01T22:31:00.006Z

I’ve put in just over 80 hours on Floral Melody to date, which means that I did a little over 10 hours last month. That is well short of my target but when I look at the difference between the October picture and this one, I seem to have made a lot of progress. I thought that the smaller motifs would go in quickly but I am amazed at how much I done in such a small amount of time. Most of the small flowers are done, only a dozen or so remain, then I will start of the leaves and stems. Completion by Christmas seems a realistic target now and I’m still enjoying this piece immensely.

I’ve also made some progress on the Chinese Flower. Again, I have not done as much as I would have hoped. I’ve nearly completed lesson three and am pleased with what I have done so far.

I had a four day Japanese Embroidery class at the end of the month. I took Camellias with me to work on. With all that I have learnt from the Floral Glove, Chinese Flower and the lesson with Phillipa Turnbull I was feeling quite confident about working on this Phase again. That is until I got started, then all of my doubts and anxiety about LSS came rushing back. I really don’t understand why I get so stressed about it. I completed the two tone flower on the right-hand side. I don’t like it but I won’t be removing it because I honestly don’t think that I can do any better at this stage of my journey.

So as not to leave the month on that pessimistic note, I had a great time at class. It was wonderful to spend some time with friends just stitching. Plus, starting tomorrow, I have a two day class in gold work with Hazel Everett to look forward to :-D.

Happy Stitching

Floral Melody, Leaf 6

2011-10-31T22:31:00.006Z

Mamafrog - I have a used a variety of techniques. Some beads are stitched down individually or in groups. Where there are 3 or more beads on a stitch, I take a couching stitch every second bead. I have also couched down strings of beads. Any line of seven or more beads is most likely done in this way. Thank you for visiting the blog and leaving a comment.

Happy Stitching

Floral Melody, Leaf 5

2011-10-26T00:15:00.004+01:00

Happy Stitching

Floral Melody, Flower 1

2011-10-24T23:38:00.003+01:00

Happy Stitching

Floral Melody, Leaf 4

2011-10-23T18:05:00.008+01:00

Sorry about the lack of text, but they do say that a picture paints a thousand words.

Happy Stitching

Floral Melody, Leaf 3

2011-10-22T22:02:00.003+01:00

Floral Melody, Leaf 2

2011-10-21T21:02:00.005+01:00

Thank you all for your kind comments but the credit really must go to the designer, Ms Reiko Matsukawa. I wish I had a fraction of her feel for beads.

I want to try to bring the blog up-to-date so without further ado, here is the next installment.

Happy Stitching

Floral Melody, Leaf 1

2011-10-21T00:06:00.005+01:00

I am making some time every day to do some beading and, occasionally, some thread embroidery but I am way behind with blogging. Most of the beading I am doing is a variation on the techniques that I have described before so I have little new to say about it. Instead I will let the pictures tell their own story.

Happy Stitching

A Tale of Two Tutors

2011-10-13T23:08:00.007+01:00

I attended two embroidery classes recently and had two totally different experiences.

I do quite a lot of classes and workshops and, on the whole my experiences have been very good. Even when the class has been less than brilliant, I have usually enjoyed it and learnt something new.

At a class I went to a couple of weeks ago, not only did I not learn a single thing, when it was over I felt totally deflated and demoralised. I am not going to name the tutor or say what the class was about because it is my understanding that this person will not be delivering any more classes. I don’t like to write negative things about classes or workshops and would not have written about this particular class except that the experience I had yesterday was so vastly different that I cannot help but compare the two.

I attended a class led by Phillipa Turnbull of the Crewel Work Company and run by Burford Needlecraft. I read about it on The Unbroken Thread. Kathy took this class last year and enthusiastically recommended it. I find Crewel work in general and Jacobean designs in particular, very attractive but I’ve not felt drawn to learning it. Even if I had seen this class advertised I probably would not have signed up for it but for Kathy’s recommendation and her suggestion that it would cover lots of laid work. I am fascinated by laid work designs which are widely used in Japanese embroidery as well as Crewel work. As it turned out we did not do any laid work other than a brief demonstration late in the afternoon but I was not in the least bit disappointed. What we did do was an in depth lesson on Long and Short Stitch!

Phillipa is a commanding and competent tutor. At the outset she asked that we stitch in silence so that she could hear the rhythm of our stitching and so that we could hear everything she said, even when she was tutoring someone else. (I am used to working in a quite class room and find it much more relaxing and enjoyable that a noisy environment.) Phillipa also asked, and kept reminding us, to address our questions to her and not to each other so that she could be sure to teach us everything we wanted to learn that day.

The technique was broken down into steps which Phillipa first described verbally while drawing large diagrams onto a white board as a visual aid. She then went around the class demonstrating that step to small groups. She repeated the demonstration as many times as necessary until everyone to 'got it'. Then she went around the whole class again to give individual guidance and encouragement. If anyone struggled or made a 'mistake', Phillipa would use their work to demonstrate how to bring the stitching back on track but in a positive and supportive manner that did not ridicule or undermine anyone.

We took three short breaks for refreshments when we could stretch, relax and chatter then it was back to work. As well as LSS and we received brilliant tuition on how to make beautiful and consistent French knots. We also received advice on posture and how to avoid muscle fatigue and were told which end of the wool goes into the needle and why it makes a difference. Of course, we also covered some things that I already knew, like keeping the needle perpendicular to the fabric but it never hurts to be reminded of the basics about anything.

In a day that went far too quickly, I learnt heaps and came away brimming with confidence.

I was so absorbed in the class that I did not take a single photograph but if you want to see some related pictures, hop over to Kathy’s blog and take a look at the Marriage Pillowe that she is test stitching for Phillipa.

Happy Stitching

Progress Report – October

2011-10-01T18:58:00.005+01:00

Despite my hissy fit on Monday about missing out on stitching time, I have stitched most days this month and am still making good progress. I have now put in just under 70 hours on Floral Melody and at the end of last week reached one of my goal posts – I have completed all of the large motifs and started on the myriad small motifs. I’ve been itching to do some of these so it was quite difficult to persist with the larger motifs until they were done.

I have also made some progress with Chinese Flower, well good progress I suppose but I rather hoped to complete this by the end of the month and I fell well short of that target. I am really pleased with what I have done so far. I’ve completed the first two lessons and have already learnt a great deal from this on-line course but I think that the best is still to come.

I haven't done any work on the Travelling Pages or post cards that I still need to do!

Happy Stitching

Back to Normal

2011-09-29T00:54:00.005+01:00

I’m never down for long. A full hour of beading yesterday morning and again this morning put me back on schedule and restored my good humour.

Happy Stitching

All Work and No Play ....

2011-09-26T12:34:00.005+01:00

I’m feeling rather grumpy today.

I took Thursday and Friday off work to celebrate my birthday. I have had a lovely weekend and am not ready for it to end but I had to return to work this morning. :-(

On top of that, many of my Japanese embroidery friends are in Bournemouth this week for the September Japanese Embroidery UK class. I never attend the September class but I always long to be there with them. :-( :-(

But the main reason for my grumpiness is that I over slept and did not have any time to bead before work today. This is the first morning that I have not been able to squeeze in even a few minutes. :-( :-( :-(

To give myself a quick beading fix and hopefully lift the glums, here are a couple of pictures of some of the beading I did yesterday. :-)

Happy Stitching

How Do You Eat an Elephant?

2011-09-07T21:54:00.007+01:00

When I had removed the previously beaded motif and looked at the bare canvas I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of work required. Floral Melody is approximately 12 inches wide by 6 inches high. Both sides are heavily beaded. All I could see was the hours and hours and hours of beading.

I reminded myself that I like beading and could happily spend hours and hours and hours doing it. I looked again at the design and noticed that it is made up of individual motifs, a few larger ones and lots of smaller ones. I decided not to focus on the whole but rather to concentrate on just one motif at a time.

In Japanese embroidery (beading included) you work the foreground motifs first. On Floral Melody the motifs don’t actually overlap so I chose to treat the larger motifs as being in the foreground. Even the largest motif has several components; the flower, the stem, a few leaves and some bracts. I decided to work on this flower first.

Now that I have got going, I am really enjoying the beading this piece. It is true that I enjoy whatever I am working on but this one is pure JOY! The previous Phases have been somewhat repetitive, although that is not necessarily a bad thing in my book - I like that kind of work and find it very relaxing. The dynamic of this phase is completely different. It uses a greater variety beads and techniques, and each motif works up relatively quickly. It is fascinating to see the fanciful flowers and foliage emerging from the lines printed on fabric.

As with the Japanese Embroidery, each phase introduces a new technique. The new technique on Floral Melody is moriage which gives a 3 dimensional effect without the aid of padding beads. I am finding it a challenge to obtain an even, consistent look to the raised areas and have reworked them several times before I have something I’m satisfied with. As with most tricky techniques, the results are worth the effort.

Happy Stitching

Progress Report - September

2011-09-01T23:34:00.006+01:00

I am really pleased with the progress I made in August. I have been getting up earlier so that I can do some stitching before I leave for work. I haven’t managed a hour every day but I’ve done slightly more on others, especially at the weekends. Even though I had a week with virtually no stitching (when I scratched my eye) I’ve put in over 40 hours on Floral Melody this month.

I estimated 130 hours stitching time for this design. Looking at how much I have done in 40+ hours, I think it is going to take even longer (I always underestimate the time required to do something!) but if I average 40 hours per month, I should be able to finish it by Christmas.

I managed to finish Floral Glove before the end of the month, but only just! I am pleased to have it finished and pleased with the finished article but I am far more pleased to have started my next project. I’ve been itching to do this for the last 5 months. When I was struggling with the long and short stitch on Camellia’s I thought that Trish Burr had launched her thread painting correspondence course solely for my benefit. I’ve only stitched one small element so far but this is now my evening project.

I have also stitched the last three Round Robin Travelling Pages. Some of these are starting to find their way home so I will soon be able to show pictures of my contribution. I have one more Travelling Page on a different subject and a couple of postcards still to do.

Happy Stitching

Floral Glove, finished

2011-08-30T23:05:00.005+01:00

I have finally finished my Floral Glove Scissor Case. I feel like this project has taken me a very long time. Indeed, it has been my evening project since April and, although I have not worked on it solidly, it has taken a great many (uncounted) hours of work.

I seriously underestimated how much work this would be, especially the finishing. I am not complaining at the amount of time invested. The project was part of an online course offered by Thistle Threads that extended over six months. The embroidery materials were sent at the beginning of the course and a further pack of finishing supplies was sent later. The instructions were released for down load in monthly instalments together with a history section. The cost of the course, at $35 per month, was not trivial but I think I’ve had good value for money. The materials are all of the finest quality. The instructions are comprehensive with both written directions and lots of step-by-step photographs. The history section is equally comprehensive with each month taking a detailed look at the materials and techniques used to create the exquisite Stuart period gauntlets that inspired this project.

Thistle Threads listed this course under their On-line University so I think that it is reasonable for the project itself to be substantial and challenging. It was naive of me to imagine I could complete it in 3 or 4 weeks! In fairness, I have dragged my feet over the finishing part. This is my least favourite part of any project. I’ve pushed myself to do it (by banning myself from starting my next project until it was done) and I am very glad that I did. Not only do I love the finished article but I have learned some useful finishing methods along the way.

Tricia of Thistle Threads has said that she will offer this course again if there is sufficient interest. If you are remotely interested in taking this course, contact Tricia. I’ve learnt a lot from the course and highly recommend it.

Happy Stitching

Japanese Bead Embroidery, Phase IV

2011-08-24T23:07:00.008+01:00

Several months ago I had a lesson to get started on Phase IV of the Japanese bead embroidery. There are two distinctly different and equally fabulous designs to choose from at Phase IV. My friend Sue is doing the Peacock Decorative Mat and it is already looking spectacular (one for my wish list). I chose to do the Floral Melody Purse. I fell in love with this design when I first saw it on the cover of the Bead Embroidery Book by Ms. Reiko Matsukawa (sadly, now out of print). When I received the kit and saw the selection of beads, I fell even more in love. I wanted to get started straight away but decided to wait until I had finished Poppy Pouch. Once I had made a start in the lesson, the temptation to work on it was even greater but I stuck by my decision.

A couple of things helped. The main reason was that the frame I had started Floral Melody on is less substantial than my other frames (I have four Japanese embroidery frames). The purse (handbag) is quite large and heavily beaded on both sides. I thought that the frame may not be able to withstand the weight of so many beads. Once I had finished the beading on Poppy Pouch, I transferred Floral Melody to the frame that had occupied.

The first thing I did then was remove all the work I had done during the class. I wasn’t particularly unhappy with what I had done but I felt that my ability had developed since then and I thought that I might be able to do a little bit better now. But the biggest factor in removing what I had done was the thread. I began stitching with white thread but decided to switch to one that more closely matches the colour of the fabric. White thread does not alter the colour of the beads greatly so is a good choice in that respect but it really stands out, even on this pale background.

The cream thread doesn’t alter the colour of the beads too much either but, in my opinion it blends with the fabric much better.

Removing all of the beads is relatively simple. A few snips on the front, taking care not to cut the fabric, then remove the beads.

Flip the frame over and pull out the threads.

Voila! A clean slate to start afresh.

Happy Stitching

Ribbons and Lace

2011-08-17T20:40:00.005+01:00

Nearly every project I choose to do is because I want to do the embroidery rather than actually wanting the finished item. Once the embroidery is complete, my attention is drawn to the next project. I have a lot of UFO’s. For the most part, I am completely content with this. There are a few items that I occasionally think "I must get around to finishing that someday" but it is highly unlikely that I ever will. There are too many things to be embroidered and too many techniques to be learnt.

Given the time and effort I put into my Japanese Embroideries, I do finish those and recently I have taken part in a few swaps, so I am compelled to finish those. When I started Floral Glove, I resolved that I would 'finish' it but as soon as the embroidery was done, my interest wavered and I have found it very difficult to find the motivation to do the finishing work. As an incentive (more a stick than a carrot) I have banned myself from starting anything new until it is done. This has succeeded mainly in preventing me from doing any stitching and that makes me miserable!

Another sticking point for me is that the directions call for many of the component parts to be glued. Even though finishing Japanese embroidery involves pasting the back of the embroidery with glue made from wheat powder, I am still very adverse to gluing textiles. Once I had resolved to stitch, rather than glue, where possible, I felt more inclined to get on with it.

Before beginning the actual construction of the scissor case, there were a couple of trims to add to the embroidered linen. Gold lace is used to outline the gauntlet.

The bottom of the gauntlet is trimmed with a bright red, double faced satin ribbon. Elizabethan twist is first stitched to one edge together with spangles stitched at intervals along the same edge. The ribbon is then gathered along the opposite edge and slip-stitched in place.

I attached both the lace and ribbon before removing the linen from the frame.

The kit comes with many of the finishing materials already die cut. Some of these pieces have to be cut in half or trimmed to a smaller size but having the basic shape pre-cut is a big bonus point in my view. The embroidered linen is applied to one of the pieces of die cut mount board with a layer of wadding between them. The instructions said to glue the wadding to the board and then fold the edges of the linen over the board and glue down on the back. I could see no alternative to gluing the wadding to the board but I laced the linen on the reverse of the board instead of gluing it.

Silk brocade is supplied for the inside of the scissor case. One piece is used to cover a die-cut piece of skirting. Again the instructions said attach the silk by folding the edges over and gluing them to the back; again I stitched the two layers together but this time with tacking stitches that I later removed. A needle felt is attached to the lining with a small stitch in each corner; I used some of the remaining spangles rather than plain stitches. The embroidered front and silk lining are then joined, wrong sides together, with ladder stitch.

Happy Stitching

Ouch!

2011-08-15T21:23:00.005+01:00

Did you know that there is a higher concentration of nerve endings in the cornea than in any other part of the body making it highly susceptible to pain? Did you also know that the cornea is the fastest healing tissue in the body? How do I know this? Last weekend I had a close encounter with this plant.

I stabbed my right eye on one of the leaves causing a 4mm scratch on the cornea.

The nice doctor at the eye hospital provided not only these salient facts above but also some very effective pain relieve and much needed reassurance. Since then I have been diligently applying cream to prevent infection and drops to keep the eye lubricated. As he had assured me it would, the swelling and pain had greatly subsided after a few days and now the scratch has all but gone.

This time last week, I could barely see a needle, let alone stitch but I am very pleased to report that I am stitching again for short spells. My schedule of 1 hour beading per day took a serious hit but I hope to resume that regime this week. Before this incident I had been making good progress and I really like how this piece is developing but at the moment I am keeping my computer time to a minimum (especially as I have now returned to work and spend most of the day staring at the screen).

Happy Stitching

Progress Report - August

2011-08-03T20:41:00.008+01:00

The decorating is finally finished (all bar a couple of small jobs the electrician has to come back to do). It still took the first to weekends in July to finish everything. The following weekend we gave the kitchen a thorough spring clean. The next Saturday I spent at Art in Action and Sunday was generally tidying up in preparation for visitors. J’s sister and brother-in-law were over from Amsterdam for the last week of July and, of course, we wanted to spend as much time as possible with them. You’ve guessed it; I’ve not had much time for embroidery!

With little time and little motivation it has been slow going doing the finishing on Floral Glove, but I am getting there and if I knuckle down to it, this should be finished in time for September’s report.

I’ve started the beading on Floral Melody, hoorah! I have been doing a little bit before work each day for the past week. I estimate that this will take me approximately 130 hours and I want to complete it by Christmas. There are only 144 days until Christmas so I have to aim to average about an hour a day, every day. Eek!

I completed one more Travelling Page this month. These have been such fun to do and this one was a theme particularly close to my heart. I have three more TP’s to do in this series and another in a different vein.

Happy Stitching

Floral Glove, Spangles and Pearls

2011-07-12T21:27:00.010+01:00

All that is needed to complete the embroidery is a little embellishment with a few seed pearls and spangles.

One seed pearl is stitched into the centre of the gold leaves on each of the outer roundels. Nothing too difficult here, I just had to select pearls that would fit into the available space and that had a big enough hole to fit the beading needle; these are teeny tiny little pearls.

A cluster of pearls is added to the centre of the rose. I thought that the gold outline made this rose but the pearl centre really makes it. I think this is so pretty.

Finally, tiny gold spangles are stitched into the empty spaces between the embroidered motifs. I wasn’t feeling too well when I did this. I had enough interest/energy to do a little mindless stitching but I could not be bothered to redraw the outline of the glove or to measure where they should go. I guestimated their position and a couple are outside the seam line so I will have to reposition those.

It is difficult to capture the sparkle of the spangles on camera but they really glitter and glint as the embroidery moves in the sunlight.

And this is the back!

Happy Stitching

Floral Glove, Rough Purl Leaves

2011-07-06T22:29:00.008+01:00

On the remaining roundels the tendrils are couched sections of Gilt Super Lizardine that has been stretched to about 30 per cent more than its original length.

The leaves are then covered with pieces of Gilt Rough Purl, which is a tightly wound spring made from a round wire. It has a slightly matt finish that gives a nice contrast to the bright check used in the central roundel.

I found the rough purl slightly easier to handle than the bright check but found it more difficult to cut the pieces to a precise length even with the aid of a magnifying lamp.

Happy Stitching

Floral Glove, Bright Check Leaves

2011-07-05T23:00:00.003+01:00

When we demonstrate Japanese embroidery, people often say "that must take a lot of patience". I enjoy embroidery so much, become so absorbed in the process, that I find it more relaxing than something that requires patience. But the next step on Floral Glove certainly did take a lot of patience!

I’d had a taste of how painstaking this process would be when covering the calyx with coloured purl. The leaves in the middle roundel are covered with bright check – a triangular shaped wire formed on a three cornered needle. If anything, the bright check is even more springy than the purl and the leaves are very much smaller that the calyx. Measuring and cutting the tiny pieces needed to cover each leave was very fiddly.

An even greater test of one’s patience is sewing the pieces into place. Bright check is made from a very fine flattened wire and it is near impossible to cut without leaving a small tail sticking out. Silk threads have an amazing ability to snag on the slightest thing so sliding the ‘beads’ of bright check onto the silk thread is rather like trying to put silk stockings onto barbed wire!

It’s not that I didn’t enjoy this part but it really did test my patience. But, boy was it worth it. The triangular segments spiral around the wire creating a faceted surface that glitters and sparkles like no other thread. This is the blingiest of BLING!

Happy Stitching

Progress Report - July

2011-07-04T22:48:00.005+01:00

Perhaps I should write a progress report on the decorating since most of my days off have been devoted to that! I’d love to report that it is finished but alas it is not. It is however very nearly finished.

I had one day out to play with beads with a friend. I also had an entire weekend of stitching when I managed to finish the gold work on Floral Glove. I then had a couple of days off sick but felt so lethargic that attaching a few spangles and seed pearls was all I could muster enthusiasm for. I even managed to get a few of the spangles in the wrong place so I will have to redo those! All of the embroidery on Floral Glove is completed; I now have to make it up into a scissor case. I am far more motivated to do the embroidery than the finishing so this has languished the last few days. However, I am determined that this will get finished so have banned myself from starting anything new until it is done.

I have also made significant progress on my Japanese bead embroidery, although I have not actually attached any beads! I did the finishing on Poppy Pouch and removed it from the frame then moved Floral Melody from its temporary frame onto frame three. This is a psychological milestone rather than physical progress. It means that I can now begin beading Floral Melody in earnest and frame 4 is also available for a new project but I haven’t decided what that is going to be yet!

On the subject of Poppy Pouch, I have been working on a crochet rope handle for the pouch in the evenings. My friend Sue taught me how to make a crochet rope a little over a year ago. Since then I had been making a rope with Black FAB (frosted aurora borealis) beads that appear to be dark denim blue. Initially, I really struggled with the technique and made very slow progress. I kept the beads and crochet hook in my handbag and worked on it when I had some time on my hands. When we broke down in the snow last December, I whiled away the hours waiting for the tow truck with this project. A few weeks ago, I started doing some in the evenings; it doesn’t require too much brain activity so is nice to do when I am too tired for anything more demanding. Somewhere along the line the penny dropped and I finally crocheted a length long enough to make a necklace.

Buoyed by that success, I threaded the beads for the handle in a 2 white, 1 gold repeat on white thread. I’m not entirely sure when I started work but I managed to make a couple of inches every time I worked on it and over the course of the month made enough rope for the handle.

Looking back at the first post in this series, I am reminded that my aim was not merely to report what I had done but to actually set myself some goals. My goal for frame 1 was to finish Loving Couple so that the frame was ready for Camellias. I met that goal, so my new goal for frame 1 is to complete Camellias by February 2012. That seems easily achievable but I know how things can languish so must keep reminding myself of this goal. For now though, Camellias is resting!

Embroidery Bridge Between East and West on frame 2 is also resting. The goal for this project is to have it finished by the end of the year. Again, that seems easily achievable but this dead line is a low priority so it may not get done.

Floral Melody is now on frame 3. My goal is to complete this by the end of the year. This deadline is my highest priority.

My immediate priority is to finish the Floral Glove.

Happy Stitching

Floral Glove, Roundels

2011-06-29T21:59:00.007+01:00

I’d been looking forward to stitching the roundels. I’d had a look at the lovely gold wires used for this part of the embroidery and could not wait to use them. The oval shape of each roundel is treated in the same way, with three lines of gold wire. The middle line is applied first. The wire used here Gilt #1 Lizardine. Lizardine is made from a flattened wire formed into a tightly coiled spring (so is smooth purl but I’m not certain what the difference between the two is). Lizardine can be used as it is supplied but on this design it is slightly stretched and wrapped around a silk core. Easier said than done!

The lizardine is left in one piece but stretched a short length at a time to 25-30% longer than its original length. I grasped a 3 cm length firmly between my finger nails and slowly stretched the length of wire until it measured 4 cm, then repeated this with the next 3 cm length, and so on until I had stretched the entire length. The difficult part is making sure that each length is stretched a consistent amount (you can’t unstretch it) and not to damage the part you are grasping with your finger nails. The first little bit of stretch resists you but you must resist the temptation to pull too hard, once the wire begins to give, it stretches much more readily and it would be easy to overdo it. Furthermore, although you can’t unstretch it, there is a certain amount of ‘spring’ so when you release the tension the wire shortens slightly. I’m sure with more experience I would become familiar with all of these factors but on this design there is only a small amount of Lizardine so by the time I was becoming in tune with the wire, I had stretched the entire length!

Next, part of the stretched lizardine is wrapped around 3 strands of Soie de Paris. You don’t cut off a length of lizardine; you wrap the silk into one end of the wire. Again, this is easier said than done. I’m sure there a knack to this but I did not discover it. I tried holding the thread and twisting the wire; I think that this method would have worked well if I had three hands, one to hold the end of the wire and silk, one to hold the silk under tension and one to twist the wire. Mostly I held the end of the wire and silk in one hand and wound the silk into the gaps between the coils of the wire. It worked but it was slow and awkward.

The deepest shade of blue was used for the core on the central roundel and it is couched in place with a single strand of Soie de Paris. The couching stitches should lie over the silk core and allow the gold wire to show. Like the AGT on the Arabesques, I found the wire surprisingly stiff and at first found it difficult to form the oval outline. With a little trial and error, I developed a technique flexing the wire into a nice curve and couching it into place rather than trying to pull the wire into place with the couching stitches. The ends of the lizardine are not sunk but are trimmed so that they meet nicely at the start/finish of the oval. The silk core is sunk and secured on the back of the work.

A line of Gilt Pearl Purl Super is stitched inside and outside of the line of lizardine. Pearl Purl is made from a domed wire formed into a tightly wound spring. This gives the wire a beaded appearance similar to a string of tiny gold pearls. Again it can be used as supplied but for this project it is stretched to 25-30% longer than its original length. The technique is exactly the same as for the lizardine. The Gilt Pearl Purl Super is couched with Tire silk which is fine enough to fit between the ‘beads’ and is barely visible. Although the GPPS is still a little stiff, I found it easier to flex this into shape with the lizardine already stitched in place.

The remaining roundels were completed in exactly the same way except that the deepest shade of red was used for the silk core instead of blue.

Happy Stitching

Floral Glove, Arabesque

2011-06-29T20:05:00.005+01:00

The blue petals and trefoils below each carnation and the rose are framed by an arabesque. A strand of AGT Old Gold Thread is couched along the line of the arabesque. I have no idea what AGT stands for (Antique Gold Thread, perhaps). The thread is new to me. It resembles lizardine that has been stretched and combined with a silk core (more about that later) except that it is heavier gauge than that. The silk core appears to be a full six strands of Soie de Paris and the gold that wraps around it is more elongated than a stretched lazardine. The picture below shows a single strand of Soie de Paris, a length of AGT Old GolD Thread, the inner core of the thread and the gold wire that is wrapped around the core.

As with any thread of this weight, it is couched on the surface, in this case with a single strand of black Soie de Paris. The couching stitches should lay over the black areas of the AGT allowing the gold wrap to show.

I found the AGT surprisingly stiff (I should not have been surprised, Tricia does mention that in the notes) and a bit unwieldy. I found it a little difficult to bend it into the right shape but the couching stitches seem to be holding it in position.

I think this makes a nice accent below the flowers.

Happy Stitching

Floral Glove, Calyx

2011-06-26T20:16:00.005+01:00

Before I could outline the carnations with Elizabethan Twist, I had a little work to do on the calyx. Well, I thought it was a little work but it turned out to be a whole lot of work. I had already satin stitched each calyx but this was just padding for the gold work.

Purl is a metallic thread that has been around for many centuries. It is a tightly coiled spring made from flattened wire. Traditionally it was available in natural metallic colours; gold, silver, copper ... Today it is available in a myriad of colours; the purl used on the calyxes of the carnations is olive coloured.

The purl comes in one continuous length that has to be cut into pieces. Each piece is then stitched into place as if it were a bead. The lengths of purl lie next to each other like satin stitches; they should be close enough to cover the back ground but not so close that they buckle.

Did I mention that Purl is a spring? It is springy, delicate and very easily damaged. When you try to measure a length for cutting, it springs around. When you try to cut a length, it springs around. When you try to pick a piece up on your needle, it springs around. And every slight slip handling it, cutting it, stitching it can damage it. This is slow, delicate and painstaking work.

But very satisfying.

Happy Stitching

Floral Glove, Putting on the Glitz

2011-06-25T11:00:00.005+01:00

With all of silk embroidery complete I am able to move onto the gold work. I mentioned that one reason I wanted to do this course was to work on my long and short stitch but by far the biggest reason was the gold work.

Gold work is really appealing to me. I find the techniques fascinating, and am looking forward to learning some of them on this sampler, but it is the yummy materials that really attract me.

The first step of the gold work is to outline all the flowers and leaves with Elizabethan Twist. The 2-ply twisted gold thread is couched around the edge of the embroidery. I wound the twist onto a koma; I find it much easier to handle metallic threads this way.

For the rose, every row of petals is outlined. As Rachel commented, the one point open space comes in very useful when positioning the Elizabethan Twist between the rows. Things got a bit messy with all of the tails on top but it is best to do all of the couching in one area before sinking them. The thread does catch on the loose ends but it would catch far more if they were on the back were you can’t see what is happening.

I am amazed how different this little flower looks just from outlining in gold.

Happy Stitching

Floral Glove, Blue Petals and Leaves

2011-06-21T21:12:00.003+01:00

The small blue petals were worked in long and short stitch. As with all the other flowers, these were first outlined with backstitch. The petals are quite tiny and there was only room for one row each of dark blue, pale blue and white and the stitches are tapered towards the points to avoid overcrowding.

These were much simpler to stitch than the carnations!

The leaves are not outlined and are stitched in satin stitch. I have also satin stitched the calyx and the gold shapes at the bottom but this stitching serves as padding and will be covered by some of the gold work.

Happy Stitching

Floral Glove, Rose

2011-06-20T22:00:00.003+01:00

The rose on the centre tab has three rows of petals, each in a different colour. I first stitched all of the outlines in backstitch (except the circle in the very centre) in the appropriate colour. All of the petals are worked in satin stitch but the stitches taper towards the centre so that they do not become over crowded. The technique is very similar to filling each petal with a single row on long and short stitch.

I first worked the central petals in white ...

... then the middle row in pink ...

... and finally the outer row in red. I did not take a picture of the completed outer row but at a later date I decided that I did not like any of the stitching on the rose, ripped it all out (except the backstitched outline) and redid it. I much prefer my second attempt.

Happy Stitching

Floral Glove, Revisisted

2011-06-19T09:37:00.015+01:00

I mentioned that Floral Glove went into hibernation not long after I had started it. There was a reason for that. The supplies for Floral Glove came in two separate parcels. The linen fabric, silk and gold threads and needles arrived first. The package containing all of the finishing materials arrived soon after I began stitching. Of course, I could not wait to open the package and look at everything. The finishing kit includes a dye cut cardboard glove. When I placed this over my fabric, I could see that I had a problem. The drawn outline on my fabric and the card cut out did not match and no matter how I adjusted it, there was no way that the embroidery was going to fit.

I emailed Tricia at Thistle Threads and after discussing options we agreed that Tricia would send a blank piece of linen and a copy of the original design which I would transfer onto the fabric myself. The replacement fabric and design were swiftly dispatched but I got caught up in the GMEX show, holidays, some beading, a couple of workshops, etc.

One of the reasons I wanted to do this course was to learn long and short stitch. I knew that I would be doing LSS at the next Phase of Japanese embroidery and I thought it would be a good spring board for that. As things turned out, I began Camellias before I returned to Floral Glove but when I became stuck on the random LSS, I decided to return to FG and practice alternating LSS some more.

After tracing the design and framing up I outlined the carnations in tiny back stitches. Rather than draw the little points on the flowers, I drew in the curved edge and marked the divisions for the points around the outline.

I’d worked a sample of alternating LSS on the edge of the linen to build up a little confidence but knew that stitching a virtual semi circle would be a completely different kettle of fish. On my sample I had used the linen threads to gauge the length of the stitches. I could not do that here, so I drew contour lines to serve as a guide. I’d also used the threads to judge the direction of the stitches and because I was working a small rectangle, it was easy to begin at one edge and work across. Here the stitches need to radiate around the circle. On Camellias I had draw directional lines to serve as a guide but in this case I found it easier to visualise a centre point and aim all of my stitches at that point. As I have been taught in Japanese embroidery, and everything else I have read suggests, I started from the centre and worked towards the right, then returned to the centre and worked towards the left.

Nagamijika-sashinui (alternating LSS) is not the same technique as thread painting. It is a stylized effect that is entirely in keeping with the Japanese penchant for stylized motifs and designs. I think that it is equally appropriate in this design where the motifs are more stylized than realistic. For the second row, I again worked from the centre towards each edge in turn. I brought the needle up roughly in the middle of each short stitch and stitched down into the fabric on my drawn guideline still aiming the stitches towards my imaginary centre point.

The stitches of the third row are stitched between those on the second row. Some of the stitches are shorter so that the centre does not get over crowded. I am quite pleased with the alignment of the stitches but I would have liked the bands of colour to have been the same width and for a bit more colour from one row to show through in the next but I’m not sure is that is possible with stitches that radiate as much as these.

The second carnation was stitched in the same way, except that I came up in the fabric and stitched down into the thread to experiment with both ways. I found it more difficult to judge the position of the stitches this way and I think the stitching on this flower is worse than on the first one.

Having said that, I think the shape is really difficult and I am not totally dissatisfied with this attempt, it certainly does not look as bad with the naked eye and this macro shot suggests.

Happy Stitching

Random Long and Short Stitch

2011-06-16T23:41:00.008+01:00

Still not done with LSS! Breaking the stitch down, analysing it and stitching samples is really helping me to understand the technique. Both the versions I have looked at so far are very regular and consistent. I can rationalise that. What I am struggling to get to grips with is working with stitches that vary in length and are arranged randomly.

For my stitched sample, I began in the same way as the two previous samples, although most of the instructions I read suggested that the stitches in the foundation row should vary in length (that was just too much for me to cope with!)

I worked subsequent rows in the same way I worked nagamijika-sashinui except that I varied the start position of each stitch. All of the stitches are roughly the same length (approx 10mm).

I repeated this row on row, varying the start position each time so that I did not end up with a bargello effect.

There is something not quite right about this. I feel another sample coming on!

Happy Stitching

A New Needlework Nibble

2011-06-15T23:26:00.004+01:00

Two posts in one day!

Look what I received in the post today. I don’t normally blog projects until I work them but I wanted to show gorgeous supplies for the latest needlework nibble.

Thistle Threads has issued a second venture in fund raising for museums using Needlework Nibbles. The Tulip Slip kit is being sold to raise funds for the new exhibit at Winterthur which will feature the Plimoth Jacket. The piece is based upon a 17th century tent stitch slip and is faithful to the original. It includes the linen and soie d'alger silk threads needed to complete the tulip. A limited number of optional finishing kits are also available. $10.00 of each kit sold will go to Winterthur and be designated for the exhibit, entitled With Cunning Needle: Four Centuries of Embroidery this purpose. $5 of each finishing kit sold will also go towards the exhibit.

Happy Stitching

Long and Short Stitch, An Alternative Method

2011-06-15T22:25:00.010+01:00

I hadn’t planned to do a series of posts on LSS but it seems that I’m not finished with it yet. This is not intended to be a definitive guide; I am certainly no expert on the subject. These are just my ramblings and pictures of my sample stitching.

The method describe in my previous post was based on the Japanese embroidery technique nagamijika-sashinui (alternating LSS). The foundation row consists of long stitches (approx. 10mm) alternating with short stitches (6-7mm).

The stitches of the following row are all the same length (approx 10mm) and worked between the long stitches of the foundation row, splitting the short stitches about half way along their length.

The stitches of the following rows are also the same length and are worked between the stitches of the preceding row, splitting the stitches of the previous row about one-third along their length.

The stitches in the final row are worked in the same way and are shorter, ending in line with the ends of the stitches in the previos row.

In her book Painting with a Needle, Young Yang Chung describes a different method; one that uses long and short stitches in every row.

The first row is worked in the same way as for nagamijika-sashinui but with slightly shorter stitches (approximately 8mm and 5mm).

The following rows also consist of alternating long and short stitches that overlap and interlock the stitches of the preceding row. The long stitches are roughly 13mm and the short stitches about 5mm.

Young Yang Chung says that the stitches should come from below the stitches in the previous row rather than split them. She suggests moving the stitch aside with your finger; I found it easier to do this with my tekobari.

The stitches do not travel across the fabric as the above diagram suggests. I drew it this way to illustrate how the stitches overlap and interlock.

And this is how it looks stitched.

Happy Stitching

Alternating Long and Short Stitch

2011-06-14T22:01:00.008+01:00

It goes by several names but is perhaps most widely known as Long and Short Stitch and but why it is called this is a mystery to me! Although the first and last rows contain short stitches, all the other rows consist entirely of long stitches.

Japanese embroidery calls the technique sashinui which is described as "a stitch used to fill an area with different layers of threads, which are superimposed on the threads below or inserted between them". I don’t think that 'long and short stitch' is a literal translation of sashinui but simply the name of the technique that most closely resembles it. There are three variations: nagamijika-sashinui (alternating LSS), midare-sashinui (random LSS) and kussetsu-sashinui (curved angular stitches). The way that nagamijika-sashinui is worked, "Staggered Alternating Straight Stitch" seems a more appropriate name but, I admit, it is clumsy and unlikely to catch on.

The (full length) stitches of nagamijika-sashinui are very regular. They are consistent in length, starting (and ending) on the same line and follow the outine of the shape. The stitches should be evenly spaced. As with all filling stitches, I try to space them like the fingers of my hand, just touching; neither spread apart, nor squeezed together is comfortable!

I think of the first row as the foundation row. It is actually two rows worked simultaneously alternating "long" stitches with "short" stitches. This may be a little pedantic but it really helps me to look at it this way. The "long" stitches are 10mm, the "short" stitches are approximately two-thirds their length (6-7mm).

I stitched this sample on a piece of linen and used the threads as a guide, consequently the stitches are not as evenly spaced as they should be but this macro shot exaggerates that greatly.

The second row of stitches is worked between the "long" stitches of the foundation row and split the "short" stitches half way along their length. This is what the description of sashinui means by "... superimposed on the threads below ...". Tricia Nguyen of Thistle Threads recommends that you come up in the fabric and down into the thread (reason being that it is easier to split the thread from the top). Trish Burr advises the complete opposite, that you come up through the thread and down into the fabric (reason being that the split in the thread is neater). In Japanese embroidery the rule is that you always stitch towards you, so both directions are used.

The third row is worked between the stitches of the second row and split the "long" stitches of the foundation row approximately one-third their length.

Each subsequent row is worked in the same way, filling the space between the "long" stitches of the preceding row and overlapping the "short" stitch between them by one-third.

And there it is, as if by magic, I suddenly see why it is called Long and Short Stitch. Working alternate stitches row by row gives the illusion of "long" and "short" stitches.

Easy isn’t it? Well, yes, if all you are doing is filling a very small rectangular shape!

Happy Stitching

Progress Report - June

2011-06-02T18:17:00.005+01:00

I had twelve days off in May. Nine days were spent decorating (yes, still decorating and still not finished!). The other 3 days I spent with girl friends. A group of us went to Edinburgh to see an exhibition of Japanese embroidery. I have so much to blog about if only I can find the time!

Embroidery got no days this month. That’s not to say that I have not done any; I still try to do 15 minutes before I go to work each day. That has been patchy to say the least and I have not done any Japanese embroidery or Japanese bead embroidery at all!

I have made a little progress on the Floral Glove. It doesn’t look very different from the last report but I have done some work on it, honest!

I shall be glad when the decorating is finished; I am getting very grumpy about the lack of stitching time!

Happy Stitching

How do I Hate Thee ....

2011-05-19T22:46:00.007+01:00

Thank you for your kind comments and emails; I really appreciate the support and encouragement. Perhaps before I continue with this series of posts I should explain that this is a bit retrospective. I normally post things in chronological order but for this Phase I have grouped things by technique. If in the following posts it appears that I have ignored your advice, it is because I am writing about things that happened a few weeks ago. Although things have moved on, I didn’t want to leave parts of the journey unrecorded.

Jane asked what I hate about my first attempt. To a small degree it is the way it looks. I love the look of a flat silk foundation, smooth and shiny. I understand that random LSS will never look as smooth and shiny as a flat silk foundation but I think the stitching on my third flower looks rough and dull. But the reason I dislike it so intensely is the way that I felt while I was stitching it. Embroidery is one of the great pleasures of my life. Stitching these petals made me stressed, confused and unhappy. When I look at these petals, all I can see is that unhappiness and I resent them for that.

When I returned from Bournemouth I decided to finish the second flower before continuing with the third flower. I hoped that more experience of alternating LSS would give me more confidence in tackling the random variation. I left the stitches in while I did that hoping I would begin to see them differently. I didn’t. I know now that I will always see them as unhappy stitches and I don’t want to live with them.

When I look at my previous phase pieces I can see the imperfections and the things I hope one day I will be able to stitch better. I also see the joy, the pride and the pleasure I had in stitching them. I see the same things in the first two flowers on this phase. That is what I want to see when I look at the third flower.

Happy Stitching

Meltdown

2011-05-18T20:33:00.005+01:00

Rewind to March and my Japanese embroidery class. Much to my surprise I was getting on quite well with nagamijika-sashinui (alternating LSS), even beginning to enjoy it. But there was an elephant in the room.

When I finished stitching the first flower, Denise had suggested that I move onto midare-sashinui but I was not ready for the twin evil that is Random Long and Short Stitch.

It is very difficult to explain why I find random so unfathomable. I have a logical mind; I like order, pattern and reason. One of the things that first attracted me to JE was that it is very precise. I like that precision; I don’t like random.

But I could not put it off forever and it would have been folly not to attempt midare-sashinui in class while my tutors were on hand to coach me. I designated Thursday midare-sashinui day. At the start of the day I read every book I have to gain some insight to the technique. Then I read my box chart. Then I consulted my tutor. Then I worked the padding on each of the petals. Then I selected my silks. Then, well then I could find nothing else to prevent me getting on with it!

And I hated it! I like to know exactly where a stitch should start and finish. I like to know the precise length and angle of each and every stitch. I don’t like random.

Unusually, I didn’t take any step by step pictures of the first petal. I can only think this is because my brain went into melt down as it struggled to comprehend the incomprehensible!

This is what I managed to stitch on Thursday and Friday and I hate it. The next thing I do to this flower will be to unpick it!

Not so Happy Stitching!

Camellias, Some Progress

2011-05-08T23:15:00.012+01:00

I am much more confident with alternating long and short stitch now.

That really showed when I stitched the remaining two petals of this flower.

Apart from reverse stitching an odd stitch here or there, these went in without a hitch.

The tapering section on the petal above was the only part that I had to redo because I did not like my first attempt.

I am very pleased with these petals and the progress I have made with LSS but before I get to complacent, I’ll just remind myself that I still have to face midare-sashinui.

Happy Stitching

Progress Report - May

2011-05-08T22:55:00.009+01:00

Thirty days hath September, April, June and November ...

I was working for sixteen days, in Venice for 4 days, decorating for 6 days and at a Japanese Embroidery open day for one day. That left just four days for embroidery!

On one of those days I stitched from early morning to late evening but I was watching the Royal Wedding at the same time. Another day, I went for a walk with my Mum with the hope of hearing the cuckoo for the first time this year (which we did) and one the remaining two days, stitching was squeezed inbetween, shopping, cleaning, washing etc, etc.

If it sounds like I am making excuses for the lack of progress this month, I am.

Camellias does not look very different from a month ago but I have made a lot of progress with learning Long and Short Stitch. Having said that, something is seriously hindering my progress with this piece. When I find time, I will blog about both my progress and the obstacles.

When I realised that I was making no progress with Camellias, I decided to turn my attention to something else but not completely different. I began Floral Glove several months ago but it had gone into hibernation. Now was a good time to revive this project and I have made reasonable progress given that I have has so little stitching time. I have a lot to blog about this project!

In addition, I have done another Round Robin Doodle Travelling page. These are a lot of fun, but I cannot blog about them until the Round Robin is complete.

Happy Stitching

Petal Two, Take Two

2011-04-27T20:35:00.011+01:00

This is how I first stitched petal two.

There are several things that I feel are wrong with it. Firstly, the change in the thickness of thread between the first and second row of stitches is too great. The second row of stitches begin too far from the outer edge leaving a wide band of the first row still showing and all of the bands of stitches are uneven and inconsistent. I realised that things were going wrong possibly from the first row and certainly from the second. There are too many stitches on the first row especially on the right hand side, they are too close together. As a consequence, I had to use a thinner thread for the second row but it looks spindly compared to the first row. Even with the thinner thread, I struggled to fit the stitches in on the right and this was amplified on each subsequent row.

I paid more attention to the spacing of the stitches in the first row second time around. Looking at the macro picture, I can see that two of the long stitches on the right-hand side are at a rakish angle but that is no so apparent with the naked eye.

Because I had not crowded the stitches this time, I did not have to reduce the thickness of the thread for the second row. That rogue stitch is quite obvious in this shot!

The bands created by the rows of stitching are much more even and consistent this time and I am much happier with the petal now.

I think that I learnt alot from stitching this petal poorly and then using what I had learnt to rectify my mistakes. I think that I may finally be making some progress with this technique.

Happy Stitching

Pink Silk Purl Bug

2011-04-14T21:46:00.010+01:00

While writing the posts for the Glittering Snail, I noticed that I had never posted the finished Pink Silk Purl Bug.

There is little more to tell you about the stitching. The wings were filled with couched silk purl in the same way that they were outlined.

And to be honest, I can't remember too much about it now, but for completeness here is the finished article.

Happy Stitching

A Glittering Shell

2011-04-14T20:40:00.014+01:00

With the body complete, the snail needs a few features. The top of his head is finished with a row of split stitch in pink silk. A single strand of Soie de Paris is used to stitch his antenna and a single French knot in cream silk makes his eye.

Just as a real snail's is, the shell is a spiral. The foundation is a thick twisted silk cord which is couched with spaced stitches of alternating pink and orange Soie Ovale.

The spaces between the silk couching stitches are filled with short pieces of silver check. This is what makes him glitter!

I had great fun stitching this and I think that it is totally cute but, if I were to be critical:

his tail is far too dumpy - my fault not the design, snails have pointy tails and so does the design;
his eye is a mess, isn't that the sloppiest French knot you ever did see?;
I would have liked to space the pink and orange stitches more evenly so the silver check covered the yellow core better.

But, do you know what, I don't care about his dumpy tail or wonky eye. As I said, he is great fun to stitch, I love the speciality threads used and he was my stitchy respite in a very intense week.

The cord was a quick and easy project for one evening ...

... as was the tassel ...

... and over a couple more evenings I was able to do the finishing. Again, if I were to be critical, he is not very central but that is another part of his quirky cuteness.

Our windows lock with tiny keys that are easy misplaced. These nibbles make great key keepers.

Happy Stitching

A Snail's Tale

2011-04-11T22:23:00.009+01:00

Even though March was a busy month that left me feeling exhausted most evenings, I still needed a little stitching time to keep me sane. I worked on a small but interesting project that had been on my to-do list for a few weeks.

I have already completed two Needlework Nibbles and have another in my stash that waiting to be done. The latest addition to the Needlework Nibble family is the extremely cute Glittering Snail. For me, the big attraction of these kits is an introduction to different materials and techniques. A BIG added bonus with this kit is that Thistle Threads donate $7.50 to Bath Fashion Museum for every kit purchased. The money will be used to the rehouse the owned by the Gloves Collection Trust. The collection was set up by the Worshipful Company of Glovers and is housed by the Museum. Every two kits sold will pay to rehouse a set of gloves in one of the new storage boxes that will better conserve the collection and allow for easier viewing by visitors to the appointments room.

The kit is based upon a detail of one of the gloves (BATMC-GLO-23342A) which was set up. The design is faithful to the original down to the majority of the threads used. This has been made possible by the reintroduction of speciality threads that had fallen out of product and use. This kit introduces the latest of these wonderful threads, silk gimp – silk wrapped around a silk core.

The picture below shows, from top to bottom, a strand of Soie Ovale (used to couch the silk gimp and silk purl), one ply of Anchor cotton, silk gimp and a strand (6 ply) of Anchor cotton.

This picture shows a piece of silk gimp that is beginning to unravel and show the silk core. Below it is a short length of the silk wrapping separated from its silk core (bottom).

The silk gimp is couched to and fro to form the snail’s body. A piece of silk purl is couched along the underside of the body. Silk wrapped purl was introduced in two earlier kits – I did the Pink Silk Purl Bug. In both kits the silk purl is couched in place but on this design the purl is first stretched to twice its original length.

Both the silk gimp and the silk purl are produced by Golden Threads for Thistle Threads.

Happy Stitching

Progress Report - April

2011-04-02T23:50:00.009+01:00

Wow, I can hardly believe that April is here already. March has been and extremely busy month for me both at work and socially. The last three weeks at work have been really intense. I have rather enjoyed the intensity of it but the extra hours and level of concentration throughout the day have left me feeling rather exhausted in the evenings. I would not have much to report this time had it not been for my week in Bournemouth at the beginning of the month.

Phase VII, Camellias is now on Frame 1: I am always a little dismayed by how little gets done during my week in Bournemouth but I remind myself that it is a class and I am learning new techniques. I have done a little more since returning home but I am still trying to get to grips with the techniques. I feel that this Phase is more of a learning curve for me that any other since Phase I but I want to succeed at it so am willing to take my time to understand it. This is the piece that is calling my name the loudest at the moment so expect to be working on it whenever I can in the coming month.

Frame 2: Embroidery Bridge has not even been out of its case this month.

Frame 3: While at Bournemouth, I spent a little time at the end of each day filling the space around the flowers with Tataki-ume (random seed beading). All of the beading on Poppy Pouch is now done but I have some finishing to do. When the stitching/beading is complete I lose interest to some degree. I am not so interested in making it into a bag as I was beading it but I want to take it off of this frame so that I can put Phase IV onto it and begin beading that in earnest. Maybe I will allocate a day or two of this month to doing that.

Phase IV is currently on Frame 4. I have yet to decide what I will put onto this frame when Floral Melody moves onto Frame 3 but I am in no hurry as I have more than enough to be getting on with at the moment.

I also stitched a Needlework Nibble, great fun, and I will blog about that soon, and another Round Robin Doodle Page but that will have to wait until the RR is complete.

This month I have another exciting new project starting.

Happy Stitching

Camellias, flower 2

2011-03-30T23:10:00.013+01:00

When I had completed the petals of the first flower at the end of day two, one of my tutors asked if I wanted to move onto midare-sashinui next. I definitely was not!

Instead I opted to do the left hand flower. It is worked midare-sashinui, the same as the first flower, but this one is padded and worked in flat silk. The advantage of working in flat silk is that the silk spreads slightly and fills the space between stitches. The disadvantage of working in flat silk is that the silk spreads slightly and fills the space between stitches! That is the paradox of working with flat silk.

Each of the petals is padded on the outer edge. The laid stitches of padding cotton are quite long so they are held in place with a couching thread stitched in a lattice pattern.

The first petal went in surprisingly well but it took me all day to do all of the padding and stitch one petal!

Since returning home I have had very little time for serious embroidery (I am very busy at work and that is taking most of my time and energy) but I have managed to stitch two more petals.

I don’t like the way that the second petal looks but I learnt so much in stitching it that it was worth continuing with even when I knew that it was going wrong. I left it in for reference while I stitched the next petal.

This one I am pleased with, so now I will reverse stitch the bad one and try again.

Happy Stitching

Camellias, flower 1

2011-03-24T22:56:00.011Z

There are three methods for realistic stitching (long and short stitch) in Japanese embroidery: alternating LSS (nagamijika-sashinui), random LSS (midare-sashinui) and curved angular stitches (kussetsu-sashinui).

The first flower is worked in alternating long and short stitch in twisted silk.

Long and short stitch is something of a misnomer, only the first row is worked in long and short stitches. It seems to me that the first row is crucial; if that one is not right then none of the following rows will be. I really concentrated making the long and short stitches consistent lengths, spacing them evenly and following the contours of the petal.

In subsequent rows the stitches are all roughly the same length as the original long stitches and only every other stitched is worked filling the space between the 'long' stitches.

Each petal is worked in three shades. The first row, on the outer edge of the petal, is worked in the darkest shade, followed by the next darkest with the palest shade at the inner edge. The thickness of the thread also gradually decreases from the outside to the inside of each petal.

I don’t think that I have ever concentrated so hard on a piece of embroidery. To my delight and surprise I completed the first petal without too much angst.

I was feeling a little less anxious about LSS but did not want to move onto the other methods until I was comfortable with this one so I spent the rest of day one and the whole of day two completing the petals on the first flower.

I must say that I really surprised myself with this flower. I like how it came out. So far, so good.

Happy Stitching

Phase VII - Camellias

2011-03-22T07:57:00.009Z

I spent the second week of March in Bournemouth at a Japanese embroidery class. This is my seventh successive year attending this class. Each year I begin a new Phase; this year was Phase VII -the dreaded long and short stitch. There are two Phase VII designs available, Pansies and Camellias. Both are delightful. I am stitching Camellias.

Back in September Michiko wore a stunning kimono to the Stitch and Creative Crafts show. Although the flowers on it are peonies, I thought that the colour scheme would easily transfer to Camellias. Michiko very kindly brought the kimono to Preston in October so that I could colour match some silks to it and my tutor ordered the design on the fabric that most closely matched the background.

Because of shipping delays, I did not see the fabric until the first day of class. When I picked out the silks that I had intended to use they did not go well with the fabric. We made another selection in similar shades but those didn’t work either. Margaret then made a selection of apricot shades that I really like.

I spent the entire morning framing up, selecting silks, reading instructions - basically doing anything but stitching. Just when I thought that I had run out excuses, I read on my box chart that the first flower in worked in twisted silk. Aha, I had not twisted my silk, another reason not to get started!

Happy Stitching

New Beginnings

2011-03-16T23:22:00.003Z

The first week of March did not go exactly as I had planned. My beloved little car suddenly and unexpectedly blew a gasket. Only 2 days earlier she had passed the MOT and the day before I had paid for a year’s tax. I thought that we would be together for at least another year but the cost of repair was non-viable so reluctantly I have had to let her go.

We are a 4 car family and I am not entirely comfortable with that. I have wondered if I could do without my car. The problem is we all work full time, but at disparate locations and we live in a village with no public transport. Just one week without my car has shown me how much I rely upon it and I am definitely not ready to give it up. The weekend before I went to Bournemouth was spent frantically searching the county’s car dealers for a replacement vehicle. The search was proving fruitless and we were on the verge of giving up but at our last port of call we found a cute little Corsa. It was sad to wave good bye to my old companion but it was going to happen one day. I’m just getting to know my new car and am looking forward to the adventures we will have together.

In addition, our cat severely beat up (by another cat not by me) and I had to take her to the vet a couple of times. She has made a full recovery now but needed a little TLC for a few days. Things that I had hoped to do before Bournemouth fell by the wayside. I didn’t have a lot of stitching time but I need to do some just to stay sane. When we do the stitching shows, we take a selection of our work. Sometime ago Denise brought with her a small design called ‘Geisha in the Snow’. It totally captivated me and was the perfect design for my frame cover. Denise very generously shared her design but I had not got around to stitching it, until now.

I traced the design onto tissue paper and stitched straight through the paper into the fabric. The Geisha, her umbrella and the bamboo are all worked in stem stitch. The snow is worked in seed stitch. The whole project took just two evenings to complete.

Unusually, I have come to a point where I am beginning lots of new things. Loving Couple was finished a while ago and I have been ready and waiting to start Phase VII of my Japanese embroidery. Poppy Pouch has been nearing completion and would have been done if events had not taken their own course. Phase IV Japanese bead embroidery is waiting in the wings. I have a small project screaming for my attention and I have also enrolled in another on-line course that starts on 1st April.

Everything feels very new and exciting at the moment.

Happy Stitching

... and a Couple More

2011-03-06T09:48:00.007Z

The Travelling Books for the Oxford Branch of the Embroiderer’s Guild are now into their third season. This time around my pages are following a theme based on the inchies I made just before Christmas (the first TB in my group actually got some of the inchies). I am exploring altering fabrics and each one began life as a piece of white cotton that I dyed with Brusho.

My second piece very much followed the same process as the inchies, first bonding torn fragments of coloured silver foil to the base fabric. I covered this with a piece of lace curtain and then free machine embroidered all over the surface with a variety of threads. I then did more FME in certain areas to pick out some of the lace pattern.

I am not a pleased with this page as the inchies; it is too pink for my taste and not as textured as the first piece.

The third piece I treated differently. First I applied gold paint paste through a stencil. The stencil is a katagami which is a hand cut paper stencil used for dyeing kimono. I have a couple of 'retired' stencils that are no longer in good enough condition for use on kimono. I was hesitant to use them, not really knowing much about them or how to care for them properly. But I have decided that i would rather use them a few times that let them languish in a draw, never to be used again. The design on them is very intricate and gives a very delicate gold pattern on the fabric.

I did not want to totally obscure the pattern so I did not overlaid it with any other materials this time; instead I have over stitched with a variety of threads using some of the decorative stitches on my machine. To stabilize the fabric during stitching I tacked it onto a piece of creative plastic; that allowed me to stitch right to the edges. I don’t think that the design is very coherent but I think the method has some potential and is worth exploring further.

Happy Stitching

... or Two ...

2011-03-05T23:53:00.005Z

This is another stop/start travelling page made for the swap on the Embroiderer’s Guild forum.

I began this one at a Flower Pounding workshop with Linda Rudkin.

The component parts were made at the workshop but it waited some time to be assembled into a finished design.

Although I had attached the individual flowers with beads, I felt that it was lacking embroidery so added the word Hydrangea in stem stitch.

I think that this is one of the prettiest Travelling Pages I have made thus far.

Happy Stitching

A Travelling Page ...

2011-03-05T23:07:00.008Z

I started this travelling page several weeks ago but it was a very stop/start project.

I had space-dyed several pieces of cotton with Brusho and from those I selected a piece that I thought had an Autumnal feel to it. The design, by Sam Bourne, was published in Issue 8 of Stitch Magazine in January/February 2001. I have been exchanging Travelling Pages with friends on the Embroiderer’s Guild forum; this design must have stayed in my mind because when I came to do a page for a member who loves trees and oak trees in particular, I remembered it.

I found the instructions very easy to follow.

I enjoyed making the component parts ...

... and assembling them into the finished design.

Happy Stitching

A Necklace

2011-03-05T23:01:00.004Z

Whenever I visit Amsterdam, I try to visit Coppenhagen Kralen, the bead shop. During my last visit I picked out some beads to make a necklace to wear with a new top.

This necklace was very simple to make, it’s just a matter of stringing the component parts in the right order and attaching the fastener.

Simples!

Happy Stitching

A Cloche Hat

2011-03-05T22:54:00.007Z

I took it into my head that I wanted a crochet cloche hat. I learnt to crochet at a young age and for some time it was my craft of choice but I mostly crocheted squares for cushion covers or lap blankets. It has been since I did any crochet and my memory which stitch was a little vague so I looked them up on the internet. However, how to hold the hook, loop the thread and pull through all came flooding back to me as soon as I picked up the hook. It is as if the hands have their own memory and when you practice a movement or action over and over, they never forget it.

The pattern I choose was quite simple and I was able to finish the hat in a couple of evenings.

Happy Stitching

A Stitching weekend

2011-03-05T22:48:00.009Z

For the past few years, I have demonstrated Japanese Embroidery at the Stitch and Creative Crafts show in Manchester. The shows are hard work but good fun and it is always nice to get together with my JE friends. Denise and Jane did not exhibit this year but Denise invited Jane, Sue and me to stay with her so that we did not miss out on a stitching weekend. Unfortunately, Jane was not able to join us.

Since Bridge Between East and West normally gets an outing at the show, I took that with me to stitch. The flowers at the centre of the design are nearly complete; only a few stems and details remain to be done. I decided to make a start on the rows of balls on either side. The balls are all padded but the amount of padding gradually decreases from the largest balls to the smallest. Likewise, although they are all stitched with twisted silk, the number of strands in the twist gradually deceases and the direction of the stitches gradually changes. In order to keep the padding, thread weight and direction of the stitches consistent, I stitched 3 or 4 balls on one side then rotated the frame and stitched the same balls on the opposite side. The balls are very small and did not take long to stitch so I was rotating the frame frequently. It made the stitching rather fragmented but I think it was worthwhile as the finished stitching is nicely consistent.

We probably spent more time chatting and eating than stitching but had a lovely weekend and are already planning to do it again later in the year.

Happy Stitching

My Stitching Nemesis

2011-03-05T22:44:00.003Z

As long as I have been interested in embroidery the two stitches I have admired most are satin stitch and long and short stitch. These are also the two stitches that I have found most challenging. In Japanese embroidery there are 5 foundation stitches, horizontal, vertical, weft, diagonal and separated. The first four are essentially the same thing stitched in different directions and they are all essentially satin stitch. When you learn Japanese embroidery these stitches are among the first that you learn and they crop up again and again. Since l have been taking lessons in Japanese embroidery I think that my satin stitch has improved no end.

Long and Short stitch also features prominently in Japanese embroidery but the student does not encounter this technique until Phase VII. The two designs taught at this phase are among the most beautiful of all the phase pieces and although I have admired them greatly, I have never thought about them in terms of my stitching journey. I think because they are done in long and short stitch I pushed them to the back of my mind. When I finished stitching Loving Couple it dawned on me that in my next class I would be starting Phase VII, i would have to tackle the dreaded LSS.

I choose my design and fabric, my tutor placed the order and we waited for it to arrive ... and we waited ... and we waited. I was beginning to think that it would not arrive on time and started to consider other pieces to stitch in class. I almost felt relieved that I would not be doing Phase VII after all. Then last Monday, I heard from my tutor that the order had arrived and my piece was with her. I was surprised by how relieved I felt. I’ve been looking forward to my week in Bournemouth for weeks but for the first time I am actually looking forward to Phase VII albeit with more than a little trepidation.

Happy Stitching

Lacing

2011-03-03T00:01:00.026Z

I finished Loving Couple several weeks ago and kept telling myself that I had plenty of time to finish and mount it but somehow I put it off and put it off until there were only a couple of weeks left before my next Japanese embroidery class.

I did the finishing two weekends ago (I described the finishing process here when I finished Karahana) and last weekend I mounted it ready for framing. When I had finished Suehiro I took it off the frame but did not mount it immediately. I noticed that some of the stitching, particularly the metallic threads, distorted so now I leave my embroidery on the frame until I am ready to mount it.

The process to remove the embroidery from the frame is the exact opposite of the process of framing up.

Remove the protective tissue paper. Untie and remove the chopsticks. Remove the lacing stitches.

Remove the nails and unwind the horizontal bars and remove the embroidery.

Next I remove the end fabrics. Very often leave about an inch of end fabric to give myself plenty of fabric for lacing; on this occasion that was not necessary.

With the design trimmed I moved it to a prepared work area. I place a big fluffy towel on the table and cover that with tissue paper, shiny (smooth) side up. I place my embroidery face down on the tissue paper.

The mount board I am using is 3mm archival foam board; my framer cut it to size for me. I use a layer of silk wadding between the foam board and the fabric. In the past I have found it difficult to keep the wadding in place while positioning it and the foam board on the fabric. This time I attached the wadding to the board with 505 spray which made things much easier.

This picture shows the silk wadding attached to the board but the board is the wrong way up. The board should be wadding side down on the fabric

I work out how to position the design on the board while the fabric is still on the frame and stitch a guideline using couching thread. This only serves as a guide and I measure carefully to make sure the board is in the correct position and aligned with the weft.

Then I begin pinning. Starting at the centre of either the top or bottom edge, I insert a single pin through the fabric and into the foam between the two layers of card. I insert the second pin at the center point on the opposite edge pulling the fabric taught as I do. I then work out towards each edge pinning first one side then the other tensioning the fabric. I place the pins at half inch intervals, if find this helpful when it comes to lacing.

When the top and bottom are pinned I turn the work over and recheck the position and make sure the design is straight before pinning the two sides in the same way. When the sides are pinned I turn the work face up and check once more that the work is straight and correctly positioned – you cannot check often enough!

For the lacing I used Gütermann top stitch thread and a Japanese handmade needle to do the lacing. To calculate how much thread I need, I pseudo lace by catching the thread around the pins, then add some for luck. For some reason, I thought that I needed to pseudo lace back in the opposite direction but this gave me twice as much thread as I needed and the surplus thread was a nuisance!

Starting at the center pin, I make a stitch roughly ¼ inch long and pull half of the thread through (the other half will be used later). I then make a ¼ inch stitch on the opposite edge starting in line with the end of the first stitch so the thread is perpendicular to the edge of the board. I continue to stitch first one side then the other at ¼ inch intervals keeping the stitches close to the edge of the board. At this stage there is no need to pull the stitches tight but the thread does have a tendency to tangle if you try to pull it through too quickly. In fact, it has a tendency to tangle whatever you do but I find that pulling slowly and steadily with one hand while maintaining a slight tension on the thread with the other hand helps.

When I get close to the corner I fold the fabric under to make a mitred corner. If necessary I use my tekobari to push the folds into place and smooth out any wrinkles or bulges. When I have stitched all the way to the edge, I temporarily secure the thread by winding it around the pins. Returning to the centre, I thread the other half of the thread and lace towards the other edge. I forgot to mention that before I do the lacing, I attach a label saying what the design is, whon stitched it and when. Later I put the same label on the back of the frame.

When all of the stitches are in place, I tighten them. Starting at one edge I pull the first stitch tight. I keep the tension on that stitch with one hand while I pull the next stitch taught and so on until I have tensioned every stitch and wind the thread around the pins to secure it. I then repeat the process and tension every stitch for a second time. To permanently secure the thread, I make two close parallel stitches through the fabric then make 2 or 3 half hitch knots around the stitches. I then make 2 stitches on the opposite edge and do 2 or 3 half hitch knots around the stitches. I make one more stitch an inch or two away from the knots before I cut of the surplus thread.

The remaining 2 sides are laced in exactly the same way and finally the holding pins are removed. Job done!

Susan of Plays with Needles wrote a very good blog about lacing.

Happy Stitching

Progress Report - March

2011-03-01T23:56:00.003Z

Around the beginning of each month I plan to review what has been done in the previous month and set new goals for the coming month.

Frame 1: I have done the finishing and laced Loving Couple onto mount board ready for framing. I will take LC, unframed, to Bournemouth for my tutor to assess before having it framed. I would have liked to frame up my next Phase piece ready for class but there was a delay in delivery so I will collect the fabric and frame up on the first day.

Frame 2: I took Embroidery Bridge Between East and West away for a stitching weekend and made reasonable progress. I really like how this piece is developing and hope to give it some more stitching time soon.

Frame 3: Most of my stitching time has been dedicated to Poppy Pouch and it is coming along steadily. I did not quite meet my target of finishing by the end of February but it is nearly there. I estimate it will take 3-4 hours more stitching to complete this and I hope to do that this week.

I did not do any work on Frame 4 but nor did I expect to. I want to move Floral Melody onto Frame 3 before I do any more to it.

I also completed 4 travelling pages (I will blog about these when I know they have been delivered), 2 Round Robin Doodle Pages (to be blogged when the Round Robin is completed), crocheted a hat and made a necklace.

In March I go to Bournemouth for a 5 day Japanese Embroidery class (woohoo!), that will set the tone for my stitching for the coming month. I usually find that when I return from Bournemouth I only want to work on the Phase piece that I began in class, but I don’t want Poppy Pouch to fall by the way side. Hopefully, I can finish that in the next few days.

Happy Stitching