A weft yarn

African blanket : Thread painting Zebras

I have done some more work on my African blanket. The whole blanket will eventually have a lion, two zebras, two giraffes, two elephants, two cheetahs, dozens of leaping gazelles, and 8-10 Samburu people - plus some grasslands (for context, like). As with so many of my embroidery projects, it will be years in the making. Last year I went to Sydney twice for classes with Jenny McWhinney and I made a start on the giraffes and the elephants. In March this year, I again went to Sydney for a class, this time on the zebras. Seen below is my two full days of stitching.

Jenny always tries to make sure you have completed the hardest part of the stitching before you leave. It's usually always the details of the faces.

Unlike the elephants and giraffes, which were stitched in wool, the zebras are done in perle cotton. It is shiny and a bit reflective and Jenny reported to the class that whenever she pulls out her blanket for a showing, people are always drawn to the zebras.

As with other classes, Jenny very kindly offers her own blanket for photographing. I might have mentioned that I was interested in learning to do thread painting as a technique, signed up for a class in Sydney and was initially only going to the giraffes as a cushion. But then I logged onto Jenny's website and found the whole blanket, complete with LION - hear me roar - stitched in the middle and then re-thought my commitment, dug deep and decided I wanted a whole blanket and that lion!

Aren't those leaping gazelles just so wonderful? Thanks Jenny for another great class. Now, time to put my head down and finish off those three animals before October's class.

Previous posts

Thread painting elephants - Samburu blanket - animal number 2 (September 15, 2011)

There's an elephant on my sofa (August 30, 2011)

Samburu blanket thread painting: Giraffes (June 18, 2011)

Giraffes, Africa, Blankets - embroidery - thread painting (March 23, 2011)

I might make my deadline

When I started this project I set myself some self-imposed deadlines. I wanted to finish it in three years.  So, I marked off what I thought were three reasonable looking sections of the tapestry.

I started stitching in April 2011 so those of you good at maths have probably jumped ahead and worked out a year has nearly passed.

The marker line is on the right hand side of the tapestry. It is a bit of red Kreinik metallic thread sewn into the tapestry. I work by stitching back and forth from top to bottom. I don't do what many creative tapestry stitchers do, which is put in all of one type of stitch (say all the background) and then move on to another type of stitch.

Instead I started with the cuff and then had to put that aside while I waited for some replacement thread to arrive. I moved on and have now stitched the garland, the bricks, the red bows, the window glass, the window supports, the tree, the clown, the bear and santa's hat.

I'm just learning how to use a free online photo editing package and so apologies for the blurry words but here's my attempt at showing you that I am really...quite....close...to...achieving my goal.

In the few centimetres of this stocking that is in view, I have used a huge range of threads completely new to me: Nordic gold, Daisies, Neon Rays, Flair, Ribbon Floss, Burmilana, Splendor, Petite Peluche, Grandeur, Tulips and Felicity's Garden. I can understand now why Mary Corbet asked us "are you an accessories advocate, fabric fanatic of thread junkie?" She self-identifies as a thread junkie and now, having worked slightly less than one third of this canvas and come across so many new and interesting threads, I can fully understand how someone in the needlepoint world could become fascinated by all the variety of threads on offer.

As I work through this project, I've also been so impressed with the skill in putting stitches and threads together to create a pleasing and beautiful composition. This is only my second creative tapestry so I am very new to this pursuit. I could see how after having done a few of these kits and stitch guides, one could begin to branch out and plan or design your own guide for a set canvas. All for another day though. For now, I am happy working through this lovely canvas and all the new-to-me stitches and threads.

 

Previous posts

Tim's Christmas stocking - delays and pressing on (February 2012)

Christmas stocking (December 2011)

On the frame - Tim's stocking (April 2011)

Tim's Christmas stocking (April 2011)

Tapestry Christmas Stockings

As you know, I have three tapestries on frames in various states of progress: The ferry, Tim's christmas stocking, and my cat tapestry. As these projects are going to take me years to finish, I just wanted to grab this moment to show you some tapestries that I have completed. I don't have many visual clues around my house that I have completed any tapestry projects. I gave the flannel flowers to my mother-in-law and these two tapestry Christmas stockings spend most of their life in a box stored away, waiting for a few short weeks to be displayed.  So, I kind of feel it's OK to show you something completed years and years ago.

I gave quite an involved description of the history of these stockings in this old post so I wont bother repeating it here.

I am having the most wonderful week

Merry Christmas to you all and to all a happy 'twelve days of Christmas'. It seems that long-ago tradition determined that the days after Christmas should be ones of festivities and socialising. The weeks leading up to Christmas were meant to be times of quiet reflection and preparation (advent was meant to be like lent). Somehow as a society, we inverted that and made the weeks leading up to Christmas the weeks of celebrations and spreading good cheer. As a family we had 14 Christmas events and I personally, as chief-family introvert, had seven Christmas events to attend in the weeks leading up to Christmas - parties we gave, parties we attended through friends, work colleagues, groups we belong to. It's a fair amount of cheer for anyone, let alone talkative introverts like myself.

This year after Christmas we have been allowed, through extended family circumstances, to have a quiet time at home. Usually, we pack up on Boxing day and head off to socialise for 4-5 days with my wider family. While I miss not seeing my big and funny and boisterous family this year, I have savoured this quiet time here at home. Much organisation and projects and resting has taken place. As you know, this year rocked with achievements so it has been nice to calm the boat for a few days. I was given a set of Frozen Planet DVDs for Christmas and we've really enjoyed orcas, penguins, wind, ice and funnily enough listening to the children say 'that's amazing! It looks just like CGI'.

I have lots and lots of creative posts to share - and gardening posts for those interested in apples and potatoes. Santa was generous to us crafty ones. And nature has been abundant with water to the garden, though parsimonious with the warmth - so a bit of mixed blessing for amateur farmer/gardeners. But lots to tell, once I get around to writing and posting.

For now, take a look at the progress on the cross stitch scissors keep. I'm trying to finish it off so there's room at the inn for some glorious embroidery projects. I'll tell you all about them and the creative cornucopia found around and under Christmas trees. Later. First, more rest to be had.

Previous posts

Cross stitch progress on the scissors keep (June 2011)

Celtic scissors keep - update (May 26, 2011)

My next Celtic scissors keep - new kit (May 13, 2011)

Celtic scissors keep - finished (May 3, 2011)

There's an elephant on my sofa

Not to be confused with the previous catch-up post, where I went to Sydney in July to see Mary Poppins, I am just back from an embroidery weekend in Sydney and my handiwork (plus a little bit of shopping)

is here ....dumped on the sofa on Sunday night.

Spring is coming and so I'm off to the garden but I'll fill in the details of the trip and the blanket later on...

Cross stitch progress on the scissors keep

I have been making progress on the cross stitch embroidery project. It may seem like I have some projects that I favour more than others in my rotation system, but this is not so. I love them all equally.

I decided last year to use the rotation system to manage my tapestry, embroidery and knitting projects. The only thing was that I was at different stages with each project and recently I've decided I'd like to get them onto a somewhat equal footing. For the first few months of the rotation system last year, I spent a lot of time knitting and not much time on the embroidery. I'm now very close to being at a reasonable state of balance, which isn't like a karmic thing but more like a warning that in the future there could be many weeks between posts on each project. I have ten projects and in a normal week I get to spend about ten hours on a project. One of the ladies in my tapestry class mentioned she spends about three hours a night working on her embroideries. Her children are grown and have left home so she has plenty of time!

As for now, here's the progress on this project.

I've managed to put in all the mid-gold colour, which defined the bird's foot, neck and parts of the celtic twists in the corner. The pale-gold colour was next and this defined the corner twists and the beak. I still have quite a bit of the pale-gold to stitch into the picture.

I have been better about getting my cross to always fall in the correct direction, but still not perfect. Perfection is for another day.

 

Previous posts

Celtic scissors keep - update (May 26, 2011)

My next Celtic scissors keep - new kit (May 13, 2011)

Celtic scissors keep - finished (May 3, 2011)

 

My next Celtic scissors keep - new kit

I finished a cross stitch kit a few weeks ago that made up into a lovely little scissors keep. It isn't a big project and as I have a number of project bags in the rotation system, each with their own little embroidery kit, I thought I might like to make another one of these. I came across this new Celtic kit in the current Fox catalogue. Here's a look at it. It is a medieval stylised bird. I gather from the instructions that it is an image from an illuminated manuscript. Interesting posture that bird has!

From the Textile Heritage kit blurb ..."this kit is inspired by the richly illuminated gospels produced by Celtic monsatries during the Dark Ages. The Celts were widely distributed throughout Europe, and the British Celts were forced by Anglo-Saxon invasion to move to the remoter northern and western areas of Britain and Ireland. The Celts became Christians earlier than the Anglo-Saxons and developed a rich monastic culture, and sent out missionaries, such as St Columba, who came from Ireland to convert the Scottish Picts. He established a great abbey on the Scottish island of Iona. The monks here would have produced beautiful illuminated gospels. The designs in these texts drew on a wide range of artistic influences, reflecting the scattered origins of the Celts."

There you go. A bit of a potted history of events that took place thousands of years ago, of culture, art, war and religion - all the big themes of life, embroidered onto a piece of Aida and then attached to scissors in Canberra.

Celtic scissors keep - finished

This is a little cross stitch project I started in 2007. I purchased the kit in Sydney at Tapestry Craft, now called Morris and Sons. I think tapestry is not so popular these days!

I finished it just recently and its been waiting patiently to be photographed. When I started it, I was a bit new back to embroidery and had never done any cross stitch, so, I didn't pay that much attention to which way I made my X. It certainly doesn't matter to me. I rather like it, and like having something decorative on my embroidery scissors. As part of the project, you make the tassel by wrapping the red floss around the blue. It wasn't as tricky as it looked in the instructions. It was putting me off finishing it, that last tricky bit of making the tassel, sewing it up and stuffing it. Once I did it, I was fine. Life lesson.

I've ordered another Celtic Scissors Keep from the Fox catalogue. The next one is a stylised bird. I'll show you when it arrives.

Felt ornaments - Christmas santas

I started these Felt ornaments in 2007. They are part of kit I purchased from one of those Fox catalogues. Before I started my Rotation system, I used to stitch them in the month or two before Christmas and it took forever to make any headway.

I'm really loving the rotation system. One of the things I did was set up a sewing bag for each project. I just gathered up all the bits and pieces, put together a small embroidery kit (needles, pincushion, scissors etc) and found a canvas bag. I then needed to clean out the hall cupboard so these 10 project bags would have a place to live. The benefits have been that, if I've got an hour sitting around at piano lessons or tennis, I can grab a project (assuming it isn't a large tapestry on a floor frame!) and take it along and get a bit of work done. I've made so much more headway on these projects. As mentioned previously, I'm really enjoying the variety of stitching as well. And I don't feel at all bogged down with the details.I'm putting things away to start on the next project long before I'm getting frustrated or bored.

The felt comes all pre-stamped and there are detailed instructions and it recommends that you only cut out pieces as you need them. Good plan - otherwise you might end up with thousands of itsy bitsy bits of felt that make no sense. There are two of each santas and I'm doing both versions at the same time. I'm currently working on Mr Red Santa but have already finished Mr Folk Santa with folky black vest and white stars. He's even been on a tree, bringing felty cheer and good tidings. Who knew that Santa needed glasses?

As part of the embroidery, I made the white and black cording by winding white DMC and black DMC together. Kind of fiddly and I'm not sure I really mastered the technique but it's kind of good enough.

Tim's Christmas stocking

My very first tapestry was a Bucilla needlepoint kit of a Christmas stocking with teddy bears and christmas ornaments. I bought it at Lincraft in Belconnen and I stitched it for my son and it took me years. I started it in 1998, a year after he was born, and finished it in 2001. At that stage, there was an embroidery shop in Jamison called Needles and Thread and the woman who ran the shop was a seamstress. She sewed the tapestry into a stocking for me and lined it and attached a hanger and I loved it (and was slightly amazed that I could even make such a thing). Then when my daughter was born, I asked Laura from the Crafty Frog if she would order me another needlepoint stocking kit, which she kindly did. I looked through her catalogues and found one with Santa and a little kitten was tucked up in his pocket. These days you can find lots of these kits on Ebay but a few years ago they were harder to find and there wasn't as much choice. I started it in 2002, and finished it in 2006, and by this time I was in my creative tapestry group and my teacher organised a friend of hers to sew it into a stocking for me.

After finishing Tess' stocking in 2006, I started the Flannel Flowers, which I had purchased in 2004. It was finished in July 2009 and framed by Antoinette at Fine Framing in Jamison. So in 2009, I had the Cat Tapestry and the Ferry sitting there waiting to be shown some love. In 2010, I made a bit of headway on the cat and started the Ferry and decided also to launch into the rotation system for my stitching. This gave me an excuse to have another project on the go. Also, most of the ladies bring along a stitching project to the tapestry class so that once they've completed some of the lesson on a new stitch they then do some work on their project. My teacher, Helen, suggested I should also have a small project that I could bring along (as I really couldn't be bothered struggling with the Ferry in and out of the car - it is way too big! and I didn't want to take the cat as it was not in the creative tapestry genre of stitching). So, long story short, I trawled the now groaning internet of possibilities for Christmas stockings and purchased one for Tim - Tapestry Tent AXS 288 Santa delivering presents and one for me - Tapestry Tent AXS 454 - Angel in the Snow with animals. They are creative tapestry kits, complete with stitching plans and threads and hand painted tapestry.

I was never very good with converting measurement numbers into actual physical sizes so when the website said it was xx inches long, I never actually visualised it and just assumed they were the same size as the stockings from the Bucilla needlepoint kits. But no. That would be too simple. I am clearly not ambitious enough. The universe and my own folly had more lessons for me. I am carrying on, but lets just say they are about twice the size I was expecting. Beautiful and lucious threads and I know when I'm an old lady, very old lady they will be done.

Tim's stocking with name painted at the top.

I have marked both our stockings into three segments - ambitiously hoping for each to take me three years.