A weft yarn

Blue Felt Santas finished

Date: November, 2012

These little guys are done.

The story so far. I purchased the Bucilla felt Santas kit from the Fox collection catalogue back in 2007. I started stitching in October 2008 and finished in October 2012. The 6 little felt santas (2 folky ones, 2 red ones, 2 blue ones) took 73 hours of stitching to complete. I did two at at time, finishing the same features as I went...so beards for two Santas, hats for two Santas - that kind of thing. The Christmas tree got to display the first set of Santas in 2010, then another two in 2011, and the final two in 2012. The other four guys are stored away in the Christmas decorations box. At Christmas time the six guys will all get together and I'll organise a group photo. Given they are Santas, I'm sure it will go well.

 

 

Previous posts

Felt Santas: so close (September 2012)

Berry Blue Felt Santas (June 2012)

Felt Folky Santas join the Fat Red Santas (Jan 2012)

Fat Red Santas - done and done (Nov 2011)

Red felt Santas - October 2011 (October 2011)

Santas - embroidery update (June 2011)

Felt ornaments - Christmas santas (April 2011)

Progress on Threadpainting Zebras

Date: July 2012

I thought you might like to see how the Zebras on the African blanket are getting on. These photos are from July 2012. At that stage, I had managed to get quite a bit done in a stitching session. The Zebras are looking good. I love how bright and sharp the image is.

I tend to spend quite a bit of time looking at Jenny's stitching notes, her pictures and diagrams. As I grow in confidence, I'm sure I'll make these animals more my own but for now I like the challenge of making them look like the picture in the instructions.

 

I quite like to think of myself as still in my apprenticeship stage. I want to learn to do this work through my teacher's eyes and then when I have mastered my technique, I will consider how to put my own creative slant on the work. For now, it is lovely to watch the zebra grow in shape in colour on the blanket.

 

 

 

Stitching paraphernalia interests me - bits and bobs and tools. I love to see the details of other stitcher's work spaces, so I share mine here.

Previous posts

Zebras have got legs: African blanket (June 21, 2012)

African blanket: Threadpainting Zebras (April 12, 2012)

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)

Felt Santas: so close

I am getting close....Blue Felt Santas are nearly finished.

A bit of work on the hats, the plumping, the boots and then we will be finished.

These guys are looking forward to joining their buddies on the tree in Summer. Can you feel it coming? We had a warm weekend and the mornings are getting lighter and lighter (still a bit frosty and cold). I'll be posting the beginning of Spring over on my garden blog soon. Don't wait for me though. I wouldn't want to hold the Sun back, just get into it and then report on your own little bit of warmth and sunshine and promise of green leafy energy.

 

Previous posts

Berry Blue Felt Santas (June 2012)

Felt Folky Santas join the Fat Red Santas (Jan 2012)

Fat Red Santas - done and done (Nov 2011)

Red felt Santas - October 2011 (October 2011)

Santas - embroidery update (June 2011)

Felt ornaments - Christmas santas (April 2011)

Finished! Celtic Cross stitch scissors keep no 2

At the beginning of 2012, I was very close to finishing this. If I could just have abided by my words from Feb 2012 I would have 7 hours of my life back, and I would have posted a finished object much earlier in the year.

Here's what I said in Feb:

I felt a bit annoyed with myself on this tiny project. I didn't absorb the instructions very well and so missed the fact that the back stitching should have been done one square at a time. Instead, I did a more free-form back stitch. Some of them are long, some are short. I wouldn't do that again. I'd go for the neater, one square at a time stitch. But, time waits for no stitcher and so I'll live with this, sew it up and call it done.

What you see before you in the photo below is the 'corrected' and restitched celtic bird. I pulled out the offending back stitches. This.was.not.easy. *breathe* But once I was into it, there was no turning back. It took hours of painstaking cutting and pulling with tweezers. I did it while watching Hugo on DVD with the kids. We loved that film in the cinema. It is so beautifully and artistically filmed. Well, second time around, I was intensely concentrating on minuscule bits of golden thread. I only pulled out the back stitching, nothing else.

I then had to go buy a skein of dark gold DMC because I had used up all the kit thread. Then, in a reasonably short amount of time...say an hour or so...I managed to restitch the back stitches, one stitch per square, then sew up the little puppy and make the tassel and put him to good use.

I really like the design of the celtic bird with the Illuminated Manuscript overtones, so I am very pleased I made it. I have also learned a valuable technique and have been reminded (once again) to read instructions. Enjoy and go forward.

 

Previous posts

Celtic bird cross stitch nearly finished (February 2012)

Progress on the cross stitch (December 2011)

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)

Zebras have got legs: African blanket

I have recently had a ten hour stitching session on the Threadpainting project: the African blanket. I have three incomplete animals on this blanket - Zebras, Elephants and Giraffes. My goal this year is that when I return to Jenny's class in October, I aim to have all three finished. I have made a bit of progress on the Zebras.

The baby zebra's body and head are stitched and three out of the four legs are done.

You put the black in first and then when the shiny white Perle 5 goes in around the black, it does a lot to pull the image together. I love this technique. It is quite paint by numbers, which is good for me as a novice stitcher. It takes enough care and skill development for me to just put the thread where I roughly want it to go. I'm glad I'm not also having to design, sketch and imagine colours.

Just as a reminder of progress, the photo below is an image of where I was at in April 2012. I love watching the animals grow under my fingers. They start to take on personalities.

Previous posts

African blanket: Threadpainting Zebras (April 12, 2012)

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)

Berry Blue Felt Santas

I have been making progress on the Felt Santas project. I stitch these little fellows while I sit in the Piano teacher's studio, listening to my children learn and repeat their latest piano pieces. I've mentioned before how much I love this little piece of time in my week, to just sit still, stitch and listen to my children's music. My son is doing Grade 4 Piano this year and so he needs a longer lesson to prepare for the AMEB exam later in the year. I now have slightly longer than an hour a week to put into a little stitching project. Bonus.

It has been ticking over, week by week. The berries on the little blue coat went in easily and then I stumbled on the satin stitched belt. People sometimes complain that these little kits don't come with very good instructions and there's a lot of assumed knowledge. I'm not sure how it could be different and you do have to learn somewhere, so why not on a little project like this? Anyway, it wasn't clear to me whether I should satin stitch the belt over the printed lines on the felt or just up to the lines. Then when I cut out my first go at it, I realised I really should have satin stitched over the lines - so that they didn't show. In trying to cut really close to the lines, I cut through the stitching and it unravelled. So, I started again with a new piece of white felt but in drawing the pattern onto felt, with a pen, I ended up leaving marks behind. I'm not perfectionist enough to do it again. Its ok by me. Lessons learnt.

I've also learnt to do the applique part of the sewing process just a little bit better than in this photo above. I was trying to do it too much like a scoopy, scoopy stitch. That's a technical term by the way. When really, the applique stitch is with a single strand (not two strands) - the instructions do tell you this. And furthermore, the sitch is more a straight, up and down, stab stitch. Now that I'm practicing that, I find the applique part looks a bit more even.

Pretty soon, he'll have his smiling beard on and we'll all be happy.

I feel like I'm closing in on these guys. Two done and the third and final one in a pretty advanced state. Now Christmas, you just take your time in coming. No need to rush up on me all sudden like. I've still got Winter, the Tour de France, the olympics, Spring, a birthday, Father's day, two sets of school holidays.....heaps of time before Christmas.

Previous posts

Felt Folky Santas join the Fat Red Santas (Jan 2012)

Fat Red Santas - done and done (Nov 2011)

Red felt Santas - October 2011 (October 2011)

Santas - embroidery update (June 2011)

Felt ornaments - Christmas santas (April 2011)

California Poppy and bumble bee - pretty much finished

Woo hoo. Nearly finished. Well, actually finished stitching, just need to work out if I'm buying the paperweight thingy to put it in. And if not, what to do with it. I do love it. The fuzzy bee, the colourful poppies, the sense of a botanical specimen with the three stages of a flower. Brilliant design on Jane's part and impressive enough beginner stitching on my part.

I am really thrilled with this. While I enjoyed going to Sydney (what's not to love), and meeting Jane Nicholas, and hanging out with all the nice embroidery ladies, I found the class pretty intense. Jane really wants you to accomplish a set amount of things before the class is over. In order to achieve this, there was homework on the Saturday night and we had to focus during the stitching and really move at a bit of pace. As a group, we were often quite silent while we concentrated on mastering some tiny detail. When someone asked what's it like to do a more advanced class, Jane said 'the only big difference is the pace...we move faster'. Basically, she teaches you all the techniques at the beginner's level and the only big distinction between this and an advanced piece is mastery and speed.

I must admit though, I actually enjoyed the stitching much more when I was home in my own chair, in my own slowly paced lounge room.

I set up a sampler before I did the class. As mentioned in this post, I needed the hoops for the Poppy class but I also wanted to practice a bit before I went so that I could keep up. If you are a reasonably accomplished embroiderer, taking on the stumpwork components probably wouldn't be too daunting. To do both at once I have found a tad challenging. So, if you've done plenty of surface embroidery and know your way around a fly stitch, a stem stitch, some turkey knots, buttonhole stitch, back stitch it is much easier when Jane shows you how to apply those stitches to miniature organza bee wings.

 The techniques that we were taught in the class were:

1. wire detached fabric shapes - method 1: the poppy petals (embroidered surface and edge)
2. wire detached fabric shapes - method 2: the bee wings (embroidered edge only)
3. Needleweaving with wire - poppy centre (pistil) is worked over 33 gauge florists wire that has been coloured green. The needleweaving is an in and out/up and down with one thread between the florists wire. 
4. Needleweaving without wire-  to create the stigmas on the seed capsule.These don't have any wire in them but still achieve a raised effect.
5. Working the stems: Stem stitch
6. Working the stems: Raised stem band - padding with soft cotton and then raised stem stitch in alternating light green, dark green.
7. Fusing wing fabrics together
8. Turkey knots for the bee's fuzzy body
9. Attaching wire to main background.

I'm taking this list from Jane Nicholas' book. At the start of The Complete Book of Stumpwork Embroidery she lists the techniques that are relevant to this type of embroidery. This one little sampler manages to squeeze a fair few in!

 I'm pretty hooked now. I'll pack this away and move on to one of my other 10-hour projects but my foray into stumpwork has left me feeling really happy. Thank you, Jane Nicholas, for such excellent projects and lessons.

Previous posts

Stumpwork embroidery course: what can you do in 2 days? (June 2012)

Stumpwork boysenberries and ladybird - walnut pincushion (June 2012)

Almost finished my first ever, teensy weensy, stumpwork project (May 2012)

Stumpwork - new project (September 2011)

Stumpwork embroidery course - what can you do in 2 days?

I was in Sydney at the end of May to do a weekend stitching class in stumpwork. Jane Nicholas designed this class to teach at the EGA in California a few years ago. When finished it can fit into a paperweight and is called 'California poppy and bumble bee'. It is a perfect little beginner's class. At least to my mind. On a small piece of satin, and across two days, you get to try out a whole range of stumpwork techniques. Like my first piece, it really is intended to be a kind of sampler. It's just that Jane designs them so well, you end up with something beyond a sampler.

Jane gives you a photo of the completed piece and the image is bigger than the real life image, so you get an opportunity to really look at the details as you stitch. Sometimes that can be a bit daunting because she is so experienced and accomplished in this art form. On any new adventure you have to start somewhere and while it is nice to learn from the masters, it isn't particularly helpful to compare oneself to them! So I didn't.

I had a lovely time in the class. Even though it was advertised as a beginners class there were at least three experienced stumpwork embroiderers attending (two of whom sat at my table), and there was one woman who had never attended any stumpwork classes but who had completed an entire picture frame sized stumpwork embroidery just from following the instructions in one of Jane's books (most impressive).

One of my favourite parts of the whole weekend was when the ladies brought in their show and tell on the Sunday! My god, there's some talented people out there. Stumpwork, hardanger, ribbon embroidery, smocking, book binding - were just some of the things these ladies could do. It was very exciting.

When I went to my monthly Tapestry class and reported on my forays into embroidery, I was really pleased to hear that the two ladies who started the Tapestry Studio had also taken lessons at Mosman Needlecraft. They had branched out into hardanger - not something I've tried yet. Notice the yet. Ha. Seriously, I have way too much on at the moment, I'm not anywhere near a 'yet' status with a new type of embroidery.

Stumpwork boysenberries and ladybird - walnut pincushion

My first stumpwork project - finished. My first project for 2012 - finished. I'm feeling really pleased with myself. I think I've spoken before about how I do like to get some things done. I don't mind having a lot on the go, but I do need to, every so now and again, have something that is finished.

I love this little pincushion for other reasons too. I like its quirky, eccentric feel. I love that it makes the needle look gigantic - maybe like the kind of sword to be used by a very brave mouse -

I also love the gold paint on the walnut shell. Jane Nicholas very kindly gave me these walnut shells. As I mentioned in this post, I decided to finish the boysenberries and ladybird because (1) I needed the frames for the next project and (2) I needed to do some stumpwork sampler practice before the next class. When I went up to Sydney for Jane's class in May, I proudly showed her that I had completed it and she was generous in her support and praise. When I said I was keen to finish it by putting it in a walnut shell - she then offered me the walnut shells, told me she had a gold one (love) and then posted them to me after the course was completed.

You sometimes find this with supremely gifted people - they have the capacity to be really good at what they do and also be generous and supportive to learners.

Previous posts

Almost finished my first ever, teensy weensy, stumpwork project (May 2012)

Stumpwork - new project (September 2011)

Almost finished my first ever, teensy weensy, stumpwork project

It is the size of a walnut. And there's no way such an uninspiring title conveys my enthusiasm for this project or for this type of embroidery. In the photo Jane Nicholas gives you at the start of this project, you can see that the finished object can be presented as a tiny pincushion stuffed into half a walnut shell. Or you could mount it on a pendant to hang around your neck. So...not big. But yet, tiny things...can be massive and exciting.

I started this little project on a one day course in Goulburn last July. We were deep in the middle of our renovation and I had to wait to see the builders before I could make the hour long drive to Goulburn, so was late arriving in Goulburn. Then I had to leave the course earlier than planned and so only got to spend about an hour and a half learning the techniques of stumpwork. After this taste of the class with Jane Nicholas I thought I had learnt enough to want to do more, so kept an eye out for another beginner's course in stumpwork. I had been advised that it was wise to do a beginner's level course with this type of embroidery.

Anyway, the little tiny piece of stumpwork sat in the two frames for nearly a year. Then as part of the preparation for the next beginner's piece, I pulled out Jane's book and started thinking about how to be a bit better prepared for the next class. I'd had enough of a taste in the first class to realise that Jane takes you at a fairly focussed pace and there isn't much time for fluffing around not exactly knowing what you are doing. Earlier in 2012, I had signed up for a class at Mosman Needlecraft to do another beginner's piece called California Poppy and Bumble bee. I had the class requirements list and so realised that I needed the two frames that were currently occupied with the ladybug and boysenberries.

 

The universe was telling me to jump in, finish the the first tiny sampler piece and thus release my hoops for the next two day class. So I did. Thankfully, it was quite a bit easier than I expected. Sometimes I build things up in my mind and they seem way bigger than a walnut! I am pleased I pushed myself because it meant I have nearly finished a project (just need the walnut) and more importantly, I felt that going into the next class that I had done a bit of preparation. Probably most, most importantly though, I confirmed that I really did like this type of embroidery. Playfulness and precision. An interesting mix.

Just as a reminder, this is what I had finished after the course in July 2011. There are two hoops in the photo below. The orange one has a leaf and a stem finished. And the green hoop has a piece of red homespun cotton with a wire coloured red to match fabric and thread, shaped into the opened wings of the ladybug.

Previous posts

Stumpwork - new project (September 2011)