26 September 2013

The Madness Continues ...

This week I spent most of my embroidery class planning where I would place lace etc. Sophie suggested I work on all four blocks simultaneously, so that I could get a good balance of colours and textures.  I have started to add the lace and some of the ribbon embroidery. There still seems to be an awful lot of empty spaces to fill!







20 September 2013

Hand Quilting the Welsh Quilt

I love to have a hand quilting project on the go at all times, I pieced my version of a Welsh quilt held by the V & A last autumn, so that I could have something to hand quilt. I blogged about the quilt back in November, you can read about it HERE.
It has been too hot this summer for hand quilting, especially as I am using a wool batting; but now it is turning cooler I am looking forward to sitting under it as I work :) I brought it with me to a friend's house this morning when I went for coffee and managed to get a little done in between chatting and eating cake!
I have finished the centre square and started on the first cable border.
I normally choose a patterned backing fabric to hide my hand quilting stitches, but this time I bought a plain cream tone on tone as I want to replicate the look of a wholecloth quilt on the back. I am happy with the way it is progressing.


18 September 2013

Crazy Wedding Sampler, Let the Fun Begin !

Embroidery class started again on Monday following the summer break. I have finally started to embellish the first of my crazy wedding sampler quilt blocks. Most of the lesson was spent trying to decide on colours, stitches etc, but I did manage to attach some lace and do a little ribbon embroidery. I love working with silk ribbon and am really enjoying learning how to use it, I plan to do a lot more ribbon embroidery before this is finished!



10 September 2013

Getting ready for Autumn

Now that it has turned decidedly chilly around here, I am spending less time in the garden and more time indoors. I have started to look at projects I want to work on this autumn/winter. One of these is 'The Manifesto' by Scarlet Letter.
Looking back through my blog, I realise that I started kitting this up in February, really?! I could have sworn it was the beginning of summer! but no, blog posts don't lie this has been waiting in the wings since the end of last winter!! I started by converting the chart from a cross stitch in silks/DMC to a needlepoint in appleton's wools. You can read about my conversion HERE
Then I had to wait for the crewel wools to arrive...
and for the background colours to be specially dyed...
and then I discovered that I didn't have a frame big enough! so had to order one of those too!
I finally have everything ready and the fabric mounted on my frame. Rain is forecast for this weekend so I don't need to feel guilty about stitching instead of gardening :)

Project Notes:
Count : 600 x 381
finished size: approx. 30" x 19"
fabric: Penelope 10/20 needlepoint canvas
fibres: Appleton's crewel wool
motifs: over one with one strand crewel wool and size 22 needle
background: over two with three strands crewel wool and size 18 needle

04 September 2013

A Small finish

Back in May I started a small strawberry embroidery I had designed, it sat in my sewing room all summer until I got it out again this afternoon.
I decided that I did not like the strawberry leaves nor the white flower, so I unpicked the leaves this afternoon and restitched them.
I like this much better now, and rather than redo the white flower, I decided to turn the strawberry into a nifty little needle-case.
I followed the excellent tutorial from nanaCompany, you can find it HERE
I am really happy with it, and it's a finish!!

01 September 2013

A new SAL

This autumn I will start a new SAL :) we will be stitching the AJS 1871 Sampler from Saxony by Gigi R Collection Privee the stitch count is 237 x 670
I will be using the charted 34 colours of The Gentle Art Sampler Threads and Simply Shaker hand dyed cotton threads.
I have decided to stitch it on Zweigart 36ct Edinburgh Linen in colour 'Summer Khaki'
I need to buy a bigger piece of linen and then I am ready to start!