What can it BEE?

Back to Blackheath in Essex for another workshop run by the incredible Georgina Bellamy of That Embroidery Girl. This time I was learning how to make a 3d goldwork bee. Most of the day was spent getting the padding base right so that the metal work could be laid over the top.

Final padding in place

Hmm, maybe a little large

The bee was then outlined in purl pearl and the thorax and eyes highlighted (also with purl pearl). Pearl purl is a stiff coiled wire thread often used to outline areas of goldwork.  It was then the fun started and the smooth and rough purl could be added. I continued to add purls when I got home and made a start on outlining the wings. These will then be covered in smooth and rough purl and added to the top of the bee.

Cutwork in place

Wings started

I would thoroughly recommend Georgina’s courses – they are friendly, fun, in a lovely venue, great value for money and she is a lovely lady – very generous with her knowledge. Now just to finish this off and then it is back to the octopus.

And here is some of Georgina’s work…

Thanks for popping in. Have a wonderful weekend of sewing!

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SAL 18 – Finally fished!

Hi everyone, I am pleased to report that I have finally finished my little fish! I can’t say that I have enjoyed the project and am a little disappointed with the end result – but can now move on to something new! Yipee!

Thank you for popping in. Happy stitching and I hope to see you all in another 3 weeks.
We are a small group of crafters using a variety of different techniques. Please check out the fabulous stitching by all the other members of the SAL. If you are interested in joining us you can contact Avis for details.
Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Helen, Linda, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny Sunny, HayleyHayley, Megan Megan, Clare Clare, MaryMargaret MaryMargaret, ReneeRenee , JennyJenny , CarmelaCarmela , JocelynJocelyn , SharonSharon

A project with legs!

Spent a couple of days on my little octopus that I started a few weeks ago on a workshop run by Georgina Bellamy of That Embroidery Girl .

Covered in cutwork

Cutwork over soft padding

The first job was to use soft string to complete the padding for all 8 legs. These were then outlined in pearl purl which was stretched and couched down with invisible thread. Once all the legs had been outlined the soft string padding was then covered in smooth and rough purl. I am quite pleased with the results so far – now all I have to do is the leg tips and cover the body!

Happy stitching everyone.

Taking liberties….

Sew I decided to take part in another couple of sewing swaps – both are Christmas swaps run by Tracy of Madaboutbags . The first is an advent swap and for this I need to make or buy 24 little gifts to be opened each day of December. The second is a Santa’s sack swap for which I have to make a bag or stocking filled with 5 hand made or bought gifts. So this weekend I decided to make a start on a small sack – but my partner is not keen on Christmas fabrics and so I chose to use up some liberty scraps. I made up the design based on a picture she had posted as I could not find a pattern.

First I cut out 8 strips of Liberty scraps into 6.5″ x 2″ strips, these were then sewn together. I then made a little strap from linen and liberty. The strap and scraps were then sandwiched between two strips of linen, both 6″x 12″. This was to be the front of the bag. I repeated the process (minus the strap) for the back of the bag.

From the same fabrics I also made two casings to go around the top of the bag and thread the drawstring through.  One of the casing was laid on top of one of the bag panels and then a lining material placed over the both. All three parts were then sewn along the top edge and pressed open. As you can see from the photo below, I repeated the process for the back of the bag.

The two panels were then put right sides together and the edges sewn around – leaving a small opening, corners were boxed and the whole thing was turned the right way out. Here is the end result….

I hope she likes it………………now for the rest of the gifts!!!

Happy stitching everyone!

 

 

Silk Shading Happy Dance!

Going in to the final day my silk shading piece looked like this…. just a cm or two to complete.

By lunch time I had put in the final stitches and the piece was checked for missing stitches before it could finally be removed from the frame. The last afternoon of the intensive course was spent pinning my piece of work to the boards I had prepared earlier on in the week. More pins are added as the work is gradually stretched to remove any puckering in the fabric. I did manage to ladder stitch all four corners and then went around the whole piece in herringbone stitch.

All that is left to do is to add the sateen to the back of the piece to neaten everything off. Yay!

I have really enjoyed the intensive course – the class had only 7 students in total with a tutor, Deb Wilding, and future tutor, Jung Byun, to help out. It was a very relaxed atmosphere with lots of help and support on hand. I might have just been lucky with the mix of students and the tutors that we had – but on my experience this week, I would thoroughly recommend it to others.

Happy stitching one and all.

Silk shading day 7/8

Another day at home and I managed to finish off the leaf and add the lime/yellow highlights to the flower spathe.

I have been looking forward to adding more colour to this piece – but think after 10 days of non-stop sewing, I have finally hit a brick wall and the mixture of colours within the flower have totally deluded me today. Here is what I managed to complete – but I am still not happy about the combination of threads.

I am hoping to finish tomorrow as it is mounting day – not sure I will be able to complete all the mounting, but I am quite pleased to have got so much completed.

Happy stitching everyone.

World embroidery day – silk shading

I just love that World embroidery day is on my birthday! I thought it was just a one off date to start off with, but now make sure that I spend time sewing every time it comes around! Today I spent a ‘working from home’ day sewing my silk shading piece. I need to get the leaf finished as well as the top edge of the flower spathe before I go back into the RSN on Thursday.  If I manage to do that then I will stand a good chance of being able to mount up on the Friday!

Here is where I got to today…

Happy stitching everyone!