Horsin’ around…

Another weekend and another fantastic goldwork course with the amazing Georgina Bellamy of ‘That Embroidery Girl’ This time we were learning how to make a seahorse. This piece, although small needed quite a considerable amount of padding work to be completed. So much so, that this took most of the weekend. There is at least 5 layers of padding below the thin white felt that you can see in the picture below.

Once the padding had been completed, and covered in a thinner felt, the head was cut around to release it and folded back on itself. – This gave a more 3D effect to the piece.

A bead was sewn in place for the eye and an eyelid made by the addition of a strip of felt across the bead. The seahorse was outlined in a stretched pearl purl. I decided to add a little crown at this point be twisting jewellery wire around fresh water purls and purple crystals. This was sewn in place along the head of the little critter.

I think he is looking quite cute already. What do you think?

Thank you for popping by, happy stitching.

SAL 25 -A bird in the hand….

Hello everyone, I do seem to have managed to get a little bit of sewing done in the last three weeks! Last time we got together I had just attended a day course with the wonderful Georgina Bellamy of ‘That Embroidery Girl’ and was in the process of stitching a metal work robin, I had finished off all the padding and made a start on adding the metals. Here is where I was at….

The next step was to add the wing feathers – these were made by dying some cotton material with acrylic paints and then covering with gold and bronze gutta in quite a haphazard design. The wing feathers were sewn above a layer of vinyl feathers over the felt backing.

The breast of the bird was sewn in smooth purl. I used three shades of red and looped the metal as you can see here….. The loops were interspersed with bright check chippings.

Here is a close up of the looped metal… Cotton thread is passed up through the felt and into the little metal tubes before being plunged back down into the padding.

And here is where I am at as I write this (however, I have written this in advance – so might actually be further along when this is published! – Is that cheating a little?).

I am really enjoying sewing this little project as it is not too difficult so I can pick it up and do a few minutes each evening. I do hope you are all having fun with your projects, can’t wait to see what you have been up to!

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,  Heidi, Jackie, Sunny,  Hayley,  Megan, MaryMargaret, Renee,  Caremla,  Jocelyn,  Sharon,  Daisy , Anne,  Connie,   CJ

Canvas – happy dance!

Yay, I am pleased to announce that I have finally finished my canvas work piece for the RSN certificate. I had hoped to finish 3 lessons ago, but snagging took a week and I am very slow when it comes to mounting. I find cutting mounting board accurately particularly difficult.

As you can see I finished the collar around the ladies neck – this was done in turkey rug, a stitch that I am particularly fond of. But the woman’s face is not quite right. Her nose looks rather bumpy to me, but my tutors assured me it was just because of the stitch that I had chosen and the fact that I was too invested in the piece – they suggested I put it away and look at it again later. I have done this and I still wish I had removed a couple of stitches before mounting! The whole point of this piece is the stylised nature of the horse and her face – Oh well, too late now!

Sunrise by Sergey Smirnov.

I haven’t quite finished the mounting process yet and still need to herringbone around all the edges and add the backing – but I am so close that I feel I can begin my happy dance! Here I come goldwork!

Happy stitching one and all.

SAL 24….

Hi all, well I am not around this week as I am still away on my Christmas holidays. I hope you all had a wonderful festive season and hope to catch up in the New Year!

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,  Linda,  Heidi,  Jackie,  Sunny,  Hayley,  Megan,  MaryMargaret,  Renee,  Jenny,  Jocelyn,  Sharon,  Daisy ,  Anne,  Connie

Merry Christmas…

Merry Christmas everyone! I just thought you might like to see my finished stocking. The pattern is a free download from Sunny day Supplies who hold a stocking SAL every year – although I was a little too late with this one.

So here was where I was up to last week….

I had patchworked 2″ squares together using the interfacing method which I find allows me to be more accurate when matching up smaller pieces of material. It also means that you can sew whole rows of squares together rather than individual pieces. All that was left to do, before I could sew everything together, was to decorate the top half of the stocking. I used a mini-Dresden on both the back and front of the stocking and then embroidered around these in a sparkly thread. I am quite pleased with the result and may try making a few more next year.

Happy stitching and have a wonderful stitchy Christmas!

Christmas stitching

I have been busy recently sewing Christmas gifts for family and friends. In the last 3 weeks I have been making reading cushions and although I have wrapped up two already, I did manage to take a picture of the third. I did not have a pattern for the cushion and so just made it up as I went along – although the mushroom block was a free download. I was quite pleased with my first attempt, however there are some areas that I had to rush so could be improved upon.

I am now in the middle of stitching a patchwork stocking for one of my nieces – I hope to embroider this before finishing. The pattern is a free download Sunny day Supplies  I was planning on joining in with their stocking SAL – but couldn’t quite get started in time! Loving the colours so far.

For the little patchwork squares I used the interfacing method – which made my life much easier and I think the squares look much neater too.

Thanks for popping in, happy stitching.

SAL 23: Rockin’ Robin

Hi everyone, sorry I am posting so late but it has been a busy weekend of visiting friends and relatives. Another 3 weeks has whizzed past and I have done nothing on my SAL sewing project. Instead I am working on a beautiful goldwork robin that has been designed by Georgina Bellamy of That Embroidery Girl.  Here is her sample piece..

I attended a one day workshop that she was running. During the day I managed to get all the padding work completed. The next step was to outline the body, wings and tail with pearl purl. A bead was added for the eye and a beak sewn together out of black felt. Then for the fun – I could start to add the smooth and rough purls. Here is where I am up to (and as this is now in my embroidery hoop, I intend to finish this before going back to my little blue wren).

 

The robin is meant to hang as a tree decoration, but I think I might add mine to the front of a Christmas stocking – I think it will work very well.

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, Linda, Heidi,  Jackie,  Sunny,  Hayley,  Megan,  MaryMargaret,  Renee,  Jenny, Jocelyn,  Sharon,  Daisy , Anne,  Connie

SAL 22: Aaaaah!

Hi all, I am afraid that I have made little progress. I have finished the little birds tail -but then all my attention has been diverted onto Christmas makes. I have completed 4 patchwork reading cushions, 4 tubs and 2 fridge tidies. Unfortunately I have also left my camera half way round the M25 so cannot take pictures of anything either!! Not a very successful post!

Hopefully the other members of the SAL will have more progress (and pictures) to show.
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,  Linda,  Heidi,  Jackie,  Sunny,  Hayley,  Megan,  MaryMargaret,  Renee,  Jenny ,  Carmela ,  Jocelyn ,  Sharon ,  Daisy , Anne, Connie

SAL 21: Making a start

Hi everyone, another 3 weeks has whizzed by and the evenings are drawing in quickly. I don’t know what it is about this time of year – but I just seem to pack everything away at 4.00pm and shut myself away in front of the fire! But I have managed to make a start on my blue wren (Kit by Jenny Adin-Christie). I have started with his tail – this involved silk shading three areas in three different blues before outlining with silver purl pearl. Blue passing thread was then used to fill in the remaining areas.

 

Happy stitching everyone.
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,  Linda,  Heidi,  Jackie,  Sunny,  Hayley,  Megan, Mary Margaret,  Renee,  Jenny ,  Carmela ,  Jocelyn ,  Sharon ,  Daisy ,  Anne, Connie

The Final push….

I finally got back into my canvas work this weekend after a long summer break. Following a trip to the RSN I managed to finalise the stitches for the last elements on the canvas to be sewn. Last time you saw it – it looked like this….

After much sampling I decided to use long and short stitch for the woman’s hair. It seemed to be the only stitch that would flow around the shape and create a definite parting at the top of her head. The lower left hand corner of orange ‘squares’ was also proving problematic as they were a mix of almost square and almost rectangular shapes on a bend. After talking with the tutors, I finally settled on a Bargello stitch. This gave the impression of a curved area – but still gave blocks of colour. The area around the face was  to be turkey rug as I wanted a velvety look for the coats collar. So after a day of stitching here is my progress….

The turkey rug needs a little shaping around the woman’s nose and chin as it looks rather lumpy – but other than that I am nearly finished. Yippee! Just a couple of little bits to fill in and then I can take this off the frame and get it mounted.

Roll on Goldwork!

Happy stitching everyone!