Tall Year Square Etui SAL 1

Posted on January 21, 2018 by craftycreeky

Last year I happened to see a photograph of a beautiful embroidered etui box, I traced it back to a Classic Inspirations magasine so I ordered it immediately. My mum used to get Classic Inspirations years ago, they are an Australian embroidery magasine and they really are in a class of their own, I highly recommend them as they really do inspire!! When it arrived there were three projects I particularly liked, so I have the next three projects lined up for the stitch-a-long! Tall Year Square Classic Inspirations

The Tall Year Square etui is designed by Betsy Morgan of the USA. Each side reflects a different season with different colour fabrics and threads, the designs have seasonal motifs but also have border patterns running around the box. I ordered the different shades of Permin 32 count linen, I didn’t realise there were so many gorgeous shades of linen!!

The threads were more of an issue as Betsy uses Gloriana stranded silk. I’m sure these are absolutely beautiful and wonderful to use, but they are £5.76 each here in the UK and she uses over thirty colours!!! I decided to stick with DMC at £1 each instead, especially as I already have a large collection.I prevaricated for a while as I was trying to find DMC threads of the same variegated colour range, this clearly wasn’t going to be possible.

I decided to choose my own seasonal colours, I started with spring and thought about what colours I think of when I think of spring. For me it’s fresh green leaves, yellow daffodils, bluebells and a touch of pink cherry blossom. I looked through my DMC variegated threads and chose five as a starting point.Choosing embroidery threads

I’ve started at the bottom with a little flower border in cross-stitch.It took me a while to get my head round stitching individual cross-stitches each time rather than rows as that way the variegation is clearest. The narrow green row is a long legged cross-stitch stitched with a single strand of thread, that’s repeated several times up the side. The satin stitch triangles are stitched with two strands to give enough cover.

Second or third attempt at colours!!

The charts provided have taken a bit of getting used to as they show every thread, rather than a box per cross-stitch as I’m used to. I’ve just finished the wavy border, it took several attempts and lots of unpicking before I was happy with the colours. My first thought was to use plain thread  rather than variegated as I didn’t want to end up with too much variegation overall. The DMC website suggests that the Colaris range use four actual thread colours in each variegation. I was hoping they would specify which ones so I could use them for the waves. I couldn’t find any information on this so I tried matching from my collection, but half way into the second wave I just wasn’t happy and unpicked it all.

In the end  after several attempts I just used a different variegated thread for each one, two of them I’d used in the lower borders, and I’m sure I’ll repeat the others too so hopefully it will give it a bit of continuity.

I’m pleased with my first efforts, though at the moment it takes longer to choose the colour than it does to actually stitch the border! Hopefully once spring is completed and I have a bit more of an idea on how the colours work the decisions on the other three seasons won’t take as long. It’s actually pretty small, less than three inches across and about 7″ tall.Tall Year Square Classic Inspirations

The stitch-a-long is organised by Avis of Stitching by the Sea, there quite a few of us now all stitching our own choice of projects. Why not have a look what everyone else is stitching, just follow the links to see some stunning projects;

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Kate, Jess, Sue, Constanze, Debbierose, Christina,

Kathy, Cindy, Helen, Steph, Linda, Catherine, Mary Margaret,

Heidi, Connie, Jackie

Everyone is in different time scales, so if there isn’t a post when you first look, check later in the day. If you fancy joining us for the SAL, just send a message to Avis.

Posted in embroidery, Serendipity, Stitch-a-long | Tagged , , , | 52 Comments

Friday Photo Challenge

Posted on January 19, 2018 by craftycreeky

The theme set this week by Postcard from Gibraltar for a photograph is Me, Myself & I. It did take me quite a while to decide on a photo for this one as I have to admit I’m not that keen on photos of me, I know, it sounds a bit odd from someone with a blog but there you go! I also felt it needed to be not just a picture of me, as clearly myself and I also need to be included!!

I’ve chosen the photo below which is from a post I wrote over Christmas. Helen and I were doing a sew-a-long together, making a Coatigan each. I felt it showed me in lots of different roles, apart from just being myself enjoying a sewing day…

…me the mother, teaching my daughter, me the dress-maker, me the wife as it’s actually taken by my OH!

So here it is…

Me, Myself & I

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The Final Border!

Posted on January 16, 2018 by craftycreeky

I have just started the final border on my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt, this doesn’t mean I’m nearly there as I still have a side to applique vines on….all those leaves! I decided to cut out and stitch the remaining border as it’s all machine stitched, so as soon as I’ve hand-stitched my vines, I will hopefully be able to stitch the border straight on and finish my quilt….I’ve also another quilt which I need to make by the end of February so I really want to clear my cutting table of rabbit fabrics so I can concentrate on that one!

The last border is a geometric one, squares on points. it doesn’t appear to be as hard as it looks, or so Sarah Fielke tells us! It took me a while to work out the fabrics as I was limited by what I had left, so it’s a bit ‘scrappy’ but I think it will bring the quilt together. Having seen a few colour ways on facebook I decided I wanted a darker shade in the centre, surrounded by light squares, with medium triangles in the gaps. Down the Rabbit Hole

I didn’t have enough of any of the dark purple fabrics to do all 60 squares, so I’ve used three different ones, there are only four of the darkest one so they will be in the corners. I also had to pick and mix a bit for the light green squares, basically using up what I had left. It worked out quite well that one particularly pretty fabric was just enough to do the four corner squares. I’ve now got four piles of squares stitched together, ready to be made into the border.

For the triangles I’m working my way through all the little squares and strips I’ve got left, I’ve cut out all the purple ones I need, just a few more green ones required. I couldn’t resist starting to sew a few together to see how it was working out…Down the Rabbit Hole

As the previous border is a mid purple shade, my plan was to have all the green fabrics on the inside and all the purple on the outside. Then I started playing around with them, so now I’m not so sure!Down the Rabbit Hole

I think I might prefer the alternating one, I think I need to stitch a few more ministrips so I get a bigger picture, maybe laying the whole quilt out with them…Down the Rabbit Hole

I had to chuckle at the weekend, over the last six months I’ve started trying to do the cryptic crossword in the Metro, a free paper here in the UK. With cryptic crosswords you really need to do the same one regularly so you get to know the writer and his clues. I like the way you can work out an answer with cryptic ones, I often keep trying for several days as I suddenly work one out. I don’t often finish the crossword but I like trying! What made me chuckle on Sunday is that I finally worked out an answer to a clue in Fridays crossword and it really shouldn’t have taken me 48 hours to work this one out…

Leaves about fifty counterpanes

For those of you who don’t understand cryptic clues, 50 in roman numerals is L, so about fifty means there’s an L in the middle of the word. Another word for leaves is quits, put L in the middle and you have quilts…why did that take two days to work out!

There was another sewing related one yesterday as well, Where needles are kept, just in case. I got that one straight away, Etui, though I did wonder how many people would know what an etui was!19059425_1648902955150217_3361095745964356471_n

Posted in Down The Rabbit Hole, Quilt-a-long, Quilting, Serendipity | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

William Morris Embroidery

Posted on January 13, 2018 by craftycreeky

It’s my Embroiderers Guild meeting on Monday so I thought it was time I embroidered something for the travelling sketchbook in my possession at the moment. We’re in a group of five this time and our sketchbooks are circulating round the group each month so we can put a piece of work in each one. I think this is the penultimate swap!

This month the book is on the theme of the Arts and Crafts movement. I have been inspired by William Morris and his contemporaries for years, I found an excellent set of articles on the Victoria & Albert museum website all about the Arts and Crafts movement, here is an excerpt;

The Arts and Crafts Movement began in Britain around 1880 and quickly spread to America, Europe and Japan. Inspired by the ideas of John Ruskin and William Morris, it advocated a revival of traditional handicrafts, a return to a simpler way of life and an improvement in the design of ordinary domestic objects. 

When I think of William Morris I tend to think of the complex fabric designs, full of twirling leaves and stems, such as the one above which covers the sketchbook. I was finding it quite hard to think of what to embroider. I looked on google and pinterest and found this photo of a stained glass window he designed which is currently at the V&A. I decided the simple flower design would be perfect.

I sketched the left-hand image onto paper and then used my lightbox to trace it onto some calico.I used calico as I wanted a fairly firm fabric both for tracing on and also for colouring. The stained glass has a touch of yellow on the flower. For Christmas I got a set of Inktense pencils by Derwent, they are made up in the Lakes and we visited their pencil museum when we were last in Keswick. They are watercolour pencils which you can use on fabric too. I coloured round the edge of the flower and in the centre, then went over it with a wet paintbrush, it does make a lovely intense colour. I’m quite pleased with my first try with them.

I overlaid the design with a silvery piece of organza to give the impression of glass. I tacked the organza round to hold it in place and then put it in a hoop to work it.

I used DMC 3011 to embroider the design, it’s a nice soft olive green. I used stem stitch for the stems and the leaves and buttonhole for the flower. The centre of the flower is like a sort of thread weaving to make a criss-cross pattern.William Morris Embroidery

To give the effect of the leaded edge I used DMC 3021 which is actually a brown/grey colour. I just chain stitched around the edge. I usually blanket stitch around the edge of these little embroideries but I felt it would detract from the chain outline, so I decided to just leave it as a raw cut edge, as it is going in a book it hopefully won’t fray too much. I applied some iron on interfacing to the back and then stuck in in place in the book.William Morris Embroidery

I’m pleased with the way this has turned out, although it was interesting how I found this harder to do in that I was effectively copying a design, so there wasn’t much freedom, I much preferred the previous ones when I stitched a bird for example where I could create whatever effect I wanted.

I’m linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday tomorrow, why not follow the link and see what everyone else has been hand-stitching.

Posted in embroidery, Serendipity, Textile Books, The Travelling Sketchbook | Tagged , , , | 30 Comments

Friday Photo Challenge; Home

Posted on January 12, 2018 by craftycreeky

The theme of this weeks photo challenge from Postcard from Gibralter is home. I debated whether to show a of my home, or my sewing room, or the countryside around our home, but in the end I decided it would be a photo of someone else’s home…

DSC_0006

…A bird’s nest in our garden, looking at the size of it it probably belonged to a blackbird.

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Chevron Stitch

Posted on January 9, 2018 by craftycreeky

TAST2012logoLast night I finished another page for my stitch sampler fabric book. It’s a long term project which I’ve based on last years 100 TAST stitches on Pintangle. Sharon from Pintangle has just started another TAST (Take a Stitch Tuesday) so if you fancy learning a new stitch each week, follow the link.TAST stitch sampler, Chevron Stitch

I started this page when we were visiting family in Weston just before Christmas. I’d not heard of Chevron stitch before but I really like it. The basic stitch is the one on the top row, which doesn’t look anything exciting, but it can then be layered, stacked into diamonds, embellished with other stitches or beads. It took me a bit of time to get my head around the maths with this stitch, especially when changing size or proportions.

I also learned Half Chevron stitch which I like even more! I love the geometric patterns you can make with it. The deep border is inspired by one of Sharon’s photos on Pintangle, in fact I think it’s the photo that first really piqued my interest in TAST. I just love this border, especially in the variegated thread. This thread is DMC 4025, it’s a nice gentle mix of blues and teals. I think it would also look stunning in a more striking variegated thread.TAST stitch sampler, Chevron stitch

I’ve stitched seven pages now, I think once I’ve done about three more I’ll start stitching them together, I don’t want to be left with a whole book to stitch up at the end! I also think seeing the book take shape will spur me on to stitch more pages.TAST stitch sampler, Chevron stitch

Sharon is also running a new project called Beyond TAST, where each month you experiment with just one stitch, see what you can do with it. January’s stitch is running stitch, it’s surprising what you can create with such a simple stitch, there’s some beautiful examples on facebook. I might just make running stitch my next page of the stitch sampler.

 

Posted in embroidery, Serendipity, TAST, Textile Books | Tagged , , | 30 Comments

A Little Bit of Sparkle

Posted on January 8, 2018 by craftycreeky

Wild Daffodil is running a monthly photo challenge, I’m a week late with this one as it’s meant to be the first Tuesday of each month! We’re given one word as a theme for our photos. This month it’s…

Sparkles!

Everyone needs a little sparkle in their lives…

A cross-stitch holly humbug decoration on our Christmas tree

Holly Humbug gorgeous cross-stitch decoration

A sparkle on our Christmas cake  We’ve just finished eating ours, together with the truckle of Wensleydale cheese , Christmas cake and wensleydale cheese is lovely together!

Decoarting Christmas Cakes

On Sunday we had a bit of frost, giving a touch of sparkle to the garden

Frosty morning

On Monday we had a lot more frost and the garden looked beautiful if rather cold!

Frosty morning

A shisha mirror and beads sparkle with metallic thread in this embroidery of stars

A glisten of sunshine on Ullswater.

If you have some sparkle to share, just link up with Wild Daffodil 🙂

Posted in Photo Challenge, Serendipity | Tagged | 20 Comments

Down the Rabbit Hole HQAL 3

Posted on January 7, 2018 by craftycreeky

It’s three weeks since I showed you the hand-stitching on my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt, there’s rather a lot to do at the moment as I’m stitching the deep rabbit borders, which are very cute but all hand appliqued. This is where I was three weeks ago, just before Christmas…

…I’d got one rabbit border stitched and the other bunnies cut out, ready to applique during a weekend away visiting my in-laws. I managed to sew quite a bit over the weekend, sitting chatting and sewing! I finished the running rabbits and two of the sitting rabbits. I realised when I returned home and finally watched the video of the sitting rabbits that I had the ears the wrong way round, one ear is a separate piece of fabric and it should be on top, making it the nearest ear, I’d stitched it like the running ones so it’s the far ear! So I’ve got two rabbits one way and two the other way! I also realised one ear is actually the wrong way round completely as I’d cut it out upside down…so I think I’ve got one rabbit technically correct!! Continue reading →

Posted in Down The Rabbit Hole, Quilt-a-long, Quilting, Serendipity | Tagged , , , | 37 Comments

Down the Rabbit Hole Rope Border

Posted on January 6, 2018 by craftycreeky

A couple of weeks ago I asked you all for advice on the rope border of my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt, or more specifically the fabric for the corner squares as I just couldn’t decide what worked best. Thank you to everyone who made a suggestion, it did help reading everyone’s ideas on the matter, even if I did end up going for something completely different!

The replies I received were pretty much split evenly between the sage green…

and the silver grey of the rabbits…

I still couldn’t decide between the two, the green gave a very dominant corner block and the  rabbit was very near the running rabbits and I would also have to decide on direction! I decided to ask Helen what she thought. She considered the two and then came up with a completely new idea…

…the passion flower grey of the previous border! Now why didn’t I think of that! It has the lightness of the rabbits but makes it appear like it’s part of the passion flower border. I think it works well. I’ve now stitched on the border, so that is another month of the QAL completed. It’s getting increasingly difficult to photograph as it gets bigger! I’ll show you my progress on the rabbit borders tomorrow with Kathy‘s Hand Quilt-a-long.Down the Rabbit Hole Quilt

Posted in Down The Rabbit Hole, Quilt-a-long, Serendipity | Tagged , | 14 Comments

2018 Friday Photo Challenge 1

Posted on January 6, 2018 by craftycreeky

Postcard from Gibralter is hosting a photo challenge this year, it’s along the same lines as the one organised by Nana Cathy last year, I didn’t get myself organised last year but I’m going to try this time! Wild Daffodil is also running a monthly photo challenge so I’m hoping to join that one too. We get a one word prompt and have to find a photo on that theme…

New Beginnings.

This weeks photo came partially from my Eighteen for 18 challenge of trying to have three sessions a week in the garden. They were only short sessions this week as it was too cold, but it was enough to discover new shoots under all the plant debris. So here are new beginnings in my garden.

#postcardfromgibfridayphoto

Posted in Garden, Photo Challenge, Serendipity | Tagged , | 5 Comments