Well my bees are continuing to multiply! Three weeks ago I was making good progress on my wild flower bee, a design I found on Etsy by Doodle and Stitch…
I stitched the legs and antenna and then the wings in stem stitch. I really enjoyed stitching this one, it’s pretty and a bit different. It didn’t take too long to finish…
Over the weekend I’ve been staying with friends, so a lot of catching up and not much time for sewing, but I did have some in my bag which came out when we had an hour or two’s rest in the afternoon. This is another design from Etsy called Betty Bumblebee. At first the instructions looked a little confusing, but when I e-mailed the designer for clarification, she quickly replied, I’d been accidently sent an old version, she e-mailed the new set of instructions and I have just started them, chain-stitching wings…
This SAL is organised by Avis from Stitching by the Sea, please follow the links to see what everyone else has been stitching…
A few months ago I went on a workshop by Laura Edgar to make a seascape, she uses scraps of fabrics, often torn or distressed and lots of free-style stitching to create wonderful textile art. I finally finished my seascape recently…
Laura brought a lot of samples of her work and one of them was a bumble bee. I loved it! I decided to try and make one. I took the general shape from one of her pictures then rummaged in my stash for yellow and black fabric.
I started with the basic shape in an almost black quilting cotton, it has a bit of variation to it which I liked. I then overlay it with yellow batik stripes. The black looked a little too flat so I overlaid some black lace. I had a piece of light organza for the wings. I tacked it all down then started rummaging for extra textures.
I found some black feather boa in a drawer. I cut off a snippet, trimmed all the long feathers so I was left with the downy bits, I then stitched it down to the upper body, giving it an extra haircut where needed, I love the effect of this .
I added some scraps of black lace which has beads and sequins on to the next stripe. The yellow bottom has some loose yellow silk strands with lots of straight stitches over the top. I tried turkey stitch at first which leaves tufts of thread but I couldn’t get the effect wanted, I left the stitches in for extra tuftiness!
The wings were a little light, I added a layer of lace and then some smoky grey organza which I think looks much better.
I’ve still a fair bit to do, but this is my bee so far…
I’ve been busy making bees for my book, I’ve got three on the go at the moment!
My ‘handbag project’ for the last couple of weeks has been a bee that was in a treasure bundle I bought from SookieSoo on Instagram. It was pre-drawn onto linen then it was up to me how I stitched it. I did have a brief panic when I first found it at the bottom of a box, it was all crumpled so I decided to iron it, not thinking that it was drawn with a Frixion pen, so half the design disappeared in a flash with the heat of the iron! After pondering my options for a couple of minutes I decided to try and use the ‘side-effect’ of a Frixion pen – it reappears in very cold temperatures. I popped it in the freezer for half an hour and there was my design back again!
I started with the leaves, using fishbone stitch which is my go-to stitch for leaves. I was a bit nervous about starting the bee as it’s only little so detail had to be fine. I started with the yellow and black stripes but I wasn’t totally happy with it as it looked a bit too stripy!
I chose a slightly darker yellow and using one strand I did long and short stitch over the join, it’s subtle but I think it just softens the lines. The wings are stitched with a light variegated grey thread. With hindsight I’d have probably changed the shape of the upper wings as I feel they’re too upward pointing.
For the blossom I’ve used a variegated DMC thread with French knots and a stem stitch ring to bulk them out a bit, I like the way they’ve come out. I’m just using a single strand of DMC with fly stitch for the blossom stalks, so I’m using the same thread and stem stitch for the ring.
Once I’ve finished the ring I’ve just a few French knots to go round the wreath.
I’ll have quite a swarm of bees once I’ve finished them all!
I’m enjoying hand quilting this quilt, I’m just doing lots of circles! Each block has an 8″ circle and then whatever fits with the design. Three weeks ago I was just getting into the swing of it…
I’ve since started stitching the larger circles that overlap in the sashing. I’ve made a cardboard template to draw around and I’m using a variegated grey thread rather than the cream of the block quilting. It blends in better on the front but makes a subtle change on the back.
I’m working down the right hand side at the moment…
Whilst stitching the larger sashing circles I’ve also added a few smaller ones where I felt it was needed, so the owl now has a large ‘moon’ behind it, the leaping hare has a circle round the mini hexagons.
Here’s the back view which shows the quilting more clearly…
So I’m stitching my 13th block out of 49, probably nearly a quarter of the way through as I’ve still four of the larger circles to do.
Hand Quilt Along Links
This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another. If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.
I’ve been a busy bee over the last three weeks! I’ve been working on the embroideries to go in my bee book most days. Last time I shared my progress I was working on the first bumblebee of a cross-stitch depicting three different ones…
I’d just realised this particular bee is one I’ve stitched several times before, using it on pincushions for various people. This one is bombus terrestris, more commonly called the buff-tailed bumble bee.
I had to move the second and third bumblebees a little on the design as it was meant to be oblong whereas I needed it to finish more square shaped, so the top bee was moved five squares along and three down and then the third one moved along a bit to even it out. It took ages to work that out!! I think it still looks balanced.
It’s interesting seeing the different shapes of the bees, the top one, bombus agrorum, from the limited information I can find on Google, is the same as bombus thoracombus, or the common carder bee. The left one is the early bumble bee. The wing positions of these three are each very different.
Here’s the finished cross-stitch…
I do like this one, I like the way it’s laid out like specimens in an old-fashioned natural history museum.
Next I decided to stitch one of the Sarah Homfray designs I bought. She has a blackwork bee and a whitework bee and as I don’t want this book to be all cross-stitch, I bought them both. I decided to do the blackwork one first.
The pattern wasn’t quite what I expected. I thought I’d have a chart with the whole design on, a bit like a cross-stitch chart. Instead there was an outline to trace and instructions on how to fill each section in, this was a bit daunting at first. I packed it up to start at my Skipton Stitchers group on Monday, thinking there would be someone there to help if I needed it. In the end, once I started it was pretty straight forward and actually makes it a lot more adaptable.
I chose a honey coloured linen as a base, with hind sight I’d have been better with an evenweave which doesn’t have the fine irregularities of linen as sometimes the linen thread was too fine really to have any impact with the stitch pattern. Rather than black thread I used DMC 4000 which you don’t often see for sale here in the UK which is a shame as it’s really useful. It’s a variegated thread of dark brown and dark grey. I think it worked really well for this piece.
The actual design is pretty small, less than 2″ high, but there was also an outline for the stitch plan which was slightly bigger, so I used that size instead. My bee is still less than 2.5″ though, so it didn’t take long to do.
The outline was traced onto the fabric and then each area was filled with a different stitch. The outline and the legs or antennae were the last to be stitched. I kept the body symmetrical but kept a little variation with the legs etc. It didn’t take long to do at all really…
And now for something completely different…
This is a design I found on Etsy, I discounted it at first but it grew on me, my eye kept being drawn to it. It’s called the wildflower bee, designed by Doodle and Stitch Company. I’m really enjoying stitching it. The instructions are good, my only beef is that the stitch and colour charts are just colour based, not clear with a black and white printer! I used a vintage French metis fabric which I got in a mixed pack from SookieSoos on Instagram. It’s a lovely textured linen/cotton mix, though the little slubs could be tricky to get a needle through in places.
Last night I finished the body, the flowers and leaves are created with a mixture of stitches, fishbone (my favourite for leaves), lazy daisy, satin, woven wheels, French knots. The only ones I’m not too keen on are the lazy daisy leaf fronds, I might still unpick those and either use a different stitch or just use one thread…or leave them!
I’ve just started the legs, which cleverly look like stamens. The legs are made with brick-stitch with a satin stitch top. Here’s my progress so far…
The wings are meant to be in stem stitch, though I am tempted to use a fine chain stitch instead as I find it easy to get a neat curve with it.
I’ll hopefully finish this in the next few days, then I’ve the whitework one to do and I also want to do one like Laura Edgar’s bee, she is the textile artist who did the seascape workshop and she stitched a gorgeous bumble bee too. There’s another embroidered bee on Etsy too, the only thing that’s making me hesitate is that the only options are to get the pdf of the chart only, or the full kit. My issue is that there are no instructions with the chart only option. At some point I need to start making the little embroideries into pages.
This stitch-a-long is organised by Avis from Stitching by the Sea, we post our progress on our chosen project every three weeks, it does help to keep the motivation going! Please follow the links to see what everyone else has been stitching.
I think I’ve finally finished my seascape, I say ‘think’ as I posted on facebook that I’d finished it two days ago, then added a bit more…it’s that kind of piece!
I started this at a workshop organised by Skipton Stitchers with Laura Edgar, an amazing textile artist who uses lots of different fabrics, lots of worn or torn pieces, layered up and then embroidered….way out of my comfort zone!
We all took a picture we wanted to use as inspiration. My photo was Scarborough’s South Bay under a moody sky, it’s one I took a few years ago on one of our walks…
After a day’s workshop I had the rudiments of a collage and I’d started tacking fabrics down. I used layers of organza, lace and tulle over various fabrics to create the basic image.
I then started stitching it. Last time I shared it with you I was working on the sky, with lots of meandering feather stitch. I fiddled with the headland fabric a bit as it just looked too dark, despite being that dark on the photo it just looked too much in stitch. The criss-cross pattern you can just make out is some dark grey lace. A few more feather stitches gave some texture to the dark silhouette of the headland.
Next I tackled the sea. In the photo is very calm. I decided to just use lots of running stitch, I wasn’t sure if that would lose the glassy nature of the flat sea, but I really like the effect and I think it does look calm. I used several different shades of embroidery thread, stitching two or three rows in one colour before changing over. I love the way it’s merges the colours of the sea.
For the waves I started stitching a wave of feather stitch, intending to do several intertwined ‘rolls’, it didn’t look right though so I unpicked all but one.
I stopped the stitches at the breaking waves on the shore. After a bit of pondering I stitched the beach the same way. I was still a bit stuck on the waves when I found a fluffy textured yarn. I did running stitch down the wave and then whipped it with the textured yarn. I actually did two rows but again it looked too much so I unpicked one…it’s been very much trial and error stitching this piece!
I still had a gap between the sea and the sand, I looked at the photo again and realised I needed to bring the blue of the sea onto the sand, to merge the too areas…more running stitch…but I was finally happy with the bottom part.
Next area was the sun. I was pleased with the general effect round the sun, but it needed softening. I stitched round the sun with some silver thread to help it to gently stand out. I then stitched thinly torn strips of organza, some folded in half to add opacity. I added wisps of ‘fluff’ and some blue silk fibres teased from a tube. I stitched with a very light grey or warm white at first, but then realised, like with the sand, I needed to bring the blue into it.
So this is my finished collage, I think I might get this one framed! I’m well chuffed with it.
I’m making steady progress on hand quilting my Owl and Hare Hollow quilt. Three weeks ago I had just started and was still feeling my way a bit with design etc…
I’ve now quilted ten of the blocks, each one has same size (more or less!) outer ring, then the quilting inside the circle depends on the design of the block. I particularly like the deer block, I’ve quilted a circle to look like the moon or the sun. The little dots you can see is from a Frixion pen I’m using to mark it, so a bit of heat and they’ll disappear.
There are forty-nine blocks altogether so I feel like I’m a fifth of the way through, but in reality I haven’t started yet on the big circles which will overlap on the sashing, they’re about 11.5″ diameter so they’re going to take a while. I’m using different sizes of embroidery hoops as templates for the bigger circles and I have a set of smaller round plastic templates too.
I might go back and quilt some more smaller circles, for example I could quilt round the hexagons the hare is jumping over, maybe a smaller ‘sun’ behind the flowers on the wheelbarrow or a big moon behind the owl.
Hand Quilt Along Links
This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another. If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.
Over Christmas whilst I was on holiday I embroidered a top for sewing basket. It was a kit I bought at the Harrogate Show from Sew Different, you could buy the whole kit with all the fabrics in, but I chose to just get the printed lid panel and instructions for making it up.
This was the completed embroidery, competed back in January…
…and so it sat in my sewing room, waiting to be made up!
Last week I had a week’s annual leave, I ended up decorating for much of it, but on my birthday I put my foot down and said I would spend the day in my sewing room! I wanted something I could make in a day, so I decided to finish the sewing basket.
The fabric I chose for the outside is a lovely purple with bees and moths on, the piece I had left was only JUST big enough. For the inside I chose a sewing themed fabric which matched well colour-wise. When it came to cutting out the lining it was a bit weird. The fabric lay flat and appeared square on the cutting table, but the pattern went off at a slant, I was a bit irked at the time as I really wanted the pattern to go neatly round the sides. When I looked closely however, the pattern did follow the grain, somehow the grain was at like a 30 degree angle, yet the sides appeared straight! I’ve never come across a fabric doing this. In the end I tore it along the grain and cut true to the grain rather than the sides…very strange!
The instructions started with the bottom and worked upwards, they weren’t the clearest instructions to follow, but I got there in the end. The base and lining was sandwiched with bosal and quilted, half inch cross-hatching, so it took a while.
Next was the sides….the zip is a double-ended one, in that there’s two zip pulls in the centre and it opens outwards. I bought a nice purple one on line, not cheap but it finishes the basket off nicely. The zip was stitched in with the outer fabric and the lining on either side of one half of the zip. The bosal was then slipped in between the two layers to stiffen it. The instructions said to pin or clip this to the base, I decided to baste round the bottom edge of the sides first and I was glad I did, the seam allowance was only 1/4″ so it would have been very fiddly without the basting.
The hinge instructions also caused confusion! The piece was 2×3″, fold the sides into the centre…which sides, 2″ or 3″! In the end I cut a 3″ square and used that.
The inner seam was bound, I decided not to make my own bias binding after the hassle I’d had with the fabric. I had some purple satin bias in my stash which needed using up and it matches perfectly.
The lid and the inner lid were gathered round a circle of bosal, tacking this onto the zip was recommended, which I did. When it came to actually stitching it though, I couldn’t work out how. If I stitched with a 1/4″ seam I would lose some of the embroidery. In the end I stitched it together with edge-stitching. The inner lid was then hand-stitched in and my box was complete.
I’m really pleased with my box, it’s going to sit next to my chair in the lounge for when I’m sewing in front of the TV.
It’s time for my three weekly update on my fabric book about bees. Last time I shared my progress I was doing nicely with the second half of my bee cross-stitch. This was a kit I bought at a destash sale and I’m using it to make two pages for my book about bees.
Well I’ve now finished this piece, there was meant to be the word ‘bumble-bee’ on the far right hand side but I decided to leave it off as the set of images is about hives and honey, bumble bees don’t live in a hive, they make a nest. I don’t think they make honey either as only the queen survives over winter so they don’t need the honey stocks to feed on. Anyway, here’s my finished piece…
I’m now stitching a set of three bumblebees, I kept seeing this pattern on instagram and having done a google image search I managed to track down the designer on Etsy. I had told myself that I had enough cross-stitch pieces for the book but I particularly like this one as it has three different types of bumble bee and gives their Latin names too. It’s designed by FloReen Studio.
I’ve almost finished the first one…
…as you can see I just need to finish back-stitching the wing. I need to do a bit of calculating before I start the second bee, the design is portrait shape, whereas I want it either square or landscape. I thought I’d move the second bee across a bit so I can move the top bee down a bit.
I only realised today that the big bumble bee I’ve just stitched is actually the same design as the one I made into cross-stitch smalls, one of which is going to be used in the book! I’ll mount it differently so it’s not too obvious.
After these bees I’ve a whitework bee, a blackwork bee and an embroidered bee to do, then I will start making the pages.
Please visit the other blogs that are also taking part in this SAL. There are so many different projects to enjoy. The participants live all over the world so you may need to allow for time differences. We’re posting today at local time. Click the links to their blogs below and see what they’re up to.
It’s my birthday this week and as a surprise my OH and Helen organised a weekend in the Lakes to see the Festival of Light. I’ve wanted to see it for years, it’s usually held in the spring, but this year it was postponed due to bad weather. When Helen saw it had been moved to August she dropped a hint to my OH!
The Festival of Light was started a few years ago as a fund-raiser following a bad earthquake in Nepal when several sherpas were killed. As the mountains in the Lake District are used as practise for those wishing to attempt Everest, quite a few of the walking community in the Lakes knew them. The first Festival of Light raised money for their families. I think since then money raised goes to a relevant charity. This year the money raised went to the Michelle Jurd Trust who help both disadvantaged young people and veterans to have adventures in the Lakes.
Anyone who is reasonably fit can take part in the Festival of Light. Basically lots of walkers head up Catbells at dusk, about half an hour after sunset they turn their head torches on and face the lake, the result is beautiful when the outline of catbells is lit up.
Sunset was at 20.30, so by 19.30 we had our camping chairs positioned in a prime spot on Friars Crag. We were just watching, by the way, I’d love to climb Catbells for the event, but with my balance issues it’s a definite no no. I’d already worked out that Friars Crag would be a good spot, easy to get to and from and a perfect view.
We watched the twinkling torch lights making their way up the fell, I think they probably had someone checking for gaps along the path so it looked good photographically. There’s hundreds of walkers who take part, they walk from Keswick, meet at Portinscale, then walk up Catbells. There must be an amazing atmosphere on Catbells.
By the time it got to sunset, there was quite a crowd along the lakeside and Friars Crag. There were some children behind us with infectious giggles, they sounded about 7 or 8. We were well wrapped up with a flask of coffee to share.
At 21.00 the head torches were turned on, for me it was a bit of a Wow! moment…
I thought it was lovely, the kids behind us were not impressed however, in a loud voice one of them proclaimed ‘Is that it? Well that wasn’t worth waiting for!’ It caused a ripple of amusement from everyone 🙂
We were staying in a very nice barn conversion out in Lamplugh, near Loweswater. The following day we had a walk up the fells, not as far as Helen intended, as the route she had chosen involved a lot of what I call off piste walking, i.e.there wasn’t necessarily a pth, so it was hard going in places. We did however get high enough for some lovely views across Loweswater and over to Crummockwater.
All in all it was a lovely weekend, I think Helen fancies climbing Catbells in the Festival of Light another year, she’s definitely got the bug for the Lakes 🙂
thecraftycreek 