A late wipw (on Thursday)

Home again, a bit sore and sorry for myself but on the road to recovery.

I have to start by saying that my Peace embroidery didn't even get off the ground this month.  But before I left  for hospital I was looking at my Kogin patterns and thought that those diamond shapes might have promise for my Xmas cards.

I had read that the women on the east coast of Japan, in the Nambu region, had used wool for their stitching.   I had some left over wool so tried it out.  I think these are a bit different.

I intend to do 5 in all. I bought the linen from the CWA ladies from up north.  Perfect for the job.

A quick easy project.

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A short break

I have been pouring over the International Quilt Festival Catalogue trying to decide just what classes I will do.  There are so many good ones.  The best classes are already full but there is still a lot of choice.  As I am travelling onto South America after the Festival I don't want any class which will require a lot of supplies and I want to have everything finalised today.

Because of all the difficulty with my husbands health I have delayed my enrollment for classes and missed out on most of the good quilting ones I would like to have done but there are plenty of others and the quilting ones require a lot of equipment that I would have to take with me.  So in a way I'm glad I missed them.  I have choosen quite a few technology and design classes plus some hand embroidery, which I will probably already know, but I wanted to do a class with these particular tutors.     I would love to have done Yoko Saito's class but that was full before it was announced.   I have learnt from past experience not to book too many classes, that leads to brain overload.   I still may have taken on too much!  

Update:  Everything is now booked, classes, travel, accomodation and insurance.

 

I am off to hospital tomorrow for a small procedure.  Hopefully it will just be an overnight stay but I have been told they won't know until they have an explore, Gall stones are not very exciting.    I am planning on just the overnight stay but am taking my knitting and embroidery with me just in case.  It is not an ideal time for this to have to happen with my husband still not fully recovered  but these things happen.  I have lined up my daughter to look after her father and the dog.  I should be back fairly soon.

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Xmas Cards - No 1 & 2

No time like the present, so I have started on the Xmas cards.

I found my bundle of rectangle ivory textured three panel cards and envelopes and then dug out a plastic bag full of left over pieces of embroidery linen.  I cut these into rectangles approx 10cm x 11cm and then over-locked the edges. 

 

These will sit behind the opening which is 6cm x 8.5cm.  I started by drawing an approximate design on that piece of card that came out of the opening to get an approximation of the size of the design. 

 

The first piece is a 32 count natural linen.  There is going to be lots of different counts amongst these scraps so I will have to adjust the designs to suit.  I have decided to use Kaaland Yarn's silk variegated threads to stitch these pieces because the threads are just so beautiful.  The first designs are going to be very simple shapes and a variety of stitches.

So here is my first card.  I used three strands of silk in the colour, watercolour.  The stitch is Eastern Stitch which I stitched over 4 threads.  A few back stitches made the trunk and the base is a scrap of felt and a glitter star glued on the top of the tree.

These are quick and easy to stitch so I did another straight away.  Same everything, except the thread colour, only this time I used Algerian Eye Stitch.

This is a great way to use up those small left over pieces and I think this falls into the category of "Silly Stitching".  Great for stitching whilst you chat and there isn't  a lot of thought involved in the stitching.  Plus the advantage of almost instant gratification.  

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I thought I would do a "Queenie"

I have been looking at Queenie's cards for some time thinking, "Gee that's a great idea."   So when I was looking for something else I came across some trial designs I had stitched and immediately thought, "a card".  Small problem.  I didn't have a card with the right sized window so I had to cut a larger window in a card I already had, not very well. ( I think that I will glue a border around the edge to hide the cut and frame the embroidery and also buy some cards with larger windows.)  I stitched this using a silk thread and stem stitch, all stitched in one direction.

I want to stitch some Xmas cards this year and that smaller window will keep the designs smaller, not like this one.  I have also been ruminating about how to make embroidery cards for little kids.  I started my grand daughters on laced cards and that was great but there needed to be another step between that and stitching on aida cloth.  Then I came across a scrap booking site by Jennifer Mc Guire Ink where she has a whole section on stitching on cards.

In this post she has a link to a very detailed video she has posted to You Tube, 38 minutes of detail.  A lot to think about here.

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WIPW

Well I made it.  The sample,  poster, instructions and 35 kits are finished and delivered.

There are 5 flowers in Mary's garden and the students will be asked to plant some more along with other things that are in her garden.  Such as birds, insects and any other fantasy items they can imagine and stitch.   There is a selection of fabric colours available along with a mixed variety of contrast trims.  So all the bags should look different.    `

But that isn't quite it.  I have come up with some other designs for this bag.  Not for this class but I will put them up later as a free download and tutorial.  Tomorrow I intend to clean my sewing room and relax.

 

Some normality for a little while

I was able to bring my husband home from hospital yesterday.  He is so pleased to be back in his own environment and I don't have that long drive every day.  He has a long way to go before he is back to his old self but every day sees an improvement.   I am the one who will have to adjust to sharing the house again.  I have set myself a routine I like and that doesn't go down to well with him.  You would think that after all these years of marriage we would have all this worked out?  But no, the push and shove continues.  At least it isn't dull.

I am still trying to finish all the kits for the Children's Class.  Everything is just one big mess at the moment.  My cutting table looks like a bomb has hit it.

If I look at the room for a distance it isn't too bad, but up close uggh.

And that bundle of completed kits is so small!

And when I went on my walk to the beach this morning I was hit by the perfume of freshias. 

I didn't plant my bulbs because I thought it was too warm but the wild ones are all in bloom. Blow!

That Indian theme

I don't know why but this is the second book I have read, and fallen in love with, that has an Indian theme.  I haven't got to the end yet because I am savouring the story.  The book was originally published in Swedish but has been translated into English and quite of few other lanuages and has the long title, The amazing story of the man for cycled from India to Europe for love by PerJ Andersson.  Isn't that a great book cover?

The title says what the book is all about but there is so much more to this story.  I didn't know when I bought the book but the main character is an indigenous Indian and an artist. One of my most treasured books is by another Indian artist from the same group of people.  The night life of trees. Published by Tara Books.  (There is an interesting piece by John Berger on their blog.  Although I wish people would catch on the fact that there is an older art by Aboriginal Australians that that in Europe. 70,000 year of history in Australian art is slightly more than the 30,000 years of cave art in Europe.)

The main character is from the same group of people.

No one could make up this story in their imagination.  It goes far beyond imagining.  I bought the book on Kindle but it is one of those books that you need a paper edition of so that you can pull it out and read again or leave in your will for your grand children.

Oh Dear!

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! 

I didn't go to the hospital on Monday.  On Monday I realised that I have just one week to come up with a project for the Children's Classes in the September Holidays.  That is whilst I'm driving up and down to the hospital and everything else going on.  So it is panic stations here at the moment.   Getting the project ready also entails preparing all the kits etc.  I don't know if I can do this.

Anyway, we had decided on making a draw string bag.  Not your normal easy to put together bag, one that is a bit more difficult.  I have had to tweek the design a bit but I think I can come up with something.  Normally this kind of bag is lined.  This will not work on a production assembly line.  All the kids will finish at the same time and we just won't be able to put them together.  Most of the machine stitching will have to be done in advance.  The solution to this problem is my major concern at the moment.

This bag has a round base 7" in diameter.

 

The sides are one piece of fabric 20.5" long and 10" deep.  Normally with this kind of bag you would put the seam at the centre back but we won't have time to put the casing on so I have moved this to the side seam. To neaten the top edge I have bound it with a contrasting fabric the same as that round base.

 

Then stitched the draw string casing in place, also in a contrasting fabric. (I like to mark my construction lines with tailors chalk because it is easy to remove.)  I think this is as much of the pre-construction that I can get away with.   I have started work on the basic design which is based on yo yo's.  Even beginners should be able to handle this.  The good thing about this design is that it can be extended.  I am just going to do the front designs, the rest is for the imagination.

 

After the kids get to this point we will have to sew up the back seam and insert the base. I timed myself and it takes 15 mins to sew the bag together. I think 2 of us will be able to handle this but I might need another volunteer on a machine.  The finish is not what I would like, but it is more important to get a finished product here.  There will be a few of my dedicated embroiderers who would prefer to make the bag in the traditional way so I will put together a few kits with just the components so they can finish their work at home,

One design down, I need to stitch another.

I have called this a 'Mary Bag' from the rhyme, 'Mary, Mary quite contary, how does you garden grow.'  I have added a lady bug to this one but there are all kinds of creepy crawlies that could but put on, as embroideries or charms.  I know a couple of the boys might like 'dead flowers or weeds'.  I better be prepared for that.

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WIPW

Very little to show this week.  Just the knitting,

 

And a couple of trials.

 

I am working on the Children's Class designs but I will show you that tomorrow.

 

 

The snowflake decoration tutorial

I promised to put up this little tutorial some time ago but with all the drama going on here I forgot.

 

You could use this method for any type of round decoration.

For my decorations I used a 32 count linen which is a a bit stiff and a cotton,( with a high thread count) printed fabric for the back.  Other fabrics could by used, some might even gather better than these ones did.  I also used a heavier card  (1 for the embroidery, 1 for the backing)  for the shapes, not the very heavy but an in-between weight.  It has to have enough stiffness in it that it will not buckle.

 I wanted a finished size of 3"  so I used a template to trace the shape onto the card.  I then found the centre and marked the quarters on the card with a pencil.  This is important because there is nothing worse than a piece that has an off centre design.

 

I then took a round bowl that was larger than the desired finished sized and marked a cutting line.  Again making sure that the embroidery was in the centre with an equal distance to the edge on all sides.  The back didn't really matter if it wasn't centred so I just marked the circles.

 

On both the front and the back I stitched a line of running stitch about 1/4" from the edge.  (I tried doing this with the sewing machine but the result wasn't as good.)

 

I put a long pin through the centre of the card and then through the centre of the design and pulled up the gathering thread, it sat just right. 

 

I used the extra thread left over from the gathering to lace the fabric in place.  This was repeated on the backing shape.

 

I then attached the hanging cord so it could be enclosed between the two sections.

 

The back and front were whip stitched together using a cotton quilting thread, which is just a bit heavier than normal sewing thread.  To start the stitching I ran my needle  behind the fabric for a short distance before my beginning stitch and did the same when I finished the thread.

 

To stitch Van Dyke stitch I ran the thread in the same way as before using a perle 8 thread.

This was stitch over the two edges of the decoration.

Van Dyke stitch is worked between two imaginary lines.  In this case the edges of the front and back shapes become the lines.

Because I used an even weave linen inserting the needle at a 2 thread interval kept the stitch even.  It was also easy to work around that hanging thread.

When you use this stitch in this way it raises it up and makes a good edge to attach beads to but can be also used as it is.  In fact using this stitch on an edge defines the edge and gives an attractive finish.  I have used it on needle cases and even pages of fabric books. This method of construction does take some time but gives a good finish to your piece.

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