last nights 15 mins of stitching...

..although it was technically more like an hour and a half of stitching while watching a video..



I sewed some gorgeous purple rickrack, that I got from Gerry in my birthday box, onto my block, and have emailed to ask her where she got it as I think I want some on each block, as a theme of sorts!
I then did long stitches in some fine silver/grey perle at each curve, then did lines of back stitch to either side and down the centre of the rickrack which i then whipped with some lilac perle.

I'm also doing a row of chevron stitch on the other deep purple patch which mirrors the one on the opposite side of the block and ties them together nicely.

I hope to get the chevron stitch finished tonight and then I will do pekinese stitch on the lilac seam and am considering some very fine wheatsheaf stitches on the black seam.

More tomorrow!

15 Minutes of stitching.

On the Hand Embroidery yahoo group there is a '15 minutes of stitching challenge' which I am taking up. The idea is that you spend 15 minutes, every day doing some hand stitching.

The blurb goes like this "Grab your needle,thread and favorite project and take 15 minutes out of your day to sit down and stitch! With 15 minutes a day we can get something done and take a bite out of those projects that have fell by the wayside. Be it redwork, crewel, a UFO or crazy quilted project, kick up your feet, take a few minutes for yourself, and get to stitching! "

Well, heres what I'm doing...
You may have seen the picture of this blank block a few weeks ago. It is pieced in cotton fabric and is my first attempt at a specifically arranged piecing technique rather than my previous 'sew pieces of fabric on till the shape I want is covered' technique.
Heres what I did on it last night. I'll be doing more it this evening. So far I've just used Rajmahal Art Silks on it and one of my beaded polymer clay faces.

These top two seams are; on the right, tied herringbone, and on the left blanket stitch.
These lower seams are; vertically, chevron stitch with a straight stitch between the gaps on the seam, and horizontally, two curved rows of back stitch. (excuse the chalk mark I haven't sponged off yet.)

Right, am off to do more stitching now, after popping over to Sharon B's 100 details archive to get some inspiration!

Sketchbooks

I mentioned in my last post about the use of sketchbooks in the design process.

While at school, they were a required part of assessment, and then at college they were a secondary but important working tool and these days can be a work of art in themselves.

For those who are really into thier art, whatever medium thier final work is in,a sketchbook is a really good idea. As a record for everyday obvervational drawings, sketches,design ideas and final design ideas they are a valuable creative tool.

I know a lot of people who hate drawing - I used to hate my drawing classes at college, I know how to draw, and didn't appriciate being told that it wasn't 'right' - but even basic line drawings can often be all thats needed to spark off an idea.

They are also a great place to store written ideas, samples of fabric,Photos, pictures from magazines etc. They are a great way to plan a piece of work as well as recording ideas for you to come back to!

Those of you who saw sharon B's wonderful 100 details in 100 days could think that that in its own way is a glimpse into a sketchbook of sorts, in that it is a store of all the wonderful things you can try!I'm trying to get into the habit of keeping a sketchbook handy at all times. I also have a sketchbook I keep soley for putting found images into!
- i have a very battered one from my college days with pictures from magazines in it!

You don't need vast amounts of art materials either. printer paper, a ringbinder and a pencil can be just as efficient as a having a cupboard full of moleskin sketchbooks and high grade pencil sets!

You can use a sketchbook for a wide range of things, from observing, to researching, to expressing and playing with ideas to finally designing your work.

Another concept approach to the sketchbook is the idea of the art journal.
An Art Journal is an illustrated diaries or journals on any theme.

Imagine a normal journal, and then think of it illustrated and embellished!

There is an amazing website here about art journals and doing them!

Although not strictly about sketchbooks, this website is also really interesting; Its all about peoples love affairs with thier moleskin notebooks and planners: The Moleskinerie.

Guild Meeting

Wow! What an afternoon I had on Saturday! :)

I went to my first embroiderer's guild meeting!

I arrived at New Earswick Folk Hall for the meeting to find it is a Quaker Meeting House!

On going in I was greeted by Mary Burton who welcomed me very warmly. She showed me around. The things these ladies organise are great! Theres workshops in a wide range of subjects, There is going to be xmas card making activities for next month, they have a sales table where you can buy threads and needles etc, a table you can give items away on, and they have the most wonderful library which you can borrow books from for 10p each a month! I came home clutching four books I'd borrowed!

I ended up joining both the national guild and the local branch and am now a fully paid up member of the local embroidery guild!

There was a talk by Pauline Burbidge:



She is a textile artist based in Allerton, Scotland who works mainly in the area of what I call 'art' quilts and her work is very interesting! Her work in held in international collections including the International Quilt Research Centre in the USA.
She takes inspiration from landscape and nature and subtly abstracts the image into beautiful designs.

She talked about her entire creative process, from sketchbook to concept to finished piece, and happily showed her sketches, and working processes, including relief painting, that is quilting and then painting the raised parts of the quilt with fabric paint. It was interesting to seeing craft done with the academic art practices behind it, as thats the method of working I've grown with. I actually find incredibly daunting to start working on something without having planned and done at least a basic sketch first!

The thing I noticed, and really loved in the work she bought to show us, was that on the wall hanging she was exhibiting the dividing lines between the panels didn't have straight edges. They were undulating, which actually enhanced the imagery of the quilt which was a series of panels of an image of a reflection in a scottish harbour.

Her wallhanging 'Wind over Water' is just simply stunning!

She uses natural materials such as cotton and silk. One piece she has done captures feathers between layers of incredibly fine silk!

She's inspired me to go back to my own sketchbook based methods of design. Shall talk more about that another time.

She's kindly allowed me to use some of her photos in this post. They are all owned by her and were taken by Keith Tidball.

I got a copy of the talk schedule for the next year and am looking forward to some of the talks coming up; Theres one next april by Kay Greenlees who wrote "Creating Sketchbooks for Embroiderers and Textile Artists: Exploring the Embroiderers' Sketchbook" (which is going on my xmas wish list!) which I am really really looking forward to!

Now, I need to go design and embroider myself a name badge for the next meeting!

*Photos are from Paulines website and are used with permission.

Photos as promised!

Well, here is my organised stash. Not as tidy as some peoples but organised none the less!

Here on the top shelf and second shelf of the stash shelves. The top shelf has pretty things on it as its otherwise too tall for little 5ft2inches of me to reach. The teaset is one i got second hand for £5 (US$7-10) at the charity shop near my flat. There are two wicker pots that are a similar shape to the oriental ginger jars my mum has.
One the second shelf are my small pieces of fabric in plastic containers. these are going to be sorted into colour groups once I can find a good colour wheel to reference from. I had many of them and they seemed to have been taken in sacrifice when I moved by the moving gods. they also took my good fountain pen and a skirt I really really like. :( The tin and jars hold buttons just waiting to be used.

On the third shelf are books, spare little containers and that tape doesn't belong there! The box in the middle is W.I.P. and U.F.O.'s, and theres my art materials that didn't have a home.


On the forth shelf we find the tool box in which are my polymer clay and moulds, along with the tools i use with it. The green box has some yarn it it . The frame has a embroidery project I'm playing with on it and the box under it has my beads. The larger box has various embellishment goodies in it.The fourth shelf holds misc stuff. the big box is fabric - mainly fancies. Theres some boxes with random sewing notions in, the sideways box has planned ROAK's stashed in it and the box at the end has some batting in it.
The fifth shelf is exclusively fabric. The end box has scraps of velvet in it, the next one has reclaimed fabrics (cut-up clothing). The big mottled box has lengths of black and white polycotton, white muslin/cheesecloth and the vast amounts of deep green taffeta i keep meaning to make cushions from.
In front of the bottom shelf (not shown - it just has folded up fabric - black fleece, black velvet, and some heavy linen - on it) is my lovely sewing machine. I think i need to dust it!Its a good basic one and I bought it with staff discount when i worked in a haberdashery that was a Husqvarna Viking dealership. Its not got a huge range of stitches and was the lowest of the price range but its very good at what it does. Its a Huskystar 207 model, and my sister is still sulking that i took it away when I left home.

I hope to get some more of the tidier brown boxes for my stash next time I'm at IKEA but the reused ones its in at the moment will do!

Some of my stash is else where and will tell you about that at a later date.


I've been after some cigar boxes to decorate as gifts. I had made one for a friend and had a request. I just have to work out how to get all the labels off now!Will show pictures as they progress!

Must get ready for the York Embroidery Guild meeting now!

No photos yet!

I forgot to turn my camera off after uploading pictures so i drained the batteries...

I was trying to get hold of some cigar boxes to decorate for xmas presents and managed to get some from one of the hotels...shall reveal the hoard tomorrow!

Sorry for the short entry but I had a job interview earlier and am a bit emotionally drained this evening. Am looking forward to going to the embroidery guild meeting tomorrow.

Organisation Time

My darling friend Judyth, after having a major sort out of her house, challenged her friends to do the same!
She challenged us to tidy our stashes.I think I may have taken it a little far though!

I've spend the last 5 hours rearranging and tidying the living room - including my sewing stash;moving furniture, throwing stuff out, collecting stuff together to get donated and generally tidying. This involved things like hoovering under a sofa that hadn't been moved in 4 or so years :S
Am just waiting for DBF to get home and hopefully tell me he doesn't hate it!

*crosses fingers*

If he doesn't hate it, and I can get it finished this evening, photos of organised living room to follow!

Bloglines

For those of you who read this who don't already use it, go investigate this fantastic site called Bloglines. Its a fantastic free service where you can gather together all your regularly visited blogs so they are easily accessable! I signed up to it recently and its made life so much easier - I had somewhere in the region of 50 blogs bookmarked so using this has saved me so much time as I can quickly check who's updated recently!

Busy, busy, busy!

Well, at the moment I've been a busy little bee! unfortunatly most of it has been to do with stocktaking and sorting my flat out. I still hadn't completly unpacked from moving in 4 and a bit months ago! The Organisation challenge of CQForNewbies (a yahoo group) hasn't got as far as my sewing/crafting stash yet! Am trying to get everything else sorted out first!

My Pre Xmas stocktake is pretty much done, apart from adding new stock as it arrives. Hopefully business will pick up over Xmas as I need luxuries like beads and beading thread!

I've had two take ups on my Art Meme; Linda and Leslie. I just need three (3) more and then i can get going. I'm going to be making embroidered ATC's - that is; Artists Trading Cards. If you follow those links you'll see some of the wonderful things that get made. I found out about these about 6 months ago and have been meaning to make some ever since. I sat and cut out some blanks last night, and made some envelopes for them too! This is what they look like undecorated:

ATC's have some basic but good rules:
a) The dimensions of the ATC must be 2.5 x 3.5 inches (64 x 89 mm)

b) The cards must be traded - never bought or sold.

c) The artist of the card should put their name and contact information on the back so other artists can get to know them and their work.

This is the website that really got me interested in ATC's. Called "Art in your pocket" it is very informative. She examines all sorts of types and methods of ATC's and helpful tips. She also has a great gallery of peoples work as well as a good collection of links. Go and check it out, do!


I've got the DBF crafting too! He learnt to knit years ago while in the Boy Scouts and while I was sorting out some wool to send to a friend who needs some he nabbed some and started casting on last night! He's cast on and done half the first row of stitches so far. am so proud!

I made sushi! Some of them went a bit wonky at the ends but its not bad for a first try! Its smoked salmon and cucumber sushi rolls, and am quite pleased with them! Please also admire my lovely black stoneware china that I got a good sized service of at the local charity shop ;)
Being thrifty is so much fun and you get some great things and also have money left!

Over the next day or so I'm going to show off some of my recent finds!

York Embroidery Guild

On this coming Saturday I will be attending my first meeting of the York Embroidery Guild (Well, am awaiting a second email with some more details....)
Its the local branch of the Embroiderer's Guild and is one of the larger groups with around 100 members. Its a way to get me out there and meeting like minded people ;)

Pauline Burbidge is the speaker this month, and makes some really interesting embroidered quilts.Go!Look!

Art Meme

I've also taken up the challenge of the ART MEME. I responded to Jo's offer and so have to post here. So the first five people to respond to the challenge via comments on this blog will get a small piece of art created by me. It will be something drawn, sewn, beaded or embroidered, not sure what, but you will get something , made with love in order to 'spread the love', so to speak.
The catch with this is that you also have to make the same sort of offer on your own blog. That means, this is not an exchange, you do not have to send me anything in return, but you must try to "pay it forward" though your own blog.
So get commenting, and once I see you've taken it up, posted it and got people taking part then I will start making things.I can't promise how soon you'll get them, but you will get them.

The Spoon Theory

For anyone with a 'hidden' illness then this is something they need to read

The Spoon Theory.

Things I've been making

This is my Victorian boot for the Xmas swap on CQForNewbies. I hope the person who gets it likes purple.I know its not very Xmasy but I was struggling with the red and green I had.
It has a snowflake theme that I've done in silver and shades of purple in cross stitch and bead work. I've just got to work out how to line it now, and put some goodies in it.

This is a prototype choker I am planning to try and sell in my jewellery shop on Ebay (which can also be added to the list of things made recently) . I think it needs some leaves or some green beads around the flowers though. Its woven wheels using embroidery thread and 4mm silk ribbon.

These are the presents I made my boyfriend for his 30th birthday last weekend. He adores Tim Burtons The Nightmare before Christmas.

This is a box I painted. I started out as a wooden box with a toddlers puzzle inside that I found at the charity shop. I covered it in coloured gesso, then a couple of layers of acrylic paint. The picture is from the opening titles of the film and is stuck on. The swirls were done with metallic markers. The outside is purple with silver swirls, the lid silver with purple swirls and the inside is just plain silver.

A picture of it open with the posh chocolate I got him. You can see the swirls on the side in this shot.And these are the fleece pouches I made for his gadgets. The green bat bowtie one is for his mp3 player, the red Jack one is for his phone and the pirate Jack one is for his PDA. The Pumpkin one has a whole lot of homemade vouchers in it for shoulder rubs, breakfast in bed and home cooked meals etc.

I made this block using a method/layout similar to JONZ and I have to say I'm really pleased with it. You would have thought with my dressmaking experience I would have remembered about avoiding cutting on the bias wouldn't you?Hopefully less puffy results from now on!

I've also been working on some hearts. This is them in their unembellished form.

This one is for Maureen B if she wants it.Its still a UFO at the moment.

Hope you like them!
Shall post tomorrow about things I have planned.

General Update

First of all,Apologies for the lack of updates for a while! I hearby promise to post at least once a week!

Reason for the lack of updates? After the dreaded hospital appointments I had the flu which hung around for a while and after that had problems with ongoing medical stuff that I have so its taken me this long to get generally back on my feet!On top of that have had to continue working through that so recovery took just that little bit longer.

Have been working on a few things but shall post about those seperately!

Birthday Box

First of all thankyou to all the ladies who are taking part in this! Am sorry am late getting my baggies out this month! This isn’t a brag post or a list but a OOOOH Look what I got!!!!! Post ;) If I don’t mention everything its because I’ve cherry picked my favourite bits to tell you about!

Wilma sent me some lovely things including a very cute clog keyring that now lives on the big keyring collection of doom (my keys have 2 keys on them and about 14 keyrings!)Theres some very interesting fabrics including a piece of gold striped green that is demanding to be made into something for my mum and some green scalloped trim that I can’t stop looking at!

Bethany sent me lots of colorful things including some perle threads, some very fine china braid and an especially beautiful piece of purple and aqua tonal fabric with gold striations on it which I can’t stop looking at!

Ati sent me some lovely things including a letter, green (GREEN!) cotton lace and the most adorable little handbag keyring which she made for me. It also went straight onto my keys!

Brenda sent this assortment of things including a very cool betty boop shrinky dink! The red and green perle have already been half used on my DBF’s birthday present!She also sent me a purple Victorian bride silky which I am saving for a friends wedding present!

Marianne sent me ribbony heaven! My favourites include some interesting dusky pinky purple ribbon and some gold chenille needles as well as some silvered beads, a beautiful buttefly motif and some purple spiderweb fabric!

Laura sent me some lovely charms and some amazing braids! There is some amazing heavy golden braid which is just wonderful and am planning to use the coffee pot and cup charms on a present for a friend who is afternoon tea mad!

Mary sent me Mardi Gras beads!DBF is insisting we decorate the flat with them! She also sent me some delicate silk threads and some lovely black floral ribbon.

Gerry sent me a really cute card, some printable on fabric (still talking DBF into letting me put them through the printer) some very nice purple rickrack, pearl bead lace trim and some lovely oriental fabrics, the fan designs of which are getting put aside for making something for my mum!

Renea sent me an oriental goodie bag! Theres a cherry blossom piece and one with dragons I’m trying to find excuses to use in something for myself! The shoe print stuff may be made into something for my little sister who is shoe mad!

Susan sent me a lace extravaganza! She made me some amazing tatted edging and a medallion which is being saved for a personal project!She also sent me some incredibly fine silk threads!

I got a lovely package from Juydth with a whole host of fabrics and some of the fancy threads I hadn’t ordered! She also sent me a lovely butterfly brooch and a dragonfly one which are being kept for me to wear ;)

Thankyou to everyone for brightening up the last few weeks. Hopefully things are starting to get back to normal!

Dreaded Lurgy and a meme

It appears that M accidentily bought home germs from the new students at the college he works at as I have been ill all week...including a trip to the out of hours doctors surgery late last night as I was having breathing problems. Am ok, I just have to rest for as long as possible.

I've been tagged by Sewing Southpaw to do this silly meme thing.

I have to tell you five weird things about me:

1. I can speed read naturally. The useful side effect of years of bullying at school meant I spent all my time in the library. Compare that with the stock my family but in having good knowledge and I was odviously born to be a bookworm. My favourites are Sci/fi, fantasy, thrillers - especially those involving pathology and behavourial sciences, and crime novels. My favorite author is Freda Warrington but you can't get her books in the UK. I have one I was given as a gift by an american friend. Unfortunatly the rest of my brain works at the same speed as I read so I get bored easily.

2. I am obsessed with The West Wing. Its the relationships between the people mainly but I find the american political system interesting.

3.I am a fussy eater - mainly due to IBS. I can't eat red meat, anything with yeast in, and I just plain don't like/won't eat egg yolk unless its mixed in with the white as in scrambled eggs or ommlettes. My favourite food is pretzels and I can't have them any more as I can't find yeastless ones. :( !

4. I studied arts and crafts at college, but I don't think my work is good enough to sell even though people tell me I'm talented. I don't know if I ever will think it is good enough.

5. I'd rather buy stuff for my stash than food or the new shoes I really really need!

I'm also supposed to tag 5 people but most of the people I know/read have already been tagged by other people so you can do it if you wish.