What are these flights of fancy that Mabel has? Well, they are short snippets about anything that I've been doing, stitching, designing, thinking about, experimenting with, and so on, which I think you may be interested in. They'll tell you about new designs, how I come up with names, changes I'm making in designs I'm working on and so on. I can't promise posts will be regular or terribly frequent, but I'll do my best not to neglect this page for long periods of time! By the way, some of the pictures are thumbnails, so you can click on them for a larger version; if you hover over one and a little magnifying glass with a + appears, it's clickable.

A bicycle ride and Australian kindness

Posted on May 18, 2013 by Flights of Fancy

This morning I went off to our church to help with a coffee morning. The three local Baptist churches are sending a team to India this summer to help with a school and various other things, and so a lot of fundraising is going on – today was a sponsored bike ride or walk around Draycote Water, a local reservoir, with coffee and cake at the church afterwards or throughout the morning for anyone who simply preferred cake to exercise. When I arrived at the church it turned out that there were about 30 cakes, and about as many helpers, and about half that number actually cycling or walking!

Well, I may be exaggerating a little, but it was obvious that the coffee morning was going to get along very well without my help, so I went back home, dug out my trusty Dutch bike (back-pedal brakes, no gears, sit up very straight) and completed two laps around the reservoir (5 miles each), the second lap without getting off my bike to walk up the steeper bits *yay!*. I even overtook two of our teenagers on their whizzy modern bikes – although I will admit that this was probably because one of them had some chain trouble.

It was a lovely ride, with gorgeous views over the surrounding countryside, oodles of swallows or swifts or martins skimming the water for insects, a duck with a train of ten ducklings behind her, one of the girls from church doing part of the lap on a unicycle, a wagtail and a crested grebe; I really ought to do this more often!

I came home feeling very virtuous having done all that exercise, and for a good cause too (if anyone would like to sponsor me retrospectively, drop me an email!), and picking up the post on the way in I noticed an envelope from Australia. What a lovely surprise: Stitchinkitty from the Cross Stitch Forum had sent me eight skeins of lovely Australian hand-dyed perles! The brand is Minnamurra, which she tells me has been discontinued; a shame, of course (the more thread hand-dyers out there the better) but it does mean I won’t feel guilty if I don’t use them in some new design – I can just use them for my own pleasure and enjoyment. Aren’t they lovely?

My parcels have arrived!

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Flights of Fancy

Having been held hostage for a week by Customs (don’t get me started on the extortionate Royal Mail handling fee!) my two parcels from Margaret at the Little Thread Shop arrived yesterday. Unfortunately work doesn’t stop just so I can play with new threads, so it had to wait until the evening. I’d sent Margaret two rather long lists of Caron Watercolours and Wildflowers, and on the invoices it said how many of each she was sending but not which particular numbers, so although I knew that one Watercolours and about five Wildflowers weren’t available, I didn’t know which ones. The first thing to do, then, was to sort through them, a very pleasant occupation and one that my husband thought deserved a photograph (apologies for my bad posture).

And here is the complete haul, in numerical order. Already I’ve identified some very promising combinations, like Old Brick with Turmeric, and Caramel with Almond (apart from the Old Brick it’s beginning to sound like a recipe! Mind you, some of them do look good enough to eat). The parcel also confirmed how good Margaret’s customer service is – one of the Wildflowers she didn’t have was Parfait, but she sent me a skein of Blossom at no charge saying it was quite close to Parfait and might work (it does).

One of the things I did notice while having my little thread feast was what a difference dye lots can make. I have two skeins of Watercolours Caramel (one I bought in Holland because I didn’t remember it was part of my order from Margaret) and they are really completely different colours, one more golden brown, the other almost with a reddish, brick-like cast. The pair at the bottom are Watercolours and Wildflowers in what is meant to be the same shade, Sunglow, but you can see from the picture that although they look good together, they are definitely not the same. No fault of Margaret’s at all, but it is another reminder that there really is no substitute for seeing the threads in the flesh (or in the fibre), and also that if you’re going to need more than one skein for a project you’d better make jolly sure they’re the same dye lot!

Now all I have to do is wind them all on bobbins …

Border control

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Flights of Fancy

One way of finishing pieces of stitching, whether they become bookmarks or table mats or bell pulls or patches, is to give them a decorative and sturdy border (“hem” would probably be a better word, but “Hem control” wouldn’t have been such a good title ). The emphasis is on “sturdy” – it’s easy enough to work a line of running stitch and fray the fabric up to it, and I recently saw a finish where the fabric was frayed up to a border of Kloster blocks, but although that would probably be fine for projects that get stuck on cards, or the tops of boxes, they probably wouldn’t stand up to a lot of handling.

At the moment I’m working on several sets of small and even smaller designs specifically intended to be used with foam items like the notebooks and purses I showed you last week, and also with smaller foam shapes to make ornaments. Some will use the frayed-edge finish, some will be attached with buttons, and some will have a more use-proof finish. But as I am stitching the models, I am reminded why I use these first-class, grade A borders so little. They are very time-consuming! On the other hand, they do produce pieces which will stand up to handling, and which can be displayed as they are, or easily attached to a background (for example a cushion or a bag). Below are a few examples of long-lasting borders: hem stitch (not used in the pieces I’m working on at the moment), four-sided edging (shown here on Percival, used as part of the design on Faith Hope & Love and the Guildhouse needlebook) and buttonhole edging (progress picture for Art of the Needle; not cut out of the surrounding fabric yet).

White on white

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Flights of Fancy

Last month Serinde commented on my Stitching in the Netherlands post saying she’d like to stitch some Mabel designs in traditional white on white. Serinde is at least partly responsible for the existence of Mabel’s Fancies as she greatly encouraged me when I started doing Hardanger, so I take note of what she says! And so, instead of working on planned projects as I ought to, I stitched Song of the Weather February in white on white. What do you think, Serinde, does it work?

Foam fun

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Flights of Fancy

Ever since I bought sticky-back foam from them for our church’s Christmas Craft Event last year, Yellow Moon have been sending me their catalogue. Nothing stitchy, really, but lots of felt and foam and paper and things like that. It turned out to be really useful for the people doing Sunday School and the Mother & Toddler group, which was a nice side effect.

I do like looking through the catalogue myself, even if I don’t really expect to find anything in it that I could use. But this time I noticed a few things which I thought might be fun, and even useful, for stitchers. One of the things we always run up against when we finish a piece of stitching is that irritating question non-stitchers always ask, “what are you going to do with it?” Personally I think the fun I had stitching it is the great thing, and I’m not overly worried if I end up not doing anything with it at all. Do people ever ask someone who has been to a beautiful concert what he is going to do with the music he so enjoyed?

Even so, it’s nice to be able to use completed projects in such a way that they give enjoyment a second time round, as a card for someone special, for example, or as a needlebook, coaster, lap tray, or thread box. And as there are only so many needlebooks, coasters and boxes one can use (although cards always come in handy, however many you make) it’s satisfying to find a possible new way of “finishing” one’s work.

I did briefly toy with the idea of a snow globe – you know, one of those glass (or more likely perspex) domes with water inside, and when you shake them it snows. They sell those, with a slot in the middle for your own artwork. The picture showed a foam insert, so obviously the thickness of a piece of stitching wouldn’t be a problem. In the end I decided against them because at 65mm high they are really a bit too small for anything but the tiniest piece of Hardanger. Two other things I did order, though – foam notebooks, and foam purses. A lot will depend on how securely I can attach the stitching to the foam, but if it works they should make lovely stitchers’ notebooks (for noting down all your projects, with or without pictures) and little project pouches (to hold needles, threads, scissors, needle threader, beads etc). They need a fairly small projects, so I’ve been designing a few especially for these objects; if they turn out well, perhaps I could make them up into kits!

Threads, threads and surprise threads

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Flights of Fancy

I’m having a bit of a thread orgy at the moment for various reasons. The first one you might call neutral – an order from West End Embroidery with threads I wanted to try out. These are mostly Threadworx hand-dyed perles, pairs of #5 and #8. I haven’t got particular projects in mind for them, except for one: the rather startlingly bright one on the right, called Bradley’s Balloons. I fancy that would work well on a sky-blue and white fabric for Windmills; it reminds me of the bright colours of those toy windmills you get at the seaside.

The second reason is rather sad: Margaret Roberts is closing down the Little Thread Shop for health reasons. This is of course first and foremost a blow for her and her family, but in a much smaller way it is also a loss for stitchers everywhere who benefited from her great customer service, helpfulness and competitive prices. As she is now clearing out her remaining stock, I’m afraid I went a bit mad and placed a big order, then (encouraged, would you believe it, by my husband) another one, as this was a once in a lifetime chance to stock up on Caron threads without breaking the bank! The first half of the first order has arrived – two more parcels to look forward to …

And finally the very best reason of all for a stash acquisition! Sally, a wonderful fellow stitcher from Australia, sent me some gorgeous hand-dyed threads under the pretence that she wanted my help in identifying a thread from her grandmother’s sewing box. If I tell you that in the picture below the solitary pink thread on the right is what she wants my help with, and all the other threads are her very generous gift to me, you will see why I think she is a star, and a brightly shining one at that. There is a hand-dyed medium silk (the light turquoise one) from Jennifer Gail Threads, a perle #5 (pink/blue) and #8 (dark turquoise) from Jane van Keulen, Cottage Garden stranded cotton (red/green) and the absolute gem of the collection, a skein of Colour Stream’s Ophir silk perle (red/orange/yellow/purple). I have long wanted to try that one out, as I suspected it would be the same sort of lovely cord-like thread as Gloriana’s Princess Perle Petite and Treenway’s Fine Cord. I haven’t had time to try it yet, but I’ll let you know – it definitely feels delectable!

Stash & stitching in Holland

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Flights of Fancy

While we were on holiday in my native Holland we visited family and friends, the beach that I used to go to both as a child and as an adult (this time with a force 7 wind blowing), the Keukenhof which was a riot of crocuses rather than the hyacinths and tulips you’d expect mid-April, and a lovely little village called Oud-Zuilen where we delivered an Austin Seven wheel (of course). We also went to the market in my home town, and one stand had some craft materials. Mostly card making and stamping stuff, but suddenly I noticed two metal rings laden with Caron Watercolours! One of the great difficulties when buying online is getting an accurate idea of colours, so being able to see them for myself was lovely, and then on top of that they turned out to be cheaper than here in England. And I’d just been given a belated birthday present by one of my aunts (the other one gave us dinner at our favourite Greek restaurant), so I spent it on some of these lovely threads.

I acquired some less unexpected stash as well; before we left for Holland I’d ordered several fabrics from the Hardanger Atelier, to be sent to my mother’s address, thus saving postage to England. I got some unexciting-but-useful Lugana and Oslo, and two small pieces of other Zweigart fabrics to try out: Colmar, a 25ct which is slightly textured (I’ve used the check version, Colmar Carré, before) and Modena, a 35 or 36ct with an unexpectedly open weave.

I also had time to stitch, and I’d brought the materials for those two Round Dozen variations that I wanted to try. Well, here they are. They are absolutely identical except for the materials – the one on the left uses white DMC perle on white Lugana with Caron Wildflowers (086 Tahiti) for the coloured bits, the one on the right is stitched on maize Lugana with standard DMC perle #8 (353 and 744) and DMC Variations perle #5 (4100). I’ll be using that combination again, those pinks and yellows look so cheerful together! And don’t the two look different; I think you could stitch quite a few birthday cards based on one design before anyone noticed they were all getting “the same one”, as long as you varied your colours!

Round Dozen variation with Caron Wildflowers

Round Dozen variation with DMC Variations perle

More variations – and another SAL…?

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Flights of Fancy

“There is one more variation that I want to do” … Well, perhaps make that two variations, as I just stumbled across a rather attractive combination of maize yellow fabric and a DMC Variations perle. Irresistible, wouldn’t you agree? Just the sort of springy, sunny look we need right now!

In spite of declaring on the Cross Stitch Forum, with sincere and utter conviction, that once every five years is about the right frequency for a Mabel’s Fancies SAL in order to keep my sanity, I have found myself scribbling ideas for another 12-month project. Oh-oh. Like Song of the Weather it would involve twelve small individual projects, all based around Hardanger but with lots of different surface stitches as well. Working title: “Round in Circles” (although my husband suggested “Round the Bend”). Would anyone out there be interested if this came up in, say, 2015?

Different threads, different look

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Flights of Fancy

If you’ve been following Flights of Fancy for some time you may be aware that I like silks. A lot. My budget doesn’t, but I do. Unfortunately most of these beautiful silks seem to be produced by people a long way away from the Midlands (of England, that is) – America, Australia, South Africa … One of them is Treenway, and I wrote a while ago how helpful Susan had been choosing various shades that go together. I picked several combinations with the Song of the Weather SAL in mind, but because there are so many great threads to use only one of them made it into my final selection. All the other silks just sat there, being stroked occasionally, waiting for a project.

They got their opportunity to shine when I decided to have a little stitching holiday and just do some variations on small designs I’d stitched before. Very relaxing, and very interesting to see the difference colours can make. Here, however, it wasn’t just different colours, but different textures – the difference between cottons and the lustre of reeled (or filament) silk; between the medium twist of perle cottons, the slight twist of Treenway’s 8/2 silk and the strong twist of their Fine Cord.

There is one more “variation” that I want to do: a white-and-bright, slightly adapted version of one of the Round Dozen. After that I’ll be good and go back to stitching for the SAL, and from my Planned list. Promise.

The difference colours can make

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Flights of Fancy

You may remember I had to order a ball of Anchor perle #8 for my variation-on-a-Guildhouse model (one or two other things may have found their way into my basket at the same time; can’t think how that happened …) It is used for the Rhodes diamonds and should be quite close to the darkest perle #5 shade – what do you think, is it a good match? Below is the pink variation (on dusky pink 28ct Jobelan) side by side with the original model (on antique white 25ct Lugana) to show the difference in size, and because side by side it’s much easier to see the difference that fabric and thread colours make (a more dramatic example is Shades).

And just to show that orientation changes the look of a piece as well (something to keep in mind when framing projects), here is the pink version straight and turned 45 degrees.

After all that I could have gone back to Blackthorn, but instead I’ve been doing some alternative versions of Happy Hour using the very pretty Treenway Silks I bought some time ago but hadn’t used yet. I’m enjoying my little stitching holiday!