Yearly Archives: 2013

Foam fun

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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!

Foam notebooks Foam purses

Threads, threads and surprise threads

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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.

Threadworx threads from West End Embroidery

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 remining 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 …

Caron threads from the Little Thread Shop

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 pretense 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!

Threads from Sally

Stash & stitching in Holland

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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.

Caron Watercolours bought in Holland

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.

Zweigart Modena and Colmar

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…?

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“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!

more variations

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

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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.

Happy Hour 1 as designed Happy Hour 1 using Treenway silks Happy Hour 2 as designed Happy Hour 2 using Treenway silks

There is one more “variation” that I want to do: a white-and-bright, slightly adapted version of one of the Rond 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

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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).

Guildhouse 1a, rose-on-rose The original Guildhouse 1a

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.

Guildhouse 1a, as before Guildhouse 1a, 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!

An old-fashioned evening

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A week or so ago I stitched a card – or what would become a card – for friends of ours expecting their second baby. Last Monday it was born (on my birthday!), and so I needed to add name and date to the piece. For various reasons I didn’t get round to it until last night. I scribbled some lettering ideas (in cross stitch over one) and numbers (in backstitch) on the original chart, worked out where to start to get them in the right position so they would still fit into the aperture card I had for it, and got stitching.

I was two letters into the name when suddenly the room went dark. Power cut. I wasn’t too worried as our rare power cuts generally last for about 30 seconds, but this one obviously had other ideas. It stuck. Cue my resourceful husband who had soon transformed the room into a rather romantic and cosy sea of candle light. Stitching, however, was out of the question. Cue resourceful husband again, who found an Aladdin lamp (a sort of oil lamp on steroids, as I understand), set it up, and before you know it I was at the kitchen table, stitching away.

Stitching during a power cut

The light was remarkably good, actually! Even so I wish I’d been working on some chunky satin stitch on 22ct Hardanger fabric, but as it happened the lettering was over one on 28ct Lugana using metallics … not ideal, but I managed, and this morning the card was put together, in time to take it to our friends before we set off on my birthday treat, a vintage car weekend in Wales. We travel there in our 1925 unheated, uninsulated Austin 7. And it’s just started snowing again …

Card for baby Rakan

A special month calls for special offers!

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It’s April Fool’s Day today, which was a bit of a blight on my childhood as it also happens to be my birthday. My Oma (gran), a remarkable woman who was very important to me and whom I loved to bits, unfortunately also possessed a sense of humour. One year when I was about 11 I’d been suffering from headaches and colds quite a lot, and so on my birthday she gave me an old-fashioned metal tube of aspirine. That was it. I thanked her politely and put it with the rest of my birthday presents, a bit disappointed and trying not to show it. “Aren’t you going to open it?” she asked. When I did, the tube turned out to be full of dubbeltjes, 10 cent coins – a very nice treat!

April, and more specifically Easter Monday, is also when Mabel Figworthy’s Fancies started. Two years ago now – doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun! Since then there have been lots of new designs, several classes and of course the Song of the Weather Hardanger SAL. It’s been an exciting and rewarding time.

And so I thought it should be a rewarding time for you too, with some Birthday & Anniversary Special Offers to celebrate and thank you for your support. There is Spice of Life, a Pick & Mix consisting of designs in three different sizes; Coasters Plus, a chart pack of suitably-sized designs free with any order of coasters; and New Projects for Old, which gives you 30% off a chart pack of your choice if you send us a picture of your finished Mabel’s Fancies project for the Stitchers’ Gallery. Enjoy – as they say, a little of what you Fancy does you good smiley.

A simple needlebook

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Remember I said two of the Guildhouse models still had to be made into a needlebook? Well, I decided to do the little stitching that needed to be done before treating myself to my pink alternative version of the course’s first project. I wanted this needlebook to be very simple, with as little stitching as possible, so I’ve been experimenting in the hope that it wouldn’t go so desperately wrong that I’d have to stitch the models again!

First step: work a rectangle around the Hardanger motifs in double running stitch (the picture shows backstitch, which with hindsight is too bulky). Then cut two tiny squares of felt which will only just cover the holes and Kloster blocks and place them on the back. Next, iron a rectangle of iron-on interfacing on the back of your stitching, covering and securing the felt and staying inside the stitched outline. Cut around the running stitch, about four blocks away from it. You now have something looking like the pictures below – as you can see, I used two different colours of felt.

A backstitch rectangle around the two Hardanger motifs Iron Vilene on the back, covering the felt and staying inside the outline

Fold the rectangle double to make a “booklet” and iron the fold flat. Cut two or three rectangular pieces of felt a little smaller than the cover, place them inside and make a spine by working double running stitch down the middle of the book, going through all layers (the cover and the felt). Fray the edges up to the backstitched line if you wish. Ta-da! A needlebook. And I won’t have to stitch the models again *phew*.

Fold into a booklet and iron the fold flat Sew two or three rectangles of felt in place with double running stitch down the spine, and fray the edge Front of the needlebook Back of the needlebook

Having finished the needlebook I could work on my dusky pink Guildhouse variation with a clear conscience. Using perle #5 on 28ct is quite chunky, but I think it looks nice and plump, and I may well use that combination again. I once bought a kit (a very pretty one which I really enjoyed from Victoria Sampler’s Beyond Cross Stitch series) which used perle #8 and #12 on 28ct; because it was white-on-white the coverage was OK, and it looked very delicate, but anything where the fabric and thread are different colours I’d probably opt for #5 and #8.

The design I’m working on at the moment has no cutting at all so it’s just Kloster blocks and satin stitch, which is very relaxing and quite quick too! The colours I’m using are from DMC’s dusky pink range, 225, 223 and 221 to be precise. I just wish DMC 221 came in #8, but 223 is as dark as they go, so I’m going to have to order a ball of Anchor 896, which the New Stitches thread converter assures me is very much like DMC 3721, a relatively dark shade from that same dusky pink series. Oh dear, what a chore, I’ll have to go stash shopping …

Goodbye Tandem Cottage

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Just wanted to order some hoops for the Guildhouse course, only to find that Tandem Cottage is closing down! I think they had been having family health issues for some time, which may explain it. There are quite a few online needlework shops still left, of course, but it’s always sad when one has to close down; Tandem Cottage were always very helpful and had very reasonable prices. I’ll miss not having them there in my needlework shop bookmarks.