Yearly Archives: 2014

Finishing florals, part 1

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Remember the buttonhole-and-felt finish I was planning for Floral Lace? Well, I have finally started on them. Sort of. I decided that, as I had no idea whether it was going to work, perhaps I’d better try it out first on the Floral Lace eyelet varation I stitched on Hardanger fabric. For one thing, if it did turn out to be a disaster I wouldn’t have ruined one of the 18 “proper” models, and for another, I’d get to experiment on the slightly stiffer fabric first, which should be a bit easier than the more loosely-woven Lugana. It soon became very clear that this was A Good Idea.

The process I had in mind started with measuring how big the felt needed to be, and then measuring and cutting the felt to size. There will be 5 fabric threads between the cross stitch border and the inner edge of the buttonholing; the buttonhole stitches will be worked, as usual, over 4 threads. The felt needs to end up somewhere between those two lines. I decided on 7 fabric threads out from the cross stitch border, which on Hardanger fabric stretched in a hoop was 11cm. First lesson learned: it is extremely difficult to cut a true square from a larger piece of felt. Second lesson: when you’ve got something approximating a square of the required size, it is extremely difficult to position it accurately on the back of the stitching and keep it there while you get ready to attach it with running stitch. It’s possible, but surely there must be an easier way which needs less turning the work over and tugging on the felt to reposition it every other stitch.

The start of a finish

So in response to those first two lessons learnt I have decided that when I get on to the real thing I will cut a very rough square of felt rather bigger than needed, attach it with running stitch at 6 fabric threads from the cross stitch border, then cut the felt closely around the running stitch square. There will be a bit of felt waste, which is unfortunate, but probably worth it for not having to continually check the position of the felt and spending a lot of time getting the felt absolutely square; it’s hard enough to make sure the felt is kept flat and doesn’t pucker while I’m attaching it. For this test piece I am stuck with the cut-to-size felt, however, so I’ll try to get that out of the way as quickly as possible, and then it’s on to the buttonholing! Because the felt doesn’t quite stretch to the outer edge of the buttonhole stitch there won’t be a problem with having to bring the needle up through the felt, so I should be able to keep the edge nice and straight, and therefore easy to cut. Well, that’s the theory…

Putting things together and building things up

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Not too much stitching this week, but a lot of preparation – I’ve been putting the kits together for the Knitting & Stitching Show workshop next month (there are still some tickets available), and getting some more card and felt for the Dunchurch workshop in June. For the pink floral card I can’t quite decide whether it looks better with the baby pink or the bright fuchsia felt! By the way, did you notice the small coloured rings that hold the threads for the K&S kits? They were an unsuccessful attempt at finding a replacement for my light wooden storage rings; unfortunately they were far too small to store full skeins of perle on, but they turned out to be just the right size to hold the threads for one Hardanger patch – and they look bright and cheerful into the bargain.

Putting together the workshop kits Card and felt for the Dunchurch workshop kits

Another thing that needed some preparation and putting together was Treasure Trove. I’ve done a fair bit of the surface stitching (just half the border to go) so it was time to start on the goldwork. For this I needed 4 tiny yellow felt circles, 4 slightly larger yellow felt circles, and four gold kid octagons. After some deliberation I decided on 8mm and 14mm for the felt circles; the gold octagons would be cut from 2cm squares. I measured everything carefully, cut it all, and then panicked – surely these minute bits of felt and kid couldn’t possibly be the right size? But fitting them to the running stitch outlines I had previously worked as a guide, they were just right. I could see I was in for some very fiddly stitching, securing first the smallest circle, and then the larger one covering it, both accurately centred inside the running stitch outline.

Gold kid and felt cut to size for Treasure Trove

As it looked like the sort of stitching that would need fierce concentration, I decided to do it at my very chatty and distracting stitching group. Apart from one knot-and-loop at the back of my work which I noticed too late (and subsequently secured behind previous stitching rather than unpick the whole thing) it all went remarkably smoothly, and I ended the session with what one of my fellow stitchers called “four felt blobs”. She obviously wasn’t altogether sure whether anything else was going to happen to them, but I reassured her that the rather garish yellow blobs would in fact be covered in tasteful antique gold. I would have started on it there if it hadn’t been for the fact that I forgot to bring a sharp needle, and my size 28 tapestry needle simply refused to go through the kid!

Two layers of felt built up, waiting for the gold

So just a little bit more to do on Treasure Trove – and then I need to stitch the blue-and-silver version…

A workshop finish and a floral calendar

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Some time ago I showed you the model for the Spring Knitting & Stitching Show workshop – duly stitched, and finished as a patch on a gift bag, using white cross stitch to attach the stitched piece to the cotton bag. It was photographed and the photograph turned into a kit cover and that, I thought, was that. It wasn’t. I’d scribbled some rough notes on the chart to remind me how much thread would be needed for each kit, but they weren’t very clear, and when I came back to them I wasn’t at all convinced that I’d got it right. Fortunately I was looking for a quick project to take to my in-laws last weekend, as Treasure Trove is rather too big and complicated, and so I decided to stitch another model, this time using Anchor Multicolor perle #8 instead of a solid colour – variegated threads give such a nice effect for no extra effort and I thought it would encourage the workshop participants.

Part of our visit would be spent marshalling (i.e. helping out) at a vintage car trial, but as it happened I had quite a bit of stitching time on the Friday, and finished all the surface stitching, leaving only a small amount of cutting and filling – easily finished on Saturday, with time to spare. As I would like to take this model to show at the workshop, it occurred to me that it would be a good idea to finish it in a different way from the first one. How about giving it a buttonhole edge and then cutting it from the fabric? Still a patch, and attachable to bags, cushions and what not, but showing a different technique. And I had plenty of white perle #5 with me. I didn’t quite manage to finish it, but there’s not much left to do.

Buttonhole finish to a workshop model

That gave me another idea. I’ve been thinking about what to do with the 18 Floral Lace models. Because of their size, cards spring to mind, but this suggestion was met with indignation by both my mother-in-law and the ladies at my stitching group. They felt the designs deserved a more permanent fate. But what? I’m no good at patchwork so the idea of a quilt didn’t appeal to me. I can’t easily make them into coasters bcause of the beads, and anyway the house is rather well-stocked with stitched coasters already. Then I remembered that one of the ladies who joined the Song of the Weather SAL was planning to use the 12 designs as a calendar, finishing them all separately and then changing them over every month. She had used a backing fabric and finished them a bit like ornaments, but buttonhole edging was surely an option too!

There was a possible problem, however. The workshop model is stitched on Hardanger fabric, which is relatively stiff; Floral Lace is worked on evenweave. A line of buttonhole stitch on evenweave can pull away entirely. One option is to vary the length of the stitches, which can look quite attractive as well as making the edging more secure. Another might be to make use of the fact that the projects will need a backing of some sort. I came up with the following: find a colour of felt that will complement the design (I may end up using black for all of them, or I may vary the colours – I haven’t decided yet). Cut the felt slightly smaller than the finished patch will be and attach it to the back with running stitch, then work buttonhole stitch over the top. This should strengthen the edging and stop it from pulling away simply because the stitches bite into the felt (which doesn’t fray) as well as the evenweave. I might still use variable length stitches because I think it will look nice, and it will add even more strength.

So there we are – over the next months I will be buttonholing Floral Lace in between other projects, then choose a frame or possibly a canvas or even a cork board to which I can attach a different one every month. I may or may not add a calendar underneath; perhaps I’ll just keep it as an interchangeable display. Whatever it turns out to be in the end, I’ll post pistures here of the process!

Chart packs on CD and an end to neglect

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To begin with the latter, I have finally started Treasure Trove – yay! I’ve done the central part (apart from the cutting) and all the beading, which looks quite different but fortunately actually better than I had envisaged it. In the design there are bead motifs which have come out much denser-looking that I thought (it’s difficult to keep remembering that charted beads on paper are smaller than actual beads on fabric), and clusters of four beads which, as I was stitching them, I feared would be too bulky for where they were in the design. But the motifs actually look rather attractive with the dense coverage, and the clusters form a pleasing X shape which I hadn’t foreseen. It’s very satisfying when a design does that smiley. Next step is to decide exactly what size to cut the metallic kid and the felt used for padding it.

Beading detail of Treasure Trove

So what about those CD chart packs? As Mabel’s Fancies doesn’t offer printed chart packs (not as a standard option anyway) wouldn’t it be much easier just to send the PDF chart packs by email as we do now? Why add the complication of a physical CD? Good point, and in fact the CDs are not intended to be sent out by post; the idea is that when I teach workshops or do exhibitions or things like that, I can put out a selection of these chart-packs-on-CD for people who would like to try a design at home.

So far so good. But how to put them together? I had some plastic sleeves which I thought would work, with an insert like the photographs I stick on the front of the Mini Kits, only square. One problem with that soon became apparent – the inserts need to be a little over 12cm square, so you’d have to go for 5″x7″ photographs and cut them to size; but that gets quite expensive. So how about 4″x6″ photographs cut square and then stuck onto some coloured paper, like these origami squares? Unfortunately 11.7cm would still leave quite a gap, and the next size up is too big. Time for Plan B. Why not use those paper CD sleeves with a circular window in them? A 4″x6″ photograph, cut down to a little under 5″ and inserted in front of the CD, would fill the entire aperture. One snag. As you can see below, the window doesn’t show the whole cover picture. This looks a bit sloppy.

Materials for the CD chart packs as originally intended The new paper sleeves

The long-term solution is rejigging the cover pictures so that they fit a 10cm round aperture; so I had a play with the template and managed to squeeze everything into a circle. That doesn’t solve the short-term problem of the 25 covers I had printed already, but having tried a few approaches the best one is probably to stick the trimmed pictures to the sleeves so they cover the window. Not the most elegant solution, but better looking than the partly-obscured square-picture-behind-circular-aperture option. And for any future CD chart packs, I’ll use the new circular cover pictures!

The rejigged cover Perhaps sticking them to the front is better?

Serendipitous hoops

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If you’ve recently looked at the Workshops page you will know that we’ve got several planned for this year. The two London Knitting & Stitching Shows will probably not surprise you, but why on earth one at Dunchurch Baptist Church? For a very simple reason – I am a member there, and we are raising funds for a new building.

The rather sad reason why we need a new building is that the old one, built by the members themselves in the 70s, is falling to bits. The much more joyous reason is that it’s getting too small! But whatever the reason, a new building needs a new budget. As anyone who has ever tried to raise money for a good cause will know, it takes a lot of ingenuity and creativity to come up with enough events and projects that will interest people. Our Elders decided to start from the Parable of the Talents – anyone who wanted to was encouraged to collect £10 from them, and to use that money to raise more in whatever way their particular talents suggested. So far this has yielded a Murder Mystery Evening with 3-course meal (tomorrow, and we’ve got tickets!), a Christmas Cookbook (recipes to be handed in in March and cooked/baked in April – book to appear just before the Village Fête), an Arts & Craft Exhibition with cake stall, a sponsored walk/run/cycle ride/pram push, several Quiz Nights, a Beetle Drive (I had to look that one up smiley) and a concert. Oh, and a Hardanger workshop.

It wasn’t until I’d offered it and picked a date that I realised I’d need twelve 4″ hoops. When I teach at the Knitting & Stitching Show, hoops are lent us for the duration of the workshop, but here I’d have to provide them myself. And oddly enough I didn’t have twelve 4″ hoops just lying around…

As you do nowadays, I Googled hoops, and found that even with my husband’s and my £10 pooled I wouldn’t be able to afford twelve. Until I came across a Gumtree ad. Eight red 4″ flexi-hoops. The hoops were somewhere in Wales (I think), and only local pick-up was specified, but I thought I might as well contact the seller and see if they’d be willing to post them. The lady was very helpful and said yes, she’d be happy to send them. I asked if by any chance she had any more hoops. “Not red ones,” she said. “But I do have twelve green ones.”

Just the right number, and for a great price that was well within our Talent budget – they were obviously meant to be! In the end I bought the eight red ones as well, on the grounds that some workshoppers might like to buy one to take home. And here they are: my serendipitous collection of hoops. Now all I need is twelve people to use them on Saturday 28th June.

A lot of 4-inch hoops

A neglected Treasure Trove

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Remember the materials below?

Materials for the red/gold version Materials for the blue/silver version

They’ve had a change or two, but they are pretty much what is needed to stitch Treasure Trove in two colourways. Treasure Trove was meant to be my next project – something a little larger after all those Floral Lace models, with the added spur of trying something new: padded gold or silver kid with a border of Jessica stitch. All very enticing. But somehow I keep putting it off with all manner of excuses. We had a new carpet put in the living / dining room last week, with all the upheaval that entails, so it seemed sensible to start something that I could work in a hand-held hoop; Treasure Trove will need to be held in my Lowery stand, so I picked one of the three Wedgwood designs.

Wedgwood 1, on blue

And now that I’ve done the first of the set of three, well, it makes sense to do the other two before starting something new, doesn’t it? And so Treasure Trove languishes. Don’t worry though, it will get stitched eventually – because I am looking forward to trying that lovely soft metallic kid.

Kate is brilliant!

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My belated Christmas present arrived earlier this week: a collection of beautiful Sparklies fabrics. I’ve used Kate’s fabrics several times before – among others in Windmills, Frozen Flower, Flodgarry and Patches – and although it is of course possible to stitch those designs on standard coloured Zweigart Lugana, the irregular look of hand-dyed fabric just adds a certain something.

Windmills Frozen Flower Flodgarry Patches

And here are the ones I got this time: Fire, Gina’s Delight, Lemon & Lime, Pumpkin Patch and Triton; Dark Goddess in linen, and Harvest Blush; plus samples of Innocent Princess, Sunlit Forest and Pitch. Isn’t Kate brilliant thinking up and producing such a wide range of colours, from the palest pastels to the brightest oranges and pinks and blues, and that amazing dark purple?

My Christmas present from Sparklies

When I showed them to my husband he admired them admirably, but then asked the W-question: What did you get them for? Fortunately being a designer means that I can say “for inspiration”, and it’s true at that – as I ironed them and got them ready to be photographed, just looking at them gave me several ideas about threads to use with them, and I am now fairly certain I’ll use Pumpkin Patch (the muted orange) and Sunlit Forest (the sample of pale sage green) for the two Orpheus designs, which I’d originally planned on Zweigart’s Burnt Orange and Moss Green. The perle colours I had already intended to use with those two fabric shades also work perfectly with the two Sparklies fabrics!

Dark Goddess and Sunlit Forest Lemon & Lime and Fire Pumpkin Patch and Triton

A distracting variation

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The Floral Lace series is nearly finished. Only one more model to stitch to complete the dozen-and-a-half. At least one person is waiting for number 18 in order to plan a Floral Lace afghan. So why, after stitching the other 17 in relatively quick succession without anything in between except the November and December speciality SAL versions, did I decide to stitch a variation first?

It was not something I’d only just come up with, this variation. I charted it, with its tightly pulled Algerian eyes instead of four-sided stitch, some time ago; in fact, back when Floral Lace consisted of only three or four designs. At first it was meant simply as a slightly different take on the designs for my own use, but then as the series grew I thought it would be a nice bonus for people buying the whole series. And that meant it would be nice to have a stitched model of it.

Logically I would have left it until after finishing 9b (Holly); but I finished 9a (Thistle) while visiting family in the Netherlands, just before we were leaving for home. I wanted to start a new project, but A) not too complicated and B) something where it didn’t matter too much if I made a mistake – after all, some of the stitching might be done on the ferry, and the crossing was predicted to be a choppy one. The Variation, planned on 22ct Hardanger instead of 25ct Lugana, using one of the simpler floral motifs, and meant only as an illustration, not a Proper Model, fitted the bill perfectly. As it happens I didn’t stitch on the boat at all, but by that time I’d started it so I thought I’d better finish it.

So here it is, with a diamond of round pulled holes instead of square four-sided stitches. It’s a surprisingly different look, quite lacy, and I’ll definitely use it again!

Floral Lace variation

The bonus chart pack with stitch diagrams and descriptions for working the designs using Algerian eye stitch or eight-armed eyelets is now finished, complete with picture of stitched model. And an additional stitch diagram for Rhodes stitch. After all, that too occupies a square the same size as four-sided stitch, and it offers a completely different texture again, like in the Floral Tiles borders. I don’t think I’ll be doing a stitched model for that one any time soon though; I’ll leave it to stitchers’ imagination for the time being, and get Holly finished at last!

Boop responsibly

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A while ago I came across this lolcat picture. It made me smile – the cat’s expression, and that last line: “Please boop responsibly”.

Boop responsibly

Then it made me think.

As some of you may know, I’m a Christian. Can I very briefly explain what I mean by that? It means I believe that Jesus Christ is God’s Son, and that He gave His life to restore our relationship with God. It also means I try to follow Him. Christians aren’t automatically or by definition “good people”; they’re saved people who do their best to be good people out of gratitude.

So what does this, or booping responsibly, have to do with stitching? Just that if I seriously try to follow Jesus, it should involve everything I do – church, family, work, hobbies. Is it bad for Christians to have hobbies? I don’t think so. Stitching helps me relax (when everything goes well), teaches me patience (when it doesn’t), gives me a lot of pleasure, has brought me new friends, is something I enjoy sharing with my mother-in-law; all good things. Embroidery is even mentioned as a God-given skill in the Bible! (In Exodus 35, if you’re curious.) Yes, there are definitely worse things I could do with my time smiley.

On the other hand, there are probably better things I could do with my time too. Write to a friend. Visit someone who is housebound and lonely. Invite people over for a meal. Make things which are useful, like the scarves my mother knits for Romanian orphans. And then there is the matter of stash. I love stash (this will not come as a surprise to anyone who has been reading this blog for some time). Mostly threads, but also pretty hand-dyed fabrics. I love working with these materials, and I also enjoy “playing” with them – arranging them, thinking of projects for them, simply admiring the glorious colours and textures – very soothing. But there is no denying that these things use up money.

Do I think it’s wrong for Christians (or anyone, for that matter) to spend money on hobbies, treats or pretty things then? No, not necessarily. And I certainly wouldn’t comment on anyone’s spending but my own. But for myself it’s become important to consider what I do with the time and money I’ve been given. To work out how to fully enjoy this beautiful craft without letting it get in the way of more important things. To “boop responsibly”, as it were. So this year my motto will be: Stitch & Stash Responsibly, and Enjoy!

PS I have just received an email from Kate at Sparklies to say that my fabrics have been dyed and sent. Fortunately this comes under the heading of responsible stash as it was a present from the best and most thoughtful parents-in-law I could have wished for.

PPS Stuart Townend’s song Simple Living” presents Jesus’ attitude to money and possessions in a nutshell – and set to a very catchy tune at that!

Storage solutions

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I don’t know whether the word is still as fashionable as it was a while back, but do you remember how practically anything you could buy was a solution? Software solutions (programs), packaging solutions (cardboard and parcel tape), gardening solutions (compost, plants, seccateurs), stationery solutions (pens, paper, staples) and, of course, storage solutions (boxes). Well, once upon a time I had the perfect storage solution for my un-bobbined threads – hinged metal rings with thin varnished light wooden rings on them, and cheap & cheerful plastic clip-shut boxes.

Perle storage

Then the thin, varnished light wooden rings were no longer to be had. And the hinged rings weren’t easy to find in the right size any more. And the Dutch shop where I bought the plastic boxes was out of the size I wanted. Obviously, I should have stocked up in a big way on all those three parts of my storage solution when I had the chance! But is there any stitcher who has a realistic idea of how many threads she will have in a year’s time?

So I now have two half-sized boxes, smaller metal rings and larger, thicker and rougher wooden rings. Not ideal, but they’ll do, and it is still a joy to play with my lovely new threads. But when I’d finished putting the pre-cut perles onto my wooden rings, I came to the next challenge – Threadworx’ overdyed Vineyard silk. Unlike their perles and stranded cottons, the silks don’t come in pre-cut lengths. And unlike the perle cottons, which may look pretty and dainty but are quite sturdy underneath, the silks really are as delicate as they look and I wouldn’t dream of putting them on those untreated wooden rings, even though I did sand them to get rid of the worst roughness. So what to do with them? The obvious answer is to do what I do with all my other silks and wind them on plastic bobbins. But that means keeping them with the other bobbinated threads in one of my bobbin boxes, and I particularly want to keep them with the Threadworx perles as they are meant to go with some of the #8 perles instead of a #5.

Have you ever known an object really well only to realise after years of use that they have a particular feature? That sounds a bit complicated, but here is what I mean. I have wound threads onto bobbins for years. I know them back to front. Flat white plastic things with a hole in the top end. Subconcsciously I knew that hole was there. I even knew it was there because some people keep them on hinged metal rings. The metal rings are, after all, sometimes known as bobbin rings. But because I keep bobbins in bobbin boxes, this idea never really made it into my conscious mind. Until yesterday,when it suddenly came to me that I could have three rings of perles-on-wooden-rings, and one ring of silks-on-bobbins, and keep them in the same box.

So I did – but there was one last complication. There were rather more Threadworx threads than I’d realised so I now had four rings of perles and one of silks, and they wouldn’t fit into the half-sized box. A bit more stash rearranging was obviously called for, and eventually the Threadworx collection ended up in my wooden thread box, while my DMC/Anchor variegated perles now inhabit one of the half-sized boxes, and my House of Embroidery perles the other.

My Threadworx collection and how I store it Anchor and DMC variegated perles House of Embroidery perles

Storage problem solved!

For now…