A birthday and a new kit

Posted on 21st April, 2014 by Flights of Fancy

It’s Mabel’s Fancies’ birthday! Hard to believe I first opened the website on Easter Monday 2011 (and by the way, I hope you all had a lovely Easter). Even harder to believe that it was less than 18 months after I’d first tried my hand at Hardanger. But here we are, and a birthday calls for a celebration, so this week we have a special Three for Two offer: order any two charts from one section (except Sets & Series) and choose a third one for free.

Here is a colourful recent acquisition of mine: 30 foam notebooks. You may recognise them from the Gallery, where there are two embellished with designs from Snippets and Three of Diamonds. But what do you do with thirty of them? Why, make them into kits!

I try not to stock too many “physical” items; so far I’ve limited myself to squissors, mini matchbook kits for beginners and acrylic coasters to display finished projects. But as a small-project stitcher myself I felt that there might be a demand for more small Hardanger kits, this time for people who are not quite beginners. As I had embellished one of my own notebooks with a Snippet design, it seemed a natural decision to use that for the kit as well. A possible reason not to was the fact that Snippets have an unusual and slightly more difficult cutting pattern; should I re-chart it to be a bit more standard? In the end I decided to stick with the original design, but to provide much more detailed instructions than in the Snippets chart pack, so that the kit offers a manageable challenge.

One of the challenges in the design is to get from one stitch to another without trailing the thread behind parts that will be cut. But, I wondered, would it be possible to trail the thread behind parts that would be wrapped? So I tried. And it is. The thread does not interfere with the cutting, and afterwards gets incorporated into the wrapped bars. It’s really rather neat and I’m quite proud of the idea !

And just for a bit more cheerful colour, here are the threads I’ve chosen to go with the six notebook shades:

Finishing florals, part 2

Posted on 3rd April, 2014 by Flights of Fancy

I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that surely by now I must have buttonholed the whole Floral Lace series, but alas, I have not been nearly as productive as I would have liked. I’m still working on the Floral Lace variation which was my experimental finishing piece. I am making progress on that, though! The felt has been attached, it’s a bit lop-sided so I will definitely use a bigger square next time and then cut round it. BAs for the buttonholing: a sharp needle is needed! Trying to push a relatively large tapestry needle through felt is a frustrating process, and very hard on the fingers. But once switch to a crewel needle and it’s a doddle. One side effect I hadn’t foreseen is that the felt pulls through to the front a bit, so there are stray burgundy wisps mixed up in my pristine white buttonhole stitches. Oh well, you can’t win them all.

Another things is that the buttonhole edge as I’m stitching it here is rather close to the design, especially as I want to use variable length buttonhole stitch (see the left-hand chart). I know the border won’t be quite so noticeable in white as it is in the charted grey, but perhaps it would look better further away, as in the right-hand chart? I will try the latter out on one of the “real” Floral Laces and report back.

By the way, the pearl purl idea for Treasure Trove is not going to happen; first of all I’m not at all sure where I could put it (and in what shape or outline) so that it doesn’t clutter up the design, and secondly my gold pearl purl is the wrong colour – it is far yellower than the kid and beads I’ve been using. Never mind, I’ll keep it for a future design.

Finishing florals, part 1

Posted on 6th March, 2014 by Flights of Fancy

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.

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…

A workshop finish and a floral calendar

Posted on 19th February, 2014 by Flights of Fancy

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.

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!

A productive cold and a troublesome daffodil

Posted on 16th December, 2013 by Flights of Fancy

I have a cold. So, I’m sure, have lots of other people, but that doesn’t make it any less uncomfortable; and it’s most annoying not being able to sing along to carols because it brings on a coughing fit! In short, for the last few days I have been feeling less than usually cheerful. So last Friday, with the accounts more or less up to date and the tax return completed and sent off, I took some time off. What with coughing and bunged up sinuses I wasn’t at all sure I’d be able to get to sleep if I tried, so I decided on a relaxing afternoon of card-making. I riffled through my stack of completed small projects, picked some suitable cards to go with them (remember all those aperture cards?), made myself a mug of tea and set to work.

First some miscellaneous projects, mostly Snippets and Happy Hour with a course project and a few freebies thrown in; for some of them I used single fold cards I had in one of my stash drawers.

Then eight Round Dozen Variations. I hadn’t realised I’d done so many recently…

On Saturday I had another go and elevated eleven Song of the Weather stitched models to a state of usefulness. There were thirteen (I’d stitched March twice), but two of them were done on Afghan fabric so they weren’t suitable to be made into cards. I haven’t yet decided what they’ll be turned into, if anything.

With about ten left of the original blue-and-white Song of the Weather models which had already been “finished”, that should give us a good stock of birthday / anniversary / wedding / baptism / etc. cards for a couple of years!

Because of the general head-stuffed-with-cotton-wool feeling I hadn’t been doing a lot of stitching, but I worked on Floral Lace: Daffodil for a bit yesterday. All was well to begin with (I can now stitch the shared part of Floral Lace practically blindfolded) but when it got to the small cross stitches I did some serious miscounting. Unpicked, worked it again, then realised the flower on my chart looked a bit odd. Ah. It’s only got five petals. Daffodils have six petals. I know the flower motifs in Floral Lace aren’t exactly botanical illustrations, but here it was definitely noticeable. So today I recharted the flower, which unfortunately means having to unpick part of the green stems and leaves I’d already stitched because the flower now overlaps them. Heigh ho, it’s all in a day’s designing, and hopefully Daffodil will look all the better for it.

Finishing things

Posted on 6th December, 2013 by Flights of Fancy

It’s Sinterklaasavond tonight – St Nicholas Eve. When I was a child in The Netherlands, this was an exciting evening; at 7 o’ clock there would be a mysterious knock at the door (courtesy of a kind neighbour roped in by Mum) and when we opened it there would be no-one there, only a basket of presents in gaily-coloured wrapping paper. I would already have received a chocolate letter in my shoe that morning, swapped for the carrot that was in it. And this suddenly makes me realise how odd one person’s familiar customs must sound to those raised with different traditions! We put out our shoe (or clog, if your proper Dutch ) with a carrot for St Nicholas’ horse. The usual return is chocolate coins, marzipan shapes or a chocolate letter. But St Nicholas has not yet made it across the Channel, so here in England I have to make do with baking traditional almond cakes, and providing for myself what I’m sure the generous old gentleman would have sent me if he were a bit more international.

Perhaps because of my lack of St Nicholas celebrations I got to thinking about things that finish, and finishing things, and I got quite melancholy as I put the final wrapped bars into the Song of the Weather SAL’s final month. It’s hard to believe that I started planning this well over a year ago, and that my aspiration was to get 20 people to sign up; in the end, 192 did. It’s been a great experience, and one that will definitely be repeated, but not immediately – quite apart from stitching all the models (one each in standard perles and speciality threads) I had seriously underestimated the time needed to write and illustrate the twice-monthly blog!

There is another type of finishing, and it’s one I tend to avoid if I can: finishing stitched items so that they can be used or displayed and enjoyed rather than languishing in a drawer. Some people have a knack for it, and they produce cushions, wall-hangings, tea cosies, bottle holders, cot blankets, fabric bonbon dishes, stitcher’s etuis, mobile phone cases, keyrings and useful-boxes-to-put-things-in at the drop of a hat. I struggle beyond cards and coasters. It’s true that I have produced a fair number of bookmarks, bags (both shopping and gift) and box tops and even the odd pen holder and tray, but my problem is always that finishing items takes a lot of time if you want to do it properly. Take bookmarks. Both four-sided edging and buttonhole edging produce a lovely finish, but boy they’re labour intensive! And sewing a patch securely onto a cotton bag is very fiddly as you have to have one hand inside the bag all the time and feel your way blindly – not exactly quick.

That in itself needn’t be a problem of course, but the truth is that I’d rather be stitching a new project than properly finishing an old one. This is partly because I honestly believe that the enjoyment I get from a project while stitching it is reason enough to stitch, whether or not the resulting piece of embroidery gets used for anything – much like a walk along the beach or a visit to a concert (Stuart Townend was fabulous last night!) it’s about the pleasure of the moment. Even so, it is of course even better if you can go on enjoying it afterwards and in stitching, that is where finishing comes in. Fortunately quite a lot of my designs are just the right size for cards…

One thing I did have to finish was the model I stitched for my workshop at the Spring Knitting & Stitching Show at Olympia. The organiser had asked for a picture of the patch attached to something vaguely home or clothing related, and as I didn’t think it would be practical to carry a cushion along to the show I decided on a cotton bag. No, I’m not sure how that relates to home or clothing either, but she accepted the suggestion so I wasn’t going to argue. The design is surrounded by a broken border of coloured cross stitches so I attached the patch with an additional broken border of white cross stitches – and here it is:

The K&S 2014 patch sewn on to a gift bag

There is something else I need to finish, in yet another sense. Yes, I am finishing designing for the Floral Lace series. Really. Honest. 18 is enough, and I’m running out of filling stitches. Although the kind gift from a fellow Cross Stitch Forum member has given me some ideas for a different beaded filling stitch… perhaps for the 2015 SAL?

A young stitcher, a new stitcher and echoing motifs

Posted on 28th November, 2013 by Flights of Fancy

There were fewer older children (11 or 12) at this year’s Christmas Craft Event, it seemed to me (although I don’t get a lot of time to look around when we’re in full swing) but fortunately still plenty of stitching action, including several boys. One of them was going to use the finished project as his history homework – they are doing the Victorians and were told to bring in some craft appropriate to the period. Although foam baubles would not have been recognised by embroiderers of that time, needlework is definitely an appropriate craft, and thinking of all the beaded slippers, woolwork sewing baskets and decorations stitched on perforated paper I’m sure many a Victorian needlewoman would have loved this new type of ornament to decorate! One modern-day young lady definitely did enjoy herself, and was justifiably proud of the end result.

I am a member of a stitching group that meets ever Monday afternoon during term time at the local adult education centre (where I also teach occasionally). It’s not a class, we simply all bring our needlework (mostly cross stitch, but also Hardanger, stumpwork, beaded cards, crochet and knitting) and work on that while having a good chat and a cup of tea. Sometimes a member may organise a workshop or demonstration, and anyone who is interested joins in while the others work on their own projects. And of course we all help each other out when a project presents particular difficulties.

We heard last Monday that a new lady would like to join, but she has no experience of needlework and would need a lot of guidance and advice about materials and so on. As she had also asked what she should bring, I told our group leader (who hates the title, claiming that all she does is pick up the attendance register from the office, tick it and take it back again) that I’d provide a small kit so that this lady would have something to get started on. A few years back I did some small kits for two children we were babysitting, but they had rather child-like motifs, so I decided on the mini peacock from the freebie section. I printed the chart in three different ways (coloured squares, coloured squares with symbols, and symbols only) so that she can see which type she finds easiest to follow, and stitched a model myself to check on the amounts of thread. Like many stitchers I have a bag of unlabelled stranded cotton which contained plenty of thread in the right colours, and a piece of 14ct aida was easy enough to find too. The second picture shows my stitched model next to the original peacock I stitched on 40ct silk gauze some time ago. It’s quite a difference…

Kit for the new member of our stitching group

Several people have let me know that they are thinking of doing a Floral Lace afghan, which has made me feel a bit twitchy – will 14 designs be enough? Should I design a few more? I am curiously tempted by the little red pimpernel flower, and I love lily-of-the-valley, although on white fabric with white Kloster blocks that may turn out a bit anaemic. But let’s face it, even if I disregard white flowers because they wouldn’t show up enough, there are still plenty of flowers I haven’t tackled yet. So the flowers aren’t the problem; new and different bead arrangements are more difficult to come up with! Because of this I am particularly pleased with the beads in Sunflower as the clusters echo the two internal, skewed squares formed by the Y-bars.

Perhaps thinking up some more new filling stitches would in turn inspire more bead patterns?

Christmas Craft preparations

Posted on 31st October, 2013 by Flights of Fancy

It’s that time of year again – the annual Christmas Craft Event is nearly upon us! Well, it will be in three weeks on Saturday, so we’re all getting our materials ready. For those of you unfamiliar with this highlight of the Dunchurch calendar, it is an event organised by our Baptist church and open to all children from the village and the surrounding area. For a couple of hours on a November afternoon they come and do as many Christmas-themed crafts as they like (and can fit in), choosing from about a dozen different ones. They range from simple decorated cards for the little ones to painted glass jars, Christmas tree ornaments, decorated gingerbread men, Nativity scenes, stars, snowflakes and whatever else the volunteers have been able to dream up.

For the past six years or so I’ve been providing a stitchy craft, meant to be a slightly more challenging project for the older children. In practice I do get some of the 6-year-olds as well, and provided they bring a responsible adult I’m perfectly happy for them to have a go. It’s really rather endearing seeing a dedicated dad wrestling with his first-ever embroidery as his little daughter looks on encouragingly .

I could just about start recycling previous projects, as the children who did them are now too old to join in, but it’s much more fun thinking up something new. This time I teamed up foam baubles from Yellow Moon with a non-cut adaptation of the freebie stars. At first I thought it would be a good idea to use 20ct aida, as it is a bit stiffer and larger than my usual fabrics, but I found that one length of perle #5 was just too short for a star on 20ct, and it’s also relatively expensive to buy; whereas I have plenty of 22ct Hardanger in stock. So Hardanger it is, with DMC Variations (also from my stash) instead of the lovely Caron threads I used for the two models, plus a Madeira metallic I had lying around and some beads I got at the Knitting & Stitching Show.

Non-cut freebie star stitched in Caron thread on 20ct

Christmas Craft baubles with chosen materials

All I’m waiting for now is the needles, then I’ll cut the fabric squares, do a waste knot and come up in the first hole for each one of them, and kit them up with a large chart (I’m still working out what style would be clearest). Usually I don’t get a lot of time to take pictures when we’re in full swing, but I’ll do my best record some of the children’s efforts for posterity!

More fun with foam

Posted on 29th June, 2013 by Flights of Fancy

Today I finished Snippets, the last of the three sets of smalls and minis that make up the Stitcher’s Set of 10 decorative little projects. And to pre-empt the usual question from non-stitchers, “what are you going to do with them?”, here are three things that you could do with them, using foam items like the ones I got from Yellow Moon – a notebook, a keyring (unless you laminate it probably for symbolic use only, like ceremonially handing a teenager his own key to the house) and a name plate for a girl’s bedroom door. Another “foam finish”, a flower frame, can be seen in the Gallery.

A foam keyring embellished with Snippets 3

A butterfly name plate decorated with beads and Snippets 2

A quartet of quickies

Posted on 17th June, 2013 by Flights of Fancy

Last Thursday I was working quite happily on one of the stitched models for Three of Diamonds, when I remembered that I needed to write four invitations; we’re asking some friends to afternoon tea next month and I wanted to get the invitations to them in plenty of time – people often have such a lot to do in the summer! You can make some really nice invitations on the computer using clip art of teapots and sandwiches and I was about to do just that when I stopped, shocked at myself. There was I, a stitcher, planning to make invitations on the computer!

Surely it should be possible to whip up something stitched, preferably different for each of our guests? Time constraints (I wanted to hand out the invitations at church on Sunday) meant it couldn’t be anything too elaborate, and it should be something I could do in different colours (the easiest way of making them all different). I decided on the little motif I’ve been using to try out different fabric and thread combinations, and which also forms the basis for the Mini Kits. A piece of Hardanger fabric that would hold all four was quickly found, mounted in a 6″ hoop and marked out with pencil. Now for the colours. Thinking it would be easiest to start from the cards, I picked four from my stock and then set out to find Caron threads to go with them. They turned out to be Cameo, Blue Spruce, Iris and Burnished Coin.

It’s a motif I’ve stitched so often by now, especially in its woven-bars-and-dove’s-eye version, that I don’t need a chart for it and can just stitch away. Now to decide how to attach them to the cards. Well, double-sided tape is my standard method, but I still needed to decide whether to stick them on straight or at an angle, and whether to cut the fabric straight or with chamfered corners. Having gone for the straight position with chamfered corners I then managed to stick one of them on while the card was upside down. Oops.

Never mind, we’ll just put the text on the other side of the stitching and pretend we intended to make one different all along. And here they are, written and ready to go! Now for deciding which biscuits, cakes and sandwiches to make …

Flights of Fancy

Mabel's musings on anything stitchy

Category Archives: Finishes