A panic project

Posted on 29th January, 2013 by Flights of Fancy

After several months spent stitching mostly for the Song of the Weather SAL, I felt I’d like to get my teeth into something a little bigger for a change, so I got out my 12″ hoop and the chart for Walled Garden. It’s stitched with nothing but Caron threads (and some beads), and I love the way they look together on that empty and expectant fabric.

Last Sunday I was putting together a project folder for it so I could take it to my stitching group on Monday, when realisation dawned on me and panic set in – it was less than a week to my father-in-law’s 90th birthday, and not a single stitch had been worked on his birthday card yet! The Walled Garden project folder was abandoned, and I charted “90” using 1-2-3 and my husband picked a shade of Caron thread to suit his father’s taste: 236 Appalachia, a striking combination of green, purple and blue. Thinking it might get a bit too psychedelic if I used it for the border as well as the numbers, I looked for a slightly calmer shade to match it, and found it in an orphaned bobbin of Impressions (Caron’s silk/wool mix) 66 Jade. In fact they go so well together that I may have to add a skein of Watercolours and Wildflowers in that shade to my collection!

For the border I decided on four-sided stitch embellished with beads (a combination I may well add to the 1-2-3 chart pack as it looks quite effective). Unfortunately the number of squares in the border meant I couldn’t do alternate beads, nor a bead every 3 or 4 squares; and a bead in every square would just be too much. Some furious mental arithmetic and pencil scribbling resulted in a sequence of 2 beads followed by 3 empty squares, with a slight variation in the corners.

At one point yesterday I sincerely wished I’d never thought of including beads – on my way home from stitching group the bead container came undone, spilling its entire contents into every nook and cranny of the project folder and the cotton bag I was transporting it in. There are a lot of beads even in a tiny container. But with the help of my husband and fortified with a mug of tea I managed to round them all up, and apart from the ones now adorning the four-sided stitch border they are all safely back in my bead tin.

Now all that remains to be done is the cutting and the bars and filling stitches. For the latter Petite Treasure Braid seemed a nice festive touch – but which one? Gold or Silver? A straw poll at the stitching group ended in a draw, so I’ll mull it over for a bit; for now I have a vague preference for silver, possibly because of the blues in the thread and the bright white fabric. I’ll post the final version some time after the weekend, but here is the uncut version.

Great customer service from Treenway

Posted on 21st January, 2013 by Flights of Fancy

Last time I told you I’d had a reply from Treenway Silks – I’d asked for some advice about their colour range. They do a variety of gorgeous silks, but the ones which are most useful for Hardanger are their 8/2 Reeled Silk and Fine Cord. The latter is a tight buttonhole twist which gives a beautiful texture to Hardanger when used instead of a #8 perle. According to the Treenway website, the 8/2 is equivalent to a perle #3 but I have successfully used it as a substitute for perle #5; as it is not so twisted it doesn’t have the texture of perle, but it more than makes up for that by its lovely lustrous sheen. You can see the effect of these threads in two little experiments I did some time ago; the first one uses 8/2 combined with 20/2 (a spun silk about the thickness of perle #8), the second uses 8/2 and Fine Cord.

Treenway 8/2 (Hollyhock) and 20/2 (Pomegranate)

Treenway’s threads and silk ribbons (did I mention they do silk ribbons?) come in 53 solid colours, which are very beautiful, and a number of variegated colours, which are stunning. Unfortunately, although the Fine Cord comes in all 70-odd variegated colours, the 8/2 doesn’t. This made it a little difficult to find a pair of shades for the Stitch-Along, especially as I had previously bought threads in the shades St Thomas and Daylily, and for preference I’d like to buy shades that would go with one of them.

There was an added difficulty: how do you decide on pairs of variegated shades when you can only see them separately on a computer screen? So I wrote to Treenway explaining what I was looking for and what I already had, and their reply was a model of customer service. Susan went far above and beyond the call of duty – she put together all the colours I mentioned, plus several which she thought might work, and photographed them side by side, with several skeins of the colours I already had interspersed so I could see how they looked together!

Treenway's colour comparison picture for St Thomas

Treenway's colour comparison picture for Daylily

I have just sent in my order; with the cheapest postage option, so it may be a while until they’re here, but when they arrive I’ll post a picture. Which shades do you think I’ve gone for?

Goodies from the postman – and a digital snag

Posted on 18th January, 2013 by Flights of Fancy

Both the digital postman and the real-life postwoman came up with the goods today – more about Treenway’s email later, but I thought I’d show you some of the pretty threads I got to play with. The two on the left are DMC Variations; Sam D used them in her January and I thought they looked so nice I’d treat myself to them. In the middle are my new Tamar Embroideries threads, together with two that I got before (on the bobbins) which go with these new ones. I haven’t decided whether to use the blue/sage or the fuchsia for the SAL – perhaps I’ll use both! The threads on the right are Weeks Dye Works perle #8; the Little Thread Shop, who are very helpful and offer many hand-dyed threads at very good prices, unfortunately only stock WDW’s perle #5, so I got the #8 from Sew & So with the Variations perles. As usual, they got the threads to me in double quick time – I like supporting local shops and small businesses, but of the big online suppliers, Sew & So definitely get my vote!

Not quite stash, but very welcome nonetheless, was a parcel from PhotoBox. They had a special offer of 60 prints for p&p only, so I got some cover pictures for the Mini Kits. I usually print them out myself as part of the chart packs, but I thought it would look rather better with a professionally printed picture on the front.

And the digital snag? It’s my camera playing up in a most annoying way. I’m working on March at the moment for the SAL, and it is stitched on coloured fabric – and my camera simply will not focus properly to photograph it, especially when I try to get a close-up view of particular stitches. The fabric is, admittedly, a touch on the bright side, but even so it really shouldn’t be so fussy. As it is, it looks like I’ll have to stitch March a third time, in colours that won’t confuse my poor camera!

Waiting for the postman, real and digital

Posted on 16th January, 2013 by Flights of Fancy

Having stitched all twelve of the Song of the Weather designs in blue and white standard perles, working out thread requirements and seeing whether stitches worked together, I am now stitching them all again using a variety of threads and fabrics. There are several reasons for this.

It was difficult to take pictures of tricky parts when I stitched them first time round, because I wasn’t quite sure yet what the tricky parts were;
As people have different fabric preferences it is useful to show what the projects look like on different counts;
The first version shows what you can do on a limited budget, the second will give options for those wishing to expand their thread repertoire;
And finally, any excuse to play with my collection of hand-dyed and other speciality threads !

One problem is that it can be difficult – not to say downright impossible sometimes – to pick two shades that will work together if you can only see them on a computer monitor. I have one or two threads in my stash which bear witness to the fact that what looks irresistible on-screen can look less than enchanting in real life. Most sellers, however, are quite happy to give advice; I remember getting shades of Splendor silk together for Papillon’s “Quaker Gameboard” and Bobbie at Stitching Bits & Bobs helping me out by checking them against DMC shades.

So I’m waiting for the digital postman to bring me word from Treenway Silks, whose delectable silks are a joy to work with and who have created some of the prettiest variegated threads I have ever seen, and I am also waiting for the real-life postwoman to bring me two types of Tamar Embroideries’ hand-dyed cottons in three shades, some Caron threads and Weeks Dye Works perle #5 and #8 in four shades. Lots of lovely things to look forward to!

Obviously I haven’t got pictures of all these lovely goodies yet, but I’ll show you a combination I’m hoping to use for something or other soon. It’s standard DMC perle 815 in combination with Treenway’s Fine Cord, shade “Tangiers”, probably to be used on dark red fabric, possibly with silk ribbon in the same shade as the Fine Cord – yum!

Scissors and Tamar threads

Posted on 31st December, 2012 by Flights of Fancy

Did you get any stitchy presents this year? I got these – two pairs of very sharp, very pointy scissors. I saw them at a goldwork workshop I did at the Knitting & Stitching show, and was rather taken with them. One pair I will keep for goldwork (of which I hope to do more in future); I haven’t quite decided what the other pair will be used for, but they are a lovely bit of kit, aren’t they? Incidentally, the fact that I specifically asked for one blue and one purple pair puzzled my husband no end. When they arrived, and before they got wrapped, he studied them closely, trying to work out what the difference between them was. Both pointy, both sharp, one a fraction of an inch longer than the other but otherwise identical. My explanation was less than sensational: I simply wanted different colours so it would be easier to remember which were the goldwork ones …

But however informative the look and feel of a thread can be, there’s really only one way to find out how they behave in action, and that is to stitch with them! So I stitched 5 of my little Hardanger trial motifs in different combinations on 25ct Lugana. The blur in the bottom right-hand corner is a little experiment I am keeping secret for the moment .

The first combination is Combed Cotton for the Kloster blocks and Matt cotton for everything else. The Combed Cotton works well, it gives good coverage and has a perle-like texture. It is quite twisty, however – if you don’t dangle your needle frequently the thread is likely to curl up and work itself into a tight spiral as you try to pull it through the fabric. Nevertheless, I like it; with a bit of care it stitches up well and the look is good. As you can see the Matt is almost the same thickness as the Combed, but with less texture. It is just about all right for the woven bars, although they are quite thick, but the backstitch and especially the dove’s eye lose all definition.

Here Combed Cotton is combined with Brodery Cotton. This is much more perle-like, and it works well for the woven bars. It’s still a little thick for backstitch (it definitely feels a little heavier than a standard perle #8) but the dove’s eye looks fine. This pair seems closest in look and feel to a standard perle #5 / perle #8 combination.

Combed Cotton paired with Fine Cotton Perle gives an airier look. The backstitch and dove’s eye are well-defined and delicate, and the Fine Cotton Perle handles much like a standard #12 perle. It takes about 9 weaves to cover a bar; in comparison, the Brodery Cotton takes 6, and when I use a standard perle #8 I tend to do 7 weaves.

Because the Matt Cotton was so much heavier than I expected I tried using it for Kloster blocks. Coverage was unexpectedly good (it is not quite as thick as a standard #5) although occasionally it was difficult to poke in the cut ends so that they stayed put. The texture is much smoother than that of the Combed Cotton. Used with the Brodery Cotton I found there wasn’t enough contrast between the two threads.

Matt Cotton combined with Fine Cotton Perle has more contrast, and I like the additional contrast between the matt Kloster blocks and the shiny bars and dove’s eye. This combination of threads may work rather well on a 28ct fabric.

So will I be buying more of these threads? Definitely! Which ones? That’s a bit more difficult. I like the look of the Fine Cotton Perle but I don’t like having to do lots of weaves or wraps for the bars. For the Kloster blocks I am almost sure I’ll go for the Combed Cotton rather than the Matt, simply because the Combed Cotton gives slightly better coverage and has more texture to it; it also works better with the Brodery Cotton which would be my choice for a #8 substitute. What will probably happen is that I’ll get the Combed, Brodery and Fine Perle in most colours, so I can vary the thickness of the bars and filling stitches. I may even use three threads per project: Combed Cotton for the Kloster blocks, Brodery Cotton for the bars, and Fine Cotton Perle for the filling stitches and any backstitch. Now how many shades can I afford to get …

New threads to play with

Posted on 20th December, 2012 by Flights of Fancy

For the past week I’ve been lying in wait for the postwoman, eagerly snatching the bundle of letter and parcels from her hand (not forgetting to say “thank you”, of course) only to find lots of Christmas cards, the odd bill, and parcels that turned out to be for my husband and contain bits of vintage car. Don’t get me wrong, I like Christmas cards and I have nothing against bits of vintage car, but I was waiting for my parcel from Tamar Embroideries! Today it finally arrived, and even unwrapping it was a pleasure, because out of the outer envelope fell this:

The thread holding the parcel together appears to be chenille, a lovely tactile thread which I can’t find on their site. I will email them about it as I think it may have possibilities …

Having carefully undone the knot (you don’t want to rush these things – pretty parcels with the promise of even prettier contents are to be savoured) I got my first look and possibly even more important, my first feel of these new threads. First impression: they are beautiful! Gorgeous colours, and very interesting to see how differently the various threads have taken the dye. And a great variety of textures and thicknesses, including an intriguing-looking “ribbon”; I’m going to enjoy playing with these!

Squissors!

Posted on 15th December, 2012 by Flights of Fancy

Squissors arrived today and they’re beautiful! Straight blades with very sharp points and a titanium coating to make them last – the perfect tool for accurately cutting your precious Hardanger projects.

Brand new threads, good old squissors

Posted on 13th December, 2012 by Flights of Fancy

It’s a shame I didn’t manage to post yesterday – such an unusual date that it seems a waste not to use it! Alas, we arrived back from the Netherlands only that morning so writing FoFs was not the first thing on my mind. There were new SAL subscribers to welcome, and of course our main business (unfortunately Mabel doesn’t quite cover the mortgage yet, not to mention pensions …) had more than its fair share of backlog. But today I just wanted to scribble a short post because I’ve made two exciting purchases!

The first is from Tamar Embroideries. It is really very kind of them to provide most of their colours in two shades, one light and one dark, perfect for the SAL . In order to find out whether their threads are suitable for Hardanger (most of them are not actually perles) I have splashed out on four different types of thread, all in the same colour: Fine Cotton Perle (“stitches as perle #12”), Mercerized Cotton (“similar to cotton a broder”, so should work instead of a #8), Matt Cotton (a similar weight but “with a softer feel and a matt finish”) and Combed Cotton (“similar in weight to a perle 5 but with a tighter twist and a matt finish”). Just as an experiment and because it sounded interesting I’ve also ordered one skein of their tubular Cotton Ribbon; it sounds round rather than flat, so will it work instead of silk ribbon?

My second purchase is something that I have long been looking for – yes, I have found a source for my favourite rainbow titanium squissors! I am expecting their arrival any day now, so they should appear on Mabel’s Fancies soon; could this be the perfect Christmas present for all you SAL subscribers and other Hardangerers out there?

Stef Francis and the Song of the Weather SAL

Posted on 1st December, 2012 by Flights of Fancy

Why this combination? Has Stef Francis decided to sponsor the SAL, showering all subscribers with their splendid hand-dyed threads? Alas, no. (You didn’t really expect that, did you?)

The only thing they have in common, so far, is that both of them “happened” today. Yesterday, as I was writing about independent needlework suppliers, I went through my list of shops and companies that supply speciality threads. Of course I had the Stitch-Along in mind while doing so, as I want to incorporate lots of different threads in the version I’ll be stitching over the coming year! Anyway, I ordered two thicknesses of thread in two shades, and today the post brought me a parcel filled with purple and mauve loveliness – a pleasure not expected so soon.

The SAL didn’t “happen” today in the same sense; after all, it doesn’t start until January 1st (plenty of time to get all your bits and bobs together). But from today you can sign up, joining other stitchers from around the world and becoming an official Song of the Weather SAL participant!

One more stitchy thing happened today – a Cross Stitch Forum friend (you know who you are, Mrs MBK!) mentioned a Cornish supplier of hand-dyed threads, Tamar Embroideries. Their colours are gorgeous, they do a #12 perle cotton and some of their other threads look as though they could well work in Hardanger. I fear for my budget …

Support your independent needlework suppliers

Posted on 30th November, 2012 by Flights of Fancy

If you’re not one of those lucky stitchers who has a local needlework shop to supply their stitching needs, don’t immediately head for the nearest Hobbycraft! For one thing, they won’t have any speciality threads or fabrics anyway so it would be a waste of time – time that would be much better spent studying the covetousness-inducing price list of Margaret Roberts’ Little Thread Shop or browsing the delectable Sparklies website for Kate Burgess’ vibrant hand-dyed fabrics. The Little Thread Shop was a great find, and I am grateful to a friend from the Cross Stitch Forum for recommending it. You can email Margaret direct if you want a different combination of threads, her shipping costs are very reasonable indeed and she is most helpful in working out how much you can have sent to the UK without incurring import duties! So now if I want a few Caron threads, or decide to treat myself to Gloriana silk perles or Thread Gatherer hand-dyed silk ribbon that’s where I go – and just have a look at some of the lovely things I got from her this year …

Thread Gatherer silk ribbons from Margaret Roberts

Sparklies is more local to me (in the UK instead of in the US!) and so I occasionally get the chance to see her fabrics in real life at the Knitting & Stitching Show (although I’ve just heard she won’t be doing Alexandra Palace next year, which is a shame as that’s the one I go to). What I like about Kate’s fabrics is that besides the pastel, subtle shades that you often get in hand-dyeds, she does some extremely bold and vibrant colours which definitely make a statement! For most colours you can choose aida, evenweave or linen (with pictures that show the difference in colour between the various fabrics) and a good number of thread counts. I tend to go for my favourite 25ct Lugana, of course, but Kate has promised to dye me some Hardanger fabric for a course I hope to be teaching next year. And if you can’t decide what shades would be right for your project, you can order some samples – an economical way of making sure you go for just the right colour, and great to use in their own right for mini projects.

And sometimes when you buy things from different shops it’s not until you see your purchases together before putting them away that you realise you’ve just bought a magical combination that cries out for a new design. Here is Sparklies’ Fire combined with Caron Bittersweet and Flamingo. Doesn’t it just zing?

Flights of Fancy

Mabel's musings on anything stitchy

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