When the stitching bug deserts you

Posted on 29th January, 2016 by Flights of Fancy

As I mentioned earlier this month, my urge to stitch is not particularly high at the moment. I’m keeping up with a few necessary projects (like a set of coasters ordered in aid of the Church Building Fund, and second versions of the SAL designs so I can take pictures for the blog), and I do enjoy those, but there isn’t really any project that’s making me eager to kit up and get started. And that is quite unusual, especially as there are several designs in my yet-to-be-stitched folder that a few months ago I was itching to start, like a goldwork daisy-and-bee, an autumn leaf arrangement and the Tree of Life in two versions.

I have done something about the Tree of Life. As playing with stash (sorry, I mean of course “studying the supplies I have in stock in order to find the best ones for the project under consideration”) is a lovely relaxing thing to do I got out my collection of Pearsall’s Heathway Merino crewel wool to see whether any of the shades I’d picked for Tree of Life from their starter pack would be better replaced by some of the shades I had added to the hoard later. Here are the shades I’d originally considered:

Very pretty, if a little muted. But a different set of greens and browns lifts it, I think, and makes the palette look more lively.

Add to that some pretty goldwork materials (pearl purl, smooth passing, metallic kid leather) and you know what, I think that itch is faintly considering coming back! While I was at it, I also picked out some shades for a more autumnal version; originally I’d envisaged that in coton à broder, but if I do decide to do it in wools, these beautiful warm shades I feel would work very well.

When stitching is temporarily just not the thing, there are other things you can do besides petting, organising, admiring, and re-arranging stash – one of them is putting things together for other people to stitch! In the coming months I hope to introduce a selection of kits: a second Shisha card, the Little Wildflower Garden (at the moment only available as a chart pack), and the Christmas Wreath both as a card and as an ornament. Just so you can start your Christmas stitching in good time .

Finishing

Posted on 3rd June, 2015 by Flights of Fancy

Lynn, one of the members of the Embroidery Circle I go to, is of the opinion that anything worth stitching is worth displaying in some form or other, and she therefore heartily disapproves of my habit of consigning most of my completed projects to folders hidden away in dark drawers. In a way I agree with her – when I see some of the lovely projects completed by fellow stitchers I, too, think it’s a shame when I hear they will just be put away and forgotten about. And if I think that about other people’s projects, why not about my own? So I’ve decided to Do Something With Them. Well, some of them.

Obviously I can’t frame them all – there’s quite enough on our walls already. And only the smallest things can be made into coasters or bookmarks. But you can fit quite a variety of sizes on, say, shopping bags. Off I went, therefore, to the Clever Baggers, who as their name implies have lots of different types of bags as well as other items. I got a selection of bags-with-long-handles-and-gusset of the type I’ve used before, and a cushion cover, some tea towels and a napkin (not in the picture) to try out. The big canvas bag is for my own use – it’s roomier than the bag I usually take on my annual London visit so I hope it should be easier to take all the kits and materials, especially as I’m teaching two workshops this year. The next thing to do is go through my folders of stitched models to see what would look good on the various colours. My selfish side would prefer to keep all my stitched models as they are a record of what I’ve designed, but on the other hand there’s no point in them just lying in a drawer collecting dust. And bags were good sellers at the last charity Art & Craft Fair!

Cotton shopping bags in a selection of colours

Other good sellers were coasters and bookmarks, so I’ve been stitching up several as in-between projects to stock up for the Art & Craft Fair later this year. An additional set of six coasters was requested by my mother for her birthday, and being a good and dutiful daughter I of course complied . The trouble with these coasters is that although they are quick and easy to stitch up, I am rather remiss when it comes to actually finishing them – ironing on black Vilene, cutting them to size, removing stray cat hairs, poking in any contrary cut ends and fitting them snugly into the acrylic coasters. Having finished the stitching on a dozen of them, it was time to get down to some assembling. The result: one birthday present, and another set of six for the building fund.

By the way, if your appetite for small projects that make good presents has been whetted by my colourful dozen, I’ve got good news! Our new Coaster Kits are now available from Mabel’s Fancies. The design is similar to the one used in the picture above, and you can choose a single coaster or a pair, in ten different colours.

Thoughts on kits

Posted on 18th March, 2015 by Flights of Fancy

When I started Mabel’s Fancies the plan was to sell only digital chart packs. No postage to calculate, nothing to pack up, no stock to store, people could print them out as often as they needed, and they were able to use whatever materials they liked. Then I found that my favourite titanium-coated squissors were getting unobtainable, so I set about obtaining them and they became part of Mabel’s range. Then, because of some classes and workshops I’d been teaching, an idea started to emerge about the need for small, inexpensive kits for beginners and people wanting to try out Hardanger to see if they liked it. And so the Needle book kits were added. Before I knew it some rather fun foam-covered notebooks and a trial order of colourful hand-made wool felt gift tags had led to two more kits, the Felt bookmark kit for beginners and the Notebook kit for slightly more advanced stitchers (whom we wouldn’t like to feel left out).

Kits, then, are obviously addictive, or I wouldn’t be considering adding yet another two to the range using the simplified coaster designs I’ve been playing around with (the picture below shows what they will probably look like), as well as the Shisha flower card I’ve been experimenting with for workshops. And as I was putting together a list of things that would have to be included I pondered what you might call the Generosity Principle of Kits. Grand name, I know – positively philosophical. But what I mean is that people who sell kits, however much they love stitchers and want to provide them with a wonderful experience, in the end have to make a profit. It’s not quite so pressing for people like me for whom it is not our main business, but even there the general idea is to cover costs and have a bit left over for our trouble. That margin basically depends on two things: the cost of putting the kit together, and the price that is charged for it. And that’s where the juggling starts.

If the price is too high, no-one will buy the kits. If it’s too low, it’ll barely cover the costs unless… unless you start cutting into the materials. Not literally, of course. That would just be silly. But when you are an experienced stitcher (and I assume that most people who put kits together are experienced stitchers themselves) it can be tempting to stitch a model and see how little you can get away with. I can stitch the little bookmark motif on a 4″ square bit of fabric held in a 3″ hoop. It’s a bit cramped, and I may have to stitch “in the well” (holding the hoop back to front, see below), but I can do it. Likewise, I can stitch the Kloster blocks and satin stitch in the coaster design using two lengths of perle #5. Just. If I stitch as economically as possible and use the bit left over from the central motif to help out with the last corner motif. So when putting the kits together it could be argued that a 4″ square of fabric is all that is needed for the bookmark kit, and that 2 lengths of perle #5 will do just fine for the coaster kit. And it would be wrong.

Working in the well - front of the work at the back of the hoop

Working in the well - more room to finish off

Few things are more frustrating than opening a kit and finding that the fabric is barely big enough for the design, let alone for putting it into a hoop comfortably; or reaching for another thread as your project is nearing completion only to find that there isn’t any thread left in the kit. I know many kit manufacturers will send you extra thread if you run out, but the point is that you shouldn’t have to go through the hassle of contacting them and waiting for the extra thread just because you don’t stitch quite so thriftily as their model stitchers (if you ran out because the dog ate half a skein that’s another matter, of course).

So as I make up the list of kit ingredients I try to determine what would be a comfortable size of fabric rather than an adequate one, and what amount of thread would leave room for differences in individual stitching styles, in the hope that the people who use the kits will find them pleasant and enjoyable rather than annoying and infuriating.

But I’m sure there are more issues than just fabric size and thread allowance. What do you find particularly irritating in kits? No photograph? Creased fabric? Confusing charts? I’d really like to hear from you so I will know what to avoid when putting kits together!

Kit assembly line (and one more bookmark)

Posted on 6th October, 2014 by Flights of Fancy

Yay! My bulk purchase of felt tags has arrived, and very colourful it looks too. I’ve checked them all and although there are a few thin bits here and there they’ll probably all be usable; two are a bit doubtful, but if I use them myself for producing bookmarks rather than making them part of a kit I think they’ll be all right.

As you may have noticed from the picture above, there’s a new shade on the block. I included two Apple Green tags in my order, just to find out what colour it was in real life! It turns out to be a pleasantly bright shade, certainly not mossy like the photograph on Blooming Felt’s website but neither, fortunately, quite so lurid as the soft cotton picture that was said to match it. There is no suitable Anchor Multicolor shade for it though, so I won’t get any more but just stitch these two up for charity using Caron Wildflowers.

Putting kits together is a time-consuming activity, so the easier it can be made the better I like it. One effective time-saving strategy is to make lots rather than one at a time (“lots” in the context of Mabel’s Fancies meaning about two dozen). So I printed out 24 sets of instructions, attached 24 cover photographs, put 48 gold-plated needles into 24 pieces of felt, cut 24 squares of fabric and all the threads needed and here is my kit assembly line (well, assembly coffee table) before the felt tags had come in – doesn’t it look colourful? As you can see I had just started on cutting the threads for the bookmark tassels. Twelve of these kits are for next year’s Knitting & Stitching Show, the others will go on sale on the website after I’ve returned from this year’s show.

And finally one more felt tag bookmark – the first one with a cross instead of a square motif.

Mini kits

Posted on 29th June, 2012 by Flights of Fancy

A small new venture on the website this week – I’ve added a set of mini kits to the Specials page. When setting up Mabel’s Fancies I decided against kits on the grounds that so many of my designs can be stitched on a variety of fabrics using a variety of threads and colours, and that chart packs give each stitcher the opportunity to pick and choose from the various suggestions, or even to go for something altogether different.

On the other hand, if you’re a beginner you might like to get a small, simple kit so that you can try and see if Hardanger is your cup of tea without having to buy all the materials.

So I got to thinking; what would my requirements for such a mini kit be?

The design should be small, simple and relatively quick to stitch
The instructions would have to be more detailed than for a regular chart pack, with notes on starting with a waste knot and so on
It should include the most common stitches in Hardanger
It must not look like a "practice piece" – it should be something that you’d want to stitch in its own right
It would be great if the project could be turned into something useful
It wouldn’t be practical to include scissors or a hoop, but apart from that it should contain everything needed both for stitching and for finishing
And it must come with a decent-sized piece of fabric! None of those little scraps you sometimes get which you can’t possibly get into a hoop
Ideally it would also appeal to experienced stitchers, for example as a "quick stitch" between larger projects

Well, one project that I’ve been using as part of my teaching fitted the bill beautifully – the needle matchbook!

Matchbook needle keeper

I charted three versions of the design, so that the three kits cover most of the basic stitches in Hardanger: Kloster blocks; woven, wrapped and double wrapped bars; dove’s eye, square filet and spider’s web. Then I adapted the stitch descriptions to be as explicit as possible about every step in the stitching process. I worked out how much perle cotton would be needed, and what size fabric would be comfortable to work with. And finally I wrote extra instructions for turning the three designs into a bookmark – no reason why you should stitch them only once!

So if you’ve never tried Hardanger before but would like to give it a go, here’s your chance – and remember, in the unlikely event that you get stuck, I’m only an email away.

Flights of Fancy

Mabel's musings on anything stitchy

Tag Archives: Kits

When the stitching bug deserts you

Finishing

Thoughts on kits

Kit assembly line (and one more bookmark)

Mini kits