New year's sewing resolutions

As ever, with the new year, new leaves are turned over, fresh starts are made, blah-di-blah.....

Well, that is all good and well if you've finished everything off before the new year starts! Unfortunately, I didn't.  So my new year is starting by trying to finish off last year's UFOs.  There are two that I'm concentrating on - one for the evenings vegging in front of the TV fire and the other for the weekends so I've more time to give to it.

My 'evening' UFO is my snowdrop sampler (see Commissions - updates) and the end is now in sight.

The 'weekend' UFO is our bedroom curtains.  One is up (goodness knows what people across the road make of our 'odd socks' look at the moment), the other is in three parts awaiting 'construction'.

Maybe after that I can start to look at new new year projects.  Or maybe not - sad face.  I'm loath to list what I'd like to make this year as the list I drafted last January has very little crossed off it now.  Last year was a bit of a toughie though with lots of family stuff going on, and now that we're getting settled into the new situation this year may be more creative/productive.

However, our next project is to clear my sewing room - very sad face.  I'm sad to have to pack it up and move after waiting so long to get it, but there is a good reason (more of which will be revealed eventually).  But I'm going to try and 'decamp' rather than 'pack up' by moving my stuff to the laundry room.  It will be cosy there, so some will probably have to go in the attic, but there is quite a bit of storage there that hasn't been used efficiently and the ironing kit is already there, after all.  Hopefully the non-sewing/craft stuff will find a new home in other parts of the house too (enter DF with his DIY knowledge and toolbag!).

The trouble is, with sorting through the stuff in the sewing room, I'm coming across fabrics and garments that are giving me ideas and I know that I just won't find the time to bring those projects to fruition.  Oh well, at least Great British Sewing Bee has restarted to cheer us all up and get us dreaming ;-D

Commissions update - Snowdrops 2

The best travelled sampler!

Well, so much for being determined in March 2014 to get back on track this commission.

To be honest, progress was more or less non-existent until the Christmas break, but it must be in the running for the 'most travelled embroidery project' by now with numerous trips to Cardiff and Norfolk, not to mention Brussells, north Wales and Provence in 2014.  I'm really pleased (and hugely relieved) with how it is going now. There was a mild (understatement of the week!) panic over the weekend when I got to the last corner and realised that the two 'ends' were one thread out of line.  Yes ONE thread!!!  Aaargh!

But, I found where I'd gone wrong and thankfully it isn't as big a 'repair' job as I'd feared. So, last lap here I come.  Just one more repeat of the V shaped motif and it is on to the text of the poem for the central space.  I still have the white flowers to catch up on (daylight is an absolute MUST for these at this time of year), which I may still outline (watch this space).

I'd love to find a suitable font for the poem though.  The border is 'art nouveau' influenced and all the backstitch ones I've found so far don't really 'match'.  There are plenty of lovely cross-stitch ones around on-line, but I'm constrained now by the border, so it can't be too large.  I've found some nice 'print' fonts, which I may attempt to convert to backstitch (or at most, cross-stitch over one thread).  We'll see how much time I have.  I don't really want to 'spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar' this close to the finishing line though!

Commission update - Snowdrops

Along with everything else in my life recently, my commissions have taken a bit of a back seat.  But with the New Year, new-found energy (if it lasts!) and getting rid of my back-log of odd jobs, I'm getting determined to get back on track with the last commission of 2013.

My last update about it was months ago.  So HIGH time for me to be getting on with it again.  Over Christmas I was, at least, able to touch base with the commissioner, and I think they were rather surprised that it was as big as it is.  In fact, I suspect they hadn't expected me to go to quite so much trouble with the border (which is going to be quite prominent).

Progress has been slow until fairly recently, but I'm now fairly happy with how it is coming along now. Getting the first corner right was a little complicated and took longer than I'd expected.  I had made two versions of the chart to see which looked best, but even so, when it came to stitching it, it changed slightly. I'm a little disappointed that there isn't more of a contrast between the fabric and the white of the snowdrops. I'll have to see how it goes, but I may end up outlining them so they stand out more.

I'm expecting the stitching of the poem in the central space to be quite a quick job after the wide border though.  Let's keep our fingers crossed!

It is a good feeling to have turned a corner (excuse the pun!) and realise that I'm over half-way through the border now.

Commission update - church banner 2 - Party Time!

Our church's bicentenial celebrations are almost upon us and thankfully I was able to complete my part in the preparations in time - JUST.

Unfortunately I was rather jinxed after starting this project.  I was firstly hit by lack of motivation - we'd had rather a hectic first half to the year and despite all my good intentions, I think I just ran out of steam for a bit and needed to take a break.  Then I got back into the swing of things and it was going well.  The end was in sight, when my mother was suddenly taken seriously ill.  We rushed down to see her and I (dutifully) took my embroidery with me.  But I just didn't have the energy to concentrate on it with the worry of Mam's condition.  Thankfully, everyone at church was aware of the situation and understood that it wasn't high on my priority list.  I did actually do some whilst sitting at Mam's bedside a couple of times and I only had 5 letters left to embroider .... when I ran out of thread!  Dad and I traipsed around all the craft shops in town to get more, but not one had any in stock in the right colour.  So, we all had to wait whilst we waited for my online order to arrive, and when it did, it was all out to finish before my train back to London.

So here it is in all its glory and ready to party this weekend!

Commission update - church banner

This year marks the 200th anniversary of my church in Cardiff.  The church has organised a number of activities to mark the occasion and amongst them is a banner made by members of the church.
Now, as I don't live in Cardiff anymore, I'm not entirely sure how it all came about, but my understanding is that one of the younger members of the church is a budding designer and she designed the banner. Someone has prepared the banner by cutting all the pieces out and applying them with a fusing material (eg bondaweb) to the backing fabric and then it has been passed around a number of members to embellish/sew around the edges.
When the idea was originally mooted, I showed an interest and was told I could probably be responsible for a motif on the banner, eg the cross.  However, the design doesn't include anything like that and I have now been asked to embroider a verse to go beneath the appliqued design.  The chosen verse is part of verse 4 of Psalm 100:

"Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise"

I thought I'd take the opportunity to do some goldwork again, although it has been a very long time since I last had a go.  Then, when I saw the applique design I decided against that idea and was stumped for a while as I wasn't sure goldwork would suit it.  I then came up with the idea of doing the lettering in blackwork, outlined simply and emphasising certain words with a bit of gold. However, once I got down to it and measured out the space I had and found a nice, clear font (with a bit of help from a colleague in the graphic design team - thank you George!) I altered the idea slightly.  I did like the idea of keeping it fairly graphic and simple, in keeping with the applique design, and decided to stick with the principle of black lettering.
After a bit of rummaging about, I realised that I still had some fabric left over from my first attempt at goldwork (back at school).  I'd made an ecclesiastical stole for my uncle's ordination. As I knew that the fabric held up well to heavy stitching etc it would be just the ticket.  And thankfully, there was more than enough of it left.
You may recall that last spring I attended a Royal School of Needlework course, so I'm going to try to follow a similar style for my lettering.   I've bought the perle thread, found my old stash of Japanese gold thread, purl and gold kid, found my course notes and embroidery stitch reference book, so I'm good to go. The fabric has been 'strengthened' with a calico backing and I've even invested in some charcoal sticks that I can ground down to make my own 'pouncing powder' to 'prick and pounce' the design onto the fabric. So now, everything else is on the back burner so I can concentrate on this for the next month or so.
Here is my progress so far - slower than I'd have liked unfortunately.

Commission update 4 - a hard life

With one thing and another, I hadn't managed to finish DN's bus, nor started on the stitiching part of my next commission - the snowdrop sampler.  April and early May was all go with family visits, marathon running (not me!), family birthdays, a wedding, new kitchen windows, a garden to tidy (at last), curtains to finish, leaks to get repaired...  Not to mention the regular things like work and choir rehearsals - zumba has gone out of the window a bit too and I must try to fit that or some other exercise back into my schedule.

However, we have just had a holiday (yay!) and it was the perfect opportunity to have some peace and quiet to get on with things.  Scanning my draft posts before going away, there were a couple of possibilities.  I could have made some key rings - small, quick projects that are portable - but that would have meant taking a number of options for threads and patterns as well.  Although it was quite tempting.

But the really sensible option was to finish DN's bus (at long last) and to get going on this snowdrop sampler.  The design has been ready for a while and it only needs four colours of threads and the linen has arrived.

I duly packed it all into my case and set off for the airport.  I felt  a little frustrated on the way out as I didn't want to risk anything being confiscated by airport security, as I knew that they wouldn't let me take scissors on board.  I presumed that needles would be the same, so ended up sleeping and reading on the way out, only to realise after arriving that somehow a needle had fallen to the bottom of my hand luggage (from when I'd been using it for my commute and cross-stitiching on the train).

We had such a busy, packed time sunbathing by a beautiful lagoon or visiting pretty little islands on boat trips that I didn't do quite as much stitching as I thought I would.  BUT despite this hardship, I did manage to finish DN's bus (fanfare & fireworks!).

Ta-dah!

Now, the pattern stated that the 'shadows' should be stitched in french knots.

But, I had been putting off doing all the french knots as I really didn't fancy it on aida fabric.  Then,  having started DH and I both thought they looked awful (could be my bad french knots of course).  So I changed plan and stitched half cross-stitches instead.

Maybe, not as interesting, but certainly tidier and more even, and it still gives the 'shadow' effect.

Completion weekend

Before you all panic, no, we haven't decided to move house or anything.  This is more exciting, by far (imho at least!) and certainly cheaper and less stressful!  I was determined last week to stick at it over the weekend and finish some long-overdue projects, if for no other reason than to have something to tell you all about!

So, Friday I added to my list of (finally) finished UFOs by sewing the binding to edge the Breton napkins I started last century.

Breton napkins to match DM's tablecloth - started c.1999, completed May 2013

I also finished a gift for MIL (a 'commission' from FIL) - a (very) small keyring of the Canterbury cross.

But the major achievement was to finish (and hang) the dining room curtains.  I didn't make quite as much progress on them on Friday as I'd hoped, but at least each layer was cut out and ready to put together.  Most of Saturday was spent doing that and getting the header buckram into place (with a few gardening sojourns when DH needed a second pair of hands), but was cut short when I ran out of said buckram (pants!).  Thankfully a quick trip to John Lewis curtain department was possible on Sunday after chapel and so, while DH demolished a shrub tree in the garden, I got on with pleating the curtains so we could hang them before the day was over.

It was much easier making these.  The main thing was that there wasn't quite (understatement of the millennium) as much bulk in them as there was in the living room curtains.  But obviously, I'd made one pair already, so I had a much better idea of what I was doing and what worked well etc from my previous experience.  Another 'improvement' I made with making these was to cut the interlining to the hanging length (plus top seam allowance) so that the final stretch of finishing the hems off should be slightly easier.  That is the plan at least.  I'm still waiting for the weight tape for both pairs, so I won't finish them completely until that arrives.  However, in the meantime I'm hoping the pleats will set reasonably with their ribbons holding them in place and shall look forward to drawing curtains in both rooms and sitting back to admire my hard work.

Snowdrops

At the beginning of the year I told you about commissions I'd received.  I must admit that it has taken me longer than I expected to finish the first.  Well, I've finally started work on the second.

It is an embroidery of a poem written especially for a friend of my BIL's when she was presented with a special award at the Welsh National Eisteddfod.  Her name means 'snowdrop' in Welsh, so he's requested a snowdrop border for it.

After much searching in books and online, I finally fell for this Art Nouveau one from this book.

My needlework book collection - well, some of it!

And for those of you who aren't very familiar with plotting cross stitch charts, this is the process I followed:

After choosing a font I liked, I plotted the words of the poem on grid paper.  Once I'd finished that, I worked out the centre of the poem (dividing the number of squares the width of the words takes by 2 and ditto with the height of the words) and marked that on the chart.

I photocopied the chart of the border a number of times and played around with them to get the best option for turning corners (IMHO, of course).  I also decided which part of the design worked best at the 'centre' so that I could line this up with the centre of the words.

Photocopies of the border used to try out different 'corner' options (with plotted poem)

With all of this decided, I copied the border (as the photocopies weren't on the same scale as my chart for the poem - bad planning on my part and I expect there would be a way of photocopying to the correct scale or choosing the correct scale grid paper for plotting!) to work out the scale in relation to the poem.  I then 'played' around a bit with the border in relation to the words to work out how many times the motif would fit across and up the poem in order that I could try to work out how much space there would be around the words.  Being totally honest, I had got quite confused by this point was loosing interest in it all.  I ended up 'guess-timating' 3 motifs across and 2 up, plus the corner and came up with 3 full plus two 'halves' along the top and bottom; 2 full plus two 'halves' up each side.  If you're still following - congratulations and stick with me a bit longer.  If not, I hope some photos will help clarify things a little.

Up-scaled border motif with poem

My bits of plotting, calculations and jottings

To cut a long-ish story short, with all those calculations done I realised that I needed to find a larger font for the poem as there would be far too much 'white' space around it otherwise!

Anyhow, with all of this done (phew, time for a well-deserved cuppa and biscuit I think - for you and me!) it was time to work out how much fabric I needed.  Thankfully you can find help with this online like this for example.

I've decided to go with an evenweave fabric as a) I prefer it, b) I think it will suit the style of the border better and c) I think the recipient will like it and it will suit her decor (from what I know of her).

As for the colours, well, for once, that was a little easier to decide on than the rest.  Firstly, snowdrops are white and green - easy.  And secondly, the lady in question leads a dance group and the group's signature colour is purple.  So, the border in white and green and the poem in purple (which thankfully goes quite well with green and white - lucky that!) on a natural linen background (so that the white of the snowdrops shows up nicely).

So, off I go .....

Commission update

Take a look at how I'm getting on with my latest commissions with my weekly progress photos.


Dn's bus - week 1

DN's bus - week 2

DN's bus - weeks 3 & 4

DN's bus - weeks 5 & 6
Getting there now

Pay it forward 2013

Since the New Year I've noticed quite a few posts on Facebook about this. If you haven't come across them, they say something like this:
Pay it forward 2013!
I promise to make something handmade for the first five people who comment.  They must in turn post this and make somthing for the first five who comment on their status.
* The rules are it has to be made by you, and they must receive it before 2013 ends.

Initially I thought, I've more than enough to do as it is and I don't want to feel under pressure to make stuff.  But the more of these posts I saw, the more I thought about it.  And as I've been merrily stitching some little objects recently, I've realised that they don't necessarily have to be huge undertakings (and you'll more than likely have to consider postage for them too).  So, as a 'crafty' person, I've been persuaded to give it a go after all and posted my message on my FB page last week.  I've had a few takers - one for a charity my friend supports - and I've already a fair idea of what I'm going to make those who've shown an interest.

I suppose, now it will just be a matter of getting on with it (although, I do have best part of 11 months to give them to my friends!).

New commissions

Having got some Christmas stitching out of my system, it is now time to settle down to some serious stitching (and that doesn't include completing my curtain marathon!).

Over the Christmas holiday I got two new commissions - Yippee! 

The first is for a picture for my DN's bedroom - he's only 10 months old, so it is in the cute and cuddly vein.  His sister was given one by a friend when she was born, but as often happens with second/third ... children, he hasn't had one, so my SIL asked if I'd make him one.  He is such a sweetheart, I could hardly refuse, could I?

So, we've chosen a good old London Routemaster bus (for a good young London lad) full of cute little animals.  He's mad about vehicles already and has a similar print in his room and was given a lovely wooden London black cab for Christmas, so this should be perfect.  I must admit that I'm cheating a little but using a kit I found online here, but despite being fairly creative, drawing isn't exactly my strong point!

And my BIL (different side of the family!) has also asked me to stitch a poem for a friend to commemorate an award she received last summer.  The poem was written especially for the occasion and her name means 'snowdrop' in Welsh, and after a bit of hunting, I've found a nice Art Nouveau snowdrop border to go with it.  With a bit of luck mine will be flowering in the back garden as I stitch!  All I need now is to find a nice Art Nouveau font for the poem and I'll be ready to go.

I'll try to add some 'progress' photos (and of the snowdrops in the garden) here as I go along for you to keep an eye on things.

But for now, it's curtains for me if I don't get on with ours!!!

Week 1 progress

Week 2 progress - it is beginning to look like the back end of a bus!

Weeks 3 & 4 - almost half way there