Carol's Needlework Blog

Beth sent me this email the other day: "I made this card from your sampler and the e book, for a friend abroad with a pond and of course snails Sorry about the quality of the photo but you have me hooked."

I often get phone calls or emails from apologetic stitchers who confess to having used a different colour, missed out or added a section, or changed my designs in some other way. They seem to think I will be offended, as if what I have designed isn't good enough in some way.

Feel free to change things!

Far from it! I love it when stitchers think creatively and adapt my basic design into something original to them.

If your room is blue why would you stitch Coral in plum and silver, feel free to change the colours. This is, of course, much easier with a blackwork design than it would be with cross stitch.

Would like to try a different border, go for it! Want to mix and match two designs, wonderful!

You want to use just the black cat from the needlecase, why not?

The design that flows from my hand onto the computer, and then onto the fabric, is just my vision of how something should look. It is a starting point. Adapt it to suit your purposes. Have fun with the design, make it yours.

If you are signed up to my newsletter you will know that we have been working through a blackwork band sampler together. Many of you have sent in your pictures and I love it when one is different to my original. Sheila is working hers in variegated thread on a lovely hand-dyed fabric and it looks lovely. Youv'e seen above how Beth used hers. Dare to be different!

Do you stick rigidly to the chart when you work a needlework design? Or do you like to adapt things a little?

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05-06-2007 - Adapting a needlework design

Following on from my previous blog entry, there are many ways in which you can adapt a counted needlework chart.

Firstly look at the photograph and work out what attracted you to the design. Was it the colours, the subject matter or the technique?

Changing colours

Colours can be changed to fit in better with your taste. In blackwork his is easy enough as most designs only use one or two colours. Using my blackwork rose as an example I offer it in two colourways to get you started, black and gold or blue and silver. I have also seen it worked as a red rose with a green leaf which looked lovely. Likewise I designed the oriental dragon in red and gold but at a show I saw a version stitched in green and gold which looked stunning.

Use a different technique

Counted needlework is based on a grid. Just because the design suggests a cross stitch in each grid square you don't have to be limited to doing that. You could use the basic outline and fill in the shape with a blackwork fill pattern or use a needlepoint stitch to add texture. One of my earliest designs was the cross stitch lacemaker and I was asked if I could produce a blackwork version of her. Using the outline I picked blackwork patterns that worked well and she was transformed.

Things to consider

Some cross stitch patterns use fractional stitches. If you wanted to work the design in tent stitch your best choice of canvas would be a penelope or double thread canvas which would allow you to use petit point (or smaller stitches) over each thread of the canvas in place of the fractional stitches. The diagram shows how this can be achieved.

So next time you look at a design look at its potential, not just what is in front of you. Be creative!

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12-06-2007 - Making time for needlework

Oh dear! All my good intentions of writing here every day went out the window last week. Why?

There aren't enough hours in the day. Well of course I have the same quota of 24 hours that everyone else has, but sometimes it is difficult to fit all the things I want or need to get done into them.

For example stitching, a subject dear to all our hearts. Before I started my own business I could sit and stitch all day if I felt like it. Pure luxury.

But now there are other things that claim my time. The more successful the business gets the less time there is to sit and sew. Not that I am complaining!

Yesterday I decided it was time to do something about this situation. My fingers were itching to stitch and the design program was calling, no SHOUTING, at me to sit and doodle. So I made a plan.

There were tasks that needed to be done before I could sit down. Kits to make, orders to pack, invoices to raise, post to take to the post office. So I jotted down a list of the essential tasks and judged how long they would take to complete. Then for each one I set my kitchen timer to count down the minutes.

I was surprised and delighted to find the tasks took less time than I had imagined they would. Before long they were taken care of and the rest of the day was mine.

I gave in to that nagging voice from the computer and created a new cross stitch freebie. Then I sat and stitched it and enjoyed every minute. A quick photograph later (sorry about the quality), a conversion into pdf format and the free cross stitch pattern page on this site was updated with the new design.

This is perhaps a technique that you could use to enable you to fit more stitching time into your days. Decide which household chores or other tasks need to be done today. Make a guess at the time they will take and get on with them. You might be surprised like me! Then allow yourself to sit and stitch. You earned it.

Let me know if you try it.

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16-06-2007 - Needlework Worshops

I love days like today!

A local needlework shop asks me in on ocassion to teach Saturday workshops on various needlework techniques. Today was a mixed class with 2 ladies learning blackwork and another trying needlelace and stumpwork for the first time.

Being a designer can be a lonely occupation; sitting at the computer all day you can forget that there are real human beings out there! It is lovely to get out and meet people and share my love of needlework. To watch understanding dawn on their faces and projects take shape under their needles.

A small class like today means that each student gets personal attention and there is time to answer their questions.

I always tell my students that they are in class to enjoy themselves, and if they can learn something too it is a bonus. It is a day when they can enjoy stitching with no distractions like children or the phone ringing. Just time to sit with likeminded folk and sew.

Tessa and Violet hadn't tried blackwork before and apart from a few counting problems picked it up straight away. I Explained how to separate one strand of floss, how to tackle intricate fill patterns and how to get from one area of a design to another without leaving a trail on the back. We used double running stitch to make our piece reversible. There was a simple practise piece in the morning followed by a little simple shading in the afternoon project.

Diane on the other hand was intrigued by stumpwork and keen to know more. She began to build a picture of a wild rose and leaves, using basic embroidery stitches for the background. The rose petals were worked in single brussels stitch forming a delicate piece of needlelace. Amazingly she picked up the correct tension on her needlelace stitches immediately producing a really neat piece of work.

If you get the chanve to spend a day at a needlework workshop why not give it a go? In fact if you live local to me in Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire or Bedfordshire, and know a few other ladies who are also interested why not arrange a day together. I would be delighted to come along and share my passion. Just get in touch through my contact form.

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21-06-2007 - Made a mistake?

Let's face it, non of us are perfect. In fact according to the Islamic religion "there is no such thing as perfection on earth; only Allah is perfect."

We all know that we are going to make mistakes, and that includes in our needlework.

This project was a big mistake!

I don't know about you but I have started projects that, in the end, I realised were wrong for me. Either I didn't have the skill needed at that time, or I just didn't like the project enough to want to finish it. Perhaps I had missed a deadline and there was no longer a reason to complete the work. Or a project took so long to do, that by the time I was nearing the end I found I no longer liked care bears or silly frogs, for example.

What can we do if we realise we have made this sort of mistake? The most important thing is to forgive ourselves and let it go. There is no rule that says we have to finish something if we no longer get enjoyment out of it. After all we are stitching because we like to aren't we?

If you feel bad just chucking your work into the rubbish why not pack everything together; instructions, remaining threads or wools, beads or buttons etc. and take it all to a local charity shop. Someone else may fall in love with it, buy it and complete it lovingly. It may be just perfect for someone who wants to stitch but cannot afford to purchase a new kit.

Maybe giving it away is more than you can bear to do?

Another option is to add the annoying project into a rotation scheme. Make yourself a vow that you will work for so many hours, or do so many stitches, on the project before you do something more enjoyable. I have even been known to set a timer for 15 minutes and challenge myself to see how much I could get done before the bell rings. I am often surprised at the results; you may be too.

Oh no! I've counted wrong

Now, do you have enough fingers for all the counting errors you have made in your cross stitch? I know I haven't. A stitch in the wrong colour or in the wrong place and the world comes to an end, or so our partners may believe. Should we worry?

In the course of teaching needlework to many, many students, I have discovered two main types of person. Those that can't tolerate a mistake at all, and those that fudge it.

Removing stitches

If you belong to the first group, you might find yourself doing a lot of ripping, frogging, reverse stitching or whatever term you use to describe undoing your work. There are even products that can help you do this safely.

I would advise leaving the seam ripper for people who sew seams. It can be a dangerous piece of kit and I can say that from experience! Lift-n-snip scissors are a much safer way of removing misplaced stitches: you can cut the embroidery thread without damaging the fabric.

Once the offending stitches are removed sellotape is handy for removing any leftover bits of fluff from the thread.

Work around it

On the other hand you may decide to leave incorrect stitches where they are and work around them. After all, probably no one else other than you will ever know about them. (Unless you make a habit of pointing them out to everyone who looks at your work; and many people do just that!)

Now if you are stitching a piece of hardanger, I would advise you to become a member of the first group above. A mistake in the counting or not carrying the thread correctly across the back of the work can have serious repercussions when it comes time to start cutting fabric threads.

If you are working cross stitch or blackwork, however, there are ways to work around the problem area. I like to get out a highlighting pen or coloured pencil and mark off each square on the chart where I have a stitch on the fabric. Don't worry at this stage if the stitch is the right colour or not. When all completed stitches are marked off then I just continue as if everything previously stitched was correct.

Of course there are ocassions when this trick won't work. If you are working a persons features or an area of intricate detail then there may be nothing else to do but take out the errant stitches. But in an area of greenery or an animals coat a stitch in the wrong place is less likely to ever be noticed.

What type of person are you? Do you rip it or leave it in?

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25-06-2007 - Variety is the spice of life

Are you a jack of all trades or a master of one? By that I am referring to crafts and which ones you like to do.

I'm guessing you are a needlework and stitchery fan or you wouldn't be here, right? But do you enjoy other crafts as well? I don't get to the big needlework shows as often as I used to, but the reports I keep getting back are not promising, from a needlework point of view. "Too much papercraft, loads of knitting, not enough stitching!" seems to be a common theme.

Can papercrafters and needleworkers live comfortably together? Should these other products be sold at dedicated shows rather than taking over the stitching events?

The organisers of the big shows, of course, want to fill the stands and make as much money as possible. Is it in their interests to dictate what a supplier can sell on his/her stand? Maybe, if cramming cardmaking suppliers into a show that the needleworkers claim as their own territory puts off the general public and they decide not to attend next time around. If there are only 2 or 3 needlework stands attending is it worth the journey and expense to visit any more?

From a supplier point of view, if there are less customers looking for needlework, is the show worth the hard work and enormous expense? Is it time to branch out or get out even? After all if every needleworker suddenly decided to try a different craft would they have any business left? A difficult dilemma.

Looking at the situation from a different viewpoint, can you count all the different crafts you have tried in your lifetime on the fingers of one hand?

I certainly can't. I enjoy a wide variety, even though needlework is my first love. Doll's house miniatures, quilling, scrapbooking, cardmaking, macrame, bobbin lacemaking, pergamano, rag rug making, patchwork and many more have all enthralled me at some time or another. Who knows what other crafts may appeal in the years to come, candlemaking, jewellery making, wicker basket work?

Maybe the more general shows have a place. Perhaps they give the crafter the opportunity to discover new crafts they may enjoy. Demonstrations and videos can give people an introductory look at a new craft after which a choice can be made whether to investigate further.

I'm sure this is a discussion that can go on until the cows come home (when is that by the way?) why not share your point of view by adding a comment below.

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