06-04-2008 - A special gift
Nothing says you care more than a hand made gift that you have put thought and time into.
I was recently invited to my cousin's wedding and rather than pick an item off the wedding present list, and risk someone else choosing the same gift, I decided to make them something special.
Now of course my family knows me by now, and would assume that I would stitch a blackwork or cross stitched sampler as I did for my sister. But no, this time I wanted to do something different.
So I got out my fabric stash and pieced a crazy quilt block which I then had fun embroidering using various techniques. It was fun not to have to count anything or be restricted by the holes in the fabric. I went to town adding beads and ribbon embroidery, and even stitched on a length of tatted edging.
The items included were there for a purpose: lavender roses (silk ribbon) were supposed to mean "Love at first sight" in the Victorian language of flowers. And a spiders web included in a crazy quilt block is supposed to bring food luck. The spider itself signifies good fortune.
When my block was complete (you can see it at this stage on my crazy quilt embroidery page) I decided to use it to cover a little notebook that could be used at the reception to gather messages to the bride and groom from all the guests.
I added borders, left and right, to make it the right size to cover the book and allow fingers to open and close the book without touching the embroidery. Luckily the book I had chosen had inside card pages that could be used to cover the raw fabric edges that were stuck to the inside cover.
A message from me started the book and it was all ready to take to the wedding.
At the reception I asked everyone to sign the book and then handed it to the happy couple. They were delighted! I asked them to pose so I could take a photo of them with their gift to show you.
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08-04-2008 - Lucky finds
After taking my son to work on Sunday morning (he is a chef) I popped in to a car boot sale before heading home.
It was a disappointing turnout with only a few sellers trying to get rid of their unwanted items. However, my Mum always used to say "One man's trash is another man's treasure", and on this ocassion she was definitely correct!
One table had a little pile of crocheted doileys for sale. I picked them up to rumage through to see if there were any small enough to use on a crazy quilt block.. I was lucky enough to find three useful pieces, 2 crocheted and 1 made from tape lace, before spotting a delicate handkerchief in the pile. On closer inspection Ithought the piece was an example of ruskin lace. I passed the items over to the lady behind the table and asked the price. "Fifty pence for the four" she replied. The deal was done and I walked away a happy girl.
On arriving home and having a good look at my bounty I was certain that the embroidery in the corner was Ruskin lace work. I have included a British penny in the photograph to help give scale. Each openwork area is approximately 1cm square!
Ruskin Lace was a needlework technique that included elements of cutwork, drawn thread and needlelace. It originated in the Lake District area of England.
John Ruskin, a trustee of the Guild of St George (a guild set up to help craft workers start their own businesses) was instrumental in reviving the industry of spinning and weaving linen in Langdale, Cumbria. Marion Twelves, the housekeeper of a fellow trustee, Albert Fleming, learned how to use the spinning wheel and then passed that knowledge on to others in the area. Once the yarn was spun it was woven, the first piece being made around Easter 1884.
The linen was then made into embroidered articles. John Ruskin had brought some needlelace patterns home with him after a trip to Italy, which he gave to Marion to copy. She worked out her own method of creating the patterns which differed from the Italian way of applying the finished motifs to the work, instead she worked the pattern directly on the linen.
Ruskin lace was worked over a support material, and the stitches used included four sided stitch, buttonhole stitch, bullion knots and needlelace stitches.
For the last 38 years Elizabeth Prickett has continued the craft and in the process taught over 4500 students how to stitch Ruskin Lace thus helping to preserve this traditional English needlework technique. She wrote the book "Ruskin Lace and Linen Work" which is a manual for the technique, which was printed in 1985 and which has been reprinted many times since then.
I have shown this photograph to a lace expert and she agrees with me that the piece is likely to be Ruskin lace, but if you have any other ideas I would love to hear from you.
Oh, and by the way. This piece will not end up in my crazy quilting!
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11-04-2008 - Embroidered postcards
Today I thought I would share with you my first embroidered postcard, made for a swap on a yahoo group that I belong to. We each have to make a number of postcards and send them off in an envelope to be shared between the ladies taking part. In return we will recieve cards from each of them.
This isn't a new idea. Silk and embroidered postcards, such as the one shown, left, have been around since the late 19th Century when the silk manufacturers realised that here was a new market to boost their declining trade. The first silk postcards were made in Britain around 1898 and were popular during King Edward VII's reign from 1901-1910, and then throughout the first world war.
Many of the cards featured people dressed in clothes made from silk, with magenta and blue being the most common colours used.
Rarer than these silk cards are those that are made from real photographs. These were hand tinted and decorated with either fabric or embroidery.
More recently, I remember buying some of these when on holiday in Spain when I was a teenager in the 1970's. The Spanish ladies wore gorgeous red flamenco dresses made from fabric and had black embroidered hair. I wonder what happened to them?
So on to the modern day. Creating fabric cards using crazy quiliting techniques has been popular for a few years. These can be postcard sized (4 x 6") or the smaller Artist Trading Cards (2 x 3") and, as could the originals, can be posted through the mail system to friends or family members.
I have called my card Sunlit Forest, it is my first play with silk fabrics and my eye was taken by the sunshine yellow, which helped to brighten up a drab spring (!) day here in England. I used a One-Off hank of hand dyed thread from Oliver Twist for the browny tones and some variegated greens for the leaves in my design. Because this embroidered card was not going to go through the mail, but would be sent in a padded envelope, I also included beads and sequins.
I started by working the large flower in detached chain stitch (or lazy daisy stitch) and added a centre of french knots worked in bronze metallic thread. Then I moved over to the pine branch, worked in stem stitch, with detached chain stitch leaflets. The pine cones were my first attempt at cast on stitch, a Brazilian Embroidery technique.
I then worked the seam treatments in feather stitch and maidenhair stitch with french knots, beads and lazy daisy embellishments.
The fabric in the top left corner had an embossed pattern in it which I highlighted by outlining one of the tendrils with stem stitch.
To complete the design I did some beadwork. The butterfly was a purchased motif and it filled the empty space in the top right nicely. On the lace overlay in the bottom left I picked out the flower petals with flower shaped sequins, each held on with a little yellow bead. Then I made a little leaf using a mixture of green beads. Having used variegated thread throughout the stitching I didn't want the leaf to look flat and uninteresting so I just dipped into a bead mix, not worrying about which colour came out on the needle. I used bugle beads to suggest the leaf vein down the centre.
The last embroidery was to add a winding stem to the sequined flower, joining it up to the tendril to the left. Hopefully when someone looks at the design for the first time their eyes will be caught by the large flower then move across to the butterfly, be carried down the pine branch and across to the sequined flower. The stem will then take them to the top left where they will spot the large flower again. The secret to a well thought out design is to keep the eye moving in the direction you want it too, allowing the viewer to spot all the little details as they go around.
The card was then attached to a thick sew-in interfacing by means of a fusible webbing, cut to size and blanket stitch worked all around the edge with matching variegated thread. All that is left is to post if off to its destination. Hopefully it will then brighten someone else's day.
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20-04-2008 - Needlewoven Trees
I belong to a number of Yahoo groups related to stitching and another member, Bette, recently posted photos of her recent projects. They were so lovely I just had to ask her permission to share them with you here.
Bette tells us about her gorgeous trees below.
"The trees were an adaptation of a project from Stitch magazine (no. 32 Dec/Jan 04/05) by Jennifer Rochester. Actually she wrote 2 articles. The first was a series of 4 sample circles with trees and was to teach the technique of needleweaving and wrapping, plus a few knots and pulled thread stitches. There were also directions for drawn thread tree techniques. The next page was a complete project with some space dyed "sunset" fabric behind the trees.
Trees/leaves are always important motifs so the projects imtrigued me. I'd already taken a class and made an autumn forest and wanted to see if the techniques were similar. I was also taken with the idea of using neutrals/pale colours. I laid out all the circles and started in.
I really liked the first circle so was encouraged to do more - same with the second one. I did the techniques for numbers 3 and 4 but didn't want to leave them unfinished since the first 2 circles were complete environments. I did the last one with more colours. By this time I 'd decided that I really liked it but wanted it to hang together so utilized the pulled thread stitch I'd used in each motif to create a textured background.
I started out using the stitches shown in the article: wrapping, needleweaving for trunks, buttonhole picots, woven picots, french, colonial and bullion knots, eyelet holes, satin stitch pulled thread and Finnish filling.
I did feel sort of lost at first when I had to makeup the bottom part on circles 3 and 4, but I just started out trying stuff. I had all my threads out, part of the fun/learning was using different weights of thread to see the effect. There was a fair bit of unstitching, but once I decided to finish and make it a piece instead of a sample, I used a doodle cloth. I do like the way it turned out.
I decided it was a metaphor for my life - I was born on an Island and still live on one part-time and have never been mainstream., Its taken years to feel like I "fit in" or not care.
****
I think you will agree that Bette's trees are breathtaking.
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21-04-2008 - Prize for number 1000
Stitchin'Time, my (almost) monthly ezine now goes out to 984 subscribers. I am offering a prize for the 1000th person to sign up. Yes the lucky person will get their choice of free pattern from all my designs! I will keep my eye on the numbers in the next couple of days and that person will receive an email telling them they are the winner. Will it be you?
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27-04-2008 - Under the sea crazy quilt block
I need your help! I have made a needlelace mermaid to inhabit my under the sea world on a crazy quilt block, but cannot decide where she looks best.
Should she sit on the ocean floor surrounded by shells and seaweed, or on the rock to the left hand side of the block? Or perhaps you think she would be better somewhere else entirely?
Traditional needlelace was worked in white or ecru threads but nowadays all colours can be used. For this young lady I used machine sewing thread in flesh for her skin, a hand dyed cotton for her body and silk for the end of her tail. I'm not totally happy with her hair as the thread I picked, DMC flower thread, was too thick, but as this is going on a crazy quilt block I can work over the top of her hair to make it more realistic.
The stitches used included corded brussels (for her skin), pea stitch (one of my favourites - used for her bottom half) and single brussels for her tail fins. Her hair was sort of made up as I went along, another reason why I am not really happy with it.
You can read more about the history of needlelace by following the link. Or have a go yourself by creating a beautiful spring daffodil.
I will leave you with a closer look at the mermaid below.
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30-04-2008 - We have a winner!
Congratulations to Carole Sullivan from the USA who was the lucky 1000th subscriber to the Stitchin Time newsletter! Carole chose the blackwork e-book for her prize.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your lovely comments that I have received when you sign up. I like to think that I am chatting to friends about our mutual hobbies when I write the newsletters and it seems that message comes across. Its so much fun sharing my knowledge and experiences of all types of needlework with you all.
Don't forget that if there is something I haven't covered and you would like me to, just let me know and I'll try to include it.
Regards,
Carol
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