No, now I'm really in love......

Today I became the proud owner of a Pfaff 350p Embellisher. I have dreamed of owning an embellisher for some time now but on Saturday at the EG SE area day I watched a demonstration by the lovely lady from Winifred Cottage and that was it, I decided the time had come. Today we went to Sewmaster in Guildford and

I haven't had much time to play but this is what I have done so far.

This was the "wrong" side a piece that I had done by hand (see the postacard in the previous post). I was amazed how quickly it was smoothed out and how much more robust it became.



This was the raw ingredients of my first experiment. A cheap duster and some bit pulled out of a cheap scarf.

This is the resulat and is destined to be the background for this weeks TAST, buttonhole wheels.

This is two threads joined together, making a whole new piece which could be added to something else.

This is just pieces or organza from my bits bag.

Such fun!! The Pfaff has no foot lever so I keep finding myself reaching behind to lower the foot with no result. The other habit thing is trying to cut off the thread when you have finished.

I love it, I will try not to bore you to death as I get to grips with it.

New toy..

These are the results of my two experiments with fuseFX which I bought yesterday
This one is a postcard which I had made

and this one is part of a UFO which now has a new lease of life. I used the fuseFX to trap threads and then ironed it onto the UFO.

I am in love........

Today was the meeting for the South East Branches of the Embroiderers Guild. What a loely day, which re-affirmed my belief that women who ply the needle(of whatever shape) have something special going for them. I loooked with pride at the diversity of our stand and the thought came to me that all these wonderful things came from the simple action of threading a needle(or not so simple depending on your age!!!)


The people I met all had a joie de vivre and humour about them. Such a delight from our usually negative thinking every day world.(I hold up my hand!!)

The theme of the exhibition was Festivals and we had everything from flower festivals through the Festival of Britain to Glastonbuty (which was the winner of the displays. Well done Worthing branch).

Branches were celebrating their 25th and 30th anniversarys (we are mere striplings at 7 years) Silver and pearl, lovely displays.

Now why, you are asking, is she in love. Well apart from the Guild branches there were Stallholders. Yes, I spent money. Something I have been coveting ever since I saw one is a Bobbin Saver. (I am using this link because it is the best picture I could find I bought mine from Winifred Studo) If these means an end to those masses of wasted thread it is a treasure.

The other thing I found was on my third visit of the day to those awfully nice people of Art Van Go. I as just paying for some bits and bobs when I spotted fuse FX I wish I ahd bought more than one packet as I am sure it is going to be a favourite. I will have to wait until daylight tomorrow to photograph (how I miss my scanner) my first impatient try outs of this wonderful Stuff.

I leave you with just a fraction of the wonderful "squares" wall which just show what you can do when you thread a needle.



I

Two for the price of.....

I really am treading water on TAST at the moment, because summer's here (somewhere) I have been playing more golf than normal so the days have been flying by. (The only thing I don't like about golf is the time it takes) I have also still in the doldrums with anything I try to create. So here are my Arrow stitch and Sheaf stitch, perhaps next weeks promised difficult stitch will get me motivated again. I still don't have my scanner working, never realised how much I used it.

Flying by....

Time and the Tour de France..... I enjoyed yesterday morning in the sunshine waiting for the Tour de France to whizz by.


This was the road near us yesterday, it had a real carnival atmosphere with chairs on the pavement and early morning "brunch" being served and people airing their knowledge of the significance of the "Yellow jersey" and words like "peleton"

The support procession was quite good but the actual race went by in a flash of brightly coloured lycra. I decided to watch instead of photograph so this is all I took.


And so to TAST... this is my bullion stitch, it is done in a Stef Francis thread on a needle felted background.

they are quite tiny and in the continued absence of my scanner the photograph will have to do, it's not too bad if you click on the image.

Half way through...

and Half a Chevron. It is amazing how quickly the 26 weeks of TAST have slid by.


I like this stitch, it has a good flow it.

EG yesterday and a talk from Kathleen Laurel Sage, she does not appear to have a web site but her work is often featured in Stitch. She showed us beautiful panels,made out of layers of organza, stitched mainly with a flower motif and then cut away. She also gave us a slide show of her equisite vases, again made out of organza. She is a very entertaining speaker so it was a very enjoyable day.

A trip to Town....

I popped up to London today. I visited the Opus BA Show wonderful work but a little beyond me I'm afraid. I will go to their Pathways exhibition next week. Having the day to myself I went up to the British Museum,what a treasure house this is...I have to take it in little bites. Today I looked at the Snettisham Hoard I had never heard of it before but I was fascinated by these strange neckpieces They must have been uncomfortable to wear but must also have been impressive as some were very thick.

Photographs courtesy The British Museum.
I had a lovely wander when I came out, there are some wonderful old building around the museum, my walk was enlivened by a great idea from the National Gallery. Around corners and in the oddest places where reproductions of some of the gallery's treasures.


I thought the juxtaposition of the street sign gave this one a Banksy feeling
A brilliant idea, I often pop into the National I wanted to go off in search of more but I didn't have any time left today as I spent a happy hour(and a bit of money) in the London Graphic Centre I bought some inks and nib pens.......because they were there. Delighted and a bit dismayed(for my bank managers sake) that the are now stocking Golden Liquid Acrylics.

The long and the short of it.....

In an effort to be neat and I decided that straight edges were the order of the day.
As you can see it didn't quite work. I actually think the name of this stitch is a bit misleading because in fact apart from the beginning it could almost be called "all the same stitch"!!!


I think it shows that this isn't one of my favourites.

Desperation........

is the name of this piece!!!


Desparate for inspiration!

Last week my son looked into my room, shook his head(in a loving way) and said "So much stuff", now I thought this a little harsh as, bless them, he and my daughter provided much of it for birthdays and Christmas. They are both very good at bringing me things that I didn't know where just what I wanted which is marvellous,the trouble is for some time now I have been longing to do something with it all, even knowing what I wanted to do but not knowing where to start. I have been mulling over it all week and last night I went down and just pulled things out and this is the result. Absolutely nothing to do with what I have in mind (which I am not going to put into the air right now) but does seem of have helped with a partial unblocking.

One of my problems was that everything I tried to do was derivative, you know what I mean "as seen in this magazine,... that blog.....the workshop. I think I am now coming to terms with the fact that this is how it has to be for me, I can imitate but not invent. So having come to terms with the fact that I am not going to be Grandma Moses I am going to try and create, albeit in the style of others, just for the process of making something, hopefully just a little bit different.

Dumbing down.......

Facts I thought I knew were true:

1. The BBC is one of the most respected television networks in the world.

2. The post of Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdon is a very important.

Therefore, can somebody please explain to me why the candidates for this post were presented to us on the BBC 6 o'clock news as though they were taking part in the latest "reality" television programme. Would we,otherwise, not be able to understand?

Normal service resumed...........

...sort of. It's been a strange, not to say expensive, week. My computer is sort of fixed, still can't scan but at least I can get to my photo files. So fingers crossed....

Here in the UK it is the longest day today, nearly half way through the year and the nights will start drawing in. My son thinks it's very funny when I say this and it is silly because this is really only the start of summer but the it is also the silly season. I saw a definition that it was because Parliament was closed but I don't really think that would make that much difference!!!!

Augusten Burroughs
"I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions." This was a timely entry on the Quotes of the Day blog One of the things that has come out of this week is a promise to myself to make a real effort to stop saying "I must do....xxxx......tomorrow, soon, next week e.g. back up my computer!!!!! But not only that but important things like contacting friends, it is too easy to let the weeks slide by.

And now to last weeks TAST, French knots. I love French Knots, there is something very satisfying to me in making them. So in keeping with the silly season and summer here is an ice cream dotted with hundreds and thousands (can you still buy them?) Oops I spilt some...



I would have preferred to scan this for better definition but it will have to do for now.

This is one I did sometime ago, a representation of a pebbley stream.


So now for long and short stitch.....she said enthousiastically, it is a stitch that I love when other people do it but I am never satisfied when I try it, I think you realise by now that I am not awfully good at neat!!!

Unepected silence....

Just as I was getting back into the swing of things, my computer collapsed. It is away being given new innards and I hope to get it back next week. At the moment I am using my husbands laptop. The good news is that I can keep up with what everyone is doing, the bad news(for me) is that I cannot post my TAST French knots photo as I haven't worked out the connections to scanner etc.

Everybody's do'in it,................

do'in it........do'in it..........Rust dyeing that is, so of course I just had to have a go and look what I have,


This was the bottom of an old baking tray. I am do excitied, can anyone else see the dragon, Ken can see a mouse wearing glasses(spectacles)!!!! I really want to do something special to this but will have to think about it for a while.

I have been touched by the responses to my last post both here and on Flickr, I am so touched to have awakended memories in others, I only wish I had started to research my past at a much younger age, when there were people around, like grandparents, who could have added the "flesh" to the names that came before them.

Wheat Dreamer

My TAST sample this week is not very original but it has been a very interesting piece to do. First of all the background. Ken was cutting down a dead tree in the garden which was covered by the most gorgeous green lichens. Ignoring raised eyebrows and pitying looks I wrapped some pieces in wet calico and then in cling film and waited to see. I was delighted with the result and decided this would make the perfect background for the wheatear stitch. As I stitched I was carried back to childhood walks with my dog, watching the fields change from ploughed brown to gold. I don't usually add other stitches to my samples but I just had to add some poppies. Isn't it amazing how you can remember scents? The one I liked best was after the wheat had been cut, a mixture that I can't describe but I can smell it now. One of natures miracles of packaging, (like the egg and the pomegranate) one of the other things I liked to do with a ripe ear was take out the seeds, one by one, out of the little cup that holds them. Aagh simple pleasures!!!
When I was researching my ancestors I found that many of them were agricultural workers and I tried to find out about the kind of life they would have had. For many families the gleanings of the wheat field would be all they had to keep them through the winter. Women and children would scour the fields picking up every grain that had been missed. A far cry from deciding whether to have white or wholegrain this week!!
This article gives a very good description.

Millet "The Gleaners" Courtesy Wikipedia.

Another interesting piece I came across (and gave me my title) was about the man who saved the farmers of Kansas by introducing new strains of wheat.
Isn't it wonderful where a stitch can lead you. Thank you Sharon.

Back on track..

Here is my Crossed Buttonhole Stitch, I had a hard time getting passed the first stitch because the second stitch kept making a loop.....I kept peering at samples others had produced and couldn't see loops anywhere.......then daylight dawned and I realised that the "loop" was actually the cross and the base and if I just continued it would all come right.



and this is my Satin Stitch, when I look at embroideries with perfectly worked satin stitch it fills me with awe. Hovever, I have always had difficulty with the stitch because, there is no getting away with it, I am not neat. I can still remember agonies of unpicking, at school, over this one and that was a long,long time ago. However the sun was shining and DMC have just added to the varigated threads so here is my little piece of summer, not perfect but dare I say "naive charm"!!!



and now I can look forward to whatever Sharon has dreamed up for us this week.

Just amazing...

I am totally fascinated by the video Women in Art. I found this on the The Practically Creative site. It is one of the most amazing things I have seen. Beautiful and fascinating.

Catching up...

Thank you for the welcome back messages they mean a lot. I caught up with two of my friends yesterday. There is something very special about friendship between women, hard to define but it certainly is one of the most precious parts of my life.

I have come back with my head buzzing with things I want to do but don't seem to be able to settle to getting on with things. However I have done one piece for TAST. This is my Butterfly stitch.



As you can see it is a very quick sample but I do like the stitch and can see all kinds of variety for it with different thicknesses and lengths of thread.

Now for Crossed Buttonhole stitch

Whew!

Don't know whether holidays are entirely worth it, since I returned I have been paid bills, been to the hairdressers, done an embroidery workshop at the EG, signed up for the leisure centre,been to see my best friend, done the washing and re-stocked the fridge. Now I wonder which of of these activities you will be of interest????

OK then the embroidery workshop was with Fay Maxwell and was based on the article she has just had published in Stitch Working with blanket felt on silk. Both new experiences for me. And no tracing paper!!!!!

It was a really good day though I have a feeling that Fay despaired of me!! I always have problems in workshops, part of the reason is that I am left handed and relatively inexperienced as a stitcher therefore any new stitch(especially those with a twist) present me with a big problem. Once I get home and can use the computer to turn things round I am OK but in a workshop I panic a bit. I had real problems with the authentic Shisha stitch Fay was showing us. Her work is beautiful, an updating of the ancient crewel work and she was funny and informative so if you ever get the chance to take a class with her, grab it.

One of my other mistakes was to put a bird on my cushion.
This immediately locked me into feathers etc.. instead of being free to do exotic flowers and leaves.

I have actually pulled out the stitching I did in the workshop(forgot to photoraph)
and started again. I will show progress at a later date.

Now my main aim is to get back to TAST, (as very tempted to try and find an Internet cafe in Cyprus so that I could continue when the weather was bad) I am now three weeks behind but I hope that Sharon doesn't take a break because knowing me that will mean I am still three weeks behind when she starts again

Inpite of the weather I was pleased with some of the photographs I took in Cyprus so I will share them when I think of it.

This one was on the same beach as the chair.......aaah lucky M!!

I'm back

and hit the ground running. We jetted off to blue skies and turquoise seas(see last posting) to land in a thunderstorm which lasted a 36 hours and then a week of grey days even so I found a chair waiting for me on the beach.

Arriving back in England up a holiday weekend where it never seemed to stop raining for two days had me thinking how much the weather affects our moods and in some cases livelyhoods. I feel so sorry for people who were involved in events like the Kent Garden Show, people who run the Fun Fairs that I saw advertised, for many of these people they must rely on these holidays for a large part of their income. The real cruelty is that this morning, as people return to work, the sky is a bright washed clear blue.

Basque stitch.....

This is just a quickie this week because I am off to the beautiful island of Cyprus tomorrow, for two weeks Yipee, so I will be playing catch up when I come back.

The moment I saw "Basque" I thought of Jean Borotra the "Bounding Basque" and of the game Pelote the incdedibly fast game which is played against a wall with a sort of scoop shaped basket and a very small ball. So my basque stitch is based on the "basket" complete with flying ball!!!



I like this stitch, at first, I was making it like a detched chain without the twist and then the penny dropped. It does have a sort of folklore look to it a good stitch for building up layers as you can work it both ways.

This is from last year. Can't wait!!!

A bit about me.......

I have been tagged by Gunnel, I feel quite honoured. If you look at her blog and her Flickr you will see some beautiful needlefelting and antique fabric collage.

Well I am supposed to tell you 7 things about myself so here goes.

1. I have been married for nearly 46 years, as you can imagine he is pretty special as are our two children. I blessed with some wonderful friends, they know who they are.

2. I love colour, I have been known to burst into tears if something stikes me as particularly beautiful, eg entering the big marquee at the Chelsea Flower Show for the first time and a wall of Pale purple Wisteria and yellow Roses at the Alhambra Palace in Grenada.



3. I love live theatre, especially musical theatre. I love the works of Stephen Sondheim and Kander and Ebb, Jerry Herman and Maltby and Shire. I like going to the cinema too, next on the "to see" list are Hairspray and Pirates of the Carribean 3.

4. I like music from Billy Joel to Prokofiev but I HATE "background" music in shops and lifts, television, and toilets. What is it about? There are many people who are a little hard of hearing or like myself have mild tinnitus and this constant bombardment is a real irritation. This is one of my two pet hates.

5. I don't like to see push chairs which face forward and create a barrier between the parent and child. It seems to me that a great number of the times you hear children crying in shopping areas is because they are trapped and bored, very often the parents and siblings are walking behind talking and laughing and the child in the push chair is completely excluded. As for the kind that have a sort of parcel shelf for the second child....don't get me started. Did you guess this is my other per hate???



6. I am known to have a soft spot for Johhny Depp, who can blame me?

Courtesy

7. I love all things creative, from photography to embroidery, I like to mess with paint and papers, play with Paint Shop Pro and trying new techniques and searching for that perfect combination which will allow me to create something lasting.

Well that's me, now I am supposed to name seven others. I think most of the seven people will have been tagged many times before and so please do not feel obliged to respond, just take this to be a mark of gratitude of the pleasure I have had from reading your blogs. First of all Sharon B, it was working with her on Encrusted Crazy Quilting course that widened my horizons and of course her inspirational Take a Stitch Tuesday has brought so many of us together.
Purple Missus is generous with her wonderful experiments in combining fabric and paint. Someone who makes me want to reach out and touch her work is Kay Susan her blog is Smockery I have to thank Dot as the little dolls I have made from her design have charmed my friends.Next is Marianne, the bags she had made from her TAST samples would grace any boutique. Margaret is someone else who is generous with her experiments and also shares beautiful photograph. So many more I could and should mention but my last is not "a lady who sews" (but his wife, my best friend does) Tony likes to chip in with the odd comment now and then and I do enjoy reading his blog about his village and his passions(birds and moths) and it makes them feel not so far away.
Thank you Gunnel for giving me this opportunity to say thank you, of course you are on the list too.

All this has made me realise that I must update my links, I have so many people on Bloglines that do not appear here.

Wheel Stitch - week 18

I am going on holiday on Thursday and everything seems to be happening at once, golf games, theatre trips, dentist visits, not to mention lipstick searches. Why is there always so much to do before you go on holiday, my younger brother asked me what was the difference between holidays and being retired. I told him that Holidays are harder work!!!! I have just finished my sample of wheel stitch My first thought was of the inside of a watch or clock and I started looking for images on exactly how they are set. Wandering around I came across the Antikythera Device ,an Ancient Greek "computer" which was found at the beginning of the century. Fascinating stuff. So this is my offering based on the picture from the Nordex site.


I love these textural stitches, especially when you start to pile them on top of each other. I particularly like the pink wheel on the left where I reversed the stitch for a couple of rounds and it made this highly satisfactory machine wheel look.

Elizabeth Arden what have you done.........

Courtesy The Scream
....that's it. I went to day to replace my Elizabeth Arden 8 hour lip salve, colour MELON. To be told, because it is not popular in the EU(European Union) it has been withdrawn. I pointed out that we English Roses have a different skin tone to our undeniably beautiful European cousins but this was received with a sympathetic continental shrug. All other lipsticks go ten shades darker on me, what am I to do, I must become a recluse, I NEED MY LIPSTICK. Why can't these companies warn you when they are about to remove your favourite product, I've never really recovered from the demise of Yardley's English Rose!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Paintings in Felt.

I just had to pass this one on. I found this link on Heegeldab's blog. Jeanne Roberts who makes pictures out of felt, she share her technique, as well, though the skill involved must take years of practice. I love the flowers but the portraits are just amazing.

Straight stitch

Well, the simplest stitch so far has taken me the longest time to do. I wanted to try and do something with sheer fabrics and stitches under and on top but the everyday world took over this week and I have just rushed to complete it this morning.


I love this simple stitch and the things it can do to lead the eye round a piece etc.

This is cheating but here is an experimental piece I posted earlier this year

.

It was EG yesterday and we had a talk called "Adentures in vanishing fabrics" by a gentleman called Arthur Ridley.
He showed slides of his work and exp0lained the processes and also had loads of pieces to look at. His hats and masks were great fun.

Palestrina stitch

Another new-to-me stitch this week. I like this stich, great opportunities for variation and texture, once I can stop myself lapsing into buttonhole stitch there is a nice rythmn to it.

I had a search to see what I could find on Palestrina, I knew vaguely that it was a town in Italy. My search turned up this picture of the little hill town near Rome with a quaint custom in June. The gentleman below it its most famous son who rejoices in the wonderful name of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina a composer of church music.


This idea didn't quite come off but I wanted to use the yarn my daughter brought me back from Italy(the thick one).

You can learn to love......Oyster stitch

Learning this stitch was about as difficult as trying to open the real thing!

I thought I would show this piece in all its horror. I could not get the hang of this stitch, I ranted and raved at it, pulled it out, pulled it into knot. I was just about to give in, when the penny dropped. You can see on the white lines how I struggled but fared better with the rougher, thicker yarns which gave a very satifying texture.


The inspiration came from this picture from Tony Boon's site which has some great photographs and some fun things too.



One of these days I will try and do it justice.


Congratulations to all those who have managed to produce beautiful samples.

Tuesday

I've just spent a wonderful day in workshop with textile artist Cas Holmes It was part of Kent County Council Arts Development Countywide Migration Project and I was there thanks to the Sevenoaks branch of the EG. We made a mixed media piece where we worked backward, doing the stitching first and then adding the other media. Fascinating and great fun, the theme was journeys either personal or actual. This was my piece after my stitching



In my dreams my Senior Bus pass can take me......

and this is it at the end.


Nowhere near as beautiful as Cas' work but you did get a great taste of all kinds of new possibilities. She was very generous in sharing her techniques. A good day.

Posting delayed because blogger was being awkward with photographs!!!

Now to get to grips with TAST stitch Oyster, another new, to me, one.

In my Easter Bonnet................

......well you knew I wouldn't be able to resist, didn't you. TAST week 14 and another stitch I had never heard of. After a couple of tries where I kept trying to do the bottom bit without putting the needle through the material, daylight dawned and it began to flow. I really like the stitch and will give it a try in some thicker yarn as I can see it has great potential for alteration. But I just had to get this out of my system first.

This is the sketch I did in The Scribbler

Happy Easter everyone.

A gentle art????

Purple Missus,who incidentally has a nice line in things you would like to touch(see below), left a comment on "Just a quickie" which made me laugh and set me thinking. I find when you mention Embroidery to non needle-threaders the usual reaction is a polite, sympathetic smile. Little do they know that so many of us have a desire to slash and burn, amongst our silks and fabrics are to be found soldering irons, hammers, and pliers. In fact you are liable to find your embroidering friend in the aisles of the DIY store eyeing the brass fittings and the washers as possible additions to the latest project. Cling film and vegetable bags fill us with delight and we comb £1 stores and charity shops for items that we can rip apart, stab with our needles, dye or otherwise recycle and transform.


This is a piece I did inspired by an article in Issue 2 of Cloth Paper and Scissors using the afore mentioned cling film (shrink wrap) and plastic vegetable bags.

Soooooo cute.......

My I point you in the direction of my friend Tony's blog I have been smiling over this picture ever since I saw it. Those little legs!!!! Fantastic. Todays picture is quite high on the cuteness scale as well.

Well here we are, one quarter of the way through TAST. What an amazing few weeks it's been. I would like to thank everyone who has left a comment, either here or on Flickr and of course to Sharon for keeping the whole thing going. There are so many wonderful pieces on the Flickr site it is always a joy to take a look, so many lovely uses of colour. We all have our favourite things that "speak" to us but one of the things that draws me to a piece is the feeling that I would love to reach out and touch it and there are many of those as well. New month and the stone for April is a girls best friend. Diamond. Could be an expensive month!!!!