Art vs Craft

<RANT ON>This distinction/arguments has to be my biggest pet peeve ever (and for someone with as many opinions as me, that is saying something!). Without going into a feminist diatribe, why does anything done with a needle and thread, automatically get categorised as craft? Why does anything done with a paint brush get categorised as art? Why is art somehow better than craft? How can anyone who sees some of the great pieces of historic needlework like the Robes of State of the Order of the Golden Fleece or the Coronation Mantle of Roger...

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When Embroidery Is Work

I am currently working on a family commission. When you show off your embroidery to everyone who walks in the door, the odds are that eventually, someone will ask you to do something. My Aunt has asked me to make an album cover for her daughters wedding album. I've had plenty of time to do it and had the design pretty much worked out in my head for a couple of months. When I had my leave recently, I had plenty of time to work on it, but not one or two of the materials I needed. Now I have the materials, but a lack of time and more significantly,...

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Chateliane Mystery?

Does anyone who has done one of these before have a photo of the finished product? I've been reading about the current one on several blogs and I've just found a shop here in Oz that sells the kits, so I am thinking about signing up for the next one that starts in January next ye...

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Survivor: Week 5 - The Worm Turns

Well, well, well - what a difference one person can make. Ryan summed it up best, the smartest thing that Morgan have ever done is get Rupert. Even after only staying a couple of days he made a huge difference. All this time they had a spear gun and never worked out how to use it!!! I don't know how to use one but after 5 weeks, I think I would've played with it a bit and worked it out!! And how lazy is Osten?? He doesn't want to move the shelter until it gets swamped and then only 4 ft! I'm not sure if he is lazy or just more scared of the jungle...

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Fires

I just want to say to anyone affected by the fires in California, my thoughts are with you. We had fires like that last year that burned down about 500 houses in Canberra (Australia's capital) and killed several people. With a bit of luck they will subside quickly....

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Oriental Lilies

Well, finally got down to drawing up the pattern for a wedding album I sort of volunteered to do. Pretty simple, a single, large Oriental lily, petals done in white silk fabric, details of green bits done in silk thread. Then a few leaves in green silk. Then a row of gold cord in a square, then row of pearls then gold again. All on a very pale pink silk ground fabric. Got about three weeks to do it, so I should be alright once I get the embroidery done. Then just need to put padding down, then applique petals on, then gold and pearls!! No other...

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Some Not So Light Reading!

Note to self: Bring wheel barrow next time picking up something from Inter Library Loan! Just got Mrs. Christie's English Medieval Embroidery on ILL. I should've known what to expect but this thing is huge!! All black and white unfortunately but some great diagrams (I love diagrams and Mrs C does them so well!) and lots of technical info. So I will have something to read this weekend. I haven't done any stitching, wasn't feeling 100% last night so it was a night spent in front of the tv. But I have been good this week, I've been to the gym...

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Finished Assisi Cloth

Well, I finished off the Assisi cloth. I think it turned out pretty cute. I think I will do some more in this style. Maybe in blue or green. Linn, I pretty much have to put this in the post tommorrow but I would still love the info about edging that you have!...

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Near Disaster Averted!

Well, I am working on hemming/finishing off my Assisi table cloth thingy and I nearly completely stuffed it up! I pulled some threads to make turning the hem easier but I didn't leave enough gap between rows. And its started to fray pretty badly on the corners. So I put it down and thought I would come back to it fresh. So I picked it up again last night and the first thing I did was to put some Fray Stop on the offending edges. When that was dry, I ironed the first fold over and then used about a hundred pins to keep it in place. This did the...

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Finished Caul

Well, here is the finished caul. I kept a pretty good record of time on this one. It took 40 hours all up. 39 for embroidery and about an hour of construction. I can now officially say that the first part of my Elizabethan outfit is now done!! Sorry for the delay in posting. Yesterday was my first day back at work and out net was down all morni...

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Survivor: Week 4

Well, another week of Morgan Tribe members, (Ostin in particular) just plain embarassing themselves. Why would someone who obviously isn't comfortable in the water, apply for a Survivor series set on an island? Really, if they don't vote Ostin off at the next tribal council (and I have no doubt it will be them again - unless Drake repeats tonights efforts) I am going to declare Morgan as the dumbest tribe ever on Survivor. Well, Drake won reward challenge after Ostin nearly drowns, and Tijuana goes swimming without the mask. This means Drake gets...

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Mirabilia?

OK, I've just finished reading all my blogs. Mirabilia seems to get alot of mentions, for those that are mad keen Mirabilia fans, what is the attracti...

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Back to the Daily Grind

Well, yesterday was my last day of holidays. I had lots of plans for things I wanted to get done, most of which I of course didn't! I had a big day of Spring cleaning, Adam was SO relieved when he came home to find the dishes done and the kitchen spotless (its his job to do the dishes and he'd been putting it off for a couple of days!). So by the evening I was highly unmotivated but I picked up my blackwork and did the final three hours on it. The embroidery is now complete. All I need to do now is make it up. I will take it to my SCA meeting tomorrow...

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Book Review: "Art of Embroidery" by Lanto Synge

I've decided to start doing the odd book review when there isn't much in the way of progress to report on specific projects. I will be reviewing new books and also older ones. I don't buy needlework books often so there will be a bit of variety in the topics and ages of the books. First cab off the rank is "Art of Embroidery: History of Style and Technique" by Lanto Synge. My first comment is this, this is the most expensive book I have ever bought,...

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Playing with Blog

I really like the layout of this template, but its pretty popular, so I changed the colours when I first started but now I've decided to add some permanent colour to the title bar as well. I did a couple more hours on the caul, boy, is that taking more time than I thought it would. But it will look great when I make it up. I had planned on putting a simple leaf and vine design on the band but the longer the main part takes, the more likely it will end up plain. I went and spent a bit of my tax refund today. I want to get more involved in the...

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Caul

Small amount of progress. I spent most of yesterday listing stuff on ebay, so not much time for needlework. I am going to work on a corset today, just to see how it goes. Then maybe some sewing this afterno...

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Outwit, Outplay, Outlast

If you are a Survivor addict like me, you should recognize the above words. I was going to make a serparate Survivor blog (anyone out there want to make a group Survivor blog?), but I think its probably easier if I just put my thoughts here. I will make a note in the title if the post is Survivor related so those not interested can skip it. Be warned, there are spoilers relating to Week 3 below. Firstly, I'm in Australia so we are a couple of weeks behind the USA. I makes life pretty hard trying to avoid spoilers, but it can be done. I won't worry...

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Nearly Done

This is the caul at 30 hours of work. I think another 3 or 4 should get all the embroidery done. I am still feeling pretty bad, the sore throat has developed into a nasty cough as well. I also did a bit more on my LOG pouch yesterday. I have now finished all the embroidery on that. When I finish the embroidery on the caul, I am having a make up day. I will be able to make the caul up, put the LOG pouch together and do the hem on my Assisi runner....

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New Day

I'm feeling better today. It does help to get it out of ones system when things aren't going well. I got another couple of hours done on the caul last night. And my other half had the day off and we did a bit of shopping and had a lunch at my favourite restaurant. So today was very nice. Only down side, is I am getting a sore throat and I think its going to get worse. I laid down for 5 minutes this afternoon and woke up 4 hours late...

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High to Low

Well, I just had a fairly enjoyable day shopping for embroidery supplies ruined by a sucky email. Apparently I'm doing a pretty crap job of running our Barony's website. Me, I thought I was doing OK, but apparently I should be harassing people more to get info to to put on the site, I'm not trying hard enough. Apparently asking for people to bring stuff, bringing a digital camera every Sunday and waiting all day isn't enough. Well, WTF am I supposed to do?????? The site hadn't been updated in over two years when I took over. I did a complete redesign,...

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Progress on Caul

I put a few more hours in on the caul yesterday, this is the progress at approximately 20 hours. I still need to do some more cleaning in my work room but I think that I've broken the back of it. I might try and get some scrapbooking done today or tommorrow. I haven't done any in months (literally) and I am starting to get a backlog again. Also, with the wedding, I now have two complete albums to do!! But they should actually be pretty quick to knock...

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Big Weekend

Well, it was a great weekend but boy am I glad its over!! Saturday was my sisters wedding. We had an early start finishing off a few finishing touches to our outfits (beads on the wraps etc). Then it was three hours at the hairdressers. The styles were pretty simple but there was only one hairdresser for the three of us so it took a while. Then we got dressed and straight to the beach for the ceremony. It was only a quick ceremony but it was beautiful. The weather managed to hold off. The afternoon before it was freezing and rainy, the afternoon...

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Wedding Day (After)

Well, the wedding has been and gone. It went off pretty much without any problems, everyone had a great time and the bride and groom look fantastic. A great time was had by all. Me!...

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Countdown Begins..

My sister arrived last night. So there was some last minute sewing on the other bridesmaids dress to be done. As such, no embroidery was done last night. I don't think there will be any done today either. I probably won't post tomorrow, unless its late at night. We will see how it goes. And yes, I promise to post photos of the weddin...

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Dye Bath

I spent about another two hours last night working on my caul. It is coming along nicely. I have designed a simple vine and leaf pattern for the band. I'm not sure if I will use it or just leave the band plain. What do you think?? I have just spent the last 15 minutes hand agitating a dye bath for the cloak I am making. It's made from two op shop single bed wool blankets. They have that overall pink, green and brown check that old wool blankets have. I'd already used one box of dye on it, which did a pretty good job, changed the colour to a reasonable...

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Finished!!

Well, the wedding outfit is done! Yeah, now I can get back to the sewing I actually enjoy! Don't get me wrong, its great to be in the wedding but I have come to the conclusion that while I quite like clothes, I really dislike making them. This may cause problems as I want to make a middle class Elizabethan outfit, which is way more complicated than the one I just finished. The blackwork caul is progressing well. The current photo shows 10 hours...

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