Icelandic Progress

This is my current project at 5 1/2 hours. It is black wool blend ground fabric (its hard getting wool fabric here, not really cold enough) with the couching done with DMC tapestry wool for the cord and DMC Medici wool for the couching thread. It's going alot quicker than I thought it would. Once the piece is outlined, I will then do laid and couched work to fill in the background.

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Zen Shopping

Well, it was one of those shopping days where I was in THE ZONE. All we went out for was a pair of gloves for me to use at the gym. We went to a new sports place that had just opened up on the other side of the city. We got the gloves and then decided to have a look around. In the camping section I found some plain aluminium plates that I had been looking for for ages. And on the way out, we found these cool hip bags with a water bottle attached. I got three of those, they were only $10 each and they were perfect for 3 of 4 of my nephews. When we got outside, I realised that the checkout person had not charged me for the plates! On the way back to the car, I found a couple of trendy beach bags for $10 each that were perfect for my neices (we live in a beach suburb, everyone lives at the beach in summer, so very handy). So by the time we'd left that shopping centre, I'd bought the majority of my Christmas shopping, without even trying!

We then headed for lunch. We went to Oporto (a chicken place). The parking gods were smiling, we got a spot right out front, in the shade!! We were thinking we were going to have to walk a block or two at least. Very yummy lunch.

Then we went to Spotlight (big fabric shop). They had the linen cotton blend I use all the time on special for $2m!! Down from $8. So I stocked up on that. And when we got to the register, the good linen was marked down from $16.95 to $12.95 so another saving.

New Embroidery Magazine

While I was shopping this morning I came across a new embroidery magzine by Homespun Magazines. They have a whole range of craft magazines on the market here in Australia. The projects in this one are similar to what you would find in Inspirations but with more variety.

This first edition of the magazine has the following projects and techniques:

• Pansy Pouch - silk ribbon and beading
  
• Floral Table Runner - satin, stem, chain, detatched buttonhole
  
• Lilac Blooms - long short, satin, stem, french knot
  
• Girls Wall Hanging - crazy patch, straight stitch, knots, silk ribbon
  
• Vintage Hat Boxes - cross stitch
  
• Gardening Set - blanket, chain, stem, knots, whipped chain
  
• Bed Set - back, blanket, bullion, lazy daisy, ribbon
  
• Floral Blanket - wool embroidery
  
• Book Cover - cross stitch
  
• Stumpwork Passionfruit - back, couching, knot, long and short, satin etc

As you can see, there are many projects (which when necessary have a chart, pattern or instructions on the pull out pattern sheet). There is also an extensive stitch library as well as quite a few ads (I like the adds, some of the materials are hard to find and its good to know where to look). I will definately be buying this one again.

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Couching

Well, got another two hours done on the new project last night while watching tellie. It's going pretty fast. If I stick at it this weekend I may gett all the outlining done alot quicker than I expected. I think that the filling in should go quickly. If I can get this done by the end of the year, I might see if I can get a second piece, in another technique done. If I'd known it would go this quickly, I might've actually done a wallhanging instead of making the cushion.

Thanks to those who've discussed Survivor and not spoiled it!!

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Almost Done!!

Well, the Oriental Lilies project is almost done. I wasn't feeling too good yesterday so I had the day off work. I finished off the detailing on the two big leaves (put in veins using stem stitch) and did the four smaller leaves using feather stitch. Came out pretty good. I also cleaned up the blue marking pen. All I need to do now is to fill in the gap in the middle. I am thinking of filling it in with gold couching thread then over filling with some nice glass beads to add a bit of sparkle.

When that was done I put my next project on the frame. This is based on a 16th C Icelandic wall hanging. Black wool ground with white couching, done in a voided style. I started to outline the pattern in the couching thread. I will then fill with laid and couched work. The original is a fragment of wall hanging. I am going to use one roundal and make a cushion (much more practical).

I was bummed when I went to read up about the piece in a book I had copies from. I'd done a whole heap of pages and left out the two that covered this piece!! I was so mad at myself, I wanted to jump up and down on the spot!

Well, I also caved and signed up for the Chateliane Mystery VI. I can't say that I am great fan of the previous designs but I really love the colours. I am going to stick with it and when I am finished I want to try and design a pattern, something using the same materials as the mystery.

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Progress

Lilies getting there. I finished the pearls and the gold for the outside border. I also got the two biggest leaves done. They are now covered in silk. I am going to put the veins in using embroidery. I plan to pull the stitching tight so that there will be some texture/puffiness on the leaves. I am trying to decide whether or not to put gold around the leaves as well. At this stage I think yes, so that they will all match. I am also trying to decide whether to put the smaller leaves in. If I do, these won't be padded. I just want this finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had our quarterly officers meeting yesterday for our Barony. This one only went for three hours (which is pretty good, the last one went for about six). Even so, there was one person keen to kept things moving along, I think she annoyed a few people. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm sort of glad she was doing it, but it was really getting people off side, cutting people off to keep things moving. But it did need to be done.

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Spoilers

Request - If you are going to post spoilers for TV shows etc, can you please put that in the heading of your blog post? Especially, if its for a show you've never mentioned before!! (ie, if you've mentioned it before, I would know not to read you blog until after a certain day!!!!).

Did another 3 hours on the lilies last night. Hope to get the gold on today.

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Pearls

Gold and Pearls are now added to the lilies!! About half done with the pearls. I should be able to get them finished tonight. I got quite a bit done last night (once I actually picked up a needle). I was stitching while watching this documentary on Indian film. Quite interesting, mostly about what is happening now with a few historical examples. I quite like Indian film. It made me want to dig out my video of the Mahabharata that was on SBS years back. It's an international production of the the classic Indian epic (and when Indians do epics, they make War and Peace look like a comic!). The only issue that I had with it was that there were only about two Indian actors in it!!! But its a great video for a summer day, 13 hours worth!! I might see if it ever got released on video or DVD.

On another technical note, I am thinking of moving my domain to a new server. Alot cheaper and heaps more functionality. I will have to think about it.

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Playing with the Tech

Playing with the Tech - I've been playing with my template again. Finally found a site with free RSS feed info. So you can now read my blog with an aggregator.

On the stitchfront, I finished the gold outling of the petals of the lilies last night. I will start on the pearls tonight. I will post a picture tomorrow of progress.

Also, for those interested in working on your blog, Jennie has started a help forum for stitching bloggers - Stitching Bloggers Forum. Come over and ask any questions you might have about blogging in a needlework friendly environment!

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Robin Hood Watch Out!

Well, no sewing yesterday, it was too hot. Summer is definately on the way. It was only about 36C but still a bit warm for sewing. We did, however, go Christmas shopping for my present from Adam. He really is very good at picking cool presents. I got a 26lbs recurve bow for doing target archery!! I've always wanted to do archery but never could find the motivation to find somewhere to do it. That is where the SCA is great, I can do all my favourite stuff in the one place, first embroidery, now archery. We have our weekly meeting today so if the Captain of Archers is there, I will be placing an order for some arrows with him. Once I get those, I will be right to go! Adam also said I should get some for Dad as he dropped by yesterday and when I mentioned the bow he said how he wanted to get his going again, but didn't have any arrows. See, I told you Adam was good at present picking!

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Buttons!!

I had planned on doing some more on the Oriental Lilies but I got distracted. I've been wanting to try to make some silk covered buttons for a while and today someone on one of my email list posted a link to a page with instructions!

Kate's Corner - Making Buttons

I used some wooden beads that I bought at the el cheapo shop for this very purpose. They were a bit elongated rather than round, but that is still a period shape. I used six stranded silk I had laying around (I'd bought it to see what it was like when I was testing out silk threads for embroidery). Basically, you just put ribs around the bead and then wrap it. I like the one I did (which is slightly different to the instructions) with the ribs on the outside. I took about 30mins to do one, but its a good project for having as a stand by when you just want something quick and easy to do. It took about a quarter of an 8m skein to do one button.

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Petal

This is one of the petals for the Oriental Lily project. The silk petal has been tacked over the last felt padding piece. The blue marker will be erased with a bit of water. (HINT: I also scrapbook and one of the trends in this in the last few months has been watercolours. You can get this funky Japanese pens from art and scrapbook shops that have a fine brush nib with and attached water resevoir in the body of the pen. Its a great way to erase water soluable marker, because its a very fine point and therefore accurate, you don't have to soak the whole work to get rid of the pen).

The petals will be appliqued over the padding that is already attached to the ground fabric. This picture also gives a close up fo the stem stitch.

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Blah!

I haven't done any stitiching for a couple of days. Not feeling very motivated at the moment. Things are not going well at work. Hopefully, things will sort themselves out soon. I'm a bit tired too cause I am going to the gym twice a day and when I get home I'm not really in the mood for much more than sitting around. Although, last night I did do some tidying in my craft room. Finally filed some photocopies that have been floating around for months on the floor (or the table or under the table or on the shelves - you get the picture).

I have finished making the petals (sewed the silk onto the felt shape and tacked the edges down). I will try and post a picture this afternoon. Then I can start sewing them onto the backing.

BTW, on a technical note, a few people have commented that they had trouble seeing all of my blog, it seemed to stop half way through the page when using Internet Explorer. I checked the code and it was the javascript code for the IM alert tool that was causing the problem. So if you use this tool, you might want to think about taking it out.

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Progress at Last!

The image on the left is the photo I was sent to work from. It's upside down cause that is what it looks like when the bride is carrying the flowers. I got alot of work done on the lilies yesterday. I finished off the embroidery on the petals. I got the ground material silk and cotton backing mounted on my big frame. Then got all the felt padding sewn on. I've never done any padded work before so it will be interesting to see how this works out!

I was still trying to work out how to get the petals into the right shape to applique onto the ground fabric. I was thinking how to do the leaves when it hit me. The padding of the petals didn't reach all the way to the outside shape, so if I cut one more felt peice, exactly the same size as the silk petals, I could then tack the petal to the felt, using the felt as the template. This gave me the best of both worlds, a template that I could leave in place and also one more layer of padding to make sure the petal has the perfect profile!

Below are two images. The first are the silk petals. There is a small amount of stem stitch done in the base of the petals. I used three colours of green silk. One strand of 12 strand Eterna silk was used. The second image is the padded petals on the frame. These will eventually be surrounded in a frame of pearls and gold cording.

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Lilies

Did another couple of hours on the lily petals last night. Onto the last colour thread. So I should have them done tonight. I don't know how much I will get done tommorrow, going to see the last Matrix movie. I think they are OK but not that into them but I can't let Adam go all by himself. It is Friday. Friday is good.

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Book Review: "Here By Wyverns: Hundreds of Patterns Graphed from Medieval Sources" by Nancy Spies

While this book is aimed at people interested in historical patterns, it would also be enjoyed by anyone with a love for fantasy, animals or border designs. All the patterns in the book have been converted to cross stitch graphs. The graphs are in black and white and very easy to read.

The book itself is divided into several chapters:

• Imaginary Creatures - dragons, basilisks, harpy, drollery, pheonix, wyvern etc
  
• Animals - bunnies, badger, hedgehog, bear, butterfly, snail, fox, lion, bull etc
  
• Water Creatures - fish, seahorse, mermaid, merman etc
  
• Architecture - castles, towers, tent, cathederal etc
  
• Birds - peacock, generic birds, eagle, goose, owl, pelican etc
  
• People - man on horse, marching men, guard, saints, knights, groups, musicians etc
  
• Lettering - Gothic Textura Quadrata, futhark, Irish Half Unical etc
  
• Overall Designs - geometric patterns, florals, trees, birds, hearts, stars etc
  
• Borders - divided into several sub chapters by period (6th-11thC, 12thC, 13th-14thC, 15th-16thC) repeating geometric, animals, hearts etc
  
• Odds and Ends - large single patterns, block motifs, keys, knots, boats, celestial etc

The book gives a good range of difficulty in the patterns, there are very simple borders that could be completed quickly by a beginner to much more complicated pictorial and border designs that would challenge the more experienced cross stitcher. Also, many of the patterns, particularly the borders, could also be used for tablet weaving, knitting, patchwork, beading or needlepoint.

The book is 192 pages long, with four pages of colour plates showing some of the designs stitched up (something from just about each category is represented in this section). The book is spiral bound.

While there is no complete acknowlegements section to find where each pattern was sourced from, the orginal type of source (stained glass, embroidery, goldwork, carving), date and rough location is given so that most can be related to the original piece with a bit of research.

Also, think about visiting the website (click on cover above) there are several pages from the book to look at.

Why I Bought the Book

I am always interested in books that have patterns based on historical work. I liked this one cause it had some simple little motifs that I could use for quick projects and also more indepth patterns, such as the borders that I could use as a basis for decorating cloths (in my case, I would convert the designs back to free form embroidery, which in most cases is more appropriate for clothing).

Details:

• "Here by Wyverns: Hundreds of Patterns Graphed from Medieval Sources" by Nancy Spies
  
• Softcover: 192 pages including 4 colour plates
  
• Publisher: Arelate Studio (2002)
  
• ISBN: 0-9718960-0-3

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The Struggle Continues

Did an hour or so last night on the wedding album cover, more green on the petals. I should get it finished off tonight with a bit of luck. Got the homespun to support the silk ground. So I can start tacking on the felt padding for the flowers.

I have managed to talk Adam into letting me make him a nice tunic for his infrequent visits to SCA events. His first tunic was a 5 minute job, not pretty. I got him some nice taupe linen, which I plan to embroider a key hole neck for him. And some nice matching trim on the cuffs. I am thinking of putting in a false undersleeve. Due to his colouring and the Australian sun, he needs long sleeve, but he wants a layered, two tone look like one of the characters in the RPG he plays! So I am thinking of putting in false olive undersleeves, which will also be given embroidered trim.

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Um, Let Me Rephrase That....

Firstly, Su please don't think I was having a go at you. I wasn't, but if it came out like that I'm sorry!

I will skip RANT mode today and try and adopt considered, calm putting forward of opinion instead (just for a change!). What I was trying to get across was that so often I hear non-stitchers and stitchers themselves saying "Its JUST needlework or cross stitch or tapestry or whatever". What I wanted to say was that is still art. And its still craft. And that just about everything that is created by people is always a bit of both and neither one is better than the other.

There are people who are great technicians (either artist or craftsman) but does there work touch you? That is what makes art, not whether it was done by a brush or with a needle. Paint on a canvas or thread on fabric can be either pedestrian or transformative, depending not on the medium but on the work as a whole and how it affects the people who see it or touch it or hear it or smell it.

Personally, I'm in two minds about how I consider my work. For the most part its original designs based on period examples, so there is a certain creativity in it that would put it in the art side but then alot of the production is following the pattern which I consider just good craftspersonship. But then good art usually involves excellent technical skills which is just another way of saying craftsmanship!

So do people just call it art so they can charge more??

Stacey, as far as cross-stitching goes, I don't do alot of it mainly because I'm not very good at counting and following instructions and its harder to cover up mistakes!!

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