Reticella Progress

I just thought I would share some of the progress on my latest Reticella piece. There really is not much to share at this point. I am still trying to overcome the re-designing I had to do when I made an itsy bitsy counting error. Well, it wasn't really a counting error, it was more about not thinking a design change through properly, which led to a counting error, then to a huge error in stitching on my fabric. This then led to my Reticella border not fitting in the space. When I discovered the mistake, I made the decision to re-design the piece rather than unpick it. I am still on that re-designing process at this point in time. I have had lots of ideas & stitching friends have given me still more ideas. I have written them all down & will work through them one by one to see what will fit in the space that I have. Then I will make a decision as to what I like the best. I would love it to be a Reticella piece, after all, that was the point of the piece in the first place, but that may not happen. It will depend on my design capabilities. The fact that it is on even weave linen opens the space up to all kinds of counted thread techniques. Watch this space for further reports on my progress.

January TIF Challenge

I finished my January TIF challenge today. It has been half finished for a while, just waiting for a few extra bits & pieces to be added. I think it fits in with the given colour scheme as well as following my thoughts on people I admire.

I started with a purple background that was interfaced well. I then set to looking for letter "R"s" to digitize. In the process I found a symbol which I think must be the one used in the Greek Alphabet for "R". It looked interesting so I digitized it, then set it as a pattern in my digitizing program. I then used it as a fill stitch for a background on my purple fabric in darker green thread. I then digitized a fancy "R", copy & pasted, resized & changed colours until I got something I liked. This was then sent to the machine to be stitched out. It looked like it was missing something so a play in my button, ribbon, & thread stash completed the picture.

A tribute to everyone with the letter "R" in their name.

Tif Challenge

Ok, so this TIF challenge has really got inside my head. Yesterday I started to think about the people who I admire & the list goes like this. It could go on for a while but I figured this would do to start.

My friend Robyn for her ability to pick up a drawing impliment or paint brush & make wonderful marks. Such artistic talent this girl has in all areas of the fine arts.

My friend Sheila for her ability to FME. I sat in awe one day watching her draw irises with machine needle & thread. A prize winner in the quilting world.

An aquaintance Heather who has sooooooooooo much embroidery knowledge & talent. A wiz a filet embroidery. A prize winner in the embroidery world.

Marie Laurie, a teacher in the Embroidery & Lace world. I first become aware of this lady a few years ago at an embroidery exhibition . It was one of her pieces that made me drool & want to take home. Since then I have seen many pieces of her work & they all scream at me to take them home. At our exhibition last year, I was ready to come home, but thought I would have a quick look around the traders tables, not realizing that I had missed a whole table of work by the Fine Needlework Group. Every piece of work that sent me goo-goo-gar-ing was a piece by Marie. I have had the pleasure of meeting her & a number of years ago made this piece of Snutki in one of her workshops. I had admiration for this lady way before I met her.

Then there are the lacemakers of the 15th century. Some of the most amazing pieces of lace work was produced in this time period. I am trying to produce this now with all kinds of aids like electic lights, bi-focal glasses, & a magnifyer. The women of this time had none of these aids & yet their work is so fine & accurate.

OK, so enough of all the stitchers. I started to think about actors, actresses, entertainers, politicians, etc etc. There was Princess Dianna for becomming the people's princess & not just another Royal, Oprah Winfrey for becomming something from nothing & giving all, Rene Zelwigger for being different, the Bronte Sisters for writing classic novels like my favourite "Jane Eyre"

So my thoughts went from a list of names to what do these people all have in common? In my wakefullness last night I realized they all (besides being female) had the letter "R" somewhere in their name. So I have decided to use the letter "R" as the basis of my design. Postcard size and digitized so that I keep the practice up on my embroidery software.

Take it Further Challenge

I swung by Sharon B's today for a look & to check out the challenge for January. I will certainly have some reading to catch up on everything. As for the challenge, we have the choice of using the colour scheme above, or using the concept of people that we admire & look up to. My mind has instantly gone to a few people in my personal life, all stitchers or needleworkers, who I admire for different reasons. I need to write all these names down & see where this will all lead to. As for the colours, I think they are fabulous. Definately in my safe zone.

As for a finished piece, I think it will have to be small, as I have so much other stitching to do this year. Postcards sound good. Actually, that was my idea last year for another monthly challenge which fell by the wayside. I hope I can keep up with this one. OK, off to do some thinking.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to one & all ! A bit late you all say? Well, only a few days. I have only just come back home after a few weeks R & R on the beautiful North Coast of NSW. The weather might have been a bit iffy, but there were a few days on the beach before they were all closed due to tretcherous & dangerous surf, lots of reading, scrabble playing, trivial pursuit playing, dinners & lunches out, sleep-in's till late, catching up with family & friends & watching of fireworks on New Years Eve. There was a fishing day on the edge of the river, not that I was fishing, I left that up to the others. I just enjoyed sitting in the shade with a good book & the river breeze blowing over me. There were shop brousing days, checking out all the local antique & craft stores, & drooling over all the beautiful hand made glass ware that I would love to have brought home.

OK, any textiley stuff? Of course! I did come home with 2 pieces of patchwork fabric which will be the starting point for a new quilt. I have an idea in mind already for what I will do but I need to source some more fabric. I also took some hand stitching away with me. It was the piece that I mentioned here, but unfortunately it did not quite work out the way that I planned. Silly me made a mistake in my counting on my original graph, so consequently my beautiful Reticella border will not fit where it is supposed to. I had gone way too far by the time that I discovered the mistake & would have had way too much unpicking to do to fix it, so I decided that the design would change. The border will hopefully now contain some filet work which is one of my personal challenges for 2008 that I mentioned here. The major Reticella piece will just have to wait a while longer. Oh well, such is life. Lucky I am flexible.

So here I am, 2008, with plenty of challenges happening already. Watch this space to see how they all pan out.