An Insertion Stitch Pouch

Well, I have finished off a UFO!

It's been going a few years, not sure how many, as I forgot to take note when I started it. It could be about six or seven years ago now.

The piece was inspired by the work of Effie Mitrofanis, one of the tutors at The Embroiderer's Guild NSW. One of the girls in my creative stitching group Stitcher's Plus, had done a workshop with Effie and her finished piece was wonderful, so bright and colourful.

So when I went home, I pulled out some scrap dress linen I had, cut some strips , and hemmed them. This part of the project took forever, I hemmed the strips in amongst doing other things.

Once I had a few strips done I started looking at insertion stitches. I found some in books, and some on-line. I had some calico based needle lace graph strips already made and covered in contact. I used these to make sure my strips of linen were even widths apart, and started on the insertion stitches. Another part of the project that took me forever because I was doing other things.

When I had the strips all joined together, the piece looked plain, so I decided to add some decorative stitching to the strips. Some have drawn thread channels with needle-weaving, some have some black-work type designs. It gave some more dimension to the piece.

Last Thursday I was feeling down, and looked at my UFO pile and decided I needed to finish some. I pulled out these strips, and one other project that needed finishing. Both projects  required  things doing that needed ironing, and I had packed the ironing board away for another reason, and wanted it left that way for another day. Oh well, tomorrow was another day.I did manage to find some lining fabric ready and a zipper from my stash. So Friday afternoon I pulled out my strips, added some lining and a zipper, and now I have a new little work pouch.

Watch this space for another one to be finished soon.

A Doily Bag

Over fifteen years ago I  was given a pile of un-worked stamped doilies by one of my students. Would I ever work them? Certainly not all of them. So I went through them all, kept the ones that I liked, and gave the others away.

At the time I needed a holiday project, so I picked one, chose some colours that I liked and started embroidering. I finished the stitching, then the piece sat there for many years, hidden in my UFO cupboard until I found it in a clean up at the beginning of this year. All it needed was a crochet edge to be finished!

I have lots of crochet thread in my stash, so I picked out a colour, and finished it off in a few days. Now what to do with it? Did I need another doily? Certainly not! Then I had this brilliant idea to decorate the side of a bag. So I rummaged through my fabric stash, found some scraps in similar colours, cut strips, joined them together, appliqued the doily to it, quilted it, them turned it into a bag.

It's a little smaller than I would have liked, but it will come in handy for my knitting, or taking books to and from the library. Wherever I use it, it will show off my creativity and some of my skills, embroidery, lace making, and sewing.

A Doily - UFO Number Three

UFO number three for the year!

This doily was given to me, along with quite a few others, about 12 years ago. All of them were un- worked, and were given to me by a student who had them given to her. At the time I just said thank you, and waited until I got home to have a good look. Mmm......... there were lots of them! Was I ever going to work them? Probably not, but I couldn't part with them. So I went through them, picked out the ones I really liked, and passed the others on.

This one is the first and only one I have worked. I worked it quite some years ago, it was my holiday project for a few years as I remember. According to the directions, it was supposed to be worked in yellows and oranges, but anyone who knows me knows that I like cool colours. So, I changed the colours to what I wanted. I finished the stitching, then promptly put it away to be finished later.

Last week I started to clean out my sewing cupboard. I must admit I didn't get very far, but I did throw some things out, redirected some things in other directions, and found not one, but many UFO's. Four of them managed to stay in daylight, one of which was this doily. All that need doing was to work the edge. So I went through my stash of threads, found two balls of donated 20 crochet cotton still in their plastic covers, cut the excess fabric off, and crocheted the edge according to the pattern.

So, my first doily in nearly fifty years has been finished. It's on beautiful linen, and very usable as it is. I tend not to use doilies very often, so this one is going to get put to another use. So come back soon to see what it turns into.

A Little Trinket Pouch

This little pouch started life in my creative stitching group Stitchers Plus. it was supposed to be a fun little fifteen minute design exercise. Well, it was fun, but took way more than fifteen minutes to work.

We just had to bring fabric and threads on the day, then we were all handed two words and two stitches to start us off. I got 'square', 'positive', buttonhole stitch and lazy daisy stitch. I had no idea where to begin so just started stitching.

The little piece got put away until about a week ago. I was meeting two of the girls from this group for lunch and wanted to take some stitching. So I pulled this project out and thought I would deal with what to do with it on the day. I had not touched it in four months.

I added some more stitches, and debated what to turn it into. A needle case crossed my mind, so did an envelope pouch. I wasn't fussed with the design turned the other way for an envelope pouch, and felt it was too big for a needle case, so decided a little drawstring trinket pouch would do.

There was barely enough fabric to turn a hem, let alone make a casing for a drawstring. So I hemmed the piece I had, then joined and hemmed another strip and decided to work a ladder insertion to act as a casing. I wasn't sure if this idea would work, but it did, beautifully.

So another UFO has bitten the dust, and I have a little thread pouch to use instead of a plastic sandwich bag.

A Little Needle Roll

Nearly a week ago now I spent the day with my creative stitching group Stitchers Plus. They are such a fun group of people and very, very creative. This year we have decided to each take a day and present a little challenge to the group. This little needle roll is the result of one of those challenges.

The challenge was set by Annette. We were each given a little kit that contained the basic makings of this little needle roll. Included were two needles already threaded with fuseble thread, and a blindfold. Yes,  a blindfold!  We had to stitch with the thread provided with the blindfold on! Now that certainly was a first,  a fun and very interesting exercise! Below was the result of my stitching by feel only. Later I added some more to fill in the gaps.

Then came some fun with the iron. We had a few different foiling sheets to choose from, and I actually used two different colours on my sample which produced an interesting result.

That was as much as I got done on this piece on the day, but when I came home I picked out some threads from my stash and started to stitch.. I added feather stitches, french knots and woven wheels.

The kit also included some Dr's flannel stitched onto a ribbon, which I then stitched onto the back of my decorated piece. 

I also added a handmade toggle and twisted cord for closure.

Such a fun day,  with a very creative little needle roll as an end result.

Just a Little More Crazy

I am still going crazy.

There have been more of these crazy patchwork blocks to stitch & it has been an interesting exercise.

Not only is it brushing up on my surface stitching skills, (I prefer counted work)

 

my brain has had a little wok-out as well.

 

I know there are no rules to crazy patchwork, but when I  do it I like to work in some kind of order. Usually I put in some plain fabrics combined with the prints, I find it helps give the eye a rest.

 

Some of these blocks have got no plain fabrics, or in the case of the one above, only one tiny piece.

 

Then there were the seams, of which in some cases there were lots.

 

That meant there was lots of stitching needed to blur the seam lines. So instead I chose to use my stitching to cover large spaces quickly, add some focal points, accentuate colour, accentuate prints, create contrast, and somehow blur all those prints together. I think I did OK, and I am sure once they are all joined together the finished quilt will look fabulous.

It has been fun, but now I want to get back to my knitting and my beloved counted thread work.

Going a Little Crazy

I have been going a little crazy lately, crazy patch-working that is.

My local sewing group are having fun with some donated fabric scraps, and one lady has been busy pieceing all the small pieces together into some crazy pieced blocks. There are lots of them, so that means lots of hand stitching to decorate. Many of us are lending a hand, including myself.

Last week I got handed a pile, not sure how many, maybe about ten, so I have been busy stitching.

It's been a bit of fun really, letting the piece talk to me to tell me colour choice & stitch pattern.

It is amazing how some pieces talk to you & some don't, then all of a sudden they shout at me to use a certain colour. Some even get put away until they are ready to talk to me.

I have done four so far, with a little help from M------- in my sewing group( who pieced them all together & started stitching one some), and also my friend Robyn J who did some of the gorgeous stitching in the second piece above.

It has given me a break from my knitting & my huge sampler that I am working on, but they are both starting to call to me too, as is my sewing machine. Ahhhh..................so many choices, so little time!

Intermediate Retrospective Pt 3

One exercise that we did during our course was with collage. I made two collages, one from leaves & bark, the other from papers. It was the paper one I used as a base to to create this design.

There was lots of tracing & view finding involved before I even got to the design below, then lots of applique & stitching to get to the final product. I was really happy with this one, & had plans of framing it to hang on the wall, but that never happened. It might though one day, because even after all this time, I still quite like this piece.

Intermediate Retrospective Pt 2

This is a copy of a tracing from another still life that I did from early on in the Intermediate Certificate Course. It was this tracing that was the basis of a number of other designs. We learnt three different ways to take a sketch & turn it into a design, one of which was the age-old window view method.

If you look closely at the sketch above, you will find the shell that inspired this "One Stitch" exercise. We were only allowed to use one stitch in the whole piece to stitch with.

Intermediate Retrospective Pt1

For some time now I have been having some correspondence with Linda, the most recent of which has been about our stitching experience & how we learnt our craft. Part of my experience has been through the Embroiderer's Guild here in Sydney, where I have participated in a few courses & classes over the years.

About 12 years ago I enrolled in their Intermediate Certificate, and as this was long before my blogging days I thought I would show some of the work that I did back then.

I'll never forget that first day. On our equipment list was drawing materials, no fabric, no thread. That alone was scary, let alone the still life that was set up in the middle of the room for us to draw. It was very cleverly done, boxes at different levels, covered with a multi coloured cloth. Then on top of each level sat something, a pot, a vase, a book, etc etc. It was done so that no matter where one sat around the table there was something to look at & draw. Guess what we did that first lesson.

Our homework was to go home & draw. We were supposed to draw for at least an hour every day. We were to set up our own still life, draw it, then interpret it into stitches.

Below is the drawing that I did, very faint so I do apologise. But the pic at the top is my stitch interpretation of the sketch below.
That is something that I still find hard, trying to find stitches that work for a particular design in surface stitchery.

Fun & Frivolity

Last Saturday was the monthly meeting of my creative stitching group. It was a coolish, very wet day( it absolutely poured!) so what better way to spend it than stitching with friends.

Part of the day was spent study a particular embroidered piece, in particular how the stitcher had used her stitches to effect. So the afternoon was spent playing with stitches on a doodle cloth. As it happened, my doodle cloth was a piece of scrap linen left over from something, and my stitch play has turned into this bookmark.

Anyone interested can read about the remainder of the day here.

A Drawn Thread Challenge

Ive been playing with some more drawn thread work. This is just a snippet of a current piece. It started as a personal holiday challenge and is growing slowly. As I was packing to go away last December, I found the bag with this piece of hand dyed linen & threads inside so threw it into my sewing tin as well. The challenge to myself was to see what I could create with no reference books. So it is another work in progress, and now that I am back home with access to my own library, as well as others, it will be interesting to see how this piece grows. It has already taken on a life of it's own.

W.I.P Number 42 - Finished

Over the last few weeks my W.I.P. spreadsheet list has grown some & reduced some. After finding a few WIPs in odd places, the list got to be at 42, but has gone back to 41 with the finishing of this bookmark. I started this a number of years ago for a bookmark swap with one of my on-line groups. The bookmarks required at the time were all finished & sent, & this piece of fabric was left over, waiting for me to do another one. I pulled it out of my stash before Christmas, thinking I could do a quick present for someone, but that never eventuated, & the fabric stayed at the bottom of my sewing tin, until the last few days.

The fabric is one I created myself, sandwiching threads & paper between homespun & organza. I then surface stitched over the top with chain stitch & woven wheels, finished the edges with machine satin stitch, and decorated the bottom with a tassel of the same thread.

Mmmmm................. maybe I have started my Christmas present making for 2009 very early.

Just some more fill in type stitching today. This is the beginnings of a little bag I started with one of my classes. The idea was to strip some scraps of fabric together & then add stitching. We would open a stitch book at any page, & take the stitch from that page & play with it. The idea was to extend my student's knowledge of stitches & see how creative they could be. I have had enough of stitching on this & now need to make it up. Just something else that my sewing machine is waiting to do. When it is finished I hope to use it as a thread bag, as lately my project threads are all over the place, unwinding themselves into messes. So I thought this might help to keep them tidy.

Mixed Threads - An Exhibition

This my good friend Robyn Johnstone with her two works hanging at the gallery. She is another very talented artist & stitcher & in the two works that you can see here she has first painted, then combined surface stitchery with cut work & drawn thread work. Just yummo. Bug hugs Miss Robyn.

Fabric Bowl

On one of my on-line groups someone has been asking about hand made free standing bowls. This is one that I made about four years ago. Mine is made from fabric & uses embroidery, beading & crochet motifs as decoration. It was made as a "Circular Shades of Black & White Plus One" challenge with the Stitchers Plus Stitchers group that I belong to. Any type of bowl will need some kind of support for it to keep it's shape. This one uses plastic, but a lace one would require something else.

Exhibition Pieces

Just over a week ago our local stitching group held an exhibition. We only hold it once every 5 years which gives us time to produce enough work to put on a great display. For anyone who ventured into the hall there was certainly a feast for the eyes. Everything from Hardanger, Pulled work, Drawn work, Ukranian witework, Needlelace, Tatting, Canvas work, Wool embroidery, Smocking, Goldwork, Patchwork quilts & much much more.

There are over 40 members of our little group who meet twice a month and produce some beautiful work.

Below are the pieces that I had on display.

This is one of the first pieces of Drawn thread that I ever did. It now hangs proudly on my dining room wall.

This is a piece of Myreschka that we did in a class. It is a form of Russion Drawn Thread & is worked totally different to the pink piece above.

This is a surface stiched piece of ticking that I turned into a workbag. It was an exercize that my friend R & I worked out for our YTFG group when we were running it. We wanted the children to practice their stitches. Their bags were a bit smaller than this.

This is atissue box cover that was also made in a class. The class was to explore chain stitch, but I managed to squeeze a few more stitches in for effect.

This beautiful lady is a pin cushion. I first saw her in a magazine & just had to make one. So the search began for my china half doll. I needed her first as that would tell me what her skirt would be. Not sure that I will ever use her as a pin cushion, she is too much a lady to stich pins in.

This is a piece of Casalguidi. Another piece worked in a class that I really enjoyed.