Crochet Time

I have been asked to teach a young girl how to crochet. So I gave her her first lesson last week, beginning with chain stitch, and practicing handling the hook & pulling the loops through. G progressed quite quickly and was making double crochets, trebles, double trebles & slip stitches by the end of our time together. G wants to make hearts, so my brain started ticking over how to create the shape. I suggested that she look on the net for patterns before our next session. I had a look myself, and there are heaps of patterns out there, all different. So I picked one & tried to sort out the pattern. Of course, it was written by an American, therefore I had to substitute stitches for it to make sense. At the end, the pattern was what I had in mind anyway. The finished heart was supposed to be decorated with a flower, flowers that my Mum used to crochet nearly every day. So these little flowers are not new to me, they are in heaps of old crochet books of my Mum's, all of which I still have. I think I can do much better than this thread though. I'll have to go on a seach in my stash to look for something better.

More Drawn Thread Fillers

I've finished another two of my drawn thread fillers. The first two can be found here. This one is a variation of the pink one from before, hoping I have made it a little stronger. The second one is something on the slightly creative side to find out how things would look if I changed the numbers of the threads that I cut. Mmmmm............. possibilities are going through my brain. All four designs are still not cut from fabric. They are all waiting patiently to be made into something.

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.

This Morning's Post

Look what arrived in this morning's post. I have been participating in a counted thread band round robin and Mandy's sampler has found it's way to Australia. It's been over 6 months since I had a sampler to work on, but that is OK as I had plenty of other stitching to keep me busy.

When I first saw this sampler here, I thought I might do some balckwork, but now I am not sure, that might be a bit heavy. I am also not sure on colour either, as there is such a mix already. The sampler will just have to live on my design wall for a while until something talks to me . All the samplers can be viewed here.

W.I.P Number 32 - A Challenge

I have been adding to my W.I.P spreadsheet, which is now up to 41 with finding more hiding away in odd corners. So I decided I needed to work on something from this list to give me space in my cupboard. When I opened the door, this piece slid out onto the floor. Do you think it might be trying to tell me something? So I have listened, and decided that this piece will the first piece to be "finished".

OK, so what is it you all ask. Well, some years back, the Stitchers Plus group that I belong to, had a few meetings playing with creating different backgrounds. This is just one sample from those plays. It is a piece of muslin that has been painted with Gesso, scrunched into a shape, then painted with colour. I had to do some thinking of what to now do with the piece. Mmm...... maybe a post card, maybe a box top, & then I thought that maybe I could cut it up & make it into a number of brooches. Any other ideas out there? Just another challenge for me to work out.

Calendar Piece - "Past Horizons"

Over the last 12 months, my creative stitching group, "Stitchers Plus" , has been working hard to produce a calendar to celebrate our 10th birthday. As it is has now officially been published, and many are now hanging on walls around the world, I thought I would show my contribution.

The piece is called "Past Horizons", and is worked using my own hand dyed fabrics & threads. It was rather a challenge to produce, as the fabric was a dressmaking linen, not an even weave linen. I noticed this as soon as I started counting, and noticed that one side of counting was longer than the other. This got me thinking that it was going to elongate my design too much. So ? What did that matter? It was after all a creative piece. As soon as I started to cut & remove threads, the weft threads started to stretch, another problem that had to be solved, otherwise all my wrapping & needleweaving would be wobbly.

The design is original & has been interpreted from a sketch that I did some years ago of a beach, headland & surf club.

To check out all the calendar, visit here .

WIPs, UFO's & Stash Sorting

It is that time of year when I take stock of everything that I have done over the last 12 months, review what I have finished & what is still left to do. Ten years ago, after completing the Intermediate Certificate with the Embroiderer's Guild here in Sydney, I started a little book of all my new projects that I started. As I worked on each one, I would make notes in my book, including what my thoughts were, where I was headed, & what I still had to do. Over time this little book became very disjointed and bits of all my projects were all mixed up together. Last year I decided to tidy up my method & put everything on a huge spreadsheet, with each project having it's own worksheet. Much more organised!

Two days ago I decided it was time to add a new page of all my UFO's. These were all listed in a word file ( after sorting out a cupboard some years ago), & I thought I could cut & paste everything from this word file to my spreadsheet. Somewhere along the line, after much setting up of new worksheets, cutting & pasting, I forgot to save my file. OOPS! As you can imagine I was "Not Happy Jan" and uttered a few choice words. ( I blame lack of sleep from New Year!)

So yesterday I spent the day sorting through one of my sewing cupboards, the one with all the UFO's stashed away & hiding out of sight. As I sorted, I made up my new UFO worksheet & carefully saved it after each entry. So now my spreadsheet reads like this:-

Page 1. Fabric stash - all 37 pieces of dressmaking fabric (with more still to be listed)

Page 2. UFO's & WIP's pre 2008 - all 34 of them ( and still more hiding in other places)

Page 3. 2008 worklist summary with 9 projects still outstanding & not finished

Page 4. A finished items list with markings for pieces for exhibitions

Page 5. 2009 work list summary ( so far this page is empty)

The pages continue with each individual project having it's own page of work notes. It makes everything easy to find. Sometime in the future I may add a page of threads.

Today it is the turn of the magazines. Not sure what I will do with those yet, they are taking up too much space in my cupboard so something needs to be done.

Drawn Thread Fillers

At my local lace group some months back, one of our members asked me if I could teach her how to do "that". "That" being a corner in a beautiful drawn thread tablecloth, pictured in a magazine that someone had brought for show & tell. No, not the whole piece, just the corner, as a brooch. Of couse I could. So with some thinking, we organized what had to be brought for the following meeting so that we could make a start. Come the next meeting, both of us forgot things, and of course we did not have the magazine anymore, so I rummaged in my bag & found pencil & graph paper & quickly sketched up a design. There were scraps of fabric in my bag, as was some thread, so we went to work. So the above little square is the result, really too big to be a brooch, but that really depends on taste. It is yet to be cut from fabric, & I think it will still become a brooch or bag clip or some such item. As far as a design for a corner, it really is not strong enough to be a corner design in a table cloth. Worked on even weave linen with my own hand dyed threads.

I did have plans for doing three of these little squares, all in differnt colours, but by the time I did the pink one, I wanted a different design. The problem that I had was that the border stitching had already been done on the others, so I was left with a limited space with wich to work. So I just filled in the spaces with laid threads, coral knots & woven wheels. I quite like the effect, and feel it could be a very interesting filler on something.

The third colour is yet to be worked. The ouside border is done but I have to think of something to put on the inside yet. That's tonight's plan.

2009 Challenge Update

Yesterday I sat down & set myself my 2009 challenges. Guzzisue has already been reading them & has handed me another challenge, well not really another one, but something to spur me on with my bobbin lace. It has been suggested that we work through the book together. How cool is that? Having someone to spur me on & help me achieve my aims, even across oceans. I have until March I think to get my current piece off my pillow & practice my basic stitches again, before delving into the book. So guess what I am working on, in between everything else.

Blog Award

Over in my side bar I have a list of blogs that I visit every day to see what people have been up to. This morning I noticed over on Carol's blog that I had been given this award. So big thanks go out. I feel really chuffed at recieving it, so to continue the spirit, here are the five people that I would like to pass this award on to.

1. Guzzisue
2. Marg B
3.Textile Dreamer
4. Margaret
5. Adriana

2009 Challenges

Each year at this time of year I like to set myself some new challenges for the following year. Sometimes I achieve them & sometimes I don't, but at least it gives me something to aim for. Usually I give myself too many challenges & that would be the main reason why I do not achieve what I set out to do. The list that I set myself for this year was a perfect example of that, way too many large projects. So my list for 2009 reads like this.

1. One quilt. This is left over from this year. It was supposed to a present for a family member who was celebrating a special birthday. Needless to say the birthday has been & gone & all I have done is purchased & washed fabric. I have promised it by November 2009.

2. A piece of reticella, which is also another challenge left over from this year. I've started to have a look at this already, but the fabric that I have chosen to work the piece is different than I used for my failed attempt earlier this year. So consequently I have had to do more samples to make sure that the fabric/thread combination will work, as this fabric is a higher thread count than before.

3. To start learning Bedfordshire Lace. This is a form of bobbin lace that just makes my toes curl. I have the book pictured above, which seems to take the learner from the beginning. To achieve this, I will have to finish the piece that I currently have on my pillow, or aquire a new pillow from somewhere. I will also have to go back & revise all the Torchon techniques that I have previously done so as to refresh my memory on how to work some of the stitches. Note, the operative word in this challenge is to "Start" learning.

OK, so I have only given myself three challenges for 2009. Personally I think that is enough, considering I did not get though all that I set myself for this year. I do tend to overdo it occasionally. So that is why I have steered myself away from signing up for the Stitch Explorer challenge that Sharon B has going. I will follow this one with interest & may even participate in my own way. We shall see. There is also the fact that I really want to explore pulled work. I have in mind to do a sampler of stitches, but this might be just one of those things that continue from year to year. It may even get to be started in 2009. Just another "We shall see".

So watch this space to see if I achieve all the challenges that I have set for myself for 2009.

A Treasure Found

I just had to share this gorgeous piece of work with you all. Recently I have been away, and as I always do, I went looking through antique & bric-a-brack stores. I never know just what I might find. I just love to go through the piles of doileys that these shops seem to have, & on one particular day I could not believe my luck to find this for a bargain. It is all buttonhole stitch & wrapping in what I believe to be the Aemilia Arys style. Just beautiful! I have no idea as to the origins of this piece, or who has made it, but it is now mine & I will treasure it while ever I walk this earth. I take it that some very talented lady has passed on, & her family have been left to sort through her things. Such a shame that they have not appreciated the time & effort that has gone into making this piece. I am such a lucky little vegimite!

A Treasured Gift

It certainly has been a while since I have posted anything here. It's not that I haven't been stitching, because as you all know I stitch just about every day. I have just been busy with real life stuff and playing with my garden.

So today I thought I would share with you all a little gift that I recieved from a very good friend. It's a thimble holder, beautifully crocheted in my favourite colour, ready to hang on my scissors so I will be able to find my thinble at all times. This has come just at the right time. With the little project that I am working on now, I am reaching for my thimble all the time, and it is constantly getting lost in amongst all the other stuff in my sewing tin. A gift to be treasured for a very long time.

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.

More Patchwork

Just another "flower" block today. I figured out that I would need at least 50 of these if I want to make a quilt. M......, is that what I want? Not sure. I have plenty of scraps of fabric that I can use to make all these blocks, but I think I would get very bored very quickly. If it is going to be a quilt, then it is going to be a very long time happening. This is only the fourth one I have done. I need to re-think that one.

I am really only filling in time whith this patchwork while I get my next major project underway. I want to do another piece of Reticella, but the fabric I have chosen is different to what I have used before, it is much finer. So all the counting & graphing that I have done has to be re-done to fit the fabric, otherwise my spaces will not be large enough to fit the fillings in that I have chosen. I am in the middle of experimenting, but the piece of linen is patiently waiting for some fabric strips to be atached so it can be put in a hoop. Just something else to add to the "must do" list.

Time Out

What a year! I'm saying this now & it is only October? Well................................................................

One of my challenges for this year was a wedding. Yes, a wedding. That means one wedding gown and three bridesmaid's dresses, all patternmade & made by Your's Truely. Well, challenge it certainly has been, in more ways than one. Today, though, I officially class it as "challenge complete"! The bridesmaids dresses are all packaged & have left the house. The wedding gown is all packaged & ready to be collected by a courier to go 300miles up the coast to be professionally pressed, ready for the big day. Photos ? Maybe later, the groom may be reading.

At this point I would personally like to thank my friends Robyn & Christine for being at the other end of the phone when I got stuck, & needed both technical advice & moral support. Without them this dress would not be at the point that it is today.

That said, what am I to do with myself now? I am not sure. I have so many things that I want to do I just cannot make up my mind. I do still need to stitch though, and lately it has been some mind numbing English Patchwork. The piece above will be added to my collection of "Grandmother's Flower Garden", and may one day be made into a quilt.

A New Book

Look what I acquired! I am so excited! I have wanted to do some Teneriffe lace for some time , and even borrowed this same book from the Embroiderer's Guild library. The library book has been sitting on my coffee table, just looking at me waiting for me to start, but I have other more pressing matters at the moment. The book also has to be back at the library in a week. Then yesterday I attended my local lace group and one of the ladies had just come back from overseas with two copies of this book that she was hoping to sell. One was instantly mine, brand new, at a bargain price. So now it can reside on my coffee table, taunting me to start, and the other copy can go back to the library for someone else to enjoy.

Needle Lace Autumn Leaf

On one of my on-line groups someone commented about the use of colour in needle lace and that they would not like to see a piece in more than one colour. So I just thought I would dig out my needleace leaf that I did years ago in a workshop with Margaret Stevens, a tutor with the Australian Lace Guild.

This little leaf uses about five different colours, including a variagated one, and personally I think it looks fine. To me, the use of colour, and more than one colour, in the same needle-lace piece, just depends on the end use of the piece. Just my take one the subject.

Just A Snippet

At the end of last year, the Stitcher's Plus group that I belong to decided on a major project to celebrate our group's 10th birthday. I have been madly stitching trying to get my section ready on time. Two nights ago I finished all the stitching & now have some final decisions to make with the piece. The little piece above began here & is just a tase of what my section will be like. Yes, you will all have to wait some more to see the final product. What do they say? Patience is a virtue?

Just filling In

Anyone who knows me knows that I have to stitch every day. If I don't, there is something seriously wrong. I am at the point now where I really need to plan my next serious stitching, because I am just filling in with fiddly things. I am on the down hill run with all the wedding sewing, with just hems & fiddly bits to do, the stitching on my Stitcher's Plus Challenge (which started here) is finished, my wrap for the wedding is finished, & I am looking for something to stitch in front of "the box" at night. So last night I pulled out a stitch challenge I gave to one of my classes some time back, and stitched this eyelet. Well, I stitched a few of them, and really want to stich more. The piece really needs some more fabric strips sewn to it before I can do too much more. Mmmmmm.................. maybe that is something to put on my "to do" list. Now I just need to find something to stitch tonight.