Made at the eleventh hour last night in order of today.
Not quite at the eleventh hour but more like the Cinderella hour when the eyes were tired. The central crochet ring should have been smaller, but you get the idea. Perhaps if I had used wool instead of embroidery cotton…. well, I might have been able to see what I was at! Not all ideas work out perfectly.
Now if ever shamrock needed drowning this is it!
In the meantime….
Buttons are fun to make.
I have over the years covered buttons with fabric to match or add contrast to an outfit.
The buttons today were more fun to try.
D rings, bone rings, a key ring and some preformed clear plastic button shapes produced especially for decorating and my favourite large wooden beads,
On the left is a preformed button shape worked in a random rainbow thread. I worked the edge in close buttonhole stitch and the central bars were finished with the spiders web stitch we saw a couple of weeks ago. (I have not given up on the spider’s web… yet! It will appear one of these weeks.)
For the button on the right I used a ring for holding keys. It gave a stronger heavier frame - suitable for making a brooch. Again, I worked the outer ring in close buttonhole stitch and then added long stitches across the diameter to form the stems. On top I used exaggerated (read untidy) French Knots and bullion stitch before finally finishing with a bow made from several strands of embroidery cotton. A small brooch pin at the back, would give it a second life!
The wooden beads were fun to try.
Working with a bodkin I brought the thread through the centre of the bead and than worked in crochet form around the bead. The acorn I only worked part the way up and the rainbow coloured one I continued all the way!
My early efforts at needlework were mainly for a doll.
A christening dress, a few nighties, A duvet cover with full size clown appliquéd on it and a lampshade to match made to look like a hot-air Balloon complete with a little basket and from it hanging upside down by a foot dangled a small clown. Alas the pictures are committed to memory and not to photography of any type. I wonder if Elly still remembers them?
Then a friend brought me a gift from the Lake District. She was apologetic that the gift was so small. It was about 3″ X 3″ in a little gift bag. Little did she know how that three inch square would open up a whole world for me.
The gift was a small cross stitch kit complete with a picture, diagram, fabric, threads and a needle. The fabric was blank! Now I knew why it was referred to as counted cross stitch! I would have to count every stitch.
I did!
E for Elly
For an idea of the size of the finished work, that frame is 9″ X 7″. The nerves I felt when starting out soon evaporated and I relaxed into moving from row to row. From that day on I found cross stitch work very relaxing. At one time I used the technique to record a Family tree covering six or seven generations. I worked out the design on large drawing office sized graph paper.
This Bell pull I worked from a Danish Kit back in 1984/5. I saw a friend working on it and she told me that there were more than enough threads left over to make another bell pull, so she passed them on to me. I had a piece of fine even weave and some lining in my work box so my bell pull cost me the price of the brass hanger and pull! It hangs close to my well used fireside.
Over the years I have removed the brass bits, the stiffening and the lining before hand washing it carefully and rinsing well. I lay it on a towel to dry and press with a medium iron on the back of the work before assembling it again.
A closer look at some of the birds:
Another
And a third
If you have not tried cross stitch before I suggest you start with a kit.
I found this partly worked piece in a box the other day. To begin with I made one big error! I folded the fabric years ago instead of rolling it. I was trying to keep the pattern, fabric and threads in a plastic pocket. Not good! I have slapped my own wrist for that error.
You will notice I bound the fabric with masking tape, this prevents the edges from fraying and peels away easily when the work is complete.
The pattern is shown on squared paper and a colour guide with a thread colour guide below. Stranded thread is normally used and once a length is cut separate the strands even if two or more are required, this prevents twisting, knotting and an uneven look to the work. Never use threads longer than from your your wrist to your elbow. With each pull through the fabric you are wearing it a little and eventually the thread will break.
It may sound complicated but I guarantee once started you will be hooked.
Enjoy!
BLACKWORK is usually described as counted thread stitching worked in black thread on a white or natural background of evenweave fabric. Part of the fascination of blackwotk is forming repeating patterns with varying density. Before beginning any stitching it is a good idea to sketch out various patterns on graph paper filling some of them in. You might prefer to have greater density of stitches at the bottom, in the middle or around the edges of an area of pattern.
Inspiration for blackwork design can be found in tiles, wrought iron gates and railings, old manuscripts and even from nature such as winter bare branches or skeletal leaves.
For my sample below I used newsprint cut in diamond shapes and the density of the print dictated the stitches used for each section.
Oops! Wrong side that is the back! 
Now the experts will tell you that I don’t have the balance right in this piece, but it will give you an idea of the effect and the stitches used.
The main stitches used in counted thread blackwork are:
Whenever possible, try to bring the thread from the back to the front of the work through an empty or unstitched hole of fabric and down through a filled one that has already been worked. This should prevent the embroidery threads splitting which tends to result in messy definition between one stitch and another. A blunt tapestry needle is best and the work can be worked in an embroidery ring or hand held.
Total excuse for a post today.
My glasses had a fall and I need to have them looked at so am unable to type for more than a minute or two.
I made this flower way back.
The stem was a wax drinking straw with the bendy part close to the flower was covered in felt. The yellow centre of the flower was fabric paint.
Now off to sort out my eyes!
The smocked dress
Right, hands up all who remember or wore a smocked dress or romper suit. I know I certainly did, although the only photo I can find today was taken sixty years ago.
Originally derived from the Saxon tunic the smock comprised two rectangles joined at the shoulders and the sides, with two smaller rectangles folded lengthwise and joined at the shoulder level to form the sleeves. In Under Greenwood Tree, Thomas Hardy in 1871 described the ’smock-frock’ as ” a long white smock of pillow case cut”.
The smock-frock varied in style according to district, occupation and occasion. It was worn by many rural labourers and tradesmen to protect their everyday clothes, or perhaps to hide their shabbiness, it was the shepherd’s smock that blossomed into a highly decorative style. Annual hiring fairs were the equivalent to the employment exchange or agency of today. It was where a large crowd of workers congregated in anticipation of future work. A clean smock presented the labourer with his best advantage…. he was hired on face value! It was important to him as well as to the employer that his trade could be easily identified by what he wore or carried.
Smocking has evolved over the years and can be worked on almost any fabric, but some fabrics lend themselves to the technique more than others, as they provide a natural grid for the gathering threads. These include ginghams, and spotted and regular striped fabrics, which also give an interesting visual effect when finished.
A sample of smocking on a spotted fabric. These spots were used for gathering the fabric on the reverse side. The gathering rows were evenly spaced to cover the whole area to be worked. Once the required number of rows gathered the threads were slowly and carefully pulled until the fabric formed even ‘reeds’ or ‘tubes’ on the front of the fabric. Then the long threads were tied in place on the back of the work.
Then and only then can the fun begin.
Suggested stitches include:
Finally when the surface stitches are complete and you are satisfied with the overall look, then and only then remove the original gathering threads.
Reverse side of the sample above with gathering threads removed.
Today I am taking this slot in a different direction - right back to the beginning.
Pattern and Design.
Where to start?
Paper and pencils - Set your hand on a piece of paper and draw around it. Yes! Just like a child does at Kindergarten. Already you have a design. Remember no two hands are the same. A series of straight lines thick or thin, or circles overlapping provide ideas. A page of text forms a pattern, how many times have you looked at a printed page and seen an image, not from the meaning of the words but the shape of the words, sentences and paragraphs?
Give a young child some paper and pencils and leave them to play for a few minutes and they will provide plenty of abstract designs with their doodles. Come on, we have all seen similar pieces hanging in Art Galleries and wondered what they are doing there or what they were supposed to be. Time to begin doodling in monochrome or by adding some colour. Hold two pencils together and draw with them as one.
Threads, string or knitting wool - Take a length of any of these and loosely gather it into your hand then drop it from head height onto a piece of paper and it will give an abstract pattern. Soak the string in poster paints or randomly paint along the string and drop on the paper, then cover with another sheet of paper and place a heavy book on top or roll with a rolling pin to help transfer the paint to paper.
Rubberbands - Dropped on paper as suggested with the string. Try this on the scanner or use the digital camera and print out a copy of the photo on paper. Sometimes the shapes and not the lines become important.
Keys - particularly old ones form great patterns. Arrange in repeat form, in a circle or in mirror image.
Kitchen utensils - graters, sieves and cake cooling trays all give pattern
Fruit and vegetables - whole, in segments or cut crossways. I once used a cross section of a savoy cabbage as a design for a brooch.
Natural sponge and seaweed
Driftwood
Feathers
Peeling paint - can give wonderful colouring and layer effects.
Trees and branches - Great for pattern
Leaves - particularly skeletal ones give magical lacy effects.
Back when I was working for the City & Guilds, among the names we looked to for inspiration were Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn. In those days we had to cross the channel to mainland Britain to attend a workshop or hear them talk. Now they have joined forces and the workshops come to us and in the video below we can see how Needle Art has developed in recent years.
If you are hungry for more ideas follow this link to another video by Ele Carpenter, Curator of the Open Source Embroidery Exhibition in San Francisco, California. Now did you ever think of using GPS as a beginning for Needle Art?
Last week Fly stitch was the focus of the piece. It was shaped like a letter Y. Today by adding two further stitches, one at each side of the fly stitch tail it will form the base or spokes of a web. Weave over and or under the spokes until the circle is filled.
Spider web stitch
When this stitch is used in Drawn Thread embroidery, the spokes are not all completely covered by the weaving, only half the circle is filled which gives the filling an open, lacy appearance. For correct interlacing an uneven number of threads or spokes are needed in the foundation row.
A Ribbed Spider’s web has an even number of foundation threads or spokes which are covered with a continuous line of Back stitch, starting at the centre, and continuing round until the desired size is reached.
My sample above shows different sized wheels all using eight spokes, some are uneven in length.
Different effects can be achieved with the many threads available today, from those manufactured specifically for hand embroidery, knitting yarns, those drawn from fabric or sacks right through to raffia, twine and ribbons used for gift and floral ties.
I am running late today so I will give you a sample of using only one stitch.
Fly stitch is the one I have chosen
It looks like a letter Y
Altering the shape other effects can easily be achieved.
Same stitch worked closely on the left and the group on the right giving movement.
Introducing different colour and some exaggerated stitches can change the work completly.
For anyone beginning embroidery a good point of online reference for stitches is this needlework dictionary. Not alone will it show you how a stitch is worked but plenty of variations for each one.
One to be bookmarked, I think!
With all the miserable and cold weather we need a little light relief.
A hat is a necessary item of apparel to keep in the heat. So today I have a hat for you.
This hat has a story to it. I was expecting a guest to stay for a few days. It was a first trip to Northern Ireland and he was teasing me for weeks about being chauffeur driven about for the duration. Plans were made, meals prepared concert tickets booked and time allowed for sight seeing and eating out.
The day of arrival dawned and I was at the appointed airport in good time. The flight arrived and the passengers came through baggage reclaim. My guest was one of the last to reach the concourse. His bag was slow to clear. Once the greetings were out of the way we headed for my car.
Opening the boot/trunk to load the small suitcase, I removed a carrier bag. As the gentleman settled into the the passenger seat, I climbed in behind the steering wheel. Before turning the ignition key I set my chauffeurs hat on my head!
Very professional with a Crest to boot!
Not bad for an hours work.
So how did I do it? The crown was a circle cut with a dinner plate as template on heavy interfacing and an off-cut of black serge,,, nothing but the best for me! :lol: A second circle the same size was used to cut a 3inch band for the under crown strip. I then measured round my small head for the hat band and covered a double layer of the interfacing with fabric. I used some green fabric to line the hat and finished the look with a bought crest that was in my work-box for a couple of years.
The hat is looking a little battered these days something to do with being pushed into the back of a cupboard for the last five years. It served its purpose and proved a conversation piece, now a reminder of a very pleasant few days.
