Progress

Progress is being made - the sampler has one more page done & only one to go - one with not as much stitching required as the rest :)

I have completed the corners & done some hemming on my Ukrainian, but I am just going to have to suck it up & mitre the corners myself:

I had a wonderful holiday south, July is the Christchurch Embroiderer's conference, which I am really looking forward to. I'll be learning Punto Antico & then having a few days in Hanmer - only 9 weeks away.

Ukrainian update!

as the days get shorter, I get to spend more time on my Ukrainian Whitework - yah!

finished all the needle weaving along the edges & now the corners, first I have to pull one thread & weave the next one back into the fabric.

look how tidy it looks - wouldn't even be able to tell there are threads pulled out :)

Then there is more border to do & button holes around the square & some fancy looking threads stitched in.

my next step is some kind of weaving thing in the corners to kind of look like a web. Then the mitre of corners & final hemming. Good thing I am going to an embroidery guild meeting with my Mum on Wednesday :)

Getting there... one stitch at a time

'Class' for want of a better word, is done now & here is an example of one of the other ladies work:

I particularly love the way she used a gold thread in the braid around the back & the braid on the drawer front to hide a gap.
Given that we want to have a few of these finished for our next guild general meeting - next Tuesday, I took today to concentrate on getting mine together:

so now I need to learn how to make a decent tassel - I have instructions somewhere involving some card... I'll get to it!
While the weather has been lovely & I have had some time, during daylight hours I have made a little progress on the sampler:

this work will probably be resigned to the weekend now with the lack of light in the evenings.

life gets so busy at times!

darn life getting in the way of stitching, & yet I'm not overly sure what I have been doing? oh yeah, there may have been some online distractions, never the less here is an update on one more panel of the sampler. Same size, no thimble:

Here are a couple of pics of the chair pieces which I am working with a few ladies to put together - if you deviate from the initial pattern using different thread count (ie from 32 to 28) you MUST copy the templates with an enlargement of 114% - essential info.

 I started with the pink variegated thread, but then I wanted my peacock to be blue, & then there is this lovely blue thread I thought would compliment - hence my colours. Stay tuned in a few weeks for when it all gets put together :)

I also went shopping... in central Wellington there was/is a "Pop-up shop" with fabric. Normally I'm not one to go looking for fabric unless I have a project in mind, but it is very hard for me to resist fabrics at $3 & $2 a metre!!

First up these two - gorgeous colours, I only got 1m of each, as i will stitch on them - dont know what yet, but they are both colours I love, so I dont think it will be too much of a stretch.
Then this one - one 1m as well, I think I will make the handkerchiefs I have in my brain & sell them on Felt.co.nz

ok, so I've never actually made a handkerchief before, but how hard can it be? it's just a square!

then I got 4m of this lining material - OMG! I don't care what it is, I want it lined in this:

In the interests of full disclosure, I'm not actually much of a sewer as such - hence when I buy things like this, I have NO idea if I have enough for anything! and I have very little of a stash. I was, however, very impressed recently when I took some of my stash & made a (very short) kilt. Using two pieces of fabric I was going to use for that costume last year... with success! there was a bit of hand stitching involved, but this only made me happier. I'm very pleased with myself, although given the length, this is not a suitable skirt for work - hehehe - it will however be perfect if I wanted to take up Roller Derby.

And that is what I've been up to over the last couple of weeks. Next weekend we have a stitching day with the Wellington Guild in Johnsonville - yah! a day of dedicated stitching :)

UFO update

Crafty people are well known for having UFOs, (unfinished objects), however I only have one really & even then that is because I was waiting for the perfect idea to present itself & I don't think you should rush these things.
Last year I picked up a pattern from Broomfields & at Xmas my mum had a couple more of them, one was perfect for this:

I now simply need 4 images for the corners - I have some ideas for those, so will dig them out & see how I go.

Second "gift" project I am working on to be completed is my sampler book & I didn't realise I had only posted the first two pages... so here are 3 more:

 

the thimble is to give you an idea of how small this work is. Very glad I am now over half way through it. Trying to get as much of this done before next weekend as i can, simply cause I have to chop the material as it is the same fabric I stitched my second chair pieces onto & next weekend I am showing some guild members how to put it together.

Stitch on!  

Valentine Special

I know, I know, I wasn't supposed to start any other gifts until I finished what I had going, but I've always liked being a bit cheesy & so when I stumbled across this pattern, & blog, I simply had to put it on a handkerchief...

too cute! Now my brain is working overtime thinking of other handkerchief designs, but not all of them are overly PC.

In my defense, work is progressing on both my UFO gifts & on the Ukrainian - stay tuned :)

More Ukrainian

Thanks for all the lovely comments - particularly about this piece I am currently working on - which is involving a LOT of new stitches & challenges - which of course means learning.

It turns out that, even though I need to actually concentrate on this piece at times, it is good to travel with - mostly due to only needing one or two threads.

And so, I have started to seriously tackle the boarders...firstly with a plaited Slav stitch & then with hem stitch... yep, I'd never done hem stitch before:

Next I had to take a deep breath & cut - man I hate cutting threads, but a girls got to do, what the instructions say... and then weave...

Here is a close up:

I am trying to go by Gay Eaton's Ukrainian Whitework (not sure if I mentioned this before) the design is called Sofia & it is very pretty, but there are some instructions which are about clear as mud to me, however, I am muddling along as there are very good pictures... infact upon further inspections of pics, I'm thinking perhaps I wasn't supposed to go all the way around with the outside border, until I had finished the weaving part... gosh darn it, I'll fix that later :)

Recently I have also been browsing the interwebs & getting very distracted, if you haven't found Feeling Stitchy you should!

They took me to Sew Lovely which gave me a cute little "I Dig You" stencil, which I traced from my computer - just put baking paper on your screen - magic! I'll keep you up to date with my plan... promise!