Sample Book Complete

all done, all put together, ready to give... after I show it off to people :)

We had a work day in Upper Hutt yesterday, I love the way these work days always have a table of things that the local guild ladies donate & sell very cheaply. I got a piece of linen 90cm x 75cm in green - pretty cool, thought I would be able to use it for my class when I go to conference, asked the lady there what count she thought it was & she said to measure an inch is the length of some part of her finger, which she then counted the threads - 30 - yah, I'd been having a hard time finding any 30count, so then at the other stalls I bought the threads required to match... all set!
Until this morning, when I started to tack out the required griding, I remeasured - with a tape measure - & it's a 38count... grrrrrr. Luckily I realised that my Mum had given me some 30 count (& had the count written in pencil on the hem) for making my house, but there is a lot of material there & I think I might even use some of the green on that... maybe.
So now I need to buy more threads to match this correct fabric.

Next project I think will be the project for my Mum, testing her instructions.

Sampler update

I have completed all the cross stitching required for the sampler & got a better photo of the last page I put on here:

 

Next each page has been backed with a piece of thick interfacing & then I mitered the corners & tacked the excess linen to the interfacing. with this done I have joined two pages together using long armed cross.
At this point I realise how tiny these pages are!

My next step will to purchase some suitable ribbon to bind the pages together.

While I am finishing things, I made a tassel & finished my chair:

Now, soon I hope you will be seeing the next lot of projects, which include one unfinished sampler for friends, a piece which I am testing the instructions on for my Mum, the Home Sweet Home project & not to mention a few baby gift things. I really should get onto those baby gifts, or at least plan what I am going to do there!

Ukrainian Finished

Hurrah! :

I did have to re-hem what I had completed last week, but after much brain work I finally got the corners mitred :)

Now I have washed it & am waiting for it to dry for a final pressing. I'm very happy with the finished table runner.

Just in case I hadn't mentioned the details: this was done on 25 count linen, with 8 & 12 cotton perle. any questions please ask.

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 :)