What became of those supplies?

Sorry folks, blogger is doing my head in when it comes to working out how to upload pics from my iPad, so have continued my blog over Here

I hope you enjoy.

Wanaka School & beyond!

This year I had the opportunity to attend the Wanaka School of embroidery.

It was their 30th anniversary & my mum & I headed over for 2 nights & 2 full days of stitching. I chose to do the Or Nue class or Anne Marie Moorhead. She is also the person who designed my Illuminated letter kit, which is still to be finished.

The Or Nue is a nice technique & possibly the last of the gold work I do for a while, as there is still so much for me to learn else where, but here is my result:

I like the postage stamp effect the ric rac gives this small piece & so have decided to take the satchel we got out information in  & stitch name etc details on the front & attach this as a postage stamp.

In the meantime my mum & I have been organising "Stitch-In Saturdays" at her shop. we stated out in the guild rooms, however there were issues & so now we meet ever 2nd & 4th Saturday in the back room of her shop - which is very handy when you run out of supplies - cause there they are!!
Through this I have met one new embroiderer, of a similar age & her sister is also a crafter - I met her only once & she was talking some impressive bead work.
During one of these Saturdays my mum taught a few of us how to crochet & so I have been working on a few things of the crochet kind including a balaclava for my man & now I'm part way through a doily.
With a few things finished I could finally tackle an idea from my own head & here were the supplies:

 this is for the "Post bag colour challenge". this year's theme is Black, White and Grey in between. I am making a Kindle cover. The embroidery is done, next is probably the more challenging task of putting it all together.

tooo looong

sorry folks, I moved, had computer issues & nearly forgot my password... but I'm still stitching!

Firstly, new furniture to organise some of the stash:

 
 
 

 

Also I finished the Golden head - Yah me!! & Yah for the lovely ladies who received it :)

 



 

 

Sorry folks, I will now have to do a few posts to get myself up to date!





Getting a Head

(warning there will be several 'head' puns while I work on this piece)

Today I had time to start on this & I decided to start by finishing the techniques which looked unfinished. This allowed less thinking & let me spend some time with the piece which is helping me make future decisions.

Here is what I did today:

And here (as promised) is the updated finishing of the flutterby:

Over the next few days, i should have more time, in between my part time job, picking my daughter up from school, taking her to my friend in Timaru for the school holidays & then being involved in the local performing arts competitions... then back to work again.

Stitching for Others

my next project is someone elses. A UFO of a lovely inspirational lady, Joan is someone I have known practically my whole life, her husband used to take me to kindy, & they gave me one of my first jobs as a teenager. Joan is kind & patient & I don't recall her ever being cross with me.  She has always encouraged my own craftiness & I have several treasured things which she made for me & my daughter.
So to return some kindness, I offered to complete a piece of goldwork for her. Something she hasn't worked on for at least 5 years, due to several moves, reducing eyesight & as she says "impatience with the fine work required".
Here is what she has started:

& a close up.
Then I got given the box of supplies... oh wow!

Yikes! no pattern, no set rules... deep breath, challenge accepted! this is pretty exciting, kits make doing a particular technique easier. With rules, step by step instructions, you normally get a pic to show what it 'should' look like at the end... with this it's more up to me. pushing me outside my comfort zone with this technique.
Firstly, I organise...

one thing I like about this 'Egyptian Head' is that the part which is finer goldwork, is the hair, or as I like to think of it, the Brain. As the brain is segmented into areas, this is lending itself to applying different techniques.

Oh and I have a new tool - proper goldwork scissors, which Mum ordered through the class we took together:

One of the blades(?) is serrated which should make the cutting of gold thread easier with neater ends.

Oh, and lastly - tip of the week (from Mum) - we are spraying out flutterby & dragonfly with hairspray, to keep them from tarnishing & help them stay nice for longer.

linked and confused

the confused part is not unusual, but the linked thing is kind of cool...

basically I am participating in this:

oooh and I made that work too :)

anyhoo, the post I entered in the competition was my first one I made for this blog - I'm not sure if that is ok, or if the "Tool kit" was supposed to be in this post, but heck, I'm a crafter not an internet guru.

in any case here is what my kit sometimes ends up looking like.

Also I need to do another pic of the butterfly, my mum gave me a suggestion for finishing touches, which I implemented...now she is happy with it & I will get it back off her after guild meeting on Thursday where she wants to show it off.

In the meantime, here is some more of my letter done, but I am putting this to one side while I finish someone elses UFO.

Flutterby Complete

Yah! complete
here is a few of the steps:

All Finished:

so next, I shall go back to my illuminated letter