A weft yarn

A new project - what's that you say - a Floral Glove?

I have been reading embroidery blogs for a few years now. At some stage I came across a story that started seeping into my consciousness. A story about a jacket. At first I was just aware of the story. Then slowly I began hearing more and more about it from a few different angles. Eventually, the drips of information built up and I had a whole pond full of images and details that I was swimming around in. It began to look very enticing and resulted in me diving in.

Years ago, in 1986, I spent a year living and working in Boston. Having been born on an island in the Caribbean and then growing up on the beautifully warm coast of Sydney, Australia, I learnt to swim from a young age and really can swim quite well. Not everyone in Boston can swim really well. They have long winters, short summers and not many readily accessible beaches. So, I was with some American friends and we went to Walden Pond for the day. Someone mentioned how difficult and dangerous it was to swim across the pond and being a bit feisty I took one look at it and thought 'that's nothing, I've been swimming in the ocean all my life, how hard can this be?'. I was probably even foolish enough to say something like that. Anyway, I dove in and swam across the Walden Pond (think Thoreau - living simply in the woods at Walden Pond) and to cap it off, I swam right back. Naturally enough, I was right. It wasn't actually hard. But somehow my friends' reactions kind of ensured that I would forever retain this in my memory - their surprise : my brash confidence. No harm was done. I was well and fit and it was an easy swim for me. They were gracious and congratulatory but on some level I felt foolish. I was showing off a skill from another environment. Perhaps it was just the 'showing off' that I think about still, all these years later. Anyway, I don't think I'll be showing off anything anytime soon but I do feel perhaps I've been a little foolish.

I want to show you why though, so you can understand.

I have signed up for three (count them....three) of the online courses offered at Thistle Threads.

This, which you see before you, is the Floral Glove Needlecase kit.

And this is the jacket. If you like embroidery, please do take a moment to have a look at this.

But really this is the exciting video below. The one where the designers and some of the stitchers first saw the partially completed jacket on Faith, their model. The jacket doesn't yet have the finishing touches, but it is sewn together and you can see it sparkle and glitter.

This embroidered jacket was an exciting and creative and collaborative project that involved hundreds of people. It was very attractive to me on many levels. The history, the research, the desire to understand the past by thorough attention to detail, by immersion in the style and materials and techniques of the past. The desire to understand the women who have gone before us. Not that I ever would or could identify with an elite, but it is no trouble to try and understand and explore beauty.

I wanted to explore my connection to Boston again. I also wanted to take some small part of that excitement and commitment to the past and bring it into my own home.

It is no small endeavour - that what I have undertaken. Three study courses, a whole new style of embroidery, the re-creation of historical pieces of embroidery. It has required me to invest in a new embroidery floor stand and new embroidery frames. My tapestry floor stands (all three of them) were not able to adapt to this style of embroidery frame. After much reading, I was aware that I would probably need a 'slate' frame for this style of embroidery. Some online reviewers introduced me to a type of frame that performs like a 'slate' frame but has the advantage of being easier and quicker to set up. Anyway, Santa was very kind to me and the floor stand and two embroidery frames appeared, if not exactly under the tree, within proximity of the tree. The bearded gentleman then put the frames and floor stand together for me. Seen here is the floor stand.

And here below is an old thread painting embroidery of Tanja Berlin's that I completed a few years ago but haven't yet taken off the frame. It is about the same size as the linen for the Floral Glove Needlecase.

As you can see here, I have draped the Floral Glove Needlecase linen over the frame. I think it will work perfectly. I just need to find a way to finish off the pansy and then I can have the frame for this new project.

Tricia Nguyen, who runs the Thistle Threads business and teaches the online courses, is an engineer who attended MIT (as did my father, many, many years ago). Being an academic, and very passionate about historical embroidery, when you do one of her courses, she presents you with pages and pages of instructions and historical research. I have started two folders per course. One for the instructions and one for the history. Course notes and historical information are sent every month, for the duration of the course. Some courses are reasonably short - say 6 months, some longer - 18 months.

I haven't yet made a start on any one of the new courses I've signed up for but I have diligently gathered all my materials, filed all my instructions and once I've sorted out the pansy and found a finished home for it, I'll be ready to start the Floral Glove.

 

Tim's Christmas Stocking - delays and pressing on

After a long break over summer, my tapestry group started back in February. I began this smaller project, Tim's Christmas stocking, so that I'd have something to take along to my class. I didn't really want to lug around that monster Baxtergraphix Ferry every month. In December 2011, I had come to a halt on this tapestry because I'd run out of one of the metallic threads. After some research, I'd decided to order from an Australian embroidery store, but on-line. I was a bit surprised that my order of thread hadn't arrived by early February, so I've had to stop working on the cuff and move onto the pretty picture. If I'd known it would take so long for the embroidery thread to arrive from Melbourne, I might have ordered from overseas. I'm sure I would have it by now if I'd ordered from overseas, I just wanted to try and support local business.

Because of the type of technique I use, the dangling threads from the unfinished section at the top has been quite distracting to try and stitch around. I'll be glad when my order finally arrives and I can finish off the top section.

It has been interesting though from a stiching point of view, to move onto the new threads and the new stitches. I've been using brick stitch (for the bricks!), continental for the mortar on the bricks, as well as the snow on the bricks and the garland, and for the shiny red bows. Then I've used interlocking gobelin for the green pine fronds of the garland. And finally, mosaic stitch on the frame of the window. It keeps it interesting as I stitch back and forth, to be constantly changing styles and threads.

But best of all has been the wonderful new threads I'm playing with. My favourite has been the variegated dyed threads used for the bricks and for the pine garland. The thread on the pine garland is Caron Impressions, no 83 Pine Forest. It is 50% silk, 50% wool and it stitches beautifully. The colours blend from greeny-blue, to a muted darker green.  I like the look of the Kreinik metallics but dont really like stitching with them. They are stiff to work with but this Caron Impressions is lovely and soft.

 

Previous posts

Christmas stocking (December 2011)

On the frame - Tim's stocking (April 2011)

Tim's Christmas stocking (April 2011)

Knitting through the Australian Open

Alice Starmore's Oregon Vest kept me company through the final week of the Australian Open (tennis, Australian summer, family habit, two weeks in January, usually hot, hot, hot, but this year not, not, not). You know I am in blog posting catch-up mode. I'm hoping that it wont seem so strange referring to an event long since gone. How was that open though? That men's final. I was in favour of Nadal but really this year's tennis was designed for obsessive people who enjoy sitting still and doing things with their hands - me. I got lots of knitting done while those mad men tried to beat each other, their own demons, win the crowd, grab our attention, impress us with feats of endurance and courage, keep us from our beds - all achieved.

I did discover while I was knitting that (one) I'd been joining in my yarn at the steeks incorrectly and (two) I needed to improve my tension. On the first point, in my defence, I had started off correctly. You are meant to get half way across the steek and then start the new colour. For the first few rows I did this. Then I lost the plot and started joining in the new yarn at the beginning of the steek. I'm not sure how I detected this error, but I've read the instructions again and now I'm back on track. Yarn joined in middle of steek - don't forget.

On the second point, these photos aren't really giving up any secrets but I can point out to you, my reader, that I was carrying the wool at the back a bit tightly. I've made a conscious effort to loosen up. I'm a reasonably tight knitter, which doesn't usually cause me any trouble but with fair isle it seems the key is to be even and loose. I'm working on it. Even and loose. Not odd and tight. Who would like that - odd and tight? Sounds awful.

Strange to knit in summer but I found it easier to knit than to embroider. I can knit without watching my hands and there's a rhythmic nature to knitting that lends itself to long stints and for keeping your eye on the tennis ball (and the crazy young men battling it out until way past midnight).

 

Previous posts

Progress on the Oregon Vest - Alice Starmore (October 2011)

Alice Starmore - Oregon vest - a start (September 2011)

Alice Starmore - Oregon vest - swatch

Fair Isle cowl progress

My next project - Alice Starmore

Celtic Bird Cross stitch nearly finished

In early January I did a bit more work on the Celtic Bird Cross Stitch Scissors Keep. Then we went away for a family holiday. On return from that holiday, I went back to a very busy work schedule and the children started a Music Holiday program, then did a week's worth of acting, then had time at home with Dad, then school went back, and finally, after a long summer holiday, I find myself back in the school routine.

I'm conscious that I haven't posted to either of my blogs during this period. So, there will be catch-up posts here and on the gardening blog...sorry. I know from reading other blogs that I enjoy following along as people's ideas, creative projects and lives unfold. There is a sense that I'm sharing with these creative adventures as they are presented into the blog world. Well, given all the catch-up posts, you may get a sense that projects are on fast-forward around here...like David Attenborough's Life of Plants. Plants grow too slowly for standard television viewing and so their lives and growth patterns were filmed in real time and then ....fast forward and we could see that Blackberry vine tapping out a place to put down its next frond. Fascinating. Watching a plant move and make choices. Anyway...back to cross stitch. As I do so many projects (gulp and I've signed up to a couple more), and many of them are slow, labour-intensive projects, it probably wouldn't do any harm to present them on fast forward. 

I've finished the stitching and now just need to sew it up and put the tassel on.

Here's the little piece of Aida ironed. I felt a bit annoyed with myself on this tiny project. I didn't absorb the instructions very well and so missed the fact that the back stitching should have been done one square at a time. Instead, I did a more free-form back stitch. Some of them are long, some are short. I wouldn't do that again. I'd go for the neater, one square at a time stitch. But, time waits for no stitcher and so I'll live with this, sew it up and call it done.

 

Previous posts

Progress on the cross stitch (December 2011)

Cross stitch progress on the scissors keep (June 2011)

Celtic scissors keep - update (May 26, 2011)

My next Celtic scissors keep - new kit (May 13, 2011)

Celtic scissors keep - finished (May 3, 2011)

Felt Folky Santas join the Fat Red Santas

All over the world, people are packing up Christmas and putting it away in boxes. Next year, we'll do it all again; the unpacking, the decorating, the plans, lists, parties, shopping, wrapping, carols, moments of heart stopping beauty and tiredness, all wrapped up in string.  I too am packing up. I generally try and get through to the Epiphany before I pack up, but this year we've got a few things on and it kind of suits me to pull down early.

I worked on my Fat Red Santas on-and-off through 2011, all year. Sometimes I sewed them at night but mostly I sewed them at Piano lessons. God, I love Piano lessons. The teacher is wonderful. I love listening to the children grow in their musicality. It's lovely having music in the house that comes from real instruments. But in all honesty, it is an hour at the end of a long week of working, where I get to sit in the Piano teacher's studio, listen to music and sew. One hour a week and I can embroider and sew 2 felt Christmas ornaments.

 Before I pack these chubby felty guys away, I thought I'd show you the family resemblance. Folky guys were done first, finished in October 2010 and hung on the 'good tree'. This year we had the 'bad tree' and lessons have been learnt. No more Scout trees from Bunnings. Next year we're going to a 'good tree' source. There have been family conversations. Other people's trees were scrutinised. Enquiries have been made. Googling has happened. It has been resolved. Now if only we can remember all of this in 12-months time. Sheesh.

 

Bye guys - see you in December 2012. Play nice.

 

Previous posts

Fat Red Santas - done and done (Nov 2011)

Red felt Santas - October 2011 (October 2011)

Santas - embroidery update (June 2011)

Felt ornaments - Christmas santas (April 2011)

Tapestry Christmas Stockings

As you know, I have three tapestries on frames in various states of progress: The ferry, Tim's christmas stocking, and my cat tapestry. As these projects are going to take me years to finish, I just wanted to grab this moment to show you some tapestries that I have completed. I don't have many visual clues around my house that I have completed any tapestry projects. I gave the flannel flowers to my mother-in-law and these two tapestry Christmas stockings spend most of their life in a box stored away, waiting for a few short weeks to be displayed.  So, I kind of feel it's OK to show you something completed years and years ago.

I gave quite an involved description of the history of these stockings in this old post so I wont bother repeating it here.

I am having the most wonderful week

Merry Christmas to you all and to all a happy 'twelve days of Christmas'. It seems that long-ago tradition determined that the days after Christmas should be ones of festivities and socialising. The weeks leading up to Christmas were meant to be times of quiet reflection and preparation (advent was meant to be like lent). Somehow as a society, we inverted that and made the weeks leading up to Christmas the weeks of celebrations and spreading good cheer. As a family we had 14 Christmas events and I personally, as chief-family introvert, had seven Christmas events to attend in the weeks leading up to Christmas - parties we gave, parties we attended through friends, work colleagues, groups we belong to. It's a fair amount of cheer for anyone, let alone talkative introverts like myself.

This year after Christmas we have been allowed, through extended family circumstances, to have a quiet time at home. Usually, we pack up on Boxing day and head off to socialise for 4-5 days with my wider family. While I miss not seeing my big and funny and boisterous family this year, I have savoured this quiet time here at home. Much organisation and projects and resting has taken place. As you know, this year rocked with achievements so it has been nice to calm the boat for a few days. I was given a set of Frozen Planet DVDs for Christmas and we've really enjoyed orcas, penguins, wind, ice and funnily enough listening to the children say 'that's amazing! It looks just like CGI'.

I have lots and lots of creative posts to share - and gardening posts for those interested in apples and potatoes. Santa was generous to us crafty ones. And nature has been abundant with water to the garden, though parsimonious with the warmth - so a bit of mixed blessing for amateur farmer/gardeners. But lots to tell, once I get around to writing and posting.

For now, take a look at the progress on the cross stitch scissors keep. I'm trying to finish it off so there's room at the inn for some glorious embroidery projects. I'll tell you all about them and the creative cornucopia found around and under Christmas trees. Later. First, more rest to be had.

Previous posts

Cross stitch progress on the scissors keep (June 2011)

Celtic scissors keep - update (May 26, 2011)

My next Celtic scissors keep - new kit (May 13, 2011)

Celtic scissors keep - finished (May 3, 2011)

Beaded Christmas decorations - given with love

School's out for summer. It was actually almost summer today. Almost. It is sooooo tempting, isn't it? Given what we are going through in Canberra at present but....mustn't grumble about the weather. Last week, we had the coldest night of carol singing out on Hawker oval. I'm not grumbling, in case you can't tell. I am just stating a fact. People were huddled under blankets, in woolly jumpers, in bushwalking style fleece jumpers, with beanies on, keen to jump up and play tug-of-war so that we could feel our limbs - that kind of thing. Cold. In Summer. Really cold, songs about snow made sense - cold. I'm a hot weather girl. I like a nice warm day, I love all things coastal, all things like oceans and rivers and pools in Dickson. I wait all year for these things to come and grace our short summer in Canberra, and then for some reason, detours happen and we're back in, well, if not winter, pretty damn close to it. OK. That's all. You get it.

School is out for summer. What's not to love? And my amazingly focussed 9-year-old, managed to make the guide leaders and the much loved Grade 4 teacher some glittery Christmas baubles to thank them for a great year. Tess has really thrived in Guides and in school this year. It is wonderful to end this topsy-turvy year with a feeling of rightness-with-the-world. There were times when we all felt scratched and torn from the year's briars and thickets. When I see what Tess has made and I think of the relationship between these women and my daughter, I am content.

As you know from here, we make the teachers a gift and keep one part of it as a memento of them. This year, Tess also decorated cardboard boxes to house the gifts. We had a pattern from a friend of mine who designed a little green and red Christmas box with poinsettias on top. We adapted it to use our own papers and add our own flourishes. You stamp and cut and glue and emboss with gold paint and then you get this... all the choices of colours, papers and ribbon are Tessy's. We ended up making three different boxes. One for the school teacher, and two for the guide leaders. I only photographed one. I plead busyness.

This is a gift for the Grade 4 teacher who is a maths whiz. And I mean whiz. Maths olympiad type maths whiz. A sane and calm and clear-sighted person who gently and persistently taught the children to excel in something that is not very popular. Maths. She is a plain and decent woman and I wouldn't be at all surprised if a frippery such as this was not her first place of cultural comfort. Perhaps the tartan ribbon and those uncompromising moors of Scotland will evoke her resilient and humble nature. I will certainly hang her decoration on my tree each year with pride.

 These decorations were completely handmade by the Tess. I did nothing.

These bells below, two of which were given to the Guides leaders, were 96% made by Tess. I did a tiny 4% of ribbon and sequin pinning (all statistics are faithfully represented by the 'guessing here' footnote). This distribution of the workload is quite a reversal for me. Usually the children start with me but peter out and I spend a few nights with a glass of wine and some beads finishing off the present.The tide has turned.

We are, with great sadness, saying goodbye to our Guide leaders. Tess is going up to the next level in the new year so not only did we make these, and some decorated boxes, but we also included some handmade chocolates and a Christmas mug from here. I have done a very, very modest amount of volunteer work during my children's life (secretary of the P&F for two years, and school canteen manager and canteen volunteer for three years). And my husband has too (scout leader and community garden convenor for about the same amount of time - thankfully at different periods though). I know how much time these ladies spend throughout the week; designing programs for the 4 terms of 10 weeks of 1 1/2 hour weekly activity session, sending and answering emails, attending weekend camps, filling in forms, going to training, shopping for supplies. It is an amazing amount of work to ask of women who work and raise families and volunteer to turn up, week after week after week to a small hall in Hawker, to guide young girls through life. I have such respect for them. Thank you, Guide leaders. We'll miss your warm smiles and quirky traditions and reassuring presence. Stay well. Love from Tess and Melissa.

 

Previous posts

Beaded Christmas decorations - teacher's presents (Nov 2011)

Christmas stocking

I have put a few hours into Tim's Christmas Stocking in the last week. Unfortunately, I came to a halt because I ran out of the Kreinik metallic thread. As I bought this as a kit with threads and stitching guide, I was a bit surprised to run out of thread. I think if I'd realised that I could run out of thread, I might have put more thought into how I was stitching. It's possible that the way I am stitching is using more thread than if I found a neater, more conservative way of stitching.

It hasn't been super easy to solve this thread supply issue. Canberra doesn't have a big enough population to warrant more than one or two shops that carry embroidery threads. I visited or rang all of the local stores and they did not have this speciality thread in stock.

I looked on-line but as I only needed one spool of thread it seemed excessive to pay high postage costs for the one small spool. So, I sat down with my other tapestry projects and tried to work through all my thread needs to see if I could summon up a large enough order to warrant the postage costs. I spent hours on this! The lengths one has to go to. Eventually I found that The Ferry tapestry probably needed a few more skeins of soft cotton and the cat tapestry needed some more paternayan wool.  Finally, I ordered from the Embroidery Den in Melbourne, which has an extensive range of threads for sale on-line.

After I'd been through all my bags and thread supplies I came across this post on a stitching blog....which told me about excel spreadsheets you can download to keep records of threads in your stash. Naturally enough I downloaded them! It certainly would have made my purchasing much easier if I had an accessible record system. Not sure though - it would probably take hours to record all these details and then keep them up-to-date. Hard to know on balance what is more effective.

 

Previous posts

On the frame - Tim's stocking (April 2011)

Tim's Christmas stocking (April 2011)

Final bit of renovation unpacking

I know I've mentioned the renovation of our house and as I find this tedious enough to live through, I'm not inclined to spend too much time here recording it all for posterity. However, I feel a huge relief that finally - December 2011, I've unpacked the last three rooms with boxes in them.

We had the back of our house knocked off through the depths of winter and lived without a kitchen for six weeks. We had our backyard dug up by large earth moving diggers, so that the electrical wires could be laid underground. Great swathes of Canberra clay soil were exposed for tracking into the house. The courtyard was also dug up to relocate plumbing. Then months later, a deck was built over the broken courtyard. When this was finished, we then packed up our entire house - all the books, craft, furniture, and possessions were removed so that for two days the floors could be redone. And now, finally, December, everything is returned, unpacked and back in place.

I have a few reflections about the process; what we did well, what we learnt, what we wouldn't do again. I wont bother the world with these reflections. But what I will say here, on my crafting-life blog is that I reminded myself of the need to create even while life is chaotic, dirty and disturbing. I also reflected previously on my need to bake cakes at a time when the kitchen was overwhelmingly dysfunctional.

At times, I've felt it was a madness to join a bake-along while renovating a house/kitchen but you know, I've really loved it and at times it helped keep me sane. I have loved focusing on something creative and delicious and sharing it with my family, friends and with you all.

But most of all - I'm glad it's over.

I am not the kind of house proud person who wants to spend her life renovating and redecorating. I now have an improved upon space, a slightly more comfortable, functional house that allows us a greater range of eating, entertaining and study options. In the immortal words of Babe "that'll do Pig".

I'd much rather make progress on my tapestries, embroideries, baking, knitting, quilting and really, really I'd like to try and make some clothes.

There's also the small issue of a vegetable garden .......