UFO-a-go-go part 1

UFO-a-go-go part 1

as I laid out all my WIP/UFO’s that I’m actively wanting to work on a get done soon(some have time limits some just have been on the go for too long) I realized I have a lot of them that I’m currently working on thus why it feels like I’m going nowhere slowly. So in interest in not making and epic post of doomy-doom-DOOM I have split it into two posts. today will be about my needlework(I have more than what is seen here on the go these are just what I’m working on finishing!!

I have the skirt which I haven’t take pictures of cause it’s still just endless stem stitch at this point… but it’s going along fine and will hopefully be finished soon so I can proceed onto other parts of the skirt… It’s hard for me to work on this for too long because it’s such a big project all in white on black which also means I can only do it before 7pm when the lighting gets wonky. I can do maybe an hour before my fingers twitch for something lighter and colourful, although i can say this thank goodness for seat frames.

This is probably the project I want to work on the most cause it’s so much fun and beautiful. I really need to make myself a light box so I can trace designs a bit easier I also need a water soluble pen the pencil isn’t really precise as I would like. I’m loving the colours that I used for this so bright a vibrant, I believe the Victorians would approve. I originally thought this would be the pocket it’s self I think I might be more prone to turning it into a patch to sew onto the pocket. I still haven’t decided what I’m going to do about the border part of me is really unsure about doing it all in grey satin stitch, and might have to add blue whipped stitch over it or maybe some green vines with French knot buds, like I did on the stem portion.

This is a tatted necklace that I’m working on as you can see I’ve gotten ever so far… I think I was rather let down when I had to redo 12 hours of work thanks to a stupid mistake that I did very early on! Well I’ve put this on my bedside so hopefully I will be able to get to it a bit everynight!

This project is multi purpose, as I have gotten more into embroidery I have collected lots of needles and need to know what is what, and thus I need a needle book. I’ve also been really interested in quilting lately and started(and put somewhere I cannot find) a English Paper Piecing quilt, in a grandmother’s garden pattern. I figure since I’m hand stitching all the pieces I might as well hand quilt it all too. Finally my fabulous new Aunt I inherited through my marriage gave me some excellent 6inch squares of Aussie fabrics, not really enough for me to do too much with, but enough for a few small projects. This is the back of my needle book which is going to be hand quilted using some of my favorite fabrics from the stash(who knows what else I will do with them :-p ) (p.s. it’s not biased i just too the picture crooked and in a hurry cause a naughty bunny was trying to eat the frame which is loaned to me)

This is a project I started eons ago; before Ryan proposed I got started on a wedding sampler, NOT as a hint, but because I knew we were getting married(we both did) I just knew how long it takes me to finish things. well that was August 2 years ago and we have been married 4.5 months and this is where the wedding sampler looks today… very far from being done…. yes I know! Well I plan on fixing that I hope to finish this this year! one of the nice things about not finishing it till after my wedding is that I can add a band that has the Celtic knotwork that is on our wedding bands.

Crewel Fate

Crewel Fate

I’m constantly a late comer to all the new fads or in things. I have been since I was a child really, discovering Nirvana after Kurt’s death, finding Riot Grrrl as the scene was fading away. Some things it appears never change when my embroiderer’s guild decided to do a crewel work theme I shrugged and said “neat”. Each month as we were given two stitches to try out the dashing sampler, I filed the newsletters away without a thought. Crewel Work was too “hard” and mine would look “sloppy”. This thinking stayed like that in my brain gnawing away and my embroidery confidence, that is until recently.

Enter my fabulous Victorian black and white day out, gown that I’m working on for the Regional Workday that the guild is hosting. As I worked on the black duchess satin skirt i knew I wants white embellishments on it. originally it was going to be satin Celtic knots but alas my appliqué techniques are not what I would like them to be so I trashed that idea. Mulling through my brain I kept having this idea of surface stitchery specifically crewel work all along the front gore of the skirt. It had replaced the old “you can’t do that” gnawing with “you must do this” gnawing. So I grabbed some waste satin and some white crewel wool and headed off to the monthly social stitch-in. After sketching my design and staring at the tautly stretched fabric in my small hoop for longer then I’d like to say, finally had to admit I had no idea where to start. Son though with the quick help of Frances, Leslie and few questions of Penny I was on my way! By the time I was settling into bed two things had occurred.

1. I had finished delightful little sampler that had me convinced this was the right thing for my skirt.

2. I had fallen madly in love with Crewel work. Not only was it easy but I could do it and make it look good!

I got up at 7am th enext day because I was so excited about sketching out the design on my skirt, thank goodness it was with water soluble chalk because i had to have a couple of goes until I found something I was happy with. Next I machine stitched over my outline with black thread so I would easily be able to see what i was stitching without worrying that that the chalk had rubbed off.  and I started endless stem stitch.

One thing Became very clear really fast While I loved what I was doing if I did just this in white every night I would go absolutely batty VERY soon. I needed something for the pocket of my “work basket” apron that I’m also working on which will not only be for this outfit but for general use, thus can be in wonderful brilliant colour! So I needed a pattern, I checked my number one resource for andything the wonderful and magical GOOGLE! I found some lovely free patterns:

Like this amazing Jacobian scene that is awesome but way too big and not what I had envisioned.

Then there were these great table centers that were stunning but yet again not right for my needs.

After that I stumbled across this wealth of loveliness and there were some that were close but nothing that really called out to me yet.

Fell in love with this beautiful kit but alas I don’t have the time to wait for that now nor could I afford it.

Finally I found Needle N’ Threads a great blog by the very talented Mary Corbet who not only blogs about her beautiful embroidery and the processes in which they are made, but she also posts weekly patterns for free.  at first i found this beautiful design of a stylized pomegranate but it still didn’t feel right. I had the feeling tho this was the right track. Something in my head must have clicked with the pomegranate theme because I eventually found on her fabulous site this pattern which was just perfect! Interestingly enough i could have sworn there was another pattern similar to this one that I nearly considered, but I can’t find it.  Well anyway I grabbed some of the calico I’m making my apron from and traced the pattern(I really could have used a light box for this but c’est la vie) and away I went!

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