Counted work updates.

Firstly, the end is very much in sight for the turquoisework palace. I’d always wanted some sort of steps or fence at the bottom to balance it out, so after another game of thread chicken, it’s gone from this:

to this:

Not without a fair amount of unpicking and repositioning though. Now I need to design/choose a pattern for the gate in the middle and then decide whether this is it; if I should add any more rows/layers to the bottom of the fence or if I should add anything to the currently voided area between the top of the fence and the palace.

The second update is from rather longer ago. You might remember that I started a scissor keep kit (well it was literally a few threads, beads and the design) I bought from eBay to go on the new pair of embroidery scissors I had for my birthday. By the time I blogged about it I decided that I didn’t like most of the original design anyway and had already gone well and truly off piste. Last seen it looked like this and I intended to removed the ‘dark satanic mill’ on the right.

Given that I need to set up the magnifier to work on it, it’s taken a while, but thanks to my new sharp scissors, I finally unpicked the black thing and replaced it with a tree. I also ditched the idea of putting the weird flowers/stars and elongated star in the sky and created a cloud instead.

Liking the design so much more now! I’m going to put some simple leaves on the tree, add some more eyelet flowers to the right of the herdy and toying with a back stitch outline in light grey round the cloud and the herdy’s head as they are a little lost against the background fabric.

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Taking advice.

I’m always extremely grateful to every one of you who takes the time to leave me a like or a comment on my blog posts – it’s lovely to think as I type away that people enjoy what I create and take the time to say so. At the end of my last post I asked for feedback for the final part of the design of the buildings section of my Turquoisework Palace and I am particularly grateful to Rachel and Rosemary for their advice.

Looking at the completed wings, Rachel’s idea of a half dome firmed up my own thoughts on the problem.

I had always been aiming for a gentle curve from the central dome to the outside edge and to me, there was just too much of a jump from the little turrets to the level of the wings. After some stitched doodling I came up with these:

The next job was to choose the thread and pattern. All the domes are stitched in a variegated sea green-teal-navy-green 21st Century Yarns four stranded cotton with a splash of magenta pink (although there is more pink on some than others) so I decided to carry on with that. I’d tried to use patterns with rounder components in the domes, so I found another design which featured the sort-of-stars and lozenges I’d used on the central dome. It was more open that the other patterns which made it rather bare at this scale so I added the vertical lines down the centre of the stars.

The eagle eyed among you may have noticed in the second photo that I’ve finally got round to adding a pattern to the small turrets.

Which brings me to Rosemary’s suggestion about the flying buttresses. Initially, the turrets were supposed to be sitting on top of the buttresses – probably impossible architecturally, but it’s a fantasy palace. But thanks to Rosemary, I started to rethink the design. What if the turrets weren’t sitting on the buttresses? What if they were actually tall slender towers behind? In which case, you would see the bottom edges of the towers through the arch of the buttresses. I doodled in a line to follow the edge of the tower and looked again. Not only did it work, but I preferred it. Continuing the pattern as if it had passed behind the buttresses was a bit of a counting challenge though!

So the palace currently stands like this. The buildings are finished and all I have to do is to choose a trellis pattern to add to the bottom as a wall feature which will hopefully balance the design, which is a little top heavy at the moment.

So many thanks to everyone who has given advice, feedback and encouragement, whether in person or online, to get me this far into the piece. I’m very pleased with our joint efforts!

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Move It On Project 2 Update.

Last seen, the centre of the blackwork palace was pretty much complete.

Next job was to put in a couple of lower wings just to balance it out.

And then find suitable stitch patterns to fill them in. I wanted something more foliage/plant like for the bottom blocks and the interlocking leaf design ticks that box.

It was more difficult to find an appropriate design for the arcades above. It needed to be the right scale to fit in between the arches but also not overwhelm them. After several failed experiments I ended up creating my own design.

It works better at a distance.

I’m really happy with the overall shape now. Just wondering whether to add some sort of roof/shallow dome on top of the wings to soften the change in level from the flying buttresses. Any thoughts?

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Move It On Project 2024 2

Time to introduce the second Move It On Project of 2024. This one is for March and April and revisits a piece I started and got a fair way into for one of my Stitch Zone Projects last year: the Turquoisework Palace.

I really enjoyed creating it, working out the design as I went along and then choosing patterns to fill it in but once we’d finished the sessions I put it on one side. I found it didn’t lend itself easily to working on out and about as I was quite reliant on my book of stitch patterns and like a lot of counted thread work, it requires a level of concentration that you don’t need with something more freehand where you’re working an embroidery stitch that is already in your muscle memory.

The last time I shared it (last July!) I’d finished the central domes and the rooms beneath and it looked like this.

I’d spotted a missing stitch and was planning to go over the central motifs to make them look more like windows, but it didn’t get round to progressing any further.

Until now. I have a rough plan in mind for the rest of the structure, with another lower section on either side, perhaps with some more arcading and since it’s ended up quite high on the piece of fabric, some steps and decorative balustrades at the bottom.

But first job was to sort out that pesky missing stitch and emphasise the ‘windows’ and then find patterns for the flying buttresses and the smaller towers.

The little domes were particularly challenging. I had chosen patterns for the larger ones with lozenge shapes to echo the shapes of the domes, but finding something in a similar style but smaller scale for the smallest ones took some doing and I partly stitched and then unpicked a couple of patterns that just didn’t work before I found this one.

At this stage finding the right pattern seems to take almost as long as stitching it. I need to choose a design that has the right ‘weight’ and density to balance the overall pattern but is also appropriate for the size of the space I want to fill. Big patterns get lost in a small space and small patterns can be too dense and busy for a larger space.

I’m pleased to be back on with it though and hoping for another finish.

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Still Moving It On

After my trial of one of the easier pages last week, I started at the beginning of my 2023 Holiday Journal and have managed to complete the frontispiece and two spreads.

The frontispiece confirmed what I said last week about not being able to get running stitch even on both sides – it’s not even perfect when I’m using the aida to regulate the stitches on one side!

I’m not sure (but it doesn’t irritate me enough to undo it) about using feather stitch to attach the label for this spread. I think had there been a bigger border around the writing that might have helped, but at this stage it’s still very much about trying things out to see if they work. I chose the burgundy thread for the feather stitch and also for the French knots to echo the colours in the William Morris print.

Behind the French knots I ended up with a sequence of larger, closer together running stitches, so I decided to make a feature of the stitching and smoothed it all out by whipping it.

Two (almost) spreads down:

I’m glad it’s all coming together and as I can break it down into small sections, it feels easier to do – not so overwhelming and something I can pick up in short breaks.

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Leaves and Domes

So I stitched another one of the blanket stitch/needlelace leaves in six strands of stranded cotton and very interesting it was too, as it was the only thread of the three that properly highlighted the twisted, almost braided pattern of the inner needlelace section.

The twist of the perle made the twists of the needlelace much less obvious.

I much prefer the contrast between the almost feathery outer section and the more tightly braided inner section that the stranded gives, although it is harder to control all six strands and despite my best efforts, there are some areas where some of the strands have gone a little astray. I also think the interlaced centre works better and is more integrated than the other leaves, although that may just be me getting better at the stitch!

One of my ladies at In The Stitch Zone worked her leaf in white on a darker fabric and it was very effective indeed – it would have looked completely at home in a piece of Mountmellick or Ayrshire work.

I also think that based on the outside texture on the stranded cotton leaf, the stitch would make some rather effective feathers. All in all, a very useful addition to my own personal stitch library.

I’ve also moved the Blackwork Palace on a little by finishing the two towers. I’m going to go over the edges of the central stepped shapes in the sections under the domes to make them look a bit more like windows.

I’m really pleased with the pattern I chose for the domes. The little individual elements really echo the shape of the dome and I like the touch of magenta in this particular thread too.

It’s getting there!

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Some Catching Up.

Life, in the shape of a rather nasty water leak in the kitchen (boo) followed by a lovely long weekend in the Lake District (woo) – I took the photo somewhere in Little Langdale between showers…

…has rather got in the way of both being creative and blogging, so I thought I’d better pop in and share/update a few bits.

Firstly, the not blackwork palace. This has slowed now I’m filling the sections with patterns. Counted work is not ideal for taking out and about to stitch, so I’ve only gone from this:

to this:

I’m enjoying choosing the right shade and weight of pattern to complement the design, but it is something to sit down with and spend some time on, rather than a quick stitch.

The abstract Bargello, which has been a perfect project for on the go stitching, is finished. As the underlying canvas is marbled, it’s largely a matter of colouring in the areas with a corresponding thread colour. However, I wasn’t too keen on the very large pale yellow areas.

I didn’t have enough pale yellow perle to fill the huge expanses of pale yellow and in any case, I wasn’t keen on such large areas being worked in a single colour, so I decided to use other colours to break them up. As I was using two strands of perle to get a good coverage, it was very greedy on thread, and I ended up having to vary the colours anyway as I kept running out!

I’m not sure what, if anything, to do with it, but at the moment it’s going in my Bargello workshop folder as a sample piece.

My jewellery has been selling slowly but steadily at 20.21 and already they are asking for some new stock. The clock hand earrings and pendants have been the most popular, but I’ve made/am making some more pieces with textile elements. Some of you will have seen my Daisy, Daisy pendant on Instagram:

I’m particularly pleased with this as the daisy was one I originally stitched for the No Mow May earrings…

…but I cut it too close to the edge and had to stitch another one. I wasn’t going to throw it away after all the time it took to stitch, so I popped it into one of my many pots of bits and pieces, and remounted on another piece of silk carrier rod, it was perfect to go in the middle of what had been an odd vintage earring and become a pendant.

I also created a Delphiniums pendant – more stitching on silk carrier rod, set into a vintage pendant setting. The bail was a bit untidy, so I covered it with blanket stitches in the same silk thread as I used for the delphiniums.

Partly stitched are this broken scarf clip which will probably be mounted on straw-coloured silk dupion with a turquoise nugget in the centre to become a brooch.

This huge odd brass clip on earring was originally set with one of those glass nuggets that you put in flower vases, so goodness only knows how something that weighty stays on your ear. The nugget popped out when I was cleaning it so I made a little flat wet felted bead to go in the setting , which I’m embroidering with found objects and some simple embroidery stitches before I put it into the empty setting. Then I’ll drill the top corners of the brass and turn it into a pendant.

It’s good to be creating. And to not have water pouring out from under the kitchen cabinets any more…

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The Palace has been extended!

I’ve not had much time for stitching this week, as I’ve been suddenly dropped into a very exciting opportunity (of which more later) but I have managed some extensions to the turquoisework palace.

There was a particular pattern in my blackwork patterns book which I wanted to use on the palace. It is a repeat, but over a larger area, so I constructed the block to enclose the section I wanted to highlight – the first time on this embroidery that I’ve fitted the building element to the blackwork and not the other way round.

Next something to give more height and more interest than just a plain block, but also to gradually bring the levels down. Something like a flying buttress.

I don’t love them – they look more like handles at the moment – but I want some negative space in the design (which is hardly that as I’m literally making it up as I go along!). After I’d finished the side panels I rather regretted not putting in a pillar between them and the bottom of the towers to separate the patterned areas, but I am definitely not undoing all that stitching! But what happens if I put a little side turret on the buttresses?

I like my little mushroom turrets! They draw the eye away from the ‘handles’ and give a nice downward curve to the line of the building. All ready for Monday’s In The Stitch Zone now.

So, onto my unexpected project. Last week, someone I work with, gave me the tip off that Ryedale Auctioneers were having a huge online sale of theatre costumes and fancy dress from a costume hire company which were closing down. Something like 14,000 items of clothing, props and accessories in about 1300 lots. As the costume convenor of Scunthorpe Little Theatre Club I couldn’t pass that up!

So after literally hours of poring over the online listings, making a long list, planning our top bids and bidding strategies, asking our committee for permission to spend up to £2900 (!!) reducing the long list as people bid and our top bids were passed, bidding and rebidding and finally waiting, biting our nails as the lots came out, we spent about £1600 and are now the proud owners of about 290 individual items of costume, mainly 18th century and medieval dresses, fantasy cloaks and tunics, men’s Regency and early Victorian coats, dames costumes, panto villain costumes and army red dress tunics.

What we have is absolutely amazing. We did a dash in four cars yesterday to collect it. Goodness knows where we’ll put it all and it’s going to be a long time getting ti all processed and put away, but just wow…

If you’re interested, the sale can be viewed here.

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Turquoisework

We’re having a bit of a break at In The Stitch Zone, my weekly embroidery class, due to two back to back Bank Holidays but when we return, we will be creating our own blackwork palace. A lot of the activities I plan for In The Stitch Zone are about exploring embroidery techniques and although the majority of my ‘students’ are experienced embroiderers, I want to ensure that all sessions are equally accessible to beginners. I felt that some of the contemporary blackwork, where the density of the patterns and varying thicknesses of threads create a realistic picture, was certainly beyond my capabilities to teach and also would make the class less accessible to anyone who was less experienced or didn’t consider themselves to be ‘artistic’. So instead we’re going for a good old sampler of stitches and techniques. But how could I put a more interesting spin on it?

My solution came from an image I saw on Instagram of a fantasy palace, embellished with lots of different blackwork patterns. I realised that this would work as a type of sampler. We could create our own palaces by building up relatively simple shapes to be filled with a variety of patterns, either stitching them symmetrically from a central point or letting them evolve more organically. I had a lovely piece of pale eau de nil aida I wanted to use for my sample which of course was crying out for a selection of turquoise threads rather than the harshness of black…that’s my excuse anyway!

I decided to stitch my sample symmetrically, making it up as I went along and starting with a pair of double doors in the middle.

I really wasn’t sure about the weight of the filling stitch I’d used at this point, but I couldn’t face taking it out, so I decided to add some more to the design to see if I could balance it a bit more before I made a final decision. I think adding a simple pattern to the arch meant the doors didn’t stand out as much and the flanking rectangular panels draw the eye away. So far, so good; the doors are staying!

Next to add some height. I liked the tops to the columns, but I wasn’t sure how they might interfere with a pattern, so I filled the space with some Gothic arched arcades. They are small enough and have enough of a pattern in their own right that I’m not planning to add any further stitching. Keeping an area plain also makes the overall design less busy.

Then to create some real height with a pair of dome-topped towers. Channelling my inner Brighton Pavilion!

I tried to put a larger arch over the top of the doors, following the same curve, but just couldn’t get my head round how to scale it up and as I was stitching this section in a committee meeting, I didn’t have access to graph paper to work it out, so I went for some simple crenellations instead.

At this point I was torn between continuing with the outlines or filling in some more of the sections, but playing with the pretty patterns won and although it’s good to be able to see how the basic shapes are building up into an interesting design, it’s equally valuable to be able to compare the different weights and effects of the patterns.

Now the sections above and below the arcades are filled, leaving them bare looks much more effective. I really am enjoying this project and I hope it goes down as well with the class.

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Scrappy Nine Patch Rings Workshop

On Saturday I taught my first workshop to our new Independent Stitch Group: Scunthorpe Embroidery and Textile Association or SEATA, formerly known as the Scunthorpe Branch of the Embroiderers’ Guild. I had decided to teach my Scrappy Nine Patch Rings workshop (in the Workshops tab under Found Objects) based on this piece I stitched back in early 2019. The idea is to use up those tiny precious scraps which you can’t bear to throw away by layering them in strips and as frames/backgrounds to help showcase the different ways to attach the plastic/brass rings.

As well as the nine patch, which I finished as a mini quilt, I also spent most of last week making some individual samples to demonstrate some more ways of attaching the rings to the backgrounds. A scrap of dyed aida was the inspiration for this one and I created a blackwork style pattern for it which served to stitch down the ring in a rather attractive pattern that I hadn’t anticipated.

I was determined to use a grass printed offcut from the Dames’ cow dress for the next one and I had just the vintage trim to go with it. This ribbon trim dates from the 1970s when my mother allowed me half a yard of ribbon or lace if I was good on the occasional shopping trip instead of sweets. My childhood self would much rather have had sweets, but my adult self has made good use of the trims! It was pretty rather than practical, as when you cut it, the flowers all unravel, which is why so much of it still survives.

I added lazy daisy stitches and French knots in green to the trim to help attach it as well as lazy daisy daisies and kantha around the machine embroidered butterfly and hand dyed purple flannel. It’s backed on a piece of stormy lilac colour catcher

This one was purely about the combination of fabrics and I also wanted to try out the possibility of using bullion knots to hold down the ring. The answer to that is yes, the bullions work, but there is some trial and error involved in getting them the right length, so some of mine (bottom right) are a bit slack. And also because I used such a fine cotton, you have to look very closely to see that they actually are bullions and not just a thick corded thread, which rather defeats the aim of using them!

I played about with back stitch and herringbone to enhance the machine embroidered silk scrap and added metallic feather stitch to the crinkled hand dyed organza scrap.

The final sample was started so I had something to work on in the session, although I didn’t actually get to set needle to fabric until well into the afternoon. The printed central piece is another offcut of the medieval tiles print to stitch piece form February 2019 – I really am getting the most out of every scrap of that fabric – and I outlined it in back stitch before blanket stitching the ring on top. Seeding next.

Lastly, the final update on February’s Move It On Project, my Chihuly chandelier. Unfortunately because of the workshop preparation I wasn’t able to add any more stitching to it this week, but again, the aim of the project has succeeded. I wanted to see if I could make the design work and end up anything like the real thing and the answer to that is yes, using back stitched spiders webs and crocheted circles. I’ve not finished it, but I know what I need to do to complete it in the future. Now to decide what I’m going to choose for March’s entry into the Move It On Project.

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