Sunflowers

I’ve been continuing the autumn colours with some ribbon embroidery sunflowers. I love the textured deep brown centres you get from clusters of French knots. All was going pretty well until I realised I only had enough golden yellow ribbon to stitch one sunflower – possibly two if I really used every centimetre. You can see on the bottom one that I ended up using ribbon where the edges were really a bit too worn just to complete the flower.

This was then followed by the very unfamiliar feeling of going online to buy some more ribbon. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t able to find what I wanted (or something close enough) in my somewhat extensive stash but yellow silk ribbon is something that for some reason I simply don’t have. (Any other colour, yes, but strangely not yellow.)

Unable to complete the last flower until I had the ribbon, I made a start on the next part of the design, a meandering line of Hungarian Braided Chain stitch. It’s a fabulous stitch but this is the first time I’ve worked it in anything stranded – in this case four slender strands of a very slippery pure silk so in places it was somewhat less than perfect!

The ribbon arrived a couple of days later so I was able to add the last sunflower. It’s less golden yellow than the others but I like the variation in colours and the ribbon stitch works well for the petals. No two stitches are the same, which is perfect for the slightly shaggy effect I wanted.

Satin stitch leaves over split stitch outlines.

I’m very pleased with the result, and am hoping to incorporate it into some upcycled jewellery, although the next time I do a meandering line it would probably be best to draw it out carefully first, instead of doing it by eye…

I’ve also managed to get a bit further with my beaded jellyfish. Last seen, it looked like this:

I’ve finished setting the spangles on the front and worked the first round of the opening.

It’s hidden the wobbly couched edge rather nicely which was an unexpected bonus and reminded me how much I’ve enjoyed stitching it so far, so perhaps I can make the time to push on with it now.

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Story cards and a jellyfish

Tomorrow I’m at Normanby Hall for their Country Fayre, my first in person craft fair since November 2019 and there has been a lot of work to do this week to get ready. Over the last nearly two years I’ve altered and adapted the way I present my upcycled jewellery and there has been a lot to do to get all the pieces I have in stock ‘craft fair ready’. There are some new bits of kit to get my head round as well, including all my Covid signage, hand sanitiser and a card reader. Scary new tech but hoping it will help having contactless payment. I also have a new gazebo:

It takes about ten minutes to put up compared with the 45 minutes it took to erect the old one where you had to tape every single joint and the multiple poles that made up each side. However, it weighs a complete ton and this is the ‘lighter’ aluminium version! It’s not much bigger but feels massive.

I’ve also completely overhauled how I present my jewellery. A guy bought one of my boro brooches as a gift at the last fair I did. He wanted to know its ‘story’ so he could pass it on when he gave the brooch to his wife and as I didn’t have it written anywhere, he ended up scribbling my description down on a piece of paper.

It occurred to me that if these pieces of jewellery don’t come with their story telling what they were made from; where the components were found or what techniques were used, they could be any generic pieces of jewellery. Upcycling, saving broken pieces from the bin is the core of what I do. So ever since, I’ve been making cards or tags for each piece, briefly telling its unique story.

I don’t have the first idea how to align and print double sided tags, so there is another tag stuck to the back with all my details on it. Brooches and earrings are displayed on their story cards. This is my current display at Arttopia in Cleethorpes.

It is probably not a good use of my time as it takes ages to make them, but I think it’s important. I hope so, anyway.

So not a lot of sewing has taken place this week and I forgot to photograph the new clock hand earrings I made to take as all my current ones are in the Bricktree Gallery in Caistor, but I’ve started a new piece and no, I’ve still not quite finished the little garden yet! It’s a beaded jellyfish just because I saw one on Pinterest and fell in love.

I started by laying down the outline in couched silver thread.

Then rows of seed beading and some bright check silver goldwork threads to fill in the areas where the beads were too large to fit comfortably. I wanted to use grey and silver tones beads so I’m making it up as I go along!

Sequins next and some silver lined clear beads to give a change of texture.

Some metallic haematite coloured ones next.

Then some more couching and a second row of the haematite coloured beads before I added some larger beads end on in the centre.

The slightly iridescent grey tubes are Japanese delicas.

I infilled the spaces between the rows of delicas with with pearl beads and odd seed beads and used some very pale blue seed beads, more bright check and some tiny iridescent spangles I’ve had for ages and never used before in the middle. Just proves you should never get rid of things – they always end up being perfect for something!

This has been so much fun to stitch and hopefully once the fair is out of the way I can return to it next week.

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Elizabethan scissor case – finally finished.

It was over a year ago that I started an Elizabethan scissor case at one of our Embroiderers’ Guild workshops. I stitched the rose petals in the session, worked most of the rest of the embroidery fairly quickly after and even got as far as putting on the spangles. And there I hesitated. I wasn’t sure about the density of the spangles, so I added some more seed beads on their own and then stalled. It wasn’t right.

I did find some cotton for the lining that I preferred to the fabric in the kit, but over the last year, that’ s all I did.

However, I’ve had a few days away and thanks to some horrible and typically British weather, been able to get a fair bit of sewing done. Firstly, the scissor case. The beads were completely wrong, so they came out. and then I stitched the finished front to a matching triangle of the lining fabric.

I love this gentle autumn leaves print and it tones well with the brown of the stems.

After ladder stitching the opening I’d turned it through closed, I then brought the sides to the back and ladder stitched that closed as well.

In the end, there were more than enough spangles for the front, but I do wish I had brought them a bit closer to the point.

Inside looks very cosy!

And it’s the perfect place for one of my pairs of embroidery scissors.

So pleased to have this off the hoop and finished.

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