Wasp

A while ago I signed up for a Phat Quarter swap... erm quite a while ago actually, I had to contact my partner (the very cool Mr X himself) and ask for extra time because I was making something odd that I had no idea how to make.
Behold the 'sort of' stumpwork stiletto wasp:

The main part of the body is embroidered in floss, the face is fake leather appliqued onto kid leather, the legs are wire and the wings are tracing paper stitched on gauze with paper covered wire stitched on for the veins. It is huge because stiletto wasps are a mythical beast from the Scott Lynch book Red Seas Under Red Skies - it's a great book, the second in a series (the first The Lies of Locke Lamora is even better)- I used a description of the wasp in the book to design my version.

 I was pretty pleased how it turned out - not bad for a first attempt at something like this. It was very challenging, as I was making it up as I went along. I had to make the wings twice as my first set didn't have the tracing paper and were awful- they needed something to give shape to the gauze.

Next on my embroidered object list is either a fish or something like an urchin or starfish (think french knots and plenty of em) whaddya think?

2013 : resolutions and a look back

Happy New Year

Here's to a crafty new year. This year I will make friends with my sewing machine. I want to try making a quilt and also make some embroidered wall hangings  I'm also going to try and blog more often and add tutorials and free patterns to my blog. 

I have also started a new embroidery piece that I am really excited about, it's quite different from my recent embroideries - will post some in progress shots when I'm a bit further along. doing something different has got the ideas flowing and I have a couple more projects planned out. Looking back over the past year I have done so much embroidery and improved my technique no end. Here are my personal faves from the last year:

I got to be an &stitches cover star (well my koi embroidery did) plus was lucky enough to have my stumpwork sparrow and boxing hare featured on the blog, and was featured on mrxstitch and on the urban threads blog. I even had my stumpwork sparrow included in the featured projects on Craftster. I've made new online crafty contacts who are inspiring and supportive in equal measures and I get to chat with them thanks to twitter. Phew, it's been a busy year. I wonder what 2013 will bring ...

Regaining my stitching mojo

Well things have been a little quiet around here (by which I mean here on my blog, my homelife has been anything but quiet as you can imagine)

Since having Jake it has taken me a while to get back into the swing of things craft-wise. For a few months he seemed to be in my arms 24/7 (when you are breastfeeding you never seem to put your baby down!) so there really was no time for crafting. Then things started to calm down a bit and I found I had my evenings back.

So where have I been?

.... well there was the small issue of motivation; I just didn't have any, after a day of looking after Jake I was tending to flake out in front of the telly with a large glass of wine . Until one day I was on Facebook (probably whilst breastfeeding, again) and I clicked into a link Mr X-stitch had posted to his blog, I spent a bit of time there and then revisited all my usual haunts in the crafty blogosphere. I realised how much I missed it and that, cheesy as this sounds, it was time to be 'me' as well as 'mum'.

So I picked up a UFO that had been languishing in the bottom of my craft box for ages- this Mitch O'Connell pattern from Sublime Stitching (I'd stitched the outline a long time ago and then lost interest). It might not be the best thing I've ever done but boy, does it feel nice to be stitching again! Crafty mates- I have missed you- it's good to be back :)