Toms Diner

My last post featured the piece I made for the &Stitches swap and this is the piece I received in return. It was made by the fabulously talented Broidrage who in her own words is a New York pop culture junkie so it was fitting that she stitched me a NY icon; Toms Diner- y'know the one from the Suzanne Vega song and from Seinfeld.

It was a perfect choice for the 'Places' theme and I love it!

Battersea Power Station

Over at &Stitches there has been a swap going on. The theme was places and I was assigned a lovely partner who makes the most awesome things. After much ummming and ahhhhing I decided to make an embroidery of a British landmark- Battersea Power Station but given a bit of a twist. I have stitched it as a silhouette filled in with fossils for no other reason than 'fossil fuels'. Now I know that these fossils probably aren't the type commonly found in coal (a quick google suggests coal has mainly fossilized ferns) but I chose ones I liked and thought would look good. The main part is using silks but I switched to white embroidery floss for the famous white chimneys. When I first finished it I wasn't all that sure whether I liked it but looking at it now I think it was quite successful. 

I had to send it a bit crumpled because the purple fabric pen was taking a long time to fade out - you can see it round the chimneys above, and I didn't want to risk 'setting' it with a hot iron (I have know idea whether it would does anyone know?). Hopefully my partner won't mind a few wrinkles

I'll be back soon to share what I received from my partner.

Finish-Along with &Stitches!

Over at &Stitches there is a different kind of stitch-along taking place- the Finish-along. The idea is simple- lets use all those good intentions we have at the start of the new year to tackle some of the neglected UFOs (un-finished-objects) lurking in the bottom of your craft bag/pile/pit.

So this is my project for the Finish-along. This is my hardanger sampler- started January 2013.  The patterns are by Mabel Figworthy from a stitch-along she did last year, there was a pattern every month and unfortunately I fell behind in February and never really got back into it. I would like to get it finished and although I don't intend to stitch all 12 patterns I would like to do four or maybe even six. So I've printed some of the stitch-along patterns out and I will try and make a bit of progress on this one over the next few weeks.

I find this style of stitching quite difficult- the stitches need to be very even to look nice and there are some bits that I will probably unpick and re-do. There is a lot of bare fabric between the counted stitches- so lots of counting holes to get the stitches in the right place- this sends me a bit cross-eyed and makes me a cross when I keep losing count. Some of the patterns also involve cutting the fabric which is a bit scary- I am worried I might snip through my stitching. I will probably finish it as a sort of mat/runner type thing to go on top of my sideboard which means that although some of the patterns include beads I will probably improvise with french knots or something.
The patterns  all look quite traditional- I think if I stick to this grey, cream and mustard yellow palette it will look rather lovely. It is perle cotton if you are wondering and the fabric is hardanger cloth which seems very like Aida but I think it perhaps has a different weave.

What's your oldest UFO? I have one that I started in 2008- maybe once my sampler is done I will try and get that finished!
 If you are trying to get some of your old projects completed come join in!

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 ...