another beetle cushion

This cushion was made as a Christmas gift for my brother. I have made something very similar before but this time I stitched different insects and made them quite big. I didn't get very good photos as I just quickly snapped some photos before wrapping it!

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 ...

bluetit stumpwork

So things have been quiet on the blog for a few weeks. This is because I had been working on Christmas gifts and didn't want to spoil the surprise for the recipients!

I made this blue tit for my mum and dad. It is always difficult to decide what to make for people but as my folks enjoy feeding the garden birds and my mum had admired previous bird stumpwork embroideries I decided to go for a bluetit. I think this is one of the best I have done- I painted the background with fabric paints and this time I was very pleased with how it looks. The branch is wool felt with lots of french knots in hand dyed silk thread to give the effect of moss. The bird is a padded slip worked in stem, satin and split stitch.
I couldn't afford to spend a lot of money getting it framed so bought a simple box frame which allows for the 3D nature of stumpwork. I know some people don't use glass when framing embroidery but I don't usually like frames without glass in them- it just looks wrong to my eye!

The good news is that they liked it!

I will do another post soon about another handmade present I made. Maybe 2013 will be the year I manage to blog more regularly!! Happy New Year to you all xxxxxxxx

Happy Christmas!

Here is Santa Jake with his new robot Father Christmas pillow (design from Urban Threads). This little boy couldn't be more excited about Christmas!


Hope you all have a lovely Christmas xxx

stag beetle embroidery

I love entomology displays and have meant to do this for a while. The head and main part of the body were stitched separately and are wired for shape. the head part is leather padded out with a little felt. I plan to do more as I think I can improve on this one a little so will take some in-progress shots next time. I love how it looks in a box frame, at a glance it looks real. I'm considering painting the frame black, I think it would look better. I will definitely do a bigger frame soon too containing several 'samples'.

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I actually had to unpick the legs once and start again as I managed to stitch the top legs coming out of its head. I was all finished and looked at it from a distance and thought 'that doesn't look quite right.... ' Lesson learned. Don't forget to step back from your work sometimes people!

I get so excited making things like this, I love to sit in the evenings with a glass of wine cup of tea, wearing comfy pyjamas, telly or music on, stitching away. It has become such a big part of my life that in the evenings if I'm not stitching my hands feel empty. Sometimes it seems like a strange hobby, particularly if I'm working on an unusual project and I often stitch things just for the hell of it without any thought of what I'll do with them once I'm done (in fact I have a load of completed embroideries stashed away in a cupboard). I quite like it though when I'm listening to a bit of Tom Waits or Nick Cave doing some stitching and I think to myself 'I wonder how many other people out there are doing this right now?' 

And what do I do with my free time when I'm not stitching? Well I read embroidery blogs, books and magazines of course! 

Urban Threads embroidery

I finished this piece I was making from an urban threads pattern. I don't often use patterns but actually really like some of the urban threads patterns. The subject matter and tattoo style of this appealed to me- I used to stitch a lot of tattoo flash. I think I might do some more tattoo style pieces soon. The strong outlines and solid fills work well for embroidery. I thought this would look good framed up in my bathroom!
Christmas seems to be creeping up on me- There is absolutely loads I want to make; some more decorations, stockings for the boys, a few gifts and christmassy pillowcases. I will be working hard over the next few weeks and am not sure I'll get everything done. How are your Christmas crafts coming on?

stitch and send

Here are my other stitch and send pieces. I kept it nice and simple. The flowery design is from the book The New Crewel and I made a pattern for the chevrons using graph paper.
Hope they make someone smile!