Winter Solstice Plus 1 Day!

Hello Friends, old and new, alike!

Thank you for popping by to see my little blog.

Don't be alarmed or shocked - yes, I have changed my header!

I hope the picture quality is clear enough for you to see it properly.

Is it my imagination, or are the days drawing out already? This picture was taken at 16.24 today.

I send you Seasons Greetings and I hope to post again, this side of Christmas!

Hugs!

Barbara xx

Mid-December stitching

Hello Dear Readers,

I'm sorry I've been quiet for a while!

I meant to post last Monday - but missed my deadline!

Then Tuesday I found I couldn't get warm all day no matter how many heaters we had on, or sweaters or blankets I wrapped around me! By Wednesday I found out why! Without going into too much detail I have been suffering with the winter tummie virus, so I trust you all have your anti-virus programmes switched on, otherwise you might catch it!!

Truthfully, Darling Hubbie has suffered most, as he has had to take over all the shopping, cooking and household duties, not to mention looking after our very demanding little madam cat!

For the whole week I didn't feel in the mood for sewing or for looking at the computer screen for more than 10 minutes at a time - maybe I have that Cyber sickness I've seen reported in the news, too!

So this is what I had intended to post last week!

1.  Crewel Work - nearly there!

Chain, split and long and short stitch

It took me a long while to stitch this tiny flower. The chainstitch was fine but I hadn't stitched long and short stitch before and I really struggled to get to grips with it! I have since ripped out these stitches and restitched this part of the flower.

Then, one day last week, when I was laying in bed feeling proper poorly, I heard the post drop through our letter box onto the hall floor with a resounding thump - I was much cheered as I guessed the noisy object was the book I had been waiting for! And I am now the proud owner of a copy of Crewel Embroidery - A Practical Guide, by Shelagh Amor.

It is a little too late to help me with this flower, but I do have other ideas for Crewel work in the future.

2.  Patchwork Mini Thread Catcher:

A little bit of quilting! This is masking tape, easy to remove,
and easy to stitch alongside.

Not perfect, but I do love quilt lines!

3.  My Christmas project::

I was really pleased when I saw this lovely Christmas Tree was one of Super Mom -No Cape's Vintage Stitchery PDF's. I haven't stitched all the branches from the original pattern, as I was going to add some Christmas Decoration buttons - unfortunately the buttons are a little large for the tree so I am not using them.

I used DMC blanc in 6 strands

For those who don't quilt, the safety pins are quilting safety pins, for basting. I probably bought them about ten years ago, so maybe everyone is using adhesive now, I don't know, but I still use these and they do a good job.

As my heat transfer pencil wouldn't be
visible on red (being pink) I traced the pattern,
in pencil onto tissue paper and stitched
over the pattern.

I had forgotten how hard it is to remove
tissue paper from between stitches!

Starting to add some french knots and
stars around the tree.

Thank you for visiting my blog today, and I hope you would like to say "hello" and then I can visit you too!

I'm linking to Super Mom - No Cape, why not pop over to see what everyone else has been making this week and see the lovely free Christmas PDF that Sue has for us.

Must dash, I'm off to write some Christmas cards!

Hugs!

Barbara xx

Crewel Work

Hello Dear Reader,

Thank you for popping by.

I have spent some time since last week completing the main flower head, and now have the French Knots in the correct colour!

Perhaps pale green wasn't the best colour to use for the grid on the second leaf - seemed like a good idea at the time!

Wasn't sure how to tackle this leaf,
but I stitched the grid first, and then
surrounded it with three rows of chain stitches 

A little closer!

Then I hit a stumbling block on the last flower! 

Shelagh Amor's picture, which is guiding my stitches, shows Long and Short stitch, on the bell shape flower, which I want to try out but can't quite fathom how!

Picture from Shelagh Amor's book

I know the theory but the photo I'm following appears to show the tiniest amount of shading at the top of the area to be stitched, and I just can't get my head around how to start. No doubt I will work it out. I've looked at many examples but they don't seem to be stitching in the same direction as my flower!

Last flower: I stitched the outline in split stitch,
and embroidered pink chain stitches.

Having thought about this some more, and looked at yet another book on the subject, I have decided I will start just above the pink flower where it meets the lower edge of the bell shape, and I understand the stitches should slant towards the stem.

Apart from my crewel work I have managed a few stitches on Izzy's dress:

This is part of the dress I am making for my doll (Izzy).

I find I can't embroider without the support of a frame, can you? So, as the stitching was an afterthought, I had to use a picture frame to support the embroidery - just hoping I can iron the creases out after stitching!

I have also spent a few minutes on my thread catcher.

It is a while since I quilted and I almost forgot I had
 these pins for basting!

That's all for now and I haven't even looked at my Christmas stitching yet!

I hope you would like to say "Hello", then I can visit you too!

Have a great week.

Hugs!

Barbara xx