Two Steps Forward And One Step Back....Two Finishes And One Start....

Tee Hee

It certainly is never a step back no matter how many projects you purchase or transition to WIP's in the needlework world, just starts and finishes. Commencing a new project is just a pure joy and a delight....but one surely does feel like they have made a gain when a project is fully constructed and signed off as completed and this week I managed two.

I have to confess though that one of them has been sitting so very nearly completed since February as I needed to order some more gold couching thread to attach the finishing touch of the gilt 1 1/2 twist....but excuses aside that did arrive some time ago and it has taken all that time to get back into the rotation. 

But now that I have rekindled the love and finished the project I am thrilled and delighted with the result and can now look at this bright and shining elizabethan beauty in my curiosity cabinet and not sitting in a bag on the floor of my studio.

The Floral Glove is finished and ready for admiring glances....

The second project that made it onto the finished and completed tick list this week was the Sheperd's Bush Fold and it looks real pretty mounted into the lid of that beautiful plum coloured shaker box. Very happy with the result of this quick and enjoyable project. I think the second part in the series is going to show up at my door soon as I have been billed by Silver Needle. A quick little stitch for me as I do tend to take on long and complicated projects as the norm.

The project I started this week is a quilt but a quilt with stitchery. The stitchery is monotone and simple, although I might add another colour in, we'll see. I need something portable that I can take places like, kids swimming lessons, so I can stitch away without referring to a chart. I already had this project in my stash so decided to make a start....a very small start....and this will be a long project as I will only work on it while filling time and there are a total of nine stitchery blocks in the quilt. A simple mix of satin stitch, back stitch and chain stitch on the first block.

The design is a Rosalie Quinlan design called Simply Blessed and I chose the Japanese version of this BOM. There is another version with Nellie Hill brights but it's not so much me.  I decided to purchase the whole pattern set at once which includes the pre printed Japanese Hessian so no tracing required. That's why this sitchery made it into the WIP rotation as the other one's I have require tracing and I wasn't up to doing it the other day when I needed something for that afternoon.

Loving the muted Japanese tones....

Of course my accomplishments this week wouldn't have been possible without the aid of my feline assistant Louis....you would never know he lost his right hind leg a few weeks ago....love those gorgeous blue eyes....

Will post an update on Anne Lawle and the Mirror next week....until then....

.... enjoy the stitching....

The Courage Of Ones Convictions

Last week I posted a link on the Cabinet of Curiosities social site that has created quite some comment. It has been a fabulous transitional journey for me and I have  received loads of positive and encouraging feedback as I make the transition from being defined only by my career choice to being defined by what I simply LOVE to do which is to create. After 30 odd years working on and off as an accountant I found myself 18 months ago in a position where I could take time off to be a full time Mum and 'Fibre and Textile Artist'. I finally have come to a point in my life where I will loud and proudly label myself by what defines ME.

 

The link I came across on one of my many blogging muses was over at the The Textile Blog and was entitled Why Would Anyone Pursue A Creative Path . This was a most enlightening article and opened my eyes to understanding myself as I had been struggling with the lack of interest and outright dismay displayed by many people when they ask 'what is it you do?' . Saying I was a needleworker and interested in 17th century embroidery just wasn't cutting it or getting across my passion for what I do which is not limited to needlework although that is foremost. Most  people just cannot grasp anything other than paint or sculpture as art  and the fibre and textile world has always been undervalued in respect to the skill and time involved in this art. My positivity in my craft needs to be let out!

 

Whatever project you choose to work on and regardless of whether or not you came up with the original idea  I still consider it art. Even if you are constructing something from a kit or embellishing something to make it your own you are still creating using your skills as an artist. Even the most famous painters copied what already existed in nature and the world around them. To work towards completely original ideas one needs to be grounded in ones craft and the skills cemented. I am still learning but working towards designing my own 17th century style casket and it is no small journey.

 

So from now on and with passion I will shout from the rooftops that I am an  ARTIST.

 

As to my achievements this week I think a 'Woe Is Me' might be more appropriate. My time seems to have been sucked up getting the kids sorted and the all the trivia of modern life. It takes a bit to catch up after a long stretch with the kids as your 'adult time' goes on the backburner and I am hoping next week will be more constructive.

 

Small steps were made on the Floral Glove but it is still languishing in bits on my desk...

 

 

The pastoral scene is completed on the Needleworker's Pocketbook and I am plugging away on  the eyelet and satin stitch border. Still heaps of eyelets on this project which sure do take a while. I will be happy to get through this one as I have so much else I want to do but I will jolly well get this done first. I will.

 

 

 

 

Waitangi Day

It's Waitangi day today. Waitangi Day is a nationwide public holiday here in New Zealand. It is supposed to be about celebrating 'one nation' and New Zealand. The Treaty of Waitangi was drawn up by the British Government around the mid 1800's and signed by the participating chiefs from the Maori tribes who were the indigenous peoples at the time.

 

To those of us who are several generations in  and not claiming any Maori descendancy, not that there are any full blooded Maoris left, it is just a yearly cycle of complaint and disruption at the official celebration at a place called Waitangi.

 

We have very liberal government policies here around settling crown land back to Maori tribes arising from the land wars back at the time of early colonisation. But, will it ever be enough.....the day should be about national pride !!!

 

Well the kids FINALLY returned to school yesterday after the 6 week summer holidays but now they are on holiday again today....man!!!....all's I got done was the grocery shop yesterday.

 

Not  a lot of stitching done this week and my crafty space looks like a bombsite.

 

It took me days just to couch the Elizabethan Twist along with the spangles to the edge of the ribbon for the floral glove. It does look pretty but the ribbon is only pinned onto the cuff. I never made my goal of finishing lesson #5 before #6 was issued but it's not too much to do and I think I will work on it tomorrow before the kids are home 'again' for the weekend.

 

 

My room, oh the state of my room. I need to tidy and stash but it takes away my stitching time. Maybe next week for cleanup when are kids are at school for 5 days straight. I suspect I may not be the only stitcher on the planet though with a room that looks like it's in need of attention.

 

I have been regularly stitching in the evenings on the Needleworker's Pocketbook and it's coming along. Just a tree and a deer to complete on the pastoral scene. It was slow going and parts of it were over one.

 

I signed up for Amy Mitten's Spring Casket Keepsakes even though I am barely moving on the Winter edition. The floral treats were just too pretty to pass up on and as one of the early orders I am getting the vintage threads. Woo Hoo.

 

I received my package of the tubular WireLace from Mimi'sGems this week. I ordered a bunch of colourways in the 3mm and 6mm after seeing the stuff used on stumpwork birds & insects by Michele Carragher who embroidered the costumes on the series Game of Thrones. Looking forward to having a play. You can stretch is out horizontally to around 3x it's width and if you pull it vertically it will go back to original size.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To Go Or Not To Go...

....that is the question. I am allowed to go as per the husbands permission but will I decide to go! Today the link came through from Thistle Threads East Coast Embroidered Casket Tour to those of us outside of the USA/Canada to enable us to book for this tour.

 

The tour involves four days of activities:

 

Day 1 - A visit to the Met Museum & shopping in NYC

Day 2 - A visit to the Cooper Hewitt Museum & travel to Boston

Day 3 - A visit to the MFA in Boston & shopping in downtown Boston

Day 4 - A visit to the Lexington Historical Society and a casket finishing course with Tricia from Thistle Threads followed by a reception at Tricia's house

 

All activities sound VERY appealing and the chance to get to view all that 17th century embroidery with expert knowledge supplied by the museum staff and Tricia would be awesome not to mention meeting the extremely talented Tricia and all the other lovely class members.....but

 

....for me living here in little old New Zealand in reality it means....

 

...40 hours plus of flying time with return flights, that's an entire working week spent in the air not to mention the time waiting at airports and all on my own

 

...I would be exhausted when I got there and so would need to arrive early just to sleep and all the travel time far outweighs the time allotted for the tour.

 

...and the big deciding factor for me is that for the cost of the tour/airfares & extra hotel stays not to mention spending while over there and adding to stash I would be able to purchase a double casket form along with the associated customs costs as well as get the new iMac I want and have enough left over to purchase a flattop double casket so....as much as I would like to join the tour it just doesn't stack up!

 

....so any USA ladies reading this blog who want to join the tour and are afraid of missing out due to numbers...there is a slot not taken...by me at least

 

Took me while to let it go though...that feeling of missing out but I will just have to celebrate my 50th with my goodies instead!

 

So ... enough mulling over that and onto the here and now

 

 

Time for a bit of chit chat about what's gone on this week

 

 

The Grow Your Blog party continues and I have spent a bit of time looking at some lovely blogs with many still to go on the list and thank you to all those lovely ladies who have posted your encouraging comments on my blog and become followers of my musings.

 

I still have my kids home on school holidays until 5th February and so have not achieved milestones but here are the results of my plugging away...

 

I have stitched the wings of the butterfly onto the background of the Essamplaire Casket

 

I have couched the old gold lace onto the outine of the Thistle Threads Floral Glove. Need to get a hurry on as The last lesson #6 comes out 1st February and I want to be up to date.

 

My main focus this week has been plugging away in the evenings on the Needleworker's Pocketbook and the pastoral scene is taking shape.

 

I have succeeded in catching up with the latest lesson #5 for the Thistle Threads May Your Hands and am waiting for #6 on 1st February. I can't believe I have done this as I was so late starting this and the saw tooth borders took me what seemed forever.

 

In the piccie from left to right and excluding the painted thread holders (painted by Betsy Krieg Salm) are the finished Thimble Nest, Scissor Keep, Pin Pad and Wax Holder.

 

The final lesson will contain the instructions to complete the other more involved pieces so a bit of work ahead of me. Oh, I also made up the strawberry emery but it is just out of the picture on the left. I will photo it again when the set is complete so you can see then.

 

Have a fun week fellow bloggers and look forward to meeting more GYB participants.

 

A Fabulous Finish Is Near.....

Only eight sleeps to go until Chrissy is here and only four sleeps to go until Amy Mitten releases the first instalment of the Casket Keepsakes AND I am going to finish the mirror for the Mermaid Needlework Treasures before that kicks off.....YES! I am getting prouder and prouder of myself the closer I get to finishing the last raised backstitch. Such a cool project and a cool result. I cannot wait to photograph the set together and to know that .... I DID THAT! 

 

 

The twisted personality thread used to lace the sides sure is correctly named by Amy as it does have  a mind all of it's own but it is endearing and I like it's result.

 

 

 

The antiqued mirror looks amazing and I am loving all sides of this scissor keep.

 

Several rows of raised backstitch to go yet but looking good!

 

 

The May Your Hands has taken a bit of a back seat this week so I can finish the Mermaid.  I so want to be able to show my Mum the completed Mermaid set when she comes for Xmas day.

 

May Your Hands - Thistle Threads

 

I received the two latest kits for the courses that Tricia at Thistle Threads is running. The Tudor Rose started on 1st December and I need to look at 'will I start this'  and the Abby Couzzins starts 1st January. The WIP pile is growing.....no surprises there!!!!

 

 

Now another fabulously simple but highly effective item arrived in the post last week from Country Bumpkin. I received my Supporting Frame with Hand Rest and Trestle which was designed to accompany Margaret Lee's new Chinese Embroidery Book release. It's quite frankly excellent value even with the $80ish  AUD freight to NZ . Easy to put together and to adjust for frame size and angle. It also holds the Millenium Frame and would appear to have a superior slope adjustment.

 

 

 

Fantastique, but I see all these frames are now on preorder for Feb 2014. So glad I ordered mine early on.

 

The slope adjustment is so simple. The little peg with the yellow top just pops into one of the other holes. All other adjustments are screw and wingnut.

A smidge of work got done on the Floral Glove. I hated getting the three strands of Soie de Paris wrapped into the Gilt #1 Lizardine and it is not easy to stretch the gold wires without a slightly wider gap appearing where your thumb nail holds on. They are slightly messy and wider coiled down the bottom but I am hoping it will not be so noticeable when the other gold is applied and the webgimpe. The inner and outer coils of Gilt Pearl Purl Super once applied made the silk threaded Gilt #1 Lizardine pop out due to it's be thicker. I like that result.

 

Still a ways to go to finish the fourth lesson! All the gold needs to be applied in these roundels and the beads in the centre of the rose. Mermaids Treasures took over......

Trucking Along

I am wondering now just when Amy Mitten is going to post the last set of instructions for the Mermaid Treasures mirror finishing. I am keen to put this one to bed and into my display cabinet as a completed set. It's been a while since she last posted but maybe she is busy coordinating the kits for the smalls tutorial that starts December 21st!

 

Meanwhile I have made progress....

 

I finished the Rose Glove scissor holder from the Cabinet of Curiosities project designed to give you a feel for background in gold work. The result is very pleasing but even if I should decide to use this technique on a casket.......will the specialty threads in enough quantity, whatever that may be, ever be available to purchase? There is never any consistent supply of all these fabulous threads which is the real downside.

 

Rose Glove - Thistle Threads CoC

 

I managed to achieve my goal of completing the work required for Lesson #4 of the Floral Glove. I made it with a day to spare before the next lesson was posted. I love this project and it is really starting to bling up.

Floral Glove - Thistle Threads

 

A sweet wee little package arrived for me this week from Trish Burr.

 

I have also been making some mega slow progress on the May Your Hands. Man this linen is hard work on the eyes. I got the border under the word scissors (4 sided stitch), the ABC (satin stitch)  and it's border (rice stitch) and the initials/date (tent stitch) sorted.

May Your Hands - Thistle Threads

 

I really need to start work on the doll for my daughter's birthday which is this Sunday 8th. If I don't get cracking she might not have it until xmas!!!!!....... if she's lucky!!!!!

 

Whew!

 

Empathy & Gloves

I have been reading Amy Wilson's blog  and chuckling at the title of her latest post, The @#$%unplayed piano. I say chuckling as the heading is totally showing her frustration at finishing complex pieces. But I also have total empathy for her as I know how annoying it can be and how finishing can be so darn difficult in respect to the standards you set yourself and the desire to do all those stitching hours justice. The blogger community is great for reminding you that you are not alone out there.

I look at finishing small projects and the frustrations and wonder just how on earth am I going to do justice to the finishing of a 17th century casket and mirror frame let alone all the stitching to come before that. Oh well, it just doesn't pay to look at the bigger picture or too far ahead, baby steps!

 

Baby steps it feels like I have been making in my needlework progress this week, but it is progress.

I have finished the tent stitch on the Rose Glove and have got quite some way towards completing the Elizabethan Knitting stitch for the background. Just need to do above the tent now. It's looking lovely, sparkly and blingey. I must say that working with the 6 end silk gilt thread hasn't been too horrendous. It really is quite flexible and I am not wasting much. I still don't think I would ever want to background a casket in it, too slow and laborious and supply of these specialty threads is always precarious

Rose Glove - CoC Thistle Threads

I  have made some progress also on the Floral Glove. There appears to be a bit of a glove thing going on this week! I have couched the Elizabethan twist 2% around the Rose and it's leaves and couched down the AGT 1451 around the central arabesque.  Looking good. I want to try and finish the carnations before 1st December so I am still up to date with this lesson. BUT I also have a doll to make for my daughter's 7th birthday so not sure if it's going to happen.
 

Floral Glove - Thistle Threads

 

The postie delivered me some goodies from the Essamplaire this morning. Yummy but very BIG projects. Into the stash they go but Margriet had 20% off so I just had to have them. They are Frances Cheney (1664) a whitework sampler and 17th Century Lady Needlework.

Life Is Back To It's Routine

The girls and I had a lovely term break. Dad worked through it. My parents live in Rotorua so we went down that way for a visit. We stopped on the way at Hobbiton near MataMata which is where they filmed the movies 'The Lord of the Rings' and more recently 'The Hobbit'. The movie set, come tourist attraction, is situated on a pristine working sheep farm with rolling hills and sparse but massive old pine trees. Perfect for hobbit houses built into hillsides. Can see why Peter Jackson sourced this site. It is spring time and the day we went there was sunny with blue skies. It is lambing season and there were white dots everywhere. There are normally 6000 head but with lambing it goes up to 14,000 head. The guided tour lasts 2 hours and the houses are soooo quaint with little gardens out the front which are all maintained.

You get a complimentary jug of ale or cider at the 'Green Dragon' at the end of the tour.

 

 

The Party Tree

The Green Dragon Inn from afar

The Green Dragon inside

 

We also went to visit the recently refurbished 'Rainbow Springs' at Rotorua. It is very nicely done with a super playground and 'Big Splash' log type ride where you do indeed get wet! You can also feed the huge trout which is pretty cool for the kids and they have all sorts of birds including the nocturnal Kiwi on display.

 

The All Black Kiwi

 

Now, to the stitching part of the past two weeks. I did manage to get some in along with shopping for some more at the local patchwork shop, a favourite for many years. Jill at Cottage Flair is lovely and I have signed up to do a dimensional quilting course in early November. It is called a Kereru Wall Hanging and the photo does not do it justice. The Kereru is a native pigeon and is big and fat.

 

 

So, to my achievements...... I am up to date again with the Floral Glove having stitched the petals of the rose and the leaves in the roundels. Ready for the next lesson at the start of November. I love this project as the monthly achievements are doable in the timeframe.

 

Thistle Threads - Floral Glove

 

I have also made progress on the Butterfly Pin Keep. I outlined the butterfly in tent stitch before filling and have now started on the sky. This project is part of the Cabinet of Curiosities course and is designed as a practice piece for 17th century shading with tent stitch. It is done on Montrose 1750 linen with 3 strands of Soie De Paris for good coverage as it is 28 ct. As the thread splits so easy I am using a laying tool and would not by choice use this linen for a larger project as would prefer to work with 1 strand in the needle. Still the colours are vibrant and it will look pretty when made up.

 

Butterfly Pin Keep - Thistle Threads

 

I made some small progress on the cross stitch saw tooth border for the May Your Hands. This linen has been washed heaps prior to being kitted and the threads are compact so is slow going.

 

May Your Hands - Thistle Threads

 

I have run out of thread again on the Mermaid Treasures. I still need to do some seed stitch around the top of the mirror. Amy has published the finishing instructions for the Fish Pin Keep and the Scallop Shell but I need this same thread I have run out of to do much of this finishing so I am at a road block and will have to wait until Amy sends the threads. This has been a full on but very enjoyable project and the results in reality are amazing with all the awesome threads.

 

Mermaid Treasures - Amy Mitten