Just in case …

you are suffering from passion flower/dahlia deprivation – I thought I would continue with flower images – but not tweaked – I’m all tweaked out [for now].

So I have gathered together all my flower photos and will post some of them – not all, I promise. Why do I photograph so many flowers when I don’t do flowery embroidery? Is my subconscious trying to tell me something?

A bit unseasonal – my favourite flower  photographed last Easter in Yorkshire. When the sun was shining.

 

 

We’ve had a quiet day today – well, I have. W. has demolished a boat. As you do. It was left over from an adolescent interest of Cheeses Major and Minor – in between judo and girls, as I remember. But 15 years on – it had become just a tad rotten, so it has been chopped up and will go to the dump – er ‘Household Waste and Recycling Centre’.

I was going to do some Bansky-inspired embroidery.

So I made a bag. Bad, bad Cheshire!

I came across this link to Terry Atkinson’s pattern for a sock sack – which is a bag for your sock knitting, not your socks – although you could of course keep socks in it …

But as my current computer knitting is socks – it was obviously compulsory to make a sock sack.

So I did.  And for once I stuck to the pattern – apart from adding a lining and using cord for the ties rather than fabric tubes.

You can see that, as advertised, it is the right size for socks-in-progress.  The patch/zip is a pocket – which is long enough for spare sock needles, but would also take a tape measure, stitch markers etc. – possibly even a notebook and pencil.

It’s a nice pattern and I’m tempted to make another one. Not that I have more than one set of socks on the needles but it reduced my stash a bit, and I’m sure I could find something else to put in it.

It has been a funny week -

a rather stressful time on Sunday, and lots of interruptions to routine which have left me feeling very uncreative. Fortunately I had some odds and ends to finish off, including the pincushion – which has become a needlecushion. I have several needlebooks but find the needles usually fall out – I hope this will be safer.

And yes – I know what it looks like – not intentionally! I suppose it is rather pervy to have a boob full of needles. Wensleydale said it looked ‘defensive’ but those needles point in, not out!

I have completed the embroidery for the bag - almost - I think it need an extra row or two of cream along the left hand side. Now I have to find some fabric for the rest of the bag - which will probably call for a visit to Fabric Warehouse, although I may wait till I go to the Knitting and Stitching Show.

This is also finished - although as the recipient is doing some modelling later this month and will receive the clothes she models, I suppose she won’t want the things her granny knits or acquires from charity shops any more. [Only joking, Mrs Cheese Minor!]

I think all this procrastinating is because I don’t know what to do about this.

This started as a sample of a technique from Maggie Grey’s book ‘From Image to Stitch’. The original was a photo I took of autumn leaves, which I Hockneyised.

If you don’t know about the Hockneyiser [sorry – Hockneyizer – US spelling!]– it is great fun.

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/hockney.php

I used the ‘no frames’ version and ended up with this.

Then I printed it on to cheapo drawing paper and stuck the print on to Vilene Funtex – probably not a good idea as it gunged up the needle but I didn’t have any felt in the right colour.

Then it was machine embroidered, cut into strips, woven and painted – and it looked too good to be just a sample.

So – I found a piece of felt for the background and embellished it because it was a bit boring. Then I found a serendipitous piece of hand dye for the background to the background. [I don't know why this photo looks so blue - the other one is more accurate.]

And now I need to add some hand stitch and it is not telling me what it needs.

Anyone got any suggestions?

Today was a very unusual day.

It was sunny! And warm enough to be out in the garden! We were trying to work out how often that had happened this summer – and decided no more than half a dozen times.

And the Met Office has issued a severe weather warning for the South tomorrow – very heavy rain and possibly thunder.

Now some people may think that a sunny Saturday means gardening – or sport [shudder]. But of course it really means sitting in a comfortable chair outside with some hand embroidery.

Unfortunately this is on hold till I can get some more cream wool – annoying as one reason I started it was to try to reduce the stash. However it has rekindled my interest in needlepoint. I used to do quite a lot BC&G [before C&G], although using kits – or other people’s patterns – Shock! Horror! I am thinking of a cushion, also based on Uzbek designs, but in inauthentic blue to go with the sofa - and to use up some more stash.

Instead I worked on this, which I had started during an insomniac morning when nothing else appealed.

Although it may be hard to believe it will eventually become a pincushion and was inspired by this:

http://ivoryblushroses.blogspot.com/2008/08/sea-dreaming.html

While you’re there have a look around – Lisa does some wonderful stuff. I want to embroider like her when I grow up – although my stuff would probably be a bit louder.

I enjoy doing crazy quilting - I find it gives semi-instant gratification [provided you haven’t decided to make a quilt!] and once you have made your block, design becomes a series of choices about seam treatments. I am useless at inventing stitch combinations so I Googled around to seek inspiration. Lisa’s are beautiful – but why do so many crazy quilts look like a dogs dinner?

You may think that someone who puts her name, in naff plastic beads, on her work may be living in a glass house and shouldn’t throw stones – and you may be right – but just because the Victorians used every colour in the rainbow – do we have to? The Victorians were not, on the whole, noted for their taste. Not until William Morris. And the Victorian quilts I have seem seem to use a lot of dark/saturated plain colours - not everything in the scrap bag.

And I can justify the beads – I felt the block needed some more white to balance the lace. Mind you, I am not altogether happy about the lace – but I like the border on it so it is staying!

And finally – to return to my experiments with sewing with plastic magazine wrapping. Should anyone be mad enough to want to do the same - I have experimented with every sample that has come into the house since – and none of them have worked. The only one that came close was the wrapping from ‘The Psychologist’ – which I realise is not widely available. Unfortunately I cannot remember the source of the successful sample although it might have been ‘Cloth, Paper, Scissors’. I will keep testing and let you know if I find anything which works.