Samplers galore

Yes ... my sampler book is finished! I'm really pleased with the results and have learned so many new techniques along the way - some I will definitely re-visit, others I probably won't. (never say never!)

 

The cover and first four pages are a mixture of cross stitch and back stitch.

 

A little sampler and blackwork

 

Blackwork sampler and Assissi work

 

More Assissi work and a page of Hardanger - I didn't much enjoy the Hardanger - all that thread cutting proved a little stressful

 

More Hardanger and a page of decorative darning

 

More darning and some drawn thread embroidery

 

A drawn thread sampler and a page of pulled thread embroidery

 

and the back cover is back to cross stitch and back stitch 

I also realised today that I never showed you the completed piece of Casalguidi embroidery that I did on the workshop at Gawthorpe Hall last month ...

Casalguidi is traditionally worked in white thread on white fabric but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I very very rarely stitch in pure white - in fact I had to buy the thread for the raised bar especially for the workshop.

Last week's workshop at the Embroiderers Guild meeting was run by Linda Rudkin, who does the most amazing work with natural dyes and silk fibres. She showed us how to mould silk fibres around a variety of objects - I chose a pebble from my garden and a small bowl. Again, I'm really pleased with the results and will definitely be doing more of this.

A miniature bedspread

Today's post bridges the gap between my twin passions of stitching and miniatures. The lace bedspread that I showed you a couple of weeks ago is now finished.

and here it is draped on the bed from the retreat.

I bought some 1/48th scale bookends from Petite Properties the other week and of course I couldn't resist making a start on them. Cute aren't they?

This is the front. The two houses are mirror images of each other. These are the first buildings of this scale that I've bought and I'm amazed at the amount of detail in the kits.

I also finished the roombox for the sewing room - all decorated too.

Last week I was in London and on the Sunday I went around the Brick Lane and Spitalfields markets with my son and daughter, and daughters boyfriend. Some of the buildings in the area are ultra-modern, whilst others take the term shabby-chic to a whole new level. I thought I'd share some of my photos with you as I feel some of these buildings are just crying out to be copied in miniature.

Yes, that really is the house number on the door - crazy!!

Just across the road is this one which looks a bit like a strong room but with those quirky little cut outs in the panel above.

The shutters stop people staring inside but still allow light into the room.

A sewing cabinet

I've made a little progress on my 12th scale sewing room - still no walls yet though, as you can see. Life feels to have been pretty hectic recently and I've just not managed to find the time to go down into town to buy foam board to make them. They'll happen eventually.

However, the table now has fabric draped across it and piled underneath it, the dressmaker's model has a coat of paint, and the sewing cabinet is filling up.

I rubbed the paintwork down a little on the outside of the cabinet to make it look a little more worn, and then lined the doors.

There are balls of wool and a jar of tiny buttons on the top shelf and rolls and bales of fabric on the middle shelf. The bottom shelf holds books and magazines.

This small drawer is filled with knitting patterns

and there's more fabric in the bottom drawer.

I've also been making a lace bedspread - not quite finished yet but enough for you to see I think.

This one is destined for the bed in the retreat.

Stitching workshops

I know it's been a while but my excuse is that I've been away stitching. A group of friends and I spent a whole wonderful week in mid-Wales at my needlelace tutor's studio. A truly inspirational place! The countryside is gloriously lush (especially after all the rain we've had in the UK this summer) and her studio walls and every available surface are lined with pieces of her work and then there are the threads - box after box of Oliver Twist and Stef Francis hand dyed threads, the full range of Finca Perle 16, machine embroidery threads, and I didn't even look at all the mixed media materials!

My purpose for the week was to learn how to do needle lace grids. I'd painted six small squares on each of two pieces of calico fabric and outlined them in tea-dyed cotton tape in readiness. They're destined to become covers for my sample books when they're completed. Want to see?

 

This one is complete now (just finished this morning) and is my attempt at a more abstract and less  traditional style of lace.  

And this is the traditional one, still on the pillow which I'm using to keep the tension even. The two centre squares are complete but the others all still need quite a bit of work.

This is another fun piece of lace which may well end up as a hanging ornament I think. The original plan was to turn it into a hot air balloon for the Guild of Needle Laces competition but I lost momentum on that and didn't get it finished in time so I don't think I shall bother to make the basket now. This was fun to do once the polystyrene ball was finally covered with single corded brussels stitch!

I finished the bargello needle case from the Saturday workshop, which I told you about last time I wrote I think.

And then this last week I went to Gawthorpe Hall in Lancashire for the first of two day workshops to learn how to do Casalguidi embroidery. First introduced in a tiny village in Tuscany of the same name, this style of embroidery seems to be enjoying a bit of a revival. I was interested to learn as it uses some of the same techniques as needlelace, but also borrows from pulled thread work, needleweaving and stumpwork.

We began by stitching the pulled threadwork background. Here I've just started to lay the coil of threads which will form the basis for the raised bar which is one of the main characteristics of this style of embroidery.

and here's my sample piece of the satin stitched raised bar. This will be covered next week in raised stem stitch and we're also going to learn how to make wrapped threads and needlewoven picots and triangles.

Oh, and last but not least, I'm still working away at my sampler book.

These are the pulled threadwork pages - still a bit of work to do on the bar sampler on the left hand side, as you can see if you enlarge the photo. Two more pages and the cover and this will be finished!

Miniature sewing room

I started on some new minis! Inspired by an article in a magazine I saw a few months back, I've decided to make a little sewing room scene, trying to use what  I already have in my workroom. So here are the first few items ...

I covered a piece of foam board with scrap book paper for the floor.

 I took a cheap wardrobe, painted it all white, made some shelves and lined all the inside with scrapbook paper.

I lined the drawers with the same paper.

I made a table from some scraps of wood

The rolls of fabric are glued and rolled around pieces of dowelling and the bolts of fabric and lace are glued around pieces of mountboard.

Holidays and finished pieces

I've been away for quite a few weeks I know but I've been away - that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it. First my brother came to stay for two weeks and, as he has a car and I don't, we made the most of the good weather. We went to Brodsworth Hall ...

The building is owned by English Heritage and has been preserved in what can best be described as a state of faded grandeur... very faded. The grounds are both extensive and beautiful with lots of ancient trees and some beautiful statues.

We also went to Lotherton Hall, which has been restored by the National Trust to its original beautiful condition. Again, there are amazing gardens, including a very extensive collection of birds as well as a deer park.

I had a week at home and then I travelled up to Scotland - along the Galloway coast, which is an area I've visited only briefly in the past. I stayed in a hotel on the clifftop - 90 steps up from the village of Portpatrick itself and, although the weather wasn't great, I still enjoyed the scenery, and I love being in Scotland whatever the weather.

In and amongst I've managed to do a little stitching.

First is this little sewing kit, made for the September sewing challenge on Liz's blog.

I'm also going to enter this into our Embroiderer's Guild competition in December, for which we were invited to make something useful. I think that this qualifies.

Of course, there is also more lace ...

A little sampler of Venetian Gros Point edgings, which is just the right size to use as a drinks mat.

and these blue flower seed heads, which are destined to hang on my bedroom wall.

And on the miniature front, a very little something which we made at our last group meeting ... a bunka rug.

You just draw out your design on a piece of cotton fabric, unravel your bunka cord, apply glue to your design, one small area at a time, and stick down the bunka thread. Simple!

Now I'll be missing next week as well as I'm off to spend a week in Wales at Pat Gibson's studio stitching more lace. See you all in October!