A trip to London

I'm just back from a trip to London visiting my son and daughter and wanted to share with you a few of the things that inspired me whilst I was there. It was a busy week but great fun. My daughter and I went to the Spring Knitting and Stitching Show at Olympia and of course I had to add to my stash.

Some wooden block stamps from Colouricious and some beautiful pure linen threads - two neutrals and a bright citrus yellow, which just reminded me of the daffodils blooming in my garden.

There were also hand dyed pure silk threads - these feel gorgeous and the sheen on them is incredible. Silk ribbons in shades of lilac and lavender, and a piece of lovely floral printed linen to make cushions for my bed.

My son and I visited the Beyond Dorado exhibition at the British Museum but no photographs of that of course - or of the exhibition of David Bailey's photographs at the National Portrait Gallery which we went to later in the day.

We took a walk through Nunhead Cemetery - a beautifully peaceful place with a little chapel in the centre, now damaged by fire, but still with some stunning architecture.

and another church in the centre of Covent Garden with memorials to lots of actors and other theatre celebrities of the past - more inspiring carvings here, which may one day find themselves translated into stitch.

Yesterday two friends and I visited the studio of a wonderful local textile artist Anne Brooke. Check out her work here if you're not already aware of it. Lots of paper and stitched pieces based on seed pods and dandelion heads. We're joining her workbook workshop in May and really looking forward to that.

No actual stitching to show you this week I'm afraid but I do hope that these few images inspire you too.

Finishing projects

Now that the napkins for my daughter are completed I've moved onto the next big project which needs to be finished - a rather spectacular cross stitch kit which my son bought for my birthday last year. I did start it last summer but then with one thing and another it got put to one side but now the light has improved it's come out of storage to be worked on again.

It is a design by Thea Gouverneur entitled 'Mother of God' and uses 54 different colours of thread!
I saw a stitched sample in a shop in the Yorkshire Dales last year and instantly fell in love with its watermarked, weathered appearance - so reminiscent of some of the beautiful icons I saw in Russian churches.

This is how far I've got. Can you see where this bit fits? Right in the centre.The little piece of blue is the top of the dress. Worked on very fine aida fabric with one single strand of thread it is going to take a while.

I'm taking a trip to London shortly with lots of exciting things planned - a trip to the Spring Knitting and Stitching Show at Olympia, a visit to the British Museum to see the Dorado exhibition, and to the David Bailey photographic exhibition at the National. We're also going to the Country Living Spring Fair and finally a trip to the theatre. I shall be exhausted when I come back! but should have lots of things to show you on my return.

In the meantime I thought I'd share photographs of a favourite peaceful oasis in the centre of the city. This is St Dunstan's in the East - a church which was bombed in the second world war and, instead of rebuilding, it was turned into a public garden. Once inside it's hard to believe that you're in the centre of London as it is so peaceful.

Enjoy your Sunday everyone!

It's beginning to feel like spring

Well the sun is shining at least. In my garden primroses and crocuses ...

... and above my desk, a spring banner

A couple of weeks ago I went to a workshop entitled 'Quilt as you Go', at a new shop which opened last autumn in Halifax (Yorkshire) called Fabbadashery. I didn't really know what to expect but I made this cute little needlebook.

The idea is that you choose fabrics which don't match, team them with embroidery thread which clashes and then embellish to your heart's content. I added a little pocket on the inside of the front cover to hold a needle threader. I shall make little fabric labels to tell me which needles are kept on each page.





I've also been stitching lace - I knew you wouldn't be surprised :-)

Isabella is almost finished. It's difficult to tell from the photo but she and Magda are around 35cm tall so they will make a striking pair mounted on grey fabric in black frames.

I've also been hem stitching napkins for my daughter - for the past few months but they're finally finished. There are six in all, two of each of three colours, a dusky pink, slate blue and a dusty purple. Hope she will be pleased with them!

A group of us (five in all) from my Embroiderers Guild branch have begun a travelling book. Each of us owns an A5 book and we've started our own books off this month by making a cover, a title page and our signature piece. Next Monday at the monthly meeting we will pass our book onto the next person in the group and they too will stitch a piece to fit into the book. The left hand page holds the inspiration for the piece - which might be anything ... a poem, a collage, a piece of embroidery ...
My signature piece had to be needlelace didn't it?

And finally ...

my 1/4" scale stationmaster's cottage is at last beginning to take shape. Lots of furniture to make yet but the exterior is almost finished.

Shabby shop finished

Sorry it's been a while since I was last here but sometimes life just gets in the way. However ... my little shabby shop box is now finished so there are lots of photos here.

 

 I realised just now that you can't actually see inside the wardrobe which contains bales of fabric, cards wrapped with lace and some pretty boxes.

 More fabric inside this low shelving unit, topped with baskets of wool, bags of patchwork fabrics and dress patterns.

 There are cushions piled inside the little cupboard in the centre of the floor and plants, birdhouses and jugs.

Vases and more gift boxes on the little wall shelves. Patchwork fabric on the wire shelves.

Flowers everywhere.

In and amongst I've been taking an online workshop on developing sketchbooks. If you're even slightly interested in the topic I can heartily recommend Dionne Swift's workshops. We worked at our little books for two weeks and I now have so many circular ideas for stitching projects and also lots of new techniques for working in my sketchbooks.

Work in progress on a cold February Yorkshire day

I know that some of you who live far away from here are suffering heatwaves but here in Yorkshire it's cold. Not wet today (for a change) but still cold. On days like this I like to get out in my garden (it's small so it doesn't take long) and walk around to see what's happening. There's not a lot of colour out there but what there is I took pictures of to share with you.

Can you see the snowdrop? There are two buds just on the verge of opening - how I love to see the first snowdrops of the year. They really lifted my spirits.

 The primroses are still flowering despite their frequent batterings from torrential rain and frosts.

 The hellebores too, beside the garden pond.

And indoors an orchid flower which has been open since early December. It's fading a little now and has lost most of its greenish tinge, but it still makes me smile every day.

So, what else have I been doing? Well, there's a little progress on the shabby shop.

 I put a couple of coats of paint on the mouldings. There's more to do on this yet to knock back the dark grey patches.

 The window is painted and fitted, and I've coated the outside walls with PVA glue and crumpled tissue. This will be painted when the glue has dried and it will look like rough render.

On the stitching front ...

 Mostly I've been stitching the outlines (cordonnets) for the workshop pieces. The workshop is now just eight days away and I still have a few more to go. In between I have stitched samples of the stitches I plan to teach the 30 people who've signed up. I know it's far too many but I didn't think to set a limit as I never dreamed that so many people would be interested. So - a valuable lesson learned and I'm getting as prepared as I can, remembering the old adage "Failure to prepare is preparing to fail".

I need a little respite from stitching outlines occasionally so in between times I've been stitching Magda's friend Isabella.

I made this little patchwork project bag a few weeks ago and forgot to show you. Just two log cabin blocks made from striped and checked fabrics in lovely faded red and linen colours.

And last but not least ... Red Square. There is a lot more work to do on this yet but it will be a real celebration of all the gorgeous red silk fabrics in my stash.

Revamping a room box

Finally I've got around to doing something mini! I know I have so much stitching to do but this morning I awoke with the urge to create so ... As it's Sunday the craft shop in town won't be open (and anyhow a trip to town would take up all the crafting time available) I decided to re-purpose and revamp a couple of existing room boxes.

Some of you may remember my little shabby shop ...

Well, it had become a bit of a dumping ground for odd bits and pieces that didn't currently fit anywhere else and was looking a bit cluttered and tired - ripe for renovation.

And this sewing room was a better size for a shop - taller and very slightly wider.

Both boxes are just made of foam core board glued to picture frames so I emptied everything out of both and prised the sewing room box from its frame.

 I decided to put a window in one side wall and cut an opening to fit a beautiful sash window which I had stashed away waiting for such an opportunity.

I then cut strips of mount board to form a shop front, pieced them all together and glued them to the front of the box.

That's as far as I've gone today. Tomorrow I shall paint the window frame (which will be interesting as the 'glass' is already fitted in the window) and the shop front. Watch this space soon for more progress.

A very belated happy new year!

Where has the time gone?! It's almost a month since Christmas and I still feel to be playing catch up. I have a couple of new pieces of stitching to show you and one which you've seen before but is now completed, and then a couple of new ventures to tell you about.

So first, the completed piece. I'd like you all to meet Magda...

She has no feet in this photograph but I can assure you that she is actually wearing a pair of beautiful scarlet shoes. This week when I go to town I shall buy frames for both her and her friend Isabella, who I'm working on at the moment. Isabella is dressed in 1920's style in much more delicate colours. I think they will make a striking pair for my lounge wall.

 For months, in and amongst, when I felt in the mood, I've been crocheting hexagons, destined for a cosy blanket, a little like an updated version of the granny square blankets I remember from my childhood.

I finally decided that I had made enough to fashion a lap blanket, which will keep my legs warm on the cold nights to come.

I've also been working on a new book. This little one is destined to go to a friend, but I promise I'll show you the pages before I hand it over. It's all very delicate with silk ribbon embroidery and lots of lace stitched onto the pages.

Now for the new ventures ...

Early in February I'm running another needlelace workshop at my Embroiderers Guild branch. I admit to being slightly concerned about this one as 28 people have signed up! That feels like quite a large number to manage on my own, though at least a few of them have done a little of this type of embroidery before.

I've decided to keep things relatively simple so each person will stitch one small panel (6cm x 10cm) which they can then stitch onto a piece of fabric and stick it onto the front cover of an A6 notebook. The beginners will be able to choose between the two designs on the left of this photograph - the ones with three simple oblongs to fill. The other two designs are for those with a little experience. Everyone will get a sheet with all four designs on it though so they can practice more at home. They'll also get a sheet showing a route for laying the cordonnet for each design, and diagrams of how to do the stitches that I'll be teaching them.

We only have about 4.5 hours to work on these pieces so in order to save a little time I'm planning to stitch all the cordonnets for them so they can get straight on with learning the stitches. So - lots of preparatory work to do here in the next three weeks!

The other new track I'm following at the moment is getting to grips with using sketchbooks more effectively when I'm designing an embroidery. In the past, ideas have just been worked straight onto fabric and pieces have evolved as they go along. But last November two friends and myself decided that we would set ourselves a group challenge each month to work in our sketchbooks to design a piece of embroidery related to the title. We don't have to actually stitch the piece - just come up with the design.

November's topic was 'Palimpsest'

No ... I didn't know what it was either (apparently a parchment which has been scraped and re-used), so the idea was that we did a piece of work which showed how something had changed over time.

My inspiration was this statue which was attached to one of the buildings at my old school, and which had been removed 50 years on for health and safety reasons. Gladys, as she was affectionately called by the pupils, was sculpted by 'Peter' Peri who firmly believed that children would be democratised by surrounding them with things of beauty. The thing that upset me most when I visited the school last year, was that she had been ripped from the wall, leaving her feet still attached - a most unceremonious end I thought.

My finished design was to be worked in patchwork.

December's topic was, appropriately enough, Winter

I find that when I'm researching a piece of work I most often turn to my books of poetry and quotations for inspiration, then work them up into a mind map and take it from there.

 My family were visiting over Christmas and we went for a walk in a local park where I took these photographs of beautiful black lace trees, like the ones mentioned in the poem.

 Then I raided my magazine pile for more wintry photographs

and came up with the idea of a 3" fabric covered box.

January's topic is 'Joy' - so far I have a mind map and a colour 'map' of a sunset using squares cut from magazines.

Not entirely sure where this one will go yet but I have to say that I'm enjoying the journey.