08/20/2013
frilly bits....
OOPs, I'm a bit late today.....did you think I had been checked into a home for the bewildered and childless? Not quite, not yet. I have been to the Podiatrist. I now have the prettiest feet in the whole of Lancashire. Empty nest syndrome still exists...not in a crying way, more in a confused and aimless way. I wander, wondering what's different, what is missing. On the plus side I have less dirty washing, less washing up after eating, more actual food in the cupboards and less wet towels from numerous showers no longer taken. More on the plus side than the minus side then. It's onwards and hopefully upwards from now and it is almost Thursday.....cabinet shopping day....
Today's pictures are of tiny little pretty lace frills, in strips, along with French knots and assorted embroidery stitches on white silk. I have plans for these...can't tell you yet. If I tell you I will have to kill you. Yesterday afternoon was amazingly productive. Not with this piece but with something else that I plan to show you tomorrow. I am hoping that the sun continues to shine for at least another 30 minutes so I can take photographs.
Thank you so much for all the comments and e mails yesterday. I appreciate each and every one and I am positive...I'm not sad. It's just going to take a little getting used to is all....
08/19/2013
where to start?
What a funny day. What a funny feeling. It is the first day of the rest of my life, life as half of a child free couple. I don't quite know what to do with myself. I can do anything, anything I like. When I used to crave time I could always think of things to do....today...my mind is blank.
I know, my son is an adult, a self sufficient adult. He left. What's the difference? The difference is I have nobody to be a mother to on a daily basis. I am no longer needed to take him to work every morning and bring him home every night. That task was done on a voluntary basis by me. As was making him chicken pasta to take for his lunch. He was perfectly willing and very able to do those things for himself. I however loved being a mother, loved doing things for him. I know I will love the new life I can now have, it's just going to take a little getting used to.
Thursday I am going cabinet shopping. I have plans to change the house round a little, add some long wished for furniture that I now have room for. I need my husband home to move things....sadly he is working non stop now until Wednesday evening. I am home alone so to speak. Not a bad thing but something that prevents me moving furniture. Never mind, I will be patient.
In the meantime I can finish the pin pillows, make more lace cloth. I am already ahead with video for class but I can make more, get further ahead. I can sit myself down and think long and hard so the new reality sinks in. The last one is probably the most urgent....
This weekend my daughter came home overnight. Yesterday we went ''up North'' to see family so they don't forget what she looks like. Next time they see her she will be a married woman. We spent the day at the beach, my mum has hired a caravan there for a week to take my nephews on a little holiday. It was a brilliant day....I love those boys to bits. There are photos from that on my Instagram
So all that's left to do is put my brain in gear....give myself a shake, get my sewing machine out, make more lace cloth and speaking of lace cloth....the winner of that is Veronica....I am so sorry you couldn't all have some, truly I am.
08/18/2013
the end and the beginning.....
08/16/2013
surface....relaxing stitching.
More surface embroidery, a pleasure to create, easy stitching whilst relaxing on the sofa with my feet up. This is the calm before....not the storm.....the excitement? the commitment? the investing of time and energy into simply stitch 2 which begins on Monday. It's not too late to sign up. Just look here and peruse for a while if you are undecided. If you are signed up then you should have received your password and things by now. If you haven't then PLEASE let me know.
This weekend? It will be busy. Son and heir moving out. Family gathering on Sunday. And did I mention that my little girl is coming home tomorrow? Big smiles all round.
Next week? Cabinet purchasing. Sorting cupboards out. Numerous trips to the council refuse dump. Clean space. New rooms. New cabinets...did I mention that one already? Can you tell I'm excited? A few lazy, long lie ins in bed? Oh I hope so......
08/15/2013
the pouch, a video
A promise is a promise. I have made you a very short....3 minute.....video about the new pouch. It's white. I used silk. I used metallic silk tissue. I used vintage lace and new lace. There are French knots, bullion knots, web stitches, running stitch, stab stitches, buttonhole lace. There are also plenty of frills and flounces.
Aside from embroidery I have this on my mind (what do you think? a suitable replacement for a son?) and an upcoming trip here, a family thing on Sunday. It's just for the day...I am not leaving home...honest.
08/14/2013
embellished
Pretty
pictures that I promised you yesterday......pin pillows, three tops
finished, a fourth in progress, backing required on all four and then we
have lift off. I am not making any more of these for a while. I don't
want to tire of them. I don't want it to become a pin pillow production
line here, fresh, new and exciting is what I need.
That will reflect my life at the moment. My son moves out at the end of this week....the end of an era. I will miss him, of course I will but I am excited at what this means for me and my long, embroidery related suffering husband. We will have more room, we can make changes, get new furniture...not lots of it but one or two pieces we will now have room for. (don't tell him but mostly it will be glass and cabinet form so I have somewhere lovely to keep yet more embroidery related stuff............ shhhhhhh)
So pin pillows will be extinct for some time....I'm hankering after humungous, human sized pockets. What do you think?
08/13/2013
Lace Cloth...for you....
I did it...phew...a very short video, 3 minutes showing this piece of cloth and how I use it in my work. If you want it...a comment that's all...say anything.....I can take it.......thick skinned...almost impossible to offend that's me.
Now that's done.... so far today has been much less hectic. Up to now and please note it is before lunch here..... I have made 3 videos, yes I know, I'm very pleased with myself. I want to make more later, I am on a roll and planning ahead. I continue to await the arrival of a vacuum cleaner and a fridge freezer but as yet can still make it to the door for air. There has been embroidery going on too, last night, something very pretty that I hope to show you tomorrow. If you are on my pin pillow waiting list then you may hear from me very soon.
***if you have registered for ''simply stitch 2'' you will receive an e mail from me later today. If you do not receive a mail before 10 pm UK time can you please contact me.***
(contemporaryembroidery(at)hotmail(dot)com)
08/12/2013
the list....so far
Wow, thank you for the response yesterday. I think I can assume you do want a little scrappy piece of my lace cloth. I am flattered, really. Yesterday wasn't the actual give away...neither is today. I'm not dragging this out on purpose I promise you but there is so much going on at the moment...as evidenced by my list for today. I don't want to just say here it is...leave a comment...I want to make a little video explaining what it is and what you can do with it, (aside from using it to wash the dog). I hope that will happen in the morning.
The reason for the upheaval here is that my son is moving out on Friday, into his own place, a place he has bought with his girlfriend placing him in debt for the rest of his days. I am proud, he saved so hard to get the deposit together, both of them did. However in the meantime I am taking delivery of various household appliances and domestic related items that are filling my little house up rapidly....The car? No I'm not taking delivery of one of those...I had to take mine to the garage. That is the one thing that has been ticked off the list this morning.
Tomorrow...I have a lot invested in tomorrow. I WILL make a video about the lace cloth. I WILL make a video about my latest pouch for later in the week...tomorrow...don't let me down.
08/11/2013
late.....
I'm late, sorry. Did you think I wasn't going to turn up? I've been everywhere today....you don't want to know. Yesterday however was more productive, I was back to making lace cloth. I did have an idea once upon a time that I would make lots of this cloth and sell it by the half yard. That hasn't happened. The best laid plans and all that. I am using so much of this lately that it's hard to create enough for my own needs. Then I was wondering should I give a little bit away...a give away. Would that be a good idea or would it be like me foisting my tat off on you? Would anyone even want it? I do have a small piece of this which is all white, lace and silk tissue combined, that's the piece I was maybe going to give away. I am still pondering on that one....If I decide it's a good idea and I don't get inundated with mail begging me to keep my rubbish to myself I will think about doing that later this week. Meanwhile it's going to take all my effort having a full day where I am not required to leave the house.....
08/10/2013
a surface
I'm between things at the moment, nothing to finish, don't want to start anything new until simply stitch 2 starts, don't want to work on my sampler cloth as I want to continue with that when we start simply stitch 2. I have plans for that, the sampler cloth, exciting plans but it's too early to put them into practice. Anyway I digress. So being in this ''in between'' state of mind led me to this last night, another surface for a pin pillow. Why not, there's a waiting list you know....
When I get off here I am going to clean my fridge and change my bed. Boy I know how to live, the excitement of my Saturday afternoon....are you jealous?
08/09/2013
petals for a pocket.....
Pockets have been on my mind a lot lately...future pockets, past pockets and pockets in progress. These applique petals are to line a pocket......I hope to show you the whole thing next week, the finished article, everything.....meanwhile today has been madness so far. It's calming down now, I am regaining my composure.
(simply stitch girls stand by your computers...videos are coming)
08/08/2013
sampler cloth
I'm
kind of back...don't know if I'm stopping long. We are coming to the
end of simply stitch, yes really. I have been busy over there and you
should see the beautiful work being produced by the group. To have a browse then just go here.
It blows me away every time I look. There are complicated things of my
own making going on in video form...if you are one of the group reading
this I just know you are laughing at this point....
I will miss this group although some of them are coming along to simply stitch 2 where I will work more on this cloth, this sampler cloth. Simply stitch 2 begins one week on Monday, August 19. There are one or two places left so if you are interested then please read a little more about it here.
Later today I hope to begin more silk hexagons for this piece....but before that I have another complicated, headache inducing video to make....
yesterday was my mums birthday. I think she had a lovely day??? and there are a few pictures from that on my instagram, link top right hand side. Thanks so much to everyone who sent their best wishes to her...
08/06/2013
08/05/2013
frothy cloth hexagons and a tiny jar....
I have been using the fluffy, lace cloth that I created the other day to make hexagons. Why? Well I am considering joining them into strips and using the strips as a means of joining all the pieces for my sample cloth. I will have to try it first, join these and then lay them down, see how they look. If it doesn't work then nothing is lost, I will just have lots of pretty hexagons to use in something else. As I was doing this I had offcuts, little snippets. I am loathe to throw them away, the hoarder in me says they might come in useful sometime in the future so I found a tiny jar to keep them in. If nothing else it looks very pretty on the table.
Before I go...there is a video walk through of doodle doo here...just in case you missed it.
08/04/2013
a video, doodle doo
08/03/2013
back to doodle doo
I am not responsible for the artwork in this ledger. Artwork on these pages was present when I purchased this book. My copyright extends only to the embroidered samples and the photographic images.
I re visited doodle doo this week with the simply stitch group, mounting the samples I had created with my pin tucked silk. The little statement at the top is there as I would hate to offend whoever created these amazing pages. The artwork in this book continues to excite me every time I turn the pages. It may not be Monet or Picasso but that doesn't detract from its charm and its evidence of creative thought. If the purpose of the artist was to inspire then it worked...... I love this book so much.
Back to the embroidery. The samples live here so well I think. This book is crammed now. I am debating with myself as to whether a video ''show and tell'' of this ledger would be welcome? What do you think? There is so much in here, so many samples, some I had forgotten about, some that will inspire again and again..........
If doodle doo is new to you there are several links at the end of this post to past references and images of this book.
08/02/2013
dotted.....
The sampler cloth....it needs more. I need to make more sections before I begin to think about joining them, finishing, adding seams, edges....I took all my pieces out yesterday and assessed.....what does it need more of? embroidery? applique? patches? The answer was it needed a little simplicity. This is the beginning of that simplicity. Dupion silk dotted with motifs...random motifs. A few French knots, a few detached chain stitches, a little bit of cross stitch and the beginnings of the alphabet....an ''a'' to be precise. The ''b'', ''c'', ''d'' etc will follow.
08/01/2013
stitching on pin tucks
There was a point last night where I could have been twiddling my thumbs. I had finished the piece I was working on sooner than I thought I would. What to do? I can't sit with inactive fingers, I just can't. After ten minutes consideration during which time I put the kettle on and made a brew I decided to play with the pin tucked cloth a little. A row of bullion knots, a row of cross stitch and a shorter row of web stitch. Now I have a little sample which can go on a pretty page in a ledger and I didn't go insane through having inactive fingers....result.
( a note to the simply stitch group. You will have a video about this tomorrow....it's going in doodle doo)
brew |
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|
urbanly used in England to describe having a cup of tea.
"Let's go home for a brew."
"Would you like to come in for a brew?" |
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07/31/2013
froth....
I have been playing with this a little bit, creating more cloth with snippets, off cuts, scraps. It reminds me of the froth on a bubble bath....yes really. I suppose you need to see it in ''real life'' to get a proper sense of that......you will just have to trust me.
07/30/2013
pin tuck
Remember yesterday I was convinced I was boring you all? Well I finally figured out that I was boring myself. I needed something else to look at. A few days ago someone mentioned pin tucked fabric to me. That got me thinking....I'm quite partial to a bit of pin tucked fabric myself. So after the bathroom was cleaned and before the salmon was cooked I got my sewing machine out and pin tucked a piece of silk to play with. Ta da!! Here it is....I played with it a little last night and guess what? I don't like the embellishments much but I adore the cloth...it has possibilities, it handles beautifully....so despite not being overjoyed at the adornments all in all it was a worthwhile pastime.
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