red stripes...

It's a happier Karen today, feeling so much better Sore throat but not much else. I credit this wellness to blogging, got to be...oh and also the valentines card, unsigned????  My money is on Robbie Williams or David Beckham. They have to be anonymous, imagine the scandal. I definitelty couldn't cope with the paparazzi...

(of course it was from my other half...such a beautiful card too, thankyou xxx)

Applique circles of red striped fabric, they look so good next to the white and no running when they were damp stretched either.

a little look for you here at my wedding piece too. Told you I had made good progress. It is still to be damp stretched but that will come after one or two other little things I am thinking of adding, nothing certain yet, just a maybe.

There is a debate going on here at the moment beteween me and myself! The wedding piece is almost done, ticked off. I have toe wrap two well under way. I still have to finish the hook and eye pieces that were suddenly not required until april...so what to do next. I am half thinking make more sketchbooks for the shop, no point having a section on here about how to embellish my sketchbooks if I haven't actually got any.....decisions, decisions...oh and I am doing an exciting guest post soon that needs some kind of attention in advance...I will share more about that nearer the time. Looks like I am going to need some of that skill I sadly lack....organisation....

ignore the raggy edges and loose threads...

My absence yesterday was due to me having a few ''raggy'' edges of my own...I thought relaxing and taking it easy, embroidering and handling cloth would make me feel better...nope, I feel worse if anything so why stay away again..this may make me feel better., Anyway, back to the real raggy edges and loose threads...I played with my so far embellished sections of toe wrap 2, seeing how they look together, rearranging a little. Tell you what, I was pleasantly suprised. It all fits better than I thought in terms of fabrics, colours etc. I do think I need to add a little more of the red stripe for balance but in order to avoid the panic of running colour I have since washed that cloth and hopefully the running won't happen again.

Friday,  after page cutting and book wrapping I embroidered a section of the piece with the prairie points. Little heart cutouts with fine cotton lawn showing through. For the next stage of this I think I will add some applique with the red stripe, that's for later. My inbox is crammed with unanswered stuff. I am going to try and get started on that soon, be patient though...please.

Yesterday as I sat all forlorn and feeling sorry for myself I made amazing progress with my wedding piece, that's almost finished I think. Not ready for stretching yet and I will need a good weather day to get images but suffice to say I am more than happy with the result so far.

waiting....

I have so many pieces waiting for attention it's a bit like eeny meeny miny moe round here. The internet, the computer, the camera, the printer are all conspiring to keep me from embroidery. My morning routine generally consists of check e-mail, answer e-mail, take pictures, edit pictures ( an unbelievably long job), post blog, post flickr, post facebook and update shop if there's anything to put in there that is. The way I'm going there won't ever be anything to put in there, too much computer. That's why I was happy to find two little ''patches'' languishing in a folder upstairs...they are now photographed and in the shop...productive morning then. Thing is it's 1 pm now and I have done no embroidery at all. When I have done this I have to go to the post office, I have to print more books, I have to go and collect my son at 5 then I have to make a meal, sort the kitchen out.....it will be a late sewing session today then..

I get to my sewing time and that's when eeny meeny miny moe comes in...a pile to finish and my wedding piece.. The wedding piece is my priority so that's tonight sorted out then.

Last night I was tired, didn't trust myself with the wedding piece, white on white. You need to be awake to do that, not half dead on the sofa drinking copious amounts of coffee, hoping the phone doesn't ring because you would struggle to put a coherent sentence together, so I made some little, pretty, delicate puffs for the piece I showed you yesterday. My stuffing is very forgiving, doesn't mind being man handled and pushed around at all, requires very little attention in fact so was very manageable. Only made 4 though....very poor show Karen.... allthough I would have been more unhappy had I made nothing so 4 has to be a result...

darker than dark....

O.K. who put the lights out??? I swear it's like the middle of the night here. I love winter it's my favourite season, grumpy in heat and all that but boy...please can we have some sun, only for half an hour, just long enough for me to take pictures...please!! Right, moaning over, off my chest....last night I basted more stitched paper to my wedding piece and embroidered around 6 more cutwork hearts with lace inserts. I should mention that the paper will look quite different once I have finished the surface stitching. I am going to add lots of french knots and those other round things that I embroider whose name eludes me.

I also managed to make a start on the edge of one of my pile of unfinished pieces. I am quite excited about these actually, they were languishing in one of those black artist folio things when I came across them during my housework marathon on friday. I made them for a show I did once, more as samples but I think with a little extra work they will be more appealing to the buying masses...whoever they are.

My printer is working overtime too, I seem to be constantly feeding it with paper. I'm not complaining at all it's just that it's in a different room to my ''comfy'' chair so I have to keep getting up and checking it...good for the knees I suppose, (or maybe not) It's not even a route that takes me past the kettle, if it was I could kill two birds with one stone. Don't let anyone ever tell you that us stay at homers lead sedentary lives!! I walk miles putting my kettle on...virtually worn a track in my carpet.

Sorry to let you down too but today I MUST iron...the pile is too high. Perhaps it is sunny outside after all and it's the pile of ironing blocking out the light....I will let you know in four hours when I've done it all........

white silk and embroidered paper...

Embroidered white paper for my wedding comission.....at the moment loosely tacked to the white silk with text.

So far the embellishment is minimal, a few random stitches and some cutwork hearts with lace inserts. Tacking is still visible as there is a lot more embroidery required. I did however damp stretch the piece last night prior to showing it today. It will be damp stretched again numerous times before it is finished. As far as I know damp stretching only ever enhances the cloth, that's my experience anyway.

I really must mention too how shocked I am at the reaction to yesterdays pieces...so many of you love them, that's amazing and thankyou.

The unmentionable is now mentionable...phew!! For the past two weeks I have been trying to put together a little publication of my work. I shifted between ideas, more text than images?? Lots of instruction and diagrams?? Very hastily printed but poor quality?? In the end I settled on lots of images, very good quality images that do the embroidery and fabric manipulation justice, few words yet words in the form of little prompts and ideas to get you going....It has been much more complicated than I ever imagined, has used way more ink than I thought it would but finally I think I am ready to go. The printer has been working overtime since monday and all that is left is for me to get it all together and stitch a few spines. In the morning I hope to have them finished, wish me luck...

news of a wedding piece....

No, it's not for them. You know, the people who are getting married on April 29th, my little girls birthday. They couldn't afford me! This is for a lovely lady whom I shall only refer to as ''A'' because we don't want to give anything away do we. I am reliably informed that the bride doesn't know I exist which is a good thing. It means I can work on her cloth and show you without spoiling the suprise. A very unusual yet good thing happened in relation to this piece, the wedding piece. ''A'' and I were communicating by e-mail over a period of a couple of days to try and sort out the finer details. She then asked could she ring me instead, much quicker than e-mailing back and forth. So we talked on the phone and you know what, it was great, got things sorted in the blink of an eye. Now I know why they invented telephones and I also think maybe e-mail isn' the way forward after all. Anyway, I haven't even started the piece yet so I should really tell you what todays offering is... It's for my feet, yes Janice, my feet!!

They are very nice feet really they are but to be precise, this white cloth is for my throw which as you know will most likely be used to warm my feet when I first drag my bones out of bed in the morning. My favourite fine cotton lawn is making another appearance here, applique this time. Can you tell how much I love this fabric??? Now I am thinking I should make another list because I have a few things to do don't I. I need to make more gingham hexagons, I need to add these pieces to my throw, I need to give some kind of conscious nod in the direction of my special hook and eye pieces and I need to start the wedding cloth. My family are already looking hungry in anticipation of me doing even less on the ''mother'' and ''wife'' front than usual, bless them, how do they survive....

gift....

Hey!! Happy sunday! Technically I should have been here yesterday but you know, life and crap gets in the way, excuse my profanity, especially on a sunday. My damp patch repair turned into a hole, outside world visible, so you can imagine the mess and as I couldn't stitch it together I had to go with the flow and sew. We are now rebuilt, plastered (in the building sense, not the alcohol sense) and most importantly clean!! Clean for now anyway as said plastered room now needs decorating which can't happen until it has dried out. Me thinks that will now be left until after the upcoming festivities, I can only stand so much mess in any given 3 month period. So here we have my first christmas gift made, just call me santa's little helper!! Who needs  a gnome? This one is for a bed or something, 10 inches square, there are 3 more, yes 3 more!! stretching as we speak, smaller yet equally as lovely? hideous? disgusting? gorgeous? take your pick.

I have also managed to put together another piece of white, very minimally embellished so far, a few knots that you can see in the second picture. I may make this into a cushion and I may put it in the shop as they tell me next weekend is THE best weekend for christmas shopping.

Now, in other news, I am having a bit of a nightmare!! What am I going to wear for THE WEDDING??? As someone who on a normal day to day basis pays very little attention to what they are wearing, as long as my lumpy bits and stretch marks are covered, fashion is way down on my list. So far I have bought these and love them as I do they will not suffice on their own. Hey ho.....tent?? A beautifully embellished tent though.