Dutch Blue Sampler

Now, in spite of neglecting this blog, I have been doing one cross-stitch project. As my boyfriend and I are moving in together in August, I thought it was only appropriate that we have a sampler for our flat. And as he has Dutch blood in him, this pattern from Cross-Stitcher March 2012 seemed extremely appropriate...



It was a VERY long project to complete, not because it was difficult, just time-consuming. As you can see from the big picture at the top, my embroidery hoop came in handy when sewing this, mainly because it was on evenweave rather than aida. Once it has been ironed and framed, I'll put up another picture of it :D

News after the radio silence!

Hello all!

Sorry for the 6 months without a post - it's amazing what applying to Uni courses and working in a school can do for your free time!

Anyway - first things first, I promised some photos of what the Christmas cake ribbon looked like on the Christmas cake...



I have to thank my Nan for the reindeer themed decorations, and the cake itself!

Ok, now that's done, we will now resume our normal schedule :D

INTERVAL (of sorts): Blackwork

I've called it an interval, but Blackwork is a type of embroidery and, as it is done on evenweave like cross-stitch, it's very close to the sewing I've had up here already.
Blackwork was a popular style of embroidery in Elizabethan England. It was used to decorate their clothes, and the various patterns were used as shading without needing a lot of colour (which was more expensive). I found out about it when I found a book about it in Hobbycraft this week. I haven't bought it yet, but I found a book in the library that had some examples of Blackwork patterns that I have been copying to bid my time until the book arrives. It looks quite stunning, I think, but you can make up your own mind...

Just a heads up, there will probaby be some more of this type of embroidery in the future :D

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
As it's Christmas Eve, and I have finally finished all the Christmas projects, it's finally time to put up some more pictures.

Firstly, the Christmas decorations...
The front room was slowly being taken over by finished evenweave squares covered with different Christmas-themed decorations, and I knew it was finally time to attack the task of making them into decorations that could actualy hang on the tree!!

After a manic day with the sewing machine and my Mum's expertise in making it work, all of the cross-stitched decorations were assembled and swiftly posted off the the people receiving them. Now I know that everyone has got theirs (I think), I can safely put up the pictures without spoiling the surprise.



There they are in all their glory. I'm quite proud of them, to be honest, though I'm glad I don't have to sew another Christmas vulture again!!

Secondly, the Christmas cake band...
Once the decorations had been safely dispatched, I returned to the ignored, half-finished band of reindeer for the Christmas cake.

I think I did around 7 or 8 reindeer, all frollicking across the evenweave. The pattern said to do their red noses and brown eyes as French knots, but as I haven't quite mastered them yet, I used little seed beads instead. After a bit of a palaver trying to find a needle that would go through the beads, the reindeer actually looked pretty cute.
Finding a ribbon to fit was also a bit hard - I needed a 6cm ribbon but apparently they only make red ribbon in 5cm or 7cm widths. In the end, I had to use two lengths of ribbon, but you wouldn't know to look at it. All in all, the ribbon turned out pretty well, considering the deviations from the pattern.

My Nan makes the Christmas cake, and my Mum and I went over a couple of days ago to marzipan and ice it. I left the ribbon there so Nan can put it on the cake once the icing is dry, and she will bring it over on Christmas Day. I'll take a photo of it in situ and upload it after Christmas.

Hope you have a great day tomorrow! Enjoy the company and the food, I know I will :D

INTERVAL: Inkle Weaving

So, I haven't started any new projects since my last update. I'm still working on the Christmas decorations and the ribbon for the Christmas cake, but I felt that I needed to put up something here. As well as all the cross-stitch discovery, I have recently been on an inkle weaving course with my Mum. It was only three hour-and-a-half sessions but we have both become completely addicted to it. So much so that Mum is now going to get a full-sized loom for her birthday.

I should explain what inkle weaving is. An inkle is a long, thin piece of woven material, made on a wooden loom, like this one (which was mine from the course):

This is a mini one, the full-size ones need a whole table to stand on and have to be clamped down to stop it moving. A bit scary!!

Inkles are a medieval craft. It takes ages to get the loom set up ready for weaving, and then the fun bit, the weaving, is actually pretty quick. It's a really fun craft to do, and there is an infinite number of patterns you can do. They can be any width, it's only limited by the length of the wooden pegs. Our teacher had some examples of some really tiny ones. The inkle on the photo above was my first attempt and was a middling-width. In total, I made three inkles, then the loom had to be returned:

The inkle on the far right was the widest that could be done on the mini-loom. I'm hoping that, when Mum gets hers for her birthday, I can have a go and try to make a really wide, detailed one.

Anyway, I'll leave this with some more photos for the inkles I made. Can you tell I REALLY love this craft? It's definitely one I would recommend to anyone :D

Christmas Cake Ribbon - In Progress

This is my other Christmas project at the moment - a cross-stitched ribbon to go around the Christmas cake that my nan makes every year. The pattern came from "CrossStitcher" (October 2011), and was the free pack with the magazine. It was supposed to be stitched on 14count aida, but the piece that came in the pack was cut a bit wonkily so I decided to use 28count evenweave instead. I think I has come out a lot neater, and it means I'm getting more practice at using it!

It's still a work in progress. That's why the reindeers don't have any eyes or red noses!! They are supposed to be done as French Knots, but I'm not at all confident at them so I am going to get my hands on some black beads for their eyes and red beads for their noses.

The ribbon is a repeated pattern. These four cute reindeers are the basic pattern, that will get repeated until the cake is covered. I went to my nan's today and have got the circumference of the cake sorted, so now I can carry on stitching. Once that's done, it will get sewn onto wide red ribbon and hopefully look good :D

I'll post some more photos once it's done, and I'll definitely get one of it on the Christmas cake too!

Christmas Decorations - In progress

I know it is really early for Christmas stuff, but the amount of these I have to make before then means I have had to start early!!



The pattern comes from "CrossStitcher" (Christmas issue, September 2011). These are the two patterns given for these Christmas decorations, done on 28count evenweave. This is my first ever go at using evenweave, and it definitely takes some getting used to!! It took a while to get used to the idea that two squares on evenweave work as one square when cross-stitching! My mum still doesn't understand how I can see what I'm doing.

These decorations are inspired by traditional Nordic decorations, and I love the combination of the thick cross-stitches and the thin backstitches. To make the stitched evenweave into a decoration, they are backed with fabric (I've used red to go with the stitches, but I've got green thread and fabric on standby once I run out!) and then stuffed with padding and given a ribbon loop to hang them on the Christmas tree. My first attempt turned out like this...



It came out quite well for a first attempt. I'm a bit annoyed that it didn't come out as a proper circle, but I'll just tell people I'm going for that rustic look! :D :D Hopefully, the more I do, the better I'll get. Once I've done some more, I'll post an update with some more pictures of how they turned out. Fingers crossed they go ok!!