My contribution to BBD Exchange

When Patti asked me if I would like to join the Blackbird Designs Exchange Group, I was quite apprehensive - not that I was afraid I wouldn't love the gift I received (I did!) but the whole thing about what to stitch, how to finish, can I complete in time etc.

However Patti is a persuasive gal so I agreed to give it a go.

There followed a great deal of chart searching and discussion with my stitching friend Ann. Is the possible design too big? Too small? Take too long to stitch? Need framing to look good? Has it been seen too much on other blogs? Will my partner have it already?

Eventually I chose this little Blackbird design from a file of printed-off charts. I chose the colours from Vikki Clayton's HDF as the original was a single colour and set to work.

It was lovely to stitch, just enough variety to keep it interesting but a bit of repetition to make it a fairly quick stitch.

Then half way through - a really worrying thought struck me.

'Was this an actual Blackbird Design chart, or just a chart with a blackbird on it' - in which case it wouldn't do! There was nothing on the chart itself to indicate where it was from. I found it under 'Blackbird Designs' in my folder, but you can see my dilemma.

I called my friend Ann and she remembered seeing it on a blog somewhere, but between us we read so many! She came round and together we began to trawl through the blogs we normally read - something with 'needle' thought Ann, or 'thread' - mmmm that narrows it down a lot!

Eventually we found it and read with relief that it was an actual Blackbird Design freebie. So I carried on, finished it as a little ornament with a beaded edge and peyote stitch hanger (I really like these now) and sent it off to my partner Elisabeth in France.

There was the expected anxiety about whether it would arrive safely and whether Ela would like it.

It did and she did. Ela even sent me a lovely hand-made card to thank me again for the gift.

So maybe I will join an exchange group again. I loved my gift from Christina and Ela loved hers from me and that's just about everything you can hope for.

Thank you for your comments - always read with much pleasure.
Love Irene xxx

Counting Mistake Item 2

I know, I promised you this ages ago. Counting mistake number two.

Mmmm you think - can't see anything much wrong here.

Well actually, there isn't anything much wrong, except that it is supposed to say 'Live, Love, Laugh'

I bought a chart which showed a little woven basket with a stitched border along the outside, and inside, lots of pretty little mottoes and inspirational sayings - like - 'be what you want to be - it isn't too late' (it was slightly more catchy than that) and 'seize the day' and stuff.
I determined to use my wonderful Kaalund thread (Taipan) and set to work.

Now, for little inspirational saying ornamenty-baskety-things, I don't much bother about the linen count, huh, that's for amateurs, so I grabbed a piece and began to stitch 1 / 1 because that is mostly what I do now and as I stitched I hummed a little inspirational tune. I was getting really quite good at this stitching thing although humming and smirking at the same time was proving a little more difficult

I learned the pattern quickly, the border was looking good, the colour was yummy, and so as I stitched, I began to discuss with myself where I might put the completed basket and the aforementioned sayings. On the table, in the hall, in the bedroom?? Now where would be the best place to show off my considerable skill?

Enough of this, border finished - time to look at the lettering.

Have you guessed yet?

Yes....stitching 1 / 1 from a chart that was meant to be 2 / 2 with lettering - spells disaster.

There was just not enough space to stitch anything much. So, not wanting to waste a perfectly good border, I wrote 'LIVE'
It's not even inspirational is it? If you manage to take in a breath, you're doing it.

I couldn't give you the exact quotes and sayings because I threw the chart down in disgust and now I can't find it.

Yeah, not so smirky now eh?

Love to all who visit,

Irene xxx

Beautiful Tall Ships.

I mentioned in my last posting that I have been busy. Well, I thought I would show you briefly what I have been up to.

My home town, Hartlepool, has been hosting the 2010 Tall Ships Race and I have been a volunteer. I haven't had a very high powered job - I am a 'Lost and Missing Persons Assistant' but it has been such fun to be involved with this event.

We began our training way back in May and have been looking forward to the arrival of these ships for months now. There are about 65 vessels in all, quite a few of which, including all those in the photographs, are Class A - the biggest of the sailing ships. They are from all over the world, Oman, Russia, Indonesia, Poland etc and their crews have been magnificent. It is not every day you see a group of Russian sailors shopping in your local supermarket!

From the Headland, we watched the ships far away on the horizon, steadily making their way into our port. I am not a watery, shippy sort of person at all, but seeing those great vessels in full sail must send an echo back through the ages as it really stirs the heart. I found myself quietly humming the tune of 'Hearts of Oak' and the rousing 'Rule Britannia'. Both these songs are probably inappropriate these days, and of course most of the ships here are not British, but still.........

The festival ended on Tuesday with a full Parade of Sail when all the ships left the harbour and sailed north along the coast, again in full sail.

OK - so even I shed a tear and like I said, I am not usually a watery sort of person!

Back to sewing now all the excitement is over.

Irene xxx

Blackbird Designs Exchange

I interrupt my busy schedule to bring you excellent news!

I still have a 'counting mistake' project to share, but this lovely ornament arrived this morning from Christina and I just had to show it.
It is called 'Thistle Manor' by Blackbird Designs stitched on 32ct linen with an unknown, but very pretty Anchor thread.

I am a member of only two exchange groups, the Quarterly Quaker Exchange and this - the Blackbird Design Exchange.
Patti encouraged me to join, and I am so pleased I did as I would not otherwise own such a lovely piece of work. I am delighted to have the ribbon finish too as I can't do this - and the ribbon is all shiny and curly-whirly and so neat!! I don't know if Christina has a blog, I suspect she may have, so I will find out and post it here next time so that we can all go and look at her meticulous work.

Thank you Christina, I thrilled to ribbons with it.

Love
Irene xxx

Post Script Edit.

Christina's blog is http://whilstirisnaps.blogspot.com.

So there's no excuse, pop on over and have a look.

Counting Mistake - item 1.

Last week I explained how, in spite of teaching maths, I seem to have lost the ability to count.

Well this little acorn ornament is proof of that, if proof is indeed needed.

Oh yes, it looks very nice - on the surface - at first glance - from a distance.

But it is flawed, deeply flawed.

I frogged a whole heap of it once, then twice and then I tried to work out my mistake. I had miscounted, in the middle somewhere, near the central ( well, actually, as it happens, not central) motif.

Frogging was leaving behind little tell-tale shades of evidence of error in the form of brown fluffy residue.

So finally, needing to move on, I just accepted the imperfections, sellotaped it liberally, and went ahead and finished it.

So my friends, look if you must, but not too closely.

The chart is a freebie that Patti very kindly offered to send, the fabric a 28count evenweave, the thread HDF 'Kindling' and the beads a sort of bronzey colour.

However, to shine a little lightness in the dark that is this posting, I tried something new for the hanging cord.

I have often used a single thread of matching beads, but this time I put my elementary and very rudimentary knowledge of beading to, I think, good effect by using a peyote stitch which gives a little more interesting and substantial finish. I think this method is used to begin a piece of flat beading and is very very simple to do, although I think it looks more complicated.

I will be trying it again methinks.

Thank you for your welcome comments.

Irene
xxx
PS This is counting mistake item 1, - item 2 to follow. I know - I never learn!

Another needle case - whoppee!!!

OK. So I seem to have got the hang of these needle case things. I can just churn them out now, like crisps on a conveyor belt.

Crisps on a conveyor belt????

Actually I really like this one.

I used for the first time, Kaalund threads, this one is colour 'Taipan' and I really like them. They are cultivated silk and come in twelve stranded, 10 metre skeins. All of the colours are subtly variegated. They are Australian threads but available in the UK. I got mine from the Sampler Guild. (www.thesamplerguild.co.uk)

The fabric is a 28count evenweave linen. I used a matching cream ribbon for ties and for the little hinges - the first time I have tried this.

Having completed it, I think I would change a couple of things - the tie ribbon is too unbendy (can you tell I taught English?) and I think a hoop and button would have worked better and I painstakingly stitched beads on both sides of the hinges - on reflection they were only really needed on the top side.

I mentioned above that I taught English, and indeed I did - to Primary aged children all my teaching life - and for a year I taught other teachers to teach too.

I also taught Maths. My pupils did really well in all their tests.

So...why can't I count? Not big counting, with hundreds and thousands and lots of zeroes, no just little counting - you know - up to 10!!

Next week I will share with you the results of my inability to count. I have no shame.

The thimble keep was nice wasn't it? Thank you for your comments.

Love

Irene xxx

Ann's thimble keep.

Cast your mind back.

Not far - just 5 weeks or so - to mid-April when I showed some little silver sewing treasures I had found.

Remember?

OK - well I mentioned then that having found the little silver thimble with the two swans entwined, I would look out for a Quaker pattern to make a keep for it.

No need!

My friend Ann brought this amazing gift with her to our stitching evening on Thursday.

She decided that a humbug design would work well for my wished-for keep and then had to work out the size and stitching to just fit the thimble. She said it took an inordinate amount of time to work out just where the opening on the humbug needed to be! It is usually these little decisions that are so irksome and because they work so well they oft-time go unnoticed.

Ann - (I think we can now call her now Designer Ann ) - thank you so much for this gift. It was totally unexpected but beautifully stitched and will be treasured.

The photos - Aw not so much! I haven't done this little beauty any justice at all.

Love to all and thank you for your many comments.

Irene xxx

Sorry Stitcherhood!

No pictures this time, although I am working on a couple of things.

My major current project is one of Betsy Morgan's lovely etui sets. This one is from the Australian publication 'Inspirations' magazine ( the one before the current one - I've checked now and it's issue 65!) and is called Tiny Treasures. The set consists of an Etui box, a button box, a needlebook and a tuffet (biscornu). My stitchy friend Anne also has the chart for a thimble keeper, so I will add that to the list. It is stitching up quite quickly on the recommended 32 count Belfast linen. The threads should be Gloriana, but as I have only a few of those, I am using Vikki Clayton's hand dyed silks.

I have a couple of other small projects plodding along too, and of course, I still have finishes to complete from the Jackie du Plessis class. Oh dear - and it all started so well!

However, the main reason for this quickie is a correction I need to make regarding my last post.

I said that the needlebook came from a free pattern. This is because I discovered it whilst browsing through a file of printed freebie sheets, without a front page, just asking to be stitched - so I presumed it was a freebie.

I wanted to credit the site and today started to look for the precise location.

And....

It was not a freebie. It was actually a download from www.thestitcherhood.com which had been misfiled. The download (#17 Stitcher's Samplers) is only $4 and if you like it, check out the site above. I hope the designer will forgive this oversight and that at least a million people will go to the site and choose this or other available designs to stitch.

That's all - conscience cleared!

Love
Irene xxx

A touch of scarlet.

This is another freebie pattern which I finished into a small needle case. It has also occurred to me that I keep on making these needle cases but never actually use any! They're just piling up on my little display and my needles are stuck in my T-shirt..

I used a 28count white evenweave linen and HDF colour 'Be-grimed'. You can see that I stitched one little bud on the Quaker motif with red - DMC 666 - and then, having got the bug, one little leaf on the central motif on the back and if you look carefully there is just one red bead among the black on the edging.

Oh for goodness sake, its in the middle on the top edge!

I used a red fabric for lining and a red gingham ribbon. The outside spine is a tiny herringbone stitch.

I made a little key fob too, but I haven't got a photo of that at the moment.

Oh -do you remember I couldn't think of a simile for 'as smug as'? Well, Katrina, (http://theneedlespromise.blogspot.com) a girl with my own sense of humour suggested 'Smug as a bug in a rug'

Nice one Katrina!

Thank you again for you comments.

Love
Irene xxx

It was this!!

So, this is what I saw.

A full set of bone embroidery tools in this amazing purple case.

I have looked at many of these sets, but I have never found one with this colour lining. I just love it.

It has a heavy Dorcas thimble, some bodkins, tweezers, hooky things, a pair of pretty scissors and most wonderfully of all, a bone needle case with a little screw top. You can see it tucked into the second loop.

It has a gathered half-pocket in the lid.

What a lucky find. I am not even going to tell you how much - OK - how little, I paid.

£20.

I know. I've paid more for a thimble.

Heyho. I must have done something right at sometime in my life.

Love
Irene xxx