I just thought I’d remind you that I have a sale on in my Folksy shop until the end of January. Only a few days left!
Last Few Days of Folksy Sale!
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TAST 2012 – Week 4
Sorry I’m a day late posting but yesterday was an extremely hectic but positive day. I was helping a fellow artist to teach a workshop for a class of 10 year olds, then I had a meeting with a mental health charity about how I can get involved in the future, then across town to shop for materials, then back into the city centre to grab something to eat and go to college. After 13 hours out of the house rushing about I was too exhausted to do anything blog-like!
But I got there in the end 
And the TAST stitch for this week is Cretan stitch. Another stitch that I’m happy doing because I’ve had previous experience of it but I have done very little work pushing this stitch’s boundaries so that should be fun. I’ll start by doing a few basic Cretan stitches – maybe do 3 small then 3 big, 3 wide then 3 narrow. Then I will go straight to my Constance Howard Book of Stitches where she always creates great visual texture with simple stitches. I’m hoping for a few quiet evenings this week so that I have time to play.
TAST 2012 – Week 3 Feather Stitch Results
It’s already the end of week 3 of TAST 2012 and I’ve managed to be consistent with my stitching and blogging. I carried on stitching on the same piece of pinky purple snow-dyed fabric and it’s lovely to see the 3 similar stitches sitting next to each other.
All of the purple apart from 2 stitches at the bottom is Fly Stitch. I was again using the Constance Howard book to help me push my stitching a little. It’s interesting how good some of these older black and white books on embroidery can be. I bought my own version for a pittance from Ebay and also a Jan Beany book for 1p on Amazon!
Here is how the Feather Stitch looks among the rest of the stitching:
It’s growing quite nicely
Resolved to Sew
Very Berry Handmade are doing a very special giveaway – they want to hear about our sewing resolutions for 2012 and have some rather lovely fabrics to give away to people who share them.
I’m keeping it simple this year as I know that if I set strict goals and push myself too hard then I’m just going to fail and feel bad. So, here we go…
- Sew nearly every day – this can be any kind of sewing including making clothes, using my machine for decorative work, or hand embroidery so I’ve made a very good start by joining the TAST 2012 challenge and completing week 1 and 2 on time.
- Make some clothes that fit into my current wardrobe – again I’ve made a start on this by sewing the Colette Sorbetto top.
- Use my stash – like most sewers I have a big stash of fabrics but still tend to buy new material when I see it in the shops or at shows. I resolve to go to my stash first when I want to make something and to not consider fabrics too ‘special’ to use.
- Finally, I also want to finish up some UFOs – we’ve all got them, haven’t we? Well I have plenty. I’ve sewn some buttons on a coat so got that UFO out of my sewing room but there is a rail of clothing and a tub of other stuff still sitting there waiting.
So there you are. These are my sewing resolutions for 2012. Go take a look at Very Berry Handmade and maybe write a blog post on your resolutions too.
Buying Spree!
After Christmas the brilliant mail order section of Rainbow Silks had a 20% off promotion so I HAD to do some shopping! I often buy from Rainbow Silks anyway but I bought a few things that I’d been lusting after like a Kumihimo set and some Golden Molding Paste. I also bought a batch of new scarves ready to dye because I love doing that
I’ve got loads of things to play with over the next few weeks.
TAST 2012 – Week 3
I’ve loved the first 2 weeks so I’m excited to start week 3 and we’re moving on to Feather Stitch. I’m starting to see how Sharon from Pintangle is grouping the stitches so that we glide effortlessly from a simple movement to something more complicated.
It’s so lovely to sit down for 20 minutes in the evening and have a goal (the specified stitch) but also have a free reign to stitch it the way I like. There’s a link on Pintangle to a stitch dictionary showing how to create each stitch so, even if I’d never done Feather stitch before, I would be able to learn it quite quickly and still create a fun sample.
TAST 2012 – Week 2 Buttonhole results
Just a quick post before I rush out to show you the results of week 2 on the Take A Stitch Tuesday challenge. The stitch for the week was buttonhole/blanket stitch and I tried to use it in a few ways that I hadn’t used it before.
I like the lacy effect that you get when you layer the buttonhole stitch. You can see in this image how I’m starting to take each type of stitch up to the next and I will cover a large piece of fabric like this – adding a new stitch each week. I will try to keep the colour palette to pinks and purples so that it doesn’t become too much.
Right, off to work…
TAST 2012 – Week 2
And the stitch for week 2 is…buttonhole! Often thought of as a boring stitch that is only used for edging things (at least by me) Sharon of Pintangle has shown some pretty ways of using buttonhole.
I’m also using a variegated thread so let’s see if I can make something as pretty as this. Work is a bit busy this week but I aim to do a bit of stitching every day and I’ll show you my results on Sunday.
TAST 2012 – Week 1 Fly Stitch results
It’s been really good to work on a specific stitch alongside hundreds of other people and I’ve especially enjoyed seeing what everyone else has been doing with it. I’ve decided to keep my samples small and generic. I’m not making a masterpiece, or anything frameable, I’m just playing with a stitch for a couple of days. My experience of hand embroidery is quite low so I want to keep the pressure off and just ‘play’. (I’m also getting a sore thumb from stitching every day!)
I used flash on the top image so it’s more in focus but it washes the colours out a little so I’ve also include a second image done without the flash. I kept it simple, just changing the length of the stem or making the angle of the upper section of the stitch more shallow. I also took inspiration from what other people were doing by combining the stitches together in different ways. I’m starting to see how the stitch could be used do give different effects if I was doing a piece of creative embroidery.
I wonder what week 2 will bring
Sorbetto Seconds
After my last Sorbetto top coming together so well I decided to use a bit of stash fabric and make another one. I realised before Christmas that I didn’t have a nice black top that I could wear in the evenings but that wasn’t too dressy – for going out to dinner with people who don’t ‘dress up’. I found a piece of fabric that I think I bought back when I was in uni about 10 years ago. It has a nice sparkle to it but couldn’t exactly be described as ‘bling’!
This is a quick photo that I took of myself so sorry it’s not brilliant but I think you get a good idea of how the top looks on me. I used a sateen bias binding to fit with the more evening them. The fabric is quite light weight and I wasn’t sure if it would be see-through but I think it’s ok. I can always wear a little vest top underneath if I need to.
So that you can see the details better here’s a photograph of the top on a hanger. You can see the fake pleat at the front and the bias binding.
I also need to tell you about the sale that I’m currently having in my Folksy shop. Most of the jewellery has 20% throughout January. If I get around to it I may also add some newer pieces that I haven’t listed before.