Silk Shading Birthday Gift and Pulled Thread Challenge

I have been waiting to post this picture, it seems like forever, until my friend in Lyon opened her Birthday gifts. Yesterday was her birthday, so now it is safe to post it since she has seen it. This is a silk shading practice project to get ready for the certificate class at the Royal School of Needlework in San Francisco next April. I still need lots of practice, but everyone has to start someplace.

The next picture is the pulled thread challenge project that I am working on with The Sampler Guild in England. Each month beginning last July we receive a block to stitch. Mine is a crazy quilt design because many of the members are also quilters, not me. I am using blue, green and yellow (yellow because my friend said it had to have yellow, and she was right) with metallic for the chain stitches between the blocks. This only four of the sections, there will be twelve, well if I get one design done and sent to England for March. I am thinking it needs to be green and circles, kind of like a shamrock. Not sure what I will do with it when it is done, could be a book or box cover? Suggestions welcome!

Haven't done a lot of stitching lately, just a little knitting!

New Sewing Room & The Story of the Broken Books

Haven't done much stitching lately, not that I don't have some I could work on, read on to see what I have been doing. Should have taken before pictures, but it was really bad and I didn't want anyone to see the room. Just imagine wall to wall book shelves, dresser, sewing cabinet, a bed and a computer desk "almost" room to walk.

We have been working on clearing out the sewing room/guest room. I have been selling lots of things on ebay and giving stuff away, there is still a lot to deal with in the garage, but we can put the car in the garage and that makes my husband happy.

We had new grey carpet installed, painted and had a wall bed (very light grey) installed. The wall bed is great, when the bed is up there is a table. I love the table I spend a lot of time using it. There are no windows in the room because it is in the basement, my husband painted the walls bright yellow, I love yellow, and it make the room much brighter too. The lady who use to live here was an artist, she used the room for her studio so the lighting is really good too.

The last picture is my sewing cabinet, a nice cozy corner of the room. The TV is on a cart with wheels to make it easy to move around.

The wall bed in the sewing room is a great way to save space, we don't have company a lot so this is a better use of the area.

I have two, well probably more, books that the bindings are broken. A friend told me that I could take them to Kinkos and have a spiral binding put on the books. They cut off the old binding and put the spiral binding on and it only cost $10.88 for both books. They are so nice I can now open the book and it will lay flat without having to hold it. This is a great thing and not too expensive either. Can you tell I am a little excited about this? Here are pictures of the books.That is enough for now . . .

Happy Thanksgiving . . . Enjoy your turkey day, we are having a Pacific Northwest Thanksgiving with lots of seafood!!

Tree with Fall Colors

A couple weeks ago we went for a walk in Seattle and saw a tree that the leaves had turned yellow and orange. I have had this tree rolling around in my head since that day. When I saw the tree I said "I could stitch that tree." Well, I finally gathered the threads and fabric and sat down a few days ago to stitch. We usually get so much rain that the leaves are on the ground and we don't get to enjoy them, but this year has been a little drier until this last week-end and now the leaves are all over the ground.

First I put a piece of 40 count linen with interfacing under it in a hoop and made sure it was very tight. Then I drew the tree on the linen with a pencil, I know what everyone is thinking that it is wrong to draw on the linen, but it works really good and will be covered up with thread so it really is O.K.

I am using all Threadworx overdyed cotton floss, one brown and three different oranges. http://threadworx.com/ The tree trunk is done with chain stitch and the leaves are fly stitch, all with one ply. The chain for the swing is Splendor silk thread by Rainbow Gallery http://www.rainbowgallery.com/colorcards.cfm

I learned that fly stitch is a great way to make leaves on a tree in the embroidery class that I took at the community center in Hampton, England. This is where I did the painted embroidery of the gardens at Hampton Court Palace and learned to use fly stitch for leaves.

The nice part of this project is I don't have to look at a pattern I can just stitch.

Framed Pictures

Today is a very sad day, my favorite neighbor and knitting buddy is moving :( out of state, actually clear across the country.

The good news is we can visit them next year.

This is the embroidery that our daughter painted the fabric from a photo that I took at Hampton Court Palace and then I did the embroidery in a class at the White House Community Centre in Hampton England. This is the first time I have done a project like this and really enjoyed doing it and will do another one soon.

The castle is a two day class at the Royal School of Needlework. This was a fun class and project!

This is another two day class I took at the RSN. Silk Shading it is stitched with two ply of DMC and Anchor floss, actually cotton floss. The pitcher was my
Grandmother's, she was from Kansas and the sunflower is the Kansas state flower. My Dad and my Husband were both born in Kansas too. I just like the yellow.



This is the Jacobean Crewel project from the first Certificate Class (two weeks) I took at the RSN. It looks totally different now that it is framed and hanging on the wall. I have attached all the paperwork from the assessment to the back for future generations.

The second Certificate Class (two weeks) I took was canvaswork. In all of the certificate classes we are suppose to stitch original designs, for the canvaswork class I used a picture I took in France. The original picture, the drawing and stitches with the assessment are attached to the back of this picture too.


I hope everyone is enjoying nice fall weather, it is beautiful here with all the leaves changing, love all the fall colors makes me want to stitch a tree!

Time to frame projects . . .

Today I took the big step and took the projects I did while I was in England to the framer, Cascade Frames is the best. They have a huge selection of ready made frames and precut mats. Also, the people who work there are great to work with, selecting colors and the correct frames and mats.

I found frames and mats for my Jacobean Crewel and Canvaswork all normal sizes the actual framing will only cost about $25.00 total for both projects plus the cost of the mat and the frame. It pays to have the pieces all mounted and ready to frame.

Also, found a frame and mat for the sun flower, I had a frame for the stumpwork all I needed was a mat. I will frame these two myself, I have the boards all cut and covered ready to mount.

The Proper Project (Hampton Court Palace with the trees and bench) is still on the list to find a frame etc. I will go to Arron Brothers with a friend and see if we can find something that is just right. The mat at Cascade Frames would have had to be cut and the cost was about $40.00 just for the mat, the frame was $27.00 and I just wasn't sure about either one. I am sure there is something better out there for this project. I hate to spend that much money for a frame and mat that I don't really love. We will see what I find next week.

New Project

Last week I drew a Jacobean Crewel design and then I got nervous about putting it on the fabric. Yesterday I decided it was time to get going and transfer the design from paper to fabric. I used the prick and pounce method like we used at the Royal School of Needlework and painted the lines on with watercolor. Thanks to Daniel Smith, our local art supply store I could get all the supplies I needed to transfer the design and they even knew what I was talking about. http://www.danielsmith.com/ It worked great!

The next challenge was to find a way to attach my slate frame to my Needlework System 4 floor stand. http://www.threadneedlestreet.com/ With the help of my Eagle Scout we tied the slate frame to scroll frame without the scroll rods. There are holes in the sides of the scroll frame and the sides of the slate frame, so that worked great. I discovered that I would not be able to sit in my favorite chair to stitch because the frame is too wide, but a chair from our dining room fits fine and I can sit under a light that provides good lighting too. Almost like being at the RSN, but much easier to get out of the chair and I have TV too.

Sometimes when I have a couple projects going at the same time and just sit in my chair to work on them I don't want to switch, this way I can have a smaller to work on while I sit in my chair and the larger one on the slate frame. Hopefully, I will make progress on both projects, I will post another update soon.

Back in the USA

We returned home yesterday from England, we had a great time, but there is no place like home.

We have so many good memories of the people we met, the places we visited and the things we saw, we will be talking about everything for years to come.

As a member of The Sampler Guild I had the opportunity to visit Belfast, Skipton, Ashford in Kent and several homes. http://www.thesamplerguild.co.uk/
They are great group of people who welcomed me into the guild and treated me as if they had know me forever. I really appreciated all their kindness and hospitality. In a previous posting I posted pictures of the gifts I received, I will enjoy them all and will fondly remember each person who gave them to me.

This is a picture taken at the Linen Museum in Belfast, I had never thought about how linen is made, she is spinning the flax and then the linen is woven on a loom.

I have two places that I visited several times and would go back to again, if any of you ever go to England you should see the Sunbury Embroidery and Hampton Court Palace.

The Sunbury Embroider is an amazing needlework project created by the village of Sunbury. You can go to their web site to see pictures: http://www.sunburyembroidery.co.uk/
There is also, a walled garden and a cafe with freshly baked treats and tea.

The picture is of the sculpture of a French knot, I talked to one of the people at the museum and they are going to have the French knot sculptures, in a small version, to sell. A great gift for someone who loves needlework. There is no charge to visit this museum and pictures are allowed.

My other favorite place is Hampton Court Palace, the home of Henry VIII and where the Royal School of Needlework is located. The gardens are beautiful, I have visited them in February, May, July and August the gardeners are always working to keep them in excellent shape. A great place to get ideas for future projects.


Now it is time to get back into a routine at home and make time for stitching everyday, I have a friend who stops working every afternoon at 3:00 to put needles in her hands, either to stitch or knit. I need to remember to do the same everyday, so I will have new pictures to post.

Hope everyone has a nice Labor Day week-end!