Plums!

I finished the plum block on TWs Fruit bellpull.That puts me at the half way point (well, just past it now, as I've completed the border of the cherries block since taking the photo). I've really got into this piece lately, and it's really showing in terms of progress.

I've also been spending a fair amount of time on my lace project (although not much this week). Mostly it's a mess of pins, threads and bobbins, but one of the big leaves is now visible, so here's a snap.

I also missed the TUSAL earlier this week, so here is a photo of my ORT jar. All of the greens with the layer of purple on top are from the plum block.

This week and weekend I've had a cough and cold - I've not felt too ill, just very snuffly, but it's left me quite tired, so my stitching mojo was a little off over the weekend, and I didn't feel up to the drive to Sheffield lace makers.Which I'm annoyed at, because I really wanted to go. Such is life. But I did get more xs done and movies watched than I had hoped :)

Best butterfly

A few weeks ago I went to the working day and AGM for Sheffield Lace Makers. Each year, we have a competition. Any piece of lace completed in the last 12 months can be entered, so I put in my Bedfordshire butterfly, and the Bedfordshire leaf motif that I finished the other month. All of the lace on display was beautiful, some pieces were huge, some pieces quite simple, yet beautifully done with amazing use of colour. Some was modern, some tradition. Some was highly complex, others quite simple in terms of the stitches. What I did NOT expect was to win the Norma Munday Prize!! Norma described my lace as 'exquisite', which I really can't believe. This tells me that the classes I'm taking each May with Christine Springett have really, really improved my technique. Anyway, here are a couple of pics:

I'm still working pretty much exclusively on gaelic banner - I'll post another photo of it soon!

Happy stitching x

A Little Lace

Thank you for your comments on my last post - I'm glad I'm not the only person who's immediate reaction was 'WHAT??? Backstitch with TWO strands???'... Although there is a lot of BS on the piece it is going really quickly. I've probably done somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 now - it's hard to assess accurately as the design isn't very even over the size of the piece.

Last night I took a break from the BS and pulled out my lace pillow. Louise came over - I cooked us a scrummy Bill Granger chicken dish, and then we carried on with our Beds. Lou and I are both Bedfordshire lace fanatics - but from two very different schools!! Lou was taught by people who really follow the traditional methods of making lace - where people made as much lace as they could as quickly as possible, as they got paid by the inch (or by the pin - hence 'pin money'), whereas I've learnt Bedfordshire lace from Christine Springett, who adapts traditional patterns and 'borrows' techniques from other laces, to make as perfect a piece of lace as possible. Lou and I spend hours discussing the different ways we do things - and neither of us quite gets the other one, which is actually really fun!

Anyway, last night I finished off a small motif that I was doing. The pricking was by Christine, but I didn't have the working diagram, so I just had a bash. I'm really pleased with the result - apart from my messy finishing, something I really want to improve - although I used 18 pairs of bobbins, not the 14 Christine noted on the pricking...



This weekend we're off to my parents for a family gathering. I can't decide whether I need to hide a small project in my bag. I don't have anything little kitted up, and I probably won't have time... but it would feel odd not to have something with me, even for one night!

Swathes of Blue and Green

This weekend has been pretty chilly. Not the weather - but our boiler (temperamental at the best of times) has decided to finally pack in for a while, and until the spares arrive we are sans heat and water...

The good side of this was that we had to sit in all day yesterday and wait for the repair guy! We caught up on quite a bit of TV that we have recorded (including the first part of Treasure Island, which I really loved, and more of the Killing). So, of course, I stitched!

While watching the Killing I knitted some more of my cardigan - I've now done the back and both fronts - so just 2 sleeves and a collar to go! When watching anything not with sub titles I have been working on Peacock Firescreen - I'm working on the lovely blues and greens of the tail that drew me to this piece initially:



On Wednesday night, Lou came over for another lace evening - I've started a little Bedfordshire motif, as I wanted a quick fix after completing the butterfly. This is also something of an experiment, as I don't have a photo of the finished piece, or a working diagram - I'm doing this deceptively tricky motif just from the pricking. It must be even trickier than I thought though, as the pattern called for 14 pairs and I used 18...



I should finish this on Wednesday, once I have decided how to chuck out 4 pairs during a windmill crossing...

I hope everyone has had a lovely, crafty weekend too - if a little warmer than it has been here!!

First happy dance of 2012 and an overdue ORT report

I have finished something!!!! And not just anything, but the Bedfordshire lace butterfly I started back in May 2009! I am unbelievably proud of this little bit of lace, I have learnt so much during Christine Springett's courses, and it really shows in the pieces I am producing.



I'm also very proud to say that I have finished my first quilt top. Of course I've not finished the quilt yet... I have no idea how I'm going to successfully quit it using my basic sewing machine and my very small dining table... But here is a photo of the top as it was when I completed the pattern.



I decided that I wasn't entirely happy at this point. When I started this I somehow misinterpreted the pattern and used the plan cream in the setting triangles in the blocks as well - instead of another pretty print. So there is WAY too much plain cream. So I decided the play a bit. But I didn't take a photo of the quilt top once I'd made my additions - so that will have to be a surprise! Since then I have pinned by batting and backing cloth to the quilt and folded it up carefully. Hopefully I'll be able to start the quilting process at the weekend.

And now for a very late ORT report. Last year I took part in the TUSAL - the totally useless stitch along. I religiously collected all of my ORTs (old ratty threads) into a pretty vase, and at each full moon posted a picture of the vase and my collection on my blog. Until September, when I went temporarily AWOL from blogland.... BUT, I did remember to take a photo of the ORTs before I cleared the vase out to start my 2012 collection:



I am VERY late with my first ORT report of 2012, but here it is. The green at the bottom is from Peacock Firescreen, the red layer is a surprise, and the browny-gold layer is from a little Mill Hill Christmas ornament kit - a mandolin - that my mum popped in my Christmas stocking this year, and that I expect will be my second happy dance of the year.



Happy stitching everyone!

Two lace making successes!

This week I finally took the sampler of Bedfordshire techniques off my pillow, and trimmed the fringe at the bottom. Apart from the sympathetic ties on the bottom vein (which I just couldn't figure out), I'm really happy with how this turned out. One of the major tasks was to try some techniques above the main bit of lace, and others below.

The top
Underneath

I was particularly pleased with how the last section, with multiple raised leaves, went:


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On Thursday night I went over to Louise's and picked up the Bedfordshire Lace butterfly I started at Christine's lace course two years ago, and finished off the wings on the left (I honestly thought I'd finished them ages ago!). I took it to Sheffield Lace Makers working day and AGM on Saturday, where I got started on the second set of wings, I'm going to focus on this piece for now, as I'd love to finish it and get it off the pillow. It's packed away at the moment, but I'll take a photograph when I next pull it out...

Anyway, on Saturday Sonia and I had a lovely day at Sheffield Lace Makers. As always there was a competition at the AGM, for any piece of lace completed that year. I entered my sampler and also the little round flower motif I finished in February. I knew the flower was the best piece of lace I'd ever made, but I didn't seriously think I stood a chance - imagine my amazement when I was told I'd won third prize!!



I won a lovely Chris Parsons lace bobbin, decorated with lily of the valley. Of course it's already on my pillow... The prize was presented by Norma, our president.



The second prize went to Ena for a superb owl, and Helen (our outgoing chairwoman) won the Munday trophy for her fabulous fascinator, which she is wearing to a wedding in a few weeks time:



I am gobsmacked that I was in such talented company - and to me it shows just how much my technique has improved with the weekends in Aston Cantlow.

Lace and gifts

Sandra asked on my last post if I enjoyed the Bedfordshire lace course last weekend - and the answer is a resounding YES!! I left work a little later than planned and dashed off down the motorway - stopping off in Nottingham to eat tea and pick up Eddy - getting to Wilmcote, jhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifust outside Stratford at about 8.30.

Being disorganised, after a swift pint, I set about pricking out a spare lace pattern. I suspect doing this after a pint was a bad idea, and the following morning I pricked it out again after before we ate a heavenly breakfast. We got to Aston Cantlow just after 9.30, and said hello to everyone - most of the group were on the course the previous year, and I sat with Jane, who I know from this course, demonstrating at Harrogate Knitting and Stitching show, and we always seem to run into each other at various lace days. Eddy set up at his lathe in the back room, and got busy turning bobbins, and I started a sampler of advanced Bedfordshire techniques - different rolled tallies, veins and raised leaves - both above and below the lace. We were supplied with many cups of tea by the lovely Sue, stopped for a fabulous buffet lunch and then briefly for cake mid afternoon. By 5pm I had learnt several new techniques, improved in several areas after some useful tips and suggestions, and was just over half way through the sampler.

That evening we went into Stratford for dinner, and the following day we were back in Aston Cantlow by 9.30. The last area I'd worked on the day before - a diagonal vein with sympathetic ties - hadn't gone brilliantly, probably because I tension too much. After a quick chat with Christine I decided to leave it and learn from the experience - after all, it's only a sampler. My progress slowed a bit when I hit to raised leaves, especially those on half stitch (the more open background), and I was loathe to leave my pillow when we were summoned to the pub for Sunday lunch! After a delicious meal of salmon, asparagus risotto and veggies followed by a pear and almond tart I got stuck in... and the the time we had to leave I'd only got about 1" of pattern to go (I was the last person to put down my bobbins, and Eddy was the last to turn off his lathe). We stopped at Eddy's mum's for tea, and I got back home quite late on Sunday night - thoroughly exhausted but thoroughly happy. Of course I never did need that second pricking....



This week has been dreadfully busy - end of term marking and all that... but I had a lovely surprise. On Thursday I popped to the post office and picked up a parcel that was too large for the letterbox. It was a lovely package of goodies from Sara - I'd won her giveaway a few weeks ago.... and boy was I in for a treat:






Thank you Sara, you made my day!!

This weekend I'm opting for very lazy, with lots of crafting - I hope that you all have a lovely weekend too.

Happy Stitching x

Bedfordshire flower

It's done!!! Yesterday I finally sewed in the last thread on the Bedfordshire lace flower I was making. Quite a few people commented on my last post about this lace piece about the huge mound of bobbins, and how I keep them in order. So I thought I'd try and explain... and show how the final furlong of this finish panned out!!

First I should say that the photo in my last post (and here again) is a little misleading...



Most of those bobbins had been 'thrown out' or discarded when they were no longer needed - more pairs of bobbins are needed to make the leaves and petals - so you add pairs in at the start of the leaf, and throw them out towards the end! It's figuring out where to do that as invisibly as possible that's the tricky part. Anyway, this is how many pairs of bobbins I needed to finish that last little bit:



As you can see, they are all carefully organised onto large safety pins which are threaded through the spangles (beads). This means I can move any sections of bobbins I don't need out of the way, without them getting muddled up. You rarely, if ever, work with all of those bobbins at once!!



If they do get muddled up I look at the threads to make sure they are running in order - in cloth stitch (the outer border) the passive threads should all be parallel to each other, with no crosses or twists.

Anyway, at this point I just needed the bobbins on the left of the piece - so I moved the other two groups of bobbins out of the way, took the bobbins I needed off the safety pin and grouped them back into pairs:



Once I'd finished the bit of lace, I joined the ends together, and cut all of the ends off:



Once I'd taken all of the pins put I was left with a huge pile of loose threads:



Usually I make lace face down, so I could have cut the ends off close to the work, but this piece was made face up. So to make sure none of the cut ends showed, I carefully sewed each one through to the back of the work, and cut it off there... which needed a small sharp needle, LOTS of light, and even more patience. Hmm, I think I'll try and stick to face down pieces in future!!

And here is the final piece:



There are some areas which look so neat I can't believe I made the lace, and other areas I'm less happy with in comparison - but this is by far the neatest piece of lace I've ever made... I learnt so many techniques and tips on Christine Springett's course last year - I can't wait for the next one in May!

Happy Stitching :)

A little finish

Well on Thursday I said I'd post my latest finish on Friday, but you know how it is!!! Last week I stitched the Cherished Stitches pin keep from the 2010 JCS edition - which matches the needlebook I stitched earlier this month. I used the green border to make a matching back, with my initials and date in the lovely pink:




I then started Hedgerow Birds by Blackbird Designs. After looking at the loose weave of the fabric I decided against using a frame, and am stitching this in hand (which is very unusual for me, with anything bigger than an ornie). That said I am really enjoying the 20ct linen, and using 3 strands of floss - a real contrast to the 32ct/1 strand of floss stitching I've been doing of late!! I took this yesterday afternoon, but started some more of the birds last night:



I have one niggle though - the patten clearly states it needs 10 yards of Apple Cider - which my lovely sister bought me - but I've almost finished the first skein. I've still got quite a bit of it to use on the first side - and I'd say that there's just as much Apple Cider on the back. Hmm, maybe it's a typo on the pattern - if anyone else has stitched this I'd love to know if they ran short of this colour.

Yesterday I was supposed to go to a quilting class, but sadly it was cancelled. I was a bit listless all day, until I decided to pull out my lace pillow. I've very nearly finished the little circular motif that I started back in May - not that you can see much under the pile of bobbins and pins!!!



I'm going to try and finish this today - but it will prove tricky, as it's the first time I've ever made lace right side up - it's easier to make the lace this way up, but much trickier to join up the trail around the edge at the end. It'll then take me a while to tidy up all of the threads that got thrown out along the way... but eventually I should be able to show you the finished design!!!

Finally, thank you all for the lovely encouraging comments on my last post, they really do mean a lot :)

Happy stitching!

Crafty weekend

This weekend has had a very crafty feel to it - just what I needed!!!

Phyllis came to stay on Friday night, as Saturday was Pudsey Not Just Lace Fair, and she was manning the stall for the Lace Guild. Eddy and I (mostly Eddy) cooked a selection of Mediterranean food, and after we ate we sat around chatting, Phyllis did a little lace, and I showed her recent cross stitch finishes.

Phyllis left for the Civic Hall around 8.45am to set up, I meandered over just after 10, when the general public were aloud in, and met up with Sonia. We had good fun looking at the stalls, and of course buying stash. It was nice to chat with Stuart Johnson (who makes my favourite bobbins - always an expensive stall for me) and is teaching Sonia (and next time Eddy) to turn bobbins in May. I also stopped to have a chat with Christine Springett about Bedfordshire lace, and to warn her that Eddy is vegetarian well in advance of our May weekend. Sonia discovered that the lady who runs spangles is an old archaeology friend, both were a little perplexed to see each other 'out of context'!! I filled in for Phyllis so she could have a look around, happily selling lace bobbins and booklets, along with the occasional calendar.

So what did I buy?? More than I should have of course:

Bobbins by Stuart Johnson. I love the one with the Llama bead...


Bobbins by Lacewing designs. I love her dragons, opal will have a few friends in my bobbin box, and I spotted Sapphire on my pillow today!


I got these lovely semi-precious stone spangles from spangles. My taste in beads is too expensive... most of the ones I wanted were £2 a spangle... But I made sure I also picked a few less expensive ones!


I got these wool variety packs so I can make myself a lace scarf (don't hold your breath on this latest master plan!!)


This wonderful African fabric is the thing I really shouldn't have bought. But is was so lovely... I have NO IDEA what I'm going to use it for. Maybe quilting (although I never actually DO any quilting, just buy lovely fabrics for it...). But I couldn't resist. I could have spent A LOT more on this stall....

Sonia and I left around 1pm, and she popped by for a cuppa before going home - at which point Eddy and I enjoyed the leftovers form the night before! Eddy's had a nasty cold and now has an ear infection, so we opted for maximum laziness (a common pattern on the weekend for us), and I settled down with a beading kit I bought from Harrogate Knitting and Stitching last year, to make a pretty necklace. I've never beaded anything before, and I have to say the instructions by Spellbound beads were fantastic! I'm about 1/2 way done, and hope to do some more in front of the Grand Prix this evening:


I also did a little lace (having got the pillow out to show Phyllis). I re-started the wing tip that I'd kind-of started on Thursday night at Louise's - having worked out what I'd done wrong. My biggest problem is where to put the spare bobbins as I work this next wing - something that is only going to get worse as I get further on this piece:
Bedfordshire lace butterfly, by Christine Springett

Last night I was tired of beading, and didn't feel like lace making in front of the TV, or any of my current XS projects. So of course I started something new... here are the first few stitches on Dracolair's Gaelic Banner:


So after all this craftyness, where am I supposed to sit and eat????:


That'll be in front of the TV I guess!!!

Finally, thank you for your comments about coffin buzz - I was mostly curious to see how many people would have left it (I knew it was a tricky mistake to spot if I didn't say anything - especially in a photo), and how many would have frogged it :)

Happy stitching (right, off to work on that necklace...)

Fantasy Triptych has a border!

Well it's taken me FAR longer than I anticipated, but I finished the border of FT last night (less the beading and the bs I need to do after I have stitched the maid and knight panels!):



This is the first time I've done a plaited cross stitch, I think they turned out OK! (as always, Teresa's wonderful stitching diagrams were perfectly clear):




I'm enjoying the long weekend here, we had got plans for a friend to visit but I was feeling ill on Friday (well, most of last week really), so we cancelled. I had taken Friday off work anyway, to get the house sorted (2 trips for work - to London and York, meant I spent 1 night at my sister's, then the next 2 nights I got home at 10.30pm - I knew I couldn't manage work on the Friday after that!!). So on Friday I slept, on Saturday I did very little other than watch TV and stitch. Yesterday I felt much better and poddled around the garden a little (Eddy spent most of Saturday and Sunday building ANOTHER raised bad - dry stone wall this time!!). I plan on helping in the garden again today, but not too much, just in case. Hopefully I'll get plenty of time to stitch... not sure what to pick up yet!!

Thanks for your lovely comments about the lace heart - I learnt such a lot on this tiny piece - Christine is a very thorough teacher! Theresa asked about how I got the leaves so tight - here's a Christine Springett tip: work the leaves (or tallys) so they are 1/3 longer than the patten suggests, put up the pin, tension the passive threads and voila, a lovely tight leaf.. it really does work.

Lacemaking in Aston Cantlow

Last weekend's lacemaking course was great fun. We drove down to Stratford on Friday after work and had a lovely meal at Bella Italia. Saturday we drove to Aston Cantlow (a very pretty little village) along some lovely country lanes with lots of 'hedge-froth' - Hawthorn blossom, cow parsley etc - I love this time of year. We also saw lots of lovely deep blue bluebells in the verges.

Aston Cantlow is very pretty, and it was fun to do a lacemaking course in a timber-framed village hall. How very English!!

I was taking a Bedfordshire lace course with Christine Springett, and Sonia was learning how to turn lace bobbins with David Springett and Stuart Johnson. The latter was exceptionally dangerous, as I love Stuart's bobbins, and have a habit of buying lots of them...

Christine's style of making Bedforshire lace is non-traditional - she's adopted ideas from Cluny lace, which essentially mean that the passive pairs in a trail continue in the trail all the way round - they don't enter and exit at will to make leaves, plaits etc - so this finished effect is more 'perfect'.



I started with a fairly simple piece, to get the hang of Christine's way of doing things, and did about half of it. I have to say I've never managed to get such lovely fat leaves before!



The coloured threads in the photo are 'magic threads', which are used at the end to make the finishing simpler, and the knots neater. We'll see how that goes when I finish the piece!

It was soon clear I'd undersold my abilities when I answered Christine's questionnaire before the class - the patterns she sent me were very pretty, but not very challenging. Luckily I was determined enough to try something more difficult to bring along a second pricking (the card pattern you make lace on) of a butterfly, designed by Christine, and most of the necessary wound bobbins. I started it with an hour to go on the Saturday, then worked on it exclusively on the Sunday - I'm really pleased with my progress, and even attempted rolled tallies (which you can't see as the are rolled UNDER the lace you are making. Won't know how successful I was until I finish... There's the tip of a wing under and amongst all of these pins:



I should say that Sonia had great fun turning bobbins, and came away with 3 lovely pairs.



In other lace making news(!), Louise finished her Bedfordshire lace project when she was at a different lace making course the previous weekend. She went to Knuston Hall wither her mum, where the class is taught by Barbara Underwood - a big proponent of making lace in the traditional way - it'll be fun to swap notes and compare pieces, but last night I was far too tired to make our usual lace making evening. Anyway, here are some photos of a lovely cuff that Louise has made. I think she'd started it when I first met her... so it took quite a while really! She took an old pricking and had a go to see how it turned out. Very pretty, but she's not tempted to make a pair!