Cherry on Plastic

 

With a friend's birthday fast approaching, I stitched this sweet (no pun intended...or was it?) cherry on plastic aida, planning to turn it in to a broach or hair accessory.

I hadn't tried plastic canvas before and, to be honest, it was a bit of a bitch!  It made the bamboo canvas seem meditative in comparison.  Once again I had the issue of having to thread many lengths of thread through one reluctant needle eye. Starting and finishing threads was trickier as was keeping the tension right and plastic canvas turns out to be one slippery mother...

Still, once you've finished stitching, you're more or less done and you don't have to worry about fraying fabric or stretching out your material, which has, despite your best efforts, warped more than a little.

It would be useful for making stuff like broaches and cake toppers and other cute silly things too.  I've a few patterns that I want to try that recommend using this stuff so maybe in a few months I'll be an expert and look back at this and wonder what I was moaning about *-_- *



A rose by any other stitch...

 This was my first time stitching on to a bamboo decoration as oppose to the more usual aida or evenweave fabric.  It was more challenging that I expected because I'm so used to being able to bend the fabric to help my needle along, which was not an option in this case. The thread also needed to be chunkier than normal to stand out which made simple things like threading a needle, a little bit harder than normal.  The whole process made a now routine skill feel novel and I needed to approach the project in a different way, even starting and finishing the threads needed to be done slightly differently.

 

I do like the immediacy of this kind of stitching and the lack of having to prepare the work for a frame or further stitching to turn it in to a cushion or similar textile afterwards. It's great if you're stitching in a hurry and makes me want to try stitching on perforated paper for making up cards even more now.

 

 

It definitely makes you think more about the kind of materials you can use to compliment your embroidery techniques. It reminded me of reading about a guerrilla cross stitch movement where people go out and use their stitching skills to brighten up the environment around them, often using unconventional materials.

 I've also been looking at a few stitching artists recently like Sarah Greaves http://sarahgreavesart.com/ 

 

 

and Judith Klausner http://jgklausner.com/work/toast-embroidery who are sewing on to some really unusual materials like wood, metal or even food which must be crazy delicate and potentially very messy.

Weaving Folk...

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I made up these 'folk art,' style cards for some friends of mine, the bright colours and bead embellishments were fun to play around with and a nice break from a longer more sophisticated cross stitch I've been working on



The flower reminds me of a very basic version of some henna patterns I've been researching recently, with the beads standing in for the characteristic 'dots' that are used in typical henna patterns.

Sew..Many..Babies...

Last year, four of my friends had babies, four of them, two of whom are younger than me! To someone who has never felt the lure of motherhood, it's baffling but they all seem happy enough which is the main thing I suppose.

So I've been stitching some baby gifts, a first for me, in one case I knew the gender of the child and in the other I didn't...

 The sampler was a request, they knew they wanted the basic information but gave no other direction so I looked though a punch of patterns I have stashed away and basically made something up.  I'm quite happy with the way it turned out, despite having to use colour equivalents as I didn't have the specified threads, (which appals my 'need to have everything perfect' sensibilities.)  I wanted something cute but not too cute and wanted to avoid gender stereotyping the little mite.

 

The fox was a baby shower present, (another first for me, going to a baby shower - scarred!) The baby's gender was unknown so I needed something neutral and animals jumped to the forefront again. I know next to nothing about shopping for babies and figured my friend would get lots of baby related paraphernalia and I wanted to give something that she would enjoy and which might look good on a nursery wall. I instinctively felt, (and turned out to be right,) that the baby would be a little girl but I thought this cute little fox cub would work either way.   

I Think I'm Stitching Japanese....

I have always been attracted to Oriental art styles and am something of a Japanophile, with a large interest in Japanese art, fashion, food, literature, folklore, films etc...              Cross stitch and embroidery in general has often featured Oriental designs; no surprise with the richness of textile history in Asia to take inspiration from; so there are a great many styles and patterns to choose from.  I stitched the cherry blossom design, quite early on in my quest to re-learn cross stitch.  It had some challenging fractional stitches but I loved the example of such a classic motif.

 

 This kokeshi doll inspired design was a quick easy stitch and so cute, I couldn't resist her. Having been something of a momiji collector, she reminded immediately of those cute little dolls.

 

To Stitch Or Not To Stitch..

I stitched this Ed Hardy design for my brother's birthday cos' he's a rock n roll tattoo loving kind of guy.  It was more involved than I initially imagined, more shades of pink than you would believe for those surrounding lilies, but I liked it.  I look forward to stitching some of his butterfly designs some time in the future.

They Came From The Skies...

 

After a gap of many years, I've rediscovered the joys (and often the pain) of cross stitch. Pricked fingers and having to unpick where you've gone wrong, springing to mind.
However, I enjoy how retro these buttons are on all accounts. The 'old school' pixilated deigns work really well with cross stitch and they are simple enough that going wrong and having to unpick, is much less likely than it is on larger projects. They are also relatively quick to stitch up, a rarity with embroidery projects in general.
The aida fabric, being quite thick, was not as easy to squish down behind the backing of the self covered buttons as the instructions of the packaging suggested though. A lot of pushing and squeezing and a bit of cursing was usually involved. You can buy a gadget to help with getting the backs on though, a good investment if you're planning on stitching a lot of buttons I think.