Musings from The Tower...
This blog is mainly focused on my love of crafting. Embroidery, particularly cross stitch plays a major part but I will add any thing else that takes my fancy including, but not limited to Bollywood, Veganism, Yoga, Dance, Tarot and Pretty Things.
I stitched this patch for my other half as he is a big fan of the One Piece manga and anime series. Straw Hat Luffy is his official favourite (I suspect buxom Nami is his real favourite though!)
I used soluble canvas so I could stitch it straight on to felt, it's fairly easy to use but you need to give it plenty of soaking time in hot water to dissolve the canvas afterwards or it ends up very sticky.
Yatta!
I plan to do a few more characters soon; if not the whole of Luffy's crew; at least Chopper as he's super cute and my personal favourite Nico Robin.
After months of on off stitching and lots of pricked fingers along the way, I've finished my Goddess of Prosperity cross stitch kit by maia (anchor).
I fell in love with this kit as soon as I saw it, I'm a big fan of Chinese wuxia films (lush, epic, fantasy drama, usually with lots of death defying martial arts, magic swords and doomed tragic lovers,) and this image really brought those films to mind. In particular, a favourite of mine, I first watched when I was around 13, it's called 'A Chinese Ghost Story,' and the goddess here reminds me of the beautiful heroine, a tragic ghost spirit enslaved by an evil tree demon, seeking redemption (check it out, it's quite silly but very pretty.)
Here are a few close ups of the work in progress, she's such a big piece that it's easy to loose the details when I try to take a picture of the whole thing. I was filling in the backstitch here, which in many ways is more fiddly than the cross stitches that make up the bulk of the picture.
Here is a close up of some of the lovely floral details which really came to life when I started on the backstitching..
Here she is just before I took her off the stitching frame and went to get her stretched and framed. It was the first time I've ever had something professionally framed, I usually just do it myself but the finished piece was long and thin and I couldn't find a frame that really fitted so I decided to take it to a framers as they could custom make the frame as well as stretch out the work and make sure it was straight etc...
I think with big pieces that take up a lot of time and that you want to last; it is worth the extra expense but I felt pretty nervous leaving her in the shop as the process took about a week and I was anxious about whether I would like the finished frame. Thankfully, I did.
Here's hoping this iconic critter, synonymous with the British countryside and these days, our litter filled cities too; is left in peace and that the government doesn't go through with their crazy notion of making fox hunting legal again.
I took a stitching project with me when I visited my parents the other day. Their little foxy dog was intrigued with my wooden butterfly pendant.
Stitching on pre perforated wooden objects is fun because you can immediately utilise the project without having to frame it or stitch it on to something else. This makes it especially good for jewellery and other accessories like key chains etc...
It can present different challenges to stitching on fabric though as there is no 'give' with the material. You cannot manipulate your needle and thread in the same way as you would with fabric. Starting off and finishing off can be a bit more of a fiddle and I think overall, you have to sacrifice a bit more thread to the project.
I'm very happy with the end result of my colourful butterfly pendant though.
The end of 2014 saw some big changes for me, biggest of all, moving house. Amidst all the upheaval of house moving, house unpacking and work being the busiest it is all year, I didn't find time to work on all the stitching projects I had planned.
However, with the year still fresh and currently rather sunny where I'm sitting, in spite of the rain, I've felt the urge to start crafting again.
What better way to be seduced back in to stitching than with this adorable little guy?
I'm a big fan of Hayao Miyazaki films and I love the sweetness of 'My Neighbour Totoro;' it may not be as sophisticated or dynamic as some of the later epic tales like 'Spirited Away,' 'Princess Mononoke,' and 'Howl's Moving Castle;' but it retains an understated charm that bears repeat viewings.
Totoro himself of course has gone on to be the definitive Ghibli icon and regardless of whether or not you buy in to internet rumours of dark, tragic implications throughout the film (denied by the director,) it's hard not to fall for the mountainous ball of fluff.
You know, the ones your bohemian grandmother would make, the one who spent her youth in Asia chilling out with Tibetan monks and learning yoga from a guru in Kerala. That one.
Using my new found crochet skills, I used up some bits of colourful wool that had been lying around FOREVER in my sewing basket.
These squares are all the same pattern but I tried to achieve different looks by changing the colours of the thread in different places and in different ways to create unique looking squares.
I hope to master a few new designs in the near future as I am planning to incorporate all my random squares in to one big blanket eventually.
I haven't been able to do much since I hurt my dominant hand last week while practising yoga. I've watched a few films but it seems odd not to be stitching at the same time.
I watched a film called 'Murder By Death,' on Netflix which is very much "of its time," with some painfully hammy foreign accents and Peter Cook pretending to be Chinese. I thought it would be a murder mystery like Poirot or some other Agatha Christie style of film. It was supposed to be hammy and slapstick but seemed to be somewhere between Monty Python, without the cleverness and a Carry On film.
I had to follow it with the French biopic of Edith Piaf, 'La Vie En Rose,' to feel better about myself. That was good, if a little bleak. Gerard Depardieu seems to have stopped aging a few years back.
I also watched 'Ishqiya,' a really enjoyable Bollywood black comedy thriller starring the always wonderful Vidya Balan, she's such an interesting actress to watch and seems to have a good eye for unusual box office success stories. I look forward to catching the sequel.
Well this ends week one of the torn ligaments saga, hopefully after a second week of wearing the itchy wrist support of restriction, everything can go back to normal and I can start stitching again.
Here are some progress pictures of a big project I've been working on, I've done over half of the cross stitches but there will be a lot of detailed backstitching and French knots before it's completed.
She's an oriental goddess of prosperity, another Maia creation.
I loved her the minute I saw her, not least because the image reminds me of a long time favourite film of mine, 'A Chinese Ghost Story.'
Incidentally, Xena Warrior Princess owes a debt to that film for some of its plot lines.
What an unfortunate week I've had, managing to tear the ligaments in my right arm doing yoga wrist stretches.
YOGA FAIL
In all my years of practising yoga, I've never managed to injure myself to this extent. I feel kind of foolish and also disbelieving, plus ouch!
I have to wear a wrist support for two weeks and as I'm right handed, this is a pain in all the ways...
In desperate boredom I decided to have a go at a small cross stitch project, using my left hand to do the stitching. I had to call upon the assistance of my partner for some needle threading though and I probably still overworked my right hand a little, it's hard to break the habit of a lifetime.
This was the first time I'd stitched on perforated paper and I liked it, very useful for stitching cards I imagine. The only tricky part was initially securing the thread to the paper as I couldn't use my usual fabric based method.
I've always envied the ambidextrous ability many left handed people possess in a world that doesn't want to acknowledge their existence. I envy it even more right now, though my feeble left hand is doing its best.
Here's hoping the next two weeks fly by and my wrist heals quickly and properly so I can get back to stitching and yoga.
The most ambitious cross stitch design I've completed to date, (dragon aside.)
A beautiful design from Maia, part of a set of kits inspired by traditional Japanese art with a contemporary twist. I love the Art Nouveau addition to the traditional oriental elegance.
The intricate background was a challenge for me, lots of careful counting was needed as well as a great deal of patience.
I find shading in the squares of stitches I've already completed on the pattern sheet is very helpful to remember where you are, so when you pick the pattern back up after a while, you know what you've done and how much you need to complete.
However, I may have to find a new method for when I start following some patterns from my embroidery books as the idea of drawing in any book makes me distinctly uncomfortable.
There wasn't a great deal of backstitch to do with this design, which meant once I finished the cross stitches, it didn't take long to finish the rest.
She took me quite some time to finish overall, especially as I tend to stitch on and off in general, sometimes spending weeks stitching regularly and sometimes letting projects sit in a cupboard for a few months.
I'm very happy with her though and hope to get her professionally framed at some point to best preserve all my hard work.
After many, many attempts, my brain seems to have finally allowed me to grasp the basics of crochet, yarn round the hook and all that. Enough to practice some double and treble crochet knots and some tentative attempts at circular crochet at least.
I've still a long way to go before I'm showing off / boring you with dozens of pictures of adorable amigurumi critters; but I've mastered some basic granny squares and so I was able to create this giant granny square blanket, in preparation for my new nephew, due next month. (Hope he likes it!)
One of my first attempts at stitching on evenweave, as oppose to aida. I loved the blending of Victoriana kitch with the mythological unicorn. 'The Last Unicorn,' was one of my favourite books, growing up as a horse mad girl, without the horse. Just about the only creature that could trump a horse for me was the fabled horse with a horn.
Evenweave is a greater challenge to stitch on than aida but gives a more sophisticated finish and probably looks better when your design allows a lot of the fabric to show around the stitches.
The design comes from the, What Delilah Did Presents, 'StoryLand Cross Stitch,' book from Sophie Simpson. It's a nice little book with various cross stitch fairy tale inspired designs, with lots of different ability levels catered to. There is also a website called What Delilah Did with information and kits you can buy.
Stitching desperately in to the early hours of the night I just about managed to finish this "kawaii" cutie in time to present it to a fellow Japan-loving friend for her birthday.
I love the little details of the flowers on her kimono, the French knots on her sleeves and the subtle white backstitching on her obi belt.
I stitched this sweet little owl key ring the other day. I used a dissolvable canvas to stitch the cross stitch design on the felt. You need to soak it in hot water afterwards so that the canvas dissolves, leaving the stitching on the material.
Unlike waste canvas, you don't have to pick out the remaining canvas after soaking because it dissolves but you do need to use very hot water and to let it soak for a while or you end up with a sticky residue coating your stitching which is most unpleasant.
Another quick stitch. A cute daisy flower in cool aqua and green tones with a dash of contrasting red.
Always handy to have a few cards already stitched up ready to go to the perfect person.
I stitched this for a friend's birthday, her name is Rosie and the design reminded me of a Tudor Rose so I thought it was apt.
Small projects are a nice break after spending weeks or months on larger designs. I fit embroidery around work and other hobbies so it's not something I do every day. Large kits certainly take me months to finish.
The pattern reminded me of the Assisi technique, especially popular during the medieval era, where the background is stitched to produce the design on the material used, see example below...
Having just had some time off work, I've taken the chance to catch up on some reading but have also, inevitably, amassed a new selection of 'waiting to be read,' books.
Among them, a couple of Tolkien bio's, the wonderful 'Book of Barely Imagined Beings' and Kate Forsyth's 'Wild Girl.'
But first I must finish 'Jane Eyre' which I've been reading at the same time as 'Anno Dracula,' as my copy of 'Jane Eyre,' is too big to carry around easily. (I know Kindle's are easy to carry but I just don't like them. Give me a physical copy any day, especially if it's illustrated.)
Anyway, having two books on the go meant I needed a second bookmark so I decided to stitch this parrot kit I had lying around.
It was also nice to be stitching something I could finish in a day or so as I've got two big projects on the frames right now. They will be beautiful when complete but progress always feels maddeningly slow with the larger projects.
I was rather pleased with myself for managing to painlessly stitch the six French knots for the parrots eyes. In the past they've been something of a nemesis of mine, sometimes turning out perfectly and other times, becoming a complete mess, for no obvious reason.
But today they were a dream to stitch, here's hoping that's the case for my future knots!
I made this rosette for a friend's birthday, the ladybird was cute and (thankfully) quick to stitch and I knew she would appreciate the little critter. Buttons / badges make great gifts as they can be made up very fast, useful if you want to give a gift on impulse or maybe didn't allow yourself much time to buy or make a present for someone. They can be turned into necklaces and broaches pretty easily too.
The design below was inspired by Emilie Autumn's signature rattie. I wanted to make up a small collection of little gifts to give Emilie when I last saw her perform. This was one of them; my second stitching attempt, as I lost the previous one by (somewhat ironically) dropping it in to a cup of tea. I just free hand embroidered it on to some stripy material and attached it to a self covered button.
A thread cutter pendant, perfect if you are taking embroidery out and about with you and do not wish or want to carry a sewing basket around with you. Also it's cool and makes me think of ninjas due to its dual purpose nature and the fact that it's got Japan written on it.
These innocent looking fairy shaped scissors are lethal and prone to lashing out unprovoked, they do look mighty cute though..
All sewing types need a small sharp pair of scissors for snipping threads and the like. It's a bonus if they're pretty too...
Coloured threads! The best bit, so many shades, so much potential.
When I'm buying threads individually I try to stick to the DMC brand because I already have quite a selection and it seems to be the brand most kits / patterns mention, many do list options for the big three; Anchor, DMC, Madeira, but if they only list one, it is usually DMC. Plus whenever I say it I think of the Japanese film Detroit Metal City, which makes me think of Kenichi Matsuyama, which always makes me happy ^_^
Last year I was organized (for a change,) and stitched most of the yuletide cards I sent to people. It helps that my Christmas list only really includes nearest and dearest.
These reindeer cards were my favourites, I love their little button noses and jazzy scarves.
Whether or not I will be up for it again this year, time will tell. I should, as I have a bazillion 'winter scenes,' cross stitch motifs; as half a year of cross stitcher magazine seems to be mostly about the festive season.
Let's just say I certainly won't bat an eye lid if Santa appears on the cover of my next issue. But no doubt I'll still leave any winter solstice stitching until the last minute.
