I am throwing myself on your mercy. I have very little embroidery to show you that is new. I have two rows of buttonhole lace which I stitched last night. In my defence I have had visitors. Please forgive me. I wasn't going to work on this piece again until nearer simply stitch 5 but it was easy to pick up when I had the house to myself again.
By way of compensation I thought I would show you a little of my Yves Saint Laurent colouring book, a gift from my little girl. It's gorgeous, has ledger potential, is inspirational.
I am now going to spend my afternoon doodling followed by painting, with ink.
My little fingers have been working non stop.....adorning.....I love that word, it's my new favourite....adorning the seams on my body bag. One has bullion loops which as you may know I have a bit of an addiction to. The other has French knots, three colours, kind of like tiny flowers. There is two evenings work here, watching TV, specifically Netflix, mayhem in LA whilst practicing the gentle art of embroidery, quite a contrast don't you think.
adorn
verb (used with object)
1.
to decorate or add beauty to, as by ornaments:
garlands of flowers adorning their hair.
2.
to make more pleasing, attractive, impressive, etc.; enhance:
I bought this little book last year in Sweden. ''Astrid'' by Maria Jonnson is proving to be a charming base for ledger work. I have written about Astrid before, images from those posts are at the foot of today's blog in mosaic form.
I decided that Astrid needed some bling, some sparkle in her life. Last night I added a little semi circle of paper, red and white straight stitch, red and white French knots and a few sparkly glass cube beads. It extends the page lying to the right, more red and white with silk, French knots and thread wrapping.
I really must get a new keyboard. The ''W'' key works only when it feels like it and ''R'' and ''T'' have gone AWOL. I spend my days proof reading....but I do have little bag of these today....comfort eating.
(If you want to watch pages like this evolve, learn how to embellish little books, big books, stitch in ledgers, titivate cloth then Simply Stitch 5 is where you need to be.)
I put another stitchery doodle together yesterday. This one also has a handkerchief as its base just like this one. I didn't manage to get much hand stitching done on it last night...other stuff going on but I think you can get a sense of how it will evolve.
(the white strips at the edge are for damp stretching)
Now I have four pieces. The mirror cloth has been adopted by the stitchery doodle pile. I have plans for these that will take shape in Simply Stitch 5. You will still get to see them once we're up and running. Thing is, because I have decided to use these then I think I should put them away for a couple of weeks so that I'm not finished before we even start class. I'm also thinking about creating a pin pillow in Simply Stitch 5, inspiration taken from this. Phew.....that's quite a big ''to do'' list if you consider the continuation of the body bag and the swaddling band. It's a good thing I never leave the house.....
I am very tempted to continue with the stitchery doodles, desperate in fact but I must show some self control. Tonight I will work on this.....definitely something to look forward to. I can't complain really can I.....
This piece is slowly taking shape, a couple of hours spent last night adding beads, adding silver purl, adding silver kid leather. There are tiny cubed glass beads on here that are barely visible in the images.....that's a shame, they are so pretty and very delicate. You can just about make them out in the third image down, just under my name.
Thanks for the feedback on yesterdays piece, you like it then? I have more of those hankies so watch this space.
It's numberless because I keep finding other pieces that qualify as stitchery doodles. Number three is gone, given as a gift. Number two doesn't fit. This could be number two then but after a morning of fiddling and faffing I have found something else that lives with this series, I will speak about that later in the week. As it doesn't take much to make me confused I am leaving the numbering for now.
I worked on this last night, added bullion loops, strips of buttonhole lace and an edge of French knots. There are one or two dark spots, old age.....I think they enhance, they are evidence of history.
It's been a funny couple of days creatively. I wouldn't say I lost my ''mojo'', I still had it I just wasn't sure what to do with it. There are a couple of ''pressure'' pieces going on in the background, things I want to finish or move on for class, quite time consuming in terms of what they need yet still a pleasure. My floundering occurred because I can't show you those until they have been seen by the SS4 group. (and yes SS4 group...all the hooks and eyes are added now :) I'm feeling quite pleased with myself on that one)
I am working on my sparkly cloth, adding bling and titivating that surface but I fear you will become bored with that. If I spend hours on it you can't tell the difference even though I know how much extra has been added it must look just the same to you. Essentially one bead looks the same as another despite the fact that it may be in a different area. One area of applied silver kid looks exactly the same as another regardless of where I put it....do you see what I mean.
What to do? Well I'm never one to turn down the chance to pin new pieces, to play with cloth, to lay different pieces down and see what lives happily with what. This morning I have put a tiny stitchery doodle together. An old hankie, soft, pastel stripes covered with a very fragile piece of vintage white and a snippet of vintage embroidery from a worn and ragged table cloth pinned on top. I will begin to stitch on this tonight, an hour on this, an hour on the bling piece. The strip of white with the jagged edge...whats that for? I am using that to extend the cloth for damp stretching, thinking ahead. The pins will go in there and not the edge of the hankie. But what about the other edge I hear you cry? I don't mind about that one, this piece will be cut, made smaller before it's finished and I will keep the other half of the hankie for something else.
Finally, a huge thank you, a massive hug and lots of appreciative grinning. Someone sent me one of these yesterday. I don't know who. There was no note, nothing. If it was you.....honestly...I'm so happy, thanks.
Images from my phone, some are from this morning the rest from the past week. My dining table is becoming an internet sensation, it's ever present. Anything and everything that is worth doing takes place on this table.
We eat on it every evening. I paint on it. I stitch on it. I make videos on it. I take photographs on it. I fold my ironing in neat little piles and put them on it. I cut cloth on it. I leave things lying on it for days on end, they just get pushed out of the way when the food arrives. One pile, at the back, has been there for months. (fourth image, upper left corner) It's a pile of scraps, lace and paper in fact I am certain there are things in that particular pile which I need but think are lost. Perhaps my job this afternoon should be to sort out that pile and see what treasures are lost within it.
I'm expecting a man, a nice man. (at least I am hoping he is nice) He is going to fix my internet. I can access the internet, I can do everything except upload videos. The world will be a much quieter place until that is remedied.
More surface embellishment has been added to this white piece. One edge now has three mirrors and a couple of other small areas have new loops added. I wanted to show this piece alongside this ledger page, to illustrate the connection between the page and the cloth. The last two pictures look the same at first glance but they aren't. There are different areas of the cloth visible in those.
I'm not sure what to do with this piece of embroidery. A cushion? I really can't decide. I have a small hankering to over use mirrors, to add more. Indecision reigns.....
In other news.....my internet connection is dodgy today. I have videos made for SS4 but youtube is telling me they will take 340 minutes to upload???? Normally it takes between 5 and 10 minutes. So they are coming girls but please don't hold your breath.
More paperwork, more sampling, another page for doodle doo. I thought I'd throw a little colour into the mix, see how I felt about that. It's OK...but OK doesn't really set me on fire. It is something I could investigate further, play with a little more in terms of scale and placement of the coloured aspect. For now though I prefer this particular piece without. It fits in doodle doo without the colour too. There is no colour in doodle doo.
The sampling bling with cloth is continuing. At the risk of boring you rigid I may have to show you that tomorrow. I'm painting, (allegedly) over in Simply Stitch 4, with blue, you may get to see that later this week. Meanwhile there are beds to change.....the excitement is killing me......not.
