From Jewellery Box to Jewellery Bag

Back in April 2012 I started stitching what supposedly destined to become a Jewellery Box.  This was an SAL with Judy O'Dell on her Just a Thought forum.   No pictures were supplied -  this was totally a mystery but a box with a jewellery pouch and roll and ..... were promised so full of enthusiasm I put needle to linen.

The front and back were duly stitched.   Charts were provided for the sides and the lid but when I realised that there were thousands if not tens of thousands of small gold beads to be sewn in each space of the green grid, I turned green!   Besides which there was kilometres of ruched green silk ribbon to sew around the central cartouche and around the edge of the lid!  At this point interest began to wane.  

Then Judy said she was not going on with the project so none of the "internal pieces" would be forthcoming.   At this point my interest level vanished.    But what to do with the front and the back?

Well if not a Jewellery Box then how about a Jewellery Bag?   After all, I had promised my Mikimoto Pearls a new home.  

And eighteen months after the first stitch, voila!   The bag  complete with flannel padding,  linen lining and zipper closure.
I am soooo pleased to have this finished.   Two more WIP's to complete before Christmas and nothing new.   I have promised myself a new start on Boxing Day, 26th December, when the HD3QBEM and I leave for a well earned holiday.   Will my self control hold out?   Watch this space.

A visit to The Ribbon Rose

Today I took myself off to my LNS to spend my voucher.  
Look at what I got....

Oops sorry.   Those are my new funky gym shoes but not from the LNS;-)   No Shoe Science down the road took measurements, filmed me walking, analysed my gait, relieved me of money and these are so light and colourful they sure cheer me up.
The Ribbon Rose is full full full of stock.   Luscious threads, heaps of fabric, patchwork supplies, knitting wool, beads by the tonne, ribbons by the kilometre and even an area with comfortable chairs and supplies to have a cup of tea.   So what did I buy?
These...A knitting pattern for the HD3QBEM, a Glory Bee Stitchers Rule chart for me and some Silken Threads floss.

And I finished the small ornament

The Suffolk Puff Christmas Tree needs some handsewing tonight and it too is complete.  

But before that I am busily completing the Jewellery Box which will not be a box.   Back in August I promised to show you what I was going to do with the two stitched pieces and today I finally took action.   Hopefully tonight, while watching an ancient James Bond movie I will finally finish this.  
Can you tell?   I am determined to get my WIPs all finished by the end of this year - and not to start anything more until I go on holiday on 26 December.   Well, a girl can dream can't she.

Scotland is conquered and I'm off to Ireland!

A mountain covered in heather and Douglas Fir later, I have completed the Scotland portion of the Trip Book cover.   Wasn't it amazing that the Anchor blue ombre thread so kindly formed a cloud for me ?!   This has been fun to do - even though my eyes are rather tired and I may have developed a semi permanent squint!  And so I need to go back to Ireland and finish their castles!

I have made an appointment to visit the optometrist next month and will get new "ordinary" spectacles as well as new "embroidery" spectacles.   From past experience I know this will be fraught with all sorts of difficulties - how can I choose frames well when I haven't got my spectacles on to see them?  Then there is the wait!   My lenses are made by Zweiss in Germany and take forever a long time to arrive back here in New Zealand, by which time I have forgotten what the chosen frames look like and there is always a moment of dismay when I try the completed spectacles on and think "did I choose these?"

My canvas work is progressing but I am no more in love with it now than I was at the beginning.   However in saying that I am pleased I have made the effort to try this technique - even if I never repeat it.  Working with wool and with a stiff canvas is proving hard on my fingers and thumbs so I am not able to speed along on this one.   I tried out a different colour in the top left corner but I don't like it so out it will come.

While prodding plodding along on the canvas work, I had an inspiration on what to do with the "two sides" I had made of Judy O'Dells Jewellery Box.   Judy decided midway to call a halt on this project, so I was left with two pieces and no inspiration till now.   But I only need a zipper, some doctors flannel, some suitable lining fabric and some time and voila this will be another finish.  Watch this space.

In the weekend I have promised to take the HD3QBEM shopping but hope to find time to do some sewing as well.  The bottom half of 'The Dress' needs to be done and I have two lengths of fabric to make into skirts. Ah -  so many projects so little time!  The floral piece will be a basic skirt to wear with a cotton T shirt but I am undecided on how to treat the striped silk.   I bought this fabric in Adelaide 8 or 9 years ago and have never been able to decide on what to wear with it. Perhaps this time I have the solution as am knitting a lacy cotton top in the turquoise/aqua but am keeping my eyes open for a duponi silk to match the wine/plum stripe.  If you see me lurking in fabric shops with a scrap of silk you'll know why!
And as I have a good book to read, I am off to soak my aching muscles and curl up in bed.   Good night all.

Under the weather

For the past two days it has been very silent at our house.   My voice has vanished and left in its place a hoarse croak and a pitifully non-productive but extremely irritating cough.   I dragged through a busy day at work on Friday sustained only by the thought that in the weekend I would have time to recuperate and to indulge.   Well....

Today the HD3QEM and I travelled to the south of the city to visit the exhibition put on by a neighbouring embroiderers guild.   Inclement weather, and her loving daughter's  ill health couldn't dissuade the HD3QEM from this adventure as she had deduced, with rare enthusiasm, that on our return journey we would pass by Daruma Sushi once again.   We both enjoy sushi and chawan mushi so it was a shared pleasure.

The exhibition was wonderful.   This particular guild always have a strong bias to traditional stitching and I enjoy the inspiration and stimulus I receive in seeing all the beautiful work.   My camera battery was dead so I took these using my iPod. Can you guess which section of the exhibition was my favourite -  yes yes yes!  The counted traditional work.   These are some examples of Hardanger, Punto Antico, Schwalm, Reticella and Ruskin Lace. I did take my Moleskine and despite being artistically challenged sketched one or two ideas that some time in the future I may try to imitate.

 

 

I have completed the one medallion on Part 7 of A Confetti of Hardanger.   This is needle woven bars and I am desperately hoping that the next medallion will be slightly more complex and give a greater degree of satisfaction.

The front and back of Shelleys Jewellery Box are now completed and have been put into hibernation to allow me to complete some of my other projects.   I really like the centre panel of this one.   Here's
a close up of that part -  the colour is not correct.

Currently I am working on a "tone on tone" counted thread hussif.   This is chewing through the thread and I had to call in to my LNS and stock up on some more floss.   Originally I had planned to use linen and floss from my stash but didn't count on this using quite so much floss.   Hopefully the finished product will justify the outlay. The linen is a pretty lavender 28 count cashel linen and the thread is GAST Lavender Pot Pourri.

 Well, I'm off to make dinner now and settle down for a stitching evening.

A fine day here - and A Tour For Amy Part 4

Yesterday and today were fine and sunny but rather chilly -  typical golden autumn days.   I have had a horrible head cold so I was stuck indoors -  ah woe is me.   But I am feeling much better today.
My concerted effort to complete the back panel of Shelley's Jewellery Box came unstuck and I spent a lot of time reverse stitching and then with gritted teeth restitching the lattice work.   This afternoon there is one small medallion to complete and then the drawn thread panel in the centre.   The front of the box is identical and at the moment I cannot face a "repeat stitch" so this will go away in the box for a bit.  The designer of this piece has an interesting technique-  everything is stitched in cross stitch first and then extras are added later to make the specialty stitches -  this shot shows me turning cross stitches into smyrna crosses.   Interesting concept but I am not sure I will adopt this permanently.

I was going to do the next animal on Kelly's Growth Chart but I think I'd like a quick but complete finish so might try something smaller. 
Now for the next episode of The Tour.
On the wall of my dining room are these three pieces -

I can't remember the designer for this sampler but I do know that I sent to England for it and for the Stef Francis threads that were at that time unobtainable here.

This sampler was done in 2004 (as you can see) and was from the Sampler and Antique Needlework Quarterly magazine.  It was the first time I had stitched in silks and while I remember gasping at the cost I loved using silks!

This was stitched with some degree of pressure during the last three months of 1999.   I didn't manage to get the framing done but the stitching was all complete before the fireworks and celebrations for the new Millennium.   This was stitched from an English magazine whose name I have completely forgotten -  but it was Belfast linen and DMC threads.   And I remember the framing cost me $200!!

Don't you think that deserves a closer shot?

And now we reach the cabinet that sparked off this grand tour.  There are many many pieces in the cabinet so I will show only the top shelf here -  more to come I promise!

This one was from a DMC promotional chart -  showcasing their new (at the time) metallic threads.  I didn't pay for framing for this one as I never expected it to still be on display 12 years later.

And the lacy piece peeking out on the extreme left is this

Several years ago we had Jo Dixey as a member of our Embroiderer's Guild.   She had completed an apprenticeship at the Royal School of Needlework before falling in love with a New Zealander and coming to live here.   Our gain though, as she generously took classes and shared her skills.   This piece was called contemporary drawn thread work and was one of my unsuccessful forays in the world of creative stitching.  Not unsuccessful, in that I did complete the piece but I still feel that it is somehow not quite 'right' as I couldn't count it out and prove it to be correct :-)   Here's a close up -  you can see that there are layers of needle weaving, wrapping, beads etc.

Next a small Maarken mouse - this is made like a ring to put over your finger and use as a pin cushion.   Mighty bulky and far too cute for that.

And a Pear from Heritage Needlework -  the other side has a boring monogram M

This is the only complete piece of stumpwork I have.   Indeed the only other piece I attempted was discarded with sighs of disgust and failure.   While I truly admire this technique I do not find it satisfying - again it isn't counted and relys on latent artistic talent of which I have zilch. 

And that is enough for today.   There is still one piece on the top shelf but you will have to wait until next time for that.   I need to go and cook dinner for the HDHBEM.  

Jewellery Box

I am making good progress on the stitching for Shelley's Jewellery Box.   Now that I have added the colour I am happier as these blues are looking good.  There are supposed to be thousands of beads to cover this but I am not really a bead person so may opt for plain -  we shall see.   My Mikimoto pearls will look good in the finished box won't they?

The bigger problem is that the whole box is larger than I had imagined. 

So where am I going to put it?
My cabinet is rather full and I can hardly ask the HDHBEM to part with her precious china tea set just so I can stuff more stitching in, can I?
Hope your weekend has been as much fun and as productive as mine. 

Catch up

Today the HDHBEM and I went to the LNS and I stocked up on some necessities   Floss for projects I am about to commence and small gold scissors for an upcoming project.   My boss gave me a small spherical tin in gold and black which I think will make a wonderful "hussif" so I want to get to and make a scissor fob, needle book and mini biscornu in black and gold to match.   At the moment I am thinking blackwork rather than cross stitch but who knows.   Our Embroiderer's Guild exhibition is in August and I hope to have this completed by then.    

Bad photo this but I have signed up for the Around the World in 80 Stitches SAL and I bought the greens for the base - there are 8 floral colours as well and I had those in my stash and the 32 count raw linen is also from stash.   How good is that.   I know, I know there are more than 8 colours there -  but I haven't made my mind up yet!

Chameleon Perle thread for the "mystery gift" I am currently working on.   Here's a sneak teaser photo.   I love the subtle variations of the Chameleon threads and also the fact that they are in small hanks that are much more suitable for many smaller projects but DMC perle is cheaper for cords and tassels.

Judy O'Dell has a new project of a stitched jewellery box on her Message Board and I have started that too.   I am intrigued at her technique of stitching everything in basic cross stitch and then by adding "extra" stitches turning this base into specialty stitches like Dutch Stitch, Rice Stitch, Smyrna Cross etc.   It is the first time I have heard of that technique but it strikes me as being remarkably efficient and requiring less "reverse stitching".   As I am not fond of the purple which the designer chose so I have changed the colour on the flowers to two shades of blue and can see that this will cause me some worry until the project is complete -  I have no confidence in my own ability to choose colours and usually follow the instructions of the designer.  Again this new project is part of my stash reduction and I did not have to purchase any new fabric or floss.  However I will need to buy the petite beads.
I have another short week -  next Friday I am having a skin cancer taken off my back.   Isn't that a good excuse to sit and stitch?   I may not feel like doing much more.
Hope you all have a great weekend.