Back at Work...

So I dragged out the 'having the summer off' for nearly 5 months... not a bad effort really.  But back at work now so less time to sew 😞 but more money to buy stuff to sew 😍

Here's what I've made since my last post

Scrappy hearts - 

TAST - butterfly chain, buttonhole wheel, buttonholed cable chain, cable chain & coral stitches.

and last but not least #52tagshannemade

 

Thanks for stopping by!

TAST Week 10

This weeks stitches are Chevron and Inverted Feather and with the weather being rather wet along with being currently unemployed I've already knocked these two off this week.  

I made the tops of the chevrons touch to give a solid line.  It came out OK, but it looked better in my head when I imagined it.  Oh well.

The Inverted Feather I used 3 strands of floss to make it a bit chunkier and this seemed to improve on previous attempts at this stitch.

Scrappy Hearts

I've also made a couple of scrappy hearts this week.  I've had a play with the heart shape itself and think I finally have a shape that I like which is a good start.

• Heart 1 - I redid my beach heart as a flat heart and thinking I'll continue to make them flat from now on.  I'm much happier with this one.  I'm sure Miss P will find a use for the original one 😀
• Heart 2 - There was a challenge to make a purple and brown heart as these aren't a popular (or easy) colour combination - turns out I only have one purple fabric.  But thats OK I just used both sides to fake it haha.
• Heart 3 - Another member suggested St Patricks/Green hearts so I've woven three green fabrics together to make the base of my heart and used a simple running stitch in the same colours to decorate it.  I was going to add another heart in the centre in the darker green but couldn't decide if that improved it or not.  A quick 'with or without?' conversation with the hubby decided it.  No extra heart.

#52 tags - Suffolk Puff and some Lace

And last but not least here's my tag for the week.  Prompt was 'A Suffolk Puff and some Lace'.

Thanks for stopping by! 😀

#52 tags - Week 9 - Bits, pieces and a gift

The theory with this weeks tag was that you should use something that was given to you and some bits and pieces.  What?!?!?!  Haha.

OK, so seeing I've been scrounging denim (or denim looking pieces) from my sisters.  My wee niece contributed a skirt and a pair of stripey shorts, neither actually denim but definitely denim looking.  So I used a stripe of each of those.  Plus some even-weave that her mum gave me (I think) so long ago.  That covered the gift bit.  Anne used a safety pin on her tag this week and I bought some wee black ones a few weeks back but haven't yet had a chance to use them - so perfect time to use those to cover the bits and pieces!!

Feels summery this one.

In other news I finished the piece for my little sister.  I think it looks better than my first slow stitch piece.  Maybe I learnt something the first time around? haha.  

The colours aren't right in this photo, the photo is a bit washed out.  The piece is about 4 inches wide and to be honest I didn't measure how long it is.  Anyway she assures me she loves it.  So phew!

There are some closer up shots down below if you're interested and the colours in those shots are truer to real life.

Thanks for stopping by!  😀

 #52 tags - Week 8 - French knots, bullion knots and pistil stitch

Ahhh bullion knots... I think I dislike those more than I dislike buttonhole.  I really should practice them more.  

The photo looks a bit washed out but the main fabric is actually a grungy green.  The brown and grey fabrics are ones I painted myself the other week.   And I just adore them!

Meanwhile I'm also working on my sisters piece.  Which at this point I like more than I liked the one I made myself.  She doesn't want to see it before its done.  But I am so pleased with how this beading looks I'm posting a close up of just that area.  

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 #52 tags - Week 5 - Kisses

So this weeks prompt is 'Kisses' which translated to a large cross.  And then some cross stitch somewhere on the tag.

I have a tendency to over think things... to the point where I often don't get started.  So I'm sitting there this morning auditioning this configuration and that configuration.  Still totally unsure if the fabric side of things was done.  But in the end I thought I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this.  I like how this looks and yes I could mess with it for an hour (or more) and maybe come up with something I like better (but chances are probably slim) so lets call it done.  And wow! thats actually quite liberating.

I also have a habit of bleeding on things.  Most of my projects generally get a blood sacrifice at some point, so I stab stitched everything down so I could ditch the pins before there was blood haha.  And once it was all down I didn't think really it needed much in the way of stitching.  So might be a bit 'light' compared to some but I'm pretty pleased with it.  And I'm really getting into frayed edges!

Anyway, thanks for stopping by!

#52 tags - Week 2

So as I was a few days late to the party by the time I finished my first tag the second one was just being announced.

The prompt this week was Patchwork and it had to contain a Heart in a contrasting colour.  

Most of my hand sewing of late has been patching hubbys jeans.  You know the ones they wear when they're chopping down trees or working on the car or wading through crocodile infested swamps.  I have no idea what happens down near his man cave.  Anyway... I've been patching those for him.  On the other side of the fence my daughters jeans keep mysteriously getting holes in the knees, strategically and fashionably placed type holes.  Of course she has no idea how this happens - yeah right.  And this week I've sacrificed a pair of my old jeans to her to make denim shorts.  (And I lost a belt to help her hold them up, but thats not related to my patch.)

So patching jeans... lead me to denim and the spare legs I had left from my old jeans.  And multiple layers of denim to fix holes lead me to weave the denim into a patch.  

So heres tag number 2

Now I've got the bug again... so what to do for the rest of the week!?!

Thanks for stopping by!

New Year, New Challenge - #52tags - Week 1

Wow! Its been a whole year since I posted in this blog.  And its probably been about that long since I really did much in the creative space.  Actually thats not totally true, I did crochet over the winter, but I don't think you can count mending the dogs toys after she's yet again ripped poor Monkeys arm off or decided to disembowel poor Teddy.  But I haven't been embroidering.

However I have been looking for inspiration of late.  I really love the slow stitching type embroidery.  The lack of a plan, the collage type effect of the fabrics, the just 'let it take you where you end up' kind of thing. 

Anyhow I stumbled across Anne Brooke the other day and a couple of challenges she ran last year.  The sew for the soul bobbin and then the book as well.  These things are beautiful!  And she's just started a new challenge for 2021.  #52tagshannemade 52 tags (approx. 2 x 3 inches) and a prompt each week.  These are beautiful slow stitching type pieces of work that are then sewn to cardboard tags.  

So maybe just maybe I can do this miniature version until I pluck up the courage to launch into something bigger like the bobbin or the book.  I don't have a huge stash of fabric and I most certainly don't have a stash of pretty ribbons or lace laying around. (have you met me?!?! haha).  But as the remit is a tag and thats about it, I'm hoping I can work around those wee problems.

Week 1 - the prompt was 'All White' and here's mine.

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