Stitching Bee

Well, I did promise you some update photos -  and here they are!
First off - here is 'foxy', as she appears in my sampler:-

I decided to use diamond-rhodes stitch for the plums, if anyone was wondering!

I took part in an exchange on Friendly Stitchers and my partner, Jo, has now received the hanger I made her, so I can share it with you!  The exchange was for a small picture/plaque to hang in your partners "Stitching Place".  Jo has a special fondness for the sea, so this design seemed perfect for her!

I used a hand-dyed opalescent evenweave to creat the feeling of 'below the waves' - although how that mermaid can risk getting her stitching wet I don't know!   
I also sent Jo "She sells Sea Shells" by Country Cottage Needlecrafts, the speciality threads for the design, and I created her very own 'Sun, Sea & Stitching' chart!

And this is what Jo sent to me! 

The threads in the packet are all perles; as is the thicker skein.  The smaller skeins are Six Strand Sweets which I haven't used before.  She sent me a little cushion 'hanger' with the oriental symbol for double happiness stitched on it, and a matching little bag which contained a large piece of hand-dyed evenweave!  Perfect!  Thank you again, Jo!

Do you remember I started the HUGE piece called Bees Magic?  Here is where I have got up to . .

It really is an incredibly detailed piece, but I'm so glad I'm persevering with the black evenweave as the colours do seem to 'pop' on it.  It has a lot of 'confetti' stitches and because of that, it takes a long time to do, but as it progresses I can see what a very clever artist this was created by.   This will be years in the making, I'm quite sure - but it will be a piece that makes people stop and go "Wow!" when the see it!

You'll remember that going back to the black on Bees Magic meant that I had a large piece of stunning "Natures Grace" hand-dyed jobelan (by Polstitches) spare.  Obviously, this called for something a bit special, and after a great deal of deliberation, I decided to stitch "Lilly of the Woods" by Mirabilia onto it; here is where I've got to with her . .

Don't those colours look great together?  I can't wait to start adding in all the lovely sparkly threads, beads and gems - this design is absolutely loaded with them!

In other news . .  My son began at Birmingham University last weekend and the house does seem remarkably quiet without him!  He has managed to be allotted the largest room in his student flat (don't know how that happened!), and is settling into University life nicely.

My Mum has been struggling in her on-going battle against a rare cancer condition; her medical team at Leicester Royal Hospital, and the nurses from Macmillan, have been absolutely wonderful, however, and she is back at home again, feeling much better.   Yeay for the NHS and Macmillan!  If you have a few pennies to spare, please donate what you can to Macmillan; they do such a fabulous job in the face of quite overwhelming odds.  You can donate online . .
http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Home.aspx

Right, that's all from me this time - happy stitching everyone!
Buzzing off . . . .
Bee

 

 

I thought I would share some photos of a regular visitor to my garden!

'Foxy' seems to have developed a taste for plums!  Recently this rather beautiful vixen has been coming into the garden to pick up the windfall plums.  When there aren't many on the ground, she has taken to leaping up and snatching them off the branches!  I have tried to capture these 'leaps' on camera but haven't managed it yet . . however, here she is in the garden, snuffling about for the windfalls!

She has inspired me to design a square for the A Stitch A Week sal for my group, Friendly Stitchers - but I thought it might be nice to share this particular chart with all of my blog-readers, not just members of FS.

So here it is . .

I hope you all enjoy stitching 'Foxy' :-)  At just 20 stitches square she is tiny enough to fit a key-ring, scissor-fob, card, etc - so be creative, and don't forget to let me know how you get on with her!

Buzzing off . . .
Bee

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last posted - where has the time gone?

Both my children have had exam results - one did GCSE's, the other A-levels.  I was so thrilled and proud of them when they both did better than anticipated - DD Jemma is now in 6th Form, and DS Ross leaves for Birmingham University this coming weekend!

My Mum, who is battling a rare form of cancer, has had a rough few weeks and it has been a worrying time.  However, it appears her symptoms are in fact due to a complication resulting from earlier surgery, not the cancer itself; its both good and bad news.  Good because it's NOT the cancer: Bad because there's not much that can be done to improve matters.    But the best news is she's out of hospital and back at home again!

I have had problems with painful, cold hands and for at least two weeks, I simply could not stitch at all - it was awful!    Luckily my hands seem to have improved by themselves, and my needle is being wielded once more .

I made this cushion for my friend Mouse; she's had a tough year health-wise and yet has been busy making gifts for others to cheer them up, so I decided she needed something made just for her!  Here it is . .

Whilst I was in the mood for making things . . I decided my friend Alison Joy needed cheering up.  She's been in hospital with an ongoing chest infection and has contracted MRSA for about the 3rd time.  I know she's fond of her Nintendo DS so I decided to make her a little wallet to keep it in; I took a chance and did it entirely by eye, no pattern!  Mouse made her a little quilted bag in the same fabrics, so she can also take her charger with her!

The A Stitch A Week sal has been coming on; we are up to week 37 now.   Here are my latest scans . .

  
Some of the techniques I've used are Ribbon embroidery (the foxgloves), pulled thread (on the tablecloth - which is worked on a seperate piece of fabric and then attached to the main piece), and detatched button hole (the cushion on the bench).

I've also been working on an exchange piece, 'Bees Magic' and Mirabilia's "Lily of the Woods"; but I will upload those at a later date, once I know the exchange piece has arrived with its new owner!

Happy Stitching everyone!
Buzzing off . . . . . .
Bee

Yippee!!!

My Sampler of Stitches is finally finished! 

Here it is, all ready for framing ..

The space for initials in the lower right hand corner only had enough space for 3 - I have four of them!  So I decided just to use my first and last initials, and pop a Bee charm between them as my signature! 

"Y" was for Y stitch (like fly stitch, but with a longer stem), and 'Diagonal Y stitch' (exactly as it sounds - the same stitch worked on the diagonal).  Z was ZigZag stitch (the pulled panel), and Zig-Zag Chain (just the same as chain stitch, except you make the chain 'zig-zag' as you work it).

I'm so delighted with this one - it's taken me a couple-or-three years to complete but I've worked it 'on and off' and have really enjoyed every moment of it.  I know the charts are expensive but they build into a really comprehensive stitch-library.  I could have sold them on about five times over, but I'm not willing to part with them!

I have had a couple of stitching friends to stay for a few days - Ally and Mouse, from Friendly Stitchers.  We had a great time - lots of chatting, tea-drinking, eating of chocolate cake, giggling, and - oh, yes! - stitching went on.  Unfortunately the sun didn't come out enough for us to sit in the garden, but we managed to get ourselves comfy inside and got quite a lot done.

That's Mouse on the left, me on the middle, and Ally on the right - we are in the greenhouse just outside my front door, enjoying a quick break away from our needles! :-)  My grapes are coming on nicely, you can just see . .

In honour of finishing the DT sampler, and of Ally and Mouse's visit, I decided to start a new project - Bee's Garden (which hasn't got bees in it .. yet! LOL!).  I had previously bought a piece of Polstitches fabric to do this on, as I didn't fancy the idea of doing such a big project on black . . however, it soon became apparent that black thread had been used as subtle highlights on the chart, along with dark greens and browns, and on the Polstitches these 'subtle' colours were leaping out!  So I frogged the lot, ordered in some black jobelan, took a deep breath - and this is the result!

It might not look much at the moment,  but I was astonished at how many colours were used in this section - the shading is very subtle and intricate, and I was often stitching just one stitch before having to thread my needle up with the next colour!  Can you see what I mean about black being used as a 'highlight'?  I actually decided to try using a variegated black from Threadworx, and it's just given things a very subtle 'lift' without overwhelming things, so it has worked out well.

To give you an idea of how huge this piece is, take a look at the photo from the front of the chart . .

Hm, methinks I have taken on another long-term WiP!

Working on the black jobelan wasn't as bad as I'd thought it would be in the end.  I had heard advice about putting an uplighter or a torch, or even just a white pillowcase, on your lap to show up the holes in the fabric.  However, when I tried this with my light-box, all that happened was that when my hand came under the fabric to make the stitch, the holes promptly vanished in the exact spot you needed to see them!  In the end, I discovered that good light shining DOWN on to the fabric was much more effective, and once my 'eye' was tuned in to this, I was away!  It does help that there aren't huge areas to count between stitched areas - I think the way to tackle that will be to make 'tacking' stitches across, and then remove them afterwards.  Anway, I shall of course let you know how I get on with it!

Having re-started Bees Magic on the black, it left me with a huge, wonderful piece of Nature's Grace by Polstitches.   Well of course, I couldn't just leave it in my stash drawer unused!  I remembered seeing a Mirabillia design some time ago at a show and thinking it was stunning, and I suddenly thought it would be perfect on the Nature's Grace.  So I have ordered "Lilly of the Woods" from Leisurecraft of Tewkesbury.  Fingers are all crossed that the colours will work together!

I've also been busy designing and stitching a project for the Friendly Stitchers get-together in Harrogate this coming November.  I'm going to keep very quiet about that, tho - no hints!

The summer in the UK has been abysmal, yet again - we haven't had a single dry day in weeks!  Today it is thundery, foggy, cold, and windy, with sharp, torrential showers interrupting things.  The woodsmen are working nearby felling trees, and the tremendous crack as they go down is difficult to differentiate from the thunder we've had recently!  Both my dogs are looking fed-up; they had their 'summer clip' last week in anticipation of days in the garden, splashing in their own paddling pool . . and instead they are huddled up together in their bed, chilly and bored, poor things!

Wherever you are in the world, I wish you lots of happy stitching!

Buzzing off . . . .

Bee
x

 

 

I have finished the penultimate part of The Drawn Thread's Sampler of Stitches, V,W, and X!  Here it is . .

 

V is for . . . Vault stitch (top left, in pinks); Vandyke Chain Stitch (top right, rows of 'flowers'), and Vandyke (in 2 rows of greens)

W is for . . . Windmill, Woven Cross (in the greens), wave filling stitch (pulled); and Waffle (in the pinks/reds)

X is for . . . (predictably), "X" stitch, or 'cross' stitch.

I've also received my floss tag as part of the floss-tag exchange on Friendly Stitchers.  This lovely little tag was stitched by Lynda A, who painstakingly stitched this gorgeous little LHN design over one fabric thread on 28ct! 

Isn't it sweet?  I just love it, thank you sooooooooo much, Lynda!  It will be treasured and well-used, I can tell you! Lynda was kind enough to pop in3 skeins of Dragon Floss in bright, summery shades, and a Limited Edition Gloriana Silk (my favourite silk!) in very dark green/blacks, like inky seaweed, gorgeous and unique!  I will love using these!

Like most people in the UK, I have been watching the tennis on Television, as we are into the 2nd week of Wimbledon.  Last night, Andy Murray's match went on until 10.40pm - the latest ever match in the history of Wimbledon.  It was an 'edge of the seat' match . . but nevertheless I still managed to put the finishing touches to Queen Bee, by Little House Needleworks, and here it is . .

  I used all hand-dyed threads for this; the three recommended Crescent Colours, and Gentle Art Sampler Threads in place of the DMC for the rest.  It was pleasant to work on something so simple for a change!   I'm not sure if I will frame this one or make it up into a cushion; it would look lovely as a cushion but GAST and CC are not guarranteed colourfast so I worry that if it needs washing, it would ruin it!

My dear friend Val designed a 'humbug' just for me!  I sat and stitched it last weekend in the sunshine.  Here it is all made up . .

I have also beeen a good girl and worked quite a bit more on Celestial Wings (my UFO) . . . no scan of that, but I have started on the backstitch round the dragon, finished the 'earth' and done more of the border.  It's coming along well.

Finally, here is an update on my A Stitch A Week Sal  . . we are now up to Week 26!  Half-way through already - where has the time gone?

Lots of new stitches have been used - the strawberries were queen stitch, the strawberry flowers were square herringbone.  The Sweet Williams were eyelets and the roses spider-web stitches.  I used long-arm stitch in rows to make the straw bee-skep and tiny smyrna stitches for the bee bodies.

Lots of people have been joining Friendly Stitchers wanting to join in with this SAL, and we love seeing all the different sampler growingbut I must just point out that the charts are PASSWORDED, and only given out to people who make a regular contribution to the group.  FS is a CHAT-group, not a website for freebie charts, and we take  a dim view of being used as such - so please, join us if you'd like to be part of a friendly, chatty group of stitchers from around the world, but not if you intend to download charts and not take part in the group!  

 

 

I have finished a few needlework smalls recently, so I thought I would share them with you!

Here is my first ever floss tag!  This one was for an exchange on Friendly Stitchers, and she is already with her new owner.  Charlene was delighted with her 'Thread Keeper' - which is just as well as I found it quite hard to give her away!

I also finished a 'mini sewing kit' using the Serenity Chart that I designed myself for the 'My Way' competition on Friendly Stitchers.  The idea was to stitch and finish the chart any way you liked; there have been some really wonderful finishes coming in!  This set was for my son, who is off to University later this year and will need somewhere to keep all his spare buttons etc!

I also added a small fob (complete with tassle of hassle ) to the bee-garden accessories set . .

Finally, I had on my 'crafters' hat this week.  My wonderful Dad turned 70, and I decided to make him a card he could keep forever.  He has been a gardening-lover for as long as I can remember, and so it seemed the ideal subject for the card.

Right, that's all for now!  I have some more updates but I will leave those for another post.  In the meantime, happy stitching (or crafting!) everyone!

Buzzing off . . . .
Bee
x

 

 Hi Everyone,

Just a quick entry this time . . . Wow, we really have been enjoying some absolutely stunning weather for the last few days, here in the UK!   I have been sitting out in the garden buzzzzzzzzy with my needle, whilst my two teenage children slog over their revision, poor things (DD is doing GCSEs and DS is doing A-levels!).

I finally settled down to Part 12 of the Papillon Creations mystery sal, How Does Your Garden Grow.   Here it is, all beaded up . .

And here is a photo of the full project, all finished! 

I haven't decided how to finish this one yet - most people seem to have done them as bell-pulls, and it does 'lend' itself to that quite well, but as this piece is on hand-dyed lugana and is all done in hand-dyed silks, it might do better under glass . . that's if I can persuade DH to frame it for me! 

Happy stitching everyone,

Bee

 

It's been absolutely beautiful here in Gloucestershire the last few days! 

I have taken advantage of the gorgeous weather to sit in my greenhouse, or on the swing-bench in the garden, and get busy with my needle!

First, I re-stitched that scissor-case which I ruined a couple of weeks ago.  I decided to do it slightly differently this time; I made the whole thing bigger by adding another row of norwich and scotch stitches across the top, and I changed the front adding a bee-skep and 2 little bees from the needlebook chart.  I needed to add another row to the bee-skep to get the balance right, but I think it works!  I added a bee-shaped button and a button-hole loop, and finished it using craft-vilene - and of course, that flippin' tassle of hassle! 

I also decided I had neglected the Drawn Thread Sampler of Stitches lately.  A lady on my group has recently finished hers; she made it up as a long bell-pull, each of the 'mini' samplers under the one above, rather than in a 9-block as I am doing.   It looked absolutely stunning and spurred me on to the next 2 letters!  Here they are . .

T is for . .

Threaded Herringbone (pink, top left); Three sided Stitch (pulled stitch in cream); Thorn Stitch (on the tree); Triple Rice stitch (gold/grey flower heads); Tete De Boeuf (tiny gold lazy-daisy flowers between the triple rice-stitches - not sure making them very small means they are a different stitch, but there you are ); Trellis Couching (cream block at the bottom).

U is for . . .

Upright Rice Stitch (lighter pink); Upright Cross Stitch (darker pink); Up and Down Buttonhole (cream perle across the bottom); Underline Stitch (greens). . . and, of course, 'umbrella'.  The chart asked for half-cross stitches as the raindrops but I thought I'd use lazy-daisies . . or should that be
'tete-de-boeuf's as they are so tiny???)

Working on this one has reminded me how much I enjoy it - I can't wait for the next part, now!

Finally, here are the next two weeks of the Stitch A Week sal that I designed myself . .

This brings me up to week 22!  Where has the time gone, I wonder?

Right, I am off to start work on the scissor fob to match the scissor case! 
Happy stitching everyone!

Buzzing off . . .
Bee

After that last non-stitchy post, I thought I had better show you that I have actually been buzzzzy with me needle, honest!!!

Firstly, I finally finished the backstitch and beads on Buzzy Days, and DH kindly framed it for me.  Here it is, all completed! :-)

This one was stitched on a hand-dyed 28ct Lugana from Silkweavers.  I added some 'Fuzzy' thread to the centre of the daisies and the bee, and if you look carefully, there's a caterpillar and a ladybird charm in there! :-)

My best mate Mouse (hence the 'Mouse and Bee' theme! ) came down for a few days last weekend, and we had a lovely day out to Malvern Quilt Show.  Mouse has never really done patchwork as she's a dressmaker at heart; but she took one look at all the gorgeous patchwork fabrics on display and was an instant addict!    As you can imagine, we both came home with lots of fat-quarters and half-meters. 

Then we settled down for some 'serious' stitching.  First off was to get up to date on the Friendly Stitchers "A Stitch A Week" sal (we are now up to week 20!).  Here is mine . . 

The clematis ended up being a much darker pink that my 'real' one, as the pale colour barely showed against the fabric.  I used a stump-work technique to make the 3-D stamens on it.  The bluebells were satin stitch, the top of the bullrushes in the frog square were bullion-knots, and finally 'Daisy' the cow is munching on lazy-daisy flowers! 

I had another finish - and also a bit of a disaster.  At the show, I found some sweet gold-thread tassles that just 'begged' to be included to my bee-garden scissor case.  In order to attach it, however, I had to turn the scissor case inside out.  This I did, but on turning it right-sides-out again, the seam split, and the fabric frayed so badly that there was no way to rescue it.  You can imagine how gutted I was!  Thankfully, I have enough of the threads and fabric to make another. 

In the meantime, I set-to and finished the matching needlecase.  Here it is:-

Finally . . Mouse and  I both had the kit for Jane Greenoff's "The Embroideress" in our stash piles, and so we decided we'd make a start on it together.  A good job we did!  There is no key on the chart, only on the rather flimsy pre-sorted thread cards; my cards were so badly printed however, that I had to keep referring to Mouse's to work them out!  I was also missing 2 colours and needed to check that Mouse definitely had them included on hers.

We dug in with our needles, only to realize that there were several discrepencies between the chart, the instructions and the photo of the finished piece!  We had a lot of discussion, trying to work out how a certain part would go, and making a few 'individual' changes ourselves.

Here is my effort so far:-

If you look carefully, you can see I changed the owl to satin-stitch (he was originally in cross-stitch), and I also changed the colour of the backstitch round some of the flowers.  It's made mine look completely different to Mouse's - amazing that such a tiny substitution can make such a huge difference to the look of the piece!  I think we both like the fact that our samplers will be the same, yet unique!

Right, enough of my yacking . .   I will get back to my stitching, and maybe even get round to re-stitching that scissor case (WITH tassle, this time!)

Buzzzzzzzzzzing off . .. 
Bee
x

 

 

A non-stitchy post, for once!

Yesterday, a beautiful spring Sunday, the family had a day out at Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire.  I'd heard a lot about this place, and I saw it had inspired Jane Greenoff of the Cross-Stitch Guild to design a band sampler - so we thought we'd check it out.

Well, what can I say but - WOW!!  What an amazing place!

Isn't this Acer palmatum just incredible?  This is exactly the colour it was in real life - it almost hurt your eyes to look at it!  In fact, the Japanese Maple collection was generally just jaw-dropping, as you can see . .

It just seemed to go on and on . .

We just walked along in a daze, hardly able to believe such a wonderland of nature.

And every where we went, the ground was carpeted with bluebells as far as the eye could see.  When the sun came out, the scent of them rose and it was like walking through the most expensive perfume shop you can imagine!

The place is HUGE - we saw less than a quarter of it.  My legs gave out long before I was ready to say goodbye - but at least that means there is more for me to explore on a future visit.  Well - who wouldn't want to go back to a place as magical as this?

Buzzing off . .
Bee
x