Swedish Wool Embroidery

This project was a reproduction kit I bought some years ago and made. It's from a design that was found in the south of Sweden. The fabric is a thick wool felt, really nice to feel, but less easy to push the needle through. I so loved working with the wool threads though! This is the project that brought me to crewel work which I really enjoy.

The size is about 20 inches square, so there is quite a bit of stitching in this!

 This should be made into a  pillow, which I still haven't done! In the old days, the embroidered pillow was meant to be used as a riding cushion, since there were no stuffed seats.

I love the naive folk art quality of the designs they used. Color were, of course, limited, but they made imaginative use of them to give the embroidery lots of life and fun.

Below is a selection of various antique wool embroidery from the Nordic Museum in Stockholm.

Beehive Crewel Embroidery

I've made a companion crewel design to the popular Bee's World.

The bees are such fun to stitch, I doubt I will be able to keep myself from making another pattern with this theme.

Pink Flower Stumpwork

This project was developed with the idea of making a series of stumpwork designs that would give beginners practice with certain techniques.

In this project, the focus is on detached wired shapes and covered beads which are a couple of my favorite techniques for creating dimension. 

I have loads of ideas for more such projects, and as always it's a matter of time and maybe a little bit of focus to get to them all. But first, I'm in the midst of a new crewel work project which are my other favorite type of embroidery. I hope to have 2016's first finish soon!!

Keep warm everyone, it's mighty cold out there right now!

Sheep Fabric Box

This one I made last year. The sides of the box are made out of Timtex which you can use to make all sorts of shapes.

These two pictures are when it was in the WIP stage.

As you see, I used all sorts of fibers and fabrics to get different textures. And here is the completed box:

 I used a this stumpwork sheep project for the top that I had sitting around for a long time.  It seemed like a good place to use it.

The box was a lot of fun to make! I could imagine doing another one eventually because I really like the interactive aspect of a box, but this one is kept tucked away in a glass cabinet. I'm too afraid to interact with it much. ;)

Dusting off the cobwebs

It's been a long time, but I'm returning to this blog after a loong pause. I've been busy learning lots of new things that I hope to bring with me to stitching and my other creative endeavors. I am keeping another blog, Dusty Sidewalks, for my painting-related work which I've done quite a bit of the last few years.

The store has undergone a face lift which isn't quite complete to make it prettier
and easier to navigate.

These changes are just the beginning and I will be back with more news soon! It's exciting to be back working on all this again.

I'm reposting the old stitch school classes or most of them, and there are plans for new lessons soon! I have a few more things to get going with before I can get to them though!

Thanks to everyone that has visited this blog and my site! I hope this year will be a great one for all of you!

May 2013 Project

It took me a little while to decide on a theme. I wanted to do something that reminded me of the softness of spring. New leaves, new flowers, the warmth of the sun as it gets higher in the sky each day, the sweet songs of the birds as they mark out their territory. There are always lots of ideas to choose from, but this time it ended up being the cherry tree that got my attention.

This is a free embroidery project that I let develop. I had an idea of a tree.

I used some painted strips of linen for the grass. I pulled out some threads from each strip, so they looked a little grassy.

For the tree I couched down some wool yarns. I wasn't quite sure the best way to do the branches, but I ended up unraveling the yarn at the ends. They are a little loose at the ends, since it was impossible to stitch down where they thinned down.

For the leaves I cut up bits of a specialty yarn and just sewed them down irregularly.

You can see the details in the closeup photo:

This project was fun. As I said, I let it develop freely. No pattern lines or templates. I told myself not to pick out any stitches as I went along too! Everything is as it was stitched. It's good practice in moving past perfectionism.

Blackbird

Blackthorn

Cherry blossoms

Sparrow with nest material

Secrets

I've tried something a bit different with this project.

I was reading somewhere about someone with a site where you can leave your secrets anonymously. The site doesn't matter, but it got me thinking about the subject of secrets. We all have them. We try to bury many of them deep down in dark places, but often they lie just below the surface, covered by a thin veil. Sometimes people that know us can see through the veil.


Secrets, some of them are necessary for peace in our relationships and emotional and physical survival. They are not always "bad", sometimes they are silly like little beauty secrets. But some of them are sores that continue to burn us and are a  heavy burden to carry. Unloading them on others can be a relief.

Another thing about secrets is the fascination. We love to find out secrets about others. But have you ever stopped to wonder why? Is it make us feel better to know someone has things to hide that really only show that they are human?

Anyways, to the artwork. This is a great example of how painting is helping me with my needlework. I would have never thought of this sort of project otherwise.

This is one of my favorite ways to work to paint. There is freedom in it. And there is something else. I learn about myself and the world. What I do is to think of a subject, a thought, a feeling, something and without words, I get out the colors and brushes and just paint what comes. It is a little surprising sometimes what comes.The analysis of secrets above came after the painting, by the way, not before. I don't think I could have put those things to words without letting my brushes and paints go to work first.

When I looked at the finished painting, I just though the swirls were a little flower-like. I suppose we often associate gardens with secrets. Not just because of the Secret Garden book, which I haven't read since I was a child. The idea must be older than the book, but I have no idea, really. I added the bits of white paint around the edge later because I just felt the painting felt too open with out it.

So with this painting, I decided to try a needlework. I tried making some swirls in various ways, but I didn't like them, so I went with more traditionally-formed flowers. (The painting reminded me of them, as I said!)

As you see I have added a border around it, but there is some fabric left hanging to the left. This is because I am hoping to make some kind of fiber book. I have no idea what the "best" way to assemble one is, so I will make it up as I go, and I might need the extra fabric.

The lock and the key I added mostly for fun, but they are in keeping with the theme. I'm finding that I really like adding layers and textures with yarns and stitches. I will continue to try new ways to use the materials.

It's time to move to this month's journal project. I have some ideas, so I had better get to work!