It's the little things......

you do together, as the Sondheim song goes.Sharon's challenge this month, to notice the little things was another springboard for a lot of thoughts.

Here are some bits of the stream of thought bit....

A small crack might be the sign of a deeper rift.

A detective looks for small clues that will help complete the picture of the crime.

An artist or photographer will focus on a small part/area and transform that in to the whole of the work

A finishing detail on a couture garment may be an indication of the quality of the whole garment.

I didn't say they were earth shattering, it is just some of the things that came to mind!

My first reaction on seeing the colours was "camouflage" and this resulted in this train of thought, camouflage, leaves on hats, ferns, bracken, the young fronds of ferns (bracken) which contain the form of the whole plant be it a small fern or a huge tree fern. I couldn't find the photograph I took of ferns so I looked in flickr and there I found this perfect picture. (which was much better than mine anyway)
I asked for permission to use it as a base and Nancy generously said yes. She has some wonderful pictures in her album it is well worth a browse.
I ran the photograph with the painted wood script in PSP9 to give it a more stitchy look and then printed it onto cotton.
Next step was it pick out some details to embroider. I used variegated threads to echo the lights and shadows of the original. The stems are couched and then split stitched. The insides of the curle are french knots, bullion stitch and detached button hole band (I didn't do TAST for nothing!!!)

At first I was going to make it into a post card but because I was stuck indoors with today's awful weather I played a bit. I dug out my encaustic waxes, at first I tried making fern patterns but it all loooked to heavy so I ironed it off onto a piece of material but then decided I like the remaing wax better so this is now the background for the piece. I found the whispy yarn and added it to give that tangly feeling you get when walking through bracken.This is the scan
and this is the photograph, neither are quite "right". Neither of them show the texture.

For me, just the word "bracken" transports me the Lakeland hills. Memories again!!

Can someone please explain.....

just where did January go?

At the beginning of January I put the Creative Everyday logo on my sidebar and I realise I have not mentioned it so far. But I think I can put hand on heart and say that I have done something creative everyday in January(I did start the month by writing them down but I am useless at keeping things like that going) There have been the obvious things like work for the TIF challenge and the Calendar Girls but I have also tried to be a bit more creative in the kitchen and have been trying out new recipes and resurrecting old favourites like Eve's Pudding.

I also finished off the TAST challenge by making a cover for the folder of my stitches, I mounted them on black card and put them in a lever arch file, I started the cover about half way through the year and then added stitches as I went along. I didn't dare mention it unless I fell by the wayside and it became a UFO.




I have also been playing with the transfer paints I had for Christmas, here's todays experiment.


And just to finish, look what now has a frame, there was a half price sale in Hobbycraft and I just couldn't resist,


So here we go into February, I am looking forward to what Sharon has in store for us and of course continuing the Calendar Girls challenge.

Here we go then......

nearly the end of 2007. I'm not a great fan of New Year, yet another one speeding by I suppose but this one has taken my life in a new direction for which I am thankful. There are many people I should thank for making this year as interesting as it has been, particularly to all those who have visited and laughed and cried with me. Thanks to Sharon B for opening up a whole new world as I linked up with the people taking the TAST challenge and I am looking forward to the Take it Further. Thank you to Lynda and all the other girls who invited me into that world with the Calendar Girls Challenge for 2008 and Britt, who sent me a little scissor keeper that boosted my productivity by saving me hours of searching for my scissors!!!! Thanks to friends at the EG who have been such a fun part of my life this year and to my best friend Pam who I don't see often enough but is always there for me.

I wish you all the very best for the New Year hoping that we share many exciting journeys of discovery together.

Well here we are then.....

the end to the TAST challenge. I has been a wonderful journey, it has brought me in touch with some interesting and fun people, expanded my horizons and hopefully improved my stitching skills. Over the year I have thanked Sharon but I am going to do it one more time. Thank you Sharon for the time and dedication you have given to this and, of course, for the original idea. I am looking forward with excitement to the Take It Further challenge for next year. So here they are weeks 51 and 52. I could resist keeping the seasonal theme and the last one has beads just for Thomas. (Thanks you for all your kind thoughts, I hope I have managed to thank you personally)


"Paper" Chained Bar and


Spanish Feath Stitch... not sure this one is quite right and you can see the beginning wobble, one for further investigation.

and here is one I made earlier...

to Wish You All a Very Happy Christmas

PS
I came across this interesting looking blog this morningfree craft articles, thanks to
Pat Winter and Pamela Kellogg who laid the trail. I haven't had time to really delve but there seem to be some good articles and free patterns there.

Tis the season 2.....

As you will have noticed my last couple of TAST sample seemed to be determined to be seasonal, it seems to have caught Sharon as well because lo and behold this weeks stitch (Week 50 my goodness) was Berry Stitch a double detatched chain. Ho,ho,ho thought I!!!! So I decided to make a simple Holly spray with beautiful red berries and look what happened..............

fun and games....and a few snowflakes

It's a bit late in the day for this Christmas but I am certainly going to keep some of these techniques for next year. Demonstrations of Christmas Tags by Tim Holtz. Thanks to Dapple Designs for the link.

and this was sent to me by a friend who warned me not to have a drink in my hand when I watched it!!!
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And this weeks TAST,pistil atitch. Is it my imagination or are the stitches at the moment lending themselves to all things Christmassy? Stars or snowflakes, take your pick.



Lynda thank you for your help with adding videos and yes as far as I know this is Babara Cook at 80,I think it was in Melbourne this year.

Cable chain knot....

Oh I like this one, I liked the cable chain and this is just chunkier, it follows a curve so easily. Lovely texture. The photograph doesn't do it justice but it the stitch shows off this metallic thread beautifully.



Continuing the festive theme my good wishes to you all in your preparations.

Fairy feet....and new challenge

In this months issue of Stitch there is an article on making fairy shoes by Annette Emms. A couple of years ago she wrote a tutorial on Workshop on the Web at the time two friends of mine were performing in a musical play about the two little girls who claimed to have actually taken photographs of fairies, you can see the pictures and the story of the Cottingley Fairies here
This is one of the pairs I made.



Sharon Boggon is devising a new challlenge for 2008. I have so enjoyed the Take a Stitch Tuesday (apart from Oyster stitich and chain braid!!!!) and the new one sounds as though it will fit in with the things I have been promising myself for next year. She has called it Take it Further and you can find the details here
Take it Further
It will be just once a month so should be easier to keep pace.

Busy, busy

I do apologise for the lack of content around here at the moment. I am still working on my project and my Christmas cards but I did find time to complete this weeks TAST. What a gogeous textural stitch this could be, taking Sharons' comment that it was a great stitch for representing trees I give you this little seasonal offering.

It's the time of year.....

As I flip round through my bloglines the same phrases keep appearing, "can't show you what I'm doing because it is a secret" and I'm in the same boat myself, I am working so hard on my project that I still don't know will work, all I can tell you is that it has involved a whole lot of machine stitching, oh all right then, just a peek as I am fairly sure the person it is intended for rarely looks here.

Also in spite of my often voiced "I don't even think about Christmas until after my brothers birthday" (four weeks to the day) I have to confess that I have started making my cards.
TAST this week stitch is Thorn stitch and I will play later in the week but Sharon is also looking to start a new challenge for next year and is asking opinions in a Design challenge and a Getting Things Stitched, full details are on
In A Minute Ago. It will be interesting to see what is chosen.

And finally for all you cat lovers out there, you may have seen this but it I have just come across it and I loved it, didn't dare play it too loud though in case my two joined in.
Talking Cat
If someone can tell me how to get the actual video into my blog I would be grateful.

Pekinese stitch or .......

more excitingly, Forbidden stitch. Well that is apparently another name for this weeks TAST stitch. This immediately brought to mind the Forbidden city, so I called up Wikipedia what an amzing place it is. This Ming Dynasty painting was just what I need for inspiration for my TAST example(I was dertermined not to fall behind again).

and here is my own little palace.


Can you tell I'm am quite proud of myself. Incidentally this is the first time I have used counted thread material in the TAST challenge but decided it was they only way I was going to get the stitch even, as you can see I didn't quite succeed. Should have worked it on a frame as well. Heigh ho, one of these days I'll learn.

TAST double......

I have been very naughty and missed a week on my TAST samples. This is why I have tried all along to complete them each week because I realised that it would be all to easy to create a backlog. (sings ...I know me so well)
This is my Drizzle stitch week 43, I am not quite sure it is right as I think I may have reverted to Cast On stitch (week 31) but I like the texture.


And this is rejoices in the title Zig Zag Knotted stitch, it took me a while to work it out but then I liked it so much I made a little piece of silk tops paper especially for it.

Show time.....

Yesterday was the exhibition at the Sevenoaks EG. I wish I could show you all of the wonderful pieces from cushions to boxes, from tiny handbags op wall hangings, so much to see but I can only show you my pieces. Three of them were made some time ago but the last is what has been keeping me quiet for the last couple of months.


I called this one "seascape", someone asked if it was displayed the right way up so I guess I should have called it "seaweed"....

This is Scotney Castle in Kent, it is one of my favoourite National Trust places. The gardens are beautiful in any season but on a clear Autumn day they stun.


This is an interpretation of one of my favourite photographs which I took in Annecy in France.
And this is my book, inspired by Beryl Taylor and by the Sharon B's TAST challemce. It is not all the stitches, there was originally going to be two books but this one took so long perhaps next year......

Twisted Satin...

Week 42 of TAST. where has this year gone? I thought I would like to put this stitch in a circle and it decided it would like to be a colour wheel.

It would have been better(neater?) if I had put it in a hoop before stitching but I did like the way the twist stabelised the stitch, each one is about is about 3/4 of an inch. I wasn't able to get the tonal values quite right with the threads I had and the colours aren't quite true on the scan but it was fun putting it together.

Lace border stitich.....

I am pleased to be able to make an interesting background for my TAST stitch this week. When I saw the name of the stitch this week I thought of doing something pale and pretty but the goodies I bought at the Knit & Stitch changed that. The background is made from the cocoon stippings and the paint sprays. Another stitch that frightened me at first but I enjoyed working.
This is the full piece.

CaTASTing up......

Sorry about that, it's really bad. Here are linked double chain

and reveresed buttonhole stitch

I am not entirely sure I have done either of these right and they aren't very inspired but I did enjoy the chain one.

Another world.......

We are back from our all too short trip to Somerset. I feel that I have almost visited another world and another time. We stopped at Stonehenge on the way down(impossible just to drive past)

Monday the weather was unkind but we had a wonderful visit to Montacute House This houses some of the National Portrait Gallery's Elizabethan portaits and there are some wonderful things to look at. We were intrigued by this maginicent portrait of Walter Deverux 1st Earl of Eassex and are now trying to find out what in the world is the strange thing attached to his right breast which look for all the world like a large buttonhole holder!! If anyone knows.......
Tuesday we visited Wells the smallest city in England. The cathedral was amazing architecturally and houses some wonderful embroideries and lace.The alter cloths are stunning worked (I think I am right) at the Embroiderers Guild and by the Sarum Group and I so wanted a longer closer look at the choir stall cushions which were all worked by volunteers and are very fine indeed. The bishop's palace next door has very photogenic gardens.



Now as you know Tyntesfield was the main reason for the visit but I think that deserves a post of it's own and I am now two weeks (3 if I'm not careful) behind on TAST and as no one is going to offer me a menu this evening I better find some food.

What I did this weekend......

Do you remember those essays you had to write "What I did ......this weekend, on my holiday...." etc. That completely ruined the.......weekend, holiday..... as you struggled with "On my...I......and then...............and then...........and then."

Well here what I did this weekend, I started a picture which I hoped would be the start of a fabric book, and then I set it aside because I was not happy with it,

and then I did my TAST stitch for this week, Knotted Buttonhole Stitch,

and then I worked on my other project which is a secret and then I went back to my fabric book picture and added something which made me happier.

The End.

Not quite, Redskins versus New York Giants on now!!!

TAST week 37

See what happens when you go off visiting art galleries....., I feel this has a modern art feel to it but I'm probably just being whimsical.


Seriously, I didn't want to do this on a counted thread background but wanted to keep the feel of it being a mainly canvas stitch. So I made a grid on the embellisher and added the stitches, at first I was going to show variations but I couldn't get it to look "right" so I settled for this. I then added a digital blue border because of my black blog background.

The Missing Link....................

TAST week 36 and Cable Chain Stitch. I had a little trouble with the twist to start off with but then I was away and running out of thread was the only thing which stopped me. This is definitely one of the repertoire.


Almost inevitably this became a chain and I added the missing link, sometime in the future I would like to try and use this stitch for something like a charm bracelet.