Untitled Red/Pink/Orange Thing

 This project has been on my mind for years. I'm using the techniques in Effie Mitrofanis's gorgeous Threadwork: Silks, Stitches, Beads & Cords. 

The first step was gathering fabrics and threads.

 Four years ago I mounted linen gauze (from some expensive curtains my cats wrecked 🙄) into a frame, tacked on a base of sheer rose fabric from an old camisole, and layered on rectangles of dupioni silks. I used a running stitch in matching pearl cottons to hold the silks in place.

 

Last year I tacked on a rose motif from a fancy scrap of polyester fabric. I couched Japan gold around the edges, filled in background sections with chipwork, and stitched the center spaces between petals with metallic ribbon. 

 Initially, I was disappointed that I didn't have any gold purl for the chipwork (this project is purely from my stash), but I like the way the silver looks.

 A couple of weeks ago I twisted silk scraps into ropes and coiled those ropes into spirals, twisting, coiling, and couching them down as I worked. What a pain in the ass that was! It made me realize I really need a proper stand for this frame. Or a third arm.

 

This past week I kind of went overboard beading a sun motif in the upper corner, using tiny scraps of folded silk (straight from Mitrofanis's book), sequins, bugle beads in two sizes, and lots and lots of seed beads. 

 

I'm ready for a break from this project, but I have a couple of ideas for it still -- I want to use more scraps to create a vine with more flowers and leaves along the bottom, and I think I will embellish the rest of the background with lots of tonal embroidery. But who knows where inspiration will take me!

Pussy Willows (a Little out of Season)

 I love decorating with pussy willows late winter/early spring, and I've long admired DusiCrafts's beautiful patterns, so I bit the bullet and bought one. And then I made two ornaments, one for my mom and one for me:

The nice thing about DusiCrafts's patterns is that she offers a lot of options -- several different versions of the pussy willow branches, some with buds and some just with catkins, Easter eggs to add to the design, and different sizes and shapes for the ornaments themselves. I liked being able to customize them a bit!
 

I Made a Book!

The pattern is from The Barmy Fox, based on a simple folded paper booklet design she used to make for her young students. The embroidery uses a wide variety of stitches, although I made some changes to suit my own preferences. For stability and opacity, I inserted stiff interfacing between the pages.

This is such a clever but simple way to make a booklet, and I have so many ideas I want to try with it. 

 

A Long-Overdue Christmas Wrap-up

 It's been a tough month.

On the crafting front, I started Sue Spargo's Christmas tree pillow project. I cannot actually afford any of her kits, though, so I worked out of my stash. In the process I changed some motifs and stitches to suit my tastes, such as adding a manger scene because Christmas isn't secular for me, and eliminating most bullion knots because those are the devil's stitch. What I have so far:

I also stitched this freebie from Momentoell. I like the chunky effect she gets by using 6 or even 12 strands of floss. The lovely, soft colors are a nice change of pace, too, from the usual embroidered Christmas tree.

Not much jewelry making happened, but I did remake a bracelet (which apparently I never photographed) with several Christmas-themed charms into a necklace. No point in wearing a bracelet if my wrists are covered up in several layers of long johns and wool sweaters (it's so cold where I work).

 

My middle son gave me a skein of acrylic yarn for Christmas. I love the color, but it is too scratchy to wear so I crocheted a garland. This worked up so fast and fun I made a second with a different yarn.

He also gave me more buttons, so I made a button garland for the tree.

And I finally finished my youngest's quilt: 

On the book front, I read three Christmasy books:

The White Priory Murders by Carter Dickson: An enjoyable locked-room mystery, where, amusingly, Dickson had two characters immediately propose the most obvious explanations to accuse each other. John Dickson Carr was name-checked in the locked-room mystery Wake Up Dead Man, too, which was a fun little easter egg.

Snowed In by Catherine Walsh: a cute holiday-themed contemporary romance, related to her previous novel, Holiday Romance. I enjoyed it, but it lacked an effective structure to hang the story on.

Golden Age Christmas Mysteries ed. by Otto Penzler: some of these would better be classified as spy thrillers or adventures, but all were enjoyable. The collection runs the gamut from light-hearted, comedic stories to darker, melancholic ones, so there's something to suit most tastes.

I think that about wraps it up. Aside from the food, cancelled trip, car troubles, pretty snow fall, improv king cake ...

Threads of Life by Clare Hunter

 

Needlework has often been dismissed as just women's work -- a hobby, a distraction, a trivial thing done with one's children. Frasier Crane superciliously claims he supports the arts, not the crafts. Tim Gunn on Project Runway warned contestants to not be too artsy-craftsy. Occasionally, needlework is treated as an art form, most notably as part of William Morris's Arts & Crafts movement, but I suspect his sex -- and his interest in more "serious" art forms -- had a role.

Which is why Hunter's Threads of Life is so critical to understanding the power of needlework. Each chapter explores one aspect the art has brought to women's lives, such as protection, identity, and voice. Some sections include research into ancient and historical practices, techniques, and cultural contexts; others profile one or more women and their art. Some of these stories are enraging: Lorina Bulwer was imprisoned in a workhouse by her brother when their mother died; she spent the rest of her life there, embroidering long screeds in block letters detailing her anger at the unfairness of how she was treated. Others are heartbreaking: Hmong women, stuck in refugee camps after years of wars and persecution, created story clothes to tell what they had lost and endured. 

The stories are not always bleak. Embroidery has also been a source of power -- as symbolism, as what queens would choose to wear, as financial stability, providing a steady income for women
, as art, allowing women to create meaningful and beautiful statements, as community, encouraging women to seek friendship and advice, and as protest, allowing women to speak out about the injustices of the world and bring about change. Anyone who is interested in needlework, and anyone interesting in women's history, will learn much from this book.

I'm Hanging on to Fall as Much as I Can

 Because it is my favorite season, and because I don't want to rush Christmas.

This pattern, from and old issue of Love Embroidery magazine, was designed by Elahe at Momentoell and is now available on her website (along with many other lovely ones). Her thing is using all six strands, and even twelve, of cotton floss, which gives the embroidery a chunky, dimensional look. For even more textural effect, I used wool thread for the pumpkins and linen threads for the stems (but the latter isn't quite so obvious). I'm really pleased with this design, especially the soft fall colors.

Hoop Art

 Inspired by Nichole Vogelsinger's work, I made this:

I had a lot of fun picking different threads, stitches, and beads for all the elements. It's the second hoop I've made inspired by her work, and I will be doing more.

A Little Mending

A favorite pair of jeans started showing signs of wear by the left front pocket (probably because of my phone), so i did some visible mending using sashiko and boro techniques:

I'm kinda hoping more holes and worn spots develop, so I can add more patches.

Peace in our Hearts

 

This bead embroidery project was inspired by The Beadshop's similar Intentional Heart project. A milagro of a dove is at the center of the ultrasuede heart and I added seed beads and metallic spacers around it, with a beaded picot stitch to sew together the front and back. As I sewed the edging I inserted two jump rings at the top of the heart. I have since added a small chain to the rings to hang the heart with the rosaries hanging by my bed, but if I ever want to wear it it I can easily replace it with a longer chain.

It's shaping up to be a terrible year, and because of the ridiculous amount of personal crap I'm dealing with, I can't fight back against the administration as I wish I could. But I can pray for peace and justice.

Día de Muertos

 Much of my Día de Muertos handiwork was ruined last year by water and mold, so I made something new.

This was very loosely inspired by a project in Quilting Arts magazine from many years back, made using what I had on hand -- assorted milagros medals, cheap but all-wool flowers acquired from a big box store, two wool marigold flowers that I made for a craft fair booth, and, of course, lots of beads. All that's left to do is attach the panel to the backing with a blanket stitch (probably).

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Ain't that Just the Way

 Have you watched Over the Garden Wall? It's a wonderful series of cartoons telling the story of Wirt and Greg as they try to make their way through a scary forest. Gentle enough for all but the youngest kids, it's also witty and poignant enough to appeal to adults (it doesn't hurt that Wirt and Greg remind me of my youngest two sons). It's not just the story, though; the art and autumnal vibe are perfect. I liked the imagery so much I felt the need to memorialize it in thread and fabric.

I'm really proud of this. I used a mix of embroidery and wool and cotton applique I'm especially enamored of Enoch, the pumpkin guy at the top. For him I used long and short stitch which is normally too fussy for impatient me, but a messier, more impressionistic approach worked. The Beast (at the bottom center) was made with turkey stitch and was a total pain, but it was the best way to get the fringe effect. The glow of the Woodman's lantern is a mother of pearl disc bead; I bought a strand of them because I needed one to make a moon but they've turned up in other projects. Adelaide's stork scissors were intended for a cross stitch pattern I bought ages ago. I will need to hunt down another charm when I do stitch it, but that's Future Beadgirl's problem. 

Over the Garden Wall is brilliant, and that's a rock fact!

Spooky, but Make it Cute

 

Turns out, black felt is hard to photograph properly

 

This little bat was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest. The image linked to a long-gone etsy store so I can't give credit where credit is due, however.

I like the interplay of spooky images and pretty florals; I had hoped this October I could make something with Woolly Petal's Ghost Party pattern (using pink and orange scraps for the background), but alas, life intervened (as it so often does for me). Next year!

In a Hole in the Ground there lived a Hobbit

It was the summer of the hobbit.

I convinced my youngest to read The Hobbit this summer (he loved it, except for a couple of "boring" chapters). That inspired me to buy a hardcover version of the annotated edition (not for my son to read, though; he's hard on books). It's a great version -- lots of notes on the creation and publication of the novel, plus numerous illustrations from Tolkien himself and dozens of other artists.

Coincidentally, Aimee Ray of Little Dear issued for her September Patreon pattern a trio of doors to make, including a hobbit door. So of course I made it:

I've built up quite the collection of small Tolkien crafts.

New Threads

 DMC recently came out with a line of wool threads dyed with natural substances, and I found them irresistible. I bought a set of 30 colors (needs more purple), and promptly sat down with all my crewel embroidery books to look for patterns; I settled on Catherine Shaughnessy's The New Crewel and The New Crewel: the Motif Collection. From the former I selected three floral designs and put them together on linen:

Those colors are lovely (not sure about that coral, though), but there was a gorgeous red I wanted to stitch with so I picked a sunflower design from The Motif Collection. It reminds me of the spirograph toy I had as a child; fun!

For this I used a feedsack dish cloth (new, not vintage).

I've yet to fully finish them (I think I will stretch the wildflower trio onto a canvas), but my woolly stitch itch has been satisfied. For now.

Spring Flowers

 I've been working on this on and off for the last few months. I started it in February, when I was desperately craving pretty colors and lovely flowers:

I used pearl cotton and silk ribbons on gingham fabric; I'm currently loving the interplay between organic stitching on checked fabric, and I am keeping an eye out for a gingham blouse I can embroider. In the meantime, this will do.

Spring!

 Cherry blossoms are beautiful and I wanted to make a little hoop of them:

I free-styled a branch with snippets of brown wool felt, then cut little flowers out of pale and very pale pink wool-blend felt and stitched them down with dark pink stitches. As soon as I find a wooden 5-inch hoop I will rehoop it, and maybe iron the cotton fabric, haha.

I work on this little hoop every spring, choosing a couple of the blooming trees and bushes in my neighborhood to represent:

Most recently I stitched the cherry blossoms and large yellow flowers at the bottom, above the pink knots. 

I'm lucky to live in such a pretty neighborhood.

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

 The second in Fawcett's series was just as delightful as the first. The fairies in this novel are enchanting, dangerous, and illogical, just as in the old stories, and as a result humans take different approaches to dealing with them: some try to bargain with them, some placate them, some do their very best to ignore them. 

And then there are people like Emily Wilde, who want to study them. Emily makes for an unusual protagonist: she's a brilliant academic but a terrible people person, and often has to rely on her friend (and fairy prince in exile) Wendell to smooth things over. She's very good at getting herself into and out of danger, but she's no warrior princess and sometimes she needs to be rescued. She's dorky and prickly, and some of the funniest scenes are because of her own obliviousness. 

Emily is not the only scholar this time around (Wendell doesn't count, he's too lazy to actually learn anything); she's joined on her adventures by professor Rose, who is a welcome addition to the story. He is more experienced than she is but also more conservative and old-fashioned in his approach, making him a good antagonist who is nonetheless an ally when it counts. I don't think we will see him in the concluding novel, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

The covers of the American editions are gorgeous, and having embroidered a pendant based on the first novel, earrings made sense for this one:

Maybe a pin for the last one? Or a bookmark.

Holiday Stitching Photo Dump

 Well, December did not turn out like I had expected. My oldest went in early on for surgery and ended up getting very sick after, not coming home until New Year's Eve. A lot of stitching got done in his hospital room, but very little social media and posting.

But before then, I participated in Wild Olive's ornament SAL in November, which gave me an excuse to finally make some of the designs from one of her patterns, which I bought ages ago.

Beatrice's 2022 Adventrees pattern was the perfect thing to keep my hands occupied during the long hospital stay. I had lots of fun choosing stitches and colors for each tree.

At night I got a little cross stitching done, enough to finish Praiseworthy Stitches' Snowflake Dreams and Elizabeth's Needlework Designs' Red Bird.

In early December I traced and cut out all the felt and fabric pieces to make a bunch of "bowl fillers" from Debbie Busby's Jingle all the Way pattern book; none of the stitching got done until January, though.

The mat is a design by Annie Lippincott, from an old issue of American Patchwork & Quilting.

Not a bad amount stitched for a crazy season!