Saturday, March 30, 2013

EASTER GREETINGS



May this Easter be for all, a time to enjoy family
 and to know God's Blessings.
Happy Easter everyone
 


Tuesday, March 26, 2013

EASTER EGG DELIGHTS


A smile takes but a moment,
but it's effects somehow last forever.
J E Smith
 
 

I want to share with you some embroidery inspired by Faberge Eggs, our stitching friends latest challenge was to stitch an Easter Egg pocket in any method of stitching we wished and with the suggestion that inspiration could the lovely designs of  Faberge Easter Eggs.
 
 This lovely Egg shown here was the inspiration for the piece I made,  my design was a little simpler, using some lovely scraps of deep blue sari silk  with gold braid, gold cord  and gold rose beads I stitched  pink bullion stitch roses  with small sequin leaves to complete the design. I lined the pocket with gold tissue fabric and the finished pocket was  about 12cm in size. It has now been received by Joan.

 And the pocket I received in the exchange was made by Ann,  What a thrill to open her parcel and see the beautiful pocket she had made. My photograph does not do justice to the lovely deep colour of the fabric she has used. Ann made her pocket quite stiff which has made it  perfect for my slightly larger pair of embroidery scissors. I will now need to make  a new fob to go on my scissors, maybe a gold pansy to match the ltlle gold charm on the egg pocket.

 
And our next challenge is ? well nobody knows yet, but it will be something quite different.
Happy Stitching everyone.
 


Thursday, March 21, 2013

WELCOME FRIENDS

Life's completeness and riches depend on the things we share with our loved ones and friends.
Helen Steiner Rice.

Welcome to new followers I notice there are several more since I celebrated 150 followers, welcome, I hope you find something in what I share on my blog to enjoy and use.

 I did not get to post for IHSW as there was almost a week with Internet problems, it was worse than snails pace and kept cutting out. I did manage a little stitching on the guild challenge this is to be ready by May so sorry there will be a wait till I can show this piece to you and in between times I have been stitching more little bunnies and also this little squirrel. I have put him on the front of a covered retractable tape measure.


Yesterdays stitching was a small piece of Deerfield embroidery, for  the next page of my journal. Some years ago I did research into this type of embroider.  This is truly an  American Embroidery, 
 

The early  British Colonists to Colonial America took with them their knowledge of Jacobean embroidery ( crewel work) Faced with a shortage of coloured threads one group in New England  adapted their work to stitch in 3 shades of blue. Blue was an easily attainable   using indigo dye. Depending on the number of repeated dips  would be how deep the colour would be. Later other colours were added. A revival of interest in the 1890’s saw this Blue and White  Embroidery  become better known and it is now stitched world wide. The story of this embroidery, of the dying of thread  and how long lost patterns were found is well worth reading and if you get the chance to read this book I highly recommend it.


Here is my small piece of  Deerfield embroidery, the stitches used were stem stitch,  herringbone stitch, satin stitch, cross stitch  Spike stitch (buttonhole Edge) and New England laid stitch. new England laid stitch ( also called Deerfield stitch) is a form of Romanian stitch and is one of the characteristics of Deerfield embroidery where the thrifty New England ladies devised a method of stitching Romanian stitch that was more economical in the use of their very precious threads.

Today is a new day and I will need to find a new project to stitch
Happy stitching everyone..