Aesop Frame Finish - almost

 

I was very pleased with my finished fox and frog. The brown colour change shows up disappointingly in the photo but much less so on the linen. 

The end of daylight saving gave me an extra hour which I spent working on the owl (and finishing a book, and several other things. It's amazing how far that extra hour can stretch). The owl was fun - although the white Renaissance thread was a bit fluffy to work with and hard to tame. Strange how different colours in the same thread type react differently.

Here's the owl in context

and the bottom of the frame as I moved my hoop. It is quite exciting to see the whole piece coming together like this.

The pied woodpecker was a delicate exercise - all in the fine Renaissance threads.  My challenge is to fill in the tree trunks in ways that blend colour smoothly. I'll go over some of the trunks again at the end with a single thread touch-up.     I was fairly pleased with this result.

The peacock was a very interesting stitching exercise, with a variety of threads and stitches.  In general I stuck to the colours and threads suggested, but I played a bit within the parameters. It was a great place to finish.   

As this is the last piece of crewel work to go on my chair, I wanted to add text to the centre of the frame and had intended to do so before blocking. 

It was, however too crumpled when I took it out of the hoop so I blocked it overnight while I gave some thought to the lettering. In the end I printed a page on paper, then on Sulky. It is too long and exposed to risk scribing it by hand, even with ruled lines.  I will block it again when I've stitched the text.

I got the start date wrong (took a guess and, fortunately, checked later). I am now stitching it - practising my slow but effective Quaker stitch. I've fixed the date. My next post will show the finished text - and hopefully the piece in situ on the completed chair!

Aesop Frame half-way point

I began the Aesop Mirror Frame in May 2021, with the wood pigeon,  in the top right hand corner, working left across the top then moving down the left hand side. It's a pleasant, meticulous all-consuming project.  

After the wood pigeon, 

came the squirrel  

and the pea hen before I put the project aside to work on some smaller, more pressing projects. 

I picked it up again in late March this year. After finishing a number of other projects I was ready for a longer project. I had started the woodpecker and finished that relatively quickly.

When I moved the hoop it was quickly evident that I should have taken the linen OUT of the hoop in the months it was idle! I can fix it by blocking - but a lesson nevertheless.

The next corner still went nicely into the hoop and I pressed on.

There will be a few touch-ups at the end but I'm very satisfied with this result. 

It brings me just beyond the half-way point and the end is in my sights. 

I moved into a 12" hoop for the next section, enabling me to fit the whole of the fox in (just). Although the tension is not as good as on an 8" hoop, it's much better to be able to see the whole figure.

I've embroidered the greenery and the frog. All set now to do the fox.

I hope to report soon on the last side and the finished product!

Catch up on projects since April

 The last time I posted here was after Di Kirshner's workshop in April. I have continued to post weekly to my England2020 blog. I am continuing that blog until we emerge from Covid. I had not imagined that would take more than a year! For the moment I continue but hope that one day I can return to this as my main or only blog. 

This is a summary of my projects since April.

The other reason for posting here now is to inform those of you who have an email subscription to this blog, that Feedburner, the service that sends the emails out automatically after posting, is being discontinued in August 2021, with no replacement. I have downloaded the email addresses of all those who have subscriptions and have created an email group. I intend to manually send an email to the group each time I post, using bcc so email addresses are not shared. If you do not want to continue receiving notification, please let me know, or unsubscribe to emails before the end of July. I will check the list of subscribers again on 31 July and adjust my list accordingly.

The top photo is a panel on the Aesop Frame. At the moment that project is on hold. The second photo is a sample I worked up to show how the 16th Century Icelandic couching style of narrative embroidery could be applied to a modern narrative.

I constructed this bag from some pinwale corduroy left over from a smocked dress I made some 15 years ago. The design is the result of a Certificate Course workshop on layered fabric. 

I also finished the blanket I was working from the pack of Sheepjes tiny sample yarns - a cotton/acrylic mix. It is very cosy and soft.

This is a bag for a friend's birthday - honeyeaters appliqued to an Ink and Spindle linen with Indigenous Spirit Figures on the side for protection.

And this panel, also Ink and Spindle,  has gone into another bag with a little bit of embroidery on the circles.

I did another Fisherton-de-la-Mere 2-day class with Christine Bishop. A few years ago I did this class and made a green version. I keep jewellery  in it and like it a lot. I also made the needle book.

I had bought a couple of bundles of remnants from Ink and Spindle, amongst them were two of bag size. and a a distinctive repetitive pattern. I've been embroidering around the pattern. 

One has made its way into a bag and the other one is still in the making.

I also worked a shawl using 10 ply Noro Ito wool and Nightshift pattern. I enjoyed and liked it so much that I bought enough wool to make 2 more, one for my other daughter and one for myself.

I'm working on the second one now.

Last weekend I attended the first day of a two-day course on Melissa Walker's Madagascan Moon Moth. I'm hoping to have the embroidery done by the second day of the course in a month's time, when we will work on construction. I'm making good progress because we are currently in lockdown triggered by a Covid Delta outbreak.

The other thing I did a few days ago was to make a photographic record of my unfinished projects, and unstarted kits. There are far more of the latter than the former.  I have included the composite photos at the end of this post.

I will do a trial run of another post in August, to test the manual email notification.  I hope to show progress on the Madagascan Moon moth, the next shawl, and another bag. Don't expect progress on the projects below!