October 2020 Update

Much has happened since I last posted here in July. Many places have had second waves of Covid and various degrees of restrictions or lockdowns have been imposed. Here in Adelaide we currently have no known community transmission for several weeks. We are still, however, cautious, observing distance, hand hygiene and restrictions on numbers gathering. 

In that time, Blogger has altered its tools and coding for blogposts and I have struggled with the new text wrapping tool. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  Apologies in advance for much less than perfect layout.

I am still posting my daily blog which has included the embroidery I have been working on since I last posted an update here in July. It is still my intention to continue the daily blog for a year - until 24 February 2021. It's a kind of Journal of a Covid Year. Once that year is over, I intend to return to more or less weekly posts here.                                                                                                                  I made some progress on my crewel chair adding a Jacobean flower, an acorn and  redwork rabbit.

Once I got these pieces on the chair, I realised I needed much more to fill the gaps, so ordered a series of printed linens that I thought would do the job from The Crewel Work Company. I have just finished two sets of Rabbits at Dawn to put in front of the tree of life on the seat.

  The embroidery is finished, blocked and ready to add. I am now working on a series of feathers to go along the top edge.

One of my daughters suggested I make some Covid masks, which were being mandated in some parts of Australia and recommended in others, so I spent a couple of weeks finding recommended designs, fabrics and patterns and made, in the end, about 45 masks.

I completed this alpaca shawl with a pattern and yarn from Adagio Mills in Orange NSW. Blocking was a challenge!                                                                                                            

This bag and the tools that go in it were also a challenge, the result of a class with Christine Bishop at the Embroiderer’s Guild. Surprisingly, I enjoyed doing it. I learned a lot, the bag has proved very useful and it has been much admired.

The bag in the composite photo above is the result of a study of Icelandic Embroidery undertaken by the World Embroidery Study Group of the Guild, which I convene. We don’t often undertake a stitching project, but a few of us tried this design published in Piecework Magazine. It uses long-armed cross stitch which I had never done and really enjoyed. I of course, turned it into a bag, working worked a runic pattern on the closure side.

I couldn’t resist the Italian Caterina project in Inspirations 107. The Catherine de Medici stitch on 8 thread count linen was a definite challenge, as were the tassels with, I think, 380 knots in each.

A Certificate Course workshop at the Guild in September with Barbara Mullan on Mola Reverse Appliqué resulted in my producing this little bag for holding tools.

I have also worked, on and off (more off than on as you can see) on a shawl from a ball of lovely 2 ply wool brought back from New Zealand for me by a friend.

Hopefully the shawl will be finished when I post my next update here around Christmas time.

Stay safe.

Catch up

It is a long time since I posted to this blog. In the last post, on 19 April,  I explained that I was posting daily to what began as my travel blog,  https://jillian-england2020.blogspot.com.  I continued the daily posts in order to provide a bit of a record of my Coronavirus lockdown, and then living under the post-covid restrictions. 

I have no idea how long I will continue the daily blog. I have assumed that there will be a point when the end of the Covid restrictions will bring the blog to a natural conclusion. If this is not the case I will need to reassess. When the daily blog concludes, I will return to more-or-less weekly posts here.

Two projects completed from the Crewel Work Company Retreat in March.

In the meantime, this is a summary of the embroidery projects I have finished in the last couple of months and discussed in the other place. I will continue to summarise every month or so.

The top piece is from Nicola Jarvis's class and the lower one from Kate Barlow's class.

The Muncaster Orange shown here being blocked, was begun in a class with Phillipa Turnbull at the March retreat.

The Muncaster Orange was added to my crewel chair, along with the Mellerstain Screen panel which I worked once I had returned home.










This bag is based on a design from the family collection of a friend of Italian-Australian background. An account of that collection can be found at https://www.jdellit.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/TheEmbroideryLegacyofMariaGraziaCarminaandherFamily-1.pdf




I completed this songbird design by Anna Scott from Inspirations magazine Issue 106 and appliqued it on to a bag I made from fabric from Ink and Spindle.















These 78 hexies are ready to add to to plain black edges of my winter quilt when it comes off my bed as outlined in my 24 March post.


These two birds are designs printed on linen by Nicola Jarvis. I embroidered them using colours of Australian birds and appliqued them on to another bag made from Ink and Spindle fabric.






















Niamh is modelling a Fair Isle scarf I made for one of my daughters,











The owl bag was my travel project. It has progressed, but isn't finished.




This Muncaster Orange is a reverse of the one above, to fit on the chair in a complementary position. This is what I am working on at the moment.

The hand-towel below has not been part of the daily blog. It was a birthday gift for a friend whose birthday is today. I would not have normally picked pink, but I wasn't able to source another colour in a timeline I could rely on.








We are both fond of flannel flowers-Actinotis Helianthi.













This brings us up to date.  I will continue to update this blog on an irregular basis until I reach a point where daily post-Covid posts are not needed.

Shadow Box Class

Late last year the Embroiderers' Guild of SA offered a two day class with Christine Bishop to populate a Shadow Box with a needle-case,  scissors, pincushion and needle threader. I wasn't convinced I needed another box in my workspace, but I did like the box, the embroidery and concept. I could also see that something solid to hold embroidery necessities might mean they were always in the same place - and there's sense in that. I notice Christine is teaching this project at Beating Around the Bush this year.

It was a fun class, over two Sundays. A great group of enthusiastic embroiderers . I knew when I enrolled that I would only be able to attend for half the second Sunday, as I had a subscription concert. Christine was OK with this, so I went ahead.

We got to choose our box, which Christine had had made for us - there was a choice of white, red or blue. I chose the blue.

We began stitching the needle book, Christine demonstrating the stitches to get us started and then more or less on demand. We began with Rococo stitch - new to me. It took me a while to get the hang of the way the stitches fit together. Once I did, I was hooked. I hope I can use it again.

Because I knew I would miss the last few hours of the second day, I put in quite a bit of time between classes to finish as much stitching as I could, so I could have some help with construction on the second morning.

Like a few others in the class, I played a bit with the designs. I altered the row of houses at the bottom of the needle book cover to a symmetrical design, so it would not matter which way the book was lying in the box. I'm going to use this, and I can see I won't be careful about how I place the book!

My strategy worked well. The kit came with a lovely piece of Liberty cotton for the lining of the needle book.  Christine went through the construction steps and I was able to complete the construction fairly quickly after the class.

The book is designed to hold needle packets. rather than loose needles. There are a few options, however, to accommodate both.

I opted to add little squares of doctor's flannel.

One of the other students embroidered quotes on the linen pockets.

I found some off-cuts of acid-free mounting board left over from a previous task





and used these to back the pin-cushion, scissor keep and holder for the needle threader.





The box made a handy holder for the bits required throughout the process!




Gay's quotations on the linen pockets gave me an idea when I realised that the back of the needle book was blank.











I embroidered a paraphrased version of Philippians 4:8. This is a principle I try to live by and a mantra that helps to keep depression at bay in the face of so much bad news. It will be reassuring to have it always there when I am stitching.














It took a little bit of adjustment to get the small pieces fitting snuggly as the spaces are not the same size - but it was not a drama.

The scissor keep is designed to fit Kelmscot Little Gems scissors.

I found an online Australian supplier, StitchWOT and ordered both blue and red. In the end I used the red.  I experimented with a few needle threaders and eventually added this little bird with a threader beak. It has the advantage of a hole that accommodates a cord. I reckon an unattached needle threader is not going to survive my use!

Altogether this has been a thoroughly enjoyable project. It had a few mild challenges, looks good and will be a tool set that does not leave my coffee table - so always there when I need it.

What more could I want?

Basics to Beyond - Project 5 finished.

I have been working on Project 5, the last for the Guild's Basics to Beyond (B2B) course, since July 2017. I posted my last update on Project 5 in January of this year, which is when I finished the stitches on the sampler.

Progress has been slow.  B2B is about doing things properly - with an emphasis on construction. Doing things properly is not my forte - and what I am trying to learn from B2B.

By our August B2B meeting I had not only managed to complete the hemstitched edge of the sampler, but to iron it more or less crinkle-free.




I then, under supervision, added the flannel inter-lining and finally the silk lining necessary to turn the sampler into a pouch.


The corners of the sampler are, of course, carefully mitred.






I had chosen some dusty pink silk to line the pouch, silk, of course, for polishing the pearls that might end up housed here.
At home, after the August meeting, I added the lining,  folded the sides and ladder-stiched them together to form the pouch.





I found a button I had made at a Guild workshop by covering a ring and a bead, with stitching.

I also made a buttonhole loop, careful to ensure all the knots face the same way.


I  listed all my  sources  on the assessment form.

At the September B2B workshop Gay signed the form and I submitted the piece for assessment. This week I collected it.

Success! I have completed the course.

Now, of course, I am faced with the 'Beyond' bit of the class. Do I stay on and do my own thing?

Gay has designed a repeat course focusing on counted thread work -  a course variation which she is still in the process of documenting. I’m tempted but it will put her under pressure to complete the documentation. It's a great group and I want to continue.

I have another idea based on a project I’ve been working on to document some local family collections. More soon!

Fool-proof bag

I attended Christine Bishop's Fool-proof Bag class at the Embroiderers' Guild in February this year. The concept is a linen bag, put together using counted thread embroidery techniques, and adaptable in size, colour and decoration.  The class teaches the basic construction and foundation stitches.

While I have done a little basic counted thread work, it is not my strength, and this year I wanted to improve my counted thread skills. The two-day course was a lot of fun.

Between the two days of the course I dug out a book with a design for a cross-stitched flannel flower and added it to my bag at the crucial stage - before the sides were sewn together.

I was very happy with the result.











Christine pointed out that the bag lends itself to using up off-cuts of linen - or left over bits and pieces.I didn't need to be told twice! I made straight for my stash of left-over linen oddments and tried it out.

With the help of some silk scraps for lining I made another bag in which to store jewellery and preserve lustre.

















I then followed Christine's advice, and tacked the hems on a range of off-cuts, putting them into a bag for those rainy days when I need a quick project.


Some of the linen is fine and some fairly course.  Each piece, however, has potential to make an attractive and useful bag.














I confess to taking these to England in the bottom of my suitcase but not progressing any. That's because, as I travelled, I was able to continue work on the projects from the embroidery retreat.  The linen bag pieces did not take up much room - and would have come into their own had I run out of stitching while away (Heaven forbid!).

It's another great idea from Christine. I owe a lot of my growth as a needlewoman to her.