12.27.11
Posted in TAST at 10:09 am by deRomilly
Sharon B of Pintangle is doing a Take a Stitch Challenge again next year, where she posts a stitch weekly to experiment with. I’ve tried these in the past and gotten sidetracked by work.
I’m afraid I might do that again this year, but I’m going to try it anyway. She’s going to start posting on January 3, and I’ll try to post my experiments on the Tuesday after, giving me an entire week (and a weekend) to play with them. As I move into designing and teaching free embroidery as much as cross stitch, this kind of experimentation becomes even more important, or so I’m telling myself to justify this!
It’s not too late to join us, or stop by and see what people do — there are over 400 people taking the challenge, and it’s always fun to drop by their sites and see what they’ve been doing. Gives you great ideas for your own work!
On January 3, I’ll tell you how I’m planning on going about this experiment, and then I’ll start stitching! 
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12.23.11
Posted in Samplers at 7:00 am by deRomilly
The third motif on my ongoing crewel sampler is 
a design from the Anchor little book of Crewel, called “Blue Bee.” In my case, it could be called “Turquoise Bee,” as I was using all appleton wools and found that I didn’t have ANY of the color types used in the origninal design.
The design in the book was stitched with Anchor cotton floss. While it gives it a nice, smooth, shiny look, I tend to not call it crewel. The defining word for me with crewel work is wool, which is apparently whence the word crewel derives! So while the design done in floss is pretty, I don’t call it crewel – it’s what I’d call “freestyle embroidery.” It’s a nit, I know. But I live in a world where nothing has the same name between two people — both embroidery and bellydance use different terms for the same stitch or move. It drives my ordered brain nuts!
Anyway. The color scheme I ended up with was dependent on the colors I had in my box in Appleton. In this case, golds and pinks rather than golds and oranges. Luckily the pinks have a very yellow cast to them, and actually blend pretty well with the gold, which surprised me. Learn something new with every sample! The turquoise is a little bright for the rest of the colors, but it’s not TOO horrible.
The sampler was focused on the basque stitch – which makes an interesting twisted chain-like spike. The outside of the flower to the right is done in this stitch, as is the center of two of the leaves. Quite pretty. I’d never actually done this stitch before, and I found it a bit tricky, especially to make the loops all the same size and avoid tightening the stitches too much. Combined with the fuzzy Appleton wool, well, I had a few issues!
Even close up the gold and pink don’t look too bad – maybe even pretty good together!
I think it came out pretty well!
Next motif – floss silks and “Society Silk” motif – yes, I know it’s my crewel sampler. But it’s mine, and I’ll play as I like!
Have a wonderful Christmas, if you celebrate it!
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12.21.11
Posted in ELMOWS at 7:00 am by deRomilly
I skipped an Elmow while posting last week’s. So we’re going back a number!
This is a counted cross stitch candle. It would make a beautiful card or ornament.
I’d love to see what you make with it!
Stitch count – 42 wide X 54 high
Size when stitched on 14 count fabric – 3 X 3.75 inches.
Note: Elmows are distributed as a pdf file. If you don’t have it on your computer, you can get the free Adobe PDF Reader here. This creates a nice clean chart or pattern that you can print on your printer (and size up or down using a copy machine, or even work from the monitor, if you want.
What ARE these things? What can I do with them and is it safe to buy them from you?
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12.19.11
Posted in Monday Treasures at 7:00 am by deRomilly
I found this wonderful Seascape via Pinterest (which is a great site. I pin a lot of my favorite embroidery photo finds there, so if you want a fix on a day other than Monday, this is the place to look!).
Anyway. Sophie Gelfi is an amazing textile artist, mosaic creator and scrapbooker. I don’t know exactly where she is from, but it’s one of the French-speaking countries! (I couldn’t find an “about” page on her site, but she writes in French.)
I started at the seascape page, but found myself clicking images almost obsessively because everything was so pretty! Go. Look. Enjoy.
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12.16.11
Posted in General at 11:20 am by deRomilly
One of the major lights in the embroidery world – Scottish born designer, teacher and inspiration Erica Wilson passed away this week. She was 83. The Telegraph has a lovely online obituary.
I have several of her books on my shelf, and in reading them for fun last year I found the answer to “how to transfer that huge design onto my shower curtain” question that I’d been annoyed about! I’m still looking for a source for tapes of her television show, Needleplay.
Rest in Peace, Erica. You’ve earned it.
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