Stitching with a Shimmy

Shimmying through life with needles and thread…
September 20th, 2010

Stitch by Stitch

Cafe curtain - purple flowers and green/brown embroidered leaves

The beginnings of my cafe curtain!

Although there is a LOT going on right now between getting cross stitch designs ready for the Online Needlework Show, and pulling together a design kit that may or may not be finished in time for it and costuming and rehearsals for bellydance shows in October… I’ve still managed to get some test stitching done on the curtain that’s letting me try things out for the shower curtain. Much fun!

I am using Stroll Sock yarn from Knitpicks for the stitching. So far it has been wonderful to stitch with. It actually doesn’t stretch quite as much as crewel wool, and with the relatively loose weave of the ground fabric I chose has been a dream.  I’d forgotten how much I enjoy working on a large scale – the stitching fills up the fabric so much faster!

September 17th, 2010

I almost Forgot!

I finished the Crewelwork bird a while back!

Pretty pretty! Now… WHAT should I do with him? Suggestions?

His feet and leaf:

Click to enlarge.

August 27th, 2010

Tree of Life

Shower Curtain Design

Liberty Sofa Cover Design

The great shower curtain (which I’m now considering prick and pounce for transferring after all… ) is a Victorian variation on the tree of life pattern that became so popular in Renaissance needlework.

No one is really sure whether European needlework influenced middle eastern and Indian woven textiles that were imported, or whether it was the other way around. Like so many things in history, the truth is probably that they influenced each other, and both developed because of it.

Often at the bottom of these designs live lions and lambs in harmony, hunters chasing deer as a symbol of the human journey (no harmony there!) and every other emblem and symbol the Jacobean embroiderer could fit in — these were the people who sewed rebuses into the hems of their dresses, after all! (I’ll look up my reference for that later…. it’s in a book upstairs in the extremely hot studio (the AC still not fixed… we’re getting there, slowly!)

I’m partial to the quiet little plant-ridden hillocks on the bottom of this design. Although I might be tempted to slip in a rabbit (or squirrel) if my husband isn’t watching.

August 11th, 2010

Another project from the UFO Box…

Crewel Bird...

While I’m finishing up the design work for the big huge shower curtain project from the depths of my over-commitment (yes, I’m getting cold feet… a little!), I’ve been working on this little bird – he’s 8 inches or so tall, and so far worked in long and short stitch. I’m sure there will be other stitches soon, but I do tend to lean towards the simple, effective use of a few stitches, despite my love of the baroque!

He comes from an old Dover iron-on transfer book Jacobean Crewel Embroidery. (It looks like this is out of print these days…)

He’s being stitched on cotton canvas, and I’m doing him in the Paternayan tapestry wool I’ve had in the cupboard for years. He’d fit in in the new bathroom, but won’t be remotely washable. Maybe I’ll actually make him into yet another pillow (I seem to have gone pillow-happy since I broke my fear of making them…)

Bird in hoop

A Bird in the hoop...

Bird stitching closeup

Interesting slant on things

August 2nd, 2010

CrewelWork ShowerCurtain…go!

Shower Curtain Design

Liberty Sofa Cover Design

So, I decided to go ahead with a new shower curtain — we’ve been talking about going gothic in the hall bathroom – gothic the time period, not gothic the lifestyle, although there is some overlap there….

Really, it’s going to end up being a Victorianesque pastishe of the medieval period, which is fine by me. A long time ago I started stitching a shower curtain that inluded a border of German Brickstitch work. That border broke me. There’s no way I’ll finish it!

What I have decided to do instead is based on last week’s post, and a Victoran design from an old book from Liberty of London. The original was designed for a sofa cover – 36 inches by 62 inches. I printed it out from the catalog at just under 8 1/2 by 11, and am currently enlarging it using the old fashioned grid method to 42 X 63 inches, which will fit our tub nicely. I think eitehr the reproduction scan was skewed, or I stretched it in printing, because I can’t get the ratios to work out to what the catalog says the original is, but I don’t think it matters TOO much.

There is a nice heavy plainweave linen on order from fabrics-store.com, and I am going to attempt this in washable sock yarn from Knitpicks.

I’ll walk through this project as I go, although it’s not high on the priority list for finishing right now, but it is a lot of fun to plan!

I’m still contemplating the Art Nouveau piece — I’ve traced it to size, and simplified for stitching, but I’m still debating fabric choices! I thought I had picked out the one I wanted to use – a nice, soft black cotton that I had on hand, but now I’m not sure again. I’m wondering if something a bit smoother might go better.  <sigh> When the right fabric jumps out at me I’ll know and be able to start work for real.