My School Girl Sewing Club arrived today – from the Crewel Gobelin.
Brenda from Brenda and the Serial Starter – talked about this club last year and I was keen to participate, but it sells out fast! This year, I stalked the website from January. I chose the 40 count linen version.
As you can see above, it comes beautifully packaged. This one is Mary Lockhead Sampler by Sovereign Samplers.
I have so many projects on the go. I am not sure when I will get to this, but I am very keen to try the linen (Hogbristle Light by Fox & Rabbit). I need more hours in the day.
I have had this book for a long time, but I have only just read it (because of my new passion for EPP).
It is a beautiful book, her various projects are inspiring.
There is a chapter on the history of English Paper Piecing, little biographies of various artists, a section on supplies and how to do it, a section on fussy cutting, different rosettes (e.g. Holmwood rosette) and a quilt pattern.
I have read it from start to finish, and highly recommend it.
I was exploring the different things I could do with my Cricut machine and I thought I could use it to cut both the paper templates and the fabric for English Paper Piecing.
I used the offset feature to add a 5mm seam allowance to the fabric hexagons. It works well, very accurate paper and fabric shapes. It would work for applique as well.
My plan is to make fabric using the hexies and then add stitching (embroidery) to them.
I have frequently thought about a daily stitch journal.
That’s what this book is about. There are sections on setting your self up for the year, what you need in terms of supplies, some examples, and then pages of little motifs.
Like this one on weather.
If a journal is something you would like to tackle, then this book will be very handy. You could also use the little motifs for other embroidery projects.
I have been obsessed by the Bayeux Tapestry for years, and I went to see it last year. I buy any books I can find about it – novels or non-fiction, and I have a reproduction I am working on. So clearly I had to read this one.
Here’s the blurb …
The story of the Norman Conquest and the Battle of Hastings as shown in the Bayeux Tapestry is arguably the most widely-known in the entire panoply of English history, and over the last 200 years there have been hundreds of books portraying the Tapestry and seeking to analyze its meanings. Yet, there is one aspect of the embroidery that has been virtually ignored or dismissed as unimportant by historians – the details in the margins.
Yet the fables shown in the margins are not just part of a decorative ribbon, neither are they discontinuous, but in fact follow-on in sequence. When this is understood, it becomes clear that they must relate in some way to the action shown on the body of the Tapestry. After careful examination, it has become clear that the purpose of these images is to amplify, elaborate or explain the main story.
In this groundbreaking study, Arthur Wright reveals for the first time the significance of the images in the margins. This has meant that it is possible to see the ‘whole’ story as never before, enabling a more complete picture of the Bayeux Tapestry to be constructed. This, in turn, has led to the author reexamining many of the scenes in the main body of the work, showing that a number of the basic assumptions, so often taught as facts, have been based on nothing more than reasoned conjecture.
It might be thought that after so much has been written about the Bayeux Tapestry there was nothing more to be said, but Decoding the Bayeux Tapestry shows us just how much there is still to be learned.
This provides background information about the time prior and after the Norman Conquest. Wright believes, like many historians, the tapestry was commissioned by Odo (William’s half-brother), but he thinks it has a different purpose – not commemorating William. He also discusses the friezes at the bottom and top of the tapestry, and how they add nuance to the main story. And finally he believes it was made by English men – former military men at that. I enjoyed looking at the tapestry and understanding its historical context.
For my in-person stitching class, we were asked to make name tags. And the lovely teacher, Barbara, suggested a 3D element. There butterflies and dragonflies, but I chose a flower.
The petals are edged with floristry wire, which I then covered in blanket stitch using one strand of DMC cotton.
The centre of the flower is a french knot slip. On another piece of fabric, I draw a circle and covered it in french knots – using Pearl Cotton 8 in two colours. I stitched a running stitch around the circle, stuff it and pulled it tight. And then attached it to the background – (I added the petals after).
My name is stem stitch using pearl cotton 5, and outlined it using a metallic thread.
Feather stitch, stem or vine and a chain stitch border.
February sock (I know it’s March) and progress on the Language of Love embroidery
I have been working on my February sock. My left twist has improved, but it is still a slow process. The yarn is lovely (it’s from here). We are now watching The Wheel of Time season two.
I have also made some stitching progress. I have run out of the light green silk that I am using for the Ivy ‘veins’, so I have started on the Ivy leaves, which are just straight stitches using all seven strands of the silk (and trying to make them fluffy).
My silk has arrived for my two poems (January and February)
February Poem
So I need to get back onto them, so I have four stitching projects with deadlines (not terribly hard deadlines)
January Poem
February Poem
Name tag for stitching class (this is an in-person class here)
Language of Love
I am still waiting for my March supplies to arrive, and I haven’t yet decided on a poem.
