Sunday: One down...

Bit of a nutty week at work, thus resulting in not a lot of stitching. 

But, I have managed to get at least one thing finished and a future project prepped. 

Firstly, the little bee that I briefly featured last week has finally ended up in it's finished form, a wall clock. Rather pleased with the outcome, so cheerful and friendly...and useful to boot. This also gave way to another idea for a new selection of items to go under my product line aptly named 'bees'. And the below shot is another sneaky shot of what's to come. I hope to have at least one completed, if not two, by the end of the next Bank Holiday weekend. Can I just say another three day weekend can't come soon enough. Tempted to make a four day.

Oh there was one other thing I prepped for this week, and that was the next newsletter, which will be going out in the next week. Thanks for all the lovely new newsletter followers. If you want to join, then do pop you email into the box on the top right hand of the screen.

Today...I try not to waffle.

Hey look it's another Sunday! This means that it's time for a blog post, sure came round quickly. I'll ignore the fact that it will soon be Monday...

I'm going to skip a bit of my normal waffle because words are seemingly escaping me today. the weekend has been good and productive, and so let's get to the juicy bits and some photographs. Because as we know a picture tells a thousand tales or in this case what I've been stitching. Although I have to admit with the somewhat dull/overcast weather the photography isn't at it's best, even after a bit of photo editing.

So my personal project is coming a long nicely, I've finished the first section of trailing, 'Today', and now working on 'Good'. The lettering will be a combination of diagonal Satin, chain and trailing stitch. You can't really tell but the thread colour for the 'G' is in a hot coral pink, the padding is in a different shade because I'm not wasting the silk thread, in the coral, for the padding. I should use a matching colour for the padding but I'm resorting to using what I have to hand, and to be honest if stitched well enough your not going to see the padding.

Patchwork Bee

The other project that I've been working on is coming on rather nicely, it's the design for a new clock, and I'm rather enjoying the look of it. Here is a bit of a close up look at it. I wish I had some more of this flowery fabric but it's only a sample piece that came with a magazine from Japan. That said, I've seen the new Liberty Tana Lawn prints, and I've got my eye on a couple. Next month I'll treat myself to a couple of 1/2 metres, it will take me an age to get through, and it's been an equally long time since I purchased any new prints. 

And that's near enough everything I've been doing this weekend, aside from tidying up, shopping and doing bits and pieces on the internet.

Ah, before I shuffle off, there are a couple of UK Government petitions flying about here and enough to make me want to get on a soapbox here, beautifully crafted one, and say if your in the UK, and your a crafts person or know someone that is or love to buy from them then please sign this petition to get the government to change  its mind on reclassifying craft as non-creative. Seriously, where do they come up with these things.

Granted I'm sure there will be some that will wonder what's the point of worrying about it, people will forever call it crafts, because lord knows Handmade Manufacturing really rolls of the tongue.

Okay, I started out saying I wasn't going to waffle, and near enough ended on a rant. Oops.

Anyway, if you are in the UK click here - http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/49537 

Today is a Good Day

Nothing like a Bank Holiday weekend to get recharged and raring to go once more. Admittedly it took until today to finally pull my finger out and get going but I felt as though I made up for lost time. Many projects were progressed, prepped and started...

One of the projects I prepped today, and started was one that I mentioned the other week (Stitching Sundays), which was turning a rather fab computer wall paper into a hand embroidered picture. I sought the permission of the designer Hannah Dollery who kindly said I could. Yesterday I started a bit of the prep work for it, playing around with how I was going to stitch the various typed of font and today was all about getting the fabric started. I was going to hold fire and start it over the next weekend but I was chomping at the bit to get started.

Starting of the trailing stitch, what I like to call Barber Shop Pole Stitch.
Using a combination of stranded cotton and silk thread

Doesn't take me long to get one letter complete

Where I am currently up to, the aim is to get the trailing completed by the end of the week...hopefully

It feels good to get back to doing a meaty project, and something that I get to chart its progress.

As for what else I worked on today, I prepped a few bits for a new prototype clock, I'll talk about that another day, when I've got a bit more to show. At the moment it's just a stack of tiny bits of fabric and some thread....but hopefully it will be a bit more than that soon enough. 

I also whizzed up a small embroidery, for the sheer hell of it mainly, not sure what I am going to do with it yet...any suggestions gratefully welcomed. It's just under an inch on the width, so it's teeny tiny. And you'll hopefully recognise it as being part of my branding. Some point I would love to stitch the full thing, on a bigger scale for stall sign or something...one day, but not at the moment.

That's it for now!