Two-By-Two

It's The First Of August - and today marks the start of the fourth collaborative stitching project between Kirsten and me. I am so excited about this one! We started out with the Postcard Project, stitching on linen

And then we did the Cross Country Collaboration, working on evenweave Aida, doing cross stitch

And latterly, the CoverStory, adding patches each month to a foundation sheet, to make bookcovers.

In all that time we have learned about new embroidery stitches, Swedish weaving, Spanish work, Sashiko, Dorset Buttons, different types of thread, couching and more. We have also learned the wisdom of having A Good Plan before we begin a project, even if we tweak it along the way. 

CoverStory happened because we wanted to create useful pieces of stitching. And the book covers are great. So let's do a couple more covers, we said. But this time, slightly differently. Postal charges have gone up significantly since we began in 2022. And I have discovered that doing a practice piece each month has resulted in much better work.

This time, we are using the EPP [English Paper Piecing] technique, where each patch is stitched round a paper shape, then they are joined together at the end. But we will each do two very similar squares - and post one, and keep one. We will do 15 [x2] in total, to make a piece just big enough for an A5 book cover. I have already used my diecut machine to produce a lot of paper squares [quick, efficient, uniformly sized] plus a 'frame' so that we can choose where to cut out the fabric patch. 

Here's the frame on my bedroom quilt showing how you can line up the designs to get the best patterns. Below is a practice patch, to give you an idea of how it will work. So every month there will be two patches prepared by us both. That's Two-By-Two. Off we go!

Sad To See It Go...

 

About 12 miles up the road, less than half an hour in the car, is Taverham. A small village, for many centuries, its great claim was that St Wulstan lived here. He was venerated as a saint before the Norman Conquest, and of noble birth [his mother closely related to Ethelred the Unready] But he renounced all that to become a farm worker. Now Taverham has all the usual facilities [schools, library churches, a big Lidl ...] including a large Garden Centre. 
The 'Nursery Centre' offers a lot more than just the regular stuff. On site there are other businesses - a windows company, shoe shop, art studio, Hospice Charity Shop and more.

For years there has been an excellent haberdashers/sewing shop called Sew Simple. the range of products on sale is phenomenal - quilting, dressmaking, knitting, embroidery, art and painting,

 cake decorating, children's crafts, craft books and patterns. I don't think there is anywhere else in Norfolk with such an extensive range.
I really enjoy going - just to wander around, and maybe buy a skein of DMC thread.

So I was quite upset when someone announced at our Craft Group yesterday that the store is closing down in August, as the owner has decided to retire. And everything is half price.

I get the impression this was quite sudden. When I got home from the group, Bob suggested we went over and had a look [We needed to get a few bits from Lidl, and he is researching Firepits] 

Here's my hoard:

• 2 packs tissue paper
• 10 skeins of DMC floss
• A reel of Guterman machine embroidery thread
• A pack of bobbins for the floss
• 23 adjustable slide buckles.

Original price in excess of £27.50 - I paid £12.63

I will explain the buckles later. It was fun to get some bargains  - but I am sad the shop is closing [especially for the staff who were completely unprepared and are now trying to find alternative jobs] Losing independent shops like this is inevitable I guess, when more and more people buy online, very cheaply from Temu etc, and are happy for great container ships from China to bring goods to the UK. 
But these ladies had excellent specialist knowledge and were always willing to help and advise. I know people who travel across the country to buy specific craft products from them - and pop into the Hospice shop and the other businesses too. A real loss!

Here's the Craft Group Summer Social - Jane taught us to make balls on sticks using leftover wool and bits of bamboo. Mine's the dull dark purple one at the front [all the fancy wools had already been grabbed] Jane suggested we should each make a load more to fill a vase to stand 'on the mantelpiece or in the fireplace' As Cornerstones possesses neither of these fixtures, I have decided not to bother!

But it was good to end our session chatting and sharing a buffet lunch. 

Do you have a good haberdashery nearby?

And whatever shall I do with my Ball On A Stick? [no, perhaps you should not answer that!]

CoverStory update : Kirsten's piece ie now also completed , pictures here

Booked Up!

I have just finished my part of the CoverStory Project, which Kirsten and I have been working on for a year. Our two panels are here

I trimmed the panel neatly, and bound the edges with navy bias binding. Then I folded it around my A5 notebook to work out the best placement of the flaps. The 'pen pocket' had to be on the front.

The 'info' panel fitted neatly inside the front cover - and at the back, my Immanuel strip, and lengths of embellished ribbons tucked inside. What a wonderful project, and practical too, this is my little day to day notebook, so will get a lot of use.
Our next collaborative project is due to start on August 1st...

As You Sew, So Shall You Rip!

A bit  pessimistic if you ask me. Not every item I stitch goes wrong and has to be redone. On the other hand, there are times when pulling out the errors makes such a mess of the fabric I have no choice but to start again completely. 

Both Kirsten and I have struggled over the past three years- when we have known what we want to do for our monthly contribution to the collaboration, but it just doesn't look right once stitched. So it is duly unpicked. My last 'flat gift' to her was a retractable unpicker.

For this last project I have cheated a little, I had a spare piece of fabric, and each month worked on a practice patch. Practice Makes Perfect - well maybe not perfect, but there are fewer holes in the finished article, where errant stitches once were...

I decided to make my practice panel into a cover too. 

You remember the Dodo File I found in a CS in May, a random size between A4 and A5. I don't like the printed cover.

I lined my practice panel with a sample of curtain fabric from the stash, and enclosed elastic straps at either end, And I stitched name and date at one end.

And it folds round and slips onto the card folder beautifully. Please don't stare too hard at my machined name on the right- the doorbell rang and when I returned, I lost my place and it went wrong!!

I am quite pleased with it - you will see I had to add extra rows of ribbon to make it fit. And I am concerned about the delicate poppies on the spine. I may have to enclose them in some sheer voile, or their petals will get snagged. But it has already given me things to think about before I make up the 'Proper' CoverStory piece. 

Do you ever make 'practice pieces' when you are doing craftwork?

You Couldn't Make It Up!

In our crazy language, both make up and made up have a number of meanings
"make up" as a noun usually means cosmetics, and "To make up" as a verb can mean to apply cosmetics.
But "make up" can also mean "create a fiction, tell a lie" - you make up an excuse to get out of a sticky situation, the criminal will make up a story and give a false alibi
And "to make up" means to reconcile after an argument  [kiss and make up!]
Finally "to make up" means to complete something. "If you save your pocket money, I will make up the difference so you can buy the book" Or with a cake mix - make up the mix to produce a cake. Similarly made up can be wearing cosmetics, descriptive of a lie, finished arguing and became friends again, a finished product - and lately it means very happy "He offered me the job and I was well made up"
Kirsten and I are now making up - not lying, or reconciling, but completing the CoverStory project. Our two panels have all their patches stitched, their seams embellished, and the names and dates on an info panel to one side.

Each has ten patches, an information panel, and horizontal and vertical seam embellishments. We each did 5 patches per panel, and half the seam stitching.

Now we each have our 'own' panel [mine is the lower one] 

It is time to make up our panel so it becomes a book cover. 

We wanted this project to be usable [the first four pieces are still languishing in drawers in Norfolk and Sussex waiting to be framed!]

I made an error right at the beginning - I allowed for the 'turnings' on our foundation fabric, and we both stitched "over the edge" so some embroidery will be lost inside. And forgot the info panel, so that had to be added later.

I checked my shelves and foraged in the loft, and found five new and unused A5 notebooks, plus the very slim notebook I was given at my workshop last Saturday - and the travel journal I took to Paris last year, which has been a general purpose commonplace book since then. I think that is the one I am going to make up the cover for. 

But since my parcel arrived from Kirsten, I have been asked to shorten three pairs of pyjama trousers and decorate another slime shirt for the school play, and I already had another special project on the go. 

My CoverStory will not be finished this week - but when it is, I shall be "well made up " too!
Thanks Kirsten for another year of challenging, exciting. collaborative sewing. And for this month's great "flat gifts" which will get a special mention later 

It's A Stitch Up!

Three years ago, I reviewed this book - and the following week, I actually began the first collaboration with Kirsten on "The Postcard Project". So yes, I did end up buying it [secondhand of course] and it has been a useful resource as we have been stitching together. Now we are working on the final stages of CoverStory, and I have been looking for interesting stitches to embellish the seams.

The names are fascinating

According to the book, the one on the left is "feathered chain" stitch and the one on the right is "chained feather" stitch. And what about "square boss" stitch [I think I worked for him back in the 80s]

I am intrigued by the loopy "forbidden stitch" [also known as Pekinese stitch or Chinese stitch - maybe it comes from the Forbidden City in Beijing]
Many stitches have place names - Paris stitch, Cretan Stitch, Madeira work - and my favourite Norwich stitch.

Kirsten and I have agreed that having done all the edges, we will stitch our info panels - then one final swap. We will each end up with the panel with our name on it. At that point these will be turned into our notebook covers. And then we will scratch our heads and plan for our fourth collaborations.

Any ideas about what we will do next?

Edging Towards the Finishing Line

So all the patches are stitched on the CoverStory Panels [apart from the 'info panels' which will be completed shortly] This past month we have been embellishing the vertical seams, and now we have swapped pieces, and will work on the horizontal ones.

My panel with its seams stitched - I used stem stitch, feather stitch, couched running stitch and couched chain stitch.

And here is Kirsten's piece

We both used cotton perlé thread which works really well for this

She was much more adventurous than I was- using coral stitch, blanket stitch, french knots, and zigzag stitching. I found it quite hard to maintain a straight line as the area around the seams is quite thick, with three or four layers of fabric.

My parcel arrived on Thursday just before my SIL and BIL joined us for lunch. Denise said how much better it was to see and touch the stitching - so much more vivid than on the blog photographs. 

She is right, you cannot fully appreciate the colours and textures in a photograph.
I got the previous two pieces out of the drawer [Postcard Project and Cross Country Collaboration] to show her - and now I am thinking I must make an effort to get them into frames and displayed somewhere in the house. We are quite limited for wall space though...

At least the CoverStory pieces will be going onto notebooks and actually get "used"

K has already decided on her lining fabric. She is ahead of me there!

Seams Very Good To Me

 

Kirsten's April stitching was a sampler of the sort of stitch which can be used to embellish the seams of Victorian Crazy Patchwork. Isn't it gorgeous? all done in bright cotton perlé threads. We had agreed at the outset to do cover stitches over our seams when we finished all the twelve patches. These are varied and colourful.
But...neither of us has really taken the seam-coverstitching into account whilst doing our patches. These take up quite a few millimetres and would seriously encroach on the little patches which we have filled so diligently with other stitching. K and I are discussing Collaboration #4 - and wondering if that should be some sort of plainer patches, but with fancier seams...although #4 is quite a few months away yet! 

Bizarrely. just before the parcel arrived, I had borrowed this book from the library to get some inspiration. But I think most of these may prove too fancy. 
There was a picture of the author inside the back cover, and this quote 
Faith, family and friends will get you through anything...but stitching keeps you sane.
I'm clearly not doing enough stitching at the minute!
My favourite lines in Kirsten's stitching are those golden/orange "Easter Eggs" and the blue circles joined by bright pink French knots.

Wizard- From Oz!

My last surviving Aunt, Auntie Jean [Dad's Sister in law] is 100 today. She now lives in a Care Home in Perth, Australia. Here she is with nine of her ten children. I saw her in December 1997, when she and Nina [on the left] came over for the wedding of her youngest son, Brian, to an English girl. I think he is the one in the check shirt behind Nina. 

The stitching arrived from Kirsten on Thursday - details will be shared on Monday. My April piece was 'beach huts' - because of the warmer weather and recent trips to the coast. Plus the first Beach Hut I remember is the one Jean and Uncle Ted had at Thorpe Bay, Essex, where they lived in the 50s and 60s. Most days in the summer holidays they would all pack bags and walk down to the hut and spend all day on the beach in the sunshine. Easier and way cheaper than taking a dozen of them away on holiday! Then they emigrated, the 12 Ten Pound Poms - and had sunshine most of the year

Kirsten's 'flat gift' this month was also Australian. It is a Supoon, a nifty little gadget which measures out a teaspoon of cream, jam whatever, acts as a small spatula for clearing jars, and its kinked handle keeps the greasy bottom of the worktop! A lovely gift for my new kitchen, Thanks K! Enjoy the Vegemite Video showing it in use

PS I prefer Marmite myself!

Two Weddings And A Funeral [Plus Three Birthdays And A Centenary]

"Well, I am fairly busy in March and April," I said back in February "We are putting in a new kitchen and doing it ourselves" But I clearly didn't say it loudly enough. And I hate to let people down. So there were funeral flowers on the coffee table over the weekend, waiting to go to church on Sunday. Then four different sewing projects on the dining table [in plastic bags to avoid the dust!], all with deadlines in April/May. I have been diligently working on these items for my friends, and 3 out of four have been completed and delivered. The fourth will get done in time, I am determined. However, next Saturday we are away all day for another couple's "Milestone Birthday" Event. 

Here's a Teaser Picture for you - my resource materials for some of the work...
No, I am not making any dolls. I cannot reveal any pictures of completed work just yet. Sewing is my Happy De-stressing Activity. I admit to ignoring all the above tasks on Thursday evening, and working on the April CoverStory stitching. Truly a balm for my soul.

Unboxing

definition:  the activity of taking new products out of their packaging, especially on videos on the internet.

I watched an 'unboxing video' with Rosie last year. Someone  opening a box with a £6 LOL doll in it. Making the sort of enthusiastic noises I might make if I was sent a box with a £6000 Bernina sewing machine. Except this woman was in her thirties, which made it very weird. I could cope with Ro or Jess ooh-ing and aah-ing over a doll but not someone old enough to be their mother doing it. And as for setting up a video camera to record the whole experience for the general public to share...

But, dear friends, I would like you to share my unboxing of the latest CoverStory package received from Kirsten yesterday. Please supply your own sound effects as indicated. Rustling of tissue paper

Firstly the inner box. The Graze ones we started with years ago are wearing out. Here is a new, very pretty box from Bloom and Wild, [oooh!] and inside the Travelling Notebook with all the annotations of what we have stitched and why [hmmm! helpful]

Then the postcard - always full of personal details, some sadness  😥🙏 and some joy [Hallelujah!]

Don't you just love Shepard's Winnie-the-Pooh and Christopher Robin illustration? [sweet...] so much more English than the Disney bear. The flat gift...

A pack of wildflower seeds [so charming]

Bladder Campion [wheee!]

Birdsfoot Trefoil

Self-Heal [sounds good]

Lady's Bedstraw - used to colour Double Gloucester Cheese[yum]

Sneeze-wort [atishoo!]

Red Clover

Betony - it's good for back pain, said Culpeper's Herbal[👍]

Hedge Bedstraw

drumroll Finally this month's stitching [wow!!]

A gloriously dense piece of coton perlé work. Lush green grasses, interspersed with bright pink tulips in detached chain stitch, colourful French Knot crocuses, and bright daffodils stitched from Karen Turner's video tutorial . A celebration of spring flowers.
That's lovely said Bob

It's gorgeous said I  

[applause and cheering] 👏👏👏

Thank you Kirsten for this delightful piece. I don't foresee a new career for me in making "Unboxing Videos" though [sighs of relief from everybody]

Yet Another Landscape

On Friday I posted about landscapes by Turner and others
On Saturday I posted the snowscape I had stitched for our CoverStory Collaboration
And yesterday I received Kirsten's January stitching - another landscape!
It is beautiful - a  depiction of a place in Sussex which is a favourite spot where she and her family go for coffee sometimes. And it is tiny - just 6cm x 5cm, but she has mounted it on a piece of her Advent Calendar fabric.

You can see trees, patchwork fields, and along the bottom grasses. In the blue sky a very fluffy cloud made from some sheep's wool. The stitching is minuscule! Like my snowscape, her sky is beautiful, joyful blue [skies round here have been very grey lately]

If you read her blog, you will know she has had a tough few weeks, losing her Dad just after Christmas, and then having to deal with all the 'sadmin' that follows a bereavement. 
She has added a photograph in the notebook which accompanies the stitching - a picture of her Dad, looking bright and cheerful, with these fields and trees, and clouds in the blue sky behind him. It was taken at the beginning of December.

K says "this is not a sad piece - it is one of my favourite wintry scenes, and a happy memory of a Grand Old Man!"

What a lovely tribute, I am thrilled he will be remembered and celebrated in our collaborative stitching. 

Let It Snow!

Here is my CoverStory sampler for January. I was inspired by my Christmas jumper, as I finally got round to altering the neckline  I thought it would be good to do some sort of snowscene. Over Christmas I saw [somewhere, can't find it now] a picture of a fabric collage of a snow scene using lengths of lace to give texture to the snow. I thought I'd do something similar.
I chose various bits of old lace for the background, including a very wavy edged piece for the upper slopes, and a more geometric design for the path along the bottom. I went for a blue sky with appliqued sun and lacy cloud - and I added white felt fleecy tops for the mountains and a felt snowman. Then I embroidered fir trees, a cottage and some people having fun in the snow.

My attempts at changing the contrast so you can see the lace have left a strange yellow streak down the panel.[It's a shadow on the original photo, it isn't on the fabric]

We have not really had much snow round here this winter. But the grandchildren in Manchester built a snowman on 5th January. George said his name is Steven the Snowman.

I am awaiting the arrival of Kirsten's stitching in the post. We're just over half way through this project. 3 more panels and then three months of finishing off and making up...

Reason For The Season

Here's one of our two CoverStory pieces, which should have arrived with Kirsten by now, I draped it over a box before I posted it, it gives you an idea of how far we are progressing [although the vertical  lines have got a bit distorted]  My December piece is on the left, made with Christmas prints - one mixed strip, top to bottom, and two thinner red strips filling in the gaps around my "Orange Vintage Ads"  panel

Initially I had thought to make my December strip very sparkly, but Kirsten's blue November piece is like that. I determined instead to use up some of my scraps of Xmas prints [trimmings from the tissue holders in my shop] I was going to use the "strip and flip" technique. But I got a little carried away and incorporated triangles and narrower strips into my design, exposing sections of the red foundation fabric.

If you look at it carefully, you may be able to read a very special Christmas word, reminding us that we're celebrating God With Us