The Great Scunthorpe Embroidery Challenge

Today has been our Christmas meeting at Seata. We had a different format this year, a Sewing Bee type challenge. We knew in advance that we could use the word “Tree”, “Snow”, “Star” or “Gift” to produce a piece of work that didn’t have to be finished, and that would be judged at the end of the day by Alex, our Chair. We could work out our design, even draw it up, but no stitching was to be done in advance.

Predictably I couldn’t make up my mind what to do but, seeing a picture of an embroidered tree on a Christmas card yesterday, it gave me a starting point.

What to use as a background? Having a rummage last night I found a lovely piece of dark green velvet. Perfect. I also wanted some lighter green felt to cut out a triangle to stitch on. No joy, it seems to have disappeared into the black hole with calico and bond-a-web. A beige piece was the best I could find, even after a better look this morning. So the only prepping I had done was to cut a piece of velvet and put masking tape round the edges. A zigzag on the sewing machine would have been better, but no time for that. Then to make a pattern from a folded piece of A4 paper, cutting it from the top fold to the bottom corner, and then cutting a couple of inches off the bottom, and finally cutting a triangle of felt.

I used a green perlé to start feather stitching to a faint blue line of water soluble pen. So far I have only stitched the felt, I’ll attach it to the velvet later. It’s all random, to try and give a more realistic tree. It’s certainly not precise and mirror-imaged.

I added another layer of branches in a variegated knitted thread, and this is how far I’d got by lunch-time.

We had a very nice shared planned “Potluck” lunch. Several of the members find it far too stressful to be potluck, and don’t trust that it will work. I’ve been in several groups over the years where it has always worked beautifully, with a good balance of savoury and sweet. To me, it’s more of a challenge to think what I want to cook / bring so far in advance!

We had all voted during the morning with the usual 5 beads for the Chairs Christmas Challenge, “The Twelve Days of Christmas ” made as a card. The ones who wanted to take part had a lucky dip at a previous meeting. I got four calling (coley – black) birds. I started it several weeks ago, but only finished stitching it this week, attaching it to the card and finishing it off last night!

As my starting-point, I used a photo I took from a friend’s window last December of a blackbird eating cotoneaster berries. After several sketches, looking at books and online to get the legs right, I used a lightbox to prick through the outline on to thin card.

Then I stitched in black thread for the body, some gold for the beak, brown for the legs, a gold jump-ring to outline the eye, and a tiny black sequin for the beady eye.

For the inside, Christmas wishes in the shape of a Christmas tree alternating the letters in red and green……

…….. and the words of part of the chorus on the flap of the card.

After lunch we went back to stitching. I wasn’t sure whether to start decorating with beads and sequins, etc. at this stage, as time was running out rapidly…..

……. or to carry on adding more layers of feather stitch, which I decided was the better option. There was no chance of finishing, and it would be better to finish the fly stitch first. Not the first Christmas project that has taken a while – sometimes years – to finish!

Christmas, Christmas, Christmas

It’s crazy, all the things we juggle to fit in for Christmas. I do try to focus on the bits I enjoy doing, making the cards, some Christmassy stitching, decorating the trees, making the Christmas cake and generally the cooking and baking, the getting together with family and friends. I’m not so keen on the tidying up and cleaning, but at least there is an incentive.

Many of the things we normally do will not happen again this year. Our son and his wife tested positive earlier in the week. Fortunately we’d not been with them for several weeks and, providing they continue to recover OK, their 10 days’ isolation will end on Christmas Eve. So, fingers crossed.

We’ve never had Christmas for just the two of us. It would certainly be novel, and we both keep coming up with things we could do. We will cook the best bits of Christmas dinner; for me, the sausagemeat and chestnut stuffing, the homemade cranberry sauce and lots of different veg, not forgetting the sprouts with bits of bacon and chestnuts, and Colin will certainly want roast potatoes. The turkey is much too big for just the two of us, so we will save that until we can eat with the kids or friends later.

But we continue as if it will be at least four of us. Time will tell.

The Christmas challenge for the Allsorts group that I go to was somehow to use text in the piece. Sally suggested I peel the tissue transfer with angels and the word Noel off the burnt-down candle that Colin’s cousin gave us years ago. Part of it had burnt away, but I stood a tealight inside and it still glowed when lit, even if looking a bit past its best.

I carefully peeled it off and used bond-a-web to iron it to a piece of white felt. We were supposed to be making reusable crackers a fortnight ago (I’d done two sets nearly 30 years ago), but the Allsorts session was cancelled because of snow. I’d thought it would work to attach the stitched felt to the centre of the cracker.

I used running stitch with a very fine gold thread around the text, the star, the outline of the angels, and the angel’s curls. It all subtly catches the light.

The cracker-making happened on the morning that we were to bring our finished pieces for voting on our favourites, five dried peas each to share against the one or ones we liked best. The piece with the most won a box of assorted beads.

The crackers are made with either crisp tubes (large cracker) of kitchen roll middle (standard size cracker), using metallic crepe paper. The tutor Kerry had cut the tubes ready for us, and put double sided tape on three sides of the two pieces of metallic crepe for us all. We just had to take off the paper covering the tape, roll up two pieces of the tube on each piece of crepe, and fold in the ends.

Then to decorate the crackers, Kerry had brought a big bag of trimmings, ribbons, etc. for us to delve into. I used my pre-stitched piece of angels and text in the centre but, seeing the pretty ribbons that the others had put on the ends, I had a rummage in the bag and found a little roll of gold musical notation which I’ve attached to each end. The notation will remind me of the many happy hours I’ve spent learning Christmas carols on the piano over the last month or so, some of which are now recognisable.

The centre tube can be filled with little presents or chocolates, and apparently it will hold a box of After Eights! It all looks very pretty and is a great re-use of the candle trim.

Christmas card design

This five week block of Mags Bradley’s painting class has whizzed by. I really don’t know where November went, I only realised I hadn’t turned the calendar on from October on the 19th November!

We painted apples, early on. I used some russets from the garden, this year the best (and biggest) they have ever been. I pruned the tree a bit harder than I usually dare, and it paid off, but not so with the other eater, nor the cooker, both smaller and less fruit on them this year. They flower slightly earlier and I think a frost caught them both.

I chose these three for their variation in colour and texture.

We did quick sketches on cartridge paper to start with, and then added some colour. The room has lights that give multiple shadows, so I played around with them a little, just as Mags had said only to put one shadow in! I quite liked the idea of using the shadows to abstract the fruit. Lots of corrections, but we don’t use a rubber as we go along.

I didn’t finish my “proper” painting on watercolour paper, intending to get back to it at home, but the apples had changed too much before I managed it.

The following week we had to take flowers to paint, and these were all I could find in the garden.

I more or less finished this in the class. It just needs a little tightening up in places, in good light, which doesn’t last long even when we do get some at this time of year.

I was a week ahead of myself on this one. We were meant to be doing a little group of three, which it sort of was: one tree, one tin and one felt bird (if you don’t count the handmade decorations in the tin, see the top picture). There were lots of good memories of making or receiving them. I thought if I could paint it OK, it would reduce down (it’s more or less A3 at the moment) to make our Christmas cards.

I thoroughly enjoyed drawing them, and was quite pleased with the drawing. There were a few tweaks from Mags on perspective of the tin, and the suggestion of making the bird bigger. I started painting it in class, and went away with the instruction to keep it simple.

A rare morning of good light the next day so I continued painting, expecting to ruin it at any moment, but enjoying the process. The candles are copper foiled stained glass; the fairy, the one that was topless for many years; calico tree with different stitches and beads and bells; the babousha, Christmas Pudding and bauble and bird are all felt with simple stitching. I’d quite surprised myself by the time I’d finished painting, a completely different style from anything I’d done before.

I didn’t get as far as taking it to the library to have it scanned before this week’s class. I couln’t decide whether to put a cloth or table to ground it all, nor where to put it if so. Mags suggested that I strenghen the colours and add some baubles to the tree, add some shadows under the tree and put some shadow under the calico tree (too heavy – they got softened out).

Right at the end of the class Mags helped with adding a cloth, which I quickly painted in so that I could go and have it scanned on the way home. I need to tweak it down in size and print off the cards, then hopefully get Colin to write them all. The handmade Christmas card with his illegible writing has been our trademark greeting to family and friends for 25 years now!

Assessing and planning

Close-up of fruit and nut mixture for my Christmas cake

Normally by now we are well on with Christmas plans and preparations, but this year we are all waiting to find out what government rules and guidelines are going to allow us to do, and more importantly whether we feel safe with what might be allowed to do.

For us personally, for a long time it has been much more about the getting together with family and friends than the presents, meals around our kitchen or dining table and friends’ and families’ tables.

I love the preparations, making the cards, decorating the trees and the cooking, not so much the tidying and clearing up before we put the decorations up, but it a good excuse and incentive to do it.

I have made the cards every year since Miles started school in 1996. Not strictly true, that year I only made the ones with his help to send to his class mates, 27 or 28 little cut out stockings with presents spilling over the top. They were so successful that the following year I made them for everyone we send cards to (well over a hundred). Hence normally I’d have started by now.

Each year I have done a production line, everybody having the same so I don’t end up sending somebody the same as they’ve had before. Some years the idea has come quickly and easily, others a bit longer. They have also varied in how much work has gone into each one, some of the most effective ones have been the simplest and quickest to do.

Old Christmas stamps with a bit of the original torn envelope around it, stuck on the front of tiny satin finished card with matching envelopes, white, red, bronze and silver. This was one of the years I was doing my degree, so very quick to execute as my time was particularly tight that year. One of the advantages of hoarding, we had collected used stamps for charity since the Blue Peter appeals that started in the sixties, so I had plenty going back over many years, a mixture of first and second class. It was only when one of my fellow students pointed out that she’d got a second class stamp and some of the others had first class ones and questioned whether it was relevant that I was aware that some folk might take a second class one personally!

Some years Colin and / or Miles have helped on the production line. While mum and dad were alive, and later just dad, we would do a Birmingham run the first weekend in December just in case we were unable to go later due to the weather, so at least all the Birmingham ones needed to be done by then. We would go and deliver them all, and visit nearly everyone. Some were flying visits, others we were reluctant to leave, but good to see everyone and catch up.

It was something I had done with mum since I was little, and it became one of my favourite parts of Christmas. When we moved to North Lincolnshire, we would do the same visiting and delivering local ones with Colin’s mum, always trying to end up with the chirpy aunt and uncle last. One of Colin’s aunties used to save the hand-made cards each year, and had a whole collection of them on her mantelpiece as part of her decorations. The hand-made cards have become very much part of our Christmas preparations.

Selection of test pieces / spares of my old hand-made cards

I will sadly miss the visiting this year, but feel the cards and telephone / internet contact will be especially important. Inspiration for the cards has yet to come. Over the years I have used a variety of techniques including printing, stamping, hand-made silk paper, photographs, drawing, painting, various paper folds, cutting, glueing and sticking. It will come, probably in the middle of the night or as I wake up one morning – it just needs to be fairly soon!

Also for several years Colin has done a Christmas letter for the folk further afield; there won’t be much to put in this year’s letter, nothing very exciting has happened this year.

The only thing I have done so far this year is to make the fruit mixture for the Christmas cake. I have used the same St Delia recipe for more than 30 years, her Creole Christmas Cake, from her Christmas cook book. The fruit and nuts are all weighed out then heated with the alcohol for 15 minutes before putting in an airtight container and leaving in the fridge for a week, which has often been up to about six! This is something I have always done with Miles since he was tiny, and he always wanted to start very early. When he was too far away to come home to make it with me, I have done it with him on Skype or whatever in the background. So Miles and Lera were in the background talking on Messenger as I did it this year. They missed the lovely aroma as it heated and Miles missed scraping the pan and eating the fruit as he cut it up. I say I have done the same recipe for more than 30 years, but I tweak it, using whatever dried fruit we have at the time, the prunes were substituted with dates this year. I never put candied peel in as I don’t like it, dried apricots instead. And we prefer sultanas and raisins to raisins and currants. It’s supposed to be 3 tablespoons each of rum, brandy, port and cherry brandy and this changes from year to year depending what’s open. BUT, it has to have the Angostura Bitters which give it its distinctive flavour.

Fruit mixture for my Christmas cake

The Christmas decorations make also prove to be a problem as they are in the loft, and Miles has the ladder in York, an hour away from us, that we need to get them down. The precious and delicate ones are not in the loft, but that is only a tiny percentage of the decorations. So the decorations may need some creative thinking too.