I’ve stitched a little gold star with Madeira Metallic on the top of my Rhodes stitch Christmas tree…….
…… it’s very subtle and may need a bit of tweaking.
Then on to the glueing round the edge, with neat PVA this time. I left it overnight to make sure it was completely dry, and then for the scary bit of cutting it out. The white cut threads of the canvas show up too much…….
……. so I used a damp Inktense pencil in a dark green around the edges, both front and back, a yellow around the star, and left it to dry again. Then I put another layer of PVA, just to make sure.
I cut a slightly smaller triangle of mount board to go in the middle, and found some green felt to stitch on the back. I had stitched another piece of felt to make a pocket for a pencil on the inside, to use as a trunk for it to stand up. I found a wooden reel for a tub, a reel of red, and couldn’t decide which to use. Then I found a dark green Sylco on a wooden reel to stitch the pocket and the front to the back. I realised when I’d stitched across the bottom, up one side and about an inch up the other side, that although it would stand up I’d not put the mount board in the middle! I thought it would be worth undoing that little bit, and managed to wriggle it in.
Now the stitching’s finished.
The pencil’s in place, and I decided that the green reel looked better than the empty wooden reel or the red one. I can easily take the pencil out and use the thread, if I need to use such a dark green for anything else. I think Lorna is right, and the star needs to be more obvious, but I’d not got anything suitable with me.
As usual, I have not made any New Year Resolutions, as I wrote in January 2023’s No resolutions. But as I wrote then, I do try and finish a few things off before starting anything new.
I’ve not looked out any old projects yet, just continued with the Christmas tree from last week. It soon got to this……
……. then this. The Rhodes stitch is finished, a tiny one at the top, then a little X-stitch at the very top. It will probably have a gold star over it.
Then to add some beads: I liked the shiny red glass ones, but they didn’t show up as much as I’d expected. Over time, the red plastic ones have come off a favourite red cheesecloth top. I did consider stitching them back on, but the fabric has washed and worn so thin that it didn’t seem worth the effort. They have been kept in a spice jar and have proved just the right bead on a couple of projects. It’s good to re-use / recycle them.
I didn’t want to use them all over, they looked too much, but alternate rows looked fine. They are just laid on below.
I started stitching from the top downwards.
I finished stitching the beads. It all looks very even, which is not at all like our Christmas trees, which have all sorts of different baubles, mainly glass, some very old and precious: my Mum’s, Colin’s Mum’s, even some that were my Nanna’s. Handmade decorations, some mine, some from friends from here and abroad, stitched, wood, glass, felt. Most have stories and lovely memories attached to them. It takes a while to put them up, and nearly as long to pack them all safely away ready for next Christmas. It’s like saying goodbye to old friends.
I’ve got another couple of days before 12th night to finish the star. Then I’ll decide how to mount the full piece, maybe glue round the edges and cut it out…….. or it may wait until late next November or early December to make a decision……. As I said earlier, I do try and finish a few things off before starting anything new……. later in the year……. sounds familiar!
At Lorna’s stitch group we have a little Christmas tree at the December meeting, with a decoration made by each of us. Each has a raffle ticket attached, then after our shared pot luck lunch we all pick a ticket to match up with the tickets that Lorna attaches to the decorations.
This year the theme was little felt birds. Lorna brings a pattern, fabric, threads and notions to the November meeting to get us started.
Unsurprisingly, I picked greens. Fortunately, before I started stitching, I realised that I had drawn two the same, rather than mirror imaging.
A quick press, and I cut the fabric in two pieces to make it easier to work.
Sequins and beads for eyes, some simple stitches and sequins on the tail. It was blanket stitched together, stuffed, and a cord attached to hang it.
This year we had a twiggy tree for the birds to roost in.
I’ve taken a few photos to try to get them all in.
They all looked very colourful.
This is the one I got to bring home. Thank you, Dorothy, it’s lovely to have a little piece of other people’s work, and thank you, Lorna, for instigating it.
I was intending to finish this weeks ago, and couldn’t find it. I pulled it out when I was getting something else out of my bag of projects earlier in the week, and I’ve been taking things in and out of the bag for the last month! Crazy!
As I wrote in Dala horses last month, he needed an eye on each side: a sparkly silvery hologram sequin with a black bead in the middle. I also added a line of couched thread across the nose before cutting out both sides.
I used overcasting to join them together, starting behind the front leg so that I could stuff as I went along, which makes it easier to do the bottom of the legs and the head. I left the belly open to finish the rest of the stuffing.
I used a Sylko thread in the same green as the felt, which makes the stitches virtually invisible as they sink in to the felt.
I found the point of balance, and added a narrow ribbon in the same colour as the mane and saddle to hang him. All ready to hand in to Ruth at Seata tomorrow, ready for the Festival of Christmas Trees in Ashby in December.
The colours that I’ve used are very much the autumnal palette that I’ve seen around me in the last month or so. The cherry tree leaves that I see when I open the curtains every morning were only just starting then, but now they’ve all but gone.
I’ve more or less managed to ignore Christmas until the last few weeks. I have done a little Christmas stitching, one an Allsorts project that Sally showed us over two sessions, based on a bauble from Inspirations. Circles of commercial felt were layered up into two domes (first session), and homework to stitch a design on to a circle of fabric ready for the second construction session.
I wanted to do my own design, and ended up picking a tiny sprig of ivy from the garden and doodling until I got small enough leaves to work in the 5.5cm inner circle, which I then traced first on to paper and then on to a piece of ivory silk with the light box. The holly leaves were more stylised.
I used the shiny green stranded thread (Anchor Marlitt) for the outline of the leaves and the stems on both the holly and the ivy. The veins on ivy are lighter than the leaves, so a single strand of silver was stitched at the session before starting the assembling.
Sally had brought a selection of velvet ribbon and braids to use to decorate over the join. I picked a slightly lighter green, which in fact hides a multitude of sins (and gathers), with a cord of the shiny thread to make a hanging loop going down the centre of the velvet ribbon and a tassle for the bottom. The extra strands had some tiny red beads knotted into the tassle.
I just need to add some red beads to the holly (where that bobbly bit of thread is), but I ran out of time at Lorna’s stitching group today. I hung it on the tree when I got home, right at the centre front, so it will prod me every time I sit down until I get it done. At the moment it stands out, as the only other bauble is the one from the swap that we do at the Christmas session of Lorna’s group.
I put the tree up and the lights on last night before I ran out of steam, but I also wanted to check that it will work in daylight on the table rather than the floor, before I put the decorations on.
At the November session, Lorna brings an idea / technique and / or materials for us all to make a decoration for our little tree at the December meeting. They each have a number attached, and we draw out a ticket to take somebody else’s home for our own tree. This year it was a polystrene ball with instructions of marking into segments, cutting into it and pushing fabric into the cut. I decided to do eight segments rather than the four on Lorna’s example.
This was not a good move, as the fabric didn’t want to stay in the groove on the second one, so I did a quarter section, 2 more eighths and another quarter. It still wasn’t looking very good, so I made a cord to go down each segment, a loop and a tassly bottom, and added a few beads. The cord did a very good job of keeping the fabric in place.
I wasn’t the only one to struggle with the technique; a few did something else entirely, but the tree looked very pretty.
I was the first one to draw a ticket and got my own! Laura very kindly offered to swap with me, so now I have Jean’s…..
….. which is on the tree, waiting for companionship.
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.
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!
This week I have continued with putting up the Christmas trees. This little silk tree is one I made years ago in a class, even now I don’t think it is really finished, most of the rest of the class added far more stitching and I think stuffed them and put them in a pot. But it just stands on a surface and I like it as it is, although it seems to have lost it’s star from the top. It may yet turn up.
Silk fabric and stitching – it’s about 20cm high.
I even managing to persuade Colin to clear the desk in ‘his’ room / study / library / tip to put up the wooden tree we made in 2017. You can see it from outside, and since we are on one of the main roads through the village hopefully it will be a bit of cheer for folk passing by. The flat “branches” make ideal little shelves for the decorations that have been acquired over the years and that don’t hang on the tree.
It was an idea triggered by seeing one in a shop window on Steep Hill in Lincoln. It looked so beautiful all lit up. Unfortunately, they weren’t selling them, but the lady did give me vague instructions of how to make one. So we had a go. I could soon see why they weren’t selling them, with our limited woodworking tools and skills it took a long time to do. The end result was a bit wonky too. We’ve more or less sorted that out this year, with a few modifications on levelling up. The old pub-table and a beer-mat principle, but both of us thinking it needed the card underneath in a different place. We eventually got there and put the tiny lights more or less evenly spaced around it; 10 strands of lights and 12 spaces don’t quite work, but it looks right from the front and outside.
We realised when we put it up the first time that there are various options for arranging the branches, but too late without starting from scratch and taking everything off to alter it. So this time we played around with branch arrangements first. The spaces get closer together at the top, so it needs a bit of planning of how best to arrange things. Also in places the branches around can be used to stabilise or wedge things to make them safer. This is helpful for some of the things that are either old and fragile, or a bit wonky from little fingers making them in the first place.
One of the oldest pieces to go on has had major surgery this year. A little soldier that was my mum’s when she was a little girl. One arm has been loose for a very long time, but the other one fell out of his sleeve this year. His jacket is so fixed that it would damage it to take it off. Colin asked if I wanted him to glue them back on. No. The arms were jointed at the shoulder and doing that would make them fixed. I suggested a little elastic band, but he thought it wouldn’t work. And how would you get it on? Tweezers?
Well, yes and no. I managed to find a small elastic band, push both sleeves up, hook the band round the tiny plastic hook making the joint, thread the elastic band and arm up the sleeve, and grab it through the other armhole and body with tweezers. But the band kept sliding off the tweezers. Difficult when you’re working blind, but after several attempts and failing, I thought a crochet hook might work. Couple of goes and success. One arm through the sleeve and the elastic band through the body. Colin was right the elastic band wouldn’t hold it, it was too long. But with a bit of fiddling I tied a knot in the stretched elastic band hooked it through the other arm shoulder joint hook and eased the sleeve over the arm. A bit of manipulation and the shoulder joints slipped into the sockets. Success. I don’t think this elastic band will last as long as the original, but there are more years left in the Old Soldier yet.
Old Soldier, more than 70 years old, I believe. Recovering from major surgery.
I’ve tucked this snowman where Miles won’t spot him, along with the Santa and candle he made in infant school. They are all a bit wonky but they were proudly brought home from school when he made them. They were made and received with love, and that’s the important bit. It also reminds us of the lovely little boy he was then, now a lovely and successful big boy of 28, and how lucky we were for him to have survived and recovered from surgery (twice) to remove a brain tumour before he was five years old. A slight shake in his right hand when he’s very tired is all that remains from the ordeal.
Made by Miles in infant school.
Lincoln Embroiderers’ Guild had a couple of Zoom meetings this week, and it was lovely to catch up with folk and see what the others have been doing. Very busy, in the main, but as was pointed out by a member, it’s the sort of people we are: we may not be able to be doing the things we were doing last year, but we’ve filled our lives with a different sort of busy-ness. Too true, but I certainly feel it has helped me make the most of the situation we have found ourselves in this year. This little rabbit was one of a pair given as our Christmas gift last year at our Christmas meeting, a very sociable occasion with a lovely shared lunch. The rabbit was finished by Easter and I’ve just wrapped a tinsel scarf round his neck, before sitting him on the tree.
Last Christmas gift from Lincoln Embroiderers’ Guild
So again, lots of good memories decorating this tree. And, as I walk past the doorway (I’m rarely allowed in) I can ignore the mess, especially when it’s dark and the tree lights are the only light. I can enjoy the memories the trinkets evoke. And Colin was pleased to find one or two “lost” things as he cleared the desk!
More or less finished tree.
This is the fairy that I made years ago, on top of the lounge tree. She was armless and topless for years, but finally got finished. She was never very stable and often fell off, but I have finally found a solution this year, a piece of ribbon round her middle and a bow at the back round the tree. Why has it taken so long to solve? Possibly too many other things to think of. More time, that’s a positive of this pandemic, a slowing down of the frantic, crazy speed that many of us live our lives. Time to access our priorities and enjoy the simple things in life. It may need to be a quieter, smaller, shorter Christmas, but we are still here.
This month’s Grasby lockdown challenge was a Christmassy one. The above piece of patchwork fabric and gold net arrived in the post in a pretty flowery handmade paper card to use how we would.
Words from ‘We three Kings’ came into my head on several mornings as I woke up, and once or twice in the middle of the night going round and round in my head. ‘Star of wonder, star of night, star of royal beauty bright,’ ….but the star on the fabric wasn’t bright.
I had ideas of using old sheet music on the back, but didn’t want to cut up my piano book of Christmas carols, and a photocopy just wouldn’t have the same feel and appeal. The original was very fragile, thin paper and I don’t think it would have stood up to any stitching through it; it would have just spoilt the book with no good outcome.
So back to the ideas department. I was having another look at the fabric and manipulating it to see whether I wanted the gold net on the front or the back, with something in the middle (felt?) if it was the back. As I picked it up, it draped over my finger and “cracker!” popped into my head. It needed to be a rectangle rather than a square to look right, so felt again came to mind, firm enough to give it some stability but soft enough to roll and gather. Good to stitch through too.
Red or green? Green. It was a better contrast with the edge of the fabric. I gathered up possible beads and thread. The net was slightly bigger than the patchwork fabric, but felt quite delicate and easy to pull out of shape.
Possible beads and felt
I started by carefully adding three tiny red beads in the centre of the star, and cut two weeny holly leaves from the felt. This would be the top of the finished cracker.
Tiny holly and berries in the centre
Then tiny running stitches in red to secure the gold to the fabric and felt around the inside of the star, on the inside and outside of the green square, and all round the edge of the red square. I just wanted to anchor the gold down.
Running stitches
I then cut the felt, deciding that the proportion looked better with the green felt cut in-line with the gold net. My first thought had been to have a plain bit of the green at each end with a beaded edge, but it would have been too much, given the overall scale.
Cut out cracker
Now to decide where the gathering stitches should go, which side of the green square? Outside. The inside would have made the ends of the cracker too long. Again tiny stitches, well anchored at one side, so I could pull it up (like setting in a sleeve). The long edges were overlapped by the width of the red border and stitched together, before pulling up the gathering stitches.
One end gathered
The gathering made it collapse on itself in the middle, so I need something inside to support it. In the end I rolled a paper bead which opened up to fit once it was inside, a little bell to make it tinkle when it’s moved, and the second end gathered up.
Stuffed cracker
One finished tiny cracker, 9cm long and 2 1/2 cm diameter. All of both pieces have been used. They would make good little place settings, if only anybody was coming to eat!
Finished cracker
Thank you, JS. The responses by the rest of the group can be seen as usual on the Grasby Embroiderers Facebook page.
Fetching out the Christmas decorations is a real trip down memory lane for me. Re-kindling a whole range of emotions, remembering family and friends, times and places. It’s made me realise why it takes me so long to put up the decorations. A balance between just doing it quickly without much thought, or being overwhelmed by remembering it all. Maybe that’s why I tend to start in a different area each year.
Last year we bought some big lidded plastic boxes to store the decorations up in the loft. This was a reluctant change, previously most things had gone in Christmas wrapped big cardboard boxes that my Grandad had received as food hampers from where he worked. He was a very conservative eater, and many of the delicious things got donated to the rest of the family. He was 90 when he died, had been retired for many years before that and he died more than 15 years ago. But the boxes were strong and functional, the wrapping paper was ripped though, so it was time for the change. I can see the benefits already as now I can see what is in each box without opening them.
The copper-foiled, stained-glass pieces I made many, many years ago, and usually by the time I come across them the tree is too full to find somewhere to put them. They are quite heavy for the size of them, and obviously fragile. However, as I got them out this morning I remembered that we have sometimes hung them in the front window. They work much better with the light coming through them than on the tree.
Scunthorpe Embroiders Guild have decorated a tree for the Scunthorpe Festival of Christmas trees for the last few years. The first time, we were all given a coloured plastic hoop, to do whatever we wanted on it. I had done some Hardanger for the first time with Alison Larkin earlier in the year, so decided I would do a Christmas tree, and challenge myself to use mauves and purples to echo the hoop.
Hardanger Christmas tree
That wasn’t the main challenge in the end, as you can see it doesn’t hang quite centrally somehow, in spite of the star at the top lining up with the hanging; it all looks slightly skew. Getting the tree to look balanced was tricky too, normally with something like this you frame to the work, not work to the frame. The counted stitches dictate the proportions of height to width, and my original sketches just didn’t work at all. In the end it looked OK, but room for improvement!
Close-up
The following year we were all given a kit, a pre-cut white felt bird, two layers, so the back and front are the same and it can be viewed either way, useful as things often don’t hang just so on the tree. The wings and tail feathers were in a variety of colours. I predictably picked orange, much to the amusement of my friends, but the fuchsia pink ribbon and beads for the feet were a challenge, not colours I would normally put together. They were simple and fun to do, but the whole flock on the tree looked stunning.
Felted bird
I first saw these Santas at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate years ago, and have seen variations on them since. I think the one on the right is the original one. They are done on plastic canvas, and if you gently squeeze on the corners where his ears would be the base opens up so you can put little gifts or chocolates inside.
Plastic canvas Santas
Hand-stitched patchwork is not really my thing, but this was a nice, piece of gentle hand-stitching, just what you need normally amongst the frantic rushing around pre-Christmas. It was started at a workshop at Allsorts, a group that lives up to its name that I went to up to lockdown. We did a mixture of our own work, in-house workshops and the occasional tutor. It was a friendly group that I miss. The challenge on this one was actually to add the beaded edge and to finish it before Christmas.
Patchwork wreath
This apple again was done many, many years ago, in a Carol Money class I went to, and it certainly didn’t get finished the year it was started. It was probably the first piece of patchwork I did, certainly the first hand piecing. It feels beautiful, as the velvet is silk, even more tactile than cotton velvet, and the rest of the fabric is silk too. It really is one to stroke.
Silk and silk velvet apple
This beaded bell was also done in Carol’s class. The pattern needed following like a fair-isle knitting pattern, row by row, with increases or decreases. I can’t remember if it was started at the top or the bottom. One was enough for me, but several in the class went into production in various colour combinations.
Beaded bell
This is just a taste of some of the things I’ve made for Christmas over the years, picked out of the first box of treasures that are stored not in the loft. There are also things given to us by family and friends, ones inherited from my mum and dad, and Colin’s too, a few from my nanna and grandad, and ones we have bought on our travels. Lots with bitter-sweet associations and memories.
debbidipity 