FNwF and into July

After very hot June, July is so much more pleasant. 

Cooler, with the occasional (very welcome) rain.

It is so much easier to look after the garden, it is flourishing now,

not just surviving.

Small lavender harvest from our front garden

(little earlier then usually, probably due to the hot June).

On Friday I joined others for FNwF, first time in a while.

Thank you Cheryll for getting us together again.

As I was watching tennis on TV, I didn't want to get involved in anything which needed too much concentration, 

so I decided to start working on my new crewel embroidery kit.

 Earlier in the week I got around (at last) to choosing fabric for the final border of 

the Butterfly's Ball quilt, and after trying various options, I settled on this pretty pink.

I have enough of this fabric for the backing as well, 

so that's sorted.

That's all for today; I leave you with the view from my kitchen door.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2023

summer marching on ........

Another month gone....

it is Glastonbury weekend, and the weather this year is magnificent;

being just in an earshot from it, we could hear the music kick off last night.

Early June saw a heat wave in England, and very, very dry. Any rain (as there was) was passing us by and we could only watch wishfully the dark clouds from a distance.  

As I get older I find I can't tolerate the heat so well, so I was spending most of my time indoors, looking for the coolest space and doing lots of reading.

The roses in our garden were the only ones enjoying the heat.

There was lots of watering going on to keep the rest of it alive;

we invested in another water butt earlier this year, so we have 6 of them now, which proved to be a good thing to do. 

It has got better since and although still warmer than the average, it isn't unpleasant. 

Not much sewing going on, as my hands are too hot, so I find myself stitching little in the evenings only.

That said, I just could not resist a wool embroidery kit I came across on Etsy - "Partridge in the Pear Tree".

I don't normally stitch much for Christmas, specially not this early in the year, but it is a while since I did any crewel embroidery, 

so here we are.

I look forward to making this.

I finished the applique borders for the Butterfly's Ball quilt, I embroidered some simple butterflies

in the corners; 

I also now have enough hexie flowers for the next border, so I am now stitching these on.

 By the way, I missed out one of the borders in the pattern (purely personal choice).

I am pleased that despite all that heat and shortage of rain, the garden is not looking bad; 

this of course is thanks to my husband for spending so much time watering and feeding.

(And no, all those water butts are still not enough, one needs to have rain to fill them up! But they did get us through the first heat wave, and we did have some rain last weekend.)

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2023

he who seeks, finds,

but not necessarily what one is looking for!

My sewing room is very, very small, so you would think not much can get lost in there.

Few days ago I came across an article about Swedish linen embroidery threads, and I knew I had some. 

I bought a selection during one of our Scandinavian holidays.

But can I now find them?  I have gone through all the possible places, but nothing.

What I did find however, was something I forgot I had, in fact I can't even remember how long I had it. It is a crewel embroidery kit from Jane Rainbow.

I seemed to had done quite a bit of it at the time, although I really don't remember when.....

But it is just too hot for a wool embroidery right now, actually it has been too hot for any needlework,

my hands are just too warm.

I did little baking. Bublanina (the traditional Czech "bubble cake", usually made with cherries; when baked it looks like the fruit inside made bubbles). I prefer to use apricots, because of their stronger flavour. 

It has been very dry in our part of the world. We are keeping the garden going the best we can, 

using what is left in the water butts, and any used water from indoors,

and at the same time creating as much shade for ourselves as we can.

But today I stayed inside for most of the day, it was too hot outside.

We are supposed to get some rain during the night, but again - it might pass us by......

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2019

wool embroidery - start

I made a start on the wool embroidery for my cushion. 

In the end I decided to use a design from Karin Holmberg's book.

This is the first time I am embroidering on wool felt.

I am starting with the central motif and I have already realised how different it is from stitching on say cotton or linen fabric. To start with, it is not as easy to mark the design on the fabric. I have marked the whole design on the felt background all in one go, which I now realised was a mistake.

By the time I completed the center ring of leaves, most the rest of the design has rubbed off.

So  now I just refresh the outlines and draw the rest free hand as I go along. That is probably how the original wool embroideries were done anyway - freehand.

Also, stitching with on wool on wool, it is more difficult to keep to the line of design. I realised that I can't be as fussy as if I was embroidering with cotton or silk on linen. It is very different, one just has be more bold! 

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot co uk 2014

wool embroidery

October has a definite autumnal feel, with trees now changing colour and wet leaves on the ground.

It is still very mild for the time of year, around 18°C during the day. The garden is now looking little tired, but still refusing to give up completely.

The fuchsia, hanging by the kitchen door, is  still in a full swing.

But I felt that a little seasonal planting was needed for a continuation of colour.

I wanted a new embroidery project for the coming winter evenings, so I decided on a wool embroidery. The inspiration came from wool embroideries I had seen on our trips to Scandinavia, and also from this book, which has some lovely projects, including wool embroidered cushions. So, an embroidered wool cushion will be my next embroidery project for this winter. 

But I wanted to find few more pictures and Internet research found the book pictured below, 

which looked like something "I really need"

(you know how it is).

I expect some of our Scandinavian friends know it.

Unfortunately only in Swedish, but this has not put me off.  Eventually I found a Swedish bookseller who was prepared to ship to UK.

No, I don't speak Swedish, so yes, I am probably missing a lot, but the pictures are the most important thing in this case and the book is full of  them.

I have never done a crewel embroidery on wool, only on linen, but I want to make this all wool, so I started to look for wool felt. I soon realised that it is not an easy task, most craft felt is now from recycled man made materials.

Eventually Google found Cloud Craft, where you can find lovely soft 100% wool felt in some gorgeous shades.  

Don't you just love it, when the postman brings little packages of fabrics and threads?

This is the colour of felt I chose. Dark background is so good for showing of bright colour threads.

Another package had new supply of Appleton crewel threads,

and another Renaissance Dyeing crewel threads, to add to some I have already.

These are very soft, softer than Appleton, but they don't come in many strong vibrant shades, because their colour comes from natural dyes.   

So, all materials are here, all I have to do now, is to make a final decision on a design I want to make, there are so many beautiful ideas in both books.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2014

crewel embroidery

I like doing crewel embroidery, I love working with wool. I keep promissing myself a large project one day...