Winter embroidery

Winter arrived early and dramatically in southeast Australia. We've had some of the lowest June temperatures in a hundred years! With this very cold weather and more time spent indoors it seemed a good time to go through my UFO's*. 

First out the box was this Hedebo tea cozy. I adapted the design from one featured in the book 'Embroider Now' by the late Hetsie van Wyk, a well known South African embroiderer. Click here for more about Hetsie's work in one of my earlier blog posts. 

Second out my UFO box was a Hardanger coffee table runner. I had thought of unpicking one side because the runner is rather long. But, I am going to complete it just as it is. The original design appeared in a Burda magazine Special on Hardanger and you can see more about the embroidery in this blog post here.

We have my daughter and family staying with us while they demolish and rebuild their house. I needed something fairly easy to stitch, so I have been working on the runner. All the kloster blocks are already finished and once I've cut the threads for the next few Maltese crosses, it requires little concentration and no counting. 

My Hetsie tea cozy? I still need to work out how to put it all together. I hardly use a teapot anymore so it may not end up being a tea cozy. For now it's safely back in the UFO box with it's fellow UFO's.

'Till next time, happy stitching. 

And if you are in the southern hemisphere, I hope the weather is a little warmer where you are.

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*UFO - Unfinished Object

Dainty Hardanger

I was looking through my cupboard for some inspiration when I found these little Hardanger treasures. Most of the small embroideries I do are given away, but these I couldn't part with.

Some years ago I was fortunate to do classes with Lynne Laver of Fish Hoek, a popular seaside town in Cape Town. Lynne designed the most intricate and beautiful Hardanger pieces. Turn this little sachet over and you are in for a surprise.

The embroidered back is quite different. And it is smaller than the front. It's the front that forms the see-through lacy edge.

The blue needlecase and tiny pincushion have a delicate edge stitched with DMC cotton sewing machine thread. The challenge for me was all those picots. It was also the first time I used a coloured thread for Hardanger rather than the traditional white on white.

Talking of colour, the scissor keep and pincushion were embroidered with a space-dyed thread by Chameleon. Rather than detracting from the embroidery, the soft coloured thread complemented the dainty Hardanger stitches very well.

There was nothing predictable about the reverse side of Lynne's scissor keep pattern either. I'd been wanting to try out that stitch in the centre of the kloster block for some while and here was the opportunity. 

The triangular piece at the top of the scissor keep folds down to keep the scissors in place. I still have to find a pretty pearl button the correct size for the fastening. 

Somehow I know I will never actually use any of these. I just enjoy looking at them when I come across them in the cupboard. Perhaps you have treasures like that too?

I hope you are keeping well and safe. Enjoy your weekend and happy stitching!

Hardanger Progress

Some projects seem to be destined to spend a long time in my UFO box. The coffee table runner I wrote about here in my last post has spent many years in that box. 

It was this Hardanger pattern that caught my attention - because of the cutwork fillings embroidered in a contrasting colour and those pretty Maltese crosses and eyelets. 

I found it in an old Burda magazine, a special Hardanger edition, full of beautiful items to stitch. 

I adapted the pattern from the Burda magazine to fit my rather long coffee table.

With the Kloster blocks finished and the buttonhole edge done, it's just the eyelets and the cutwork to be completed.

The little Maltese crosses are a lovely dainty filling and I have done quite a lot of them. 

But, I have found doing the cutwork and filling stitches a little boring and that has meant I don't spend long periods of time doing it. How I admire those embroiderers who work on one item at a time, and finish it, before moving on to the next.

To be honest, there is another reason that I feel disinclined to finish the coffee table runner. I designed it for a coffee table that we no longer have. Unfortunately it was quite badly damaged in a move and has been replaced. The coffee table we have now is a treasure, made by my father, and it is smaller and a much better size for our lounge. 

The other place where I could possibly use a long runner, is on our dining room sideboard. But, the runner is about 10 centimetres longer than the top of the sideboard. The edges would hang over the sides and that would bother me. I did look into unpicking some of the embroidery. I would have to unpick and rework it from the ruler in the photo to fit the sideboard attractively. Decisions decisions!

So, for now the cloth is rolled up, ready to go back into it's pilowcase in the UFO box. 

In the meantime, to liven up my stitching time while still isolating and social distancing to avoid the dreadful coronavirus, I joined a stitch-along organized by the local Queensland Embroiderers' Guild. I'll tell you more about that next time.

'Till then keep safe, be well and happy stitching.

                                       _____________________________________________

UFO - UnFinished Object

Hardanger and Scissors

I'm working on a coffee table runner I started mmm... let's just say a long time ago. It was after doing my first Hardanger course with my friend Priscilla. Every now and again I take this piece out and do a little more. The title of today's post should give you a clue as to what I am now doing.

I've completed all the Kloster blocks and the buttonhole edge. Doing the cutwork part, which I saved for last because it looked like the most interesting part to stitch, has been rather more tedious than I thought it would be and the runner has spent many years in the cupboard. It's time to make some progress on it.

For cutting the threads I originally used my then best pair of embroidery scissors, a pair of orange Wilkinson Swords. On a subsequent Hardanger course with Hardanger expert Lynne, I learnt that scissors with a finer point and thinner blades made the cutting of fabric threads much easier. That was a long time ago.

Yesterday I started using my little orange scissors and I found I was having some difficulty accurately inserting the points in between the fabric threads. And the cuts were not as crisp and free from fluffy bits as I wanted them to be. This morning I remembered that I keep a small pair of scissors tucked away especially for doing cutwork. And what a difference they make!

The blades of the small brown pair are much narrower and thinner, and the points are much finer too. All I know about the little pair of scissors is that they were made in Japan. And, they work very well for cutting the threads for the openwork on my Hardanger.

So, on with cut four, and leave four.

I hope you are safe and keeping well.

'Till next time, happy stitching.