A Glimpse of Stitch

Among my many, many unfinished projects is what was going to be a Christmas present for a friend. Erm, Christmas last year, yes.  Today, I had a rummage in my embroidery case and took it out. Terrible, terrible picture, but you get the gist.

This Buddha is from Jenny Hart's pattern "Om sweet om". It is (partly) stitched onto raw yellow (yes, that is yellow in real life!) silk from my curtain sample collection.

Looking at it now, I am not at all happy with the stitching, so will probably start over.  I was thinking of layering the silk square onto another fabric and making it into a miniature wall hanging. The original idea was to select three patterns (Buddha, Lotus Flower and one other) and join them together in a wall hanging.

I guess I could do the same thing but make a small bag or cushion? Anyway, it is her birthday SOON so hopefully I'll get it done in time and she will actually get it at last. I'm away for the weekend, so will have some time for some relaxing stitching.

Will post a better picture when it's done. I haven't forgotten about the tatting, just can't quite get past the basic stitch and picot yet!

I went to the craft show and I bought...

Today was the last day of the Creative Stitches and Hobbycrafts show in Brighton. I went along with my self-imposed budget in cash (with a back up debit card of course!) and hit the stalls. Actually I was quite restrained this year. Partly because there were not many crochet / yarn or fabric stalls (very disappointing) and partly because I was good and gave the bead stalls a wide berth - so hard!
I went up and down the aisles, settling at the Decopatch stall because in my head they did a matt glue/ varnish that I wanted. However, I must have imagined that because they don't. Not to be perturbed I made a mental note to look it up on the Internet later and bought some more papers and a little kit with a notebook to cover. 

I fell in love with the tatting at the Ring Of Tatters stall and a lovely lady (whose name I sadly don't remember) showed me how it was done and then let me have a go, talking me through it. I bought the starter kit, a bargain at £5, including an instructional DVD and booklet, information on the organisation, list of suppliers and two shuttles with thread. I'm going to have a go at this and hopefully show you something later this week. I'd love to know if any of you have tried this and see your work!

  

I also ordered a clover soft touch hook 4mm (my favourite hooks by far) and did an enamelling workshop run by the guild of enamellers . I made this keyring:

I apologise by the way for the poor photographs, the light here is terrible.
Until next time xxx