Reflections Stitchscape

I often end up with a few little half finished hoops or little kits that I put together for a special workshop that are then left over and, after having them for a while, I like to make them into something and finish them off. It seems only fair. The fabrics for this hoop were put together in 2017/8 I think for a workshop with Bridge Arts in Uckfield and the pack has been kind of hanging around since then so I figured it was time to do something with it. 

There were only the four fabrics you can see in this pack as it's a 10cm hoop, but I've used them in multiple layers, featuring both the front and the back of the more patterned floral fabric (the back at the top where it needs to be lighter, and the front in the reflection in the water). 

The two top fabrics and the two bottom fabrics are the same and are mirrored, but I've made it so that the green mountains appear dark blue in the hopes that it will really look like a shadowy reflection. 

I think what really makes the bottom half look watery is the little waterlilies. They are so sweet! I made the lily pads first with a kind of rough satin stitch, then did two rows of detached chain stitch overlapping each other in light pink for the flower. I was going to leave it there but the bottom of the stitches was a bit rough and ready so I've added a little french knot to each in a darker pink which has really helped to finish those. They also overlap some of the layers of reflection so it has helped to bring the fabric pieces together.  

My line of trees at the waters edge has helped to soften the hard line of where mountain meets water and for this I've used three different colours of Stylecraft Special DK acrylic yarn and made them into rough french knots (stripping down the three strands to two to make it easier pulling through the layers). The yarn is quite matte so I've lifted this line with some little green beads to add a sparkle that hints at sunlight reflecting off the water and into the trees. 

Each of the three reflected layers have been treated in the same way, with strands of long straight stitches worked horizontally across the hoop. The stitches aren't regular in length or in distance from each other so it really helps to make it look like little ripples working across the surface of water with the breeze. The colours of thread used in each layer have changed slightly to match the colours underneath, and I've added a thin strand of green in the mountain reflection to pick up on the green in the fabric above. The fabrics have been edged so they are treated completely individually in that respect, the long stitches don't cross over fabric edges, and I've used couching and bullion knots for this. 

All three layers do have a single strand of a metallic blue thread stitched through them to add a reflective element and a little bit of sparkle to the water which is quite discreet but definitely worth adding.

Working upwards, the mountains have been seed stitched all over using a variegated greenish yarn which reminds me of sun and shade. I've gone over this again with a single strand of vertical whip stitch to make my favourite bunny run texture and edged it in the same thread, having first separated all of the strands to try and get a bit of movement/fluffiness in the thread. 

The light blue fabric has had a single strand of running stitch worked in rows following the line of the top edge. I could alternatively have made the running stitches follow the line of the mountains but I wanted to mirror the lines of the water below.

And the turquoise floral fabric at the top, which is actually the reverse of the print has just had the faint lines of a flower worked in a single strand of back stitch because I thought they looked quite cloudy? The cloud element has been added in again with white fluffy french knots along that top edge. I haven't stitched across this whole layer because I just wanted to pick out the flower element but I could have chosen to edge that leaf print as well. I love that there are always so many options for these pieces. I could equally have edged the flower in white to make it look more like a cloud but there isn't that much white elsewhere in the piece so again the turquoise colour is balancing against all of the blue tones lower down in the piece. If I had done the sky first and used white, I would probably have used white in the reflection as well to help balance it - it all depends on which section is stitched first. 

It always amazes me that from a few layers of fabric, and some thread, can come this beautiful scene which you could lose yourself in, despite its small size. I was having a discussion the other week with members of Victoria Pavilion Arts that, although I would say I was an embroidery artist, my work isn't always seen as art and I generally feel quite unwelcome at galleries or art exhibitions because they tend to lean so heavily on painters as artists. What would you class this piece as? (And would you go and see an exhibition of Stitchscapes if I managed to find somewhere?) 

Funnily enough though, at some craft fairs I've been to, I am occasionally overlooked (quite loudly) as 'just another painter' by people who don't come close enough to look so it seems like I can't win either way!

My photography of this piece isn't as good as usual as it is about 0°C outside, even though it is sunny, and we've had some baby snow flurries so I wasn't all that keen on getting outside to freeze my fingers off today - the sunny window ledge of the living room will have to do! 

So all in all, the stitch run down for this piece is; straight stitch, french knots, back stitch, bullion knots, running stitch, seed stitch, whip stitch, couching, beading, satin stitch and detached chain stitch. Nice and easy. 

Angus & Flora 2022 Week One

December 1st:: They're back!! As is my Christmas tradition, Christmas Elves, Angus and Flora, have been visiting me since 2016 and getting up to all sorts of mischief to help us prepare for the big day. This year they are delighted that there is a new small person on the scene, who has their very own ball pit! The temptation for such adventurous elves is too great and they dived straight in!!

We are counting down the days to Christmas 2022 and, as usual, I am joined by our personal Christmas elves, Angus and Flora. They have been with me since I bought them off a colleague who was making pairs of elves (I believe from a Tilda pattern) with beautiful finishing touches. She brought some into work one day and they are just so neatly and carefully stitched with tiny stitches and little details, and have lasted the test of time being folded up for the majority of the year and then causing havoc around our home for a month or so. 

I haven't always shared their antics on my blog but they are usually somewhere on Facebook or Instagram - previous posts on the blog have their own Angus & Flora category (found on the right hand side of the blog page) if you would like to look them up.

This year is the first in my own home so I wanted to share what they are getting up to. Finley is too young to appreciate them and he doesn't care a jot - neither does my other half really, other than they occasionally get in his way, so it's for me and anyone on social media who enjoys these things (they are much more sophisticated than Elf on the Shelf). 

This post is a week's worth of Angus & Flora and I'll try and update each week with another post!

December 2nd:: We discovered Angus and Flora in our wardrobe this morning, checking on our collection of festive T-shirts, jumpers, socks and PJs!! I hope that we are up to scratch in the Christmas clothing department!!

December 3rd:: Angus and Flora were checking in with the chief elf to let him know they'd arrived safely and that there was a plentiful supply of marshmallows and hot chocolate in the house. Luckily we were expecting them so had popped to the shops!

December 4th:: Angus has gone to visit Zaflora, the fortune telling Christmas elf. She's gazing into her crystal disco ball and telling him he'll meet a small green red head with a penchant for chocolate advent calendars!!

December 5th:: Flora appears to have had it easy from the Twister spinner so far. She's not in an untidy tangle yet! What do you think will come up next?

December 6th:: For the 6th December Angus and Flora were washing their clothes in the machine. They've got it ready to go on the the Elf cycle, I just hope Angus gets out of the machine in time before Flora presses the start button!! Otherwise let's hope he packed his swimming trunks. 

December 7th:: Today Angus and Flora are playing stick the nose on Rudolph. It looks like half of the noses have somehow been stuck to the Elves, and no one has got Rudolph's nose in the right place yet! They aren't even playing blindfolded!!

Stay tuned for more Angus & Flora exploits!! Or find them on Instagram, they have their own hashtag... #angusandflora (unsurprisingly).

Mammoth Kit Making Session

I've spent the last couple of weeks making kits whenever I can. I've been out of Woollydale II and Mini Woollydale for a while so those were imperative to get back onto the shelf!! The reason for the Woollydale II being out of stock was because I can't get the jute tape trimming in the green colour I had before so I had to buy a near match and then try to dye it to match. It's ended up being slightly darker than before as I was distracted by a small person, who shall remain nameless, and left the tape in the mixture for longer than intended but it still goes with the colouring of the kit so I hope that you will still like it. 

I'm not sure if you are aware of just how much goes in to making one of these kits. They aren't mass produced, but are a real labour of love and everything is done by hand. I tried to remember to snap some photos of the little things that have to be done to make the kits as I went along during my recent sessions so these are phone pictures when I remembered to document the process. 

The thread cards possibly take the longest time. Each box of threads arrives in skeins of 8m and they all have to be cut down to 60cm lengths (partly because when I make a kit I measure off 60cm lengths to stitch with so that I know how much I've used to include in the kit, and partly because it's a nice, no-tangle length). Once the box has been Rumplestiltskinned into short lengths, each colour is counted out to the required amount and threaded onto a thread card, previously cut to the right number of holes. It's really hard to get hold of these pre-cut and they are surprisingly expensive. 

Stickers are then printed, hand cut and stuck onto the cards, as straight as possible! A big bundle of thread cards is a joy to see because they take so long to do it's a real achievement!! The Mother helps me out enormously here and will usually make up the cards for me, cutting the threads in front of Youtube videos of an evening and threading them up during the day. 

The fabrics are all cut by me, my trusty rotary cutter and a big quilting ruler. Then they are ironed (I really hate ironing so you are privileged to have fabrics ironed by me!) and laid out in the prettiest way possible so that you can clearly see the fabrics included in the kit. I always try to set out different kits in the same way so that there is unity across the designs. The backing calico squares are folded up to the same size as the A5 booklets, then the cotton fabrics arranged over the top with a feature fabric folded across the bottom if needed. Trimmings, which have also been cut to size, are arranged and then anything else that's included layered on top. 

I have a lot of distractions at the moment - small person in the above picture being the main one as his attention span isn't long enough for me to get truly engrossed in putting kits together. It can take several days from start to finish to make 20 or so of a design and there is lots of playtime, feeding time, settling for naps, nappy changes and goodness knows what else in between! We're going through some kind of 8 month sleep regression at the minute too so he only really sleeps for half an hour at a time. I'm amazed at the parents who manage to work from home with multiple children - you are fantastic. 

But he's just so sweet bless him and we'll only have these days once so I'm making the most of them. 

Anyway, back to the kits. I print out the labels for the thread cards on a clear printable A4 sticker and because there are always lots of gaps where I can't fit another label, I try to fill the spare spaces with other stickers. For the Woollydales, they all have a Woollydale family sticker added on the back which is another little detail that may go unnoticed but takes time. 

As well as Woollydale I've recently topped up the Bluebell Garden kits which have some beautiful beads in that have to be roughly counted out. I originally had the grand idea to weigh them but with my kitchen scales they don't register at all so I resort to popping what I think looks the right amount in little bags and quickly counting them in twos to make sure there are enough. It's roughly 40 of each type of bead so 80ish per packet in total to be counted. 

This kit also has two pages of templates and I've tried to make things easier for myself by having one page of templates the same for both versions of the kit (tape or lace) and then just the second page with the different trimming attachment instructions. The booklet itself has the same principle so it's the same inside pages but the cover is different as the trimming instructions are on the template pages. 

I asked The Mother very nicely if she might babysit Fin for me for a day a week so that I can concentrate more on the kits. I was able to take the baby and most of my cutting stuff and kit making paraphernalia to her house so I've topped up on Fire Flower and yet more Woollydale II kits! 

The Fire Flower is now on its last legs for this particular set of fabrics as I've run out of two of the fabrics and am unable to get any more of the lovely floral fabric as it's discontinued and nowhere seems to have any leftover stock. It's a couple of years old now anyway so chances are slim of finding a hidden stash. 

I have a little pile of kits that I will need to revamp or potentially re-cycle (Remember Summer Sweet?) so this will be added to the pile for whenever I can get around to it. I also have a second stash of half finished kit projects, The Lake/Log Cabin and Tiger Moon, and some piles of fabric that could be potential kits one day!

I would like to concentrate on this kit though which has been in the works for a while and is intended to be one of the Woollydale family of kits but in greyscale. I often get a lot of interest in any Stitchscape I make in greyscale so I thought this would be a nice one to try. The fabrics are cut and templates drawn, and I think I will use both of these laces, one on top of the other - what do you think?

Hopefully it won't be relegated to the 'in progress' pile for months like the others, but equally I haven't touched it since Monday and it's now Friday so... 

Scraps of Mistletoe

The final theme for the 2022 Stitchscape Swap is Festive Greenery and I ummed and aahhed about what sort of greenery to do; holly, ivy, Christmas trees (with lights/without), wreaths... but I settled on Mistletoe in the end and I couldn't really tell you why, it just felt right!

I love spotting those big balls of Mistletoe high up in the trees, there are quite a few just over the county border from us in Kent and they are super distinctive, almost like nests! 

As always when starting an ATC hoop, I drew out all of the card shapes on the back first. I make extra than what is required for the swap so that I have back ups in case something dire should happen in the swap itself. (Apologies in advance for the strange colour in the photos - I started late at night and the photos are all from my phone.)

For the Mistletoe I drew out templates for the shape and, as I wanted to layer up colours to create extra dimension, drew around the templates onto my chosen green fabrics. I could have opted to strengthen the fabric with a fusible film but that would have involved getting out the iron and I was too excited/impatient to go for that extra step. 

The background fabrics are quite soft, greyish hues with little splashes of green so that they would compliment the green of the leaves but not overpower them. Plus they look a little frosty which goes with the season. My backing fabrics are just slightly wiggle cut so there are no templates or precision cutting, I tend to just cut a long strip off the fat quarter I'm using, wiggling the line slightly as I go, and then trim it into four pieces so that it fits the card with some overlap. 

My technique is slightly fiddly to start but I layer the fabrics on the front as I want them (one card at a time) and then hold them on with my fingers whilst turning the hoop so that I can see the drawn lines on the back. These lines are stitched along with tacking stitches so that from the front when I'm actually embroidering, I know where the edges of the card will be. Once the fabrics are tacked down then its much less fiddly but initially there is some hoop turning to keep an eye on the front whilst actually stitching from the back. 

I mixed up the direction of the Mistletoe templates and which colour went on top so that the cards would all be different. Because of the shape I could also overlap some bits so rather than having one Mistletoe layer plonked on top of another, they are woven and interlaced so it looks much more natural and I really like that effect. 

For the stitching I kept things simple and I've just gone around the edges with blanket stitch. I needed something that was quite quick and gave a lot of support to the fabric to prevent fraying whilst also looking nice.

 

Berries have been cut out of white felt and stitched on with a single strand of floss in back stitch and I've added some sparkle in with silver metallic highlights. The silver has been picked up again as I've used a single strand in back stitch around the most obvious shapes of the batik background (third fabric down) just to bring a discreet sparkle to these cards. It is a festive theme after all!

The rest of the stitching is very simple and minimalistic (unusual for me), the leaf print fabric is just edged in pale grey french knots, the batik fabric has a bluish embroidery thread couched down at the top of the layer to hide the rough edge, and the bottom layer has been edged with bullion knots with a simple running stitch worked around the outline of the leaves in that layer. 

So, aside from removing the tacking stitches and stitching on the cardboard backing - these cards are done and that brings an end to my 2022 themes! I can't believe we've gone through all twelve themes already. How time flies.

Downloadable Stitchscape ATC Booklet

 

I started writing this blog post weeks ago! And it has sat in my draft file since then as I've been so busy and forgot all about it. But this is a good opportunity to remind you of my downloadable kit booklet, which can be found here on Etsy. I have wanted to make up a booklet for my Artist Trading Cards for a while - as a guide for anyone who is unsure of what an ATC is, or the rules for sizing etc. Ideally, I would like to encourage more people to join in with the monthly Stitchscape Swap and I figured that if I could entice a few more through the writing of this booklet then all the better! 

This isn't the only way to make an Artist Trading card, this is the Dotty Textiles way and can be used as a guide rather than an absolute rule. As a fun way to ease you in to making the cards, and perhaps to help with getting you used to the scale, I have turned one of my designs into a template so that you can use your own fabrics and recreate my wildflower scene. I've also included descriptions of the stitches used on each layer, as well as instructions on how to create each stitch if needed. 

I really hope that if you are on the fence about joining in with the swap or would like to get started with a little project but don't know where to start, that this booklet might help to encourage you to take that first step. An Artist Trading Card isn't a huge commitment and, with the layering down of fabrics first, you can pick and choose which bits to stitch over so they don't need to be overly complicated. With cards this small it's often more about composition rather than filling each section with tiny stitches. (Although I appreciate I do go overboard - please don't be put off!)

The booklet is very photo heavy so it may be difficult to print all of the pages off but it will ping into your inbox shortly after purchase and you can save and open it whenever you need to. I'd love to know what you think of the booklet, it took me several days to write it all up and get it exactly right so if you do purchase it, please let me know what you think. 

If you make an ATC please do share it with me, I'd love to see! You can tag me on Instagram with @power.beth, share it to my Dotty Textiles Facebook page, or the Dotty Textiles Stitchscape Group (also on Facebook), or email me at sales@dottytextiles.com. Happy stitching!