Well - a small update. On Thursday I finished off the May Calendar Girlies - it was a bit of a tight schedule as I had forgotten that Friday was a bank holiday so there would be no post. 
The four that have to be sent by post were in the letter box at the bottom of the road ten minutes before the box was due to be collected all with first class stamps. So, if the post hadn't been picked up early.... they may have been delivered today, in time for the start of May tomorrow. We can but hope for small miracles.
The four that have to be sent by post were in the letter box at the bottom of the road ten minutes before the box was due to be collected all with first class stamps. So, if the post hadn't been picked up early.... they may have been delivered today, in time for the start of May tomorrow. We can but hope for small miracles.
You can only see four in the photo, because those for Linda and Aunty B were finished Thursday evening as they didn't need to go in the post! Also in the photo you can see some of the black and white fabrics that I'm using for some log cabins.... the log cabins will go together to make a bag for my cutting mat - it's now all pieced - I just need to make up the bag.
The May design wasn't one of my favourites, but I did some more embroidery on the hair - hopefully you can see it on this close up photo.
Instead of just one line of backstitch showing that the hair curled up into a bun at the back, I infilled it with rows of backstitch in the same shape, curling in a spiral and the effect was remarkable and made a huge difference to the finished design. However, there were also a lot of lazy daisy stitches to make the flowers in her hair, on her dress and in her basket, and my stitches weren't always particularly even (though the bigger issue was between Calendar Girls and not within the same design, so unless they are all displayed together - unlikely - it's not an issue.
Instead of just one line of backstitch showing that the hair curled up into a bun at the back, I infilled it with rows of backstitch in the same shape, curling in a spiral and the effect was remarkable and made a huge difference to the finished design. However, there were also a lot of lazy daisy stitches to make the flowers in her hair, on her dress and in her basket, and my stitches weren't always particularly even (though the bigger issue was between Calendar Girls and not within the same design, so unless they are all displayed together - unlikely - it's not an issue.
Above I mentioned the log cabins in black and white that need to be made up into a bag. Well, that was planned for Friday, but I got a tad distracted.... On Thursday I joined the Vignette blog. Vignette is a mystery quilt by Leanne Beasley to be published over 8 issues of her magazine (which I have got on order). The first two issues are out and I had decided to make the quilt - it combines patchwork, embroidery and applique - my favourite! I bought the fabric a few weeks ago - 
I've chosen the Lily and Will range by Moda in greens, blues, pinks, browns and creams (see the photo), whereas the model is stitched in Sweet Broderie from Lecien - the result will be that my quilt isn't as bright (more pastels) and that the colour palette is more limited.
I've chosen the Lily and Will range by Moda in greens, blues, pinks, browns and creams (see the photo), whereas the model is stitched in Sweet Broderie from Lecien - the result will be that my quilt isn't as bright (more pastels) and that the colour palette is more limited.
Having bought the fabric and talked it over with Mum we thought it would be best to leave it a few months before starting the quilt whilst I finished off some other projects and got more proficient in piecing so that I didn't make mistakes in what should be a beautiful quilt in beautiful fabrics. That's all very well. But I spent a fair bit of time on Thursday reading everyone else's blog and got tempted.
Friday morning I came downstairs to watch the royal wedding and spent the day piecing the first block of the Vignette quilt. It took all day to piece, because of the 14 Shoo Fly blocks (7 for block 1 and 7 for block 16 (ready and waiting)). I also traced the embroidery. This morning I finished off the block by attaching the Shoo fly blocks around the edge. I'm really pleased with them - I took a lot of care in making sure the seams were accurate and in joining them making sure that the points matched.
I've picked my embroidery threads as well. Because of the limited colour pallette, I have fewer different colours than in the model, so I've traced a small part of the design onto a scrap of calico that includes all of the elements of the border design and Ill do a test embroidery to check that the colours work together and one element isn't too bold in relation to the other parts of the design. As this embroidery seems to go all round the edge of the design it would be a shame to get it wrong when a few hours and a scrap of calico will make sure that the colours are all ok. Once confirmed I will need to order a fair few skeins of DMC threads....
I will of course keep you updated as this project (and all of the other projects) progresses ...
Comments
Take care
Just visiting your blog from Vignette in Stitches, I love your first block, it's nice to see it made up in different colours. Love all the cross stitch on your blog too!