White Horse: starting off

Having covered transferring a design so recently with 'Earth mini' I won't go over it again, as I did exactly the same: made a transfer by tracing the design with a transfer pencil, ironed it onto some cotton lawn, then used this to line the surface fabric.

Once that was done, as before I stitched over the transferred design on the back with very small running stitches to transfer it to the front.  Unfortunately, also as before, this comes out terribly in photos:

I'm afraid you're just going to have to take my word that there's anything there!  The colour of the fabric hasn't come out at all well either - it really is a much nicer pale green than it looks here.

Now the design is transferred, and as I can see it on the real thing even if you can't, I can now start the proper stitching.

Serendipity

I've been commissioned to make a small piece; the client didn't have any pre-conceived ideas about what form this should take, but did want it to feature a horse.  We've been discussing ideas for a little while, but never came up with anything we were happy with.

Meantime, I was working on the 'Earth' mini roundel.  The client reads the blog, and on seeing that, things fell into place: she would like a panel of Celtic knotwork, same as 'Earth'.

With a horse in it.

Isn't it good when things just work?  I always have more ideas than I have time to stitch.  Some of these just stay in my head, while others get drawn up and filed away.  Some time ago, in the pre-blog days, I drew this:

'Was this the sort of thing you had in mind?', I said.  'Yes!  Perfect!'

So that's what I'll be making next.

Earth mini: finishing off

The front was completed, but I wanted to put a small Awen design on the back, just to finish it off:

This was worked in gold chain stitch and filled in with split stitch, in the same way as the front, and using Madeira stranded cotton in a pale green shade to match the colour of the front.

Both the back and front were pinned out for damp stretching:

I forgot to take an 'after' photo of this, but they looked a whole lot better than 'before'!

The finished piece is circular, so the excess fabric needed to be trimmed off.  I had a go at a slightly different approach here, using the overlocker to trim rather than trying to machine stitch in a circle:

I think this would work better with a larger circle to aim for, but it didn't work too badly.

I'd marked the outline of the 10cm (4") coaster I'm using to stretch it round on the back of the piece before I started, to make centring it easier:

And using a cork coaster, as well as already being a nice neat disc, meant that pins were very east to stick in it prior to lacing!

I could then lace it up, and remove the pins:

I ladder stitched the back in place, over a disc of felt, completing the reverse:

And here's the finished piece from the front:

I'm very happy with it - I might make a few more of these!

Earth mini: colouring in

With the outline done, I now need to fill in the knot design with colour.  I'm making this very simple, but hopefully effective: just one shade, Madeira stranded cotton no. 1406, worked in split stitch.

Here it is with the first few sections done:

And then with with the entire knot shape filled in:

And that's it!  There are still things to do to finish it off, though, so they'll be next.

Earth mini: outline

I'm being very bad at posting but a bit better at stitching, so time for an update on the 'Earth' mini roundel.

With the design marked on the front in running stitches, I could now stitch over them properly.  As Elmsley Rose guessed, this involves gold thread.  I can't imagine why she would think that!

Not the usual gold thread though; this time, I'm not couching it, but using chain stitch, with Gutermann metallic thread (Dekor Gold 24).  Here, I've made a start, and have done the first part of one side:

And then all of it:

And finally, both sides, outlining the complete knot:

I now have a clearly defined area to fill in with colour.

I'm in Embroidery magazine

I get a mention in the July/August 2012 edition of Embroidery magazine!

OK, so it's about two inches at the bottom of a column in the news round-up, but still - Embroidery is very prestigious, so I'm thrilled to be in it at all.

Even more exciting, yesterday I was interviewed by a journalist from North East Life magazine, who want to do a feature on me!  All being well, this should appear later in the year, so I'll keep you posted.

Also exciting in a way, though a lot less fun, I was caught up in the flash floods following the freak storm that hit the region on Thursday.  My house is fine, happily, but it took me five and half hours to get home from work, including wading along a flooded road.

This was the view from Heworth bus station:

Can you spot the tops of the cars in the pub car park? To the right was a row of flooded houses, and the emergency services were evacuating people in dingies. I was very lucky and was only inconvenienced (and a bit wet), but some people will have suffered a great deal of damage.  I hope things get sorted out for them soon.

'Earth' mini - setting up

Once I’d drawn up the design I wanted, I scanned it, added a circle round the outside (so when I come to mount it, it should be easy to centre), and resized the whole thing to 10cm (4") in diameter.

I printed this out, and traced it with a transfer pencil:

I ironed this onto some cotton lawn, which I then used to line a piece of pale green silk dupion, and overlocked the edges neatly:

The second piece of fabric is a little extra design, which will form the back of the finished thing.

I stretched the fabric forming the front of the item into a hoop (a bit off-centre, but never mind).  Here it is with the back uppermost:

I then stitched over the design lines in a gold-coloured sewing thread in small running stitches, to transfer the design to the front of the fabric in a non-invasive way - if I make a mistake, I just unpick a few stitches, I don't have to worry about permanent lines in the wrong place.

Here it is from the front:

Unfortunately, the running stitches seem to be practically invisible in the photo - they're a lot better than that in real life!  I don't think I'd be able to work with them if they really did look like that.

Now the design is marked onto the fabric, I can start stitching.