Midnight Meander - Finished

I'm back at work after a week and half off. Since we're all working from home and there is no clear separation between home and workplace, it was great to disconnect for a long period and forget about work. I made very good use of my time, one of my goals was to complete Midnight Meander.

(click on the post to see the animation below)

I only had the stems and leaves left to do so I made quick work of them. I even made a video demonstrating how to couch lines of beads using two needles for those who are interested. I received some questions on Instagram and figured a demonstration would be clearer than explaining by text.

(click on the post to see the video below)

I don't normally remember to sign my finished embroidery, but I did this time. It's very tiny and in black, but it's there.

It took me a long time to attempt this piece but I'm glad I waited. Between Japanese embroidery and beading I had the skills to give this piece justice. If I have one regret, it's that I didn't consider changing the colors. The gray palette gives it an elegant look but it would have looked beautiful in other colors.

I've already decided I don't want to frame it. In Hazel's book, this piece is made into a cushion and mounted into a silver candy bowl. I'm not sure I want to do that. Instead, I think I want to mount it on a box top. It would look nice in the living room and instead of it being set in a candy bowl, we can put candy in it ;)

Major Milestone

A short post, but I just want to celebrate the fact that I'm almost half-way through Bramble and the Rose. *Cue fireworks*

I'm not quite at the half-way mark, but what's a few or 50 stitches when you're looking at the bigger picture. 

I was looking at my records and I started this piece the day before I flew out to South Korea on April 19, 2013. Since then it's been all over the place with me, if I traveled anywhere I packed it to go with me. The only time I worked on it when I wasn't travelling was New Year's eve. It took me 7 years to get to this point but that's okay. It's a marathon, not a sprint!

Speaking of sprints, I think Midnight Meander will get finished very quickly. I worked on it for a few hours on Sunday and progress on the stems were going pretty fast. I just need a good few days to just sit and stitch, and it will be done in no time. 

Isn't it great timing that I will be on vacation starting tomorrow? I will be off for a week and a half, chances are I will not post an update next week as I will be avoiding my computer. I will be posting on my Instagram account, so you can follow me there.

Midnight Meander - Flower 2 & Fruit

The last time I shared an update on Midnight Meander, I had completed the second flower.

The third element in the piece is a fruit. Not sure what type, it looks like a mixture of grape and pomegranate. I played around with the stitching order on this element, as I like to finish the foundation before putting in beaded outlines. I really love using my beading koma for this.

After stitching the two flowers, there wasn't any new technique in the fruit. It re-uses stitching techniques from the other two so this one went pretty fast. The outer "petals" took a little more thinking to make sure the satin stitches followed the curve nicely.

I did make one more change. The little crescent shape at the bottom of the fruit is stitched with bullions. Since I don't particularly like bullions and there were none any where else in this piece, I decided to replace it with buttonhole stitch and filled the gap with satin stitch. This is the same technique that was used in the first flower, so I didn't feel like I was changing the design too much.

At this point the piece is well on it's way to completion. All that's left are the leaves and stems, which means lots of beading in my future.

Midnight Meander - Lattices

Over the weekend, we had good lighting so I was able to complete the needle painting on the three petals in Midnight Meander. I like to mark my stitching area in sections as it gives me a guide on when to switch colors.

(click on the post to see the animation below)

The next step is to cover the area with lattices. You can eyeball it. However, if you're anal like me, you might want perfect equally distant lines perpendicularly cross by more equally distant lines. Below is how I do it in this piece. These are all techniques I learned in Japanese embroidery.

I use the 45 degree angle set square and center it in my shape (see dotted green lines). Using the 45 degree angle side I will bring my needle up at the edge of the shape (see red arrow) and put it back in making sure to maintain my angle.

Once the first line is in, the rest of my stitches are put in 3 mm apart. Why 3 mm? I tried 4 mm and it was too far apart, 3 mm was just perfect. I have a set of lined rulers I use for this but you can also use a regular ruler. It just takes more time. In Japanese embroidery, we are taught to do this with the square set and most lattices are conveniently set 5 mm apart, allowing us to take advantage of the grids on the ruler.

To determine the angle of the second layer, I align one of the vertical lines with the grid and the edge of the ruler where I would like to start (see dotted green lines). Again, I come up at the edge and back in on the other side making sure my angle is maintained.

I can't remember if I did this on the center petal, but I definitely did on the two surrounding it. It gives it a nice symmetrical look.

I have one more leaf to do on this flower and then I can move to the last one. I'm surprised by how fast this piece is going considering I started it one month ago today.

Black versus White

Last week was rough. It has been a month since we started social isolation and being stuck at home, it's the rainy season here in Quebec so most days are cloudy (sun is out today). My mood tends to change with the weather, more energy on sunny days, less on cloudy ones. And working on a piece that is on black fabric in all grays, doesn't help. I wanted something light for a change.

Luckily, being a whitework fiend I have some choices in my stash. This kit is a Punto Antico design called Dolcetti by Gingerbread Girl. Even the name makes you think of something fun and delicious. I've been spending a lot of time stitching on it after work.

It's really hard to photograph, there is just a hint of green in the four-sided stitch, from the Caron Wildflower thread, that just doesn't come out in pictures. So far my favorite are those cute little bows with the purple center knot. I love purple!

I'm still working on Midnight Meander, I spent the day working on it yesterday. I just find myself reaching for Dolcetti more often than not at the end of the day for something a little more light and cheerful.

Midnight Meander - Flower 1

I've been steadily working on Midnight Meander, getting a little bit done every session. I try to set a goal for each session so it feels like a finish every time.

(click on the post to see the animation below)

So far, my favorite part is the beading. Still don't like working with the satin and light effects thread, but I'm learning to live with them for now. A needle with a bigger eye helps a lot!

An overview of the piece so far. The next flower to start is the one in the upper right corner. I'm looking at the instructions and it seems like more of the same techniques, just a different configuration. I can't wait to stitch that leaf though, there is lots of beading there.

 

Flowers are Growing

I have a little bit of progress on two of my pieces. I spent a few hours every night on Midnight Meander last week. I also redid that lattice, it looks so much better. This piece contains two DMC threads I can't stand: satin floss and light effects. The light effect thread wears out fast, especially near the eye of the needle, and the satin floss is really slippery. If we weren't in a special situation and everything is in lock down, I would look for a substitute.

In case someone else is interested, you can replace the light effects thread with DMC Diamante in the same color (the number matches). DMC Diamante is an excellent metal thread to stitch with. It doesn't fray like the light effects and it maintains it's twist. As for the satin floss, I had substituted the Anchor Marlitt with their DMC Satin equivalents, but I would go even further and substitute it for Japanese silk if I could.

For a bit of a change, I worked on Elizabeth. It paid off as I finished all the stitching for the skirt.

I've also finished stitching the little purse (pictured below) and all the pieces to make the trunk. I had started stitching them after I came back from Brampton, thinking I would leave the skirt for when I travel. Little did I know that there would be no travelling anytime soon.

The plan for this week is to start gathering all the materials needed to do the finishing for the trunk and doll. I should have most of it, just need to figure out if my piece of green dupion silk will be big enough as I bought it for just the trunk initially.

Midnight Meander - New Start

I've been talking about it for a while on this blog, but I finally did it. I finally took out Midnight Meander. There is no going back now.

If you're not familiar with Midnight Meander, it is a design by Hazel Blompkamp from her book Crewel Twists. Her designs use Crewel techniques but all threads used in the pieces are cotton instead of the traditional wool, and they include beads which is also not traditional.

This design is darker than what I normally work on. It's stitched in black, white and shades of gray. Not colors I'm attracted to, but I couldn't resist all those beads.

I decided to use a frame to stretch the piece for stitching as I don't like working with hoops. My French embroidery frame allows me to quickly mount the piece. I could have used my RSN slate frames but that would have taken the entire day to set up and I wanted to quickly jump in to the embroidery.

The instructions in the book are good but they lack progress shots. Back when I first bought this kit, I didn't have the confidence to work on it and get the results I want. But after completing a phase in Japanese embroidery and stitching many kits, I now have the experience to stitch it to my standards. I'm kind of a perfectionist if you didn't learn that by now.

Having experience means that I read the instructions given, but then use my own judgement on whether to follow them or not based on what I've learned. One example of this is the line of beads that surround the calyx. Except for using the thread and bead color noted, I didn't follow the instructions at all and instead used what I learned in Japanese bead embroidery.

The results came out really quite nice and I have a lovely curve. As I look at it though, I wonder if my lattice needs to be redone. I feel like they are too spaced out, what do you think?

One technique I'm still not confident in is long and short. Nothing I can do about it, except do more of pieces with long and short. I'll have to start looking around for a piece in the many Trish Burr books I have. I do know that putting in guidelines helps and I used a Gelly Roll pen for that. This is a great pen to have in your embroidery etui as it's archival and doesn't smear.

I did see some improvement after the third and fourth petal. Nothing beats repetition when learning a new skill. So I know what the solution is, I just need to implement it.

Except for that lattice, I'm very happy with how it's looking.

Has anyone else stitched this piece? I would love to see your version and hear your experience on stitching this piece.

Midnight Miniature by Hazel Blomkamp

A long time ago, while I was still only doing cross stitch, I purchased many kits from Hazel Blomkamp when she visited Montreal in 2015. I was very ambitious you see.

As the years pass, I will take one out, look at the instructions and pack it away again. I kept putting it off as I didn't feel like I was quite ready for this type of embroidery. I'm just really intimidated by traditional surface embroidery. Despite the fact that by now, I've learned goldwork and Japanese embroidery, which are both, in a sense, also surface embroidery techniques.

When Hazel released her last book, I decided to order it and get one of her smaller kits to dip my toe in so to speak. I ended up getting Midnight Miniature, also known as JAC-20. It's a smaller version of Midinight Meander, which is the first kit I would want to stitch, so it works out. The kit comes with everything to stitch it, including needles. All I needed was a hoop and scissors.

Having just finished a big project, the mermaids, I was itching for a new start. The piece has a lot of beading, which I love, and a tiny bit of surface embroidery. Mainly sating stitch, chain stitch and needle painting. The only part I really dreaded was the needle painting as it's hard for my brain to stitch randomly. But all in all, I think I did very well.

(click on the post to see the animation below)

The piece came out more gray and silver than the purple you see in the kit picture. It still looks lovely. It would make a lovely applique for a black dress or blouse if it was stitched on organza. Something to think about for the future (not that I like to stitch the same thing twice...). In the meantime, I need to decide how to finish it. I'm thinking a box top.

The kit took me 3 days to complete from start to finish, about 11 hours of stitching time. Not bad, considering the kit cost. If you're thinking of stitching one of Hazel's kits and are not sure if you're up to the task, this is an excellent piece to start with. The instructions in the booklet are structured in the exact same way as her books, very easy to follow. And with it's size, it makes a great weekend project to stitch. After finishing it, I felt ready to jump into stitching the real Midnight Meander, so I might just do that when I get back from Winnipeg.