Japanese Bead Embroidery Phase 1 - Finish

The EAC seminar is coming up and I have a few pieces I want to submit for the exhibition. Before I can do that, I need to finish or frame a few of them. Over Victoria day weekend, I managed to finish off one item on my list: turn my Japanese bead embroidery piece into an eyeglass case.

When we took the class, we were given a two page document telling us how to finish it. I ended up using their instructions but also kept in mind what I learned while finishing my Hana fob.

Here's a list of my materials and tools:

• fabric scissors
• sewing needle and black sewing thread
• quilt batting (I used two layers)
• interfacing (I used the same iron on interfacing from Hana)
• backing fabric (mine is from the Kelmscott collection)
• pins
• fabric glue (I know, I know glue is the devil)
• clips

As always I did this over multiple sessions. On the first session, I sprayed the back of my piece with water and left it to dry on the stretcher bars. I picked a nice sunny day so I can put my frame in front of a window to dry faster.

On the second session, I cut out my piece leaving a border. I also cut the batting, interfacing and backing fabric using the template that came with my kit. The batting needs to be slightly smaller, so I trimmed the edge by eye.

Turning the piece face down, I placed the batting and then the iron-on interfacing (shiny side down) on top. I ironed the interfacing onto the back. Because it's bigger than the batting, it created a sort of seal all around the quilt batting.

Along the curved edges of the red fabric, I placed a few cuts to help fold the edges more neatly. This is where the glue comes in and I was careful to only put some on the very edge. As I applied the glue, I finger pressed the edges. I had to work fast as the glue dries quickly. I did use a small iron to really set the edge, especially along the curved sides.

On the final session, I put in the backing fabric and finished the eyeglass case.

First step, was pinning my fabric to the back of the piece along one side.

I smoothed the fabric down and folded the entire thing. The point of this, is to trim the excess fabric.

Then started an exercise in patience. The instructions say to tack the fabric onto the beaded piece. I ended up using the ladder stitch as I find it's much cleaner. Now this is where being careful with the glue payed off. By making sure to only apply glue at the very edge of my red fabric, I was better able to sew the pieces together. I didn't have to go through hardened glue.

I started along one side, turning the edge of my blue fabric as I went a long. The tricky part came when I got to where the eyeglass case would be folded. I had to fold the entire thing and stitch it like that.

Here is what it looks like from the front and back when it's done. Notice how the blue fabric is tense?


The final step is to sew the sides together to close it off. I aligned the sides and used clips to hold them together. I used leftover quilt batting to make sure the clips don't damage the stitching.

To stitch the sides together, I used the overcast stitch trying to get as close as possible to the beaded edge.

And there you have it!

Here it is with some glasses to demo. I really like how it came out in the end, especially with that fabric.

I wouldn't mind doing this pattern again with a different color combination, this time finishing it into the Kobukusa. But that's for another time.

Another Sort of Finish

Yes, another sort of finish, because like my other completed projects it still needs to be "finished" into it's final form. But for now we can still admire the sparkles.

Last week was another long week at work where I had no time or energy to do any stitching. Luckily things will start slowing down now that we're getting closer to the holidays. I work in software development and as we get closer to the holiday season, we implement what is called a code freeze. This means that there is always a rush right before to make that final deployment into production. Afterward, it's a little more relaxed. For me, last Friday was when it all ended. This meant I could finally get back to stitching.

Since both my whitework and goldwork pieces were finished it was time to put all my concentration on my beadwork piece. The last time I touched it was last weekend after finishing the goldwork flower. I was able to put in some time on it and finish a row of petals.

Between Friday and Saturday, I managed to finish stitching all of them.

The final touch were these hexcut beads. In our kit, we got extra black Czech beads (the ones used in the outline) and we were expected to use the same ones in between the petals. However, the original model used hexcut beads in dark navy. We spoke to our teacher about the possibility of making a substitution and she who okayed it. I decided to go with a dark green but I suspect there might have been some dark teal mixed it as I kept finding them in there. That's okay, it just makes the piece more interesting.

Here is what the final design would look like with all the different beads. The picture isn't that great as I took it at night. My camera had some problems focusing. Much like my eyes! I love goldwork and beadwork, but sometimes my eyes have a hard time focusing because of the glare. Does anyone else have that problem? What did you do to solve it?

An overall look to the piece.

And here's the back. It's always important to inspect the back on bead pieces for any stray loops. If there are any, they need to be anchored down as it could cause issues later. A bead might snag and get pulled out of place.

Next step is to gather all the supplies I need to finish it into an eyeglass case. That will take some time. I'm hoping to do it over the holidays. In the meantime, I will be catching up on my other older WIPs. I have between now and the start of the holidays to do that. This means there will be no new starts until then (I have to be very firm with myself on that). Not sure what I'll have to post, so content might be very random ;)

Waiting

I'm still waiting for the passing thread for my goldwork flower. So I took out the next piece on my pile of WIPs, my phase 1 Japanese bead embroidery piece and...ran out of beads.

I knew this was going to happen (Carolyn warned me ages ago) and should have placed another order. I guess I was too optimistic.

I could have started on the last bit that needs to be beaded, in between the leaves, but I decided to wait. That piece went back in storage and the next piece came out, Hedebo Enchantment. The border all around is done for now and I've moved onto the center.

I wasn't planning on stitching the center portion as I though it would be finished into a table center and that area would be hidden by a vase or something. My mom asked me to finish it into a pillow instead, so now the center has to be stitched. This also means that eventually I'll have to figure out how to do the actual pillow finishing. I think I will contact Jetta, the teacher, and see what suggestions she may have.

There are three different patterns for the center: the center circle, four small drops and four larger drops. I've started with the larger drops as it doesn't involve any cutting. They're stitched with a pulled thread pattern and then surrounded by two rows of chain stitch. They're kind of hard to see because it's all done in white. In retrospect, I think there should have been more color in the center. Maybe the chain stitch could have been done with the other linen thread that came in the kit.

The plan now is to keep stitching on Hedebo Enchantement until the passing or beads come in. I'm hoping it's soon as I'm not really inspired by my hedebo piece right now. 

Back to my Regular Schedule

I'm back from my Thanksgiving trip. I had taken Bramble and the Rose as well as my Sashiko panel in case I had some time to stitch. I didn't take out my cross stitch WIP even once, but the Sashiko panel got a lot of stitching time. It was great because I could pick it up whenever I had 5 minutes to stitch and I never had to consult a pattern. I have a few leaves left and some French knots to do. After I will have to start thinking of what I want to do with the finished piece.

Except for my Japanese Embroidery class at the end of the month (2 weeks to go!!!), I have no more commitments until Christmas. This means I can get back to working on my WIPs. Tuesday I felt like beading, so out came my phase 1 Japanese Bead Embroidery piece.

I just opened the second packet of silver beads and I'm no where near the halfway point. This means I will probably have to order another packet from the JEC. My friend Carolyn also ran out and she had bought two of them same as me when we were in Atlanta. I should have ordered another when she mentioned it to me. Oh well!

Yesterday, I took out my goldwork flower and started working on the filaments. I will talk more about this in a later post once I finish this section.

For now, here's a close up pick with no light. I love the effect of the two metal threads together. Tonight, I will plunge all the threads on the left so I'm more comfortable to work on the right side.

All that's missing now is for some stitching to be done on Hedebo Enchantment, but I probably won't until this weekend (maybe). I'm having too much fun with the goldwork right now.

Busy Weekend

This weekend is the 2017 Needle Arts Fair of the Cataraqui Guild of Needle Arts in Kingston, Ontario. I will be there tonight and tomorrow to help out l'Atelier de Pénélope at her booth again. I've always wanted to go to this fair, but every year we either forgot or weren't able to go. It's a 3 hour one way drive from Montreal! So I'm really happy with this perfect opportunity :)

This does mean that I will not be able to get any stitching this weekend. I am meeting my Japanese embroidery group on Sunday so maybe there will be a little bit of stitching but I wouldn't be surprised if we spend most of it talking about our upcoming Japanese embroidery class. However, I did make sure to meet some of my goals for this week. It's not as much progress as I'd like but still progress. 

I've finished my pulled thread border on Hedebo Enchantment. The next step would be to start the needle woven border that goes in between the two satin stitch borders.

I plunged all the Japanese threads on my goldwork flower. Next week I will start with the two padded areas that are around the filaments (? I had to look that one up and I'm still not sure it's the right word). It's more couched threads, but this one should be interesting as it alternates between Japanese and passing thread.

I also did a tiny bit of beading on my phase 1 Japanese Bead Embroidery Wednesday. I was hoping to do more yesterday but work got in the way. At least I finished the row I had started before.

I'm really looking forward to the fair, I hope there will be some sort of exhibition from members. I also took a look at the list of vendors and there are a few interesting ones including some bead shops. I'll try to take pictures to share on Instagram and the blog.

Catching Up

Coming back from Labor day weekend and I really wish I had one more day off. I took the opportunity to catch up on some of my long neglected WIPs because...my runner is finished!

I finished the hem on Friday night, but didn't get around to washing and ironing it till Sunday. And obviously by the time it was ready, there was no good lighting for pictures. Crossing my fingers for some good natural light in the living room. I want to take pictures of it against the dark wood of our coffee table so that the drawn thread portions really pop out. In any case, I'm so happy that it's done and I have plenty of time to arrange a drop off for the exhibition.

Finishing on Friday meant I had the rest of the long weekend to work on other projects. I was tempted to start preparations for the goldwork piece I'm starting this month but realized I never printed the instructions. So instead I devoted all of Sunday to my JEC phase 1 bead embroidery piece. I was able to finish all of the flowers. What's left now are stitching those leaves. That should keep me busy. They don't take as long to stitch as the flowers (each flower takes about 30 minutes), but there are a lot more of them.

Before

After

By the way, those extra beads I bought? It turns out they made a mistake with the shade of topaz. I ordered an extra hank of garnet, light topaz and dark topaz. The two bags on the right are the dark and light topaz they sent. What they sent as my dark topaz was in fact the light topaz. The dark topaz is the one on the left which is much darker. I did run out of light topaz but I was very lucky that I had enough of the darker shade to finish all the flowers. Otherwise I would have had to contact the JEC and place another order.

Monday was all about Hedebo Enchantment, my piece from this year's EAC Seminar. I decided to concentrate on the filling squares and finished all of square # 3 (the one with the doves eyes) and started square # 4 (this one looks like a '+'). I've been sort of avoiding the problem child which is square # 2 (the one at the bottom left corner). It was really annoying to stitch in class so I will have to do them in between working on the border. Right now my aim is to finish before the end of the year. I'm going to try and stitch on it at least two or three times a week so I can meet my deadline.

Before

After

So all in all I had a very satisfying and productive long weekend :) Did anyone else get any stitching done? Aim for this week is to photograph my runner, work some more on Hedebo Enchantment and setup my goldwork piece. So hopefully I will have another update for you at the end of the week.

Change of Plans

I met with my Japanese Embroidery group on Saturday and was able to put in a few more beads in my phase 1 piece. I'm almost done with the light topaz. I have one flower and a few tiny petals along the edges left. I bought extra beads but I might not need them after all or at least not for the light topaz. I'm sure I will find some use for them :)

Before

After

After my stitching session, I went by Michaels to pick up a set of pliers to finish my beaded sweet charm. I only need the round nosed pliers to finish it but I figured might as well get a good set as they come in handy. And look, I even finished the other kit!

These kits are pretty good. I had plenty of beads to finish the charm (extra beads were included in case you tend to drop a few like me), they even included an extra piece of metal with the mille-feuilles (the charm on the right) just in case the first one get's ruined. The instructions were very clear as well that I was able to complete them in no time.

Tiny pieces on Lemon Tart charm

Now the change of planes came on Sunday. Originally I planned to stitch the entire day and get some progress on Foxy. Instead, I was dragged out of the house the entire day because the weather was just too nice to stay indoors. By the time I got back I was very tired, but I was determined to do some stitching on World Embroidery day. This is an excellent time if any to introduce the whitework project that I started in secret.

This piece is from the Italian magazine Giuliana Ricama that I reviewed back in March. It took a while, but I was finally able to get my hands on the Graziano linen. I will talk more about the linen in a later post once I've finished the piece.

I was surprised by how small the runner is. The linen is about 27.5 by 11 inches. Not as big as what the picture shows. I've been at it since the beginning of July and finished all the cutwork a few weeks ago. I'm stitching the last border going around, but I still have quite a way to go before the pulled thread portion is finished. After that there's some satin stitching and the embroidery of the flower that goes in the center.

So Foxy got sidelined again :( I'm determined to finish him before the end of August as I can't start my next goldwork project until he's done. If it means stitching a few cutwork pieces a day to get it done I will.

A Mishmash of Updates

Since we had a long weekend, I had more stitching time. I just wish I had the energy to take advantage of it. I mostly spent it lazing around, but did try to put in a tiny bit of stitching everyday.

Foxy came back out for a second attempt at couching the passing thread. With some tips from fellow stitchers on Instagram, I was able to get that first one in properly. The main suggestion was to draw a line on the felt to use as a guide. Once the first row went in the rest were easy to align. I got all the way to the edge of the ear on each side and stopped there. I decided to plunge these ones first before moving on so it would be easier to see where to stitch in the little bits. I got the chance to try out a curved needle for the first time and let me tell you it is AWESOME! I wish I had it when I was trying to frame my pieces in the spring.

Click on post to see animation

My friend Nancy hosts Japanese Embroidery retreats once a month at her house for some stitching. It's a good way to encourage us to put in some progress on our pieces. They all do the traditional Japanese Embroidery. While I worked on my bead embroidery phase 1 piece, Nancy was working on finishing her phase 5 piece (she's already taken all 10 classes) and the other lady was working on a combined phase 2 and 3 piece. I didn't do much since I was low on energy, but I'm very happy that I finished one row of flowers. I've also realized that by stitching a specific pattern instead of just randomly picking colors, I will not have enough garnet and dark and light topaz beads. Luckily I can contact the JEC for more, but I have enough to work on it again when we meet up next month.

While I was there, Nancy lent me her Needlework system 4 floor stand and I must say it's fantastic. It doesn't tire my arm so much as I don't have to raise them to stitch like I do right now with my table stand. I will have to keep it in mind when I start shopping for a floor stand. It's a very light-way, easy to transport and put-away.

Before

After

Hedebo Enchantment also got some time. I finished the border that goes around the entire center.

Now I really need to start working on the smaller squares. I decided to start easy and finished square #1. This one uses taellesyning and platvaerk. Taellesyning is a form of counted thread work and platvaerk simply means satin stitch.

No stitching for me tonight as I have a cake to finish. It's my sister's birthday and I promised her a chocolate cake with chocolate icing. I baked the two layers yesterday but I have to make the icing today and decorate it. Crossing my fingers it comes out pretty. I will have plenty of stitching time this weekend though as we have another holiday coming up, this time to celebrate Canada Day.

Flowers Blooming

Flowers are popping up everywhere in my stitching.

Sadly I can't say the same about our spring here. The snow melted and we got a lot of rain causing certain problem areas to flood. The situation is so bad that a state of emergency has been declared and troops have been deployed to help evacuate. We're lucky that we live far from the water so we haven't been affected, but some of the places we often go to on the weekend have. The video below shows the Pierrefonds area in Montreal.

Since the weather was so horrible, I took the opportunity to get as far ahead with my beading as I can. I got all the dark navy and teal flowers done. All that's left are the light and dark topaz, and the garnets to do. I've been trying to stitch some leaves after each flower, but I'm going to run out of those very soon.

There are 5 days left till I leave for seminar. I'll need to start packing soon. I also need to figure out what stitching I will be bringing for the 4 hour flight. I really should consider taking Bramble and the Rose.