Bearded Iris Completed

Hope you all had a lovely holiday with your friends and families. I think I forgot to mention that I would be off from work for two weeks over the holidays. I'm taking advantage of the off time to finish a few projects and get ahead on others. One of which is the Bearded Iris. The last time I showed this piece I had put in the veins on the petals. I wasn't sure that I would like it once it was finished but I guess I should have put more faith in Alison.

As soon as the petals were outlines with gold twist, everything just fell into place. I still would have preferred a different color for the petals than this beige but it looks much better now.

The last step was to put in the beard of the iris. It was kind of weird, we had to overstretch a strand of bright check and then crumple it up. I would have never thought of doing this one my own.

I spent a whole day just doing cutwork for the stem. I had a hard time with the angles and unpicked it a few times. It's stitched with three kinds of purl and the bright check purl kept throwing me off as it's bigger than the other two purls.

I normally love chipping but I found this a little harder to do. Random is not something my brain does easily and in this case I had to do it with three different purls which increased the complexity. To help I took a break to work on the little bud before going back to finish all the chipwork. Sometimes a break helps things along.

Here it is all done. I finished it around noon on a sunny day, so I was able to take nice pictures. You can really see the color of that velvet and it looks lovely with the gold.

I'm hoping to take it to the framer sometime next week since I'll still be off work and will have time.

Now that this piece is finished, I can now spend all my time on my Japanese embroidery piece. I still have lots to do and only a few days to do them before the new year comes. Once the new years rolls in I will be starting brand new projects.

Disappointing Weekend

Ever have a weekend when you're just not happy with your stitching? Not because your skills are not up to par but the circumstances are stacked against you. This weekend I worked on the same projects, the Bearded Iris and the bouquet.

On Saturday I added the rest of the veins on the petals. The more I work on this woven metallic mesh the less I like it. It looks nothing like the piece Alison Cole stitched, and it's really hard stitching through it. I have what feels like huge holes where my couching stitches are. I'm also working blind since it's not opaque, putting in punctures where I don't want them. I know, I know, it looks fine when you look at it from afar, and no one will be pressing their faces to the piece. I just can't help being disappointed in how it looks. Maybe I will like it more when I put in the outline on the petals.

Sundays have become my day for Japanese embroidery. As planned, I worked on the cords wrapped around the paper. I had to unpick it twice before I got the angle right. Not only do I have to get the right angle for the cords but I also need to stitch through multiple layers of stitching. Not to mention try to avoid the gold thread at the front and back. It seemed like every time I tried to bring my needle up I hit a metal thread. Small blessing, I managed to avoid having to stitch through the center of any of the motifs. Not all of us are so lucky.

While stitching the blue cord, my angle was better but I can't help but feel like something went wrong. Does it seem like my blue cord is smaller than my red? Think I can get away with saying the red cord is going over the blue?

I'm really disgusted with my stitching, it looks so sloppy. At the same time, I'm not sure I can do any better if I redo it. I'm going to wait and see what feedback I get from my group at our next Japanese embroidery meeting, which is this weekend. So all in all, it's progress even if it's progress I'm not happy with.

Weekend Update

I'm the type who likes to plan their weekend. With that in mind, I picked two projects and devoted my days to work on them. The first one was Alison Cole's Bearded Iris. I hadn't touched this piece since October and have been feeling terribly guilty about it. Not to mention I need the frame that piece is one right now.

I worked on it on and off last week trying to get those leaves done. I love couching, but the plunging and tying down is so tedious.

And there was a lot of it as you can see from the back of the piece. Most of my Saturday was spent plunging and tying down.

With the leaves finally done, I could go back to working on the iris. I started putting in the veins on the petals.

On Sunday, I devoted the day for Japanese Embroidery. I continued working on the iris leaves. I ended up unpicking the top leaf near the clover flowers and fixing it. It looks better now.

The leaves are almost done, just need to stitch the bottom portion. Before I can do that, I need to put in the outline on the wrapping paper. And before that happens, I need to stitch in the cord wrapped around it. So that will be my main focus this Sunday.

Long Weekend Progress

I meant to post this yesterday but got derailed. Canada celebrated Thanks giving over the weekend. I'd been really looking forward to having three days of stitching. I ended up only having a day and a half but that's okay.

One of the projects I wanted to work was my seminar piece Bearded Iris by Alison Cole. I put in the last piece of felt and cleaned it up a little. I had to take out some cutwork and chipping that was applied with a single thread (we're supposed to use a doubled thread). I also cut out any outline stitches that were showing.

I also put in the last petal. I forgot how fiddly these things are. I'm looking at the overall shape and it looks okay, I just hope I'm able to hide those stitches when I go in to outline the petals.

I finished the leaf I had started in class and plunged all the passing. These are not the regular Japanese passing I'm used to. These suckers are slippery! I didn't realize till I started plunging the other end that I had pulled too hard on one of them and it slipped way to far. I had to carefully pull it out and re-couch it. It did unravel a tiny bit but it probably won't show unless you look at it too closely.

It looks good from the front, but I still have to clean up the back. I'll leave the boring work for the days when I'm too tired for a long stitching session.

I started beading the background on Hanabatake. I had initially started on the lower left corner but felt like I was crowding my beads too much and took it all out. I re-started this time on the lower right corner. They're not as crowded as my initial start but it's still more densely beaded than the original design.

I've decided that I like how it looks and will just keep going. I only hope I have enough beads to do the entire piece. If I thought the leaves took a long time, the background will feel like it will take forever. I've gotten into a rhythm where I stitch a scoop of beads at a time. It's not a huge amount, about 20-30 beads I think. Once I finish those, if I still feel up to it, I would get another scoop. I'll have to keep at it if I want to finish before the end of the year.

Here's a project that hasn't appeared for a long time. It's been almost a year actually. I've been finding that my eyes have been too tired lately. I think it's because of the materials I've been stitching with. I decided to test it out with some cross stitch. Every time I felt like stitching but too tired to work on my bigger projects, I would take out Bramble and the Rose and put in a few stitches. I've been doing that on and off for about 2 weeks and it seems to be paying off. I just might be able to reach my goal of finishing one page this year.

For this week's stitching plan, I want to try to put in some time on Hanabatake between today and tomorrow. Maybe reach the lower left corner?

This weekend is my monthly Japanese embroidery meeting, but instead of a single day we're doing a retreat over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The group is also meeting Monday but I have work, so I will join them at the end of the day. It will be great to play hooky from work on Friday at least and spend the entire day stitching. My plan is to work on the cords that wrap around the bouquet's paper. That should keep me busy and if I get bored I have a ton of twisted thread to make for the stems.

EAC Seminar 2018 - Bridging Stitches Stash

I just realized that I forgot to mention I finally visited Atelier de Penelope's shop in Quebec city. We made a special pit stop on our drive to PEI. It took three years but I finally made it. The place is packed with so many embroidery materials. I wish she wasn't so far from where I live (about a 3 hour drive). Patricia had recently re-arranged the shop and now there is a class room section at the back of the shop. The day we came there was a group of ladies working on the EAC Deerfield class. I really envy them, so lonely stitching at home.

(click on the post to see the animation below)

My youngest sister was with me. I've bough her a few mill hill kits that she has stitched over the past few years. She always comes into my room to see what I'm working on and asks me questions. So she walked around the shop with me and asked what everything was. Think I can convert her?

While browsing, she spotted a framed Mirabilia design that she liked and said it would look nice hanging in her room. I offered to get the kit and stitch it for her birthday. She was generous enough not to give me a deadline ;) I already have the fabric picked out, I'll place an order in the fall.

Onto stash from seminar. What I usually do is put cash in an envelop and that's my budget for merchant night. This year was a little different as I kind of blew my entire budget before I even made it to seminar. How do you ask? Jenny Adin-Christie was coming to teach and she was bringing kits to sell. I contacted her ahead of time for her catalog and after lots of thinking I settled on two kits. Her kits are priced in British pound. As you know our Canadian dollar isn't doing very well, so with the currency conversion they're very expensive. Since the cost was so high, I didn't want to pick a kit that would teach me nothing.

The first kit is a large embroidery workbasket. There is a smaller workbasket, but I decided on the larger one (go big or go home). I've always wanted to learn the layered whitework technique they teach at the RSN. Unfortunately, it's part of their certificate course as an elective class. Which means I have to first go through crewel, canvaswork and goldwork. That's not going to happen, so this is a good alternative.


The second kit is a goldwork design called Blackwell Roundel. It has some beading, silk work and shadow work and a silk organza. This is a design that was taught at the Bath Textile summer school and based on the decor of a Room at Blackwell House. Click on the link above for more details and to admire the beautiful art nouveau wooden frame designed for the piece. By the way, that (very expensive) frame is available for purchase if you want the same finish. I think I'll have to settle on a wooden box.


The next three I bought at merchant night, and yes I did exceed my budget. The first is a book written by Jenny Adin-Christie on the Fundamental Whitework Techniques (review coming soon!). The other two are wooden beading trays. Jenny had a whole table of wooden embroidery tools. Now, I have beading trays but these are made of a beautiful wood AND have a magnet at the bottom so you can attach it to your fabric. Anything that will prevent me from dropping beads is awesome.


Tanja Berlin also had a booth and I placed an order for some embroidery tools, no kits for me. I got a pounce with the powder, a pair of purple scissors, curved needles and an etui. I've had my eye on this case for a while. I actually wanted the one in blue but it's not available anymore, so pink it is. I'll be using it to store my goldwork embroidery tools. It even comes with a velux pad to cut metal thread on. You can see it on the right all setup for my class with the small beading tray.

Alison Cole always has a booth. Last year I bought a ton of goldwork materials which is where most of my budget went. This year I only got books. I had realized I didn't have copies of her goldwork books The Midas Touch and All That Glitters so I took this opportunity to get them and have Alison sign them. I also got a reel of #3 gilt smooth passing to play with.

The next two books were impulse buys. Karen Torrisi is an embroiderer from the UK who teaches beading. She was at seminar for a tambour beading class and had brought beads and luneville hooks for sale. I spotted a kit or two. She also had copies of her book for sale. It's a project book of beaded hand bags. I spotted a few that I liked.

The second book is Fashion: A History from the 18th to the 20th century. The great thing about helping setup Atelier de Penelope's boutique is I get to put aside things I find as I unpack. The book comes in two volumes and contains images of pieces from Kyoto Costume Institute. The pictures are beautiful and would be a great source of inspiration.

During class, they usually hold a giveaway. My number was selected and I picked this pencil case put together by Nordic Needle. I like how you can open the case in different ways. It contained packets of needles in different size, perle cotton and some beads.

I'm very satisfied with my haul, now just need to plan a schedule on when I'll start my new kits (on top of the other kits I already have). Look out for my post reviewing Jenny's book and let me know if you'd like a peek at the other books I got.

EAC Seminar 2018 - Bridging Stitches

This year's seminar was a little bit different from the previous two. For one, instead of flying in we drove all the way to PEI.

Two, I was there for a two day class and so spent most of it away from the residence where seminar was held. Every evening I would come back for seminar events if any were held that night. I missed the reception and the AGM lunch meeting (I didn't have a ticket for either since I was signed up for a Saturday/Sunday class). So, if you looked for me I was away enjoying the charms of the province.

Green Gables

I was there all day on Tuesday for check in. I needed to register my presence and pick up my bag filled of goodies.

A close up of this year's pin with the seminar's logo.

I also dropped off my pieces for the exhibition. The rest of the day was spent helping with the setup of Atelier de Penelope's boutique. I took a video of the shop after it had been setup. You can check out the video here. I also took videos of the other boutiques: Silkworm Studio, Kimat Designs, Felicia Knock.

Wednesday night was Virtual Threads annual meeting. With every year, we have more and more members. It was nice to put faces to the names. We were celebrating Virtual Threads 5th year anniversary. There was cake!

A silent auction was held during the meeting. I was very good and didn't buy anything even though there were two Italian whitework book I would have liked.

To celebrate our 5th anniversary, a goodie bag was put together for members. The seashells and red sand were an excellent touch. A lovely reminder of Prince Edward Island. Chocolate was present as well but it didn't make it for the picture.

Thursday night was the night we were all waiting for: Merchant night! Here are seminar attendees waiting in line to go in.

The room was bigger than last year but it was madness inside. You couldn't even get to Jenny Adin-Christie's table. After I made my rounds and picked up my new stash (more on that later), I went through the booths again and took a video that you can see here.

Friday was a free day for everyone. Some attendees took a one day class while others went on a tour. We did our own thing and visited a few lighthouses.

Point Prim Lighthouse

Saturday was finally d-day. I'd been counting down the days till the first day of class. I came in early so I can snag a good spot. I dragged two tables near each other and used that as a stand for my frame.

We got the rest of our kit and got busy.

The first step was outlining and cutting our felt padding. We also played with a high count metal mesh. These were treated the same way as the felt. Sort of... I'll write a more detailed post later on these.

Homework was assigned, but I was very efficient and got it done before the day finished.

Because that night was the banquet. This is the first year I went to the banquet and didn't have to worry about doing homework afterward. We got a booklet with a list of classes that will be offered next year. I've already made my selection.

At the center of every table, there was a lovely arrangement of stitched smalls. Everyone at the table was able to take something home. I decided to take the Temari. I always wanted one.

They announced the winners of the awards. I received my award for second place in the EAC board challenge. I didn't even know there was a prize. This will go straight to my stitching budget.

Sunday morning, I woke up early ready to start class. Alison spent the day showing us how to stitch every section of the iris and then had us trying it out to make sure we understand. Here she is demonstrating how to stretch purl pearl.

I kind of did my own thing. One thing I dislike about classes is the constant need to jump around a piece as the teacher rushes to show us everything. I like to stitch a piece in the correct order. Luckily, I've a little experience with goldwork and was able to do just that. I spent the day stitching down the petals. I have one more left to do.

As soon as 4:30 pm hit, I received a message from my family asking me where I was. They were waiting on me to finish so we can start driving back home. It takes a long time to pack all your embroidery tools (something my family doesn't understand). Also, Alison had us walk around the room to take a look at each other's pieces so that took a bit of time. It was interesting to see how each person handled the petals.

One last stop before we left for ice cream at Cows! Did I mention the desserts in PEI we amazing? It must be the butter.

Overall I enjoyed seminar this year. Alison was an excellent teacher who is a master in her craft and I look forward to taking another class with her. The seminar committee did an excellent job with organizing everything. Being able to pick up my exhibition pieces Sunday during the coffee break really helped.

I did feel like I missed out on a few seminar experiences as not everyone was staying in the same residence. In previous years, everyone stayed in the same place and if you felt like a bit of stitching with company you just had to go to a lounge on any floor and there was usually someone there. Also, going to seminar with family meant I felt obligated to spend time with them. No late night stitching for me. I wonder how it will be next year.