Absente and Away

 It's been a while since my last post. I didn't even publish my minimum of one per month with my ORT jar. The reason is simple, there was nothing to share. I've been busy getting ready for my first vacation since 2018. In 3 days, I'll be flying out to Seoul, South Korea! 

I swapped my embroidery classes for an intensive beginners course in Korean as I really want to be able to read and talk to people when I get there. It will be in broken Korean but I'll at least be able to order food on my own. I'll also be meeting with other embroidery students and teachers that I've been in contact with over Instagram. There are two embroidery exhibitions being held in Seoul as we speak with my name on it!

I haven't entirely stopped making for the last two months, I've just been making things with my sewing machine. Here is one example of something I've made that I will take with me. It's based on a pattern by Aneela Hoey called 4 pocket case.

It has a few imperfection and is a little wonky, but I'm so happy with how it came out as there were so many firsts involved. I put in my first zipper, used vinyl for the first time, added a binding with corner. I really love it as it's the right size to fit an A4 cross stitch pattern, fabric, threads and all my stitching tools.

I was initially going to take a different piece with me, but sadly despite ordering early the materials have still not arrived in time. So here's the kit I'll be taking with me instead. It's based on Alphonse Mucha's Brunette. It came with 16ct aida fabric which I've already swapped out for a 32ct. I'll probably concentrate on the stitching the frame around the portrait during the long flights.

June TUSAL

Still trying to catch up, so there are two posts in one day. Since I shared my post on Karahana, my ORT jar will make more sense. All that white at the top is from lacing Karahana onto the mat board. I think it's the only piece I worked on last month.

I have one more post to write and it's a brand new project to share. In the meantime, here is a picture of the curtain panel I made for my sister over the weekend. She has been wanting a new curtain and I decided to make it for her birthday. She wanted a single panel as she hated that little sliver of light that peeked between the two panels hitting her in the eyes while she works. She's such a vampire lol

Another Making Weekend

Last weekend I didn't do much embroidery as I was getting more acquainted with my sewing machine. This year I was invited to join my friend's family for Christmas and I bought some things for the little ones. I decided that instead of wrapping the gifts, I should make fabric bags to hold them and then the kids can use them as shoe bags. I'll share pictures once they are gifted. I had three to make, which made for good practice. By the time I got to the third one, it was a breeze. I still need more practice on how to properly cut my fabric. I'm still having a hard time with that.

I did do some cross stitching when I took breaks from my sewing machine. Today I'm looking at past pictures of Tracery Dragons and I was surprised by how much the piece has progressed. Before I pulled it out in November, the last time I had touched it was back in 2016. Three years later, I managed to finish the entire lower half within a month. I don't think it will be finished before end of year, but chances are high I will finish it next year.

December 2016

December 2019

Weekend Update + Make

I'm not late for once! I had the entire weekend to myself so I was able to make lots of progress. I even made pancakes on Saturday.

I was able to finish restitching my woven effect leaf. It looks much better now.

I got lots of beading done as well. I emptied my second pack of beads. This pieces uses a lot of beads in this champagne color. It's very pretty but I'm looking forward to switching to another color. Not long now, I'm at the midway point. I'm currently trying to decide if I should switch out one of the beads for a different color.

And I made something :) About two months ago, I bought my first sewing machine. I've been wanting one for ages and started to seriously shop for one. After picking one, a Janome QDC machine, I was going to wait a little to save up for it, but an opportunity came up that I couldn't pass up. The manufacturer had a special rebate and the store put an additional promotion on top of it. It meant I was able to shave the tax and a bit more of the final price. We have a 15% sales tax here in Quebec, so it was a pretty good discount.

It's been in it's box since I brought it home as I try to figure out a place to put it. I still haven't setup a place, but decided I needed to make myself a fabric basket to hold all my stitching frames while they are not in use. I usually put them in a corner of my room but they keep falling over. It took me ALL day. Sweat and blood (literally) went into making this piece, but I ended up with something that I can use. It's a little floppy, I guess my interfacing wasn't thick enough, and I noticed one side is coming apart (I can fix that!). Still pretty good for my first time. The fabric is Blue Peonies by Rifle Paper Co. who is fast becoming my favorite fabric designer, and the lining is by Robert Kaufman from their Essex series.

I'm hoping to gain enough skills to make this bag. I bought the pattern from a quilt shop in Calgary with the fabric and hardware. Now just need courage to start. I found the hardest part was making sure everything is straight. Cutting straight, stitching straight... Any tips would be helpful.