Crewel Intentions

Crewel Choices - finished!

2008-07-30T08:29:00.005-05:00

I finished Crewel Choices, an EGA GCC by Judy Jeroy that I am doing through CyberStitchers. We were supposed to change the piece up, but I more or less stitched it like Judy did. I did change the filling in the blue flower and the color of the veins. But I liked the colors she stitched her piece in, so other than that I didn't make any changes.

Next on my list is to finish the Cherry Tree Cottage basket, then I have a new crewel GCC that I have agreed to pilot stitch. It is an embroidered bear worked in Australian wool embroidery. That will be a lot of fun! :o)

Rissa's Cherry Tree Cottage

2008-06-29T09:32:00.005-05:00

I had a rare treat last week, Lisa dropped by one afternoon! I helped her wrap her hoops with ribbon, we watched a dachshund floor show, then we actually stitched for a little bit until my husband came home. All I got done was the windows and window boxes, but that was better than not stitching at all!

Lisa's Cherry Tree Cottage

2008-06-28T07:38:00.004-05:00

Here is my Cherry Tree Cottage from the Barbara Jackson class in Memphis, along with the pretty little basket.

And here is a closeup of the progress I made in class.

I haven't worked on it here at home yet, because I am stitching madly on a crewel GCC that is due....ummmmm....Monday. :o) However, my goal is to have the basket finished by the time of National seminar so I can use it there.

cherry tree - no black horse

2008-06-24T10:58:00.004-05:00

This past weekend was the Tennesse Valley Region's 28th Share-A-Stitch seminar. It was held in Memphis, TN, a pleasant 6-hour drive from where I live in southern Mississippi. I signed up for a(nother) crewel class with Barbara Jackson: Cherry Tree Cottage. Here's my progress for 12 hours in class:

Even though this was my third class with Barbara in crewel stitching and many of the stitches we did in previous classes, the repetition was helpful to continue to improve my technique. For a good portion of Saturday morning, I concentrated on the stem-stitched cherry tree trunk, making sure that it was nearly, if not totally, impossible to see where the lines of stitching begin as the trunk widens. Even in a close detail photo, the lines blend imperceptibly.

However, on close inspection, I believe I need one more row on the left side of the trunk to completely cover the line drawing. The ladybug on the far right is coming out to be restitched as I let the slippery silk thread get away from me. And here is a close-up of my not-black-horse:

I also took my time with the curving sections of satin stitch (like at the base of the trunk and house), which were also in the first class piece I took with Barbara last year at the national seminar in Chicago (Shepherd's Purse). I was able to keep the correct angle of these sections better than I did 10 months ago.

Unfortunately, this piece must also be set aside so I can complete my Phase I Japanese Bead Embroidery project prior to attending Phase II in July.

Lisa's Strawberry Trio

2008-05-22T21:09:00.003-05:00

I finally finished my Strawberry Trio. This was a very enjoyable project, quick and easy.

More on Strawberry Trio

2008-03-12T21:35:00.003-05:00

I am pleased to announce that I actually finished this project! The photo is clickable.

It was a wonderful class and a cute design. It worked up very quickly and I was able to work on it while watching television. I did make some minor changes, like adding more seeds on the strawberries, but it was only enough to make it my own. If I were to do it over, I would make a few changes, but that is SOP for me.

3rd in the trio

2008-03-11T09:48:00.001-05:00

I'm almost ashamed to even post a photo of my Strawberry Trio, there is so little done on it compared to Lisa or Rissa . . .

However, in my defense . . . hmm. Well, I spent time at the beginning of class selecting cotton threads for a member with lanolin allergy; but I'm not so sure we didn't all start stitching at about the same time. I'm just pokey.

I thoroughly enjoyed the day, not only with Barbara -- we roomed together Friday night, after dinner at Up the Creek, and went to lunch on Saturday, too -- but once again spending the day with EGA friends. We are small chapter and even smaller active membership, but we have a good time stitching, sharing and learning.

As my cohorts in crewel have mentioned, the threads are lovely for stitching. Unlike them, I have less experience with other brands; In July when we attend Judy Jeroy's Master Crewel class, we'll be working I suppose with the Appleton and I'll have something with which to compare the Heathway.

But, before that, we'll all see Barbara again at the Tennesse Valley Region's Share-A-Stitch seminar in Memphis!

Strawberry Trio

2008-03-09T08:29:00.003-05:00

Mississippi NeedleArts had a workshop with Barbara Jackson yesterday, and it was great. Cynthia and Rissa were also at the workshop, along with three of our other chapter members. Barbara Jackson is a very good teacher, and a delightful lady. I enjoyed meeting her and getting to chat with her as we stitched.

What I found most fascinating is that the yarns we used to stitch the project are her own. She uses a chemist in England to dye her yarns, and the colors are beautiful. The wool she uses is very nice also. I like her crewel wool much better than Appletons. Appletons shreds so easily as you are stitching with it that it can be extremely aggravating to stitch with. Not Heathway crewel wools! They stitch like a dream. I will definitely be using them for my future projects.

Here is a picture of my Strawberry Trio. What a great class! I'm looking forward to Share A Stitch seminar in June, when I will be taking another class with Barbara.

seashells

2007-09-28T09:55:00.000-05:00

I have yet to remember where I put Mom's and my other pieces of crewel, nor have I taken time to search for them. But I do have some photos of a two small kits I made in the mid-eighties for my bathroom.

These were small kits (probably Sunset), about 5"x7", and the coloring was perfect for my peach/cream/tan bed- & bathroom area. I remember enjoying the stitching very much. I think the grey/silver one was the one I really wanted, and the other was the mate.

from my mom's pointy needle

2007-09-22T14:36:00.000-05:00

(Too soon) after my mother passed away, my sister and I sorted through her sewing/stitching/crafting things. (She would never have said "stash." They were her "things.") Most of the quilting material and supplies and projects were in an old wooden chest my father had made for the boys' toys, and still are, only now the chest is in my sister's house. The rest of the sewing stuff came to live with me. I thought I had taken all the finished items and put them somewhere safe. Apparently I did, because after an hour in the back (HOT) room last night, I only found one piece. Boy, is it a doosie! Put on your shades, dear reader...

It is actually even brighter in person.

This has to be something she purchased on a trip to Pennsylvania Dutch Country. I think those birds are distlefinks, and the colors and stylization seems very much like the "hex signs" from that area. It has masking tape on the edges (horrors! but it is what we did in the 70s), but doesn't appear to be stained, only dingy from time.

With luck, I'll remember where I stored her beautiful Jacobean work. I even think there are some Elsa Williams designs that she finished... I know there are some unfinished (and never started) kits in the container where I found this eye-catching piece.

Shepherd's Purse

2007-09-18T14:50:00.000-05:00

Shepherd's Purse is a two-day class which Barbara Jackson taught in Chicago, September 1st & 2nd, 2007, at the EGA National Seminar. If you are an EGA member, you can see photos of the completed design either in your copy of the seminar brochure (or flip it over and it's on the cover of the March 2007 issue of the organization's quarterly magazine, Needle Arts). (Or here, on page 6, as Class 102, and there is a tiny photo here -- they seem to have taken down the larger photos.)

Below is my piece, as I (sadly) have left it since the end of class on Sunday!

I am itching to get back to it...

circles of life

2007-09-04T21:48:00.000-05:00

It is Tuesday night, more than halfway through EGA National Seminar 2007. We (all 600+ attendees including my DH and sons) are in the "Windy City," Chicago, Illinois, USA. Not quite a year ago we -- well, I was sans family, but there were probably still about 600+ attendees -- were in Richmond and viewed the class pieces for this present event. I still can not fathom why I decided to take a crewel class. Perhaps it was the hightened interest of some of my chapter members, i.e., Lisa and Rissa, or just the sheer number of beautiful crewel embroideries that have been designed, taught and stitched in the past few years. (Of course, some people have been designing amazing crewel work for years, like Audrey Francini and Judy Jeroy -- more about them in another post.) Whatever it was, even if only a "jumping on the bandwagon" interest, I signed up for Barbara Jackson's (Tristan Brooks Designs) weekend class, Shepherd's Purse. In the meantime, we (the Mississippi NeedleArts chapter of EGA) determined to bring Barbara to Jackson for a workshop. (Details on this event as they become available.)

I am in love . . . or maybe just infatuated.

I was thrilled to discover I (still)have some skill at this stitching technique. Of course, like many of us who were stitching in the 60's, it's not my first rodeo. I worked on many a Sunset kit -- and still have many of them stashed away in a trunk. My dear sweet mother loved "Jacobean" crewel work -- and I have many of her completed (and uncompleted) pieces. She favored finishing her pieces as pillows. Several of them remained on her bed or the cedar chest at the foot of her bed until she passed.

So, too, like many things in my life, I guess this is a "full circle" kind of thing, a rememberance of the past.

Today, Rissa, Lisa & I viewed the class pieces for next year's seminar in Louisville, when/where we will celebrate EGA's 50th birthday Barbara will present two two-day notebook classes (1, 2) at next year's seminar in Louisville (and a one-day project). Really, I can hardly believe I am most drawn to those classes.

Here I go again. Starting another blog. My "intention" here is to document, and learn, and share as much as I can about the next twelve months and my journey among the strands of wool and silk.