GIVEAWAY !!!!

Hello there! I am running a give-away here on the blog (to avoid the Facebook police!)

All you need to do to win is comment on the this blog post (feel free to let me know if you have a page to promote too and I'll make sure I pop along to add my 'Like'!)

I'll use a random picker to pick the winner from all comments on Friday morning.

Here is what you could win, this handbound A6 notebook with Wizard of Oz print to the front. Good Luck!!!

Wednesday Inspiration

As I mentioned on my Facebook page I am going to post on here some images every Wednesday that I have recently stumbled across which inspire me to improve my artwork. Just pictures no blurb (apart from this time. 

http://cargocollective.com/greenink/Personal-Work

Spectra Knit Along

Hi there!

As my friend over at http://stitchesstewsandstylishhues.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/my-first-kal.html

has mentioned we are both currently knitting http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/spectra
found through this link on Ravelry.

so after some delay, here is my attempt so far!....

For the main part of this lovely scarf I am using Hand Maiden Casbah (shade - Morganna) in the top picture and I am ashamed to admit that I have lost the ball band for the second yarn so have no idea what that is! but it is a fingering weight yarn.

I'm am really enjoying this and looking forward to wearing it in the autumn, although quite frankly you'd think I needed it now with this weather!

I am busying away here, coming up with some embroidery pattern PDF's and then after that some embroidery tutorials to post on this very blog!

Stay tuned!

To Crochet or not to Crochet?

Hi there, hope everyone has had a great week so far. Mine hasn't been brilliant (chicken pox has put pay to our Saturday at a Beach Hut), hence the lack of a blog post post but i'm back to remedy that right now.

At the weekend I went with a friend to visit the wooly/yarn dwelling sites of old London Town! It was exhausting (i'm out of practice with London) but we saw some truly beautiful yarns and items made with said yarns. The friend I went with has a blog of her own and here you can see some lovely pics of our trip and a little more about it   http://stitchesstewsandstylishhues.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/and-all-i-see-are-jewels.html

On our travels we landed at Loop in Islington. A gorgeous shop filled with beautiful hand dyed wonders and more inspiration that two girls could handle! It was whilst browsing through the made up creations that are dotted around in the shop that I stumbled upon my blog title question. I have never really had a interest in crochet, I'm not keen on the way it looks, or I hadn't been!.....

Until I saw these.....

This shawl is by Sophie Digard who sells her work at Loop. The crochet is so finely worked that it looks much more detailed and elegant than the crochet that I usually turn my nose up at.

So back to my question, I have some beautiful lightweight yarns here to use up and my mission is to find some block patterns that I can make to convert me to crochet. I am aware that this will be like running before I can walk but ho hum, that is my usual take on on things!

I'll be sharing my finds on this Pinterest board   http://pinterest.com/secretjo/to-crochet-or-not-to-crochet-that-is-the-question/

Feel free to take a look.

Comment here is you have any pointers or ideas yourself too.

 

Work this Week

This week I have been painting. Something I used to do a lot but not so much lately. I really enjoyed myself! After a far from great experience at a craft market with my handmade book stall last weekend it was nice to do something that was not sales focused.


So here is my work......

For once I am going to frame this and put it up in our house but.. I will be using it as a source for some projects. I am planning on some embroidery patterns (which will be for sale) and  maybe even prints if I get any interest.


I also now have a long list of similar illustrations in the same kind of format to get cracking with. Of course I'll show you when I'm done.


Bye for now, have a great weekend!


Jo
xx

Stitching at Henry's House

I have been waiting since February to write this blog post so I hope it is worth waiting for!......


In February I was very excited to get an email from The Royal School of Needlework to tell me of a cancellation on a weekend course, that I wanted to get onto but had been sold out. The only issue was that it was Friday and the course for Saturday and Sunday. I am not very good at doing things without planning it first so I wasn't sure if I should go, but I took the bull by the horns and made a call and signed up. It seemed like a fair bit of money at first but very soon after getting there It was obvious that it was going to be worth every penny.


I should say now that the course was in Jacobean Crewel Embroidery, a style of needlework that I have admired for a long time. Whilst I had embroidered with some of the stitches before, the chance to learn this art from an expert in such amazing surroundings was too much to resist, oh yes, didn't I mention? the Royal School of Needlework's home is right in the heart of Hampton Court Palace!

My first view of my home for the next two days

The design process.

My attempt at trellis-work , I used French knots for shading.

On the second day, I arrived early so I had a wander around the grounds. It was freezing but beautiful.

Details from the beautiful crewel-work screen that we were to use as inspiration

A bird from the same screen.

Crewel-work Screen.

It was an amazing experience which had me wanting to go back the next day and the next. Whilst chatting to the two lovely tutors Lizzie and Kate, they tried to talk me into becoming a student there and enter into the School Certificate course, I rushed home to look into this on the website and found it would cost me the best part of £4000! One for the lottery win I think!

We used the best materials, as you would imagine; gorgeous linen twill fabric, used for Crewel work since Jacobean times (and is £50 per metre!) a lovely deep wooden embroidery frame which fits under your leg leaving both hands free (a revelation for me, I love it!) and the most beautiful merino crewel wool, hand-dyed in France by Renaissance Dyeing (http://www.renaissancedyeing.com.

I would however like to try and take a class there once a year. I have my eye on Gold-work or maybe Illuminated lettering.

I am in the process of designing some embroidery and cross stitch patterns, which will eventually be available for download , I'll blog about my progress with this soon

This is was a must for any embroidery buff or indeed if you are interested in History, a great chance to get amongst it. 

A start...... finally!

Okay, okay, so I have been promising /threatening to start this blog for some time now. Well here goes!

I am not sure exactly what I will be posting about (although I have a few ideas up my sleeve) but what I am sure about is what I will NOT be posting about! This won't be a blog about things I sell, as I know from reading other blogs how boring that can be! so the only mention of that will be the link to the side here for my Etsy shop.

I will blog about crafts, (it would be difficult not to!), things that I love, places that I love and experiences that I have. I might just show you a few things that I have made or am making and some of those I will show YOU how to make too. I hope to bring you some lovely photos too as that is becoming a bit of an obsession of mine.

Heres one to give you a taster...

I took this on a beautiful day (I know, a rare one) in my Dads gorgeous garden.

So, I'm sure this will be a bit of a bumpy ride to start with, but bare with and follow me to see what I'm up to,I am aiming at posting twice a week (Wednesdays and Sundays) I may even add in the odd cheeky give away!

Bye for now! Joxx