3d Machine & hand embroidery course

 I mentioned in my previous post that I had signed up at short notice to a local course teaching 3d free motion embroidery skills on dissolvable film, then creating a felt base & finally embellishing it with hand embroidery. The tutor was the textile artist Jane Fairweather

I sometimes overthink these things - my machine is not the best for free motion embroidery because the feed dogs (the teeth that grip the fabric as you sew) don't drop so a plastic plate has to be inserted to cover them. 

Once the embroidery foot is on the machine, there is not a lot of space & some embroidery hoops do not fit under the foot. I was having difficulty yesterday with the hoops I have & then found two that were ok. The wooden one was a vintage, charity shop find some time ago, but it was 'snug' getting it in & out under the foot. 

So I did what my grandfather (a carpenter) would have done & took off just a little off the wood to make a section slightly lower. I marked this with permanent red pen to know where to rotate it to. 

However, all was well - I was not the only one with such a machine & we were a fabulous group of ladies all doing something new. 

Before long, the two adjoining spaces with humming with the rhythmic sounds of the machines working. My first green thread (1 of 4 green tones used) kept breaking & it was tedious rethreading the machine countless times. As soon as the bobbin finished for that, I gladly changed to another thread & all was much better. It was just the thread. 

The embroidered tree shapes & the brown trunk shape were cut away from the dissolvable backing fabric, dipped in warm water to dissolve the film then pinned to dry as free motion shapes. 

Lots of instruction followed & the time genuinely just flew by. It was all done in small stages which made it so much easier. The brown base shape was wrapped around a hooked metal shape, which was then inserted in to a styrene circle in the cup. 

Did I mention tea & home made apple cake? It was perfect. 

I opted to do more felting on the base & less embroidered flowers. I had a trial idea from the day before that I kept to.  It helped that I took the felting colours I had used the previous day. I added in the little sheep again too ... 

It is amazing how different each one was - we all had the same email of the requirements with our tree & hand embroidery having to  fit in with our cup image / colours. 

The only cup I had that was not in a set was the bold Rosenthal cup & the colours reminded me of the Shropshire hills so I felted in some hill sheep as the colours were just so lovely together. 

Too soon our 6 hours finished & it was show & tell time.  What a lot of creative women, what a lot of gorgeous 3d trees in teacups. 

I love courses & this one has been absolutely fabulous. I will be trying the techniques again as it has given me confidence in them. 

I hope you have enjoyed the update, thank you for stopping by, 

Dee ~💕~

My planning for a 3d machine & hand embroidery course

 Hi everyone, 

I am a lifelong learner & love creating things. I use a local sewing shop for fabric, threads, felt etc and saw that they are having a workshop by the textile artist Jane Fairweather. She has been featured in magazines, books & her work is exhibited at several venues. 

Even though time is tight at the moment, I decided to sign up. 

My sewing machine is not the best for machine embroidery because the feed dogs do not drop and they have to be covered by a plate. However, it is what it is & I cannot justify the cost of a new machine. 

The course details require only that you need a working knowledge of free motion embroidery, felting & sewing. 

In this workshop, Jane will teach you how to create a three-dimensional embroidered structure of an oak tree, using your sewing machine to 'draw in threads' on a dissolvable film, building up the stitches until they are inter-woven to form shapes. Your tree will stand in the teacup, in a needle felted base and embellished with hand embroidered plants and flowers.

I love hand felting as many of you know. I did a course some years back & love doing it. I did several ones this past year  with sunflowers. 

The teacup we bring will dictate the detail on the felting & the hand embroidery. I don't have many loose teacups but remembered this lovely one & the planning fell in to place.

The tree, green & purple colours remind me of the scenery on the Lond Mynd in Shropshire with the purple heather on the green landscape so that will be my direction.  I need to take machine & embroidery threads so being able to decide on a colour palette is important. 

I did some sketches of heather on the Long Mynd from photos I had taken (my drawing is rubbish) but it helped to focus the mind. 

When time is tight, it is always best to find additional things you don't need to do. Whilst sorting out the needles I need from my many needle books last night, I suddenly thought I might need another needle book for just the needles I need for the course. I have seen a long design I have wanted to try, so I cut tartan fabric I had  & lined it with purple fleece that I had in my fabric stash. This was one I made for a gift in lockdown ... 

I had a vague idea of what it should look like, machine stitched it together then hand sewed blanket stitch around the edge & added a few more lines of matching pink zigzags to hold it together. A large button & some pretty fabric for ribbon was all it needed to hold the needles I am taking with. 

I decided to do a trial run of the colours & the rough idea I had so on a rather wet, dull Shropshire morning, I got out the felting bits & settled in to the relaxing mode of jabbing away at the felt while watching a demanding squirrel at the conservatory door, begging for nuts in shells so he can bury them all over the garden. 

My sewing stuff being packed up ready for the day course 

The Long Mynd has flocks of hill sheep, hardy creatures that live up high in the bracken & heather so I decided to add some.  We had felted tiny sheep with their black embroidered faces on my felting course so I refereshed my mind on the shape & added in some. 

The heather colours are lovely, the trees on the horizon, then it looked rather flat. I saw a ball of wool (bought at a charity shop because I loved the colour & textures)  was just right to snip thicker strands from to lightly felt on to give it texture & add to the colours. 

Some felted flowers (I might still come back to it & embroider detail on them, but no time today) and the planning felt looks rather pleasing. 

I feel more prepared for the creative day having refreshed the skills & planned some details.  The machine might slow me down because it is not best at using the bulky embroidery foot & the wooden hoops do not fit in well but we will cross that bridge tomorrow. 

Do you also decide on random courses to broaden your skills? 

Look in again soon & I will update you on how it all went ... 

Take care & thank you for stopping by, your comments are always appreciated & a share is welcome 

Dee ~💕~

King Charles11 & The Monarch's way, Shropshire

What a week this has been & I know the change over to a King after 70 years has been monumental - King Charles 111 on the throne. 

What do we know about the previous King Charles'? 

King Charles 1 was brought to Westminster Hall (where Queen Elizabeth now lies in State before her funeral)  after the English Civil War and he was accused of tyranny & treason, tried then executed on the 30th January 1649.  For the first time, England was without a Sovereign. It was only a matter of time before his son tried to claim the throne. In 1650-51, his son Charles faced up to the Parliamentarians at the Battle of Worcester, was defeated and he fled to Shropshire which was known to be a supportive region. 

Shropshire has a history with King Charles 11. 

He fled with a small band of loyal, Royalists soldiers & supporters & found himself at White Ladies Priory  & then Boscobel House - two local places to me & places I have visited often. 

It now forms part of the Monarch's Way which charts the King's escape. 

While at Boscobel House, he was forced to spend the night in a very large oak tree which still survives & has another grown from it in the grounds. It is a special link to history stretching back 400 years. 

Samuel Pepys, the legendary diarist who recorded details of the Great Fire of London of 1660, noted this event as such: 

he told me that it would be very dangerous either to stay in the house or go into the wood (there being a great wood hard by Boscobel) and he knew but one way how to pass all the next day and that was to get up into a great oak in a pretty plain place where we could see round about us for they would certainly search all the wood for people that had made their escape. … [We] got up into a great oak that had been lopped some 3 or 4 years before and so was grown out very bushy and thick not to be seen through. And there we sat all the day.

King Charles 11 managed to make his way to the coast eventually & on to France where he remained for 6 years until he returned to reclaim his Crown & Throne. 

Today I decided to revisit this local link to the name of King Charles - Boscobel House, then down the lane to White Ladies Priory and the Monarchs way. 

Close by is The Royal Oak pub, clearly having a strong claim to the name seen as it is close to the famous tree. 

A little history in these changing times, I hope you have enjoyed this bit of local history. Thank you to those who have shared in our national time of mourning, in this we give thanks for a long life of service of Queen Elizabeth. 

Dee ~💕~

A new era after Elizabeth the Great

In June 2022, the whole country came together to mark an amazing 70 years on the throne for Queen Elizabeth 11. We were on a week long canal boat holiday & flew our flags, toasted our Monarch & basked in the celebratory mood in all the towns we tied up in ... 

It was a milestone that few could wish to achieve yet at these celebrations, it was evident that our 96 year old Monarch was more frail with 'mobility' problems. 

However, Queen Elizabeth's smile was as infectious, warm & welcoming as it had always been & so we were reassured that HM would be with us forever .... 

We were on the canals on a holiday with Ms M & family & we drifted past boats adorned with flags, towns decked out with flags & there was a jovial feel to the weekend. 

Ms M & I hung our our royal bunting (well used for Royal weddings & Jubilee events), we served up little cakes & champagne on our patriotic tea towel, such a happy time.  

My Jubilee sideboard at home reflected the celebratory mood of the whole country as we enjoyed the rarest event of 70 years on the throne .... 

However, last week, the country was put on alert that our Monarch was 'under doctors care' and a cloak of foreboding drew in, until the news came that our dear Queen had passed. 

Few remember a time that she did not Reign, few could contemplate the end of the Great Elizabethan age. 

This week, the funeral preparations have brought home the loss but our new King Charles 111 has seamlessly taken on the role of the new king, as set out in our constitutional monarchy. Our county of Shropshire has a long history to his previous Charles 11 

I changed my sideboard last night to show TIME - the one thing we cannot buy, we do not know how much we have and it is so precious. 

The pink roses in the vase are my Royal Jubilee rose by David Austin, the acclaimed yet local rose grower. It was a gift from my family for my birthday to mark the jubilee event. With it is the Elizabeth Rose  bought in honour of our late Majesty. 

The end of an era, a long life well lived, Rest in Peace now Your Majesty

Dee ~💕~

100 day stitch challenge

 I love a challenge & like to find time for projects - most often just for the sake of them, many do not have a specific use. 

My Elective Home Education students have been released from lessons now for our long summer holidays. It is always a time to step out of my routine & to do some of the creative things that I have contemplated. 

I saw mention on Instagram of The Hundred Day Stitch Book  and it appealled to me. 

The challenge is sewing twenty fabric pages over 100 days - 15 minutes a day for 5 days a week.  Each page is 7 x 5.5 inches big - a very manageable size to work on. 

I decided it will have a bit of an African theme & colours - something that I have been thinking about. 

I cut all 20 pages in colours I think go together - & then decided to iron some interfacing on them as they are too flimsy to work on. 

I put stickers on with the numbers that will go together & if it was a tab or a slot page (for assembly later on as they will be handstitched once they are inserted.) 

I decided to do some free motion embroidery as I really need to practice that technique.  The feed dogs do not drop on my basic sewing machine, but it has a plate that covers them. I do not do enough sewing to justify another machine. Fortunately I had the special open darning / free motion foot from a previous attempt. 

It is a lot harder than it looks & the results are ok. 

I had a night sky thought after watching the new James Webb space telescope in action - so I cut an additional piece of fabric, interfaced it & took it with in the car while waiting for hubby at the dentist.  I just scribbled an idea of a large moon against the dark fabric & the sewn lines of various blue threads just happened from there. 

Looking at it, it reminded me of the vast African sky on the farm I grew up on & so a little farm house & some greenery appeared. I wanted the sky to be the dominant feature & so it is.  The hand stitching on this one just developed because there is something very calming about just going with the idea. It needed a few stars, some darker lines hinting at the horizon & some other detail on the farmhouse. 

The cover has a map of Africa & it has some hand stitching on but more details will happen. 

The other two pages have large patterned containers / vases on that I loved on my last trip with my Dad, they are just the start of each page .... 

These rock shapes remind me of the Matopas hills in the Zimbabwean landscape & again, hand stitching features heavily. 

I don't know what each page will have, it will be something I am inspired by.

That is my holiday project, pop back for updates over my summer. Thank you for stopping by,  I am always thankful for your visit 

Dee ~💕~