comfortstitching

dogs on scooters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...

 
Remember him???????????????????

 
Remember her??????????????????

 
Oh!  I do say!!  I'm in love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 
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monsters and accompaniments

 

Current project - A great big spiderweb quilt.

Specifications - Needs to be BIG, big enough to actually hang over the sides of my bed.

Dimensions - Finished will be (hopefully) 88 x 88" (I think!).............a bit of a monster for me!!!

Blocks needed _ 64!!

Triangles needed - 256

Blocks made - 10 (***sigh)

Tutorial - From 'Quilt it'

Inspired by - Blocks I made using Holly's idea for her Tenmaketwo month.

Rate of triangles made per hour - 5 and a half.

Estimated time needed to finish blocks - Around 40 hours!!  Better get a move on!

The good news is since last week the Pfffffaff has been behaving.................Hurrrrrayyyy!

Being made accompanied by lots of Clipper organic tea and listening to BBC radio 4.

Another pic????

 

It would be rude not to!

Let's see if I can make another 40 triangles before tea time (eeek!).  There will be Lemonade if I do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 
As if it ever needed to be said. I'll say it anyhow.

'The world of blogging is absolutely 1000000000%! SUPERB!!!!!!'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  With bells on too!!!!!!

As you can gather from that (and way ahead of easter too) I am a very happy bunny indeed.  AND that is all because of YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  xxxxxxxxxx

Thank you for all your comments and suggestions on the previous post, I read and re-read every single one and pretty much every one had some nugget that helped me on my yellow brick road to freestyle heaven.  I cannot thank you all enough!!!!!

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A stress free freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee motion machine embroidery.

 
This is the back of the above piece of stitchy experimentation and as you can see...................NO BEARDS IN SIGHT!!!!!....none!!   All birds nest effects are gone and in their place, a beautifully peppered speckled-y-ness! 

I think I even prefer the back to the front!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So here is what helped, I think it was Karen's comment that really got me on the right path.  Although many of you had mentioned things that I needed to do, Karen listed those all step by step as applicable to my particular model.  Remember my machine is a Pfaff quilt expression 4.0.

1. Change to sensormatic free motion in settings.
2. Drop the feed dogs.
3. Remove auto foot lift (I'd never done this before) in settings.
4. Adjust pivot foot height (never done this either) in settings, to -1, -2 or -3.  I set it at -2.
5. Change to the free motion foot.
6. I set my stitch length to 6 and my tension to 7.  I know alot of people reduce their stitch length to 0 but I don't find this works for me.
7. I'm using the same threads as the last post and some different ones as well.  Some are cotton and some I'm not sure of the content but they all worked fine.  No thread breakage or beards!!!!

So points 3 and 4 above were necessaties I was unaware of and that is one of the crucial drawbacks of this machine.  The 'instruction manual' is very basic.  It does not tell you how to do things step by step and relies on you making the time to book lessons with your Pfaff dealer instead, which for me is a big pain as my dealer is many miles away and I'd far rather have a good manual in front of me.

If you fancy trying something similar to the above, here are some further notes.

 

1. I ironed bondaweb onto the pink fabric above and cut out my fabric shapes.
2. I ironed the shapes onto my fabric.  Then sketched what I wanted to stitch using ordinary pencil.
3. Instead of ironing stabilizer onto the back of my main (cream) fabric, I placed it into an embroidery hoop.  For machine embroidery you need to fix your hoop the opposite way to how you would use it for hand embroidery.  Put your outer hoop (with the screw on it) on your table, lay your fabric over the top, put you INNER hoop on top, adjust the screw to tighten.
4. You can see the free motion foot I'm using in the photo, top right.  When I finish stitching each part, I lift the presser foot and move to where I want to stitch next WITHOUT cutting the thread ( I ALWAYS do this at the end instead).

I don't think the tension on the front or back is exactly perfect BUT I love the peppered effect you get from using two different coloured threads.

Thanks to Krista also for sending me this link where I learned that this machine model is pretty rife with problems and (touch wood) I am pretty lucky that my problems are nowhere near as bad as some other  very unlucky ducks.  I warn you, if you have this machine, this link makes for some pretty depressed reading.

Other than that, believe me, today I am very...

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxX

I hate my pffaff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

See it? ................????

There, looking like some little innocent that could trouble no-one.  Go on take a look!

Ugly isn't it??  It saddens me, that something so seemingly carefree and whimsical could be so cruel.

Yesterday, I woke up and thought 'I absolutely must do some free-motion embroidery............. right now!!!!'  You know the way you do, spring in step as you dart cheerfully over to your sewing machine and begin stitching, singing all the while.....

 
But the spring doesn't last..............................the spring turns to winter rapidly and to an arctic one at that..................with no heating either!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 You see, looking at the above, you would never know how stressed I got (very), how many times the top thread broke (many), how many times the bobbin thread got stuck (hundreds!!), how many times I had to stop to fix the above (millions), the longest time I was able to sew without having to stop (oooh 10 seconds at the longest) or how many swear words I used (not telling but probably somewhere past infinity).

When I gave away my 'girl on a tree swing' mini quilt last year, I got so many nice comments about how I could bear to part with it and the reason may be becoming apparent to you now.  For although in the end it turned out well, the 'journey' was pretty much as above and I have to admit I could barely look at it without being reminded what a loss to my sanity it had been to produce it.

Now I'm just going to show you the back, but before I do, I must warn you.....it isn't pretty....

 
The white thread bits are not too bad but the black thread bits or beards in mighty need of a shave as I like to call them are pretty hidious even though I did play around with the tension it didn't make that much difference.

Is it just me or is free motion embroidery really that difficult?????????????

Are there any freemotioningwhizzes, sewing machine embroidery doctors or pffaffing psychotherapists out there who can throw some light onto the end of my tunnel of darkness???????????????

I have a Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.0.  It comes with a fancy schmancy sounding 'Spring foot free motion' function, which sounds like a breeze.  I use this with a special free motion foot, drop my feed dogs and apparently 'I'm off!' except I'm not.

Please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in between pancakes of course:)

hootin' and cookin'

 
Last weeks stitchy piece.  Some of the usual culprits (embroidery, mosaics......), some not so usual (owl!!!, little birdie, mushrooms and logs!!) and a new piece in stitch is born. 

Had a lot of fun with this one, playing around with some looser filling stitches.  I do like the way the log turned out, all logs should look like that!!! but the little birdie has to be my favourite bit, all egg yolky and looking a bit easter chick-a-likey.

This is another piece destined to fly away from me soon to go live with Rita under the guise of my contribution to her hoop-up theme, which was, can you guess??????

Woodland creatures ( I think, well......... hope!).

 

 
And just for complete contrast and nothing-to-do-with-the-above-ness let me just exhibit a photo portrait of Saturday's dinner.  In case you are none the wiser, this is in actuality known as Toad in the hole, why I don't know but please rest assured that no leaping amphibians are harmed in the making of (unfortunately, the same cannot be said of oinking pink farm animals with curly tails).  This is the kind of meal my husband rings up during the day to request for dinner (then promptly works overtime so his ends up decidedly on the just edible side of crunchy.

Well, that's it for the today's episode.  It said hootin' and cookin' in the title and hooting and cooking is what you got!  I do hope you found it a pleasure, please feel free to share your own weekend dinners below should you wish to do so!

Back soon!!

purple reign

 
Now here is something that might surprise you, maybe you are wondering if you have stepped onto the wrong blog but no this is Comfortstitching, only in  purple.

So let me confess something.  I am not a big purple fan but yesterday Heather Ross unveiled her new Spoonflower collection of her old prints in new colours including a heavy purple presence.  

Therefore, in between pondering on whether to call this post purple reign, the colour purple or ladies in lavender, I have also been sideline thinking on what it is about purple that doesn't agree with my vision of colour aesthetic and to my surprise I have found that I actually don't dislike the shade of plums, I just find it a difficult shade to marry off with other colour spectrum componants to live happily ever after in any stitched effort.

You see the only 'issue' with the colour that is so intertwined with the word royalty is that it is in fact a diva princess of a show-off.  It absolutely must possess all of the limelight and won't share with anything so wantonly similarly smokin' as hot pink or orange or any kind of scarlet.  No the ONLY way to 'work' purple is to keep it cool, otherwise known as pairing it with shades of blue OR matching it with it's colour wheel opposite yellow OR with anything neutral.  Now go take a look back at Heather's colours (and try to avoid mentally, virtually spending virtually every penny you have),  see the way she has made this difficult shade scream 'buy me now!'......................................by teaming it with those neutral stalwarts beige and grey.  The rainbow equivalent of the plain, quietly spoken gentlemen who lets his bombshell of a wife step forward and lap up all the limelight.  Very clever.  I think you can safely say I am converted (do notice that in the above mosaic the middle picture of the third row is in fact me today, dressed in YES a purple polo neck before I knew I was going to have any of these purple led thoughts and opinions......................)

Before I step off my blog box, let me just say how completely (purplishly) surprised I am that by the sounds of the comments from yesterday's post,  that needlework is not studied as a subject at school in the states!  Well I never!!!!  That is definately something I NEVER knew!!

So!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  thoughts on purple, love? hate? feeling converted??  wish I'd stick to red and aqua??????  thinking what is she on about why doesn't she just show us some more embroidery...........................................

Let me know, I'll be waiting, eating a pack of 'parma violets' (or six)

two stories (in stitches.....)

 
Yesterday, I really missed my blogging.  I don't know how it happened but, blogging has become a love that I didn't know I had fallen for..................................sorry, I didn't mean to turn this all slushily valentine-y ahead of Sunday, I'm just trying to convey a bit of how regularly posting on this little site here has become a bit of a comfortingly soothing security blanket of a ritual.  Now before I rename this post something that may leave you heaving for breath and sanity, let me move on to the two stories of the title. 

I decided today to inject a bit of light hearted humour into this post, just because it's tuesday and middleoftheweeky.  The drawstring bag above is the subject of story one.  The story behind this bag is that it was made around 23 years ago by me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  When I was a 15 year old pupil getting ready for my 'O' levels.  Unfortunately because I was talking one day in my needlework class (a fellow pupil was telling me how she smothered herself in lard so she could get a nice tan in the sun.......) it was decided that I was not now capable of doing 'O' level Needlework.  It was decided by my teacher who modelled herself on Krystle Carrington from Dynasty (it WAS the eighties) who decided to announce very loudly that I would now be doing CSE Needlework instead for which I eventually earned a grade 3 ie. very average.

When I look at the above piece, which I subsequently created and submitted for the practical element of the exam (I think the theme was to create something stitched for a small baby or child) I'm amazed that the fifteen year old me created it.  Obviously I had a penchant for filling stitches even then.  All the embroidery and the stitching on the bag is still intact, even though this little bag has always been used to keep ribbon-y, button-y, habedashery bits and pieces in.  I wonder what I might have gone on to do if my teacher could only have admitted to me that maybe there was just a little smidgen of potential here.

 
Now before I give you that heaving feeling again with the smugness resonating from that last sentence.  Take a very DEEP breath........................................... to prepare yourself for the horror below....................

 
Yes!  that's right stitched up lady.................gasp!   For you have probably just caught a sight of yourself in some out of sight embroidery mirror. 

Can you believe that this piece was created only months after the one above.

Where did it all go wrong?

I wanted to put this picture in today for all of you who have been so generous in your comments to me about my stitching ability.  As you can clearly see, it is not always the case.

Go on! take a closer look.

 
Now have a good giggle and shrug off that tuesdaymiddleoftheweekyfeeling................

Whatever prompted me to create this permatan princess with a rough as a gorilla complexion perfected from chain stitch only the embroidery fairies can know.   How about the brassy blonde highlights effect? or the done by chainsaw look applique??  Then there is the lurid mix of colours (I'm hoping I was actually a little ill at the time).

I do however like the zig zag satin stitched front bodice panel and the wool couched sleeve effect.  Must remember those. 

The rest however will survive to make me lurid-ly smile on even the cloudiest day.

It may be interesting to point out here, that my eldest daughter (age 9) thinks this piece is amazing and can't understand why I don't think it's any good.

 
And this is the piece she just finished on the weekend.

Needless to say, I shall take all the credit for being an excellent needlework teacher par excellence even though I shall never model myself on a member of the cast of any eighties soap. 

So come on!!!!  There must be some stitchy secrets and stories in those needlework closets of yours!  Share share!!!!!!!!!!!!!

more mermaids! more tarantula's!!!!

 
Today I thought I would give a little insight into how I went about creating my mermaid embroidery for the hoop up swap - she seemed to go down quite well!

Jessica specifically asked for us to work from Heather Ross's mendocino fabrics for colour and subject, I knew straightaway that I NEEDED to do the mermaid!!!  I began by sketching her onto the fabric which is a linen type.  No ordinary pencil could handle this task!!! the marks would not show up on the dark colour but very luckily John had sent me the above super pencil!!!!!!!!!!  It marked better than all my other pencils put together!!!!!!

 

My next point of hurdle was how to do the face.............this bit actually scared me as I knew if the face was wrong the poor mermaid would be the laughing stock of the stitchy sea!!  I think it took me three go's.  First I decided to give her a white face and body to make her stand out of the background more but she just looked like an edwardian vampire...........  Second time round, the expression just wasn't mermaid-y enough!!  Third time though, phew!

She doesn't have the same expression as the original but I was not going to be so fussy as to pull these stitches out and try again.  The hair and body I 'sketched'  in thread using my drawing and the fabric right in front of me, observing and stitching as I went.................

 

 

I think she turned out pretty well....................though I  wish I didn't have to send her away:(

Meanwhile.......

........the tarantula is born!!!!

 
Well it is not yet tarantula like but it will be........................85" square is the where this is destined, due to my husbands frequent complaints that his feet get cold at night because none of the quilts I make are big enough................................I wouldn't mind but he is hardly the eiffel tower of husbands...............................

 
Lastly this really interests me!!!!

The hat above is the knitted thing I was making over the last 2 weeks............

(the scarf was knitted for little C for Christmas),....can you tell I am a beginner?

Anyhow look at the colours of the hat and the spiderweb..................now this is subconcious but it is not the first time this week this has happened, go look at monday's post with scoot and my dresden plate!

Now I must dash, I have a web to spin....................  

mermaids, doodles, spiderwebs!!!!.........................

 
Been stitching....

a mendocino mermaid for jessica...

 
doodles for corinne

and.................

 
getting ready to stitch a tarantula! for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

scoot!!

  

 Introducing 'Scoot'!

Just because it's always good to start another week of stitch, stitch, stitch.

'Scoot' is another one of those images that popped itself into my head the other day and said 'stitch me now!!!'  Actually it wasn't the other day at all, it was instead the other week when there were meringue like dollops of snow everywhere......................that is why scoot is wearing a very cosy looking jumper!!! and an even cosier scarf and mittens AND an embroidery first for me...............tights! 

Had to keep her warm you see, once a mum always a mum.......................

 
 I think this one is my favourite of all my recent embroideries.  It's the puppy dog!...............cracks me up with his little tongue hanging out, even though he looks like a rabbit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can stitch up your very own little scootin' pup, here.

Before I showcase the second half of my brand new embroidery double bill.  Lets have a little break

 I'd love you to see this version of Cherry by the very lovely Cara.  Isn't she pretty?????!

 

so onto a second helping of stitchiness in the form of a re-visit to belle.   SSssshhhhhH!!!  (she's sleeping).  My new 'sweet dreams belle' embroidery pattern, featuring you know who, as previously seen on  my 'belle' embroidery pattern and 'belle the cloudbuster' fabric.

I stitched this one for Marilyn but you can make one all for yourself or to share it with a sweet little belle of your own. 

 You'll find the pattern here.

 

and (finally!) I must announce the name of the winner of my giveaway!!

Thank you so much to all who entered!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The winning number is 33 and the winner is...........................Karen!!!!!  Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I will be in touch shortly!

I'm so sorry there can't be more winners:(  Don't forget you can always stitch up your very own skippity lovely.

More sooon.