Up cycling

 that is what they call making something out of something that had already had a life as something else. 

It is something that I have known my whole life, my Grandfather was a fixer, mender and repurpose before considering something new.  There was not always either the money for new or during the war years new to be had.  My Dad is similarly inclined and initially for the same reasons.  So I learned about it whilst it was still all for the practical and had not become the fashionable.

My mother made clothes for me and my dolls, things for the house and every item was considered to see if it would be of use as something else before it was disposed of.

If it is something from a charity shop I feel like it is a double win as the charity gets some money for their good work and I get something to work with.

So this is the first of hopefully two posts about up cycling from a pair of curtains.  It was the tree pattern that caught my eye in the charity shop. The curtains were lined and made to go on a curtain pole, so there were 20 metal hoops in the top of the curtain.

I cut the top off, the curtains a bags length below the rings. Curtain fabric and lining together, as the rings caught in both of course. There was enough to make five bags (four rings to a bag). I added gussets to the sides (with lining added) and then it was time to decide how to do the handles. 

I have done a bag with the curtain rings before a-curtain-bag and just used the material. I wanted something different this time. After thinking about it for a bit I recalled some white cord that had joined my collection of "stuff" and I knew what I wanted.

Two lengths of cord for each ring...looped through

 and then plaited (a four plait that I learned how to do when learning to make bobbin lace)

The pin stopped me pulling to hard and squeezing the material of the bag onto the ring.

If  you are wondering about the other end, or ends..well I did wonder myself if this was going to work out. I sewed the plaited cords together about an inch before the loose ends, then the loose ends together.

I laid the two loose ended on top of each other and sewed them together. That was both messy to look at and a tad rough on the hands for a bag.  I had a plan for that, there are always small bits of wadding left when I am making quilts. Some of those thin scraps wound round the middle of my now joined straps and then covered with the same material the bags were made of.

I did not have any recipients in mind when I was thinking about the construction of the bags and I had the main sections of the bag cut for some time but had not made a start.  Then I decided who they would be for and finishing became time bound.

I made five and four were to go to Missionary Sisters and the fifth to a member of my local church who has been of great help to my mother's Family History.

Just to be sure the bags would be recognisable I added a small personalisation (and a hand made tag) to each bag. The recipients had fun trying to find them and one sent me this picture with glee when she had found hers.

I considered putting their full initials on, but I did not have enough of the right letters for all of them so I just stuck to their surnames.

I hope that the next part of using the curtains, and what I bought them for in the first places will go as well.

Fill Stitches

 on my blackwork project.

The fill is set for the overdress and is in black and gold.  I have completed the black part and am pausing to contemplate more fully if I want to deviate from the pattern at this point.

I am wondering if a small fill in maybe dark grey on the underskirt would look good and also if  some fill on the wall in a lighter grey between the swirl sections would work.

Or possibly something on the embroidery cloth.  Either, or for those options or even all three. (that might be a bit much but contemplating is fun)

BFF SAL 4 going all around

 to get back to where I started...

Last week I was on green shade five, the darkest shade when it was stopping time.  Now on the pattern the symbol for 5 and 4 is quite close when looking at the pattern from a reasonable distance. In that they are both rather dark. The difference between the actual colours is much more pronounced.

It is OK close up as seen here but at sewing distance not so much .

That may be why when I started back I just could not get my eye in for the area where I had worked the mid green and I kept getting lost, so I went up and did that section then over to the right then down then along till I had stitched myself back to the area where I had got lost.

By the time I did that, and it took just about the two hours my eye was much more focused and in went the stitches and it all matched up and the count for the gaps was right so happy.

I did have a pause midway and a crisis of confidence in the pattern fitting. Stop laughing, yes I know that is something I do, but this was measured with lots extra (well lots for me inches rather than stitches) and yet it was looking so big.  Could be the whiteness of it after working on colours, or that this is 14 count after working on 18 or over two on 28 (yup that is the same as 14 count but it feels smaller) but for whatever reason it was out with the ruler to check, and it is fine, it will fit, there will be an edge...erm I will just measure it again and again.  You know until I reach the top I am going to keep wondering if it is going to fit and be discounting the truth of those measurements. 

I even worried my BFF, as she said what you doing, said what was bothering me to which she exclaimed oh but I did mine from the size you told me! Now that is less daft of her than it sounds, as I just read the stich count and design size out, I did not measure it and she is so much better at that than me, she will be fine!

So after all of that here is the update picture.

Pop over to my BFF's blog to see hers, and yes it is the same pattern but once again we have ended up stitching it from different starting points and I am looking forward to getting to sew some of the shade she is already a tad fed up with and she is looking with eagerness to stitching anything but! Of course she is stitching on blue to start with which may have something to do with it.

click here for link or use the link at the side of my blog page

June Gifted gorgeousness link up

 Wow the 15th came around again fast and I have an item to share under the theme as set by Jo at serendipitousstitching of something sewing or craft related either received as a gift  or made as a gift.

You have seen part of this before,  actually longer ago that I realised now that I come to think of it Back in February and I was killing two birds with one stone as the piece I picked for the Secret Sweetheart looked perfect for my BFF's coming birthday and her new crafting space.  I sent it off to Jo just as the cross stitch and finished it to a book later.  Amusingly my BFF(randomly selected by Jo) had this as her Secret Sweetheart stitch.  

When it came to finishing it I had a very pale purple notebook and the size was a match . Just to give it a bit of  something as it was not getting a "frame" I drew threads around the edges so a little of the book colour would show through.  It is just glued on with a strong craft glue.  It was intended for her 2021 birthday and we did manage to get together and exchange gifts a few months on from birthdays.

Now if you are getting deja vu from another participant in the link up well yes you may well have seen this before as I am posting this as a gift I made and my BFF is posting it as a gift received.  

We should both be posting again in a day or two with our progress on our BFF Stitchalong.

BFF Sal 4 a beginning

I felt the need for some colour and suggested something with warmth for our next shared project. I had three possible patterns, so did my BFF. We gave them due consideration and and decided her options were first choice and then we narrowed it down to one.  So what did we choose?

                                               Well in this instance you will just have to wait and see.

 This time I have gone to the material as suggested on the pattern and it is 14 count white.

I have started in the bottom left.

not going to say what the pattern is at this point, guesses are welcome.

pop over to my BFF's blog click here

she is feeling generous and has given a little clue.

Things with wings

 both my mother and I are fond of them which means that I can join in this months 

hosted by Jo over at serendipitousstitching as this month the choice was for butterflies which are one of my mothers favourite winged things.

I make them for her as gifts and have shared some of those butterflies here in the past sweet-pea-plus. ,wooden-heart, perforated-paper they have even turned up in my quilting a-flutterby-of-roses.

In this instance I am going to share a piece stitched a long time ago which had not till now made an appearance on my blog.

It is one of a pair of patterns and although I have thus far only stitched one of the pair I have the frame and mount for the second ready and waiting (it has been waiting for so long I expect the in waiting mount will be lighter having fades slightly having seen the light of day.

This was a slow stitch as I could only work on it for ten or fifteen minuets a night just before bed so it would be a surprise for my mother.

Tropical butterflies

 

I had the frames made to size and the mounts cut to fit (this was before I was cutting my own mounts) so I should get round to making the second one. My mother could rotate them if she does not feel like having both up at the same time.

A little band sampler

and I do mean little. 

This is just 23 by 32 stitches, and that includes the edge. Do you think those middle figures look like ducks.  I like ducks so I think that is what I will consider them. I don't have to do anything about framing this, the  edge is the frame and the moment it was finished it was on the wall.

Well, it was on The Needlewoman's wall.

I am hoping the next update will see me working of the fill stitches. There is still a mirror over the fireplace to do but as that is to be in metallic thread and some of the dress fill is also metallic I think I will leave it till later.

Running Stitch

 or backstitch?

I vary between the two depending on how clear the pattern is and how confident I am feeling about the count on a blackwork piece.

This is the scroll work done as running stitch in one direction and ready to go back the other way, looks like something cryptic or alien. 

And on the back of the chair.

I like watching the way it makes different patterns working in the running stitch, I like figuring out where to start so that the there and back will leave me in the right place to start the next section.

I think it is one of the reasons that I like blackwork.

I much prefer where I can to do it in the running stitch, it feels that it flows better for me that way. 

And yes the lines still look "bent" and I still anticipate that once finished pressed and blocked that will be resolved. The pattern recommends using a hoop but I rarely do for  cross stitch unless I am working on a very very large count and need the hoop to help keep the holes open.

Ok A little update, whilst looking in one of my blackwork books and pausing in my search for fill patterns to read the "history of" bit at the front it tells me that what I do , the running stitch there and back again, is double running stitch or Holbien stitch (after the Tudor painter who most famously painted Henry VIII) so there you go been doing a fancy named stitch for years without knowing it!

A trick of my eyes

 So doing the fireplace surround, mantlepiece and grate was very soothing and easy to stitch as running stitch , the key pattern was also delightful to do and completed as running stitch. I had meant to pause and take a picture of that at the half way point but I was having too much fun with it (there are a few more sections to do so perhaps then)

Now I have checked, and checked and checked again and the height of the skirting board on the left is the same as on the right.

I have even run my needle hole by hole from one side to the other (yes more than once, there and back) and it is right.  Now if I could just convince my eyes of that as each time I glance over at it, pick it up and stare at it my eyes say that it is not level.

I do hope that feeling goes as the stitch progresses or at the framing stage! It will be annoying otherwise.

Indeed having added the picture it still looks so out I have had to go and check it again, it is driving me mad...(definition of madness, doing the same thing multiple times expecting to get a different result) perhaps it needs a mid stitch press and block just to settle it down.

And so time for the chair back, more straight lines trying to be curves (not that she is making use of the back of her chair) getting closer to the fill stitches and looking forward to that.

BFF Sal 3 All finished bar the finishing!

 well my BFF and I have played leap frog with this one as to who was ahead or behind. However at the last for the stitching at least my friend reached the finish line first. Now I might have been more on a level but for those corners and my need to fill them up.

I eventually decided what they needed was some green to balance out the sides.  I chose the lighter of the greens I had used and put a second circle in half a stitch from the original one.

Could I leave it there, well no I filled up those half stitches on the sides with cross stitches in the fine pale pink cord and the corners with a long stitch.

And how much extra time did all that take? Well my BFF was finished before our stitching time for the night was up (time enough for her to start the what next question) and I had finished the first three green rings by the time it was stopping time and The Sewing Bee time...but I had special dispensation to "finish"..it took the full Sewing Bee to get it done.  Mind in that time they made the dress from Dirty Dancing, a children's play outfit from curtains a la Sound of Music and a jazzy dress in the style of Dream girls. 

So here it is ..ta da...

It will need a bit of a press. And as for the finishing, well I have always intended this for a book cover and I expect that there will be some wadding involved and maybe a teensy bit of quilting and perhaps a few stitches where the pale crosses cross (I saved then for just that reason).

I have done a couple of sewn covers before but not one with a cross stitch to get in the right place, could be interesting.

Now I have a book in mind, but have not 100% settled on the material to use I have a greenish grey, there is some nice brown that might do and of course that choice may impact on how I do the cover.

And what will go in the book ah! now there is the rub, people are always getting me beautiful note books, ones with dragons on, or sequins, embossed leather and I get intimidated but the outer delights and feel that I need something similarly grand to go in them and the poor things languish waiting to be used. That may yet also be the fate of this piece. Will just have to wait and see. 

Click HERE to see how the patterns alter ego turned out over on my BFF's blog