Fish & Anchor now available as pattern!

A few weeks ago I received an email from someone who asked me whether the Fish & Anchor design I made last year was available as pattern. Uhmmm...no, but I could see why this would make a lovely pattern for someone who likes making tiny stitches on an intricate design! With much enthusiasm I started on the pattern but unfortunately caught the flu. After a week of hiding under quilts on the couch, I finally was able to continue my work on the pattern. So with a bit of delay I can now present you the Fish & Anchor pattern! It's really great for creative stitching and features stitches such as the raised fishbone stitch (a personal favourite) and the spiderweb stitch.

You can purchase the pattern here, and if you use code FISHY on check out (offer ends this Saturday) you receive 20% off!

Flowers in Winter

You may remember that I made a couple of these 'negative space' projects last year. When I look at those projects (well at the ones I finished anyway) I think: 'This looks really nice'. Immediately followed by: 'But it's so much work!' It's a lot of fun to do though: the shading, the fill stitching, experimenting with colour combinations (not always a success) and trying to improve my embroidery techniques at the same time. Today I added the flower on the top right, that looks like a poppy (at least I hope it does). It was a bit of a struggle as I used too many shades, and in some parts the stitches were incredibly small which really isn't good. In the end I made some adjustments so I'm not completely unhappy with the final result. Hoping to be able to show you a finished piece in a week or three!

Embroidered Dress

About one and a half year ago I embroidered a white bunny on one of my favourite black dresses. It then looked like this:

I always intended to add more stitching to the dress in a slightly folkloristic style but couldn't make up my mind about a design. So now I just add things and hope for the best! I'm keeping the palette limited to green, white and red (perhaps pink too?). First I added a few green leaves and yesterday I embroidered the rabbit-hole and the beginning of a flower.

The fabric is a soft, fine corduroy and the wales (the vertical lines/ridges in the corduroy) make it quite challenging to stitch on. I always have to place my stitches on an angle to the vertical ridges when I do satin-like stitches, to avoid gaps. And very delicate stitching wouldn't work either on this fabric. I'm definitely going to add more embroidery to this dress, along the border and possibly some near the neckline as well. And until then I'll just keep on wearing it. :)

Lost and Found

I was thinking of finishing the bear I was stitching a while ago, using sewing thread instead of embroidery thread. The problem is: I'm not quite sure where I put it. It's quite small too so it really could be anywhere. Anyway, when I was looking for my Bear project, I came across lots and lots of unfinished projects, try-outs and doodlecloths. Including the one pictured above. I remember taking out some stitches and damaging the fabric by accident, creating a small hole (above the pink round thingie). Which is why it ended up in a drawer most likely. The good news is: the hole is now covered with the Heavy Chain Stitch!

The Heavy Chain Stitch is a new to me stitch, I saw demonstrated when I was attending the Crewel and Goldwork class at the Royal School of Needlework. The stitch isn't new of course, I just never got around to trying it out. Possibly because I'm not a huge fan of the regular Chain Stitch, I find it hard to keep the stitches even and round and usually just ignore it. :) The Heavy Chain Stitch however is a very tidy looking stitch. At least when you practise it a bit. Mine still looks a bit clumsy (it's the tentacle-like shapes on my doodlecloth) but I've got the hang of it now, I think.

I experimented with colours, different number of strands and making curves. If you have an embroidery handbook, look the Heavy Chain Stitch up and give it a try. It's also sometimes named the Braided Chain Stitch.

Secret Garden Embroidery

My stitchy friend Sophie (aka What Delilah Did) has released a new book called Secret Garden Embroidery and it's really lovely so I'm excited to share some of the wonderful projects with you today. The best thing about Sophie's books is that each book is a little different from the one before, but still has the same timeless, unique style that many of us love. Secret Garden Embroidery is no exception and with its 15 projects a fabulous resource for both beginning and more advanced stitchers.

One of three Lace Wing Butterfly patterns in the book

Sophie's first book, Storyland Cross Stitch had a lot of her signature style silhouette designs in mostly muted colours. Stitch the Halls, the Christmas book, featured more colour and lots of fun stitch ideas for Christmas decorations. Secret Garden Embroidery is all about botanical and garden themed projects, framed in stories about Miss Merriweather's Thistledown Farmhouse. The book is elegantly illustrated by Katt Frank and the beautiful photography is by Rachel Whiting.

Are you ready to join me for a short walk to Thistledown Farmhouse and have a look around? Be prepared for lots of delicate stitching and gorgeous muted colour palettes!
First, we visit the Vegetable Garden...

And look...here are some cute bugs (and a spider too)!

You cannot leave Thistledown Farmhouse without meeting Miss Millicent Hare...

The first chapter of Secret Garden Embroidery deals with stitches and supplies used for the book's projects. All of the projects are counted embroidery or cross stitch. The larger patterns are included in an envelope at the back of the book, the other patterns are printed in the book.

I think the real fun is in how to make the lovely designs work for you. If you are not into belts you can stitch the pattern on a bag. And colours are easily changed too. The bugs look fabulous on a magnet but would look great on a table cloth or on napkins as well.

I hope you enjoyed this peek into What Delilah Did's Secret Garden! Secret Garden Embroidery is published by Pavilion Books and available now. You can buy the book from Sophie's store (and have it signed too!) and many other bookstores.

Bend the Rules Embroidery

A little update on the Bear I'm stitching with sewing thread (instead of embroidery floss). I'm bending a lot of rules with this one (even my own rules!) Threads are overlapping, stitches layered and going in all directions. But somehow it works. At least I think it works. :)

New Iron on Patterns are Here!

I'm thrilled that finally my new iron-on patterns have arrived! Together with my daughter Luna I assembled the patterns (transfer sheet(s), description sheet, postcard) last weekend and I have quite a few waiting to be send out to you. The pattern envelopes have a new distinctive design that reminds me of black board chalk drawings. :)

One of the new patterns is The Most Excellent Party Bear and it has some awesome new additions. When you buy the pattern you receive two pattern sheets: one with the Party Bear and one with 'special touches': several motifs to turn the Party Bear pattern into a DIY sampler for an anniversary or to welcome a new baby. There's a banner with 'Welcome' and a tag that you could add names to for example. You could combine them into one piece or make several smaller pieces to hang them nicely arranged on a wall.

Wave Goodbye.. is another pattern you may recognise from last year. It's a fresh, fun, summery design and comes with an extensive stitch and colour key.

Flower and Bird is a new design based on the Negative Space piece I made earlier this year. As it's perfect for shading it's included in my upcoming online Shading Class! All new iron-on patterns are also available in one Excellent New Pattern Deal which will save you almost 15%.

Fawn on a Skirt

It's was a big surprise when I received an e-mail from my Homespun editor to let me know my Fawn was chosen as cover photo for their May issue! Last year Homespun asked me to make a design that could be embroidered on clothing. In my own wardrobe you'll find lots of animal and flower prints on skirts and dresses so I combined the two in this Fawn & Flower design.

And no, it's not Bambi. In fact the text on the left says 'it's so sweet it would put Bambi to shame'. That wasn't my intention because Bambi has had such a difficult start in life already, but there you go... ;) I used a black skirt to embroider on because the dark background contrasts so well with the colours. The stitching is far more 'chunky' than my usual one-thread-only pieces but it works well for embroidering on garments I think. You'll find all the stitch and colour details in this month's issue. If you are not in Australia you can buy digital copies through Zinio and Newsstand. And there's lots of other good stuff in there too like an article about Guy Whitby, he makes pixelated images (digitally) using crochet granny squares.

Have a great weekend everyone! :)

Today's Embroidery on Video

light.mp4 from Nicole Vos van Avezathe on Vimeo.

I was trying to catch on video how the light bounces off the lighter tones in the stitching. So the shades seem to change when they are exposed to light and again when the embroidery is kept from the light. That didn't quite work as I planned and I probably held my phone wrong too (portrait vs landscape) but all in all it's nice to see those stitches up close. I think I will add this Crane pattern to my upcoming Simply Shading Workshop... :)

Early Bird

 This is the piece I've been working on since January in preparation for the class later this year.  I like how it's turning out although it's taking me a little longer than I planned to because I'm writing down a lot of details. After I have finished this (and I'm guessing there's about 8-10 hours of stitching left) I really want to embroider another small furry creature! 

Birds & Bears looking for a New Home

Soon I will have to clear out my craft/sewing room. We need to install a new bathroom (which is in the space next to my room) and obviously I can't leave all my precious supplies and work as there will be lots and lots of dust. A good opportunity to go through all my stuff and let go of some of it. So in March I will be listing several embroideries in the shop!

Most of them will be small to medium sized and some, like the sea bird, are even hooped and ready to hang. Prices will be friendly, I just hope some (or all) will find a good home and make someone happy instead of being kept in a drawer... :)

New work (in progress)

I usually try and avoid posting frumpy photos (fabric not ironed! embroidery on a peg on the fire escape ladder!) but I hope the embroidery makes up for it. ;) I have been working on this for over a month now. Progress is a bit slow due to an aching thumb that is in a brace most of the day and well, the amount of fill stitching is quite overwhelming too. I don't even know how much time I have spent embroidering this piece, surely more than 40 hours... There are parts of this piece that I'm very happy with and there are parts I'm not crazy about but I really do like the overall effect. I also like that it's totally 'me': the subject, the flowers, the obsessive shading and using about every colour available in my stash :)  It's nearly completed now and I can't wait to try out more similar ideas. Maybe even as embroidered illustration. Anyway, I expect that some of this will make it's way into the new online class I'm planning for 2015. Hope you all like it.

  

Owl Embroidery from start to finish

Of all the embroideries I did this past year, my Owl embroidery is probably the piece I'm most proud of. I have regularly posted updates on Instagram of its progress and I thought it would be fun to put them all together: from (water colour) sketch to finished embroidery.

Wishing you all a great weekend!

P.s. if you have time please vote in the &Stitches Poll I made. We want to know your favourite embroidery techniques! Because it's likely you have several favourites you can choose three. :) You can vote here. Thanks!

Small Bear, Big City

A little while ago I tried out water soluble canvas (more about that in another post) and used it to stitch a lacy border.  I then added a Bear (as you do), the outline of a big city and instead of embroidering random stars I stitched the Ursa Major (Big Bear or Big Dipper) constellation. The bear is approx. 2 inches high so not that 'big' at all. :)

Owl Embroidery Finished

Embroidering this owl was an interesting journey. I started out with the idea of stitching a quite natural looking owl but in came the crazy neon floss and that made it so much more interesting. The French knots weren't in the original plan either. A flowery border was meant to frame the owl, but it didn't look right. Then I was a bit unsure about adding the dark green background but again I think it was the right decision. It's finished now (at least I simply stopped embroidering) so on to the next furry (or feathery) embroidery! :)

On the Cover of a Magazine

I'm so excited that my 'Wave Goodbye' embroidery (as it's now called) has made it to the cover of this month's Australian Homespun magazine!

I had this idea to make an embroidery with a Volkswagen Van for quite a while. I even had a fairly detailed drawing of it on my 'must make a pattern of this one day' pile. As it turns out production of these VW vans ended last December but at least you can now still make your own with needle and thread! Anyway, I'm glad Homespun liked the idea as well so I went on and adjusted the original sketch quite a bit to give it a bit of a Surf and Beach theme. That maybe an odd theme in September for us in the Northern Hemisphere but in Australia it's nearly Spring! Maybe it would be fun if I'd made a wintery version as well...

P.S.
Tomorrow I am finally posting a review of the IKEA 'Sy' Sewing machine I bought for my daughter earlier this year!

I'm in the new Mollie Makes Embroidery Book!

My Cloud pillow project. Photo by Vanessa Davies

Just two weeks ago a new Mollie Makes book was released, it's simply called Mollie Makes Embroidery.  I was very pleased when I was asked to contribute to it last year and I was even more pleased when I received my copy and saw how wonderful it has turned out!

My project in this book is the cloud shaped pillow embroidered with a cat and a polar bear, you see pictured above. The umbrellas are really mini-samplers, featuring some of my favourite stitches like the Bullion Knot and the Wheat Ear Stitch. I'm really happy with the result although making the cloud-shaped pillow 'cloud-shaped' was a bit of a challenge but I got there in the end.

The grey-and-white-socks cat in my Pillow design is inspired by my own cat Milo. :)

Carina's project. Photo by Vanessa Davies

The first half of the book features 15 projects from (amongst others) my &Stitches pal Carina, Mollie from Wild Olive, Sophie from What Delilah Did and many more embroidery designers. The projects and designs are 'typically' Mollie Makes: charming, fresh, modern but with a retro feel to them. Even a technique that seems a bit outdated (at least to me) like Silk Ribbon Embroidery gets an impressive, new look in Mollie's Pretty Posy Ribbon Runner Project.

Many different embroidery techniques are highlighted in the different projects: from 'free form' hand embroidery to Cross stitch and from Crewel to Stump work.

Mama and Baby Owl by Michelle Galletta. Photo by Vanessa Davies

The second half of the book consists of an extensive 'how to' section (about 80 pages) and many stitches and techniques are explained in words, pictures and with diagrams. Obviously the 'basics' are there but also less obvious stitches and techniques like the Raised Fishbone Stitch and Bargello are included. As is a section about Machine Embroidery, often overlooked in Embroidery books.

I think the great projects and incredibly useful techniques section make this book a 'must' for new embroiderers and more experienced stitchers alike. Mollie Makes Embroidery is published Pavilion Craft (UK) and Interweave (US) and now available in bookstores and in online shops.

Owl

Here's a half-finished Owl for you. With just a few pencil lines on fabric to roughly mark the outline and the eyes, I started embroidering. Although I started this piece stitching a quite natural looking Owl, I added some not non-natural colours along the way and I'm glad I did.

I love owls and a few years back I got to stroke a real owl which was really awesome. Here's a dorky photo of myself with two of the owls from the Owl Centre I visited in the UK :)

Furry Nice Class Reminder

This is my second version of my Polar Bear pattern (see my first version here) because after stitching him on regular fabric  I wanted to try to and embroider him on patterned fabric as well. I chose a rather busy Liberty print. Obviously this Polar Bear is far from finished but I will stitch along with the students of my second Furry Nice Class that starts late September so he definitely will be finished in the next two months.

If you are interested in joining the class too you might want to do that today or tomorrow as the Early Bird discount ($40 instead of $45) expires after tomorrow! Find more info about the class here.

Fabulous and Flossy (and a giveaway too)

While I'm normally more of a 'cat' person, I'm smitten with Flossy the Dachshund! He's an excellent helper when it comes to holding half used skeins of embroidery floss. Flossy the Dachshund was sent to me by Missy of Shoppe Sugar Cookie along with Flossy the Sheep (see photo below). Both are absolutely adorable and it's a shame that I can't store my whole floss collection on Flossy Animals. Missy has lots of other Flossy animals as well in her shop including bunnies!

I'm so tempted to keep both the Flossy Animals but I promised I'd share one of these with you. So Flossy the Sheep is looking for a new home and the good news is that you don't have to have a farm or land to take care of Flossy. Just feed her some thread (or even twine) from time to time and keep her with your other embroidery supplies. I will throw in some floss and possibly other stuff in the envelope as well to make a neat little package for one embroidery-loving winner!

Simply leave a comment on this blog post before Monday the 11th of August, noon (Amsterdam Time) if you want to have a chance of winning Flossy the Sheep (and some other stuff) and let me know why you love embroidery. :)  Be sure to leave a 'trail' (e-mail, link to blog, twitter etc) so I can track you down in case you are the lucky winner.... Good luck everyone!