Shades, shapes and texture

In the past week I've been mainly working on two projects. One is a new pattern which I will share when it's completely done. All I can say that it's a winter-y one this time. The other project is my 'Big French Knot Project'.

I use a lot of different shades of red and pink (and some other colours too) in this project. From dusky pinks to deep berry shades and from bright reds with a hint of orange to the 'classic' DMC 321 red. My Colour (or rather Shade) Chaos Theory is that if you put a lot of different shades of one colour range together it can work. Just Dusty Pink next to Christmas Red looks horrible but if you add another eight (non-matching shades) in the mix it's ok. At least in my book. This photo below doesn't really proof my point but once it's finished and you can see the whole picture I hope you will see my point too :)  This project is about shades, shapes and texture and I find it really refreshing to work on something completely different than my 'usual' stuff.

Most of the colours I use are from DMC (the regular six stranded floss) but I also used some very bright Sublime Stitching Floss Red and a very deep Anchor Purple.

I'm about halfway with my French Knot project (this is just a detail pictured here) and I think I will be taking it with me to the &Stitches Picnic in London this Saturday (check the details here, it's free and if the weather is terrible than we have a roofed alternative!). I'm very much looking forward to visiting London again and meeting up with some of my UK based Embroidery Friends. I also hope to squeeze in some visits to crafty stores and museums. If you know any good crafty stores in or near Central London, let me know! :)

Lego Man: a trusty assistant

During the winter it can be hard to make good photos for my the blog and my class because of the lack of natural daylight. But this afternoon it was not too dark and grey so I immediately got the camera out to take some photos. I'm lucky to have my trusty assistant 'Lego man' (Luna calls him 'Hair loss man' because he keeps losing his hair) to hold the various flosses. Here he's testing the nap of the floss with his right hand. :) 

This week: silk thread and how I work

This week this seriously luscious floss arrived in the mail. It's Soie D'Alger Silk Embroidery Thread and at GBP 3.15 (over 5$) per 5 meter skein I only allowed myself to just buy a few skeins. If I really (like: realy, really) like this thread I can always gradually add more to my stash.  

The colours of this 7 stranded floss are beautiful (at least the ones I chose) and it's amazingly soft. I did a little try out yesterday on my long running 'Bear & Fish' project (the flower in the background) but thought my shading looked a bit chunky so I need to experiment a bit more to be able to give you the full verdict on this floss. I do think it is quite easy to work with it, comparable with regular six stranded embroidery thread. 

Earlier this week I was featured on the Mr. X. Stitch blog.  The lovely Olisa interviewed me about my inspirations and my design (and stitch) process. Hope you will enjoy reading about how I work. :) 

More Tiny Hedgehog progress: Apple and Fluorescent Scarf

Normally I wouldn't post two times in a row about the same project but I made quite some progress with my Tiny Hedgehog this week and wanted to share it here on the blog.  As you may have noticed the Tiny Hedgehog now holds an Apple in his tiny paws (or paw as I still need to add the other paw) and I also added a rather fashionable scarf!

I'm fairly happy with how the Apple turned out, especially considering the tiny size of it. Actually the Apple is a bit tiny even for this Tiny Hedghehog! Luckily my Instagram friends came up with a solution for this oddity: either it's a Crabapple or the Tiny Hedgehog is actually a Giant Hedgehog holding a normal sized apple. :)

I think the scarf (it's an infinity scarf can you tell?) is a real eye catcher with the fluorescent accents. I was unsure when I added the yellow neon colour but now I'm happy I went for a less obvious choice of colour.

I have had these two Fluorescents Flosses (try saying that quickly 10 times in a row!) for a few years now and they are stored in my Floss Cabinet in a Ziploc bag with other less regular threads like DMC Jewel and Pearlescent effect floss. These fluorescent flosses are a bit easier to use than other metallic like threads (check Carina's Glitter Floss compare post!)  but, as you can see in the photo, they tend to split instantly. However.... I was able to do a pretty passable Satin Stitch with it so it was worth the extra 'trouble'.  :)  DMC Light Effect Fluorescent Floss is most commonly sold in packages with four other Fluorescent Colours. 

If you like my Furry Creatures in Stitches you might be interested in the online Embroidery class I"m launching later this year. Send me an e-mail (big red button on the right) if you want to be added to the special Furry Nice Mailing List. :) 

p.s. as you may remember I'm stitching my Hedgehog project for the &Stitches Finish-Along. There's still plenty of time to join in! 

Stitched Blooms Blog Tour & Giveaway

My embroidery friend Carina has a book out soon (early October) called Stitched Blooms and I'm very happy to take part in the Stitched Blooms blog tour!* Stitched Blooms has 300 floral motifs to embroider: floral borders and corners, folk art flowers, leaves, nature's blooms etc etc. all in Carina's admirable signature style. A lovely alliance of pretty colour combinations and Scandinavian folk design.

In addition to the motifs, the book also features 20 projects, some require (easy) sewing and in other cases store bought items were embellished with Carina's lovely designs. These will give you lots of ideas of how to use the motifs.

One of my favourite projects is this embroidered duvet cover, so simple and elegant!

And who can resist a Dala horse?

The 'basics' part of the book covers everything you need to start stitching; from information about scissors, hoops and ways to transfer a pattern to an overview of different types of knots to start your embroidery. The stitch glossary includes the basic stitches but also a few others like the Maidenhair stitch (which I happen to like a lot).

Carina shares some great content about the use of colour in this book, with tips on how to explore use of colour in your own embroidery work. For example by getting out of your colour 'comfort zone'. Something I should do more often too!

Stitched Blooms comes with a cd with all the project templates and motifs featured in the book. You can import motifs into an image manipulating program (such as GIMP) change their size, flip them and combine the motifs to make your unique design. The possibilities are endless. I added my daughter's name (lettering is from the program not the cd) and I think this would make a lovely design for a hand stitched personalized gym bag!

I think this book is a great resource of 'scandi' floral motifs for stitchers of all skill levels. The informative 'basics' part of the book makes it an excellent starting point for beginning embroiderers and many stitchers can benefit from the wonderful pages about the use of colour. Find more information about the book, the blog tour, reviews and places to get your copy here.

I'm very happy to be able to share a copy of Stitched Blooms and 7 skeins of fabulous embroidery floss with one of my readers in my Stitched Blooms Giveaway! Leave a comment on this post before the 1st of October 2013 and tell me what item you would love to embellish with Carina's motifs.  Comments are closed, winner will be announced later today 2/10/13 Be sure to leave a 'trail' (e-mail, link to profile with e-mail etc) or check back here on the 2nd of October so I can get in contact with you should you be the lucky winner.

The floss colours the lucky winner receives could be different from those on the photo above but will definitely be among Carina's favourites.  Good luck everyone!




*The publisher Lark Crafts sent me a copy for review and lets me share the book and floss with you. 

Colour inspiration: London

On my recent trip to London I picked up a gorgeous set of Liberty of London Fabrics. I took one of the fabrics as a starting point to make a London inspired floss combination. First I put together a set that was a near exact match with the colours used in the fabric but that didn't work for me. So I 'toned down' some of the colours and ended up with (from left to right) DMC six stranded floss no's  471, 321, 826, 829 and 728.  To me this palette is 'London' translated in embroidery floss colours!

Cool Colours

While I was browsing through the photos I made this year and stumbled upon this Polar Bear & floss pic. The cool palette suits the current weather conditions perfectly as we had our first snow of the season today. Much to the amusement of my kids (snowball fights) and the cat (watching snowflakes from her comfy and warm spot on the kitchen radiator).

I made the Polar Bear photo for the Scandinavian Issue of &Stitches (available here!) for our 'Colour by Numbers' feature, but we chose to use the other picture (the Danish Teacup you see in my header) I made. Anyway, the top one of the six-stranded flosses in this photo is a favourite of mine. No. 747 is one of the most wonderful icy blue colours DMC has to offer: a cool blue with a hint of mint... The floss in the middle is a subtle silvery grey colour (DMC 762) and the mid shade of blue is DMC 598.  

And if you are looking for a project to use these shades, check out this wonderful free 'woven' star pattern Carina posted on the &Stitches blog.

I have a winter-y freebie pattern on the &Stitches blog early next week.

Wishing you all a fun and crafty weekend! 

Sublime Floss

I'm sure by now you have all heard about the launch of Sublime Floss ?  Well I got a surprise package of flossy treats in the mail from Sublime Stitching a couple of days ago and I couldn't wait to go and try them out! You should know that while I got the floss for free there was no obligation to write about it or whatsoever. I just wanted to share my experience using Sublime Floss with you all here.

I must admit that it felt like Christmas had started really early here when I opened the envelope and all nine cute packages fell on my kitchen table. Each package holds a palette of 7 different colours six stranded floss with perfectly chosen names. 'Frosting' is supersweet, 'Portrait' is perfect for embroidering skin and hair, 'Parlour' (my favourite) has rich, intense shades with names like 'Absinthe' and 'Velvet Curtain'. I totally admire that kind of approach: colours and names that evoke feelings and images, I'd like to call it emo-floss! :)

The so called 'Mingles' floss (see photo above) is a novelty in the embroidery floss world. If you like to blend your threads (which I must admit rarely do) than these are pre-blended for you.

So I spent a day or so stitching a cute Fennec Fox I had in my sketchbook using Sublime Floss. Now I started out with the idea of using only one palette of colours to make a simple embroidery but I ended up using colours of several of the palettes and another furry fill stitched creature. I'm very much used to choosing from a huge set of colours and shades so it was a real challenge but I think I managed quite well! Mind you this Fennec fox fella is only 1.5 inches (ears and all) high so it's quite detailed for it's size.

The floss itself looks skinnier than my usual six stranded floss and felt slightly less silky but still soft to handle. It has a nice modest sheen to it. Usually before I thread a needle I run my thumb and index finger along the thread to feel which way is 'up' and should go through the eye of the needle first. I found that kind of hard with some of these threads, not sure why that is. I used 1-3 strands on most bits of my Fennec Fox embroidery, except for the 'branch' which is stitched with the 'Lilac twist' from the 'Mingles' collection. From the 'Taffy Pull' collection I used various shades within the 'Blueberry' and 'Grape drink' variegated skeins to create the impression of having different shades of one colour. 

For the kind of very detailed stitching I have been doing lately this floss may not be the most obvious choice but I can definitely see the advantage of having ready to go, well chosen palettes with gorgeous colours for lots of other types of embroidery. The instant palettes, unique approach and attractive packaging makes the product practically irresistible. So besides treating yourself to some flossy happiness, these would be great to give to aspiring young embroiderers. Paired with some cool patterns and a hoop and needle and they are good to go. (I already saw my daughters checking out the cute packages and pretty colours!) You can even use it to make friendship bracelets (just in case the embroidery thing doesn't work out)  I also would like to add that I think it's a great accomplishment for a small company like Sublime Stitching to come with their own brand of floss. Well done, Jenny!

Experimental stitching and LIttle Tiger winner

The wonderful selection of floss I received from DMC Creative  has given my embroidery and design work a huge impulse this year. I think it helped and inspired me to refine my design style and embroidery techniques. 

Among the goodies I received there were also these bright colours:  

The label on the yellow and green floss says Fluorescent Effects. The light coloured floss in the middle is Glow in the dark floss. Now these are not colours or flosses that I would normally go for but at the same time I'm kind of drawn to them as well. I always like to try new things, so today I thought I would just go and try the 'crazy flosses' out on a free form embroidery type of thing. In a stroke of genius (ahem..) I chose this dark charcoal coloured cross hatch fabric. A perfect backdrop for the bright colours I think.

I have only just started but the first thing that really impressed me was how soft the Glow in the Dark floss feels. I have a set of other Glow in the Dark floss that feels hard and is difficult (read: near impossible) to make neat stitches with.  This particular floss feels more like Satin Floss (or the old DMC Rayon Floss) so it's a little silkier than your regular six strand floss. Even making French Knots was not a problem at all.  The Fluorescent flosses were equally easy to handle.

As far as I know these are the only colours available in the DMC Neon/Glow in the dark section of the catalogue and for my free form embroidery I really needed some more colour so I have added (bright) six stranded floss as well.  I will keep you up to date with the progress of this piece, unless it turns out not so great ;)

Thank you to all who left a comment on my most recent giveaway. I so enjoyed reading about your favourite tree ornaments. :)  Winner of the totally adorable Little Tiger pattern from Joey's Dreamgarden is commenter no.3 which is Em. Congratulations Em!  If you are looking for a cute and beautifully handmade gift a visit to Joey's shop is a must.

& thank you Joey for contributing to my 500th blog post celebration!

Fancy Floss Storage

IKEA calls my new floss storage place HELMER: Drawer Unit on casters but I prefer to call it my Floss Cabinet. It's perfect if you have a rather large floss stash that you mainly keep in skeins (not on bobbins). I keep scissors and needles and such in the top drawer and one drawer is reserved for current projects. The other four drawers are filled with floss (still in the zip locks in which I stored them previously). 

Many thanks to all the sweet crafty folk who offered to make my little Pindsvin something (read the details here). As you can see in the photo below my Pindsvin stuffy is not finished yet, but I'm making good progress. The quills are quite a lot of work and I had to order some more felt to finish his spiky 'do'. :) 

So...for the peeps that are going to knit/sew/craft something for this little fella: I will put together a fact sheet with Pindsvin's measurements etc in the next couple of weeks so he won't end up with a tiny scarf and a huge bag or something ;) I'd really like to have your e-mail addresses so if I can't get in touch with you via your comment: please send me an email with your name and project. Thanks! 

On the 18th of October the new  &Stitches e-zine is out. In the next week me and Carina are busy putting the final touches to this fabulous fourth issue which is all about Scandinavia! A theme that is dear to my heart as I have lived in Norway for a couple of years and have fond memories of my time there. Anyways...do check out the &Stitches blog  this week (and we'd appreciate a follow there too!) because this week it's Scandinavian Week. We have a giveaway, a free pattern and sneak peeks of the (fab!) new issue. Hope to see you all there!  

Boss of Floss (Sorting part two)

After reading all the encouraging comments to my Sorting post yesterday (thank you!), I  immediately felt motivated to do something about The Floss Situation.  So yesterday evening and this morning I spent a total of about 3 hours sorting floss that wasn't already more or less organized in one of my floss boxes. I found floss in other boxes, baskets, project bags, my wip basket and cabinets.  Pictured above is just the white and cream floss I found. Clearly I'm worried about running out of white floss because I found about 6 new skeins of DMC Blanc!

Judging from yesterday's comments, zip lock bags are the best choice for holding your stash.  These were just ones I had on hand, not clever ones with a hole in so I can put them on a ring, but it's a start! And while I was sorting my floss I also found many many WIP's (some really nice ones too!), about ten needles, all the parts of my two Q-snap frames and three embroidery scissors. :)

Surely I deserve to wear this pin now?

Sorting

I was reading a post on BariJ's blog yesterday about organizing your embroidery stuff. I'd love to be organized (I want to write that word with an 's' instead of a 'z' but Blogger doesn't let me!) but I'm pretty hopeless at it, as the photo shows. Even the cat looks a bit lost...And this is just one of my craft hang outs in the house. The books, patterns and the hoops are not the biggest problem. The Floss is...My Floss stash continues to grow and I'm kind of fed up with winding all the skeins on bobbins. I'm also a very messy stitcher and don't want to worry too much about numbers and bobbins while I'm creating. So I'm thinking of just sorting skeins on colour (roughly) and put them in little baskets or zip locks, would that work?  I actually would love to own one of those awesome vintage DMC cabinets (like this one) to store my floss but the prices for those on Ebay are just way too high! I guess for now I will just invest in a pack of zip locks instead. ;)

Perfect match

Nearly done with this cute Penelope Waits pattern and I'm so very happy with the colour I chose for the lettering! It's a hand dyed variegated floss and the colour is called 'cedar'. (Click on the photo to see the different colours) Very fitting for a Bear/Woodland themed embroidery, right? Because the Bear is stitched in only one colour, I thought the variegated floss would add a little more interest to the embroidery. I bought the floss in this Etsy shop a couple of years ago. I don't see this particular colourway there anymore but there are lots of other pretty variegated flosses to check out.

Floss Revolution

Yesterday I realised that I really needed to buy some new floss soon because my floss boxes were beginning to look very empty... The thing is that I don't like buying new floss very much because I don't know what flosses I have, what I need and what I want to complete the DMC collection (I mean: who wouldn't want to own all of DMC's six stranded flosses? I know I do!). Also, I'm not a person who makes lists and I'm not great at keeping track of my stuff.

My floss is (sort of) sorted by colour. Or rather was  sorted by colour because I did something drastic today! Floss Revolution! I took out all of the bobbins and put them in order of DMC number. Crazy, I know...because it is widely known that the DMC numbers seem  are kind of random sometimes. So putting them in order by their number doesn't not result in a very organised looking box, colourwise. You might find a grey shade, next to a brown one, and a green floss next to that. But I do know now how many different colours of DMC floss I have (168 and with the ones I ordered yesterday about 200), what I don't have (200+) and which ones I have several times. Apparently I really like 166 and 3766. :)

And from now on I'll probably use my Great Book of Flosses to choose colours for my embroidery work and I will be able to find them easily in my newly organised floss box! 

If you want to learn a bit about the history of DMC floss, read this great post on the Mr.X Stitch blog.

P.S. I'm not being sponsored by DMC or anything (wish I was!), it's just the floss I used most (but not exclusively I have some Anchor too)

The Book of Flosses

I almost always buy all my embroidery floss online. And it wasn't until I was in an actual brick and mortar craft shop that I learned about *insert dramatic tune*.... The Book of  DMC Flosses. Well it's officially called 'Color card' but I like the title *insert dramatic tune*....The Book of DMC Flosses more. Anyway, if you haven't seen it before: it's a big  folder kind of book with all the Mouline (six stranded) DMC flosses, the Light Effects Flosses, Pearl Cottons, Color Variation Flosses and Metallic Pearl Flosses. It has the actual floss in so you can really see what the floss colour is like. Obviously I got very enthousiastic about it and, being the optimistic person that I am, thought it was free. It's not free, it's actually quite expensive. In my local shop it was about 25 euros, which is over 35$! Eventually I bought one for a more reasonable price on Ebay and now I can order floss online and know what colours I'm ordering. :) Still dreaming about owning the whole set of 470 something flosses though...in whole skeins that is, not tiny fragments stuck in a crazy expensive folder.

This week I shall try and do a better job of my Embroidery Stitch Challenge. I'm going to give the Chained Feather Stitch (#5) a go in the next couple of days. Have not even checked my usual little library if it's described in one of the books so I'm not quite sure exactly how challenging it will be.

Thanks to all the peeps who entered the Giveaway so far. You can still enter this one until this Sunday! Have a great weekend all.

Politics, Peeps and things

It has been quiet on the blog this week. Partly because I am still not all that well and this week my laptop decided it didn't feel too well either and refused to start up. I'm now using our 'old' computer which is incredibly slow. So all that is slowing me down a bit. The good thing about my broken laptop is that in the evening (when it's too dark to stitch) I read quite a bit. I am now reading Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book and it's actually a fun, very well written book to read (even if the title doesn't sound like much fun). I have also been watching some debates on television because today there are elections in the Netherlands. Unlike other countries we have many political parties over here: about 20 or something! A great deal of them are very small though and there is even a Pirate Party. Not sure if it's a good thing if for the next 4 years our country is being led by a guy with a parrot on his shoulder shouting 'har har' all the time. ;)

Still busy working on the Castle Peeps patterns! I love how new and bright colours have made their way into my floss box due to this project. I do tend to use the same colours over and over again and this will absolutely influence colour choices for future embroidery projects.

There's a whale in the moon when it's clear...

...and a bird on the tide...

While I still spend many hours on the couch (thanks every one for the sweet well wishes and comments on my last post!) I pulled my Fish and Bird embroidery from my WIP basket. It's quite an experimental piece. And it still needs lots of fill stitches and obviously the bird needs a pair of legs as well!

I'm adding some darker shades now to the sea and sky to create a more 'dramatic' contrast because all the grey-ish and grey/green-ish tones made it look a bit bland. Also I don't want the whale to look 'furry' so I'm using subtle shade changes which will hopefully make it look a bit smoother.

The floss sorting is almost done (well the DMC anyway) and it turns out I actually don't have that big a stash of floss. I would really want to get my hands on some Cosmo/Lecien floss as well, it's supposed to be so good! I heard it's pretty expensive though but if anyone knows a good online source for it please let me know. :)

Pea Green Boat

Last week I found a plain white pillowcase in the heaps of (clean!) laundry and I felt it would look much better with an owl and a pussycat in a Pea Green Boat embroidered on it. I got out my new Sulky pen this morning and (because it transfers the image reversed of course) I simply turned around my printed pattern and traced the lines (which could be clearly seen on the back) with the Sulky pen. Ironed it on the pillowcase and I was impressed with the clear result. The lines were quite 'fat' (as you can see in the photos below) so it's maybe not ideal for delicate embroidery patterns but for this pattern it was perfect!

I choose DMC 470 to embroider the Pea Green Boat. In the photo I tried to capture a back stitch and

...a row of back stitches.  Looking very much forward to seeing your Owls & Pussycats!

I'm planning to include more stitching info and photos with my new patterns as well. At the moment I'm quite busy writing a piece about how to stitch Animal Furs which will go with the Sleeping Fox Pattern. After that I'm planning an Alphabet Tree Pattern (boy version) and I'm almost finished drawing a fun summer-y  pattern as well. 

I enjoyed the Owl and Pussycat pattern so much that I'm curious which other Nursery Rhyme Pattern you would like to see from me? (ehm...not sure if that would be a freebie though!)

Sunday stash # 16 Hand dyed embroidery floss

I'm not sure if you can call this a stash technically speaking but I'm very excited about this lovely hand dyed embroidery floss so I could not wait to share them with you. Next Sunday Stash I will show you a proper fabric stash I promise. Anyway I bought this floss in this Etsy shop. With floss names like Ceder, Moonlit sky and Fairyland.you can't go wrong can you? I can't wait to use these!

Sunday stash #9 Floss Bouquet

No worries, this is not all of my floss, just my recently ordered skeins! :) As soon as I find my embroidery cards I will add them to the rest of the floss family. I invested in a lot of browns this time because I found I had a serious lack of those in my floss stash. I also need to buy another box because I'm afraid my current box cannot hold all of my floss with these 50 added.

Thanks for all your thoughts on my shop name, I think I will keep the shop name as it is for now. On Etsy it's easy to change your shop name, but you can't change your user name. I chose my Etsy name, Kloin, when I had no intentions of selling only buying so I didn't think about it too long. Kloin is my nickname from my teens, it's an anagram of Nicole in alternative spelling (Nikol). All the other names I use have at least a Bunny connection: Polka Dot Bunny (Flickr and Crafster), Chezbunny (in my Flickr photostream url) and Follow Bunny (Twitter). Why Bunny I hear your ask? My husbands last name has 'Bunny' or 'Rabbit' in it in Dutch.