Today’s challenge

A week or so ago, I mentioned the blue nightie which was found in the WI archive when we were deciding what to take for our Tea and Textiles event next week and I wondered casually if working such a design would be any easier with the benefit of all the tech we have today.  I thought further about it and thought that it could make a good challenge for me to explore the Bernina software and maybe I’d give it a go.

Since then, I’ve been keeping my eyes open for a suitable motif to play with and came across this butterfly on an advert for a class at the Royal School of Needlework.  I did a quick screen shot, saved it into my Dropbox folder and opened it on my Note tablet.

With me so far?

Using the stylus and the sketch app, I did a quick trace and saved it back to Dropbox so I could open it in my Bernina software.

After a couple of false starts and program crashes, I gently worked my way around the shapes, using as many of the inbuilt outline stitches and variations as I could.  It took most of the day to complete, minus a couple of hours at lunchtime to run a work errand and have some lunch in a pub on the way.  But eventually, I was ready to save to a USB stick and take it across to my machine.

All was looking good so far.  I prepped everything ready to embroider and hit the button.

The quality of the stitch and the density which had been automatically generated was very impressive.  Bearing in mind that my previous digitising experience had been ten or more years ago using the POEM software, which needed settings to be made manually, this was pretty amazing.

Clearly I need practice in determining the order of stitching, to avoid those long thread jumps.  Although they’re pretty simple to trim later, there’s still a small end of thread visible (dark thread and a light background makes it obvious, too).  I need to consult my gurus to learn how to insert a thread cut after each shape, perhaps?  But generally speaking, I couldn’t quite believe how well my first scratch design had stitched out.

Perhaps I’ll dare to cut those eyelets later, though I don’t think the other cutwork areas are really viable for cutting at this stage.  But however neatly stitched my butterfly is, however perfect the curves and the alignment of the stitches, it lacks the spirit and the life of both the blue nightie design and the original hand stitched motif where the design came from, don’t you agree?

I will work some more on it.  Maybe resize to make it smaller, more compact and stitch out white on white, to see if that adds class!  I’m not done yet. 

I think, though, I’m rather glad that hand stitching isn’t so easily replicated.  Like live music and home made food, there’s an unmistakeable element of ourselves which we build into the things we create.  Oh, and more than a bit of love, too.

How easy was that?!

No, not stitching out that intricate design on my machine (though I’m working on it), but fixing up some music in my car!  From time to time, I post something here as a record for myself when I know that sooner or later I’ll think “how did I do that?”.  Today is one of those occasions.

So, just recently I was tired of the radio and bored with the playlist of mp3s I had on a USB stick in my car.  I wanted some more music to listen to, some different music. But it’s all on itunes and I wasn’t sure how to retrieve it in a format my car would play.  Mp3?   Mp4?  AAC?  Who knows?  For the second time today, I retrieved a manual and after five minutes searching for the answer, I decided to wing it…

I’d got myself the tiniest of USB sticks to put in my car, thinking that rather than make a playlist as I’d done in the past, I’d simply copy my whole music library onto it and leave it there. 

I began by copying a few tunes over in different formats to see which it would recognise and play.

Answer = All of them!

My next discovery was that a simple highlight – right click – copy in itunes, followed by a right click + paste into a folder on my little USB stick worked perfectly!  No export, so file alterations, no reformatting needed.   Select.  Copy.  Paste.  In no time at all the albums were flying onto that little stick.

I know, it’s not rocket science.  I haven’t done anything mind blowing or life changing.  But for once, isn’t it good to find that a task is simpler and less complicated than it appeared?

Half inch seams are for cissies

When I go to the supermarket I prefer to leave my handbag locked in the boot of my car and just take what I need.  Usually, that’s phone, keys and purse, though if I have a pocket, I’ll take my cards and a bit of cash out and leave my purse in the car too.  When I spotted this small project then, I knew it would be useful.

I had a piece of Kokka Echino fabric I’d bought in Japan which would be ideal, so bought a matching zip yesterday and gathered the ingredients this morning ready to sew.  Knowing my phone is larger than the iphone they’d designed this for, I added an inch and a half all round, including a half inch seam allowance.

I began by embroidering my initial.  Though I’d downloaded the free alphabet in the article into my software, this morning I wanted to focus on my sewing machine and rather than be distracted by the software idiosyncracies, I chose to use one of the built-in fonts.  I soon realised that I’m still not competent enough to work without the book close to hand and in the first half hour needed to refresh my memory of how to centre the design, how to return to the beginning after stopping half way through and yes, how to retrieve a piece of broken thread.  I’m getting good at that last bit.

After lunch I put the bag together.  I quite liked the way this pattern set the zip with a piece of fabric at each end, though preferred the order of working explained by Lisa Lam.

I chose a piece of green/blue tie dyed cotton for the lining, which picked up colours in the fabric and contrasted well with the pink/black/cream.  I enjoyed using the 4D zip foot and the dual feed and turned the whole thing right way out before closing the gap in the lining by hand.  Hmm.  A couple of bulky corners weren’t quite as good as I’d hoped, but I might have a go at poking those out a little more in a minute.

Feeling very pleased with myself, I went to get my phone to give it a try.

Guess what? 

No amount of breathing in.  No squeezing an extra few mm opening on the zip.  Like an Ugly Sister and the Glass Slipper, my phone just would not fit through that opening.

Grrr.  Yes, sweetie, I know, I’d made it so nicely, too.  Double Grrrr.

With a bit of an harrumph, I went back to my sewing table and using the best unpicker in the world I unsewed top and bottom seams and restitched them as close to the edge as I dare.

Of course half inch seams are for cissies.

And you know what?  I suspect the phone in the picture on the project page wouldn’t go into that purse, either.

Out and about

Chance to catch up with a good friend yesterday over lunch in one of our locals.  Having put the world to rights and making the most of the break in the weather, we browsed one or two of our favourite shops in the town before heading home.

Twig always takes the breath away with magical flowers placed in the most unusual settings. 

Rather more conventional flowers today, though.  We couldn’t believe our luck when, having battled the holiday traffic and fierce rainstorms on the M5, we were greeted by dry, almost-sunshine in Taunton.  For once, I wasn’t judging but there as an invited guest, too.

We loved the sempervivum display!

I enjoyed the local craftsmanship, too.  Cute, eh?

Though I’m never sure about chrysanthemums – something about the smell of the leaves, I think.

The flower tent was busy but thankfully, not so much that we couldn’t get close to the exhibits.

This had to be my favourite colour combination though, in just the right proportions, too.

Of course, my Hero had to tolerate my needing to read every comment in the competition tent, though sadly, not everything received any encouraging feedback.

Some entries got more feedback than they wanted, I suspect, having read this list of criticisms.  I don’t think they were written by a WI judge; at least, I hope not!

Last but not least, the best board in the show. 

Clever.

No machine needed

As you might guess, I juggle a few roles and responsibilities in my life and however hard I try, occasionally I drop one of the balls.  It happened earlier in the year when I was supposed to be at one meeting when actually I was at another.  Not only that, I was supposed to have collected Marion too, so one way and another, I had a considerable bit of grovelling to do.

That’s how I came to be standing at the ironing board on a sticky-hot summer morning, not doing my own ironing but making my way through a pile of vintage tablecloths from the Gloucestershire WI archive.  As I stood there, I had a distinct feeling of deja vu.

What treasures Marion has assembled for our Tea and Textiles event, though!  Pieces such as this beautiful linen cushion, worked in a variety of pulled work techniques by one of Carolyn’s close relatives.  Exquisite work, incredibly time consuming to do and stitched to such a consistently high standard.  That the embroiderer offered it as an example for a collection of samples seems surprising to me.  I find myself peering at the label and wondering if it says “lent by” rather than “sent by” – I do hope she wasn’t expecting it back but if she was, perhaps the ongoing admiration for her skills all these years later will be some recompense.

More representative perhaps of the things we “donate” today is this little quilt which lay dormant in the bottom of an archive box.  Yes, it was one of mine, worked in haste with absolutely no heirloom techniques at all as my contribution and creative response to our Big Read.  Funny to come across it again having forgotten all about it.

We weren’t the only ones unearthing bits and pieces from the past.  Whilst we unpacked boxes and gathered treasures, WI secretary Peter was preparing the house for the decorators’ arrival next week.  Removing the coat rack from the wall revealed the changing taste in decor over the last twenty years, too.  I wonder what colour has been chosen for the 2014 layer?  (I hope they leave a little of that flowery wallpaper, just for fun)

With the ironing done, photographs taken and everything sorted for the sold-out event in a couple of week’s time, I stood back and reflected on the skills we are in danger of losing.  I consider myself to have a higher level than many when it comes to needle skills, but my ability to create something of a similar standard to this 100% hand stitched nightie from the 1920s or 30s is doubtful.  Even if my needlework would pass muster, I am certainly lacking in the patience and tenacity needed, that’s for sure.

Could I even create something similar with all the technology and modern materials available to me today? 

Dare I suggest you watch this space? (but don’t hold your breath )