Beading and Embroidering

Here is the picture of the framed Wizard hat.  It was inspired by the description of the Archchancellor of Unseen University's ceremonial hat, written down by Terry Pratchett in his book Sourcery. I stitched in the footnote he had explaining things, and it is where I get my nickname. I am very pleased with the frame, and, for now, the rumpled look works for me.

On to beading. This is a design out of Bead and Button Magazine, the October 2010, Issue 99. It is their cover project, and I liked it because of the textures created by the different beads and the angles they were set in. I had to modify it a bit, as I am using the 4mm cubes, not the 3mm cubes called for, but everything else is the same. I think it looks like a circuit board because of the colors of beads I chose.

Meanwhile, I have purchased Stumpwork and Goldwork Embroidery Inspired by Turkish, Syrian and Persian Tiles by Jane Nicholas (Hardcover - Sep 7, 2010) and the pictures in the book are scrumptious. I mentioned before that I got to take a stumpwork class from her, and she is an awesome teacher, and she had pieces from this book with her, so I got to see the actual  pieces, not just photos. They are even more scrumptious IRL. I am currently waiting on an order from Benton and Johnson of various goldwork supplies, then I am going to order the wires and beads from Jane Nicholas' site, I have embroidery floss (even silks!) and ivory silk dupione, and you know I'll be busy. Speaking of Benton and Johnson, I'd like to post a sincere thank you to one Neil Halford, the ever so nice gentleman who answered a zillion questions for me, promptly and completely. And, I had my answers back the day after I sent the questions. He works for/at Benton and Johnson, and I really appreciated the awesome customer service.

My shoulder is continuing to twinge a bit, but nothing like even a week ago, and the neck seems to be pretty much all better. Hi ho, physical therapy is next.

THE Magpie

Getting back to stitching

After developing a pain in my shoulder that got, in early December, bad enough that it hurt to stitch, not to mention keeping me awake and so was too tired to stitch--and even to think, really, I am getting back to stitching. I also now know what a cortisone shot to the shoulder feels like (actually, not that bad, really, but apparently the orthopedist my husband and I go to puts an anaesthetic together with the cortisone.

Oh, the pain is caused by two things, first, I have a tear in the tendon in my shoulder (could have been a much worse problem, so I am pretty thankful there) and also a pinched nerve in my neck, which is causing way more problems. They took x-rays of my shoulder, and everything looked okay, so I got to get an MRI--weirdly, I tend to fall asleep in them, which considering it is like being inside a jet engine, noisewise, is contradictory to say the least.

Anyway, I am feeling a lot better, and am working on my projects again, or at least one, which was in a beading magazine a few months ago. It is a bracelet done with cubes and seed beads, you daisy chain seed beads around the cubes, and then between the daisies you do an x in a different color of seed beads. I am using cream cubes, green size 11 seed beads, yellow iris metallic size 11 seed beads, and rainbow bronze size 14 seed beads. The yellow iris and rainbow bronze are very similar in color, and the whole thing is a checkerboard of cream, green, and metallic bronze. I'll add a picture once I get one made.

I also have to get a picture of The Hat, framed. I got it back and it is perfect!

THE Magpie

The Angel has Landed--or, I finished my son's angel. Finally!

This is my take on MLI's Angel of Love, which I have seen done in the original colors, and she is quite lovely done in the golds, colonial blues, bronze and brown. But you see, about the time I decided to stitch her, DMC had come out with this glorious set of turquoise blues, for reference, the color numbers are 3844-3846. They were perfect for her cape, and so I decided to change the color, and hey, the golds, bronzes and browns that went into her skirt were still gorgeous with the cape...But the blouse clashed horribly, so I had to change that color, and some of the skirt was done in the blouse colors...I'm sure you can see where this is going. Anyway, I ended up changing pretty much everything, with the exception of her skin, some browns and avocado greens in her cape and vest, and the white of her wings--um, skirt. Because I did her wings in white, but rayon floss rather than cotton, and changed the shadowing to lilac instead of gray. And the darkest shading on the wings I did in a Madeira blending filament that I got at the :-( sadly now out of business yarn and stitching shop called Wild and Wooly.

Here is a picture of the angel as I did her. The current plan is to "wall-hanging" her. I usually make stitched pieces into things other than framed pictures because I am too cheap (err, some say I should say thrifty) to spring for the cost of framing, although I did make an exception for the Arch-Chancellor's Hat due to the vast number of beads and other decorations on it and because it really can't be washed easily. Good news on the angel is that everything is washable, so wall hanging it is. I got some really pretty batik fabric at Seminole Sampler in Catonsville, unfortunately, they only had one fat quarter of the fabric I really liked left. So I am going to get some deep plain blue like the darkest color on her cape, and do a small border of the batik and a second border of deep blue for the hanging.

 This is a closeup of the skirt. I have heard this angel called the "Circuit Board Angel because her skirt looks like a circuit board, but it could also be a crazy quilt. I used sizes 11, 14, and 15 seed beads, mostly from Sundance Beads, with a couple from other sources. The colors of the beads are cobalt AB charlottes in size 15, silver lined light amber AB (Sundance number 634), bronze iris, and green iris in size 14, and in size 11, light blue lined amber AB, silver lined kelly green AB (Sundance number 647), and a matte aqua AB (Sundance number F259B). The rainbow bronze beads were used because they looked so very pretty with the cape blues, and I replaced the original beads used, which were Mill Hill's metallic gold number 557. Oh, and I recently found out that you can get Sundance beads at Bedecked and Bedazzled in Lutherville MD, phone number is 410-296-0405.

 For the halo and aura, I changed the original gold beads and gold metallic thread to Rainbow Gallery's Precious metals Mini Garland (number PM5) and also their Tiara (number T108). The beads in her hair are a bunch of assorted blue and bronze beads, including the rainbow bronze from her skirt, and some very small triangle beads by Miyuki. I also changed the ball she is holding to kind of look like the earth, at which my daughter decided that if everything was to scale, the angel was pretty big.

 The reason this is my son's angel is because when I started her he was around five years old, and after I had finished the face and hair looked at her in awe and said, "Oh, Mommy! That angel is so pretty! Mommy, if you give me that angel, I will hang her at the head of my bead, and every night I'll look at it and think of you." Um. Could I have said no at that point?

This is a piece by Elizabeth Foster, and, for those who keep track, is done in the colors she called for...I guess you could call it a Christmas Miracle. I did notice that the chart and the cover picture are not the same.

For those who work with the public at this time of year, remember that they are suffering from PTSD--Post Thanksgiving Stress Disorder. Not to make fun of those who do have PTSD, myself included, but sometimes if you can laugh at something it makes it easier to bear. And some of the people who go Christmas shopping--Ai! I mean, if it makes you feel that cranky, stay home and don't buy so much. No one needs more stuff as much as they need the gift of a happy person.

Last, but hardly least, I have no affiliation to any of the above named companies or people, aside from attempting to collect as much of their product as I can safely squirrel away in my stash file drawers, dressers, shelves, big and little boxes, etc...

THE Magpie

Oh to be by the Ocean, now that Fall is here

I belong to a group called the Tangle, stitchers of all sorts and ages who get together once a month to stitch and also to show off our stitching. We discussed the twelve steps stitchers might use, but we got to the first one, "We admit we have a problem regarding acquisition of stash", and decided there was no problem there, except for the problem of where to store it all.

Anyway, the Tangle met at Ocean City, and oh did we have fun. I finished two projects, the Jane Nicholas piece and also my Arch-Chancellor's Hat piece. Here is the photo of the Jane Nicholas piece. I think it turned out very well indeed.

This is the first piece of stumpwork where I have done the detached petals and leaves, and I really leapt in at the deep end with this one, as I had five flower petals, four dragonfly wings, three raspberries and two leaves to stitch and cut out. Oh, yeah, there was no partridge and no pear tree, but that might make a cute piece to do in stumpwork, along with the other eleven days of christmas.  I was a bit nervous about cutting out the petals and leaves, but I figured I had done the dragonfly wings, so I went ahead and snipped, but I did take them up to the room and did them in total silence. I think it turned out very well indeed. I am thinking of making an etui (that is a little sewing box that has a lid that you remove and the box kind of falls open like a flower) and putting this piece on the lid.

I also put the last ornamentation on the Arch-Chancellor's Hat, and also wrote in and backstitched the quote from Terry Pratchett's book "Sourcery", "When it comes to Glittering Objects, Wizards have all the Taste and Self-Control of a Deranged Magpie". I also did my initials in a signature that I came up with years ago, which I thought was very cool also. I sign a lot of my pieces this way.

So the only thing left is to get it framed and choose just the right place to hang it. I had a lot of fun with this piece, and if anyone finds this and wants to make their own version, just ask in the comment section and I'll give some pointers--although, really, I just cut out a hat shaped piece of red velvet that I had stored all balled up so that it would get lots of wrinkles in, and started adding shiny and sparkly stuff to it. Actually, I am thinking of doing another hat, this time from black velvet, and making it a flapper's cloche or something of the sort. But first, I have a plumeria flower to design and stitch. Although, maybe the plumeria would look nice on a black velvet cloche... hmmm...

Along with stitching at Ocean City, we also did treks to a shop a couple blocks down the boardwalk that is called Salty Yarns, where I got some new fabric for cross stitching, a couple of kits to stitch up, and the turtle bead on the hat, If you look closely at the picture, you may also notice a small shell just under the blue tassel, it is a shell I picked up on the beach and added as a memento of the trip. I got a couple of chances to sit on the beach and watch the waves as well, which is amazingly calming to the nerves.

THE Magpie

More on the Arch Chancellor's hat

So, I drive two ladies to a bible study at the church we currently attend, and go to the bible study so that they won't feel like I am inconveniencing myself, as neither of them drive, and so I started driving them. This is the church that I was making the altar frontal for, all those flowers. Remember them? Well, the rector asked how they were coming along at the meeting, and I mumbled something non committal which apparently reassured her that they were coming along fine, when what I really should have said, was, "I'm not working on them. I am angry at you, and as a result, any time I work on them my threads knot and break, my imagination goes on vacation, and what started as a joy has become a chore that I avoid, just as I avoid thinking about you. The altar guild should make a set of hangings however they want, waiting on me is silly." It seems that the altar guild has been putting off getting fabric to make a white set of hangings because they didn't know what kind of fabric I would like to sew the flowers onto, as the jacquard that is usually used for hangings and such is very slippery. Anyway, I'll see what happens.

I have reached the point where I can pity her, for her non freedom concerning a lot of things. For me, that is the first step toward being able to feel forgiveness.

On to more cheerful thoughts. The Arch Chancellor's Hat! I have been working on this for a while, and put it aside to give it some thought in the back reaches of the old brain, and then started working on it again. Also got a lot of beads and threads organized, and found (okay, I'll come clean, the reason I was organizing things was because I was looking for them) a quartet of beads that I wanted to put on the hat. They are pressed glass beads, pink, and they are elephants. I have to put them on, as Discworld is a flat planet that rests on the shoulders of four elephants, who are standing on the shell of a giant turtle. Yes, I am going to add a turtle as well. So I was pretty excited about finally finding the elephant beads, I've been looking for them for over a week.

Here is a picture of the hat just before I started adding the elephant beads. I have added two star shaped beads with some purple bugle beads and silver lined gold seed beads trailing off them. I also added some red sequins around the central stones.

THE Magpie

Wizard's Hat embroidery piece

I have been doing some clearing out of the house, which it desperately needs, and unearthed my wizard hat project from my pile of unfinished objects. So here it is, from where I started to where it is now.

 This is a hat shaped piece of velvet I cut out of an old dress that I picked up at a yard sale. I was looking for crushed velvet to do things with, and I love the color red. The floss is actually red also, I blacked it out.

 Here is where I stopped last time I worked on it. I have applied a tassel and a large crystal drop to the tip of the hat, and a large flower crystal surrounded by eight octagonal bermuda blue crystals.

Now I've added some pearl and gold colored braid and also a metallic gold fancy braid to the brim of the hat, and also some fresh water pearls around the octagonal crystals. I still have some way to go before this is as fancy as the hat described in the book, but I am well on my way. The book is Sourcery, by Terry Pratchett, and the hat is described on page 10, if I recall correctly. Readers of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books will understand this next bit best, but gold lace is involved, and ankhstones, which are like rhinestones but a different river. Having been unable to acquire any octarines here, I used octagonal crystals in Bermuda blue in their place. I still need to add sequins, and totally over do the decoration, as the hat is described. Overdoing is necessary, as, "When it comes to glittering objects, wizards have all the taste and self-control of a deranged magpie." Um. Well, now you know where my screen name came from.

Here are the leaves from the Jane Nicholas piece. I decided to do long and short stitch to fill. I have finished filling one of the leaves, and the other is partially filled. Once I finish that, I just have to add the veining, cut them out and apply them.  The masking tape is covering the stems of wire, so that they don't catch on the thread as I stitch, one of the tips that Jane gave us in class.

THE Magpie

Education

I have a daughter in high school. She is bright, loves to learn, is very good at math, reads incessantly, and has the meticulousness that I never had, so she does well in science. She wants to be a veterinarian, with a sideline of exotic pet care. And, she hates to go to school. This is a child who reads everything. Biographies, science texts, every fantasy novel she can lay her hands on. Everything is grist for her brain mill. And I enjoy seeing how it comes back out when she has mulled ideas over in her head.

And she hates to go to school. She hates the incessant homework. The tests. The boredom of it all. This is a child in the accelerated classes, and she is bored.

I have no idea what can be done about that, but I do remember feeling the same way in school. Why isn't learning fun? Why does it always have to be so serious? And why is there such an emphasis on grades, as if they are the reason for the learning? Why can't children learn something just because?

THE Magpie