Embroidery hoops

After a few weeks busily stitching away at lunchtimes, I have now finished all of my embroidery hoops ready for the craft fair! They have been neatened and had their ribbon loops attached and are now ready to be priced and packed away ready for the fair in a couple of months time. 

I used beading needles to attach the tiny pewter beads and sequins as they're thin enough to bend around small spaces.

My favourite is definitely the tiny 'Let it snow' snowflake with its sparkly sequins and beads, and I will look forward to adding more beads and sparkly threads to more of my designs.

I finished my little robin by adding a wooden heart button and stitching his eye with a single strand of black thread. I have't done anything as detailed as an eye before, but it was definitely a case of the thinner the thread the better.

I now have four different sized pieces ready to go, and hopefully sitting alongside my white frames pieces, they'll show the range and development of what I have been working on this year.

Christmas embroidery

Now we have a date for our craft fair, I have taken an inventory of all of my current stock, and have decided to make a few more bits and pieces to add a bit of difference to my stand. After the success my other two pieces that I framed in their wooden hoops, I decided to make two others with Christmas designs.

I drew both of these designs in a pub garden in the blazing August Bank Holiday sunshine (that made a change!) which was a very surreal moment! I know how buyers feel now, having christmas songs and carols chase their way around your head in August.

For my 'Let it snow' piece I purchased some DMC metallic threads in silver and gold and for the main body of snowflake I decided to trace around the outside with two strands of silver. I wasn't sure how bright it was going to be but I love the metallic shimmer it has given to my snowflake, it's going to look so cute when it's finished!

For my robin I used a slightly bigger hoop and have used a variety of stitches to give him texture.
I want to use a curved blanket stitch on his front to mimic his feathers and I am in the process of using a seed stitch on the cream parts of his body to add a different texture.

Each piece will be framed in its hoop with a piece of ribbon attached at the top for hanging. I love the thought they could be hung anywhere, but if you had a large enough Christmas tree I really like the thought they could be hung against some dark green foliage to make them stand out. 

Bunting, bunting and more bunting!

Whenever I get some time off, I love raiding my fabric stash and creating more fluttery country-chic bunting. I managed to create seven strings of bunting from what I had in my stash (and yet you still never have enough fabric...!) then laid it all out on the floor, took photographs and made notes to make sure I didn't forget the combinations, sizes and dimensions.

I decided to start with the longest piece of bias binding that I had and ironically for this time of year my brightest and most spring-like combination! Hopefully it will brighten up any dark days of winter ahead and remind us of the sunny and scorching days that we have had this year.

If every picture tells a story, I have a lot of stories!

Today I have been working on framing up all of the embroidered pieces I have been working on over the last year. I got in touch with Knuston Hall earlier this week and we now have a date for the craft fair in December! It gives me just over three months to get everything finished and finalised to make sure everything is ready to go.

I started with my smallest pieces, and framed my #girlboss and #goddess pieces in their small gold frames. I decided to hide the back using some decorative wrapping paper and then added the label to give a more professional finish.

When I was framing my slightly larger piece of embroidery, I didn't need the mount that it came with, however it came in very handy for neatening up the back and once fixed into place under the metal prongs I was able to add my label and the piece was finished.

Keeping with the idea of using the redundant mount to tidy up the back, I used the same process with my white frames. I stretched the calico over the wooden back-board, making sure that it was taught in all directions and evenly spaced so that the embroidery was central. I used double-sided sticky tape to keep the fabric in place, and then a multi-purpose PVA to stick down the corners and anchor any stray fabric. 

A couple of my embroidery designs have been circular, and it seemed a little silly to frame them in a square. I have seen this technique everywhere this year, so I decided to try framing a couple of pieces in a wooden embroidery frame. I placed the design in the hoop, made sure it was central and then pulled it taught, making sure that it was done up tight so it didn't slip.

I then turned the piece over and trimmed the excess fabric using pinking shears, leaving about 1.5cm all the way around. I then folded this over the frame and glued it in place using a multi-purpose PVA glue.

I attached a ribbon and voila!

A lovely piece of embroidery framed and ready to hang wherever you want. I love the slightly more casual feel of this frame, and the way you can hang it around your home more informally than if you had a rigid wooden frame.

All in all today I framed about 14 pieces of artwork, including all of my embroidered pieces and a few other pictures I have collected over the year. My cute badger lino print will sit on a shelf in our bedroom, the poster from the 'Femmes en Dior' exhibition in Granville, France was a present from my parents and will hang in the hall and our travel rail poster and Tower Bridge scene are going in our living room, it's great to get them all out on display and shown off to their full potential!

Stitching, embroidery and framing

I'm getting on well with the stitching designs for my new logo! I finished the wreath first, and then added the text afterwards. This is so I have two versions to play with my my logo, with or without the lettering. I'm also creating a long stitch name just on its own so I could use this separately as well. I know I could just digitally cut out the the text from the middle of my frame but I like the idea of having a separate piece of text as well.

Now it's all completed I have left it in the frame, trimmed away the excess fabric and attached a piece of my favourite striped ribbon to the top to hang it up. Here it will hang in my little picture gallery until I'm ready to work with it again!

I've been enjoying experimenting with new stitches recently, and I used french knots to fill in the centre of my dandelion. I love the texture against the straight and star stitch.

It's typical, when you're trying to form a knot with your thread they just keep slipping out, but if you're trying to avoid them they crop up all over the back of your fabric! 

I've now got quite a few pieces that are ready to be framed and I've also bought myself a few more wooden embroidery hoops to experiment with framing in a different way. I plan to do a couple of Christmassy pieces ready for some craft fairs, but then my next project will be to start embroidering everything for the wedding table centrepieces, very exciting! 

The graphic art of Harry Potter

This weekend I was incredibly lucky as for my birthday I was taken to go and see Harry Potter and The Cursed Child Parts One and Two at The Palace Theatre in London. It was a fantastic show and we both enjoyed it so much, and it took me straight back to my childhood and how much I loved (and still love!) Harry Potter now.

Whilst we were waiting to go into the theatre we were handed a leaflet about a Harry Potter exhibition just around the corner from the theatre, and in the break between parts we decided to go and take a look.

The bold and vibrant flyer

You know when you stumble over an absolute gem of something you hadn't expected and it makes the experience just so much better, that was exactly how I felt about the House of MinaLima at 26 Greek Street. MinaLima is a graphic design collaboration between two incredible graphic artists Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima (excellent witch and wizard names if ever I heard any!) who for the past 15 years have been collaborating on the graphics for the world of Harry Potter including Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

This fuchsia-fronted shop contains four floors of exceptional pieces of artwork from the film, including the original Marauder's Map that was actually used during The Prisoner of Azkaban. Even the staircases and floors are covered in pieces and it makes the whole house a tribute to the world of Harry Potter.

1920's style posters from Fantastic Beasts

Wanted posters and Daily Prophet pages

Weasley's Wizard Wheezes posters and packaging

For more information, here's a link to the website - http://store.minalima.com/house-of-minalima/

Great British Food Festival at Kelmarsh Hall

Today we went to go and show my Maid of Honour and her boyfriend around our magical wedding venue so we could show them what it looked like before the big day, but this time it was coupled with  the Great British Food Festival! Held on the other side of the lake from the house it was chock-full of tasty food vendors from all over the country. Having learnt from previous food festivals if we wanted to try anything we bought one and shared it, thus leaving us lots of room for many samples and tastings! Here a a few of my favourite snaps from the day.

https://www.tastecard.co.uk had these gorgeous little sheep dotted around.

The clouds may have looked ominous but it was a warm, breezy and beautiful day, perfect for a food festival.

Our first taste: Oreo cheesecake, yum!

I absolutely love this trend of converting unusual spaces into bars and food trucks. Look at this gin bar that has transformed a horse box! So chic and stylish.

And this army truck has been perfectly converted into a bar. The utilitarian green / grey paint and handmade sign all add to its charms.

No food festival would be complete without a few witty puns about sausages...!

Who could say no to churros with cinnamon, sugar and chocolate dipping sauce!

Cheese, bacon, bread and butter, Viva La Toastie had all of our favourite foods in one bite!