Madame Purl » Embroidery

Parrot Progress

Madame Purl — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 04:34:13 +0000

Yes… I had plans to have it done by the New Year, but alas not quite yet. However, still going along swimmingly.

Mellerstain Parrot Crewel Kit – from Crewel Work. If you’re curious this is the house where the original hangs. This is just a small part of the original tapestry. I have another small part to work for a pillow – the Stag - and a larger fire screen one to work as well after this one.

The Parrots Return

Madame Purl — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 19:39:22 +0000

The parrots have been taking a break for far too long and I decided it was time to get them out again and work on them. I’m nearly at the 50% mark now, which is a good thing.

This is the top section that I finished. Next up – the berries.

This is the full shot – I stuck it in the big hoop.

I think I’ve mentioned it before but I’m a member of CyberStitchers. A great online embroidery group. My closest group is Madison and it’s not far, but sometimes too far to go for just a meeting. Well, I was reading through the daily digest of mail and noticed an online embroidery shop was going out of business and everything was 40% off – but their original prices were so good it’s really more like 50% off.

So I noticed they had a Crewel tab and wouldn’t you know – they had Crewel Work Company kits. Then if that wasn’t enough to send me into a tizzy – they had the matching pillow – the stag – to my parrots and the full Mellerstain fire screen kit, which I would frame. All three pieces are a matched set. They also had another lovely pillow (Jacobean Rhaposdy) and that flew into my cart as well. It’s more advanced, but I figure after I stitch the other kits and the ones I bought over the summer – I’ll be ready. I think they were all in stock because I didn’t get an email saying they weren’t, but I’ll find out next week when I get my order and let you know.

The Parrots Return

Madame Purl — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:01:55 +0000

Slowly.

I have not been a slacker though… much. Coming soon – Lace weight handspun yarn (I think 550 yards – but I need to put it through the meter), a pair of socks, and a slug.

Another Parrot Update

Madame Purl — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:00:16 +0000

Moving along… I was able to finish the leaves in the area, the beak, and the eye. I especially like the way the beak turned out.

I then switched to do the leaves and acorns in the corner. You can see I went wild again with the French knots.

The Parrots Continue

Madame Purl — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 14:24:07 +0000

This project is really addictive. The leaves are getting easier and the acorns… don’t get me started on the acorns. Those are so much fun, I couldn’t put this down until 1 am last night. I absolutely love the french knots.

Now let me tell you about my MagEyes. These are the. Best. Invention. Ever. Yes, I know not stylish and the band is a bit loose on my head, so I wear it like a head band. But – What it lacks in style it makes up for in usefulness. OMG! This thing is incredible. I don’t know if I will stitch without it again. I was able to go so much faster not having to guess where the stitch goes. I was able to see it so much clearer and I just have the low setting in. I have fairly decent vision, but my eyes would get tired focusing and squinting… last night my eyes did not get tired. The best part is you can look up and then refocus quickly when you look down. It’s so much smoother than my little clip-on lenses I was trying — and so much more comfortable.

I knew I needed something, so I did my research on these and by the rave reviews I knew these were the ones I wanted to try. I went to Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and Jo-Anns and they weren’t stocked anywhere, they had the other brand but these got the good reviews, so I ordered them from a vendor on Amazon and they were worth the few days wait. They had two choices – I picked the regular view, but they have higher magnify lenses if you need it.

A Leaf, A Berry and A Stem

Madame Purl — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 23:34:40 +0000

Well as you can see I’m still working on my Parrots. I finished a leaf, a stem and re-did the berry.

If you notice I also fixed the wing on the lower right hand corner – in the white. It looks much more robust now.

The Wing

Madame Purl — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 03:49:26 +0000

So back to English Crewel… I finished the wing.

Of course now that I look at this picture I notice that it needs just one more stitch in the upper right hand corner. I will get that next and then instead of finishing the beak and eye right this moment, I’m going to do some more acorns and leaves before I forget how. I’m really enjoying this crewel piece and it’s just like painting with wool. You should have seen all the ladies studying their canvases figuring out where to place their next stitch. I look at the needle as a paint brush.

I didn’t get a chance to do any fiber anything today because Mom sent me home with a bunch of plants. Of course we had to pull some weeds and trim some things back, so DH and I spent the evening in the Garden of Evil — which is the name I feel it really deserves. There we go, I always wanted a house with a name and now it has one. Maybe I should have a sign made – Welcome to the Garden of Evil.

As promised I have to show you the two discontinued kits that I just had to have from the class. This one I can see hanging on the wall of the bedroom and I jumped on it when I heard it was discontinued.

I know when I get into something. I really get into it and I couldn’t pass this one up. I can see it as a pillow and well since it was discontinued… it had to come home too.

English Crewel

Madame Purl — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:18:12 +0000

I just got back from a fabulous weekend. Last Wednesday I headed out to my hometown – Detroit - for a dual purpose visit. I got to see my Mom and I got to take a fabulous 2-day workshop with Phillipa Turnball. It was hosted at the Edsel and Eleanor Ford house, which is designed after a Cotswold cottage, so we had the right setting for English Crewel for sure.

Phillipa and her lovely assistant Harry started off Thursday night on a lecture on 17th century crewel work. Their knowledge is incredible and I will be checking out some books on the time period to learn more. One thing is we learned about a little competition going on all of you designers maybe interested in – through the Worshipful Company of Broderers. The prize is quite nice if you win, so please check out the competition here.

Friday we picked out our kits – I picked out the Mellerstain Parrots, which is designed to complement the fireplace screen by the same name. We started working some more complex stem stitches, shading stitches, and ended with some laid work. Saturday we continued on and did a acorn in satin stitch, learned a lovely French knot which was my favorite, and a fly stitch.

Mom worked till 8pm every night, so I picked up take-out for us and went about working on my piece more. I’m having so much fun with this, after I recuperated a bit from the long drive last night, I picked it back up and worked some more tail stitches in satin stitch.

So a few things I’ve learned from Phillipa -

This is fun. Make sure to enjoy yourself.
No ripping out. Add the new layer. —- I admit this is a hard one for me.
Adding layers looks nice with wool. Stumpwork was not a separate medium at one time, so lots of pieces have a stump work feel. Like my little acorn, which was a lot of fun to do… by the way. I also layered some of the feathers, so they have a slight dimensional feel. If you were to feel my stitches they are hard. We got to feel and see lots of examples – I think that was most helpful.

I’m sure there is more, but those are the ones that stuck out for me. If I remember any more, I will let you know. If you’re interested in English Crewel work, make sure to take a class with Phillipa. If you can’t wait – she also has a very nice video you can pick up. I picked up both her hoop and video last Christmas time, so this time there may have been some kits purchased, which are lovely. I’ll get a picture of those with my next update.

Crewel Problems

Madame Purl — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:37:15 +0000

So I’m still trying to complete the crewel sampler project that I have been working on… oh for the last many months. I’m forcing myself to finish this before I start a new project. This is actually the practice before the sampler. However, I don’t seem to work on it very often and when I do I ended up doing a lot of ripping.

On this part the right side looks great. The left – not so much… I don’t like that I can’t see the clear definition. I think I have to re-trace and try again. This is my toughest stitch. The long and short shading stitch. I signed up for another class with Cyberstitches, which is a wonderful benefit of guild membership, Shading Stitches. It is all long and short stitch, so I’m going to have to get this one going.

Low Creativity

Madame Purl — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 02:48:39 +0000

Dang I’m in a knitting funk. I’m hoping to find it this weekend. Ugh. I’m probably just feeling sulky because I am going to miss Rhinebeck tomorrow. Even though I have more than enough, I’m going to miss fondling all the nice fleeces.

I did get my crewel workbook. I’ve been spending time studying all my books on crewel and looking at websites where I can purchase all of the lovely accessories. I have to tell you I spent much time drooling over this seat frame, which unfortunately is not in my budget. I saw it online for between $85-$95. Don’t even get me started on their kits. Totally gorgeous. Just another reason to indulge my anglophile ways and head across the pond. Between the Crewel Work Company and the Helen M. Stevens classes I would love to take, I think I could have month of classes alone.