Guthrie & Ghani – New sewing shop in Birmingham

Tags

crafting, crafts, embroidery, Fabric, knitting, patchwork, Quilt

Ok, as regular readers know from previous posts, I didnt always watch The Great British Sewing Bee.

However that’s not to say I wont try and support a new sewing shop that’s opened today in Moseley, Birmingham, which happens to be run by Lauren, one of the finalists from TGBSB.  Their shop Guthrie & Ghani opened today (27 April 2013) and whilst I didn’t manage to get there on opening day, I know some people who did.  Apparently the place was packed for at least several hours, which would have done me no good, as I wouldnt have been able to look at anything and would have come away with having brought nothing and ending up in a bad mood!

Anyway, note to self that I should do my best to support local businesses – I am the first to complain when they dont exist, so should be one of those who puts my money where my mouth is and support them when they do!

 

The Great British Sewing Bee

Tags

crafts, embroidery, sewing, sewing machine

After the several years watching the popularity of “the Great British Bake Off” increasing, the BBC have another show in “the Great British Sewing Bee”. I watched the first episode, but didnt watch the second last night and I’m not sure that I’ll watch many more. The non-sewing presenter (Claudia Wilkeman) does a reasonable job, and the two expert judges are a Saville Row tailor and a sewing tutor. Unfortunately these two experts have neither the public persona or “middle aged totty appeal” of the experts on TGBBO in Mary Berry (national treasure who has been on the telly possibly longer than I’ve been alive) and Paul Hollywood, an older, slightly chunky, silver fox.

Anyway, the GBSB has some positive points: two men remain in the competition, neither of them old, and several women ranging in ages from 20s to 80s.

However the downsides, and why I’m not sure I’m interested in continuing: it perhaps should have been renamed “the great British sewing machine bee” or “the great British dressmaking bee”. I’ve had a quick rifle through the matching book, and apart from 4 challenges covering curtains, cushion and a small quilt every other challenge is around clothing. Nothing seems to be done by hand. 2 to 3 challenges a week, 6 weeks…..that’s an awful lot of clothes to make up! Where are the kids toys, the blinds, the bags, more of the quilts, the hand sewing and finishing?

Anyway, I wont get the book (I do have a growing collection of Mary Berry books however), and I’m not sure I’ll continue with the show itself

Stash Busting and increasing

Tags

crafts, Cross-Stitch, embroidery, hand embroidery, knitting

Well I went to the ICHF Hobbycraft/Stitching for pleasure show up at the NEC in Birmingham on Friday, with a very short shopping list. I brought nothing on the list (which was only 4 different shades of threads) mainly because I didnt find anyone who sold DMC. I do have a sneaking feeling I “lost” one of the Halls and therefore some of the stalls – previous years, the show has been in Halls 10, 11 and 12, this year I only found them in Halls 11 and 12 – but to be honest no great loss to me.

In the end I brought:
2 Daylight Simulation bulbs (I have loads of these but stock up whenever I can cos they will run out at some point)
3 ink pads for stamping
2 acrylic blocks
3 cross stitch patters.

That was it. Wasnt I good?!

However, I’ve just been tidying my stash cupboard. Whilst I’ve got rid of a large amount of cross stitch gear I will never get through, I am ashamed at the amount of wool stash I have managed to build up. I never knew I had that much! I better get some knitting done eh?!

Craft Fairs and updates

Tags

crafting, crafts, Cross-Stitch, embroidery

It’s Feburary, so the annual cycle of Fairs – trade and non trade alike – has started. I dont get to go to the trade fairs, so the first one on the scene is the “Sewing for Pleasure / Hobbycrafts / Fashion, Embroidery & Stitch” in late March.

Considering the destashing I’ve been doing recently and the slow progress I’m making on wips, I’ve been struggling to build up a shopping list. I think I may pick up some threads, but it will depend on the prices and availability. If the threads are more than 30p more than what I can get on the internet then I probably wont get. (I generally stitch large items so 30p extra on 10 or more skeins soon adds up).  I will be on the look out for some large pieces of Aida too, but once again, it depends on what’s available.  I have a lot of smaller pieces of Aida so dont need to add to that stash.

I’ve been working intermittently on a sampler from the French “Gigi” designer based around the letter S. Unfortunately I have been unable to find her website again, so cant find a link or image to share! I’m doing it in a different shade of red to recent pieces (DMC 221 for anyone taking notes).  There’s been a couple of times I’ve needed to do some frogging, but not as much as the recent “My Big Toe” design I’ve had to put aside.

 

(Random) Destashing

Tags

crafting, crafts, Cross-Stitch, designs, embroidery

My irregular, random attempts at destashing have continued this evening, brought on by putting some DVDs onto ebay.

I have collected several boxes worth of magazines over the years, and have stitched few items from any of them. I pulled one box down this evening and have flicked through each magazine. Some I cant remember why I even brought it in the first place, but where I have a “maybe” about a specific item, that gets pulled out and the rest of the magazine is chucked. Free needles have also been rescued (you cant have too many needles, right?), but the little kits they came with have long gone.

Few magazines remain intact and are not worth the effort to list them on ebay for sale where I wouldnt get the money back for the time and effort to list then post.

First box therefore is beside the backdoor ready to be chucked. A pile of charts sit on the table ready to be put into plastic sleeves, where they can be ignored for a little while longer and either be stitched or chucked!

Why Germaine Greer was wrong about knitting: feminists stitch too

Tags

crafts, Cross-Stitch, embroidery, patchwork

Knitting, stitching and crafting still largely remain female hobbies. Perri Lewis (writing in The Telegraph), writer and crafter extraordinaire, explores why and charts the rise of the ‘man-broider.’  

WIP abandoned

Tags

"My Big Toe Designs", crafts, Cross-Stitch, embroidery, knitting

I really dont know what happened. I’ve had to abandon Maskerade, at least for the moment, as all I seem to be doing is frogging. I cant tell where I keep going wrong and need to step away and try and work out what happened later. Unfortunately it’s one of those patterns where being even a stitch out/wrong has a knock on effect and means that it is very noticable later, as all things have to match up.

Meanwhile I have started another, this time really rather large piece (why oh why?), more of which later.

In entirely unrelated news I managed to buy some 4 headed bobbins as Christmas presents. Of course I had to buy one for myself so that I could remind myself how to do it! Once again I’ve found videos on the internet (oh what did we do before Youtube?!) and need to practise before Christmas, both casting on and off.

WIP Progress update

Tags

"My Big Toe Designs", Cross-Stitch, embroidery, hand embroidery, wip

Well, still progressing on my current wip and it’s been slow going. I’m getting more frustrated with it and the amount of frogging that I’m finding that I am doing. Had to sit down and check where i’d gone wrong last night, and thankfully had only done a smallish couple of rows wrong, so it didnt take too long to remove. I was worried that I had actually gone wrong a lot earlier and hadnt noticed so dreaded the thought of having to frog out a whole panel. If it was that much rework, I would have chucked it and started again! Sometimes starting afresh is a lot less stressful (and painful on the hands) than trying to rip out several hours or even days worth of work.

Meanwhile I have about another 2 panels to stitch and then I will be done. It’ll need to be washed and ironed and then be framed up at some point. Which reminds me, I have another couple still down in the framers, and they should be ready soon.

I have my next two projects all ready to go (both of which I suspect I will also have frogging issues with!), so have plenty to do to take me well into next year.

De-stashing – part 2

Tags

crafts, Cross-Stitch, embroidery, hand embroidery, wip

I decided to take a break from the frogging, and, following on from getting rid of the WIPs in the corner, I decided to cull the boxes in the cupboard.

The floor of the sitting room now looks like Hurricane Sandy did a quick detour through my place. Where there’s a chance I will make the piece, the chart and anything useful has been retained and has been put away. Two carrier bags of wotsits have been dumped into the rubbish bin. Partially completed pieces, offshoots of thread I will never workout what colour they are, small squares of fabric (usually linen) I know I wont use.

I suppose I could have put some of the items up for sale, on ebay or whatever, but few of them were complete, most had been opened and I never pay full prices for anything! So I’m not worried about any loss I may have made on anything I’ve thrown out. I do however feel a lot better and lighter, and perhaps will make me a little more inspired going forward on things!

Frogging

Tags

"My Big Toe Designs", Cross-Stitch, embroidery, wip

Gah! I’m so annoyed – and I was doing so well too!

Currently working the My Big Toe design Masquerade (which I brought here). I’ve got most of the way round with little or no trouble, got to the bottom right hand square – and have found that I’ve got to frog most of that one square out! I found out, because it wasn’t going to meet up in the middle, and you know what? It’s out by ONE STITCH! ONE POXY STITCH!