Red work and butterlies

I've had plenty of time to do some embroidery since I have been away in my camper van.  When we have needed to have some rest hours, its been lovely to sit (and generally enjoy the fabulous views) and stitch a while.

My plan is to do five red work hearts - I've started the second one, which is of little houses and beach huts and then join them using a nine patch with the red spotty fabric I showed a couple of weeks ago

When I can get Internet access I've been doing more work on my butterfly sampler, trying out lots of different stitches (the trouble is I can't always remember how to do them, so I sometimes grind to a halt until the wifi is on again).  Here is one called trellis stitch, really nice to do, but time consuming!  It is also supposed to be in a spiral, but as you will see from the next picture I haven't quite got it yet!  It also needs more stitches but not sure where to go with it yet?

I am linking up with Slow Sunday Stitching so you can see what others have been stitching today.

Trerice House - Cornwall

We are having a great time travelling around Cornwall and Devon.  We have now travelled up the south coast, visited the most southerly point in England.  And the most westerly point in England (Land's End) and are now heading along the north coast!

On route we visited Trerice, an Elizabethan manor house near Newquay. 

There are a group of volunteers who meet twice a week and do needlework for the house.  This is a night cap beautifully embroidered with stump work - now I've had a go at doing stump work and its not easy so this is really impressive!

This little piece of crewel work is to show how this needlework is done and is next to the amazing curtains in the picture below!  (PS the back of this work is as exquisite as the front - I wish I could say the same for my work!)

Red work

Lots of work on my first red work square, in fact nearly finished.  Unfortunately I can't show my pictures as I'm sitting in a pub garden, having just walked some of the south coastal walk, eating crab sandwiches, caught today by the local fisherman (and there's free wifi!) Life is good!

Cowslip fabric shop

Yesterday we visited a fabulous patchwork and quilting shop in Launceston, Cornwall called Cowslip Workshop. Its actually on a farm so you have to drive along a track to get there.  I've visited it several times before when I've been in the area and always find some very special fabrics there.  They have a big selection of Kaffe Fassett fabrics and stock lots of Moda also. I was after some red fabric to go with the red work project I'm working on at the moment and found exactly what I was looking for!

The other attraction is the cafe!  The food is fantastic, organically grown and local produce.  The atmosphere also sells it for me.  Its full of quirky pictures, the china is all mismatched but beautiful pieces, painted with flowers, animals and patterns.  The tables are all scrubbed pine with brightly painted wooden chairs.  There are flowers on every table and a rather grand chicken and cockerel made from Kaffe Fassett fabric.  Oh how I would like to make them but you have to do the class to get the pattern and its rather a long way for me to go.......unless I can stay in the camper van of course!!

Agatha Christie

I'm staying on Dartmoor at the moment and having a great time, but thought I would share some photos taken at Greenway, the summer and Christmas home of Agatha Christie and her family.

The views from the house and garden are of the Dart Estuary and absolutely stunning.  We were really lucky to see it on a sunny, bright day, which made it just magical!

Agatha Christie and her family were avid collectors of anything!  Archaeological finds, silver, china and of course 1st editions of all of her novels.  The house was also full of embroideries and a wall full of stevengraphs (pictures woven from silk - originally created by Thomas Stevens in the 19th century and popular collectible items during the revival of interest in Victoriana in the 1960s and 1970s

Butterfly Sampler

I am steadily working on my butterfly sampler and have done quite a bit since I last showed a photo of it.  I am also adding more stitches to my repertoire!  I have probably said before that I am following a Sue Spargo Craftsy class - and really enjoying watching her!

I'm off on my holidays tomorrow and I've packed this to take along with some red work embroidery.  So if it rains constantly I will have plenty to do!!

I hope to join Kathy tomorrow on her Slow Sunday Stitching (if I can find somewhere with Internet access that is!)

Crochet and Lola

Here is my lovely Lola modelling my crochet blanket beautifully!  I'm not quite sure why the dog insists on parking herself in the middle when I'm trying to take a photo, but our last dog used to do exactly the same!

Anyway progress is in fact better than this but I wanted to add this one because of Lola!

Below is where I actually am - coming along nicely.

Machine embroidery

At textile class on Monday we were doing machine embroidery, which I love!  Here is my bluebell wood.  I'm rather pleased with the way its turned out.  I think its finished - its sometimes difficult to know when to stop.  I would like to paint the background artist board, but at the moment I'm not sure whether to incorporate the colours in the picture into the background or to just dull the stark white down so the picture pops?

I have also added a small amount of hand stitching so am linking up with Kathy's blog at Slow Sunday Stitching

I've posted some pictures below of the process.

The design source came from Pinterest (such a brilliant resource).  Once the background was painted I lay the silk throwster threads on and then an embellisher to keep them roughly in place!

I zig zaggged trees in the distance and then added the silk rods

On water soluble film I did some free machine stitching to add to the bottom of the picture.

And here are the 'bluebells' and 'leaves' after the soluble film has been dissolved

And a close up of the bluebells!

It's been a great project and I've really enjoyed it.  Of course it's helped that I've been able to finish it within the same week.......this lady of leisure lark is fantastic!!!!!