Samines

I help your hands create something beautiful

Tag: Embroidery

  • Preloved Jubilee Needlecase

    Why I created Preloved Jubliee Needlecase.

    As we know it’s the Queens Platinum Jubliee this year 2022 and aren’t we happy that she has been on the throne for the past 70 years, I wonder what it’s like for her to have seen so much change in the span of a lifetime.

    I knew a few months ago that I wanted to make a handmade embroidery needlecase, but I had been waiting for my wrist to improve so I could do a major piece of stitching without it hurting, I have been doing physio each day, thankfully I have improved enough in my range of movement to drop down to 5 a day, when I first started physio exercises from the consultant I was doing them 8 per day and then I carried them on when I started having hand therapy.

    I looked on Instagram and Pinterest for many posts to see the sweet pieces being made with flowers and blanket stitches around the circles and the use of blanket stitch for the edges and I was conscious that if I followed suit the piece could look similar and I like to be different in my creations, this gives me the push to create new pieces. This got me thinking and I thought what could I design that was for the current day, the Queen, she’s current and it’s her platinum Jubliee this year and she came to the throne in 1952 which was around the time of The Festival of Britain and I knew that was it! I had my inspiration. Phew….

    I then remembered my sketchbook from my BTEC Fashion that I worked on using Lucian and Robin Day’s designs to create my own which was part of a 50s project to develop design work in one of my classes. So I looked on the above social media accounts, well actually Pinterest and looked up their designs and I came across one with a lop sided circle with straight lines coming out, then their were circles on the end of the straight lines, but when I came to start the design, (I didn’t translate to paper, just straight onto the fabric). I realised after cutting out a circle in jeans material and placing it onto the cut pieces of the jeans legs, along with the stitches, that I had used the middle of the circle as the centre of the design and not towards the outer circle, it’s still a good design and I believe it works well for the front of the needle case. I used split stitch for the straight lines and seeding stitch to create the circles at the end of the outer lines, my colour-ways are red, white and blue as these are the colours that were given at the Blackheath embroidery group for our stitched postcard, (which I haven’t started stitching, but I have the design work done, so at least I do not need to stress about that) and these colours are the colours for the Union Jack, so instantly the project would be recognisable. On the inside if the needle case I have created an extra design feature, so when you come to stitch the piece you know that it is for the Queens Jubilee, I am so satisfied that I sewed this piece and I was able to create it.

  • Cable Stitch

    I have been given cable stitch as a fun activity to learn and sample for Blackheath Embroiderer’s group. 

    The strange thing is that cable stitch in Mary Thomas book of embroidery stitches is also known as cable chain stitch, other publications show cable stitch as cable chain stitch and cable stitch in other publications show it as a side to side stitch. Looking through crochet and knitting images of cable stitch,(yes they are different) show a similar stitch to embroidery, (they all have curves within the cable stitches), so I did find it a little odd when coming across this discrepancy and why I think it is odd.  Mary Thomas book was published in 1934 and has listed cable stitch as a heading over the stitch and then in the paragraph has said it is also known as cable chain stitch, other publications have changed things around and named the stitch accordingly. I suppose as I have had Mary Thomas book on my shelves for a long time as I purposefully bought her book when I started on my city & guilds embroidery a few decades ago, that I would naturally be loyal to her.

  • Anyone for Aqua?

    I swooped my swim for aqua aerobics on Wednesday 9th Feb, as I have been cat sitting for a friend in Peckham and as I was on holiday it felt right to do something different, so I went along to Peckham Pulse. Lorraine the instructor was brilliant and worked us hard and I was thankful that I have been swimming twice a week for physio reasons for my ankles, knees and wrist. 

    On Tuesday 8th I had tried a salsa video session and it flared up fatigue in both ankles and knees, with the aqua I experienced sharp pains in my knees, (I have been experiencing this since the accident) and it a much better experience. I was able to keep up and then the weights came out and I realised I was on another game changer and that with gripping in both hands to keep the weights under water will improve my right hand grip and I will know if it has worked when I see Joydan at my next hand physio appointment.

  • Tinting on Fabric

    My study partner Lynn and I have been working on Module 8 of the embroidery diploma course learning about Tinting on fabric. It’s easy once you know how, after a few Google searches I was able to find a few videos on how to use the different art media on fabric.

    The pieces I am sharing are the same design with dissimilar colour-ways and different tinting techniques, and two seperate hands. In July I had an accident which saw me sprain my left ankle and broken right wrist, and so I have been doing physio to get my right hand moving again. 

    On the left side of the photo I have used watercolour tinting with multiple weeks of stitching and stages to give my hand a rest and the right side of the photo shows pencil tinting and stitching completed in my left hand, it does feel quite unusual to stitch this way and I am intrigued with the results.

  • High Drama Casts On and Off

    Sunday 8th August saw me back in the hospital, this time not at A&E, but Sacu, I waited to see Dr Burnham, he is a kind and gentle doctor who listened to me about the story of the accident and the stages of being given different casts. I went back to see him as the side of the new cast had become sharp once it was dried, (he gave me a back slab)and it was causing irritation and I was having slight pins and needles, thankfully it wasn’t what it was like as I was given this cast…

    It pinched my thumb, hand and wrist and I had pins and needles from the tips of my right foot, tips of fingers of red hand and upper arm travelling up to my shoulder across the back of shoulders slightly down my back and travelling down the left shoulder and arm.  I knew it wasn’t normal, but the thing was I had only been home from A&E for less than an hour, the cast I was given was on the Friday was a fibre cast and I choose blue, quite a calming colour to look at when looking at my wrist, I am digressing, I had gone to bed and the pins and needles were much fierce this time and knew I had to go back.

    Dr Burnham said if there were any issues with the back slab, (which is the same as 1st image), to come back and see him, I was so confident that there wouldn’t be that I said I wouldn’t be back, in a way I now see it was the right thing to have gone back to see him, as while I was waiting my blood pressure was taken and this time it was normal, Saturday the pressure was ridiculously high. Dr Burnham showed up with another colleague who was a consultant called Dr Varma and he scared the willies into me, because the cast was taken off and he demanded that I make a fist with my right hand, I was in pain and the fingers were stiffened. Dr Varma said something very key, that if I cannot get my hand moving I wouldn’t be able to do embroidery and that is what scared me, not to be able to go back to my work of creating, designing and making.

  • Happy Place

    On Thursday 29th July I was chatting with Lynn, it was so good catching up, we are study partners for our embroidery diploma.

    A box of fabrics had just been delivered and she showed me each piece and I was in a happy place with her, I felt encouraged with my creativity while looking through the fabrics with her and knowing that when I am more healed I can start sewing again. Lynn shared the time when her right thumb was fractured and the knuckles were strapped up, she was able to hold the needle between her thumb and first finger and she was able to thread the eye of the needle, I realised while showing her that I cannot pinch my thumb and first finger together and so I may need to wait a little longer, unless I had someone to thread the needle for me.