Stitching by the inch

Well here I am again. Just popped out of the other side of weeks of constant work making up orders from a Trade Fair back in January and suddenly we've reached almost the end of them and I find myself with free time.
So once the list of boring jobs are out of the way - accounts, stocktake, tidying up etc- I should be able to lift a needle and thread again.
I did make time for a tiny piece of work during my Christmas hols, which became part of my sister's Christmas present. It was pieced together between cooking and cleaning and was made up of colours and fabrics that were to hand with no real thought or preparation. But I enjoyed making it.

January Inspiration

Today I was lucky enough to catch Forever Changes, a major retrospective exhibition of the work of Michael Brennand -Wood. If the name isn't already familiar, he is one of the most influential textile artists working in Britain today.
I've loved his work ever since he first started exhibiting but I'd never seen any of it up close until now.
If you are in Edinburgh the exhibition is on at the Dovecot Studios until 12 January and what's more, it's free!
The studios themselves are well worth seeing too.
http://dovecotstudios.com/whats-on/event/20/forever-changes-michael-brennand-wood

Christmas Greetings

It's Boxing Day and I'm enjoying the feeling of nothing to do. The ham is boiling away on the stove, the trifle is in the fridge and our family will arrive later on but for now .... relaxing.
Another year of embroidery wilderness due to the pressures of work.
Except for a small piece of playing around last weekend.
I'm going to give it to my sister for Christmas. Hope she likes it.

Just visiting again

How long ago it seems since I've been here.
No work done - stitched work I mean.
I'm living the life of a slave to our business and she demands all of my time..and more.
A couple of years ago I could say that the first few months of the year were the quiet ones for the business, and I had some free time to myself. I was easing myself slowly back into the idea of working with a needle and thread again.
Since then, there have been no quiet months. Of course the fact that the business is going so well is something to be celebrated. But it is at the expense of other ( important) things.
I'm telling myself that we should be working as hard as possible just now so that we can have a cushion to relax against when we retire, but maybe we won't be allowed to retire. The business seems to have a life of its own.
A bit of a ramble tonight, but I've just noticed that although nothing has been updated  for a year at least, there are still quite a lot of visitors who spend time here, and I'd like to say thank you to you all - mainly it seems from across the Atlantic - who have stopped and looked.
Come back again....I might have something new to show.
Well here is something not new - over thirty years old actually. But it is pertinent as I made this sampler for my daughter when she was a baby, and now she has her own baby, our grandson. Sorry to say I haven't made a sampler for him - yet.

Patience

The time isn't here yet.
There will be a chance to do some embroidery again, and move a step or so further but not for a little while yet.
We are just too busy with orders from the Trade Fair in January but the list is getting smaller.
Meanwhile I'm doing a bit of thinking and hopefully planning. There are a lot thoughts running around in my mind all the time, mainly about colour. It's difficult to actually grasp one and pin it down, but one day I will.
We're off to London in a week or two for a few days of culture and possibly inspiration.

Playing around - fly stitches on rubber matting with added net and french knots

Withdrawing threads from raw silk loose weave and working into it with nets and threads.

Large cross stitches on sprayed canvas.

New Year Break continues

I've just been to Edinburgh today to see an exhibition of Turner's watercolours, but I also wanted to see these amzing embroideries again - two shown here are from a seies of four entitled "The Progress of the Soul" by the Arts and Crafts artist, Phoebe Anna Traquair.
They are a staggering six feet high, and are entirely stitched in silk and gold thread on linen. The detail, texture, colour, vibrancy, craftsmanship is a pure joy.

New Year, New Ideas

We're almost into the New Year. Time to start digging out the canvas, threads, fabrics, wool, needles, books..... and put them in a prominent place to remind me that this is the creative time of year. I made it all the way through to June last year, finding time to work on embroidery just for myself, before the demands of the business took over.
This year I think I am one step ahead already - ready to dust off the cobwebs on this blog and make it a working diary again.
One new embroidery book for Christmas to inspire, and a magazine subscription.
Just a few more days to go... there is too much indulgence going on at the moment. You don't feel creative with a tummy full to bulging, and the house is full with family staying. I'm having a lovely time with them though, playing games and walking on the beach.
But it's also exciting to think ahead to when the Christmas decorations are all packed away and my workroom is not cluttered with everything that was taken out of the living room to make way for the tree, and I have peace to start a new project.
Happy New Year.

Update

I haven't visited this blog for months because I didn't want to get depressed/disillusioned/frustrated by the fact that I have had to lay aside this aspect of my work while I concentrate on the business side of things over here.
Since June we've given up all spare time to business work, but once more the end is in sight. You see we have an unbalanced year - the first half is relatively quiet and the second half is manic.
Once Christmas is past things start to slow down and suddenly there are free evenings again, possibly even afternoons and I can start to think about doing some embroidery for myself.
This year I've decided to start thinking about it earlier, so that when the free time arrives I've done the thinking and can make a start right away. Don't want to waste precious time.
So tonight I've opened up this blog again and have reviewed the meagre amount of work I managed to do last year.
Roll on 2011 - hopefully I can take a few more steps on the journey....

I Admit Defeat (I think)

I'm going to bow out gracefully for a while. Even the ten minute rule has had to be abandoned for the next few weeks because the business part of my life has become just too hectic.
It's not that I'm actually not doing any embroidery - it is in fact part of my business life. It's just that I'm not getting the chance to do anything just for myself. And that's what this blog is all about.
So I'll leave off posting until I have a chance to get time to myself again. Hopefully it won't be too long. But summer is always crazy.

All my threads, fabrics and bits and pieces are not far away though.
Bye for now.

Now What?

Time, where does it go?
Not enough hours in the day. I ran on empty for a few days ( and nights) at the end of last week, but finally lack of sleep caught up, and I stopped functioning in a rational way, and had to go to bed early last night.
The problem is being self employed. It becomes almost impossible to create a sensible work/life balance, as they say.
Especially when it starts to get busy, like now.  I could probably work 24 hours a day, if my mind and body allowed, and I still would be running to catch up.
But some things have improved.
1.  The workshop is tidy for once, which allows a certain degree of control rather than the usual chaos.
2.  I am trying to keep to a simplified work plan. One order at a time, completed and dispatched before the next one is started.
3.  And still the ten minutes a day rule for my embroidery. I've been using those minutes to plan in my head rather than do anything definite as yet. But it's never far from my mind, which is good.
4.  And despite the lack of sleep, I seem to have an unusual amount of energy and stamina. I think it's because we have upped the production a level or so ( this is our business I'm talking about  - Embroidered Originals ). This usually happens around now. The first few months of the year are quiet in comparison the the second half, which we have now entered. Each year I say that we have to build up stocks in the early part to help us cope with the busy times, and each year we run headlong into pandemonium and the stockpile melts away.
5.  So if I can apply some of this new found energy to my own embroidery as well....
6.  I think the answer for now is to try to produce some small pieces, which can be finished in a realistic time, and use them as stepping stones. I don't imagine there will be any theme running through them as yet. I'm still at the experimenting stage, so each one might have a different direction. But that's how you learn and develop, isn't it?

First Finished Piece

I saved up all my daily ten minutes' worth for the past couple of weeks and made a concerted effort over the past two nights ( and I mean nights) to get this piece finished. It's not exactly finished to the standard I think I'm used to - but I made a decision to add it as an extra present for my daughter's birthday on Sunday (ssh, don't tell her). Once I make a (rash, impulsive) decision like that, it just HAS to be done.

So here it is...

Sorry, the tacking stitches are still in the corners!

Now it's not a major work of textile art - it's not even a miniscule work of textile art, but  it has the distinction of being the first piece to be completed in this new journey of mine. That's satisfying.

Interesting to note that this is one of the few pieces I've made which has not been framed. I like the softness of this work and I don't really want Laura to have to hang it.

Already planning bigger and better, but time is against me again.

I think I'll set myself another deadline......

Holidays over, back to work

This is where we were for a few days. It was an inspiring place  - for light, colour and texture. Work, as in making a living work, is demanding at the moment, but tomorrow I intend to DO MY OWN TEN MINUTES (see previous posts) and will post the results. It's a promise.

PS One picture tonight - a postcard, made and sent to Emma at A Little Bit of Everything for her 50th birthday. I was playing with techniques of fusing fabric with a soldering iron.

I've never done any swaps like this before, and she had sent me a lovely postcard in her own distinctive style - one of approx fifty she has made and sent out to blog friends all over the world - which must have been quite a challenge.

She is now receiving daily a whole host of gems of work in return. What a good idea to mark a special birthday. She is posting photos on her blog if you want to have a look.

Sorry Emma, I haven't photographed the postcard you sent me yet. I'll do that tomorrow.

PPS Here is Emma's postcard to me. A collage of paper, fabric and stitching with stamped details. Very reminiscent of sea and shore, I think, and apt because she lives on the beautiful Isle of Skye.

Just Marking Time

Progress this week has been slow - well non existent, due to the pressures of the business. It always follows the same pattern. The first few months of the year are quite calm and quiet, and then we hit May and it's as if the old machinery is whirring into life again. Our shop orders start to pile up and our own shop starts to get busy and on top of all that we are preparing for our summer and autumn of craft shows.
But I'm trying very hard to keep the thought in my head that ten minutes a day to do my own personal work is achievable.
Granted the past week or two has been unusual. We are going to have a small holiday, starting tomorrow, but that has meant working doubly hard to make sure every order currently on the books is made and shipped out before we go. It just means that I can go away with a clear head.
All jobs are now done and we're up to date.
I'm going off up north for a few days of walking and fresh air, and hopefully I'll come back with renewed energy and enthusiasm.

Considering the next step

Today I've been thinking about how to incorporate this little bit of stitching into something bigger.
This book - Indian Textiles - has been inspiring me of late, especially the idea of strong colour on a dark background.
So I went back to it to see what I could  do to link small areas of intense colour and large areas of solid dark.
I'm still not sure about the eventual shape of the stitched area, but I quickly put together a border of squares in related colours which I think I might apply alongside in some way.
Hopefully this will lead on to another area of plain interspersed with some repeated motifs from the embroidery.
I should have planned all this from the start, but I'm still finding my feet again.

And A Little Bit More

I managed a few more stitches today and tried a photo but still wasn't happy with the colour repro. So this is another scan.
Tempting though it is just to keep on stitching, I need to do a bit of drawing to plan the next stage.
I have a feeling that this wants to be just a part of a larger piece.

It's Growing

A few more stitches tonight.
I think I'll need to take some photos in daylight tomorrow. This is a scanned image and the colour isn't true - it's even brighter in real life.

Circles continued

Working from the circles sketch again. I had an hour or two free yesterday to make a few stitches and chose a piece of wool flannel cut from a pair of charity shop trousers to work on. It is a very dark charcoal grey, almost black, and I was simply drawing designs with stranded cotton and felt scraps.
I think this one will progress a bit further.

Ten Minutes

It was actually nearer twenty minutes today ( see previous post for explanation).

After the Holiday

Things have been different over the past couple of weeks. Normal routine was suspended while we were away at the Aviemore Trade Show for four days. And then we had a family weekend over the bank holiday to welcome home our daughter and son in law who had been travelling round the world for the past ten months.
So, no new developments as far as embroidery is concerned.
But I was reading a interview with Julia Caprara ( made a few years ago before her death) where she said that with her busy and full professional life she usually only had time to stitch for ten minutes a day. However if she made time for those precious ten minutes every day, she was surprised just how much she could achieve.
I think I could manage at least ten minutes every day. No excuse.
My goal is to have  a start made by the end of this week. Basing some ideas on Indian textiles as a starting point.
Ten minutes a day, starting tomorrow.