JE May 2018 Report

Hi everyone :)

Even if I shouldn't have had time to stitch in April, because of school... guess what happened !

I did some nice things in the last month, and I had my group meeting. This time, almost everything went well. I got a little bit frustrated on my orange chrysanthemum at some point, but now it's over. No «hours of angry removing» this time. 

This is my progress since my last report and everything I worked on last month. 

• Paperbag

Foundation is done ! 

Last pic is «light test». It's to make sure there are no holes or empty spaces in our foundation. It's done by putting a lamp under the fabric. I suppose everything is okay for me, but in cas something is incorrect, I still have a part of twisted thread ready.

• Blue Iris

Flower is done ! 

It was a little bit hard. I think there is too much space in the middle of my right outter petal, but it's okay for me. I will leave it like this. More about the process here -> Blue Iris Progress

• Orange crysanthemum

Almost done ! 

Bigger petal on foreground has to be done first. Then you work clockwise, and counterclockwise. I feel the right part looks better than the left part. I've got better at this. The biggest petals took me almost 1 hour each to stitch, including self padding. I am a VERY slow stitcher. It take me a lot of time to decide where i will put my next stitches.  

The only thing, i feel my thread is not twisted tight enough for the first petal and those going to the left.  Or maybe i am looking at my piece too close. I suppose time will tell me what is the best. Alors, I am not too satisfied with my smallest petal in the back. Maybe i'll redo it in the end. Maybe not. 

I need to finish with random size layers in the middle and japanese knots all around. At the end. I hate knots.

More about the process on another post :) 

• Blue chrysanthemum

I had a flat blue thread from my iris that i didn't want to throw away. I decided to stitch to not lose it. I began my blue chrysanthemum, with flat silk and no padding. 

Actually, following the Japanese Embroidery rules, i should do the Purple Chrysanthemum on the left before the blue on the right, because the latter is in background compared to the other. But since this petal is notre overlapped by the purple ones, I decided I wont lose my precious (and expansive!) silk. 

For now I won't work on this flower until the purple is done. 

• Yellow Valerian

I wasn't ready to go back to pinks. I decided to work on my yellow flower. It's made with flat weft foundation. I have to make sure all my stitches are parallel. 

In this picture, I see the difference between my day 2 of formation, where I had so much difficulty to stitch parallel, and now. Lots of improvement needed, but very satisfied with my progress from the begining.

Nancy made a light test for me. My first stitches on the top have some spaces between them, I will have to add some more libes to cover it. 
I will put lattice on the flower at the end. And some knots to finish. Someday. Did i said i hate knots? 


So now here is what it looks like, Before /After

I am very glad with my progress so far. It is so satisfying to complete elements. 

23 hours in this since february :)

Next thing : 
Working on my valerians this month... and maybe pinks !

I look forward to put the layers on the Paperbag on next group meeting in end of May.

WIPocalypse - April 2018

Hi everyone.

(Late) WIPocalypse time, hosted by Measi's Musings

This month's WIPocalypse is more GradSchool-ocalypse. End of April is not the end of the world for the common student but the end of the semester (I'm lying, it feels like the end of the world).

Between all my projects I had to submit, my exams, papers, grading exams (Teaching assistant job) and everything related to my Master but not the courses, I found some times there and there to stitch procrastinate. Productive procrastination. Mostly Japanese Embroidery.

So my project from last WIPocalypse was there

And now it looks like this

-Paperbag foundation is done, i will add some decoration on top after my group meeting in May.

-Blue iris is done.

-Chrysanthemum is almost done. It needs knots and layers in the middle. I hate knots so much, so it will wait until the end, when i will have no choice but to do them.

-Worked on Yellow Valerian for my monthly groupe meeting. I also had a blue flat silk thread that I didn't want to throw away, i stitch it on the chrysanthemum I'll be doing later ( I need to do the left one before, because it's on foreground)

My goal for May will be finish the yellow, and maybe pinks if I have time.

But maybe it won't happen :  I have a new full time session with courses and more Teaching Assistant and Research Assistant contract beginning in May. I just received a very big scholarship for my grades, so all this hard work of stiching studying pays off :) ... so i will find time to stitch probably. Surely. I always find time. Even if i should be writing.

So far I have put more than 25 hours in this. Including the removing. I began to track my time in February, so it excludes Class time and everything before February ( But I really had no time to stitch before that, so maybe a 5 or 6 hours max ? It won't make a big difference in the end I suppose). It's really time consuming but also very rewarding. I feel like I do not only put a needle in a fabric endlessly without reason, I am learning more each time the thread plunge into the fabric. 

And I am also very slow stitcher, contemplating my piece everytime I have to take the decision where i should put my stitch. I hate doing mistakes. I really hope i will finish this piece before next year.

For the question of the month :

April 29 – Talk to us about your longest-running WIP or UFO

Eeeeeeee. Well. My longest WIP/UFO/WIP (working on and off) is Elegance of the Orient, from Dimensions Gold.

It was my first very big project, I laid my first stitches on it in May 2014 (Almost 4 years !!).  Why did it became a UFO ? I think it's because of Aida 18 ct fabric. When i first stitched on linen 32 ct, I knew i would never come back to Aida. This why lady was sometimes put on the side while i was working on other projects. Also, after summer 2016, i didn't stitch for more than 1 year due to illness. I gradually came back to embroidery last automn.

Last picture i was there

Maybe I should seek to finish it this year, or 2019. I don't know. I do not feel the urge to work on it. I don't like to set unrealistic goals I deeply know I wont respect. I prefer listening to my innerself about it what I really want to accomplish, and this piece is not on my main to-do list. I have other priorities for the moment. (sorry !) So... maybe someday. 

This girl i've been following for long time had just finished it recently. It looks wonderful, you should have a look at it.

Elegance of the Orient - Pull the Other Thread

I hope you had a better month of stitching than me, and that I get more time in May. 

Happy stitching :)

Japanese Embroidery Class Phase 1 - Day 2

The second day of my class was about flat silk. We practiced twisted silk the day before.

This one is a little bit harder. if at first you don't need to do anything to your thread, just take it and put a knot at the end, you have to be a little bit more precocious with it.

Flat silk thread is so hard to work with, one false movement and it snags. Also, you have to use the tekobari (big long stroking needle) to stroke the silk to make sure it lays perfectly flat. Tekobari also enhance the silk to make it shiny. Then, you can't remove your thread too many time. Silk does not support to be removed and becomes ugly after some times. 

It's kinda scary how you have to be careful !!! 

We worked on 3 things for the second day

• Blue pistil in the middle of iris is made of flat silk. You have to put one layer of perpendicular padding of silk thread under, and follow the movement. So... I tried to. 

• Second was Yellow Valerian. This one is worked on weft flat silk. It means we have to follow the line if the fabric and put all the stitches parallel. White silk is used as guidelines.

• Last thing of the day was the orange chrysanthemum. This one has special movement. Each petal has to be inclined in some sort of position from the very center of the flower. At 30˚ exactly, but didn't know this at the moment... This is why they look like very different, one is note at good angle. 
• They are made from twisted silk, and self padded, like the iris petals.

A question may be asked : why do i began with some petals particularly? Because there is a rule in Japanese Embroidery that the front item have to be stitched before the background. In those 3 pictures, i stitched those items because they were ont the foreground. 

In the chrysanthemum, you have to begin with the bigger petal in front of the other, and then do the others. The one on the left is my first one. The last will be the two little in the back. 

So this what it looked like at the end of day 2

At the moment I was so glad with my work. Looking at it now, 6 months later i see all my mistakes because i've learned so much with practice. I am still very satisfied with how much i improved to this day.