Bonjour, Tout Le Monde!

Ooooh it’s been an exciting week here in Leeds! Our city has been picked to host ‘Le Grand Depart’ for the 2014 Tour de France and the first stage is literally going to be cycling straight past Bully Bus HQ!!!!!! How cool is that?

It’s been snowing too – Just as the weather forecast predicted. Very chilly to say the least 😦

So, a little bit more stitching……

Have you guessed what it is yet?

OK – So not much more stitching……. but a little bit more of a ‘reveal’ of my mystery project.

And more playing with the new sewing machine and educating myself to embrace wonky lines and frayed edges……

A plush ‘Peace Heart’ to hang in Vince Bully Bus.

A delivery of some rather lovely vintage seventies florals for ANOTHER project!!!!!

I love these prints!

And finally, a little batch of tissue cozies using assorted VW themed prints – Perfect for popping in your bag or keeping ready at hand on the dashboard of your favourite bus or bug 😉

If you’re going to have a runny nose you’ll need plenty of tissues – Just the sight of one of these cute cozies should make you feel better in no time 🙂

I’m off to play in the snow now with the bullies of the bus – Keep Warm and Happy Crafting Folks! Au Revoir 😉

Jumping through Hoops

The weather forecast has predicted that we’ll have snow! Perfect for turning the heating up, snuggling on the sofa with the bullies of the bus and carrying on with my latest projects……

Firstly, there’s the matter of finishing off three embroidery hoop pictures I’ve been working on to hang in our recently decorated hallway, stairs and first floor landing. Here’s a sneaky peek at one that’s very nearly completed……

Balancing the scales – Astrological cross stitch embroidery hoop.

My plan is to have three separate astrological hangings to represent the various star signs of the Bully Bus crew – So that’s two Aquarians (but only one embroidery), a Libran and a Leo. All three pieces are currently in varying stages of completion but with the above work it’s finally getting to the exciting bit as I’m nearly ready to add highlights with some sparkling gold thread – They’re all going to look stunning in their final hanging position I’m sure……. 😉

And just to have a break from proceedings from time to time, particularly when my eyes are tired, I’ve also been working on this…..

Recognise this? I’ve changed the colours to fit in with my living room decor. Any ideas?

You might recognise this design from a previous post I made in 2012 – I’ve made a few changes to the colours I’m using so it fits in better with my existing living room decor. Can you guess what it is I wonder………..? Don’t worry! I’ll reveal a little more in my next post if you’re not sure 😉

Definitely time to turn the radiators up full and try and add a few more stitches now……. Happy Crafting Folks!

Adventures with Tapestry Mandala Designs – Pink & VW Themed…. Surely not!

It’s a new month and a new theme; September is all about ‘Embroidery’.

So I’ve been sat thinking about the 101 things I want to attempt over the coming weeks and how I can tie this month’s theme in with my general list of things to do…….. it’s to the designing table I’ve been………. and here’s this week’s offering……. 😉

It says in Wikipedia that, amongst other things,  ‘Embroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins.

A characteristic of embroidery is that the basic techniques or stitches of the earliest work — chain stitch, buttonhole or blanket stitch, running stitch, satin stitch, cross stitch — remain the fundamental techniques of hand embroidery today.’

Cool ! I like stitching – Cross stitch is my perennial favourite but I’ve recently been dabbling in freeform machine embroidery after a break of nearly 16 years. I’ve learned to love my sewing machine again; I think that’s a story that’s best saved for another week though……

This week I started out by digging through a box of unfinished projects in a bid to find something to blog about. And I actually turned up a tapestry that I’d started at least 10+ years ago as a soft furnishing idea I’d had for the last house we lived in!

Tapestry work that hasn’t seen the light of day for over ten years!

First things first, I sat down and finished it – There wasn’t that much left to do……… I can’t think why I’d discarded it in the first place. Now I’ve just got to find the time to source some coordinating fabric so that I can make it in to the cushion cover I had originally intended it to be used for (possibly another ten years for that to finally see completion then!) 😉

Detail of part of my old tapestry cushion project – A bit of blocking and pressing might be required to get it looking its best methinks!

Sitting down and finishing the piece actually got me thinking some more……. It’s been ages since I’ve done any tapestry; I kind of forgot how nice it is to sit and quietly stitch my way through a larger, more time consuming project. It’s very satisfying to see a design gradually spring to life over a period of days, rather than quick-fix crafting that’s done and dusted in a few hours. With this in mind I decided to plan out something that’d keep me quiet for a week or so…… An on-trend, mandala inspired tapestry cushion.

This was my initial starting point – a tried and trusted design originally intended for use in cross stitch projects.

One of my ACID protected designs – I use it constantly in cross stitch projects but decided to apply it to tapestry work this week for a bit of a change 🙂

All my designs start out on the computer – actually plotting something out from scratch can be a bit laborious to begin with but once the initial idea is complete it becomes very easy to manipulate it, change colours etc in a matter of moments. So I started with a conjectural view of the original design as it would look when worked as part of a tapestry rather than cross stitch………

The initial design looks just as good when worked as a tapestry rather than cross stitch.

Then I started playing around with it a little bit by adding a background colour and repeating, rotating and flipping the basic motif……

Looking good!

And also added a few more design elements to create something which could be used as a tile for further repeats…….

Looking gooderer! As Keith Lemon would point out 😉

I went through exactly the same process with a bay design before alternately placing each element together to create a larger block of four tiles in total. And finally altered the outside edging to make the whole design look like a more cohesive, finished end product.

Hey Presto!

I can’t wait to get stitching this design!

I’m really pleased with the finished result – Albeit only as a computer generated image at the moment. I think it’ll look great if I actually manage to complete it. I said I wanted to design something which would take me a week or so to create but I’m guessing that if I’ve got it done by Christmas 2012 I’ll deserve a rather large pat on the back for all my efforts…..

At any rate, I’m off in to Leeds tomorrow to gather supplies ready for the task in hand. Wish me luck!!!!!