Needlework group started

The other exciting news is that we have started a needlework group at the AWA in Vienna. Now each Friday morning there are three or four of us working away on knitting, crocheting, cross stitch, or what have you. I really enjoy having stiching friends!

This is a Thea Dueck design that I finished in December. I did make a few changes; Colour scheme, of course. The open work areas were always the same (as on the lower E) just switched back and forth between the hemstitching and the hardanger. I chose to use a variety of stitches. The hardest one was the filling for the uppermost heart. The book made a big point of the importance of keeping the tension even, and recommended not using it for an area greater than 3 x 3 holes. I quite understand that advice, but I think the result was worth the extra effort.

Sampler finished and framed

I have been working on a sampler for a relative, and it is not only finished, but also framed.

Of course, in theory, I knew all about mounting needlework. In theory, however, the thread neither knots itself up, nor breaks, and the pin you are using to centre the piece stays in place. Certainly the back of the frame lets itself be locked into position. That last was, of course, my fault for using two layers of batting behind the sampler. But I think the final result looks really good. Luckily I had planned to leave the glass out anyway. It would never have fit!

To the sampler: This is a pattern I saved from a magazine some time ago. While I liked the basic concept, I did not want to stitch lots of hearts with partial stitches, so I substituted beads and buttons. I also thought the various stitches were too boring, so I chose my own. I more or less used the original colour scheme, but added in the multi-coloured thread, and sometimes changed the distribution of colours as I stitched.

As a final touch, I added in a tiny bit of the Klosterarbeit I have been doing, as I had a heart.

I hope the recipient enjoys it.

Needlework Museum in |Salzkammergut

We've just been off in Salzkammergut (Bad Ishl, Hallstatt etc.) for a few days. I found out about a small handwork museum in Traunkirchen set up by the Goldhaubenverein. In parts of Austria there is a tradition of womens festival wearing golden bonnets. I've enjoyed seeing them from a distance, but had no idea how they were made. I have a much better idea now. The embroidery is done with tiny gold sequins and beads, and the shape is formed by gathering a long rectangle. (see http://www.e-punkt.net/html/badischl_goldhauben.htm ) The exhibits also included many other techniques. I was particularly intrigued by the Teneriffe lace. I want to do it!

WIPs

So what am I working on now?

I started making cafe curtains for the kitchen. These are crocheted in 12 weight cotton, and have an undersea theme. The first one is done, and I haven't started the second one yet, but should start that again soon.

The stairwell needs a nice curtain to keep the hot air downstairs. At present there is just a provisional curtain there. UGLY! but it's material I had on hand. My plan is to use 45cm diamonds in a lattice. So far I have two done. One is the practice piece from a hand quilting class. The other is crazy quilting with a vegetable theme. One thing about moving - I found a LOT more stash than I knew I had. I figure that these diamonds give me a chance to use up a lot of it, and get it down to a level that the new workroom can hold. (Yeah, right! We all know that one. But hope springs eternal.) Some of the diamonds will be single pieces of work. Others will be crazy, built around odd bits of stitching that I found.

The current block I'm working on has a Fall theme, built around a lovely hedgehog. Problem. The material the hedgehog was stitched on is very loose, and it sags. I have padded out the hedgehog - goldwork techniques, but using batting instead of felt. And now I am invisibly quilting the background to the base material. Boring, but it does work. Except that I ran into some lovely small motifs and decided that I needed the hedgehog and the acorns for this square, so I interrupted that to make those.

The other thing I'm working on right now is sewing backing onto the bath mats. The rubber had all come off, and they were not very safe. One is done, and works very well, so no excuses on getting the other one done, too. I also need to replace the belt on Steven's black shorts. PE class is hard on clothing. We were in Salzkammergut in November, and I bought some lovely material for a blouse. But not enough, so I need to get something else for the sleeves, and sew that.

Yesterday I took Christmas down. The wall where the Advent calendar was looks really empty, so I ought to finish the sunflower sampler I started for the same problem in the old apartment. BTW, I knew that I hadn't known what I was doing when I made that calendar. It was the piece that got me started on needlework again. I had done a fair amount of cross stitch in India, but hadn't done any since until I saw this project in a shop window when the boys were tiny. Apparently I also didn't wash the material before starting. It's dark green. It was so dirty when I took it down that I didn't want to store it without cleaning it. It ran and ran and ran and ran. But I remembered not to panic, but to keep rinsing, and finally the water got down to just a touch of green, and I finished (with distilled water). Now it's laid out on a towel in Steven's room.

I guess I'd better get either hard at work finishing the hedgehog diamond or else come up with a quick project that counts, or I'll be behind before the year has even gotten going.

Of course, if the snow gets away from the roses (which it should do today or tomorrow) I also need to get the pruning started...

Eggs and more at Kittsee

The Web is great! Saturday morning Jerry was looking for something special going on to make an excursion of along with the wine tasting in Illmitz. What he found was an exhibit of Moravian Easter Eggs at the Ethnographic Museum at Kittsee.

The main collection at Kittsee is Folkart collected during the final decades of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to show the variety of customs of the Empire. The problem with the museum is that Kittsee lies off the beaten track, right at the eastern edge of Austria between the route to Bratislava and the route to Budapest. If you wait until you are passing by to visit the museum, you will only see it if you are deliberately tramping along the border. It's a small museum, probably not worth an extra trip from Vienna, but the drive itself is nice, taking you along the Danube, then through the old city gate at Hainburg. However as the whole area is only an hour from Vienna, it can easily be added to an excursion to the Roman site at Carnuntum Another possibility would be to connect it with a trip to the newly renovated palace at Schloss Hof a short way from the other end of the Hanburg bridge. Or use it as a cultural tag-on to a summer's day of swimming on the Eastern side of Lake Neusiedl.

But right now - and only until the 29th of April, they have a few hundred Easter eggs on loan from a Czech museum. Lovely eggs, new and old, modern and traditional, techniques ranging from painting with coloured wax, designs scratched out from a dyed egg, bits of cloth or lace glued on. Wire baskets formed around the eggs, Eggs done in 'plant batik' where a leaf has been laid down first, then the egg wrapped in onion skins and then boiled leaving a pale shadow of the leaves in a warm brown background. Wonderful eggs! If you like Easter eggs, even just these two rooms might be worth your while.

The main collection incudes all sorts of fascinating items: Stumps used as beehives carved with a picture of Samson tearing a lion's jaw apart - and the entrance for the bees in the lion's mouth, painted cemetary crosses from Romania, goat and horse costumes for processions, ceramics, decorated furniture, wood carvings, ...

And, of course textiles. One of the first was a few printing samplers- Strips of cloth with one design after another printed on them. Of the many embroidered items I particularly noticed a decorated kitchen towel - just a normal striped linen towel with rows of embroidery along one edge. There were many shirts of the several rectangles sewed together variety. I like these as they give so much scope for decorating each piece and also using decorative seams. Each is different, and even with similar ones I love looking at the individual touches of the needlewomen who made them. After the last few exhibits I have seen of ecclesiasical embroidery done either by professionals, or at that level of experitice and care, it was fun seeing things done with large stitches, with awkward stitches left in. The whole thing done either as showoff pieces or just for the love of colour and pattern. Remember - just the fact that someone had the time and materials to create a fancy embroidered shirt was show off of wealth. It said that the family didn't have to work hard from sunup to sundown just to survive.

My very favorite piece was a 'Sunday coat' for a woman. It was made of white leather with a sheepskin lining. I bet it was warm. But it was also beautiful. The outside was pieced, with major seams decorated by having folded lengths of other colours of leather worked in. The pieces themselves had fancy appliques of brown leather sewed on with tiny stitches. And between the appliques were various small motives in colourful satin stitch. And all of this on leather! The mind boggles. And here the stitches were small and regular. Wow!

At the moment I am working hard on my quilt and the sampler. Putting the quilt together requires a lot more careful sewing that I am usually good at, and for some reason I decided that I had to add the whitework bands from Linn Skinner's 'Beds of Roses' to the bottom of my sampler. Linn warned me that they are difficult. I'm not sure difficult is the word, but you can't afford a second of distraction. Not to mention that the satin stitch really does have to be properly laid. The fact that I am actually finding both restful, in the sense that I can keep my fingers well occupied without having to use most of my mind, says a lot about how hard the infection hit me. Although I am basically well again, My creative urge is only back to the extent of wanting to be doing, but not if I have to figure out what to do. It is lovely seeing the quilt top come together. It really is going to be beautiful. But I think it is a good idea to keep working hard at the finishing while I am enjoying it.

Shalom Flashcard Case

Just an example of what sort of things I might do:

I needed a case to hold my Hebrew flashcards. The letters are from the Shalom Alphabet book by avodat yad. I stitched them in my own selection of colours onto Aida band. Then I stitched down the hem and crocheted around the sides and top hem. (12 weight machine embroidery thread is great for fine crochet work, and comes in so many colours.)

I have set myself the challenge of creating something in some form of 'fibre arts' at least every two weeks during 2007. Creating includes at least some design work. It also includes making the item and doing any finishing needed. There are just so many techniques I want to try out.

In crochet there are hairpin lace and tapestry crochet.

I really want to do more in tablet weaving.

Then I have a lot of beads that need to be used somehow. - Maybe the vest I've been promising myself.

And then there is so much more to try out in felting.

Not to mention the various cording techniques I have only just started to explore.