Bits & Bobs

I’m so relieved that my eye complaint is finally improving…

The other day I found myself searching for ages for a particular file on my computer – as you do - and came across a couple of things that I’d overlooked.

The first is my personal version of a stitch I’ve seen on one particular historical sampler. 

The picture I have of it is quite clear, in that I can see the second, larger chain, goes all the way round the smaller chain in one action. 

I think you could describe this stitch as a ‘braided chain’.  As I said, I have only seen one example of it and the closest thing I could find to its construction was the ‘Hungarian Braided Chain’.  What is unique about this kind of stitch is that both chains are worked simultaneously and you complete them in one journey. 

Its a very nice stitch, even if it is possibly only a bit of my personal guesswork?

The other interesting item I came across was the sketch below.  I  realise I haven’t yet done the second part of my visit to Witney Antiques.  Alas, I seem to have temporarily mislaid my notes.  Or put it another way, I am scared to look in the very last place they could be.  So, I thought in the meantime I would show you a quick sketch I did of a tiny section of the goldwork gauntlets that were on display there, if you recall.

I made the sketch from the fine image in the catalogue. 

I think the original detail is only about 2 cms across – can you imagine all that work in such a tiny space!

_________

 

A Little Knitted Interloper

Isn’t it weird the way one idea feeds into another?  After working out how to make DBH evenly-shaped, I found I understood the self-selvaging sides of knitted fabric that much better.  That insight led me to experiment with another pattern of mine, for this leaf.

As you can see, I was mainly concerned with mimicking the serrated edge effect.  Oh gosh, I just adore leaves!

Ideally I would like to produce this leaf pattern as another pdf file for sale, but I’m really worried that the pattern is hiding in the same place as the notes for Witney, that I mentioned earlier. 

I suppose all these missing bits and bobs prove to me, either that I should tidy my stash more often, or better still, perhaps never tidy it again!!!

Gotta go!

 

Technorati Tags: Witney Antiques,Goldwork gauntlet,Braided Chain

Kindle Cover for Kindle 4 & pdf file in the works

Gosh, no posts for a while… Twood appear that’s what happens when certain fluffy doggies suffer from insomnia…

 

I finished making a Kindle 4 cover as a gift. 

That was after a much-needed break in Madeira for all of us.  What a lovely tranquil place it is.  Virtually as soon as we arrived, we felt so relaxed, it must be something in the wonderfully clear air on that island?  Can’t wait to return sometime, soon!

Below is a picture of the back of the Kindle cover.

The whole thing proved to be way more time-consuming than I first thought, especially as I was certain I wanted it to remain washable.  I succeeded with that part, in that the two sandwiched sides open at the top, where the stiff supporting card can be re-inserted and concealed with fasteners.  I don't have pictures of that part because daylight was fast running out and I needed to pack the car.   

 

I bought this dreamy floral fabric in a tiny town on the wild Cornish coast a couple of years back.  I added fusible interfacing and felt padding.  I finished off the front with an organza and lace border and some topstitching.  I really enjoyed the hand sewn details.  I’m pretty obsessed with making my hand stitches as invisible as humanly possible, or as tiny as my eyes will permit. 

The cover can fold right back on itself to ensure ‘one-armed’ reading which is one of the great advantages of running a Kindle.  I used the design of my own  (subdued pink) leather  Kindle cover by ‘Tuffluv’ as the inspiration.

The spine remains very flexible, as its made only of padded fabric, without cardboard supports.  Later I reinforced that area with ribbon binding.  Whilst open, the clasp can be conveniently parked out of the way using the same Velcro patch that holds the cover closed. 

The device itself is held in place with 4 simple thick elastic strips, that I didn’t have time to cover but managed to finish off and frame with a large border of dusty pink velvet ribbon.  That detail brought the whole thing together and made the elastic seem much more integrated.  The finished item turned out to be very girly without being OTT and looks great on a bedside table or in your bag.  

PDF file update

Pleased to say I’m two thirds of the way through work on the pdf file I mentioned concerning ‘Even-Shaping of DBH’.  I hope to finish that quite soon.  It will be priced very fairly, sold on Etsy and is currently running at an incredible 20 pages with a section on research, another on comparisons with related textiles and the last part being a ‘how-to’.  (Maybe I should cut it down somewhat, but then again…. ) 

 

Technorati Tags: Kindle 4 cover,DBH