New designs – Christmas Stocking Tapestry kits.
Somehow this year, I endeavoured to choose colours for my new designs that promptly went right out of stock with my wool suppliers. Now they tell me that most of my missing colours have arrived and are on their way to me.  So, a bit late, here is the new range for 2011!
First, Christmas Stockings for Children – not for them to stitch, but for you to stitch for them!  This is Starry Stocking.  One design, three colourways, with Santa bustling about, scattering presents and stars everywhere.
 Blue for a boy; a fantastic Hot Pink for a little girl when nothing but pink will do, and Midnight to conjure up the magic of Christmas night for just about anyone. Sadly, Midnight is still on the waiting list for wool, but I’m told the wool is due in next delivery.

Then there is Red Stocking.  A sparkling, magical stocking, packed as full as Santa’s sack with Christmas goodies. Angels and bells, Rudolf and robins, stars and snowflakes.

I had noticed that Red Christmas Stockings are difficult to find.  When I began to draw Father Christmas – I realised why!!! So he is a very bright Santa which just adds to the sparkle – I think I have got away with it…

I have more new designs on the way, but that is another post.

New from Old.
We are busy at the moment, revamping the website and one of the casualties has been my earlier blogs.  In the web developers opinion, there was no point in keeping them if they were more than a year old.  He was right in most cases, but this one I thought I would repeat as it shows what can be done when you think your tapestry cushions are beyond their useful life. This was originally posted in April 2010.

Recently, a friend entrusted me with some tapestry cushions stitched and made by her late mother.  The tapestries had never been stretched and were all quite badly out of shape. One even had a whole corner completely missing thanks to my friend’s new puppy!  My job was to straighten them out and make them into new cushions.

There were six altogether.  Here are four of them.

I needed to unpick all the tapestries from the backings ready for stretching.
But first there was the missing corner to put right.

I knew how to do it in theory but never actually braved it before – it just seemed so worth having a go this time.  In the end, it really wasn’t difficult.

First I unpicked some of the ragged stitching till I had some clear OLD canvas. Then I could pin a new piece of canvas to the back and line up the holes with the old. I matched the colours as near as I could and then began stitching through both old and new canvas to anchor the patch and then just carried on until the whole corner was complete.

Next, all the canvases had to be stretched.  To do this, I wind wire spirals into the edges and rig them up on this instrument of torture – the Stretching Frame.  Because they had been made up, nearly all the spare canvas round the stitching had been trimmed and mitred!!  Tricky.

Finally, they get thoroughly wetted and left to dry in the fresh air.

Now it’s off to the cushion lady with armfuls of fabrics and zips.  Well, I forgot the zips and had to do a return trip!

A short while later….

…Lovely square, plump cushions to remind my friend of her mother’s needlepoint skills for years to come.

For me, the fabulous thing about our Making Up Service is that we see so much ingenuity and creativity from stitchers who usually refer to themselves as  ”not a designer”
This Christmas Stocking was just such a case where its ‘non designer’ had created something very special using all sorts of motifs that mean a lot to the lucky recipient.

Clearly it is intended for a young man who plays the guitar, so she had also added a row of real plectrums – I didn’t realise plectrums had little holes to make them easy to stitch onto tapestry!

We had to be very careful because she warned us the plectrums can scratch, so just to be safe, I stitched a piece of thin fabric over them before I began the stretching process.
 It stayed there throughout the stretching and making up until the finished stocking came back from my Christmas Stocking Lady!

By the way, Fröhliche Weihnachten means Happy Christmas in German.

The Christmas Stocking mentioned in my last blog arrived at the beginning of this month.

It had been badly made up with piping by someone who must have had little or no experience of the job.

The tapestry had obviously not been stretched before making up and although it wasn’t too badly out of shape, I felt it would look better if I could straighten it somehow.  I normally do this on a frame under tension, but whichever method is used – you need spare canvas at the top and bottom to pull on.  This stocking had been trimmed to less than a quarter of an inch and that was coming unravelled…

I wanted a straight edge with enough extra canvas to attach to my stretching frame that would not come unravelled under tension.  So I hand-stitched a piece of spare canvas to the back of the stocking round the bottom edge.

This gave me a top and bottom that could be made parallel with each other and square with the sides.  That was my theory, but I still didn’t know if it would work.

… Now on the frame.

Next I covered it with a piece of linen sheeting and gently held a steam iron to it to dampen it; turned it over to do the other side; turned it back again – more steam; checked that the top was still parallel to the bottom; and left it for about three days to become completely dry.

Then off it went to Vi, my Cushion (Christmas Stocking, Doorstop, Anything) Lady to be made up.
And here it is – none the worse for its adventures!

I am pleased to say, my customer was delighted – as was I.
And on top of that, I learnt a new technique which may or may not be the conventional way to do it, but the important thing is, it worked.

I find I rather enjoy rescuing.

Once the Engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton was announced and the wedding planned for April 29th, I knew it was high time I got cracking with a design for a counted cross stitch sampler kit that had been rattling round in my head for some time.
Of course, I should have had it ready to go immediately, but cross-stitch is not my normal habitat!  Still, I carried on regardless – stitching away, and tweaking the design and the colours until they were right.

So here it is – a bit late but at least it is here before the wedding!

The Royal Wedding Sampler will always be a lovely reminder of a happy day.

P.S….Royal Wedding Tapestry
It had to happen – one of my lovely customers wants to know if she can stitch a Royal Wedding Sampler as a tapestry.  She most certainly can! And if this is something you would be interested in, please get in touch.
email or phone 01403 782200