my embroidery journey

I thought I would share an embroidery which got me into embroidery in 1989.   My grandmother taught me to crochet when I was little, unfortunately I was only 9 when we lost her but the love of creative crafts had been planted.  Nor much embroidery was done but I did start making my own clothes whilst as school and carried on making them for myself then my 2 daughters as they came on the scene until they got to the age when they were embarrassed about wearing what Mum had made. I continued to sew for myself and also made for a small clientele until I found the machine was causing me problems, spondiliitis in the neck which the hospital said was caused from too much machining.   That is when the knitting needles came out. Then I came across an old piece of linen in a shop with a picture on it which I purchased then put away for a few years in a  drawer. In 1989 I decided I would try and stitch it so went along to a class every week and the teacher would help pick the threads and told me what stitches to do,   I thoroughly enjoyed this project and even now when I look at the picture I feel pleased with myself,  the one part I would redo is the grave stones, they stick out like a sore thumb to me ,never mind .  After completing this project I started on a piece of hardanger (my grandmother`s mother was Norwegian) and from there my teacher suggested I take the city and guilds course which I started in 1992.
This taught me so many techniques, a lot I would never use again but on the whole enjoyed the course and completed part 1 in 2 years,   3 years away then a glutton for punishment I went back and took another 2 years to do part 2.  Sorry I have rambled on rather a lot,    will now share the photos of the embroidered piece that got me started and my first hardanger piece.

sorry about the reflection caused by the glass.

   Now a photo of the latest half metre lengths I have bought to add to the stash,  what a shock when I counted them today I have 153 half metre pieces,    time I got something worthwhile made with them!

these are a bit different,  camper vans, owls and tiny russian dolls.

and more eye candy quilts

As requested I am adding more quilts, have worked hard this morning trying to make small collages and finally got it right. Not sure I do it the right way but managed to condense 19 photos into 3 collages.

That was so much quicker to load and success at last! Hope you do not mind them being done this way, can post photo if requested to do so if you need a closer look!

I also had one or to requests to share the fabric I bought whilst away so here are 2 more photos.

Looking at the first photo the four fabrics from top to bottom on the left were bought to use together, top 2 on the right I just could not resist, one with daffodils and one with daisies   these are all half meters and the bottom 2 fat quarters of cats, my younger daughter likes the grey one for a cushion but did not like the colour of the other one so will keep that for myself.!

The second photo is of the fabric I bought in one of the many fabric shops n Shepherds Bush, once again I bought half meters as it was such a good buy. I think next time I go to London I will have to take a bigger case as the choice of fabric is so amazing down there. Just as well I live far away.

Not sure if I mentioned I also got a cutting mat 12" by 18", struggle with the one I have as it has two dark sides, this one has one dark and one light so when cutting dark fabrics it will make life easier.Could not justify the larger size as I already have it for general use and it would have been difficult to bring it home as it took a bus, 2 undergrounds trains,a coach and final bus! But it was so so worth all the travelling, still not come down to earth from a wonderful time with Cheryl.

I found some coats crochet cotton 20`s in the market at Shepherds Bush for only £1 a ball, great buy, shame they had so few colours but will get tatting with them soon,  good to do whilst soaking up the sun in the garden, my plan for this afternoon prior to the rain that is due back tomorrow.