About suzicalwp

Suzi Morris (suzical)

Second RSN piece finished..

Posted on May 24, 2012 by suzicalwp

The mounting is finished and my tulip is finally finished.
I did the first of my pieces with the RSN on an intensive course last summer, we had 8 days tuition over two weeks to design, complete and mount the embroidery. This, my second piece was started in October and I have, just a few moments ago, cut the last thread.. I just have the self assessment form to complete now! Obviously I think it’s wonderful and worth full marks across the board – well apart from the mounting maybe..

The piece will be marked on cleanliness, stitch technique, edges of the embroidery, shading and mounting..

I know I’ll lose marks on the mounting, there’s a bit of puckering which no amount of stretching or lacing the back will remove, other than that I have enjoyed working this piece and am fairly pleased with the finished product!

The sun has finally got his hat on!

Posted on May 13, 2012 by suzicalwp

After what seems like weeks of rain, we’re enjoying a bit of sunny weather in the UK – or at least in Surrey

So we packed up a picnic, grabbed the dog and went off on an adventure. We saw a wild deer racing away from another dog ( thankfully ours was still on the lead at that point), sat on a bench watching runners in a race go past – hope they were encouraged by our 3 person cheering squad – we felt a bit guilty that we were having a snack as they’d just run up a big hill.. And enjoyed our picnic..

Work space

Posted on April 25, 2012 by suzicalwp

I love sewing at Hampton Court and feel very lucky to have the chance to spend time in the classroom there. The Certificate Classroom is on the 2nd floor and has 4 of those lovely round windows to let in lots of light.

There are a number of work stations set up around the outside of the room, with adjustable trellis’ designed to hold your embroidery at the perfect height and angle..

So the challenge is to recreate these conditions at home..

My frame gets moved around all over the place!

As I’ve mentioned I like to sit in our dining room, I have the radio and, although the light is slightly better in the living room I have a daylight lamp which helps!

Here you can see my current piece held up by the table at the top and two storage baskets at the side each on a chair, which seem to be a good height for me! You can see the embroidery is surrounded with tissue paper to keep the fabric and already done bits as clean as possible while I’m working. I also use the tissue paper bits to hold my threads and the photo/ drawings I’m working from.

As you can’t see the actual embroidery so well on that last photo, here’s a close up..

Enjoy. X

Silk shading progress

Posted on April 11, 2012 by suzicalwp

Embroidery took a back seat for a while, there was the move, I got side tracked by quilting and generally got scared by the silk shading module of my RSN certificate. Now I’ve run out of excuses and have made myself buckle down and get on with it! Since we’ve moved I’ve made it in to Hampton Court three times for tuition days and I have another day booked a week monday – so have to get on with some homework.. tomorrow!

Here’s my frame all wrapped up, keeping all dust and ladybirds (we have tonnes this year) from harming my work..

and here is my piece so far:

hopefully I only have a couple of days left tuition on the embroidery and then you need a full day for mounting, a tough process I need to prepare my fingers for! Last time I could barely type after we’d mounted!

So that’s Crewel work down, silk shading nearing the end I still have gold work and a choice of canvas stitches or blackwork to go.

Moved..

Posted on March 19, 2012 by suzicalwp

We’re in, we finally have Broadband, Telephone and TV services sorted out so back online and in touch with the outside world!

I think we’re all settling in to our new home and routine – D especially is enjoying a whole extra hour in the day as his commute is shorter both in train time and walk to the station (less than a minute to the platform from our door. Little Ted can wave to Daddy on the platform and watch his train leave on a morning.. And we watch for his train arriving on an evening – if he ever misses that train I think we might be in trouble!

We’re also enjoying more space to run round in (sometimes literally!).

I was a bit worried that we might not use the dining room- but Edward eats all of his meals in here and we eat with him on a weekend so we have nice family time in here – also the music is set up in the hatch between the kitchen and dining room so its a good place for me to sit on a morning to work in.. (photo above taken through the hatch..)

We’ve got the house into a state we can live in so now we have to motivate ourselves to get the last bits unpacked and start doing all the little jobs that are necessary but could drag on for the next 6 months.. For example we could never invite Everywhereist to stay as not only do we have a shower screen, but it’s a foldable one, stuck in the folded position – we have to be very careful not to soak the bath mat! ( the Everywhereist link is well worth a read )

if you didn’t guess already I just discovered Instagram, so even the dullest photos look a little bit cool! – it also can upload direct to Flickr, making blogging from the iPad a little bit easier for me..

Moving..

Posted on February 1, 2012 by suzicalwp

The boxes are here.. We move in Friday and I’m not sure you’d know it to see our house, I managed to convince D that we should get in packers as well as removal men. So for now we have just two boxes packed – Christmas in one and my sewing/ quilting magazines and sketch books in the other..

I’ve been busy sorting through and tidying things ready for the packers, so bizarrely I’ve rearranged the kitchen cupboards and we have switched around the living room furniture with just days in the house.. This morning I’ve packed us an over night bag and put aside some cleaning stuff. I think the next thing to do is try to make sure things are in the right room – I know that Little Ted’s toys will be packed into boxes from every room!

So now I regret my 2 weeks radio silence on the blog as we’ll be without TV, telephone and more importantly broadband for 2 weeks at the new place! Hard enough for me to cope without broadband, but we’ll have to explain to Little Ted why he can’t watch the advert for Stick Man on YouTube again.

On a craft front, I have finally finished my MillaMia cushion – in red (one of the few packed things so no photo yet) just in time to move to a house with orange living room curtains – I’m hoping I can still use it in there!

I’ve also started a new quilt using a jelly roll I’ve had in my stash for a while..

Until now I have just taken it out to look at now and then, I haven’t had a plan for the quilt, I’ve just been playing with the fabric. First I unrolled it – with a bit of help from a friend.

Then I sewed strips together into fours and played with some layouts.

For some reSon I decided that triangles were the way to go..

I’ve sewn up a block, but the triangles are hard to line up. I’m going to unpick the whole thing and use some chunky sashings to hide behind.. This is a real learning curve, but I’m loving the challenge.

See you in a few weeks when we’re in a new home..

Suzical

Exploring Sewing one stitch at a time

Author Archives: suzicalwp