I found a few likely candidates a few weeks ago and started of again. At that time I posted an update to Flickr but it was already pretty clear when I took the photo that one of the string substitutes wasn’t going to cut the mustard. It was too stiff and thick, didn’t like to bend into tight corners and was about twice the height of the other strings. So I unpicked those bits again.

Then I started off, with a few more circles and swirls and realised that I’d given him matching round cheeks… hmm, didn’t look good at all so out it came. A few more hours and I realised I’d put a bullseye in the middle of his forehead -arrggghhhh- out that came too. So with probably another fifteenhours of stitching on it I have about four hours to show for it.

But I guess that’s what happens when you’re trying out new stuff, hey?

So here is the current status. What do you think?

But with the Phat Quarter group on Flickr I decided to give it a shot. And I had so much fun with that one that when it came ’round again I signed up once more. This time with the theme NSFW… ie. don’t be shocked by anything that you receive.

Now I’m waay behind on my piece (which should have been sent off, oh, a couple of weeks ago) but I got mine today. Sailor Mouth, a bloke in Texas stitched me a well-hung sailor centaur and if that doesn’t just cover every genre then I don’t know what will. He commissioned the design from an artist friend and stitched it up on linen. Mostly backstitch with 2 strands and some satin stitch around the hat, the tattoo and the, ahem, manly bits.

I decided not to frame it but put it on a cushion. And as it was an idea I’d had for a while – a display cushion where I could swap out the embroidery on it – I spent tonight whipping it up from some old left over fabric and a second-hand zipper. I hemmed the embroidery with bias tape  and used press studs to attach it. Taadaa! Display cushion with well hung mythological seaman. What more could a girl ask for?

I’ve been collecting goldwork threads and books in a very magpie-like fashion for a couple of years and have been slowly incorporating them into my pieces (the threads and techniques I mean, not the books). But there’s one technique I hadn’t yet tried and really, really wanted to – Or Nué. In this, thick gold-covered thread such as Jap gold is couched down in tight rows, and coloured silk is stitched over row by row to create the image. The gold shimmers through, the silks are colourful and lustrous… it’s an all-over rich affair. It was used a lot in ecclesiastical stuff – well, goldwork in general was mainly done for the church or royalty anyway because it uses, y’know, actual gold. Not something for the plebs.

But I’d always wanted to give it a shot, and also had a very general idea of what the subject matter should be, so now I’ve finally started. Only I’m leaving the gold out.

I’d fully planned to use Jap gold, but when I started pulling everything out and looking at my plans, I decided that I wanted something a bit rougher, a little less pretty. So I grabbed a ball of string from the kitchen drawer and started.

This is how it stands at the moment. Excuse my slightly secretive corner view, but with the design transferred onto the backing fabric, it’d give too much away if I showed the whole piece. I want to see if I can faithfully reproduce the design in this method and I’d like your unbiased-by-the-original-picture opinion of the finished piece.. I’m pretty much freehanding the flow of the string around the piece –Or Nué generally uses straight lines but I saw this done somewhere else and found it beautiful (can’t find the link at the moment, will update when I do)- and I guess we’ll see how it turns out.

MrXStitch is going to be one year old next Thursday (well, the site is I mean. Jamie, judging by his zucchini, is older) and he’s celebrating with giveaways and new patterns and all kinds of stuff. If you don’t know the site yet, go and check it out – he and his trusty sidekick Beefranck manage to find amazingly cool embroidery from all around the ‘net.

Here’s the full deal on the birthday bash (there isn’t a world-wide video conference call thing organised as far as I can tell, but maybe we can pressure them into it?)…

On 27^th August, Mr X Stitch will be one year old, and there’s lots happening!

First of all we will be launching a new range of cross stitch and embroidery patterns from some of the newest embroidery talents out there. When you find out who they are, you’re going to want them!

We’re also announcing a new roster of guest posters, who will be bringing you more views from the wonderful world of stitching.

And finally, the information you’ve all been waiting for…we’re having a giveaway!

Yes indeed, you will have the chance to win one of the following:

• A gift pack from the awesome Subversive Cross stitch!
• One of Emily Peacock’s fabulous needlepoint kits!
• A free sampler of your choice from Miso Funky!
• A copy of Manga Cross Stitch, courtesy of Ilex Books!
• An original Beefranck stitchery!

…

• And a piece of work from some wiseacre called Mr X Stitch.

We’ve also got a special prize of a batch of light effects threads that will end up with whoever makes us laugh the most over the course of the week. Can’t be bad!

So spread the word, tell your friends, and we’ll see you there!

You may have already noticed the banner on the right-hand side of this website for Kiva. This is not at all a paid-for ad, it’s something I’ve put on my site because I think it’s a great cause and want to support it in anyway I can.

Kiva is a not-for-profit which enables people to make microloans – starting from as little as $25 – to others around the world who need a little bit of funding to start making their own lives better. This isn’t donating (although you can donate to support the running of Kiva itself), this is lending. The entrepreneurs you support with your capital pay back the loans, which you can then cash out or relend.It’s money that keeps cycling around, helping out not one person but many, again and again. There’s more on the Kiva website about micro-financing if you’re interested.

I’d been hearing about micro-financing for a long time, but it wasn’t until Peter Bihr at The Waving Cat mentioned his loans last year that I realised how easy it was to take part. If you’d like to see the loans I’m currently funding, here’s my lender page and I’ve set up a team which everyone is free to join. I plan to (very!) soon have embroidery patterns for sale on this site and 10% of each sale will be funneled straight into micro-loans.

As I said, it’s something I feel strongly about supporting.

Please go and check out the site, read through it and think it over. It’s a great way to help people out in a sustainable fashion.

Yep, well that happened to me with temari.

I tried my first temari and it worked out better than I expected (after the first few failed attempts). So then I decided to branch out a little. To get a bit experimental. To just wing it.

my first temari - from detailed instructions

That, I ‘ve discovered, is not a good idea. Especially not with three-dimensional geometries which make even me pause to think about it- and I’m a trained crystallographer. Added in was that I hadn’t quite worked out the way the stitches work with and around each other, and that I thought “hey, wouldn’t it be cool to try and make it just a little asymmetrical?” . So I wound up with this. Ahhh, expert instructions – they never go astray. At least I made the thread-wrapped core myself – out of old socks.