Warm fingers!

Brr it's getting parky down under. My poor hands, or puddies as MrC calls them, have been really feeling the cold. And so my mind has gone to class ideas for making warm mittens. Because that's how I think of things to make and teach!
I decided to go for a lined merino approach, and after faffing around thinking of complex ways to add the thumb in, I just decided to try it flat, like this:

Folded in half, this is the lining. I have big hands and wrists so these would probably swim on someone else! But, I am happy with the basic pattern, as it is easy to draft from the measurements of lower arm, wrist and palm.
I wanted to use the class as an intro to machine embellishment. So, I got stuck in doing a flower, because I love flowers.

These took forever!

A rather pretty but boring little flower. It took FOREVER. I did the outline with perle thread in the bobbin, sewing from the back, but the amount of work it took doesn't give a payoff at all. The in fill is rayon thread, which I like a lot more. I shall have to rethink this in terms of the techniques we will do as adjusting the bobbin tension every time we go from heavy to normal bobbin threads for a whole class of students makes me shudder.
I backed my fabric with a fab knit interfacing, but of course it was stretchy so in this case, not so fab. It worked out OK but not for beginners. I had the stitching area in a 5"/125mm embroidery hoop (working on the opposite side than with hand embroidery) to keep it taut, which helped, but would work much better with a more stable interfacing.
So, after all that, I nearly created mitten moebii trying to bag in the thumb end as well as the top and bottom, and in the end I only bagged in the top edge, zigzagged the thumb edges together, and added a band at the bottom. By now I realised these were not going to be my class sample so they only had to suit me.

And here they are. The flowers needed to be a little further around, but otherwise they are nice and warm, and keep my fingers free. The tops I can fold down or leave up, depending on how much I need my fingers.
So, 5 hours on, this is all I got done. Admittedly I got interrupted a lot, but all in all I need to find a simpler way.
I think we'll go with one layer of boiled wool instead!

Next gift - return of the Embroidenator

Hmm.
imagine a conversation with one's mother about Christmas. Where one and one's mother agree not to exchange presents. Imagine saving the air consumed to cool one's porridge.

Apparently this EXQUISITE glasses case doesn't 'count' as a Christmas present, in spite of being GORGEOUS, and given to me on Christmas Day wrapped in Christmas paper.
Just as well I took no notice of the agreement too ;-)

What the Embroidenator has been up to

Remember my clever mother and the beautiful needle case she made me? It came about because she made herself one and I lusted after it in a most obvious way.
The other night at our sewing group I took a couple of shots of it.

Isn't it gorgeous!! Birds are her other favourite thing after flowers, and I think these are fairy-wrens because of their cute little tails, and that I know she adores them.

My very clever Mother

I am so lucky and blessed to have a mother who is so artistic it almost wafts off her when she walks. She scoffs at such statements, but she never ceases to amaze me at the beautiful things she makes.
This Christmas I have been so lucky to receive home made gifts. These shall be heirlooms. I'm going to show two of the gifts in this post. The first is an embroidered brooch.

It is a lovely round, silk button about 2.5 inches across. The silk is orange shot with purple and Mum has picked those colours out of it. This is going to look fabulous with a hand dyed scarf that her late best friend dyed for a wedding present to me. A fitting tribute to another amazing artist.

My other gift is a hand embroidered needle holder, shown here front and back.

Not only is it exquisite in its detail, it is full of family jokes and personal touches. The rose climbing up the right is Leonidas, which is my favourite rose and was in my wedding bouquet. I LOVE irises, famous for it. The bees are a family joke, as are the pansies (don't ask, noone would ever think the jokes funny but us!). I also love that spring and summer flowers are all in together in a way that could never happen in reality.
And to think that after making this, she decided that she should learn a bit more about embroidery techniques!I am so lucky to have such a loving, clever and patient mother, who has always been willing to show her stubborn daughter how to do things too. Thanks Mum xoxo