Special gift for a special friend.

So I can finally reveal what I have been working on for my World Cup Craft project and why it was so fitting. My very good friend Bekki spent a few months of last year travelling round Asia and Australasia, so as her (very late) birthday present I embroidered a cushion with all the countries she went to.

Here it is!

She travelled to Thailand, China, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji so I did them all in their own colours and then just did all the other countries and borders in silver. I then finished it all off with the teal lettering at the bottom.

I started by actually finding a map I could use that was small enough to fit on the cushion but large enough to make it possible to sew. I finally found one and then had to sit looking at another map and make sure I marked off the right countries. I myself am pretty untraveled myself so wanted to double check. In the photo it looks very crinkled from lots of use.

Then I had to transfer the pattern onto the cushion cover. I already had some tailors transfer paper and decided to use the white one because I didn't want to end up marking the cushion, however I made the mistake of not testing it in a corner to check that it would show up. This meant that I traced the whole thing and then realised that it hadn't worked. I then went through the other colours and found that the red one showed up and so traced it with that.

It came out quite faint and its pretty difficult to see in this photo, but it gave me an outline which I then drew over with my purple fabric pen, I did remember to test this on a little bit of fabric on the inside of the cushion to check it faded. Turns out the ink fades very quickly on this type of material, the reason the map is so creased is because I had to keep looking at it for reference and re-drawing parts of the map.

I began my stitching with Australia, I'm not sure why, perhaps because its not got any other countries touching it and therefore in my mind that made it easier.

My first attempt was using a simple back stitch but I soon realised that this lacked the finesse that I wanted the cushion to have

I then moved on to the chain stitch, which really isn't more difficult but I thought looked a lot nicer.

I finished Australia on the night that England were beaten by Uruguay,

 Or so I thought, it turns out that Tasmania is also part of Australia so I had to do that little island in Orange too.

The next day I got lots of sewing done because the electrician came round and turned all my electric off, so he could fix some of the plug sockets in the house. I imagine he thought I was quite odd, sat across the room from him with my headphones in, sewing away. I next attempted China, it was the other big country and I'd already decided to do all the coloured countries first because I didn't want to accidentally sew part of one of them with the silver thread.

China was followed by Thailand

Then New Zealand

And last but not least - tiny little Fiji

I then had to fill in the rest of the map. The reason I chose a silver thread was because I wanted something that would compliment the colour of the cushion but also not stand out too much. I wanted the main focus to be drawn to the countries she had visited.

This was what it looked like when all the countries were done!

The next stage was to add the lettering to the bottom of the cushion. I decided to put "Travelling 2013" just in case she goes travelling again in the future...and I decide to make her another cushion haha.

I picked a font ages ago and began to doubt my decision when I was trying to transfer it onto the cushion cover.

 I stuck with the original back stitching to go around the lettering and then filled it in using satin stitching. This was the only point of my sewing where I started doubting myself and wondering whether it looked good enough. I think there is always a part of a project where I get very critical of myself. Maybe I should have more confidence in what I do because everyone has told me how good it looks.

 And when the lettering was done it was finished. It's the first time in a while that I've done some embroidery and even longer since I've done such a big piece. I really enjoyed it, as much as I love crochet and all the amazing things it makes, hand sewing will always be my first love.

When it actually got round to giving this to Bekki I did start to feel a little nervous in case she didn't like it. It's not like you can pop a receipt in the bag so they can return it. However when I went into her room I saw this on my desk and I realised how silly I had been

This was what I made Bekki for her birthday last year. I spent hours devising a pattern for an amigurumi fox as it's her favourite animal and its right there on her desk. That's when I realised that she would have loved it even if it does have problems because I made it for her, and that the important bit. The fact that I put so much care into it because I was making it for her.It makes is special.

Now that the sewing is done I am going back to one of my many crochet patterns on my to do list. Trying to work out the kinks in my dinosaur pattern. As the picture below shows...it's going well!

I hate using yarn after its been undone!

My crocheting may slow down again because....I've gone back to work. Despite feeling no better at all and still having no diagnosis. I'm pushing myself to go back because I feel like staying at home by myself is really bringing me down. I get so bored! Fingers crossed for a speedy diagnosis and an even quicker cure!

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend x

Pretending I'm still a student

Today I had made a student dinner for me and Dave. Pasta for tea which when we were at Uni was fondly named pasta with sh*tloads of cheese. This is because I didn't get anything out the freezer and I was being lazy. To be honest I did cook this morning (eggy bread and bacon) so I didn't feel too bad about not making a proper meal. It did however lead to a phone call with Mum where she very crossly said that I should have told her that I had no food in, I then had to admit to my laziness. To follow our student dinner Dave wanted dessert which lead to the chocolate microwave mug cakes! They weren't the best cakes I've ever made but they definitely did the job.

All the ingredients mixed together in a mug and then a couple of minutes later

Ta Da!

It had deflated a little in between taking it out the microwave and taking the photo haha. If anyone is going to make one (and there are loads of recipes on the web including posh grown up ones) I recommend using the biggest mug you have as they expand quite a bit.

As my World Cup Craft project is a secret I can't post details on it but I can say that I am about 1/4 of the way there so on track to finish it. What I have decided to do instead is to talk about my new embroidery loop that I have been using.

 The one on the left is my old one and probably the one that most sporadic embroiderers will use, it has a screw which I have managed to cut out of the photo (oops!)  Whereas my new one on the right has an internal metal ring that you pull together to move in and out of the pink cover.

I have to admit that when I bought this I didn't need it as I didn't have any impending embroidery projects but I was yarn shopping (a fairly regular past time) and this caught my eye. Admittedly it was probably because it was pink. Its nice having a hoop where the 2 pieces themselves don't become looser as you sew, you still get the slack from the material being pulled but you don't have the issue of needing to retighten the screw as you do with the other one. The only problem I do have with it, and its something that could probably be avoided if I thought about it when I was putting the hoop on. When the hoop is on the material you can only see the pink coating from the front and the metal loop/handles are on the back

My problem is that I get thread caught round the handles. If you notice straight away then its not too bad, however if you don't and carry on stitching you end up with this pointless extra loop of thread that you then have to tie off. Its not the biggest problem in the world but its pretty frustrating. 

The other "exciting" part of my boring Sunday was that my regular shaped candle that I burnt in a star shaped pot

Is now a star shaped candle

I'm very easily amused haha. And on that note I shall round off my fairly boring blog post from my uneventful Sunday.

I hope your weekends were lovely x

World Cup Crafting

So my lovely twitter and blog friend Jenny (prettycolumn.blogspot.co.uk ) has set herself a challenge to finish her crafty project of knitting a cardigan by the end of the world cup, and has invited others to join in. I figured that this would be a perfect opportunity to challenge myself to finish my embroidery project. Its to be given as a gift and should have been finished quite a while ago. 

As I've mentioned before I can't post details on what the project actually is as the person receiving it has been known to peruse my blog and I don't want to ruin the surprise. I will be posting bits that slyly skim over what the overall result will be and am taking photos as I go along to post in a lovely blog post when it's finished.

I finally got my bum in gear with starting everything today, and surprisingly its all because boyfriend decided to upset me. One comment about how much dirty washing there is in the laundry basket and I found myself sat and the downstairs table with my project purposely avoiding any form of housework! Regretting it now because it still needs to be done before I can go bed.

The gift I am making is an embroidered cushion and the design I have chosen is something that has to be copied as exactly as I can rather than it being something I can draw freehand. Straight away this makes it a bit more difficult. The first thing I did was mark out where to lay the pattern on the cushion, so I could make sure that every time I was using it, it was being put in the same place. 

I used tailors transfer pattern to get the pattern onto the material. First time I used a white piece and then realised that it wasn't showing up on the cushion. I then took a red piece which worked but it was still a bit faint so I went over the whole pattern with my fabric pen. The only problem I can foresee is that the material of the cushion seems to not hold the ink for very long so I may have to redraw parts the pattern as I'm going along.

I started with a back stitch but decided I didn't like it:

So I changed to a split stitch and think it looks much better:

The pattern is quite large but certain parts have been picked out to be in the colours I picked in my last blog and the rest of the pattern will be in silver. This will all make so much more sense when I can tell you all what it is! 

I managed to get a good part of one of the focal (coloured) parts done during the England/Uruguay match this evening but it did mean that I didn't pay too much attention to the football haha. I have an electrician coming in the morning and my plan is just to sit and sew with a cup of tea while he works as to not get in his way!

I guess I should get on and clean my kitchen :(

If anyone fancies joining me and Jenny we are using the hashtag #worldcupcraft on twitter or give her a comment on her blog or twitter (@riley_jl ). We'd love to see what other people are up to!

Have a lovely day x

P.S. I made a Victoria Sponge yesterday :)