A nod to Jane Austen

It seemed to me that a lady who owns a fitted sewing box might also have need of a dainty workbag, so I created my own version in pale eau-de-nil crepe.
The base is 5" across, just the right size for a Bauble-in-progress.
The lining of pretty Liberty lawn seems in keeping.
I took the coward's way and sewed the base on by hand, covering the join with some glitzy braid.
Note the hand worked buttonholes for the drawstring.
An embroidered posy on each side finishes it off. This was so much fun to make, I think I might make another one...
And just because she seems to fit here, rosa Reine des Violettes, with ruching far more beautiful than anything I could sew.

A basket, a box, and some memories

A long post today - one thing kind of led to another, as you'll see.
My mother didn't really enjoy sewing, though she dutifully made little dresses when my sister and I were small. But she loved to embroider.
Convent educated, she learnt the skills of fine needlework from an early age, and became adept at embroidery, crochet and knitting. She taught me to embroider too, although I don't think my work ever came up to the high standards of the nuns.
This was her workbasket (though from the style of it, possibly my grandmother's originally). I inherited it when Mum died, and brought it out today to compare with the project I've just finished.
The dear old basket is crumbling now, and the lining is perishing. But wasn't it grand?
These scraps were tucked into one of the corner pockets. I don't know where the lace originated, or the lovely button, but the embroidery came from summer pyjamas that Mum had in her trousseau. Her work is finer than anything I could do - perfect satin stitch berries in shaded cotton, and the tiniest of chain stitches for the leaves and stems. And it's worked on art silk, which was really a kind of rayon (would have been done in the 1930's, as Mum married in 1939).
The cloth under the basket is coarser, embroidered in thick, unplied silk thread. The back, of course, is almost as neat as the front. This was intended for a cushion cover, but never made up.
I've never had a workbasket, but recently I bought this sewing box. A cheap, possibly Chinese, import, it was finished in that peculiar red stain that tends to come off on your hands.
A scrub and polish fixed that, and I turned my attention to the interior, which was roughly lined with cheap, nasty cotton.
But look at it now! I lined it in an olive-y green furnishing fabric, and added pockets on the lids.
A little embroidery added a touch of class, and I even made a matching needle book.
This will be my Bauble-box, holding all the threads and equipment for decorating a Bauble.
Just to let Mum have the last word, here's a close-up of that white cloth. She was good, my Mum, wasn't she?

Oriental berries

Finally finished this, it speaks to me of Chinese brocades
Worked in three shades of gold, with a deep tangerine for the berries, on dark green linen.
The little cushion it sits on is my solution to the issue of display, inspired by this picture
of a dorodango, or Japanese clay ball.
Here it is unburdened, with a flower embroidered to make a hollow for the Bauble.
From the back, not quite so neat, but you can see it's made from a simple square of fabric.

On a different note, I'm still thinking and studying about the future of this blog. I invested in a couple of e-books from Diane Gilleland, over at CraftyPod. I think they are going to be really helpful; I've only read the first book "Making a Great Blog" so far, which covers topics like blogging goals, content, eye-candy, and blogging ettiquette, with lots of handy hints. I plan to take a while to study and use her work sheets to improve my blogging skills.

Crazy purple

Another crazy Bauble. This time the crazy patches were applied onto a 'couldabeen' ball - yes, I do sometimes recycle the failures! I used raw-edge applique, as turning the edges under makes too much of a ridge. Don't you like my snail?
And of course there has to be a spider, hanging from his web.
I could go on on with more of these, but it's time to move on to a new embellishment. (You'll remember the original plan was to devote the whole year to exploring the possibilities of Baubles - and it's almost September!)
These have re-kindled my love of crazy patchwork though; I'm thinking maybe it's time to start that crazy quilt I always planned to make... maybe next year?

Sweet and Crazy

I bore easily. After the monotony of the all that chain stitching in Aerial View, and Sea Urchin wasn't much better, I needed a bit of variety. So I returned to a secret vice of mine, not indulged for a while - crazy patchwork.
My usual taste in crazy work is of the gypsy variety, lots of rich colours, but for this experiment I chose a safer palette of pink, green and cream.
Each of the eight segments was foundation pieced before assembling and stuffing the ball, then I embroidered it. Despite looking 'crazy', the fabric placement had to be carefully planned. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to achieve this. I made up a diagram using isometric graph paper, as each segment of the ball is basically an equilateral triangle with slightly curved sides. Even so, I made a couple of boo-boos, but I don't think you can tell.
The embroidery was great fun, and not at all boring. It turned out better that I'd hoped, and there will definitely be more of these!
Incidentally, for the very best of crazy patchwork, have a look at Robyne Melia's work - this is her old blog, worth exploring for some marvellous pictures.

Sea urchin

I've always loved the delicate shells of Sea Urchins, and though it might make a pretty Bauble.


I did my homework, and discovered that sea urchins are divided into five segments.



This one is not quite correct in every anatomical detail, but certainly conveys the idea.


I chose pale creams and pinks for the embroidery - it was a good opportunity to practise my french knots!

Aerial view

Another Bauble inspired by Aboriginal depictions of the land. I imagined a river flowing across the country, bordered by greenery, fading gradually to desert sands and rich brown hills.


Worked with stranded cotton, using chain stitch throughout.


I think I achieved what I set out to do with this, but it took a long time to cover the ground!
And while as a decorative piece it succeeds, but as Art? No, I don't think so.
It reminds me of an earlier Bauble which I needlefelted with variegated wool - decorative, but lacking in a focal point, and not interesting enough to hold the viewer's interest for more than a minute or so.

Ethnic

I've been reading a lot about Aboriginal art lately, and wishing I could convey some of the unique mark-making in non-western art. This is an attempt, I think it looks more African than Australian.
I used a patterned fabric for the base, which gives an extra richness to the finished Bauble.

Fantasia

I love Paisley, and after reading Aimee Ray's sweet little book Doodle-Stitching, I decided to make a paisley style Bauble.
Side view

I used some unusual purple shot cotton for the base, and worked the paisley motifs in several shades of pink and lavendar.
Top view

Base, with initials

There are twelve motifs, all different; I had great fun designing them, with occasional consultation of my stitching bible - "The Stitches of Creative Embroidery" by Jacqueline Enthoven, for inspiration.
This is a wonderful reference, purchased many years ago, and well-thumbed. Most of the stitches I will never use, of course - but they are fascinating to read about.

Serenity

For this Bauble I began with blue cotton fabric, which I sponged with acrylic paint in a paler blue- as quite a lot of the fabric would show, I wanted to add a bit of texture.
The design came from a doodle. I tidied it up a bit, enlarged it on the photocopier, printed it on copy paper, then cut it out, making a template which I pinned onto the ball and traced around with a white gel pen.
The outline is stem stitch worked in Pearl 8 cotton, the "feathers" are worked in two strands of stranded cotton.
I like it a lot.

Mothball

Well, what else could I call it?
Eight pastel moths on a creamy background, embellished with sequins and outline stitched.

I used Vliesofix to attach the moths, ironed them down with my nifty little Clover iron, then outlined them in backstitch.

Malachite

I've always admired the endless variations of banding on malchite, a copper-based semi-precious gemstone.

So I adapted them to a Bauble, using a pale green cotton fabric for the base.

I began by sewing on six randomly distributed clusters of sequins in various shades of deep green, which I outlined in dark green buttonhole stitch. Then I worked successive lines of stem stitch around each cluster, using five shades of green in all.

I allowed the shapes to join together as they grew larger, and filled in the gaps with more lines of stem stitch.

With hindsight, I think this would have been better with more variation in the stitching - chain stitch, for example - and maybe some prepainted lines on the ball to add a bit of depth. Oh well, there's always a next time...