It’s a while since I let you see any of the crafts which I’ve been getting on with this winter – yes I know it’s officially spring now but it honestly doesn’t feel like it does it?
Anyway the thatched cottage embroidery is a really traditional design, embroideries like this were very popular in the 1930s but this one is from around about the 1970s I think. No, I haven’t had it hanging around the house all these years, I bought it just a couple of months ago, it was someone else’s unfinished project, in fact the only thing they had embroidered was the trees, I’m not sure if I’ll keep them as they are though. They are supposed to be laburnums and I think I might be able to do something which looks more like laburnums. I’m going to tackle the thatched roof next and by the time I get that done it’ll be well on the way to being finished.
I always have to have a lot of crafty stuff on the go at once, so that when I’m not in the mood to do a particular project I’ll have plenty of others to choose from. This is one of the other embroideries I’ve been doing. As you can see it’s a very different design, although most of the stitches which I’ve been using in the two embroideries are very similar.
The fabric which I’m using is a remnant of curtain material in a closely woven faux silk, although it’s quite solid it’s easy to get the needle through and is perfect as an embroidery background.
I ironed the design onto the material, it was one of those tracing paper transfer ones from the 1930s this sort of design was very popular in then, although of course the Jacobean designs were first used in the Stuart times of the 1600s. There was another surge of popularity in the hippie times of the 1970s, with each era putting their own spin on the subject via the different colours which were fashionable at the time. My colours are a bit crazy, but I want it to look cheery.
Unfortunately the transfer ink is yellow and I was determined to use the yellow material as a background, so it has been a bit of a pain in the neck seeing exactly where the design is at times, but I’m getting there and I hope to be finished it fairly soon, which is why I’m putting it in a blogpost really, it’ll galvanise me into action so that I can do another post about the finished projects!
They’re lovely, Katrina.
Peggy,
Thanks. They won’t be too bad when I get them finished. I think I improve with time!
Beautiful work!
Stefanie,
Thanks, I think I’m getting better at it.
I should send you some of my abandoned projects. I sometimes get over ambitious with my selection of pieces and just can’t force myself to sit down and finsh them.
I still have some work I did finish back in my ‘hippie days’. Lovely Jacobean designs on bluejeans. Tucked away in the rafters somewhere.
I’m most successful at completing things when they are intended as gifts. But then there’s the Winnie the Pooh piece that I paid a fortune for from a company in the UK I found on the internet – I wanted classic Pooh, not Disney Pooh (that sounds dirtier than intended) – that I started for my second grandchild. He’ll be 9 years old next month…
Pearl,
I can top you – I bought a Beatrix Potter cross stitch alphabet kit when I was pregnant with Duncan. I finished the alphabet quickly but still haven’t completed Peter rabbit et al around the edges. Duncan had his 27th birthday yesterday!
Oh my! I feel so much better!
Pearl,
I’m telling myself that I’ll get it finished if I ever have any grandchildren, but I’m not in a hurry for that!
Beautiful. One thing I don’t do is embroidery like that. Probably a good thing as I have more than enough to be doing,
I have an alphabet kit that is half started, last picked up about 11 years ago. I might just have to get it out and look at it again! ( then put away obviously)
Jo,
Obviously. I dread to think how many projects I have on the go at any one time, but they do usually get finished eventually.
I,m about to start doing some of these cottage embroideries , so I,d really love to see how yours turns out .Is it from an old Briggs transfer ? Hope the weather is not being too cruel to you up there ! Daisy Debs
Daisy Debs,
Thanks for dropping by. I’ll do a blogpost about this embroidery soon to let you see how it’s progressing. It was a kit from a series including things like a railway station and an Edwardian park. It has been very wet and windy here but thankfully there has been no flooding!
Hello Katrina , I just came across this post you did a while ago now:) …Did you finish it ? 🙂 Happy Easter ! Debbie 🙂 x
Daisy Debs,
Happy Easter to you too! No I haven’t completed that embroidery but I don’t have much of it still to do and I’ll definitely blog about it when it’s finished. Writing that should galvanise me into action!