Sunday Sevens 2019 #29

On October 13, 2019October 12, 2019 By Dartmoor YarnsIn Sunday Sevens9 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Sevens – a post where I share seven (or so) photos of my week away from the blog.

It’s been another wet week of near non-stop rain …

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Our usual dog walking paths had already turned into rivers – but this week made then flow ever fast…

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…and paths that had been passable last week had turned into ponds…

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It was definitely a week to stay in and do some work – although I did try a a little avoidance by tidying my ribbon box…

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Being mostly stuck inside meant I finally remembered to start off my damson vodka…

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Of course a little bit of rain didn’t stop me and Harry going for walks…

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And in non-rain related events, Lovely Husband took some stuff to the charity shop and returned with a small gift he found on the book shelves…

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Not sure what I’m going to write in here. Any suggestions?

Until next time,

Bekki

WIP Catch up

On October 10, 2019October 9, 2019 By Dartmoor YarnsIn Crochet, Embroidery, Knitting, Work in progress6 Comments

Just in case my blog is beginning look as if all I’m ever going to subject you to in future is bad sketching and strange looking machine scribbles, I thought I’d better do a quick WIP catch up…

My red sweater is still on the go. Not much progress since last time – too distracted by every other craft. All I’ve done is finish the wrapped pattern and add some ribbing to the top.

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I’m currently contemplating how to edge the top – since casting straight off from the rib is going to create a rather unsightly seam – or rather I keep meaning to contemplate it.

My other knitting WIP – a tea cosy for my friend – has come to a complete standstill. I really should finish it, so little left to do…

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I’ve completed two more squares of my crochet blanket – 12 down, 8 to go.

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I’ve started an embroidery, which was supposed to be a quick project, but I keep sitting down too late in the evening to concentrate on it.

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I’ve already sold out/sent out all of the free motion embroidery cards I made, so I’ve made a huge batch more. The fronts are currently waiting to be stuck to the cards.

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There is also pair of PJ bottoms wafting around somewhere almost finished.

As you can see I’m almost keeping to my promise of not to having more than one project of each type on the go at once – although not making huge progress on any.

Until next time,

Bekki x

Free Motion Embroidery – Shading

On October 8, 2019October 7, 2019 By Dartmoor YarnsIn free motion embroidery, Sewing18 Comments

In my attempt to learn to draw I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube tutorials. Since I’m learning to draw to eventually create images on fabric, I thought I’d try applying some of what I’d learnt about shading to create a 3 dimensional appearance to free motion embroidery.

I started by exploring shading a ball as when I’d drawn one previously

My first attempt was spreading the ‘shading’ lines out further and further the more I moved across the fabric (unnumbered images bottom right). This created more of a cylinder than a ball – even when I used a thread that was closer in value to the fabric.

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I then tried a thread version of cross hatching (1). This was a little better, but certainly not good enough.

The ‘ball’ top left is worked in a variegated thread. Although the ball is unconvincing, it inspired me to sew in patches of each colour as the tread changed (3). I thought this might be a good effect for sky or water. Does anyone have any other ideas of anything it might be useful for?

I would have liked to try shading the ball using several slightly different shades of a single colour of thread. However, since I didn’t have any that were very close in colour, I did my best at making a patch of shading with the closest set of 4 I had – (5) below.

I also played with other techniques used in drawing that might give a 3 dimensional effect….

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(1) and (2) are basically curly scribbling. I’m thinking these might be good for curly fur, wool on sheep, bushes or leaves on distant trees. Any other offers?

For (3) I did curly scribbling, but tried not to let any circle overlap the other. Apart from maybe more curly fur, I’m not sure what I’d use it for. Any ideas?

(4) is my thread version of cross hatching. If I turn it 90 degrees it reminds me a bit of seaweed!

I’d love to know if you’ve thoughts of any other ways I could machine embroider to build texture/give the impression of an object being 3D.

Until next time,

Bekki x

Sunday Sevens 2019 #28

On October 6, 2019October 5, 2019 By Dartmoor YarnsIn Sunday Sevens22 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Sevens – a post where I share seven (or so) photos of my week away from the blog.

Last Sunday we headed off to visit Lovely Littlest, who took us to visit High Wycombe’s highest waterfall…

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Still with her on Monday, we walked Harry…

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Then had lunch at a lovely pub in Marlow Bottom…

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I loved this room in the pub…

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…and their vegan pizza…

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Back home it had been raining non-stop and even the paths were turning to rivers…

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It was so cold and damp we succumbed to turning on the aga…

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I also made butternut squash soup to help keep out the cold…

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On Thursday I found some lovely big pink buttons and a triangle paper punch in a charity shop…

On Saturday we went to beach…

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And had lunch at the Cracking Crab…

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Hope you’ve had a great week.

Until next time

Bekki x

Learning to Draw # 2 – Fuchsias

On October 3, 2019October 2, 2019 By Dartmoor YarnsIn Learning to Draw16 Comments

Yesterday’s post was about my first foray into learning to draw, which happened on Wednesday last week. One of the rules I planted firmly in my mind as I started was Draw every day.

Of course life isn’t very good at opening up an hour or so each day to sketch. The next day was going to be full on, so the only chance I had to sketch was when I first got up. As I walked Harry around the garden in my PJs contemplating what to draw, my eye fell on our fuchsia bushes…

20191002_174640 — They’re a bit scratty and skinny this time of year, but the flowers are still perfect

I was fascinated as a child by these beautiful flowers, that looked to me like fairy lanterns. Knowing I needed to get going, I grabbed a stalk and had a go at sketching one of the flowers. It was just getting light and I only had an HB pencil – so not ideal…

Friday morning was worse. It was again the only time I had, but this time it was earlier and still dark. I had to shine my phone torch on the flower to see much at all – the lights in our kitchen/dinner are very very dim.

However the good thing about Friday was that I went to Craft for Crafters and bought a lovely box of sketching pencils…

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Saturday was pretty much the same tale as Thursday and Friday; no time and too dark, but at least I had my new pencils…

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We headed off to see Lovely Littlest on Sunday and Monday and, although I took my small sketching book, there wasn’t a single gap to sketch in – but, of course, daughters do come first.

To my dismay, the time I’d put aside on Tuesday was taken up by an unexpected visitor. Finally on Wednesday I had an afternoon gap. I took my time, used my new pencils and sketched to my hearts content…

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Hopefully more daylight time in the coming week to draw, but quite pleased with my progress so far.

Until next time,

Bekki x

Learning to Draw #1

On October 2, 2019 By Dartmoor YarnsIn Learning to Draw16 Comments

When I was at school art lessons consisted of being given an object to draw then being expected to draw it with no instruction how to do it. Needles to say, if you didn’t know how to draw or have a natural aptitude, you learned nothing.

Although I’ve often thought how lovely it would be to be able to draw, I’ve never needed to be able to draw and spent most of my life thinking ‘I can’t draw’ – yes, I know that’s a negative belief that stops me learning to draw. However this year I’ve really enjoyed quilting….

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I wanted to do more ‘drawing on fabric’, but apart from a bit more quilting…

… and scribbling on cards…

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…what more can you do if you don’t know how to draw?

So last week. armed with an HB pencil and a sketch pad, I headed for YouTube. First I watched Connie Gordon’s how to draw a landscape method, because serendipitously an old book had fallen open at a page about this technique when I was clutter clearing couple of day before. Here’s the landscape I drew…

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I then watched various how to draw videos. I learned how to draw a ball…

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… then applied the principles I’d learned to draw a picture of the tree stump in my garden…

Since my ultimate aim was to be able to draw pictures with my sewing machine, I had a go at drawing a landscape in thread…

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I also wrote my name freehand to help improve my dexterity with the sewing machine- unfortunately concentrating so hard was too much for my dyslexic brain and I forgot how to spell my name..

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Quite pleased with my first foray into drawing.

Until next time,

Bekki x

PS Any hints tips or recommendations appreciated.

Sunday Sevens 2019 #27

On September 29, 2019October 5, 2019 By Dartmoor YarnsIn Sunday Sevens18 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Sevens – a post where I share seven (or so) photos of my week away from the blog.

This week has been very VERY wet. They may not be enough photos showing that, but believe me, it has been very VERY WET.

It was raining very hard when we attended a Golden Retriever met up in Cardinham woods on Monday.

Golden Retriever meet

There were only about a dozen goldies, but Harry still had a ball.

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The rain kept me out of the garden, so I got on with some overdue clutter clearing. Here’s the first set of bags waiting to go to the charity shop…

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On Thursday we went down to Perranporth to meet up with our niece and her family who were down for a holiday. It wasn’t all plain sailing on the beach…

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