Me? Inspiring?

Wow!  Tanya over at opusanglicanum nominated me for The Very Inspiring Blogger Award.  I am honoured to be considered inspiring.

There are rules to receiving this award.  I have to:

1. Display the award and link back to the person who nominated you.
2. State 7 facts about yourself.
3. Nominate 15 bloggers for the award.
4. Notify the winners.

The award is displayed above and there’s a link back to opusanglicanum, so now for 7 facts:

1.  I’ve been embroidering for almost 45 years.  Yes, I started when I was about 6 or 7.

2. I love the sound of the needle going through drum-tight silk.

3. I have natural steel grey hair.  My mother found my first one when I was 10, but now it is almost all grey.

4. I am a birder and have a life list of birds that I’ve seen, although the list doesn’t cover all of my 50 years.  I started it about 25 years ago.

5. I consider myself a geek and (much to the annoyance of my children) can quote from Star Wars, Star Trek and Lord of the Rings.

6.  I am a student at the local university, taking, at the moment, calculus and physics.  (More geek stuff.)

7. I’ve been designing my own embroideries for over 10 years.

Now, blogs that inspire me.  This is much easier.  I don’t think I can put opusanglicanum down again but it belongs on the list.

Fog and Swell – Kristy lives in the same area of the world that I do and I love looking at her pictures of the area, as well as her creatures.

Plays with Needles – Susan’s stories of how she creates her wonderful pieces are very inspiring to me.

Tracy A Franklin – specialist embroiderer – Tracy’s work is beautiful.

Karen Ruane’s blog is all about her wonderful needlework.

Dog Daisy Chains – Jackie writes about the velvet leaves and things she makes as well as new about her dog, Hettie.

Threads Across the Web – This is Carol-Anne’s blog and she does some lovely work.  Check out the Tree Creeper she is currently working on.

Mary Corbet’s Needle n’ Thread – Mary is a fantastic embroiderer and does truly amazing things with Needle n’ Thread.

My Sweet Prairie – Monika Kinner-Whalen works in both machine and hand embroidery to create works of art.

Wild Olive – some very cute things that Mollie makes.

Thanks so much, Tanya, for the award.  Now to notify those I’ve listed.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all my readers!  I hope that 2013 will be a year filled with wonder and blessing for you all.

This blog has been severely neglected of late, poor thing.  I’ve been busy working on things, though.  Much of which I couldn’t show you before Christmas anyway.

I finally finished my son-in-law’s Christmas stocking.  I had started last year (2011) but didn’t get it done in time for Christmas.  My excuse was that I spent the majority of the year working on a veil, dress, and assorted other items for his wedding to my daughter.  He seemed to buy it.

I made the other stockings for my children years ago and he wanted one.  It shows he’s one of the family now.  Poor thing.

These stockings aren’t my design.  They are part of a series that was published in the 1980′s but I can’t find the designer’s name anywhere.  If you know, leave me a comment, please.  They are each hours of work.  It had been a long time since I’d done someone else’s pattern but it was fun to make.

I made these ornaments for a friend of mine.  These are my design.

I plan on making several more, including some Star Trek and Dr. Who ones.  And I want a set for my own tree next year.  I was also working on some things that I can’t show you yet!  Lots of ideas, not so much time.

Did you get all your Christmas presents finished in time?

Historical Corsets

I love corsets.  I love the look they give and have always wanted one.  Throughout history they have been used to create the then fashionable shape and this shape has changed through time.
I made these little corsets to show 5 different eras and fashions.  They are about 5 x 3 inches or 13 x 8 cm.

In Queen Elizabeth I’s time, the popular shape was for high breasts, narrow waist and hips hidden beneath farthingales.  Women also wore stomachers which started out as pieces of wood which were inserted down the front of the corset as a stiffener to give the fashionable flat front.  Tabs at the waist helped to hold the weight of the farthingale.  The tabs on this piece are wired to hold their shape.

By the 18th Century the stomacher had become a decorative part of the clothing and was displayed, held in place by the gown’s lacings.  The silhouette still had high breasts and small waists, but the circular farthingale had been replaced by panniers, which had great width side-to-side, but were flatter front-to-back.

The Regency period of Jane Austen‘s time brought in a whole new style, with women’s clothing suddenly losing most of its mass and becoming narrower and sleeker.  High waists, just under the bust, and a slim figure became the ideal.  Columnar was the idea, taking after discoveries in Greece of ancient architecture.

By the 1840′s, however, width was creeping back in style.  In this time period, women wore large sleeves which hung off their sloping shoulders and a bell-shaped skirt was the fashion.  This embroidered corset is mounted on a box, unlike the others which are all mounted for framing.

During the Gay Nineties and the entire late Victorian period a tiny waist was the ultimate goal for women’s fashion.  Bustles were types of undergarments worn under the skirt which extended the back of the skirt.  They changed in size and shape throughout the last quarter of the 19th century and by enlarging the hip area made the waist look smaller.    By the 1890′s they were smaller than earlier.  A corset of this period closed in the front with a busk and was laced up from behind.

Another change in shape happened in the Edwardian period after the death of Queen Victoria.  The Gibson Girl silhouette had been becoming popular for a number of years now with her pushed forward breasts and her pushed backwards rear.  Corsets changed as well, to mold women into the new shape.  This corset has ribbon and lace trim as well as garters which were needed to hold up stockings.

All these little corsets have been put up on Etsy, so that someone else who’s always wanted one, now can.

Sunday Stash

I know, I know.  It’s been such a long time since I posted a Sunday Stash.  I have forged ahead and taken some pictures that, hopefully, are lighted decently and look good.  Please let me know what you think.

This week is all about falling leaves.  These colours are all around me at the moment as the large maples and poplars lose their leaves.  The threads are wool, cotton, and rayon in various weights.

11/11/11

Steampunk Coffin

I love steampunk style.  I don’t wear browns or golds but love the style anyway.  What, you don’t know what steampunk is?  Well, I can actually help you there.  Check out this blog, Epbot, which has all kinds of great geekery, but Jen also posts about some fabulous  steampunk things as well.  There’s pictures of home furnishings, statuary and jewellery here.  And some weaponry, lighting fixtures and playing cards here.

You see, steampunk is a fantastical idea in which Victorian fashions and design and steam power incorporate some modern advancements, like this computer from the Boston Globe

or this one.

Anyway, now you have an idea of what steampunk is, you’ll be able to see that my most recent coffin is reminiscent of it.

It’s got gears, is made of old gold silk, with embroidered gears and flowers.

Lined in brown velvet.

What do you think?  Steampunk enough? I debated adding some copper or gold tubing, but couldn’t think of what use they’d be on a coffin!  This is available at my Etsy shop.

My First Giveaway

It’s time for my first ever giveaway!  While I didn’t make my coffins as a Halloween item, I can see how they could be used as such.  So, in honour of that and the Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend, I’m offering one of my little black coffins as a giveaway.  It will end on October 15th so that I can get it in the mail and, hopefully, get it out to the winner by the 31st.

Embroidered with red and black threads on black dupioni silk and lined with red satin, this 3 inch coffin would be a great place to store small treasures or perhaps be a gift box for a pair of ‘drop-dead’ earrings!

Isn’t it cute?  Handmade entirely by me.

Entering is easy. You can get one entry for following my blog , another for ‘favouriting’ my Etsy shop and even another by liking the In Love With Threads Facebook page.  Let me know here in the comments how you’ve entered and on the 15th I’ll collate all the entries and let Random.org pick a number.
Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!

UPDATE:  I waited until Monday evening here in the West Coast of BC and had Random.org pull a number out of the figurative hat and the winner is Krazdnurz!  She appealed to my cats and that seems to have done the trick.  Thank you all so much for entering.  It was very fun to do this giveaway.

 

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Or at least it’s supposed to.  My pictures have been struggling to say a complete sentence, let alone 1000 words.  I’ve never been a good picture taker, but it has really been brought home to me since I’ve started this blog.  I recently attempted to get one of my posts up on another blog and was rejected because of my poor quality photograph.  I don’t blame them!  It’s been very difficult for me to get pictures worth posting.  And it’s not my little camera’s fault, either.  It’s mine.

I can’t figure out white balance, iso, depth of field or even flash or no-flash.  I have no light in my place – no natural light and no-where to set up a light box with artificial light (my apartment’s pretty small).  My outdoor pictures seem to turn out fairly well, but indoor, not so much.  And as you can see, I haven’t been posting lately.  Mostly because I have no decent pictures to offer you.  However, I will work on it and get some Sunday Stash going again, not to mention pictures of the steampunk coffin I’m working on and all the other projects I’ve got going.   Oh and some gratuitous cat photographs!

So, be patient, and soon my camera will take on more of the conversation.

Whistle While You….Don’t Work

I’m sure many of you have asked yourselves, “What’s it like, where she lives, that Heather?”  Though why you are asking it in a backwards, Yoda-type way, I do not know.  Well, I can answer that with one word:

Magnificent!

A few days ago, a friend and I made our annual trip to Whistler, BC, which is only a couple of hours from us.  This year we took the gondola and the chair lift to the very summit of Whistler Mountain.  What incredible views!

Here’s one that gives you an idea of how high above Whistler Village we were:

The Black Tusk in the distance.

If you look in the background of each of these pictures you see mountains disappearing into the distance as far as you can see.  It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm, even though we were up so high.  At the summit of Whistler Mountain we were 7,160 ft / 2,182 meters above sea level.

We took the Peak-to-Peak Gondola from Whistler to Blackcomb (and back again) which is the world’s longest unsupported span at 1.88 miles or 3.024 kilometres.  What a way to see the valley below, dangling in a glass box!  Well, not completely glass, but lots of windows to see all around.

We did a little hike, too, and on the way met a friend.

This is a hoary marmot.  Whistler is named after the whistling call that they give.  If you look closely, you can see some marks on the bottom of the rock, just to the right of him.  He was licking the rock!  I don’t know why, but assume that he was getting some kind of mineral from it.

We then had dinner and some ice cream in Whistler Village, which is a truly cosmopolitan place, before heading back home.

All-in-all, a great day.  I am blessed to live surrounded by such natural beauty.

Sunday Stash

This is an interesting selection as all the thread in the outer ring except for the Wildflowers in the centre bottom have come from weaving.  I took a weaving class at the university and these threads have been given to me by my classmates.  Many threads in my stash have arrived in this way.  Now that I look at the picture the two threads beside the ribbon are also weaving gifts.  That leaves the ribbon yarn in the centre.  You’ll have to trust me that these are more purply than they appear – at least on my screen.