More stitching stuff

I've finished a few things over the past week, mostly due to going to Harrogate for the stitching show.
The show started on Thursday. It wasn't as busy at the show as previous years and there were definately less cross stitch/needlework exhibitors from previous years. There was much more wool and yarn stalls instead which was good for me as my interest in knitting has grown greatly over the pasy year or so.
One of the big appeals of Harrogate for me is the opportunity to take the short classes that are staged during the show. The classes are on a wide range of techniques and are mostly demos of a technique or a small project of that technique. The first one on Thursday was to make a wire work bracelet.

The idea behind is pretty simple and pretty effective. I've bought some more beads and wire to try and make another.

The second class was with a Royal school of needlework trained embroider called Tracey Franklin. who has written a book about goldwork and also teaches across the UK. Each year, she takes a short class which is a goldwork taster session. I've done quite few of these now but I haven't quite plucked up the courage to stitch a bigger piece yet.


I'm going to gather together the previous ones I've done and try and figure out a way of framing them together. Tracey is a very good and patient teacher and even remembered me from previous years.

On Friday I did 2 more classes. The first one was on making small concertina notebooks using pelmet vilene ( its like Skirtex for the US stitchers). I haven't quite finished mine yet but a picture will follow. The second class of the day was possibly my favourite. It was a class to learn how to make dry needle felt animals. The teacher was a lovely woman called Ewa Kuniczak who is so very enthusatic about the whole technique. My creature decided to be a dog.

The materials for the class are more than enough to make at least a couple more creatures. Ewa was felting a lovely dragon at the show which looked amazing.

After all this other stuff, I've also got a cross stitch HD to share. I finished the Mirabilia Christmas elf fairy kit last night. The kit picture looks so dull compared to the finished item. She's stitched on the recommended fabric.