Blackwork Birthday Card

I’m pleased to announce that I have completed the 80^th birthday card for one of my dad’s cousins, featuring Jeanne Dansby’s blackwork Flower design.

In my previous post (In Stitches), I had reported that I needed to add some final additions to the design. After completing that task, I had hoped to add some stitched text to the design, but unfortunately discovered that there wasn’t enough space. I briefly toyed with the idea of purchasing a larger-sized card, with a larger-sized aperture. However, because the Flower design is quite small, I decided that a larger-sized card wouldn’t do the design justice.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how I could add text to the front of the card. If I were skilled in the art of calligraphy, it would have been one option to consider. Eventually, I decided to stitch the text, using pink and silver thread, so that it would tie in with the colours used in the design, and then adhere it to the card itself. I was incredibly lucky as I literally had just enough silver thread. I must remember to purchase some more.

Below is an image of the front of the card. If you click on it, a new tab/window will open displaying a larger-sized image.

Front of card

I placed a blank insert sheet inside the card, and used Microsoft Word to add a suitable message. All I can say is that I’m glad I recently passed my ITQ Word exam, as I was required to draw upon my recently acquired skills. The first step was to measure the width and length of the insert, and then change the Page Setup to reflect the dimensions, and change the page orientation to Landscape. Next, I inserted a borderless table (for the text), which was great fun (Not!). I think it took me three attempts to get the position of it just right.

In Stitches

Whenever I visit my blog, one of the first things I usually do is check to to see if any of my blogging friends have posted anything new. Well, I was in absolute stitches when I read the latest post by Eglantine Stitchery, which included an extremely passionate rant about whipstitching. I had never previously heard of whipstitching, and can safely say that I hope I never have cause to try my hand at it!

Anyway, as it's been a while since I last posted anything, I thought it was about time I brought all of you lovely people up to speed on what I've been doing (stitch-wise).

Here in the UK, we celebrated Mothering Sunday on April 3rd, and my gift to my mother was a couple of bookmarks. They were both magazine freebie kits, although I have to confess that one of the bookmarks was actually a very belated gift, which I had intended to give my mother for her birthday, almost a year ago! As the saying goes, better late than never. Lol.

Belated gift for my mother

Mother's Day 2011

I made the tassels for both bookmarks, and have to say that I felt rather pleased with them. I had decided that I wanted the tassels to be quite chunky, unlike the tassels I had made for the Dimensions Elegant Bookmarks.

More recently, I tried my hand at a simple blackwork design by Jeanne Dansby, called Flower. It's not finished yet, but because I'm such a jolly nice person [cough, splutter], I thought I'd treat you to a sneaky preview.

Flower by Jeanne Dansby

I was inspired by Eglantine Stitchery, after seeing her Metallic Monarch Variation, which I consider to be absolutely stunning!

My intention is to add silver seed beads to the centre of the yellow flowers, and also to the four small squares near the centre of the design. In addition, I need to add some filling stitches to the petals of the centre flower. There will be another picture to follow, as soon as this project is complete.