Erica Wilson's Beginners Spring Tree Crewel Picture -part 3 -Squirrels

I tidied up that tangled bundle of wool .

This is the picture of the completed kit that comes with the kit instructions.

I have been wondering what these cute little creatures might be ? My American friends might know  . Are they Chipmunks ? The kit calls them Squirrels but they are not like the Squirrels that we have here in Cornwall , England .

We mostly have Grey Squirrels here and the Red Squirrel . I love them both .

I decided to change the chipmunks into English Red Squirrels , they are quite similar . Same colour red , it seems they just don't have the black and white stripe along the sides of their body and head . I am giving them fluffy tails with Ghiordes/Turkey stitch for fun !

 I know that Erica Wilson was originally from England and attended The Royal School of Needlework before going to live in America . So I don't think she would have minded me changing the Chipmunks to Squirrels .

 She will have been very familiar with our Squirrels that are to be seen jumping through the trees in the woodlands , parks and gardens here .
Erica became very well known and loved , both for her T.V. shows , books and many delightful kits that she designed . She was a great teacher and had such a kindly way with people and children too . She made embroidery fun , relaxed and easy. 

My favourite book of hers being "Needle Play" which showcased highlights from the T.V. show "Erica " . It would be on during the day while I was at school , but I fondly remember watching it on days when I was off sick , lying on the sofa . Some of these programmes are now on You Tube . 

A cheery sort of a little fanfare would play as she skipped past the window and in through the door , sat in her arm chair surrounded with baskets of wool and would show us how to do different styles of embroidery for no more than fifteen minutes , before she skipped out of the door and past the window again , I always wished they were longer ! 

  Maybe I'll do a bit more of the squirrels this evening , cutting those loops and trimming their tails .

 Well that's all for now, it's time for a nice cup of tea , cheerio my lovelies !

 

Erica Wilson Beginners Spring Tree Picture CREWEL part two

 

                 So , hundreds of pink flowers later , this is where I,m up to .

I really wasn't enjoying stitching with such fat wool , but felt happy again as I started on the cheerful flowers and butterflies.

Satin stitch , Bullion knots (scary with wool ) and French knots , Stem stitch ,Open Cretan stitch , Straight stitch ,Couching stitch for the grass along the bottom in two colours and Fishbone stitch for the leaves .

It really is a charming 1970's colourful sampler of stitches . 

I noticed that the previous owner of this vintage kit had tried to embroider the tree trunk and had obviously given up and ripped it all out . Aw ! Bless them !... but it is difficult . I only noticed this when I held it up to the light and seen all the little pin holes ! 

So now I wondered if there was going to be enough brown wool left for me to re-do it ?

                                                 The scary tree trunk 

The stitch for this was a kind of Laid-work stitch/weaving stitch , not very well explained on the instruction sheet and actually quite difficult for a beginner  . I,m finding it difficult and I,m a fairly experienced stitcher . So strange and fiddly doing embroidery with such chunky acrylic wool !  The brown is fine crewel wool and the green is the fat wool . It is like fat knitting wool !  A strange combination and very hard to pull the fat wool through the thin material .

I just said to myself " Get on with it and don't worry about it too much !"

I can quite understand why the previous owner , gave up with it and ripped it all out !

ANYWAY and several cups of tea later.....

I completed the tree trunk ! Hooray ! :) 

I,m wondering if there was enough brown wool left now , to do the Squirrel.

Up until this point , I really was not liking this kit very much , but now I,m thinking it is looking rather fun !   Vintage kits are fun !

The colours are a lot brighter than on the completed picture on the kit packet . 

Like you'd need sunglasses ! Maybe colours have faded over the last thirty ... Oh ! My Goodness! ... Forty-seven years ! 

Actually the instructions are pretty much in the order that I,m doing it  . I do suggest that a complete beginner would follow the instructions and most of the stitch instructions are great !

I cant wait to embroider that funny old Mr Froggy , but I always like to embroider the most boring and difficult bits first and save the best bits until last . Mr Froggy will be last .

The Squirrels are next !

p.s So sorry about all the strange paragraphs and gaps . Blogger recently changed how we do everything on here and it is very confusing now .Very annoying! Even the photographs are difficult and time consuming to put on  . They have to go on one at a time or they all come on in the wrong order ...... grrrrrr  !

p.p.s  No snow here , lashing down with rain !  Still waiting for my vaccine .

p.p.ps. Keep warm and stay home , stay safe , help the NHS and save lives ! 

Santa brought me a new Dolly !

            Squeals of delight ! Santa brought me a new doll for Christmas !

                                         What did he bring for you ?

Just one crazy person swimming in the sea this afternoon . It doesn't look too bad but tonight we are expecting some rough weather .

Storm Bella is on her way .

Not a very good picture , but I only took one as the camera battery was very low . While the wind is picking up outside , I am relaxing on my bed embroidering all the yellow centres of the daisies on my Erica Wilson Spring Tree kit ......so many of them !  

Erica Wilson "Beginners Spring Tree Picture " Kit 1973

 

It is very gloomy here today with a storm raging outside as I am writing this  . I have shut myself away in the study with some nice music on  .

I climbed into my time machine and have travelled back to the much happier time of 1973 !  

So this is Erica Wilson's design the "Beginner's Spring Tree Picture " No 7417 from Columbia Minerva Creative Crewel .

I love doing these vintage kits  !

I thought this looked a nice and easy kit to do , for when I get the odd minute or two , during these stressful times . I found it on a well known auction site , for not too bad a price really . It came with a huge tangle of wool , some of it not belonging to the kit , but I knew I could soon sort it all out .

Erica Wilson designed this kit inspired  by one of her children's drawings and I love the cheeky little animals she has put in . Frog , butterflies and squirrels .

So the instructions suggest that I begin by doing the big pink Daisy Stitched flowers , followed by the tree trunk.

The kit comes with a colour picture of how the completed kit should look , always good to refer to that and an instruction sheet which tells you the best order to do it in .

Also a  Crewel Embroidery Stitch Chart , which is two really useful pages of how to do lots of different embroidery stitches . 

I like to brush up on the basic stitches every now and then  .

I pulled out a length of the pale pink wool and was very surprised to see how thick the wool in this kit is ! The design is also printed on a surprisingly thin piece of cotton.....which I knew straight away was going to make this a bit tricky .

This is strange because kits from around this time were usually printed on much thicker fabrics , heavy linen , even hessian . So I am surprised that Erica approved of this such thin cotton .

I think back then , was a time of when people would say "anything goes ! "  

            " Hey Man ! Anything goes !"  😄 ☮️ 💗

    I see that it does say on the instruction sheet that " The stitches should be bold enough to give a textured effect ." 

 It is really strange to stitch with such fat wool .

I,m much more used to stitching with crewel wool , see the thin green wool in this picture .

  That dark pink wool looks a whole lot brighter than on the picture on the kit packet . A lot brighter ! 😎

Anyway   ....  

Cheerful colours to brighten up this very gloomy day !   🌈