Australian stitching project

 It’s been a while since I posted here so here is what’s in my holiday sewing pouch. 

I’m in Sydney on the last lap of our month ‘down under’. 

As I look out over Sydney harbour and the iconic Opera House I am attempting to finish this indigo piece before we travel home. 

 

I am using up left over pieces of indigo dyed natural fabrics by weaving them, attaching to a base fabric and then slow stitching to hold it altogether.  

I love the variation of colour that can be achieved with different fabrics. I use a synthetic vat, I find it more convenient as I don’t do a lot of indigo dyeing and when I do it is quick and easy to organise. All the threads are natural, cotton and silk. Well known choc ice sticks recycled. 

 I am finding slow stitching is so relaxing and as I listen to some Barbara Streisand I can let the fabric and thread tell me which stitches and tone to use.  If you have liked what you see please hit like and or leave a comment so I know you passed by. 

THE PRESIDENT - CLEMATIS

                                                                          It has been a while since I last posted but I have been busy creating and just to prove it here is a silk embellished picture of a clematis that used to climb throughout a quince at our last house. Sadly it is no longer there as the new owner has pulled up most of the garden for an extension!! So glad I have a reminder of this stunning clematis 'The President'. I've bought a new one for a trellis at our new house.

This closeup shows in more detail the texture I achieved with the embellisher and the finishing off on the sewing machine as well as the beaded centre.

TEXTILE 21 EXHIBITION

Here is my latest piece of work for the up and coming Textile 21 exhibition at the New Vic in Newcastle under Lyne from the 23rd March until the 25 April 2009.

The exhibition title 'Recollections' brought to mind colours that my mum used to favour when I was child in her work. She was a seamtress and of course like so many children of the 50s I never had anything on my back that wasn't homemade be it fabric or wool. I still have a piece of cotton guaze like fabric that she was saving for something 'special'. The day never came and my children ended up using it to dress up in when they stayed with her. I still treasure that fabric and it gave me the inspiration for this latest piece - hence its title, 'Memory Shades'.

I embellished two layers of synthetic organza with trapped fibres between, leaving large areas unembellished to creat the raised effects. Then set to work on the hand embroidery, again a hommage to Mum as she enjoyed her embroidery so.

Below is a closeup of the section of french knots that works so well.

T

Holmfirth Exhibition and latest work

I've been very busy over the last few weeks finishing off pieces for the Holmfirth Art Week, 6-12th July. This is 'Pink Confusion', an embellished piece of wool and silk with FME and hand embroidery. The colour representation is so good and the relief effect achieved actually looks recessed.

This detail shows the use of beads to complete the surface embellishment of Pink Confusion.I did this piece using a single felting needle and silk tops, french knots complete the foxglove embellishment. Very pleased with this one.


Another dry felted piece. Silk net gives it a further dimension. Surface embellishment is achieved by FME and bead work.
The next two are in the Seed head series that I started for the Norton Priory exhibition

Seed Head IV

Seed Head V

The next four pics are cards in my Seed Head series they are approx 5-6 cms square. The base is embellished organza or curtaining voile and the seed head is FME. The last one has hand embroidery to finish as in the larger pieces.

These are three of the ten silk scarves I have dyed today. I call this series the Silk Crinklies as they are short and crinklie!!! They are quick and easy to do in the microwave with silk dyes. Ideal small items for sale.

I need now to play catch up on my TIF and Unlimited Textiles pieces. As I am off to Menorca on Monday I think that they will be coming away with me!!! I am in great need of some sun and warmth as I am scheduled to have a hip replacement in a couple of months and want my batteries recharged, I'm on the cancellation list so might get the call any time. Hubby thinks I should have a season ticket at the local hospital after my January gall bladder episode.

Take It Further Challenge March

This great selection of wool rovings and silk tops are following the given colour scheme for the TIF challenge this month. Sharon Boggon chosen colour scheme for March, the concept was to 'pay attention to the tiny details'.
As time was very precious this month due to many other creative commitments ( exhibitions by Silk-n-Threads at Tatton Park, the Macclesfield Embroiderers Guild at the Silk Museum and the Society of Marple Artists Ruby exhibition in April) whatever I did had to be achieveable in less than 24hours. So I decided to embellish on to black felt and use beads as the tiny details. The finished result works as a fluid swirling piece viewed from a far as the photo below shows. However, if you look closer you can see the tiny details of the beads that give the piece definition and surface texture.

These two closeups show the beads nestling in the embellished wool. I frequently employ beads and french knots to create small pockets of interest that only is realised when the viewer looks close up.

I machine edged the postcard and added it to my monthly collection.

TAST - cover for libary of stitches

Here is the piece of embellishing (Janome Xpression) that I have completed for the cover of my stitch library. It is on cotton velvet as I find this keeps its shape very well for larger pieces.
Click on photo for a larger view to appreciate the variety of texture.


I chose colours that were in the base colours of my TAST samples and added contrast colours of lilac and purple, organzas and lace for texture and blacks to hold it together.

The photo below shows lilac wool tops being embellished, they worked well as they allowed the base colours to show through. Left hand side is unembellished and the right is embellished.

After the embellishing I covered the whole piece with programmed stitch on my sewing machine, the area was too large for me to contemplate FME. Again the RHside shows the way the embroidery beds down the piece.

This will cover a cut down A4 lever arch file and now I need to go away and think about the best way to do that.

Health Update

Latest in the saga of my health. Just been 'released' from hospital after a week of suffering the inconvenience of an acute inflammed gall bladder. Not nice. Lots of morphine, anti sickness tablets and liquid low fat food. Lost more weight, shouldn't complain! but now I have to now wait for the call for key hole surgery. Now that it has been diagnosed with hindsight I can see that I have been 'under the weather' for months now. Nagging back pain on the rightside especially at night, general uncomfortable torso pain, feeling seedy, and drinking lots of peppermint tea! So hopefully when the offending organ is removed I will feel like a new women, here's hoping!!! Hubby is expecting his wife back!

Must get back to my workroom soon as I can get rid of this fatique. I did manage to do some stitching whilst in Hospital, Silk-n-Threads are having a Christmas stocking competition this Friday, although I won't be able to attend I intend sending my entry, this is how it is looking at the mo. Embellished base fabric using silk velvet and silk which is them hand embellished, first side finished, may have to use a plain second side to save time.

embellished base

hand embellished first sidedetail of surface embellishment

Inspired

Returned last night from the NEC and the Festival of Quilts 2007. The display of quilts was phenomenonal, the range was huge and the skill stunning. It was nice to see works by people who I knew via workshops or the web. Helen Cowan, Greta Fitchett, Kaffe Fassett and Jennie Lewis to name a few. Also stalls, Ruth Brown of Stone Creek Silks, Mary Day from the Guild of Silk painters and Maggie Grey from the WOW, Workshop on the Web. I am not a quilter but thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition which I had to do in two attempts and would have loved to have had another day to go around again. It was interesting to see the contemporay quilts, many from abroad, utilising various techniques.

Whilst browsing the stalls for goodies, many of which I bought, I watched Maggie Grey dem the Janome embnellisher and it inspired me to get mine out of its box and have a go this morning. Nothing too big as I wanted to finish something so used my colours of the moment in silk tops that I dyed a while ago.

I embellished a piece of felt with a selection of silk tops and synthetic fabric from a cast off skirt of my daughter and ended up with this. Much brighter than the photo shows.

I then zig zaged strips so that I could weave them to produce this. Quite pleased with the result.

Sumptuous Surfaces Piece # 2 - Half Way

I have finished the first low relief layer of my patchwork piece. The base of each square was green non woven fabric that florists use, I increased the number of layers to help with the tonal changes needed. The one inch square pieces allowed me to use a range of stitches. Click on photo to see in gretaer detail. The main challenge was to create a gradual change in tone as I progressed down the piece. Alot of squinting took place and unpicking but I think I am happy with the result so far. I expect that I will need to remove or add after the top high relief layer is finished. I have started this at the top, lilac triangle! This shows some detail of the bottom four squares, mainly dull so that they will receed rather than jump out of the piece.

Sumptuous Surfaces Week New Concept

The brief this week was to think in colour. When I think of colour at this time of the year it has to be my garden. The lime green of 'Ladies Mantle' aka Alchemilla Mollis is so prevalent and with the pinks/purples of the fushia, geraniums and pertunias the complementary colours on the colour wheel come to life.
Thinking beyond that India and the richness of life in colour has to be a second best. I've never been but after googling India I couldn't help but be impressed by the saris and dyes. The use of primary colours and the matching of complementaries in saris and textiles generally is so breath taking.
Finally I thought of the work of Kaffe Fassett. I am a great admirer of his use of colour in patchwork, tapestries and knitwear. I have three of his books and they never fail to inspire me.

So I put all this together and came up with an idea of using a basic patchwork design to show off the use of colour. The first colour scheme was blue and yellow, but this was disregarded and one that reflected my garden at present was chosen. Below are the colours I found in my stash.

I played with this range both in paint and thread.
Above are my expts with altering the value of the colours as I want to change the tints and shades throughout the piece. Tints at the top and increasing in value towards the base. The sketch below shows my first attempt at a design based on patchwork squares.
Too basic I thought so moved on to playing with the grid and the sketches below show some of the more acceptable results. The top line shows the grid altered to produce a more pleasing silhouette. In the second line I have introduced triangle shapes to break up the right angles and introduce an additional geometrical shape. I introduced negative shapes in the final line and the final design is an combination of all of these ideas.

Final design incorporating patchwork squares, triangles and negative shapes as well as the colour value increasing towards the base. The stitch plan is to have the green areas in low relief stitching and minimal embellishment. The fushia coloured squares will be in high relief stitching and increasing embellishment towards the base. They will also overlap the green to soften and minimise these areas. Haven't decided how to outline the shape yet or in fact whether to at all.
Off now to transfer the design and get stitching!!!!!!!!! Looking forward this this.