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.

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

Catch up complete

At last I have caught up with my TAST samplers. Enjoyed the satin stitch and long & short stitches as I used variegated thread and they came to life very quickly.Long and Short stitch. Ideal for blocking but also good isolated in small groups.

I enhanced these blocks with back stitch

This random design just evolved on the fabric and is made more effective I feelin the variegated thread. Second sample of satin stitch again done in a variegated thread and edged with stem stitch.


POSTCARD

After the wedding it was good to get back to playing and therefore my embellisher has been busy. I particularly liked this one as everything has been coming up sunshine hence the yellow. Not the weather at present in the UK, I hasten to add, but the beginning of the month with the family wedding and all the family getting together which doesn't happen too often.

After creating the base fabric with yellow wool rovings I added the maroon and green circles. I like the way you can't control the finished shape as the wool shrinks immediately it goes under the needles. To join the circles and add more movement I FME randomly over the top. This was completed for 6x4 lives ring June entry.

And finally one I completed earlier! This embroidery entitled 'Allium' has a centre encrusted with french knots and beads so ideal as my TAST sample for french knots.

Embellished Postcard

This postcard has been completed from a piece of embellished felt on my Xpression. I used mainly wool rovings but there are other fibres in there. The embroidery was to represent the colours of March. This year everything is so green and so early. Fresh greens and the new shoots of bulbs, grass and shrubs. The postcard was my March contribution for the 6x4 lives flickr group. I am not totally happy with colour repo it is actually much brighter/richer than this.

EMBELLISHER - FIRST ATTEMPT

JUST GOT MY HANDS ON MY NEW TOY!
My Janome Xpression has just arrived and I couldn't wait to try it out. I went to the NEC at Birmingham last week to the Stitching for Pleasure exhibition and tried out as many embellishers as I could whilst there. Came home with lots of samplers. I had done research beforehand as to cost, delivery and guarantees over the internet, as well as ask as many bloggers as possible as to which they would recommend based on their usage of the machines. I decided on the Janome as it has an easy to reach separate compartment for the large amounts of fluff. It has five needles which can be removed separately with pliers to replace, I was assured, and I have already tried to do this successfully. So my first attempt was to create a motif for a denim bag that I have had for many years, my daughter was going to throw it out! I used a grey felt as the base and wool rovings, net, silk tops and novelty knitting wool for the design which evolved as I worked on it. After completing the motif I then needle felted it to the denim, it was so much easier than I thought it would be.

This closeup shows the variety of threads and fibres used and how they felt so well together. I learnt a lot from my first attempt and the potential for creating new fabrics and embellishing with embroidery seems endless. Watch this space for more creations.

TAST Up and Down Buttonhole Stitch

This the latest TAST challenge - Up and Down Buttonhole Stitch. I particularly liked this one as it allowed for movement. To see more of these samples done by other bloggers see http://www.flickr.com/groups/56846286@N00/ .

February Fabric Postcard 6x4 lives

This postcard was inspired by a row of bare trees from the Sunday School window. The low winter sun was shining through and I thought I am sure I have a piece of painted bondaweb somewhere that looks like that. Here it is! The crocus carpet was to represent a small piece of local ground that always has an early display of crocus and brings spring to many who pass it on their way to and from work.I am a member of the 6x4 lives group on flickr and we post a monthly postcard that represents our life during that month. Click on the link on the right.
In addition my local group of textile artists Silk-n-Threads are completing a postcard swop in April. See http://silk-n-threads.blogspot.com for results later in April.

Paisley Embroidery Update

These three photos show the finished Paisley embroidery for the Silk Town Stitchers I decided to fill in the paisley shape with seed stitch, which I feel holds the shape together. The close up of the tail shows clearly the subtle effect created.

The last photo details the variety of stitch and embellishment I used from the delicacy of the lilac organza to the solid effect of chain stitch in the purple metallic thread. If you click on any of the images you can see the stitches in detail.