Tast latest

Soooooooo behind with TAST so here are four samples to almost get me up to date, just satin and french knots to go.




Wheatear Stitch. Tried something different by making it into a filling stitch. By varying the size and thickness of stitch interest is gained.
The isolated stitches also work well.

B
Butterfly Chain Stitch completed on a piece of painted calico. The range of effects are, movement, symmetrical patterns, isolated, bunched. Variation in thickness gives interest.



Crossed Buttonhole Stitch.
Very linear this design on a piece of painted calico. Interest added by overlapping the stitches


Basque Stitch. Great for both formal and more random designs.

My stitch book is starting to look very colourful now!

WEDDING - FABRIC MEMORY BOOK

It's been a while since my last post due to ill health and family commitments ie my eldest daughter's wedding on the 1st June. I spent most of the 3 weeks before the wedding completing a fabric memory book for Joanne and Mike. It had been in the planning stage for many months, designs, collecting fabric and trims and it wasn't until I had finished the alterations to the dress (two weeks before the big day) that I could get my hands on some of the fabric, lace and beads to complete the book.

I knew that I wanted a soft book and the style of book had to reflect their personalities, so not too many frills or heavy on the embellishments. The content was to be paramount rather than a work of textile genius!

Fat quarters from the local quilting shop and exhibitions proved to be invaluable. I had originally wanted to complete it in silk but soon realised that cotton was going to be more practical to work on. The book contains a lot of quotes about love and marriage and I found one suitable for the front that wasn't too soppy. The wedding itself was very informal and there were only 20 guests at the ceremony.

Machine whipped cords were couched around the appliqued words.

Material and thread from the wedding dress were incorporated throughout.

These two pages show photographs of the happy couple in the years before they met. At 5 years old, at 7 years old and finally at 11 years old.

Although soft the book can stand up, each page was padded with wadding.

They got engaged in the mountains of Morocco last year. The mosaic style heart reflects the art and culture of the area.

This photograph was taken at a family meal shortly after their engagement and the hearts are in a variety of media, stamping, collage and embroidery.

There were so many quotes on the internet that I had to include the most relevant, both deep and meaningful and humous.

This was the venue for the ceremony, the Tudor Grange Hotel in Bourenmouth, on the south coast of England. It is a friendly, family run hotel that went out of their way to make sure we had a relaxed, informal day. Joanne had small cala lilies for her bouquet hence the appliqued lilies. The two small sections of embroidery came from her dress.

The back page. A crazy quilt square that again is not to over the top but contains bits from her dress and appropriate wording.

I thoroughly enjoyed completing this project and I hope that my daughter and new son-law will appreciate the relevance and content over many years to come. I had a box made especially for the book so that they can save other mementos from the day.

MARPLE EXHIBITION - SILK PAINTINGS

This year's Society of Marple Artists exhibition was held the weekend of the 27/28th April. I exhibited 5 painting in all and sold four so I was very pleased.
Still get a buzz when someone wants to hang one of my babies on their wall!
The poppies above were completed in silk dye and then embellished with free machine embroidery.

The datura lilies above were again painted in silk dyes which need to be steam fixed.

These teasels were my first attempt at acrylics. I chose a block canvas as support and these teasels sit on my work room desk and have been crying out to be painted for a while now. The texture was achieved by using puff paint whicht reacts to heat and gives this interesting surface which can be then be painted.

TAST - Palistrina and Running Stitch

Running stitch is so simple and yet can be so effective if the direction and size is changed.












Palistrina Stitch lends itself to wavy and flowing lines. I used alot of variegated thread on this sample, although the subtlety doesn't show too well in the reproduction.












I have quite a collection of sample pages now, will have to start thinking about how to bind them together soon but with 7 more months to go I think that it is more a question of deciding how to divide them up into sections.

TAST latest samples

The last two weeks of TAST challenge samples. See all of the samples so far on my flickr account.

OYSTER STITCH this took some time mastering but it flows easily from the needle. Works well as a bulk/filling stitch as well as a movement and more structured stitch. I used some of my Oliver Twist variegated threads.


BONNET STITCH this stitch allows for movement and in different thicknesses of thread it can be used in many ways.

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.

NUNO FELT WORKSHOP

Thoroughly enjoyed this workshop last Saturday. For full details of the whole day's events go to the Silk-n-Threads Blog. Here are my finished results.

Two pieces of white silk chiffon trapped white and green wool rovings in a grid pattern. In between the gaps in the grid pattern circles of green wool and pink silk tops. The ends of the rovings used for the grid can be seen at the edges of the four sides. If you click on the picture you can clearly see the crinkly effect achieved when the wool shrinks and is pushed through the chiffon.
The finished result is strong and has a great tactile appeal. Cushion or Wall Hanging, can't make my mind up!

In these two pieces a predyed piece of silk chiffon had wool rovings and silk tops arranged on top before felting using a traditional wet method. I feel an embroidery or two coming on!






FUSHIA

OCEAN