Silk bowl

It is May Day bank holiday here which means the luxury of having Monday off work. This has given me some time to get side tracked from the poppy project and I tried my hand at making a silk bowl using Mawata Caps. I dyed the silk with dye-n-flow. Whilst machining I added a few whisps of dyed fleece which I had for felt making.
This is a method described by Katleen Danswan in 'Embroidery' magazine. The result has potential but I have a long way to go to achieve anything like her results.

Bokhara Couching

This is a close up which shows the couching stitch well.
It can be interesting to remember how threads are acquired. Many of mine are bought at shows, when you live in a small town without a proper craft shop you have to take any opportunity; sometimes I am lucky in Charity Shops. I always look in any tins just in case they hide a hoard of threads. The dark blue thread used here was found in a roll of stranded cottons, all graded in colour, which had been wrapped up in a tray cloth and fastened into a roll with safety pins. It must have been someones pride and joy at one time.
The lemony yellow wool was a similar find. I have 'found' quite a few tapestry wools, no doubt the end of someones project or a project never completed. It all helps to provide a range of textures and colours.

Tissue Paper Poppy 3

It is satisfying to sort out the threads for a project. Here I have couched down threads and strips of material with free machining. In places I have used very fine pieces of silk to knock back and give texture to the surface. There are small areas of dark purple velvet which peep out from under the gossamer silk surface.

For some reason I had the urge to use BOKHARA COUCHING, which is a solid filling stitch. You can see it in Mary Thomas' Dictionary of Stitches p98. The idea came because I have been tidying all my photos and found an interesting picture of this stitch used in a sample. I wanted to use quite heavy stitching with bold colours. I haven't used it before but it comes together nicely and works to blend in the colours.

Tissue Paper Poppy 2

These are the threads and materials sorted for the 'Tissue Paper Poppy' project. My plan is to work on three small pieces, a mini series on this theme.

For any of you who may not know, ' the handweavers studio ' at 29 Haroldstone Road, London (020 8521 2281) have a wonderful range of colours in their threads which are relatively cheap. I have never managed to get to the shop but have sent colour swatches and had a good postal service - or they are often at stitching shows. The rayon threads are also good for cord and tassel making. The fine silks are lovely but slightly more expensive.

Easter 2006

'Tissue Paper Poppy'

I really liked the colours in a magazine photo of 'Meconopsis Quintuplinervia', the harebell poppy to those of us who are not gardening enthusiasts. So far I have painted some calico . The flowers are described as having deep blue tissue paper petals; an image which seems to really asked to be stitched.

Happy Easter to everyone. If we do ever get any sun I will post a picture of the wonderful array of daffodils, tulips and hyacinths in our garden. I have been a bit distracted by all the weekend cooking; including hot cross buns this morning. Thank goodness we get to eat the easter eggs tomorrow.

Adding "Pizzazz"

Last October I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexander Palace. I have been many times now and always find something interesting; especially the work of the young graduates or the knitted sculpture. On this occasion Sherril Kahn gave a generous demonstration of her work and afterwards I bought a set of her stamps. Here they are combined with hand stitching on a fabric painted background. 'Creating with Paint' by her is an interesting read; she believes in lots of complementary colours and strong colours to add "pizzazz".

Thermo-screen

Recently I have printed and dyed some calico using procion and fabric paints. I have a skeleton leaf thermo-screen which I bought from Committed to Cloth ; you can read about them on their web site. I first saw them used at the NEC Quilt Championships last year. They are small and easy to use if you have limited space.
I also used cotton reels, a stencil and pieces of plastic to print with. The gold is Pearl Ex powders.
As you can see I also finished the bag from the one day course at the VA last weekend.

Victoria & Albert Museum

On Saturday 25th I went to the V&A museum in London for a one day course.
We spent time briefly in the SE Asia Gallery with the idea of making a small panel for a bag front. Not really enough time in the gallery, but hopefully it will encourage me to go back and spend more time there.
The tutor Ruth Singer (www.ruthsinger.com) showed us some basic techniques, stencilling,cut back with felt, and beading. In the afternoon she gave some tips on bag making which were useful. Probably this is a work in progress; we shall have to see. They run a number of interesting courses there; details can be found on the V&A site.

Raising the Surface

This is the current background on my computer screen. I stitched some metal mesh onto a piece of acrylic felt. I painted the felt with acrylic and then melted it away with a hot air gun. The mesh acting as a resist. The backing is a piece of silk paper made with silk strippings. Initially I backed it with a piece of pink quilted silk and began to stitch on tiny beads - this didn't really work , so I took off the beads and now its a work in progress. I have a heap of such pieces, which usually come in handy at some point.
Personally I don't really like the idea of heating man made fibres to make lacey backgrounds; there is something about the process which is not pleasant, but then its fun to try new techniques. The book with many such ideas is called 'Raising the Surface with Machine Embroidery' by Maggie Grey; it is full of interesting ideas and lovely photographs.

Poetry in Stitches

In 2005 I worked on a project called Poetry in Stitches organized by the National Needlework Archive . This linked up with a scheme to provide a booklet of poems in waiting rooms throughout the UK. The idea was to chose a favourite poem or one from the booklet and interpret it in some form of stitch.
I chose a poem about the blossom hanging onto the bough of a cherry tree despite terrible storms. Eventually the pieces will be displayed with a copy of the poem in various waiting rooms.At the moment the exhibition of the 100 works submitted is touring the country. I am looking forward to finding out where mine will be displayed - it would be fun to go and see it; if its not too far away. Hope its not in a dentists, not my favourite place.
I bonded silk and flax fibres with a combination of paper flowers and real leaves. These were machined in place. The cherry blossom was worked on water soluble material.

Inspired by the view

This is a small quilted hanging with some mono prints of the fields nearby.
It is machine and hand stitched on a background of rusted fabric.
There is a discussion about how to do this on smarcoux. I saw some impressive quilts using rusted fabric at the National Quilt Championships last year.


The leaves are worked on hot water dissolvable fabric.

A room with a view

There seems to have been a move to spring clean.Over on smarcoux there is a pic of an impressive fabric stash. I am always moving things around to try to make more space. I've recently been given a set of shelves which has made a huge difference.
For some reason I think its always interesting to see other peoples working space. Let me know if you post a picture of your work space - so I can come over and have a look.
I am fortunate in having a great and inspiring view.

Violas

It is interesting to photograph dyed and printed fabric and use it as a background for other images. This is a piece of calico printed with acrylic paints and pearl ex powders.
The photograph of some of the flowers from our garden are placed on the background using a mask and working in Paint Shop Pro.

I liked the affect of the flowers just floating. I have used this as 'wallpaper' for the computer screen and printed it onto cards.

Work completed

The 'book wrap' photo holder is now finished. I tried out the wax pot to make the inner lining, using a method which I saw on a blog.
Using metal kitchen utensils dipped in wax to make the pattern.I wouldn't do it that way again; it seemed wasteful of wax.
The cotton lawn was dyed in cold tea and the wax ironed away.

It took me four years or so to use the newspaper, which shows its well worth holding on to such potentially useful items ; even if you begin to run out of space.

For those of you who haven't come across 'Workshop on the Web' I have put a link on my blog. There is a free workshop on the site . It is a good source of information about new books and materials. The March workshop is out tomorrow and I am looking forward to getting tempted by some new technique.

Work in progress

This is to be a book wrap influenced by a picture in 'Edges and Finishes' Val Campbell-Harding.It is worked in strips of silk rods and of a newspaper from China Town in New York.The plan is to use it to hold photos from a holiday in May 2001; some of which were taken from the viewing gallery in The World Trade Centre.

It is mainly worked with a twin needle. It also incorporates pieces of hand made siesal paper and chiffon melted with a hot air gun. I have used acrylic wax to stabilise it. I will make some cords to tie it.

I have no idea what the lettering means - it looks nice and ornate - but probably says something mundane.

'Lavender Blue'

This piece was also worked on silk carrier rods on a linen background.

In my profile I mentioned Great Missenden Abbey,which is one of a series of further education colleges in Britain; I think they were set up in the 1950s. They now offer a range of part time courses, often leading to qualifications such as City and Guilds. Other venues I would recommed for the quality of the course, the setting and often excellent food include Urchfont College in Wiltshire and West Dean College
near Chichester.
















'Underwater
Blue'

This is a picture of some dyed silk carrier rods.

Basically a waste product of the raw silk making process,they dye beautifully with silk paints and a touch of acrylic with iridescent tinting medium.

After dyeing they are separated with care into many fine layers which are very tactile. They provide a lovely background for embroidery.

I worked on them quite a lot last year and made a series of embroideries, which I called 'Lavender Blue for You', 'Sea Blue' and 'Red Hot Blues'.Now I only have one of them left, but with my digital camera I can keep a lasting record.

'SEA BLUE'