Slow and Steady

…..wins the race.

I love the idea of slow cloth, takes the pressure off completely and makes the whole process so much more enjoyable (as long as it doesn’t degenerate into procrastination). It’s all in the mindset, I find. If you look at the process of mulling over the possibilities in a positive way it becomes a constructive thing to do. Of course there is still an important place for the frenetic when inspiration comes pouring out, because work that is totally spontaneous can have fantastic results.

Most of my current projects are of the ’slow’ variety.

I am still working on my ’sea angels’ and finding many possibilities opening up as ideas are sparked from viewing lots of creative blogs.

I am also still working on my ‘killed catalogues’, a new idea for which was sparked off by Heather’s fantastic chessmen.

Here are a couple of great ATC’s we have swapped.

On the left is Gillian’s first try at ATC’s, very interesting textures, and on the right the amazingly talented Ebony’s sent to Claudia.

Claudia’s return ATC to Ebony, which should have arrived by now (which I can’t find a photo of, whoops) was part of this random felting she did at our March textile group. Claudia used her ATC window to choose the sections she wanted to cut out. She chose some colours of machine embroidery rayon and had fun FME’ing the circles and outlines. I always make sure Claudia puts on the safety glasses for this stage in case she breaks a needle. She also chose one to finish and send off to Val (forgot to scan that one too!!)

Here are a few more of Claudia’s in production.

I have been also slowly continuing with the Stitch Explorer for April and May. April was Casalguido embroidery and May was needleweaving. These two are complementary styles of stitching so I decided to combine them for this sampler.

The first stage, casalguido or padded raised stem band stitch, shows stranded cotton laid down, couched with sewing thread and then satin stitched with more stranded cotton. The perpendicular stitches are then placed in the second photo and I will try some cotton a broder to cover this with the final layer, stem stitch.

The base is four sided stitch using two strands of DMC. I will be doing some needlewoven autumn leaves in a hand dyed variegated pearl  bought from Sharon to finish off.

I found Effie Mitrofanis’ book a wonderful guide to this stitch, with clear directions and some inspiring contemporary embroidery.

I have also ordered Effie’s needleweaving book from the library as well, so I’m sure that will also contain some more great ideas and instructions.

Time to get off the computer and finish the housework, so I can sit and stitch!!

Cheers

Progress on WIP

Firstly some beautiful post received, from Britt in Perth

Claudia was mega excited when she opened the envelope and saw all the cute extras Britt had included. Britt offered a huge range of ATC’s on her blog for swap, each featuring her beautiful, fine tatting lace.

Also received were these amazing ATC embroideries from Anne in France and Emmy in Netherlands. I do not have the patience for such fine embroidery so I’m in awe of both of these super talented ladies. If you want to get a surprise for the return ATC’s don’t look any further girls!

 

It is a great feeling to actually finish something. I have had a number of projects on the go at the same time which sometimes makes it difficult to feel you are progressing. Having a long weekend this weekend and staying home instead of gadding about has made a huge difference. I have managed to finish or make obvious progress on a number of fronts. The biggest task was finishing off the ethics application for my research project. Emailing that away on Sunday was a huge lift off the shoulders. It meant that on Monday I could relax and enjoy some arting with Claudia. Firstly here are the ATC’s we finished for our swaps.

Claudia decided she would like to draw some pictures to stitch on to hers, so they have been scanned and printed onto ready to print cotton sheet. For the base fabric she layered some silk fibres under the green chiffon fabric (left over from my Mum’s cardi) and FME. I gave her my sample from a machine embroidery workshop and she chose to do a star pattern. The hearts are the ones Britt sent to Claudia.

My ATC’s were made as a strip of seven and are based on one of my favourite paintings by Grace Cossington Smith called Landscape at Pentecost . I used some techniques from Angie Hughes new book Stitch, Cloth, Paper and Paint. Bits of curtain fabric, scrunched tissue paper, silk threads and muslin were adhered to pelmet vilene with vlieofix. Then all the bits were secured with FME zigzag with white polyester cotton thread. The details were added with some cable stitch using no. 8 perle cotton in the bobbin. A coat of gesso was added all over and left to dry overnight. This morning I painted over using koh-i-noor watercolours mixed with white pearl lumiere. A tiny bit of handstitching finished them off.

Claudia also wanted to paint so she painted some cotton sheeting with nice, bright stripes to use as the backing for her ATC’s. The Stitch Explorer stitch for February is the Trellis Stitch, a great stitch for 3D effects. I have tried out a couple of motifs on my sampler based on the links Sharon gave us. The circular motif is in perle 8 and includes a few beads threaded on by hand. The diamond is stitched on a base of reverse chain stitch and I worked each side separately decreasing to form a triangle shape on each.

This weekend progress has also been made on trying out a few techniques for the ’sea angels’. While painting fabric I tried out a few different colours and paints on some dupion silk and will use this as a sampler to try out stitches for the sea angels gowns. It scanned really badly so I won’t bother loading that picture.

This week is the new stitches and craft show at Melbourne Showgrounds. As I have to go up to uni on Thursday I might try to pop in for a few hours and check it out. If you’re free check out the web-site, it looks like a mega show with something for everyone.

Cheers

Hotch Potch

Hold on to your hats as this is a catch up post on a variety of different projects.

Firstly was a last minute stitch up of a carry on bag for our Australia Day weekend to Sydney (north of actually). We had been invited to a friend’s 50th birthday celebration near Gosford, so a friend and I got onto the web whilst also plotting our moves on the phone, to book our flights and plan our trip. There are some ultra cheap flights to be had when travelling ‘light’ (carry on luggage only). Flights booked, train timetables checked, I moved onto measuring bags currently held in various cupboards and rooms in our home. Only one bag was the correct size. Emails to Nikki followed, who suggested adjusting her beach bag pattern to the required size. (Didn’t have it, no time to post down!). Onto the net and found this free tutorial. I adjusted the sizes to suit, used a few of Nikki’s tips in the bag patterns which I did have, searched out the curtain/upholstery fabric sampler books in the garage and came up with a very stylish carry on bag. (I think so anyway).

 

I have also had a little Op shopping, primarily to get supplies for arting. I found a fantastic stainless steel ladle for heating UTEE for Maggie’s on line classes for Textile Translations, A great clear plastic ice cube tray for paints and dyes, a Portman’s skirt for wearing to 50th birthday (teamed perfectly with Brown Sugar top reduced to 19.99 from $80). Also a great Craft and Decorating magazine, some calico (75 cm ready washed for use) and 1.5 m of the lovely stone coloured wool/spandex fabric (will end up a skirt or jacket). All for $7.00!!!

I have also been stitching, on and off, on my sampler 2009, which incorporates stitches from following Sharon B’s sampler documentation, as well as the Stitch Explorer challenge. There are some great examples of the first challenge stitch, chicken scratch, linked from Sharon’s blog. One great link I came across was Emily’s blog freebies link. Check out Emily’s blog, it is a great source of lots of interesting patterns. I’m thinking of  making her mini biscornu to practice the chicken scratch.

I have spent today working on the proposal for the ‘Sea Angels’ for the Johnston Collection, which have been emailed off for approval. The proposal includes many of the techniques that I have discovered while browsing many textile artists sites (thankyou all). I am spending tomorrow trying out Maggie’s techniques from her on-line classes to also incorporate. Will hopefully have some photos to post shortly.

This is a photo of the three generations at my nephew’s wedding.

Cheers

Sampler Debut

We have just returned from a wonderful week of Junior Country Week tennis in Ballarat. The kids had a fantastic week of tennis and hanging out in the pool at the caravan park afterwards. Most of the Tennis Geelong families stay in the one park so we all get together for a fabulous week. We also have 30 – 40 children bussed up each day to play (for those whose parents are working). Paddy played in the U16 section and my niece and nephew were in U19. Paddy’s team made it to the semi’s and the others made it to the Grand Final. (Photos by the Ballarat Courier here). I took some embroidery with me and made a start on my sampler. I have been following along with Sharon B’s documentation of her sampler and decided I would try the stitches out myself. This initial sampler is 16 cm x 50cm (just over 6 inches x 20 inches) and is some linen I had bought when doing Sharon’s PLOS last year.

The title is backstitch in perle cotton. This first line of stitching is an exploration of Laced Triple Running stitch as seen in Sharon’s bands 1-4.

And some close ups.

While in Ballarat I also popped into the local needlework shop and bought some hand dyed silk threads:

I might try some of these for the next bit of stitching on my sampler. I intend also using it for the Stitch Explorer Challenge that Sharon is running for 2009. The stitch for this month is ‘chicken scratch’.

We had a meeting yesterday for the Geelong Embroiderer’s Guild to get started on our xmas exhibition for the Johnston Collection (I blogged about it here). The group were happy with my proposal for ‘Sea Angels’ based on the figureheads of sailing ships. Mr Johnston travelled the world collecting Georgian, Regency and French Empire furniture, ceramics and decorative arts. There are many paintings of sailing ships in the collection and the theme of the xmas decorations will be based on his travels around the world. I am planning on experimenting with the process explained by Maggie Grey here to form the head/neck of the angels. The body will be based on a triangle shape to reflect the xmas tree centrepiece and will possibly incorporate fabric paper a la Pauleen’s sample, silk paper, fabrics, hand and machine embroidery, beading, hand dyed wool for the hair etc. The idea is to have the angels look like they are ‘of the sea’. I will be looking for lots of help from the new Creative Fibre Arts Group, who will also be invited to join in a workshop to create the xmas tree.

Finally, a request. I have been looking for a simple beading pattern to dress up this plain, black cardigan below. Any links or suggestions gratefully received. I have lots of hermatite beads of various types left over from this bag.

Cheers