Starting to flow

I've been stitching this on and off, little bits at a time, since City and Guilds. It was a trial piece for the dragonfly bag, which never took flight. A piece of shibori, roughly printed with a wave thermofax that I was trialing, layered with organza and stitched over to test the feel and mechanics, then put to one side. I took it in at the start of this Studio 11 year, stumped and stuck. I aim to echo the organza in the lower section with stitch, endeavouring to mimic the shimmer of organza by using analogous colours and occasional changes of stitch direction.

Christine pointed out that the stitching in the top panel was taking over! I'd done a trial wing cell pattern with an interlaced stitch, then sort of forgotten about it, ceased to see it.

I've taken it off, and suddenly I start to see where to go. Not there yet, but much more balanced, I've cropped the edges as well, in this image

Thank you Christine

In the meantime, I'm still to'ing and fro'ing sorting out Cecil's house, salvaging things to decide about later, dealing appropriately with what's left. It's quite gruelling, my third trip Thursday to Sunday last week, but then there are revelations, a little collection of miniature china that I remember from my childhood, nestled in a drawer

They are all cracked and battered, but I clearly recall the thrill of finding them, as a solitary child, staying with her Aunt in this mysterious dwelling with it's hexagonal kitchen, uppy downy stairs, bowls of pot pourri, nooks and crannies. These speak to me of explorations and discoveries in quiet houses, where a clock ticks and the sounds of birds drift in through windows. I was often alone, but not often lonely. In my mind's eye, I was usually half away in Narnia, or the world of E Nesbit, and around me these little ladies, Cecil, Mum, Ganna, lived their quiet lives.

Studio 11 year three

But first, a pile of sketchbooks for Gina. These in preparation for my first Studio 11 workshop of the new year. A selection of the ones I've used in between times doing other things, like moving. Cecil here, and clearing her place - several more visits to go, but she really is worth it.

These sketchbooks come along with this untidy assortment of half thought out bits of fabric, and my feather from last year, which I want to talk about with Christine, who is a treasure :-)

 Oh, the pleasure, a whole day just to be creative. 

And then it was today, and I went to Eastbourne and had a delightful day with Christine, our first workshop of the year. 

Lots of good talk, lots of good advice, lots of fun. I'd had no time to do much preparation, for obvious reasons, but I did have a bit of time yesterday evening sketching and thinking Down in the Dell

so today had focus, and I have a bit of a plan (my dear heart says you have to have one of them, so you can change it).

And here is where I got to today, with my sketchbooks; imagine a whole day in the company of good people, sketching with intent, what delight! 

(with apologies for poor quality pictures)

Remember the dragonfly?

Worked on anew

Elements extracted,

when I was reminded of this, another image of dragonfly downs

which was part of where I got to with my designing last year

I'm intrigued by how often the Downs find their way into my design process. I've lived one end or the other all my life.

And to add to today's pleasure, we had friends from Gina's way with us today. It was a lovely day .... thank you :-)

Measuring out

I'm really feeling my way on this, I've never made a bag before, but have quite a clear idea of what I want - a boxy shape with depth front and back to allow for the water bottle and small camera, not too wide, easy to get a sketch book in and out, lightweight.

This bag that I got in Istanbul is almost perfect, but the way it's constructed leaves stuff wallowing about in a rather unstructured space. It's also hard to get stuff in and out of, as the handle is part of the structure of the bag. this creates and awkwardness around the zippered opening. It's a good rough structure though, as it hangs to the right length across my body, and the wide strap spreads the 

weight. It's also good to get a rough idea of the dimensions as I can put a pin roughly where I'd expect the edge of my bag to be, then make a toile; meaning a trial in calico to test the shape and get an idea 

of scale.

I've also traced out the basics of the wing structure to get an idea of the separate elements and how they mesh together. Again, feeling my way vaguely forward, consulting the odd book occasionally!

So here's the plan

This is a design from the work I did in the summer on insects

based on a photograph taken years ago of a dragonfly casualty - blame the cats

and some fabrics dyed at Studio11 on the day we spent with Christine as part of City and Guilds

one watery and flowing, to evoke the nymph stage of the dragonfly's life, one crumple dyed with evocative shapes lurking in the random patterns. Beneath, a teal cotton velvet, garnered from curtain shop remnants, to provide practical strength for ... a sketcher's bag to hold sketchbook, pencil case, camera and water bottle

I'll create a front panel using the water ripple fabric with organza layered over and stitched into with the dragonfly wing pattern in couched and linear stitches. I'm also thinking of using wave stitch in the finely patterned areas to emulate, but not copy the cell structure. Then I'd do the rear panel using the crumple dyed fabric and hand quilt over those lines that evoke a wing shape.

The strap will go across my body and will be the velvet on the underside and a strip of the ripple fabric on the top to tie in with the embroidered panels.

I'll probably adapt the image below to a design like the one above, as it's more graphic and has a clearer reference to the actual wing shape - here played with in Picasa

Are you getting the idea?

Stitching a Galaxy

I'm making a start on one of the pieces I dyed recently at Studio 11. It's sort of a practice for something else - a Winter Solstice cloth - but I want to find out how the stitching will work on this piece first; trial techniques, see what the needle feels like moving though the three layers of cloth. The middle layer is a dark blue linen, not the dull browny colour you can see at the right. It has a lovely drape and texture, then there's muslin at the bottom to anchor stitches in. The top is a piece I dyed using shibori techniques - a process I could get very addicted to! I'm just tacking the three lays together at the moment and plan to extend the stitching into the border so have left plenty of edge for that.

And before I forget - here is the second white work piece for City and Guilds. I love the strong shadows the trailing border gives, and the light and shade where the stitches run in different directions, which doesn't show up too well here.  I'm still debating whether to redo those rectangles at the side with their wobbly bars and uneven division!

Pure Indulgence

Along with lovely fabrics and threads, my big weakness, in fact probably my biggest, is for books, especially books on .... lovely fabrics and threads. I was (dangerously) bumbling about Amazon -  looking for something else entirely, when this appeared before me. How could I resist? Arts and Crafts has always been a favourite style of mine, having been in love with the Pre-Raphaelites in my teenage years and early twenties. William Morris is one of my all time heroes and of course, he was at the root of the Arts and Crafts movement, along with a number of other great craftsmen and artists. I haven't allowed myself to dip into this too much yet, there are too many other things that need my attention, and still too little time to give them. 

I also picked up a reprint of May Morris's Decorative Needlework. She was one of William and Jane's two daughters and influential in both embroidery and design, as well as being a champion of practical education for women to enable them to earn a living.   The V&A holds examples of her work, which you can see here, there is a delightfully colourful brief biography of her here and an article about her embroidery on the marvelous Textile Blog here.

But back to my own embroidery efforts for City and Guilds. Things are happening -  albeit more slowly than I'd like. Here is one of my "holes" samplers -  finished, though not properly pressed or anything, but I'm really happy with the way it's gone

and here is the next one, still in progress. The one above uses simple satin stitch and overcasting to finish the edges of the holes. The next piece has buttonhole stitch round the larger openings and woven bars - those are the bits that stretch across the rectangular holes - the one on the right far too wobbly; it may have to be redone! Also a technique called trailing - like couching, but with the stitches placed so close together that they cover the thread being stitched down. It makes a rather nice definite frame at the top and will be mirrored at the bottom

The scariest bit with this technique is cutting the fabric away to make the holes. You can see this most clearly on the back, where the central square has the four sections folded under. I'm tacking them down before running buttonhole stitch around the edge, and plan to divide the square into four with two more woven bars, hopefully not wobbly ones.

Once the stitching is finished I'll tidy up the back by very carefully snipping away the little points of fabric. City and Guilds insists on good quality finishing!

Making holes

Happy New Year to those of you who pop by from time to time. I'm sorry for my long absences, but work has been dominating my life for the last several months; so much so that I almost feel that I've lost myself. This week I'm trying to get back to some semblance of normality. 

I missed the last City and Guild tutorial of 2013, but managed to get to Saturday's and we were given a lesson in white work and cutwork. I'd done the latter before, with tuition from my beloved Ganna, but have never done white work. This little sample is really cheating, I've used a soft green thread rather than the traditional white, but it's coming along quite nicely I think. I designed the pattern on tracing paper, as I was intending to fold and trace from a section, but ended up doing the whole design so it's a little squonk. Then I used delicate dotted lines with a fine line pen to trace onto the fabric as it is slightly sheer. Now I'll try to complete it with some shapes done as holes and others with satin stitch. 

One of the things Barbara is constantly reminding us is to make sure to separate the strands of embroidery floss and recombine them, so that they lie flat as you stitch (and to constantly untwist the kinks). I'd never been told that before, but am really impressed with the difference it makes to the satin stitch - it catches the light so much better as the strands are smooth and lie in harmony with each other. The fabric is salvaged from Aunt Cecil's store as she isn't really able to concentrate enough to stitch any more, which is very sad for her.

Hope you like it so far.

Planning

.

This may come to something, but is just a pile of thoughts and learning at the moment. 

We have to do a three dimensional, hand embroidered piece of work for C&G. One option might be a box, though I'm not sure I have the skill, let alone the time to make one. The idea is for the box to have bee wing patterns on the outside on three panels, a bee on top and inside, a lining that evokes honey somehow perhaps with light gold satin .... excuse the i-Pad image quality and sketchy sketching

I'm also thinking about a bag, which needs to be functional, based on dragonfly wing patterns, no thought out design as yet. Probably not something frou frou though! One of our group is making a wedding reticule (don't some of those look delicious?), which sounds delightful but way beyond my capacities!

Or perhaps a beaded pendant/brooch based on a little box in the V&A. The link is to a view of the top of the box, a little sportsmanlike dog; this view shows the bottom of the box, a lovely butterfly in the finest imaginable mosaic pieces of cut stone

and here's the thinking with a pencil about how to make - I'd try to create upstanding wings using a stumpwork technique - again, if I have the time and skill

In fact, it all depends on time and skill really - I have to consult with our tutor on which to choose ..... but now to examine dragonfly wing with a pencil and paper ......

Late late late!!

Hello all, if anyone is still paying me the compliment of keeping an eye on this neglected blog! Thank you those of you who've commented over the past couple of months - I'd not been here at all, then came today and found four comments that encouraged me back to the study chair to say "hi - I am still here - honest!"

The getting lots done in September got waylaid by the demands of work - my normal 27 hour weeks have ballooned to full time and more, in fact a couple even reached the exhausting heights (depths?) of 43 hours. We're installing anew library management system ....... then there's the Saturday classes, textile and embroidery, and the homework for the Saturday classes. All in all I'm rather exhausted. But still having fun.

My City and Guilds has got very behind as I've been struggling to keep up with both stitch and design. The most recent smocking was tremendous fun, and prompted me to get books out from work on old time smocking, two published in the sixties and one in the early eighties - you can imagine the startling designs that accompanied chapters called "the modern approach" and "modern adaptation of stitch and design", all written by a woman with the wonderful name of "Oenone Cave". A quick search of Google images brings up the most amazing selection of smocking in a whole variety of techniques. These range from  traditional farmer's smocks and some great vintage patterns to the most amazing dresses. I particularly liked this lovely Arts and Crafts dress on the V&A website and some fascinating Pinterest content.

My two small efforts have given me much pleasure to do, though I have to say the tiny little movements in and out, in and out, when doing the gathers in preparation for the pretty bits gave me some trouble and some sharp pains in the hands and arms. Unlike general running stitch which has a flow about it, and which I used for Uffington, the gathering stitch for smocking has to be done with the utmost regularity, yet is irregular in character. You mark the fabric with a grid of regular dots, then take the tiniest stitch on each dot at the back to draw the fabric into pleats. These are then stitched across on the front. Here's how they turned out - both on upcycled fabric from charity shop finds.

The piece worked on some checked shirting fabric was easiest as the regular pattern was a great help in placing the stitching. The other, on a bit of linen tray cloth was harder as while one stitches, the close gathers have a tendency to wriggle about in a most unruly fashion. I was pleased with the one row of soft green stitching, made by using both yellow and blue in the needle, but a LOT of unpicking was done!!

Still, a lot of fun was had as well .....

Oh, and I will scan in and post the pages from my summer insect project. I'm now trying to catch up with producing three designs for a "something", bag, box, scarf, based on the design work done during the summer - for which read scrabbled together at the last moment a month late to be presented to my tutor the weekend before last!!

Phew

busy busy busy

I'm trying to get lots done at the moment, but have really been having fun researching my chosen topic for the City and Guilds summer sketchbook exercise. I chose insects, so have been doing all sorts, including two visits to the V&A, but am so busy I've not had time to photograph a lot of what I've been doing, so I can't show you just now. Must try harder!! I'm also really busy at work; working a full week, rather than my usual three and a half days so I'm quite tried and achy by the end of the week, but we've got our first City and Guilds meeting on Saturday. I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone else has been doing over the summer break. Other topics included fleur de lis, chestnut trees, , snakes, circles .... and I forget the rest! It will be great fun.

As part of my research we went to Ellen Terry's house, Smallythe Place, where we saw the restored beetle wing dress that she wore as Lady Macbeth on the London Stage.

Real beetle wing cases attached to a crocheted sort of net in green over a deep green under dress. I ordered some via e-bay, or rather got Jen to order them. they arrived today and will be attached to a little trial piece inspired by this.

We also went to one of our favourite places, Great Dixter, where I hunted insects from plant to plant!

We have the pleasure of our yearly holiday in the Lakes appearing on the horizon as well. The year starts turning, trees begin to flush after the heat of the summer, the robins starts that plaintive "tick, tick" and there's a fluttery chill in the air. As that starts to happen, I get little moments of thinking, "here it comes"

Before that I've got an intensive week of training at work, then several intensive weeks delivering training when I get back. I may be a trifled wrung out by the end of it, but it's really interesting and better that taking up fretwork.

In the meantime, have a look at the resources on the V&A website - I just put in a search for "insects and embroidery". An amazing place to spend several hours researching - and then you come home and find that there's all these wonderful, and in some cases, quite high resolution images at the click of a button. Among my favourite were this wonderful little casket, a book cover with a triumphant butterfly, a cushion with squiggly caterpillars, another caterpillar in amongst the pin cushion pinks and an Art Nouveau table cover by Phoebe Anna Traquair.

Delightful!

Appliqué

Finally finished my decorative appliqué homework, which always feels as though its not what I'm supposed to have done, but I've really enjoyed this.

I love having a muslin backing cloth, as it lets threads bury themselves, and gives you a place to work a couple of small stitches before starting to stitch - no knots, I hate knots!

Stitching it all down

The leafy light green block is reverse applique, the green fabric mounted on the back, with tacking stitches outlining the negative space that needs to be cut through from the front. I cut the red silt form the front, then blanket stitched it down. I chose the motif carefully to make sure I could align warp and weft of both fabrics and still have the stem at a sensible angle to extend downwards.

I used very sparse, stretched fly stitch to attach the orange "sunflower" stem; breaking this at the centre with a little sliver of blue organza to echo the sky above. I chose a stitch that echos the running stitch used in the sky, as well as the triad of the fly stitch.

For the grass at the bottom I wanted to make sure the stitches helped in holding down this very loosely woven fabric. I used a toning soft green silk, to blend into the sheen of the fibre, rather than fighting with it. Then I couched on some of the loose threads from the sunflower fabric to the left, using the same green as is in the sky, shiny and vivid.

So here we are! I think it needs to be backed by something dark, but for now, it's just a sampler.

Anny, you're right, it is rather Autumnal isn't it!

Now to the functional applique ....

spring green

On Sunday afternoon, the garden was like this

one cat keeping watch at the top of the walk

the fattening hydrangea leaves, swollen with rain and freshly visible after their spring haircut

  the sun shone through daffodils and violets

  

Wol was happy in his world

  the hazel was in blossom - I'm not sure I've ever managed to notice the flowers before, they are so tiny, yet the catkin sheds its pollen to fertilize them with a caress of breeze

 another cat guards the pagoda

 while the old dears chat to each other in the sunshine 

and up in the rooftops (now there's another grid!)

the starling suns his iridescent chest 

the sun shone in his blue blue sky 

and it was very very warm and peaceful 

then in the evening I stitched, then stitched some more yesterday and a final few today

Counterchange

I deliberately played with the regular counterchange of the squares, by allowing the beads and French knots to expand away from the centre, floating out towards the edges and challenging all that serious stability.

Today I also had an exhausting trip to London for work. 

Still not feeling quite up to scratch