Stitching news in Colour!!!!

Yes, this is the third blog post today and will go some way to explaining the long gap! I've been busy with, amongst other things

- a workshop at Happy and Glorious https://www.happyglorious.co.uk/pages/our-shop, run by Cas Holmes http://casholmestextiles.co.uk

Here's the small precious objects piece  I left the workshop with ...

Paper, teabags, fabric and hand stitching inspired by my Mother's lace.











It took a while for me to find my way to the set of three and to add some free motion machine stitching ... but now just look!!

and one reason it took a while was more playing with fabric, this time a small length of woven strip cotton, more details on this are here https://www.africanfabric.co.uk/fabrics-textiles/african-fabrics/handwoven-strip-cloth

The top piece is rusted in salt water and the lower piece found itself in a tray of dye at the Institches Studio last week, https://www.institchestextilecourses.co.uk.

I've probably said that I'm on my third year long course with Hazel and Terry this time learning all about adding colour.

Some great results last week, well worth all that rinsing, washing etc, because some of the fabric is now being auditioned for one of the 'pages' of my London Loop project.




Here's what it looks like so far .... comments welcome.

I'm trying for the deconstructed and reconstructed look to give Heron a well deserved stage.


Finally, something else found its way into the dye tray. Originally my embroidery and Mum's lace but neglected somewhat so it had mould stains that washing did not shift.

I'm not sure what I'll do with it now but it certainly looks more loved than it did. I'm pleased that the lace has taken the Procion dye so well. I might play with lace and dye again.

That's all for the moment ... it is still very windy and raining hard here ... a good day for indoor tasks like the one now done here.

All about the waiting ....

For what? You ask.


For lemons to ripen, our desert grape vine to settle in after planting and the basil, well, I guess we are waiting to find it frost free zone so we can continue to reap the benefit of its wonderful flavour.

 

And I am waiting for one more day before unwrapping the fabric around a great selection of rusted bits and pieces .... watch this space for the colours and patterns that'll emerge!!!








I'm hoping for some fabric that will be suitable for book spines. So far I've printed a photo of the book spine onto fabric ... some are interesting,

others not so much. So maybe what I need is a mixture of photos and free motion quilting of the lettering onto a matching fabric. One more reason to watch this space....  I'll post more pics soon.



And I will leave you with beautiful morning sunshine now the mist has cleared ... looks like a day to be outside.

The pleasure of a rusty box

Great find yesterday, a wonderful place to keep all the "tools' I use for painting fabric with rust.

Yes, I'm easily pleased ...

Somewhere to store all the small things  - screws, bolts, old secateurs, etc. etc.  to make patterns that ask the question what does stitch add?

That question is key for me. But its not sufficient on its own. There is also the necessity of how to make a form of some sort, a piece, so to speak.

Today's task is to consider that for the rusted fabric in my stash ... perhaps in a bigger piece than I  have previously.

Nuff said.  I'm off to lay out the rusted fabric so that each time I walk by it there's a chance an idea will come to mind.

Have a good day

that last stitch feeling ....

... is such a good feeling. Just when I didn't want to look at the fish on the quilt I've been stitching for months anymore,  it is done!!

Really done, it even has a sleeve on the back to hang it up by and thanks to Paul it will hang with the fish swimming. Otherwise, he says, they look like dead fish on a fishmonger slab. A very good point.

I thought about adding fins, ones that would stand up a little. But, that would make it less than cosy as a lap quilt so these fish have hidden fins.

Its Saturday, the sun is making lots of shadows on the stone walls around me and the air is full of quiet. Have a good day all.  I'll be back here soon.


Oh, forgot to add ...

The fish quilt is mostly my dyed and painted fabrics, it was free motion quilted on a Bernina 750 by me and the edging is faced using a new technique which I will definitely do again.

More details of that can be found here https://weallsew.com/make-quilt-facing/. It is a very straightforward way of finishing a piece without interrupting the overall design.

Thoughts on hanging stitched pieces ...

It is hot, 32C at 09 00 and so I did some brief morning Pilates indoors. The laundry is done and dusted, I hung it out to dry carefully avoiding the wasps nest that needs to be dealt with.

Now its time for doing things in the cool of this lovely house. The cool indoors is thanks to thick stone walls and the opening and closing of shutters and windows as the day progresses.

 - small break while I close the shutters to the midday sun .... and wow, look what came into the kitchen while I was there ....

Back to today's topic. (BTW the figs are very wonderful)

Some of you know that I've been considering ways of mounting and hanging some of the small stitched pieces I've made during the last few years. Quilts are the easiest! Add a sleeve to the back, find a pole to fit the sleeve and hook that up by the best means for the wall that suits.

You can see an example of that in the background of this photo. The Bargello Quilt is incomplete and finished. It should have been much larger but I ran out of patience with tiny fussy pieces.

In the foreground are five small stitched pieces of my dyed fabric ... my aim here was to see what stitch added to the patterns produced by the dye techniques.

This is a semi permeant hanging (!) to test whether I like it. So far, I do ... it's great seeing the pieces from afar as I walk into my room.

Each piece is tied onto (hidden) fishing wire and could be removed if I wanted to put them in an exhibition. My best guess is that they will still be there this time next year.


The next few pics show three embroidery pieces (hemp thread on linen) in box frames from Leroy Merlin. Easy to put together and inexpensive. I stretched each finished piece over foam board and fastened it with flat head pins. No glass as I like to see the 3D effect of textile pieces.  The box files are useful in places where fixing frames to a wall is a challenge. They stand up well and can be moved somewhere else if necessary.

The top piece is white linen embroidered with dark thread on a wherever the line leads basis, then mounted on hessian and linen and fixed to foam board with more flat head pins. Simple mounting to suit a simple piece.

 This is the Swindon Postbox, Inspired by the real thing in, yes, Swindon, made with painted fabrics and lots of free motion stitching.

It was stretched and mounted by the Framer in Fleurance. Very expensive and looks good but I realise that I can do this myself so a lesson learnt.

The edges are unfinished, this tends to be a theme of my stitching ....

And finally here, one more DIY framing, hanging on another beam. The piece is fabric dress pattern paper and old maps, printed with eucalyptus bark then lots of machine and hand stitching.

Probably not the best photo here - sorry!


It turned out to be just the right size and shape for that particular place and that place allowed the randomness of the edges to shine.

Here's a better photo of the piece ...

The fragrance of figs is reaching my room, and I hear sounds that tell me the jam making has started. I'll be back here soon.

Comments on the above very welcome. Please tell me what you do with your small stitched pieces, or any other small art works. Thank you.

Waking up this blog ....

Wow, one blog post at the very beginning of this year and .... well nothing since!!

But much has been happening including a number of hospital appointments and investigations, lots of stitching and some finished projects.  Oh, and I almost forgot, editing my novel and a place on the long list of a poetry competition, see https://www.therialto.co.uk/pages/2018/05/01/nature-poetry-competition-2018-results/.

And what, you may well ask, has promoted me to remember the blog and make a promise that I will try to write more posts. My answer in short notes is

- a discussion yesterday on Design for Stitching Course about Artist's Statements and social media for stitchers (that's me) but of course, others call themselves textile artists, quilt artists, fibre artists etc. etc.

- confirmation that I will be having stereotactic body radiotherapy very soon for two small but unwanted nodules in my lungs so I might have more 'sitting around' time for a while,

and
- well, it's always my intention to be here more regularly and to post bits and pieces that can't be easily shared on other social media.

To that end today here's a few pictures of completed and ongoing stitching projects and the long listed poem -and yes, it is itself long, but its also very thin so please read on.  The pictures await you ...

The Red Admiral in Thirteen Movements 

after Thirteen ways of looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens 

1

At the edge of a Dorset cliff 

a man with binoculars

watches for migrating 

Red Admirals.

2

Crimson streaks edge

and divide the Red Admiral's

seventy mm wingspan.

3

One Red Admiral 

flying

south from the north.

4

At the man's feet 

two Red Admirals 

rest.

5

American scientists 

are making detectors

to fit the Red Admiral's thorax.

6

On the cliff path

Red Admirals drink nectar

from November blackberries.

7

Feeding Red Admirals 

are undisturbed by

interested people.

8

Why Admiral?

No-one knows.

9

Along the wings 

of the Red Admiral,

black and white frills.

10

For inflight warmth

Red Admirals develop

a hairy thorax.

11

Red Admirals rise above 

turbulence, or wait

until it has passed.

12

Orphan travellers,

the Red Admiral flies

alone.

13

From below, the man

watches the Red Admiral's

dark underwings.

Yes, I'm stitching fish or rather appliqué fish and then some bubble free motion quilting. There are 24 on the quilt so I'm planning to go slowly, maybe 1-2 each day  ... thats if the thread, the needle and my fingers behave well.

and here are the makings of a practice sample for a new project about walking the London Loop.

i have an idea about transferring the map on the TFL website to fabric, using confetti quilting. I just now that much trial and error is going to be involved.

So I have some unwanted fabric and net and oh  scissors to cut the lawn squares into confetti  ... result is below ... not sure I like the net but the technique is fine.

I'll be back ... not sure when!

These are definitely not resolutions

Happy New Year ou Bonne Annee (sans accent!!). I'm in France enjoying unseasonably warm and often sunny weather.

Its that time of the year, people start something new, commit, make promise to themselves. I've done it, although not for many years and this is not what I am doing this year.

That said I've joined a group thats all about walking 1000 miles in 2018 - check it out on FB. And I've devised a way of keeping track of my miles via my Fitbit. Its a bit galling when you find out that what you think of as your long morning walk with the dog is only 1.7 miles so I'm tracking my weekly goal of 20 miles and I'm counting all the walking I do for the rest of my day. So far so good. As I walk I'm listening to Hilary Rodham Clinton reading her book What Happened via the Audible app.  I enjoy this sort of book as a listener much more than as a page reader. See more at www.audible.co.uk

Here's my page reading at the moment ...

Short stories -very readable with a focus on Vietnamese family life 

Just started this ... so far its all about the death of Chatterton & Dylan Thomas .. not as boring as i though it might be 

Edgy, unusal and brave poems in here by a wonderful poet 

What's not to like ... I can read about yoga and practice my french in one place 

A book to pick up and peruse  ... early days for me reading this   ... lots to inspire and help with so far

and now I'm saying this very very quietly but I've also joined a project called 10 minutes drawing ... its all the fault of the wonderful women who run the Design for Stitch course I'm on this year and two of the equally wonderful students I'm learning with. 

Enough said, here's my first two efforts, already on Instagram where we are all sharing our efforts at what I call mark making. Thus avoiding, whenever possible, the dreaded D word!!!

This morning's mark making was done with an iPencil ... so the project is a bonus as its encouraging me to learn how to use this and to mark make in Adobe Sketch. There may be a quilty thing from all this in a few years but maybe not. 

Finally, I've finished another almost lacey scarf in sock weight yarn and have started to add quilting to what I call my 'brick' quilt.   I love the effect of quilting with a double needle. Shame that I managed to break two of these just doing a few rows of stitching ... all down to some less than easy fabric and the rusty effect  -you live and you learn especially that the Bernina sewing 'computer' is a tad sensitive to stuff like that. 

Photos below and thank you for reading.