Right.....

...here we go then.  Last day of 2016, another turn along the road.  Tomorrow see the start of
1 Year of Stitches challenge, I mentioned in the last post. I want to make something vivid. not my usual muted palette.

We shall see.

Here is a sneak peak of something I have been working on over the holidays.

 

And here is my wish for you all.

It's been a funny week....

By the law of *"!! we have just arranged to have out living room and staircase etc decorated and carpeted, so what happens???? Last Friday the television died. Admitted it has been on the blink for a while,(people don't have purple skin do they???) but did it have to chose just now and now in another month or so? Monday DH dropped his pre-shave bottle into the washbasin .....new washbasin required immediately!!!(Happily it was his turn I broke the last one dropping a heavy glass soap dish in it!!) Same day I started a drippy cold. Another drippy cold!!!!. Tuesday feeling much better I set out for a long awaited playday with some friends from the EG We were going to workshop an article by Kelly Rae Roberts published in Cloth Paper and Scissors. Apart from my drip, which worsened during the day, we had a great time, thanks girls, I was right outside my comfort zone with both with the painting and the size I chose. I don't usually do anything bigger that A4, this time the canvas was about
20" x 14".

It really looks better here than it really is, I rushed dying the background (there's a novelty) and I missed out a step before painting(there's a novelty) and I have cheated with a charcoal pencil instead of using a paint brush (open eyes totally defeated me)but I really am delighted with the overall effect and I have her standing next to the wonderful portrait of the Queen which I tore out of the magazine.(I thought they would like each other's company)
This is a close up

I wish I had thought to take my camera so I could show what they others did...next time!
Wednesday was golf, and this is the card I have made for our new Lady Captain who drives in tomorrow.

inspired by Carol Naylor (see previous post)I printed a picture of our golf club onto cotton and then machined into it. I finished it off with a little hand stitching to give it some added depth. I also used this technique for a Calendar Girl card but more of that later and just to prove that I haven't been slacking I have been working on something for EG which will be revealed later, as it is for the area day in June!
New television arrived yesterday, a 42" plasma, the picture is incedible and I just can't wait for the NFL season to start!! Yes I can because it's not until September but boy, is it going to be good!. I watched the musical "The Producers" (one of my favourites) on DVD last night, it was nearly as good as being in the cinema.

So much going on...

did I say, already, that someone asked me if it was difficult to fill you days when you retire???

I said there were two things for the TIF memories that I was going to work on. The first one is the Liberty Bodice, this image is from the V&A Museum of Childhood.
This unlovely garment was invented to make sure your wool vest itched to it's maximum potential. Well no, it just seemed like that, it was designed to keep you warm, the thing I remember most about it is the rubber buttons which started to crumble as they perished. This is a bit of a cheat as it is actually made from bits of the January piece and is therefore in January's colours. I couldn't find rubber buttons in my stash but these I thought filled the bill,the felt backing represent the itchy vest and the lace represents my remembered longing to have a dress like the Cinderella in my Ladybird book.

And then there were the navy blue gym bloomers with the pocket for your handky, but that's for another day..

Finds....

Thanks to Jacqueline for the link to Dianas Zeug - Design Blog, unfortunately I do not read German but this is what I call eye candy!!!

One of the joys of blogging is when you come across someone whose life is completely different to your own. The Pioneer Woman certainly fits that bill. A different sort of eye candy!! Another world. Marvellous. Incidentally if it's comfort food you want checkout her recipe for mashed potato!

Andrea of Up to Late as Usual posted this video of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra making a beer commercial. The conductor liked it.

My weekend wasn't entirely mis-spent I have added another page for my fabric book.

Whew!

Don't know whether holidays are entirely worth it, since I returned I have been paid bills, been to the hairdressers, done an embroidery workshop at the EG, signed up for the leisure centre,been to see my best friend, done the washing and re-stocked the fridge. Now I wonder which of of these activities you will be of interest????

OK then the embroidery workshop was with Fay Maxwell and was based on the article she has just had published in Stitch Working with blanket felt on silk. Both new experiences for me. And no tracing paper!!!!!

It was a really good day though I have a feeling that Fay despaired of me!! I always have problems in workshops, part of the reason is that I am left handed and relatively inexperienced as a stitcher therefore any new stitch(especially those with a twist) present me with a big problem. Once I get home and can use the computer to turn things round I am OK but in a workshop I panic a bit. I had real problems with the authentic Shisha stitch Fay was showing us. Her work is beautiful, an updating of the ancient crewel work and she was funny and informative so if you ever get the chance to take a class with her, grab it.

One of my other mistakes was to put a bird on my cushion.
This immediately locked me into feathers etc.. instead of being free to do exotic flowers and leaves.

I have actually pulled out the stitching I did in the workshop(forgot to photoraph)
and started again. I will show progress at a later date.

Now my main aim is to get back to TAST, (as very tempted to try and find an Internet cafe in Cyprus so that I could continue when the weather was bad) I am now three weeks behind but I hope that Sharon doesn't take a break because knowing me that will mean I am still three weeks behind when she starts again

Inpite of the weather I was pleased with some of the photographs I took in Cyprus so I will share them when I think of it.

This one was on the same beach as the chair.......aaah lucky M!!

Basque stitch.....

This is just a quickie this week because I am off to the beautiful island of Cyprus tomorrow, for two weeks Yipee, so I will be playing catch up when I come back.

The moment I saw "Basque" I thought of Jean Borotra the "Bounding Basque" and of the game Pelote the incdedibly fast game which is played against a wall with a sort of scoop shaped basket and a very small ball. So my basque stitch is based on the "basket" complete with flying ball!!!



I like this stitch, at first, I was making it like a detched chain without the twist and then the penny dropped. It does have a sort of folklore look to it a good stitch for building up layers as you can work it both ways.

This is from last year. Can't wait!!!

Wheel Stitch - week 18

I am going on holiday on Thursday and everything seems to be happening at once, golf games, theatre trips, dentist visits, not to mention lipstick searches. Why is there always so much to do before you go on holiday, my younger brother asked me what was the difference between holidays and being retired. I told him that Holidays are harder work!!!! I have just finished my sample of wheel stitch My first thought was of the inside of a watch or clock and I started looking for images on exactly how they are set. Wandering around I came across the Antikythera Device ,an Ancient Greek "computer" which was found at the beginning of the century. Fascinating stuff. So this is my offering based on the picture from the Nordex site.


I love these textural stitches, especially when you start to pile them on top of each other. I particularly like the pink wheel on the left where I reversed the stitch for a couple of rounds and it made this highly satisfactory machine wheel look.

Straight stitch

Well, the simplest stitch so far has taken me the longest time to do. I wanted to try and do something with sheer fabrics and stitches under and on top but the everyday world took over this week and I have just rushed to complete it this morning.


I love this simple stitch and the things it can do to lead the eye round a piece etc.

This is cheating but here is an experimental piece I posted earlier this year

.

It was EG yesterday and we had a talk called "Adentures in vanishing fabrics" by a gentleman called Arthur Ridley.
He showed slides of his work and exp0lained the processes and also had loads of pieces to look at. His hats and masks were great fun.

Palestrina stitch

Another new-to-me stitch this week. I like this stich, great opportunities for variation and texture, once I can stop myself lapsing into buttonhole stitch there is a nice rythmn to it.

I had a search to see what I could find on Palestrina, I knew vaguely that it was a town in Italy. My search turned up this picture of the little hill town near Rome with a quaint custom in June. The gentleman below it its most famous son who rejoices in the wonderful name of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina a composer of church music.


This idea didn't quite come off but I wanted to use the yarn my daughter brought me back from Italy(the thick one).

Tuesday

I've just spent a wonderful day in workshop with textile artist Cas Holmes It was part of Kent County Council Arts Development Countywide Migration Project and I was there thanks to the Sevenoaks branch of the EG. We made a mixed media piece where we worked backward, doing the stitching first and then adding the other media. Fascinating and great fun, the theme was journeys either personal or actual. This was my piece after my stitching



In my dreams my Senior Bus pass can take me......

and this is it at the end.


Nowhere near as beautiful as Cas' work but you did get a great taste of all kinds of new possibilities. She was very generous in sharing her techniques. A good day.

Posting delayed because blogger was being awkward with photographs!!!

Now to get to grips with TAST stitch Oyster, another new, to me, one.

Overload

Having one of those busy, busy weeks. You know how you do very little and then everything comes along at once. Highlight so far was going with my daughter to the Kylie exhibition at the V&A. It was great fun, my , she is tiny. I now know the meaning of a handspan waist. The Museum Dress made me smile when I realised that some of the fabric were just the same as those I used to use when making costumes for our local amateur theatre, bits still in my stash. Videos of backstage and on stage added to the fun. Afterwards we strolled through the 17th and 16th century British galleries.Wonderful stumpwork boxes and an unfinished mirror frame with beautiful details like a buttterfly which looked as though it had just landed. Museums are such fun these days, I tried on a ruff, good for hiding crepy neck and holding up double chins and my daughter tried tying a cravat which she decided was a good way to tie a thin scarf. We designed out coat or arms and then went to tea. Good day.

TAST Couching

Some years ago we had a talk at the Embroiderers Guild (unfortunately I can't remember the name of the speaker) which changed my way of looking at portraits. Until that time it had never occurred to me how lovingly the artists had re created the fabrics. Lace, satin, velvet and jewels and more mundane materials were recreated by the artists brush. Since then I have been facscinated by how little dabs of white and grey paint can be a piece of lace or rare pearls. Living near London I am very fortunate, as I have remarked before, to have some wonderful art galleries which are free to pop in and wonder. A little while ago I visited the National Portait Gallery and with my new (Sharon inspired!!) notebook I looked at a postrait I had seen before but this time I tried to capture some of the detail. This is a full size portait of Catherine Parr (the wife who survived Henry VIII) Unfortunately this is a very small image, The detail which fascinated me was the band across the neck of the dress. This is my sketch.(I never said I could draw!)


The thing I couldn't work our was how the circles were made, be carefully looking at the direction of the painted impression of the couching stitches I worked out how the thread must have been laid and this is my impression of a detail of that band.

I used little fly stitches to couch a plaited gold thread.

By the way this is on a piece of duster which I painted and stencilled.

Ups and Downs

Went to the Stitch and Craft Show at Olympia today and I have to say I was a little disappointed. I went with a list of things I needed (well would like to tuck away in my stash) but there were non of the really good mixed media suppliers there so saved some money!!!! The whole day was redeemed though by a piece of work by Jane E Hall. It was so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes. It was a piece called "Spring" I bought the card but how I would have loved the piece itself a thing of such delicacy. It is all made from hand dyed silk and tiny tiny stitches,it took her 5 months to make, rising a 5.30 in the morning. Beautiful, I will not forget it.

Spring is in the air.......

and we have had three beautiful days of warm sunshine. Joy. This weeks TAST is Up and Down Bottonhole stitch, another variation I didn't know. So once again to Sharon's invaluable Stitch Dictionary and an 'Oh! I see!' moment. Then I scribbled a bit but nothing came, so I left it alone to think about and still nothing came, so I thought I would really like to show how the little bar goes across and took some thick knitting yarn with no pattern of thought in mind. It kept reminding me of something and then I realised Stonehenge!!!! So here it is. Vernal Equinox.




Incidentally, along the way, I learned the difference between and Equinox Spring Equinox and a Solstice which I hadn't quite appreciated before. Embroidery is a wonderful thing!

Still dusting.........

Those who know me will fall about laughing at the idea!!

What I mean is that I am still finding things to make and do with my packet of cheap dusters.


No not a postcard





a new needle book! I quite like the accidental background too. I had fogotten that I had put polythene on my work table when I has using my heat gun!

TAST Cross stitch.

Weatherwise yesterday was miserable, grey and rain real February stuff. I knew what I wanted to do,I had seen a picture of a piece of amethyst and wanted to make a very textured piece. I love free cross stitch because you can build up such texture. Having said all that I am not satisfied with what turned out but it will have to do. One of the problems is that no matter how I photograph it I cannot get the metallic threads to show. The white band had an irridescent thread in it and the "amethysts" have lots of sparkle in them. Ah well another lesson learned!



Don't know whether I am going to stick with this jewel colour theme. The idea was to make me work with colours I wouldn't usually use but I find I have a tendancy to get hooked into the whole "jewel" thing and can't think outside it. Aquamarine is next for March, gorgeous colour, so we shall see.

Flight of fancy.....

....sorry couldn't resist. Fly stitch week 8 of TAST.
as you can see I was tempted to sycamore seeds and snowflakes but somewhere along the line they gave way to a bird, a dove in fact. I used The Scribbler to make my sketch.

My first intention was to fill it in completety but then I quite like the suggestion of plumage, it is all in fly stitch apart from the bead of the eye.

Having looked at it on the page I may try a photograph tomorrow though the close up is OK.

That reminds me...

Dy of Random Applique posted a picture of crystals growing in a beautiful blue jar. I reminded me of a silly experiment I did some time back where I made a "bag" out of the inside of a kitchen roll.


The body of the bag was made of shrunken shopping bag plastic sandwiched in between
organza, beaded and then covered with net and more sequins and beads.


A bit of nonsense.

Feathers into heather.

I was really hoping feather stitch would turn up in March,(aquamarine in the jewel of the month) as it does make lovely seaweed!!! However here we are in February which is amethyst. In anticipation of amethyst I had made a piece of glue gun jewel intending to use it as a background and my first thought was to do ostritch feathers, something really OTT but I just couldn't get it to have the softness I wanted and it just looked more like fern. So fern's it would have to be and then the heather started to grow. So here we are.

8p dusters

This is the packet of dusters I bought for 99p(about $2 I think),see bird below.
These are some dyed pieces using silk dyes.



and this is a cover for my notebook, (Yes, I now have a notebook, more of a scribble book really but it's a start)
I can take no credit of the lovely shading on these, that came from a piece of rainbow dyed sheer fabric I have been hoarding.




It was really an excercise for me to practice "vermicelli" stitch on the machine. It is getting better but there are still a lot of those nasty little pointy bits.