The LOVELY ladies from up north worked really hard on their machine stitching to produce simple panels in black thread on white to resemble blackwork. The day went so quickly but that’s because a considerable amount of it is taken up with eating the absolutely scrummy food that Alston Hall keeps feeding us. The classes and class rooms are great, the views are wonderful, the food is awesome and the staff marvellous. What more could you need for a residential weekend of complete stitching
Well I’m here in Nottingham on the university campus waiting to give my lecture on Extra Organza having taught the basic technique all day yesterday. The organisers have done a sterling job of organising so many ladies who all have so much that they can do while they are here. Of course there are traders for shopping as well as many lectures, day and afternoon workshops and trips to local places of interest, not forgetting the reason for being here the AGM. This is a big weekend for the quilters guild were major issues and business is attended to and where many like minded people come together , some as groups and many on there own although you aren’t on your own for long as everyone is so friendly and welcoming
It’s so cold and wintery that I have no problem doing wintery themed projects. These are the prototype snowflakes made from layers of organza, machine stitch, cut back and finally soldered to embellish mine and a friends clothing when we attend a themed dinner later in the year. I plan to make a large and varied number of snowflakes which not only will they adorn clothing but I want to make a winter Mardi gra mask for myself and a wintery fascinated for my friend along with two across the body evening bags. So I am going to need quite a few snowflakes and while the weather is so cold it is a good time to get them done
Been working on this little box all week as a Christmas project for Kathy Troup of Stitch with the embroiderers guild magazine. This is the second go as the prototype colours turned out completely wrong. So it was back to the drawing board and different colours were put in to the layering system before I machined the design. I don’t mind making the item but I do so love putting it all together with all the twiddly bits and bobs that make it pretty. I am quite sad becoz I absolutely love covering the wire with machine thread by sewing machine and then bending or coiling it.
I just need to find a suitable box to send it in
Sat last night watching the telly and had fun with my basket of jumbled threads, picking out colours and using simple embroidery on a primitively painted fabric to create this country scene. You get quite a good result from simple stitchery
Had a great day with the ladies at Patchwork Corner. We used the inspira cut work needles in our sewing machines to make negative and positive squares to assemble as small simple bags r to make wall hangings. These little needles are just like having a tiny knife in the machine and replace the normal sewing machine needles to cut through the fabric and remove the shape from within it, making both the negative and positive shapes fully usable.
They are quite expensive and were designed for the embroidery machines with stitch out designs . I use only one of the four needles in a completely free manner to cut out my own hand drawn designs so you do need to work out wether they art going to be cost effective at £48 per set.
The company really needs to look at selling them two ways. Four needles for the embroidery design machines and a single needle for the normal domestic machine. As I have started to teach the technique it would be so good to be able to offer one needle for sale.
I spend such a lot of time on my sewing machine that every once in a while I like to keep my hand in with some good old hand stitching.
This project is to learn how to put a random suggestion of water colour or acrylic paint down on to fabric to suggest a background scene which will be embellished or further stitched with traditional hand embroidery to bring-it to life.
It’s quite liberating to have the freedom to splash Paint on to a surface when you only have a vague idea of what you want to achieve, having said that it does give you a fairly open scope to play and grow the picture as you sew.
I wasn’t sure how to go about it so I started with a plain white piece of fabric and lightly traced a basic window, bricks and a hanging basket in place. This gave me the areas I needed to consider for specific colours and the rest-of the area was then just a wash of these same colours.
I then spent a pleasant couple of evenings using simple stitches such as French knots, stem stitch, back stitch, straight stitch, chain stitch and several others to enhance area like the individual bricks, the hanging basket and adding a grassy border to bring the paint and the embroidery together.
Just mounted this piece of painted, stamped, stitched and heat stressed piece of Lutradur ready to get framed. I really like this technique as you can do the same over and over again and get a different result every time. Considering I used red and bright yellow Lutradur layered on top of the piece which burnt back when I heat stressed it . I love the colour it turned out and that it is finished at this point. I did look at it and think maybe I needed to add beads or hand stitching but decided not to .
Today I felt motivated to get my act together and sort out my Lutradur workshop coming up at Husqvarna Studio, Nottingham. Next problem is how to send it in the mail but that can wait till tomorrow.
After a really hectic day of clearing an overgrown garden ( not mine, my daughters) I found a spare hour to finish and stretch my gold work embroidery ready to be framed and displayed at the shop next week.
It’s been a real pleasure having this embroidery on the go in the evenings. It is predominately worked in satin stitch where I needed the hummingbirds to say blue/green, with couched gold cord. No padded gold leather on this piece which should please many of the students. They find the leather work hard going on heir fingers. As usual my signature painting in of areas using gold acrylic paint has snuck in giving another texture and tone to the gold being used to outline the design. The flowers have been worked in long stitches with variegated yellow/orange stranded floss with gold machine thread worked in-between each one.
I painted the background fabric with my watercolour paints to get a soft blue Hugh
