Multifarious Muslin

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to attend a workshop entitled "Multifarious Muslin", organised by Norwich branch of the Embroiderers' Guild, with Pauline Verrinder. She doesn't have her own website or blog but is tutor/mentor of Fibrefusion and Fen Edge Textiles. She is also the organiser of the very popular Textiles in Focus, a three day textile artists exhibition and trade show held at Cottenham Village College in Cambridgeshire every February. Pauline also teaches workshops at Art Van Go in Knebworth, Hertfordshire.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera with me so only have photos of the three sample pieces that I made but it was amazing how, even though we were all using the same type of fabric and the same techniques, everyone's pieces were so completely different.

First, we wrapped a square metal frame with strips of coloured muslin (NOTE - this is the fine, loosely woven cotton fabric which I believe is called cheesecloth in the USA) and coloured threads and yarns. This was then free motion embroidered on the machine with a close overlapping vermicelli stitch to connect all the muslin strips and yarn together and then cut off the frame. As you can see, I didn't have time to complete the stitching before it was time to move onto the next technique but was pleased with what I'd done.

Next we wrapped the frame very tightly with shirring elastic, followed by more muslin/yarn strips (but less densely wrapped than the first technique). More free motion machining before cutting the piece off the frame whereupon it promptly scrunched up to form a lovely texture.

Lastly, we took the tiny snippets of muslin left when we'd cut the previous pieces off the frame, added more chopped up muslin, threads and yarn and sandwiched them between two pieces of water soluble film. Free motion stitching was added - making sure all the pieces were joined together! - before dissolving the film. The remaining lacy fabric was stitched to black felt and gold fabric paint drybrushed on to highlight the texture.

We'd almost run out of time but Pauline quickly demonstrated how to make lacy trim from muslin and lace ribbon using stitch and water soluble film.

A good day out was had by all.

Just like buses

Nothing for ages then loads all at once - that's how this blog is going. Oh I don't mean it to be like this but sometimes that's just how life is.

Anyway, this is what I've been up to.

More postcards

An ugly piece of fabric doctored with dyes and metallic fabric paints

Some discharged black fabric

A vessel (this is destined to be a birthday gift for a friend)

Some playing around with fabric scraps and the embellisher (after watching these)

And 42 dyed fat quarters - just in case. You know how it is - a girl can never have too much fabric in her stash. These were recycled cotton sheets from the charity shop.

Some interesting markings on a couple of these

Sorry for the rubbish quality of the photos. I tried everywhere in the house to get some decent shots but ended up with these. Still, you get the idea.

Three other things are still in progress which I'll tell you about later as two of them are birthday gifts for my nieces and I think they look in here from time to time. Don't want to give the game away!

And finally, I suggested a solution to a problem a fellow blogger, Eileen, was having here and she sent me one of her lovely cards and a box of acrylic stamps as a thank you. Isn't blogland great.

An ending, a beginning and stuff in between

Sadly, my stepfather has passed away after a year long battle with cancer. He would have been 80 if he'd lived another couple of days so a good long life. The funeral is on Monday and I've made a flower brooch to wear from a tutorial I found here. It took no time at all and I think it looks quite impressive (apologies for the poor photograph - trying to take a decent picture of black in poor light is nigh on impossible).

On a happier note, my niece, Kelly, has got engaged. Nick popped the question on Valentine's Day and they'll be starting married life together after the wedding in January next year. A 'hen weekend' away is already being planned and I've been asked to run a crafting session for the hen and 22 little chicks! I think organza flower brooches will be just the ticket and they'll have ready made buttonholes to match their outfits for the big day.

I've been making more postcards for the charity I mentioned here, although I think the blue ones need a little something else - maybe some beads? I'll ponder on that....

I dyed a couple of silk scarves. I try to have a few things in the cupboard ready to give as gifts, although I like these two so much I just might keep them for myself.

And I've been experimenting again with transfer dyes. As these were trials of various techniques - crumpling the paper before painting it, printing an image from the computer before painting and after painting, wax resist marks and rubbings before/after, stamping etc - I made them postcard size so I can keep both the fabric and papers, with notes on the techniques used, in a 'flip' type photo album.

Just as well they're only samples. I wasn't particularly pleased with any of them as I'd forgotten (again! ) how different the resulting transfer looks to the painted paper. Most of the colours are far too bright/garish for my taste except, that is, for the last few where I was just messing around using up the colours left on my palette and I quite like these.

Aurora Borealis

I needed to take a break this weekend from working on the piece I'm entering into a juried exhibition next month. At our Embroiders Guild meeting last Saturday, members were asked to produce one or two fabric postcards which are to be sold at an event in Sheringham, North Norfolk later this year to raise funds for the Teenage Cancer Unit at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge which is due to open in December.

I've not had my embellisher out for a while so I used a couple of skeins of multi-coloured wool felt yarn from my stash and embellished some onto three different colours of acrylic felt. I really wasn't happy with the results until I turned the pieces over and saw the back. I've never been lucky enough to see the Aurora Borealis but that's exactly what the pieces brought to mind. Some trimming to size, hand stitching with metallic thread and satin stitching the edges on the sewing machine and I'd got six postcards to donate to this worthwhile cause.

It's quite hard to see the hand stitching but hopefully, if you click the images to enlarge, you should be able to see at least some of it.

'Revelation' update, Creative Cue and a Lovely Surprise!

I've had a few tries with Dan Nelson's method of drawing with varying degrees of success. I'm wondering whether it's just not possible to teach this old dog new tricks but I will persevere. This is the best of the bunch so far:-

Last Sunday's Creative Cue word was Tie which reminded me of a UFO from last summer. I cut strips from lots of old silk ties with a view to making a garment of some sort - maybe a waistcoat - but I didn't get very far and they'd got bundled together in a bag in the UFO box. I'd completely forgotten about them until I started thinking about the Cue so I unearthed them and did some more stitching. I'd also forgotten how fiddly and mind-numbingly boring it was! Anyway, here's the results:-

And they've now gone back in the UFO box for a rainy day.

Finally, Myfanwy has nominated me for an award - what a lovely surprise!

To accept the award, I need to include the logo on my own blog (done that - see above), pass the award onto five other bloggers and link to them within the post (see below) and let the nominees know they have been nominated for the award by commenting on their blogs (and I'll be off to do that as soon as I've posted this!)

First up is Pat who always has something interesting to say, writes great poetry, takes lovely pictures of life in the Yorkshire Dales and who sews as well. Next is Mai in Japan who makes the most delightful tiny, little things which are all hand sewn. Mai recently got married and is expecting her first baby who is currently known as 'Tomato'! Karen also does exquisite hand embroidery - I don't know how she has the patience - nor how she manages to keep her (mainly white) work so clean. Gwen in the USA writes a blog called "Textile Arts Resource Guide" which aims to "identify and provide access to a wide range of online resources that are informational, inspirational and/or thought provoking" and she certainly succeeds. Lastly Susan, also in the USA and mentioned before on this blog here and whose work I really admire.

Please pop over and say hello to my nominees (it was really difficult picking just five!). I'm sure you'll enjoy their blogs as much as I do.

A Revelation!

I've been trying, ever since I first held a pencil, to draw. Although I usually end up with something recognisable, I'm not really what you'd call an 'artist' and I'm never particularly satisfied with what I draw.

Today, I felt lazy, so decided to spend the afternoon catching up on blog reading and then just idly surfing the net. It could be the most productive hour or so that I've ever spent in improving my drawing skills! Why you may ask? I came across a short video clip here of an American artist called Dan Nelson and I'm off to try out his suggestion. I'll let you know if it works.

Odd

This week's Creative Cue word is 'odd'. I don't know what it about my washing machine but it definitely doesn't like pairs of socks. Every week I'm left with one lonely little sock that's lost its partner.

Here's a quick watercolour pencil sketch of my washing line with the latest crop of victims. I'm sure I'm not alone in experiencing this phenomena .....