Not the Tank Engine Thomas

We're off to Dundee for a couple of days soon as John is to be godfather to our nephew Thomas. He's a lovely baby as you can see:-

I wanted to make something a little different as a gift, so, using the photograph as reference, I hand-stitched this portrait.

Once it's framed, I think his parents will be quite pleased. And yes, I know it's green. Black looked too harsh so, after auditioning umpteen different coloured threads, I decided that I liked green the best. Or maybe I'm just odd .......

Water, water, everywhere ...

Back in this post, I mentioned I was going on a two day course with Jean Littlejohn at Broadland Arts Centre. I finally got round to taking some photos of the work I did there, and some other bits around the same "Waterscapes" theme that I've done subsequently.

First, a couple of (bad) watercolour pencil sketches of reflections/patterns in a river:-

And a painting of swimming pool reflections that I did with Koh-i-Noor dye-based watercolours, left to dry and then drawn on with a cocktail stick dipped in bleach.

Here are some of the small pieces I've stitched:-

So definitely water everywhere but none that can be drunk!

Vision East

It's been a bit quiet on this blog of late but I have been busy stitching as you will see.

Last Saturday was the Embroiderers' Guild Eastern Regional Day at Letchworth and you could have knocked me down with a feather when I was given this!

It took a big nudge from Dilys, our Branch Chair, before I realised they'd called out my name and to get me out of my seat to receive my certificate from Anthea Godfrey, judge and national EG Chair, and have my photo taken.

The full title of the competition was "Vision East - from Aldeburgh to the Orient - any dream will do" so I put my thinking cap on and came up with my entry entitled "East London Vision" which you can see below.

It's a double layered wall hanging 80cms by 40 cms - the upper, free floating,'dreamy' layer is made of hand dyed, appliqued and embroidered silk chiffon and is based on a map of the Olympic park in East London - the vision of the British team who were successful in getting the Olympic bid awarded to London for 2012. The under layer is the part of the Lee Valley where the Olympic park is situated and is hand embroidered on 'fabric' constructed from free machine embroidered layers of torn, hand dyed scrim, fibres and threads on sticky water soluble film. The 'medals' represent the hopes held by all the athletes of winning a medal there.

Here are a couple of close ups:-

Not only did I get a certificate, but all these as well:-

I still haven't got over the shock .......

Striking a cord

Courtesy of our Embroiderers' Guild lending library, I'm currently reading (and thoroughly enjoying) a book published in 1977 called Textures in Embroidery by the late Valerie Campbell-Harding. One of the many techniques described in the book is an easy method for making wrapped cords. I've broken several needles in the past trying to do this in FME mode and never really been happy with the results so I had a go with Valerie's method today.

This is done with feed dogs up and presser foot on and Valerie suggests using 1" strips of old tights or stockings. I'd actually got three brand new pairs of tights in various shades of blue - no, I had no intention of ever wearing them but they were reduced to 50p a pair and I never can resist a bargain! So, scissors in hand, I sliced a strip from each pair. Holding one end of the strip behind the presser foot, you need to stretch the 'front' end and pull it up at about a 45 degree angle between the 'toes' of the presser foot. With the machine set to the widest zig zag and short stitch length, off you go, keeping up the tension between your hands so the tights remain stretched.

When you get to the end of the strip, if you want more of the tights covered with thread, just feed the strip under the foot again (you won't need to stretch the strip this time - just keep gentle tension front and back so it remains in the centre of the presser foot).

Having made several lengths with tights, I tried the same method - except without stretching - with various wools and ribbon yarns. Not a broken needle in sight!

Four days and five nights in Italy

Arrived home safely last night after four days in Puglia with Maggie Grey but minus my iPhone which I'd managed to leave on the train. Luckily, it was found by a very charming young man who kept it safe for me and we met up today at Cambridge railway station so I could collect it. Almost 24 hours spent phoneless sharply brought it home to me just how much I rely on it!

Anyway, here are a few photos of the trip:-

Interesting shadow of one of the gates at the Masseria

The pool and the two trulli at the bottom of the garden

Visiting the village of Alberobello to see the trulli

A marvellous lichen speckled wall

And this is John eating a large Italian ice cream. It's become a tradition when we go away that I take a photo of John eating his favourite food (?)

No pictures yet of the work I created because I didn't manage to finish much of what I started - simply ran out of time - four days and five nights away wasn't nearly long enough....

I can't believe that .....

... it's been almost a month since I last blogged. Where has the time gone? In my defence, I have been rather busy in the run up to the general election - telephone canvassing mostly and then getting out the vote on the big day. And now here we are, with a coalition government. Not ideal (and certainly not what I worked for) but we shall see.

I have also been busy on the stitching front making various birthday gifts but, stupidly, forgot to take pictures until they were wrapped up and given so you'll just have to use your imagination here!

First was a pair of honeycomb pleated silk cushions in duck egg blue and pale coffee for my niece Kelly (actually she only got one on her birthday - the second is still on my work table half finished so you may see a picture of that if I remember to take one when is is done and before I send it off to her).

Second was a whole cloth, appliqued sofa quilt for my other niece Toni, in cream and red to match her lounge. I call it a sofa quilt as it's meant for snuggling up in on the sofa on chilly evenings. It's bigger than a lap quilt but smaller than a single bed quilt so just the right size - and not too unwieldy to quilt on an ordinary home sewing machine.

I've got a place on a workshop with Jean Littlejohn at Broadland Arts Centre next month (yippee!) which I'm really pleased about as places are as rare as hens' teeth. They had a cancellation apparently and I couldn't help wondering why on earth someone would cancel after actually getting a place. Who knows. Anyway, the theme is "Waterscapes". I was playing around with transfer dye designs in advance of the course and this - a photo which I did remember to take, albeit badly - turned into a lap quilt for my friend Sally's birthday.

We should be off to Puglia, Italy again on Wednesday for the course with Maggie Grey. I say should as it looks like the Icelandic volcano and the wind direction could be conspiring to prevent us getting there. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

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.