Northumberland Holiday Journal – Over Half Way

I’ve counted up the completed pages and I’m just over half way through finishing off the Northumberland Holiday Journal. And that includes going back adding additional stitching to the running stitches on the label sides of the spreads this week.

I was discussing it with Debbie and she suggested adding to the running stitches and making more of a feature of them. I wasn’t sure initially, as I hadn’t wanted the stitches to stand out, but I’d already done that on the back of the Mount Grace page, and the more I looked at the pages, the more sense it made, making the labels feel more balanced against the larger embroideries. So I’ve gone back through the pages I’ve already done and played with different ways of threading and whipping the running stitches.

Whipped running stitch for Mount Grace.

A double threaded running stitch for the Drakestone to Harbottle walk

And a sort of reverse chain but hiding the thread under the running stitches for Bamburgh Castle, which is the spread I finished this week.

I used running stitch in a dark blue/grey thread so it toned with the greys in the background to the Beast and also the indigo thread I used on both sides of the Lindisfarne spread which is over the page.

Heartened by Ruth’s championing of the feather stitch I used earlier, I made sure I left a bit more space around my writing and used it again, rather more successfully this time I think.

The indigo thread is the same as I used for the petals and the yellow stranded cotton I whipped the running stitch with is the thread I used for the centre of the flower.

The journal is feeling much more cohesive now and making a feature of the running stitches that frames the label is working brilliantly. Definitely a good shout, Debbie – I’m really pleased with the results. Thank you!

Read Full Post »

Pot Plant

First of all, let’s start where I left off last week, with January/February’s Move It On Project and the Wallington Hall spread. I’m aiming to get at least one page done a week, which means the label on one side and the embroidery on the other, but this means I’m actually working on two different spreads, hence why the first photo looks very much like my last, with the only change being the running stitch in off-white silk thread to attach the embroidery.

On the reverse of the blue and white vase is the label for the next spread. I used a piece of satin for this one so the ink has spread slightly, but not so much that I wanted to write it out again.

I used whipped running stitch in the same green and purple threads that I used for the embroidery on the facing page and added French knots in the corners. From a distance the bleeding on the label isn’t so obvious and this spread is completely finished as the embroidery was one side of my trial page. One thing that has occurred to me is that I need to try and get a larger border round the writing on the labels so it isn’t right on top of the stitching.

I’ve also tried to keep steadily making a few pieces of upcycled jewellery each week so that it’s not all a mad rush in the summer. I’ve made a couple of pairs of sterling silver and Victorian button earrings which I’ll blog about when I get some half decent photos, but I’m most excited about my pot plant brooch. This started off as a pretty little broken brooch consisting of a branch of wired glass leaves and flowers which had been brutally chopped off at the end.

It had been in my to do box for some time, but without any clear plan until I opened the box the other day, saw a flattened brass thimble in the section next to it and the proverbial light bulb went off. First I trimmed the cut ends of the wire to an even length and needle felted a chunk of brown fleece around them to roughly the size and shape of the thimble. Then I added variegated brown French knots all over the top surface to give it a bit of texture.

I re-glued the tiny original brooch back onto the stem and then reinforced it by winding green silk thread over the brooch finding and the stems. before squishing the needlefelt into the thimble ‘plant pot’.

So pleased with the result and the almost blinding flash of creative inspiration which delivered it to me!

Read Full Post »

Geode Finish

As I mentioned last week in all the side-tracked business with the turmeric dyeing, I’ve actually finished the geode stitch sampler. Last time I gave a progress update I’d got to here. Twelve rows of stitches, finishing with threaded running stitch:

I had decided by this point that I wasn’t going to fill in the middle but I wasn’t sure how many more rows to add. So having stitched a couple of rows where the embroidery was more ‘open’, I added cable stitch, which is like a couple of offset rows of back stitch but worked as one line.

For the next row I wanted some texture and height, and it had been a while since I’d added beads, so I used some iridescent delica beads to stitch a row of Butterfly Oglala Stitch. This is the second attempt as first time round I used standard silver lined seed beads in teal and silver and they were just too bright. I think the matte finish of these beads makes them more sympathetic to the surrounding stitches.

The ruffles of the Butterfly Oglala fall over the neighbouring stitches and were already obscuring the cable stitch of the previous row so although I initially intended every row to be different, I repeated the couched wool roving I’d used in the second row to act as a buffer to the beaded ruffles and help them stay standing up.

By this point the hole in the middle was getting small enough that the stitch rounds were working up very quickly, so I forgot to take individual photos of the next two stitches. The paler one is Pekin Knot Stitch in a mercerised cotton. The knots are much more open/oval than the pictures on the instructions, so I’m not sure whether I’ve worked it wrongly, or just spaced the stitches out further. I like it well enough not to restitch it though.

Inside that is Up and Down Buttonhole Stitch, which I love. I never tire of the awe and wonder moment when I work the final step of the stitch and the tying stitch comes magically down and sits neatly over the two legs.

This felt almost finished, but I wanted to complete it in a way that gave the impression of the crystals you get on the innermost edge of a real geode. So this was going to be beads again. I wondered about quartz chips, but then I found some translucent bugle beads that were a similar colour to the quartz cubes and they fitted perfectly in between the legs of the Up and Down Buttonhole Stitch.

So it’s finished and I’m very pleased with it. I like the balance of beading and embroidery stitches and as well as old favourites, I’ve used seven stitches that were either completely new to me or that I’ve only stitched occasionally, so as a sampler, it’s worked.

I’m not sure what I want to do with it yet, but that’s not a problem. It feels good to have a successful finish that hasn’t stalled in sight of the end.

Read Full Post »

Geode Progress

This is proving a lovely steady relaxing stitch and working up quite quickly now I’m heading for the centre. Last time I posted I had just added the eighth stitch: feather stitch with an added a sprinkling of beads and it looked like this:

Following the open nature of the feather stitch I wanted a more solid stitch for the next round, so I chose Portuguese Knotted Stem Stitch and a wonderful soft variegated silk thread. Great thread, but completely wrong for this stitch. Something this project has reiterated is how much the look of a stitch is dependent on the texture of the thread, especially the more sculptural knotted stitches.

The softness of the silk thread meant that the caterpillar-like wraps of Portuguese Knotted Stem Stitch were completely lost and it looked a lumpy mess. So out with the silk and back to a perle cotton, which showed up the wraps as I wanted.

The next stitch was heavy chain, which had been successfully used by a couple of other members of the Stitch Zone group. Mindful of the issues I’d already had with the previous stitch, I went for a tightly twisted mercerised cotton so I could slide the needle easily behind the stitch loops. It’s a nicely weighty stitch and it gave me another good solid line. I worked the chain stitches very short, so it ended up looking like a braid, which I really like.

Next, a more open stitch and a completely new one for me, courtesy of my Mary Thomas book. This one is called Knotted Cable Chain Stitch and is a bit of a cheat, as the chain loops aren’t full loops – the bottom part of the loop comes out from under the knot, which you can see in the photo below. But once I got into the rhythm, which is always the initial hurdle with stitches that have multiple stages, I enjoyed working it and it certainly stitched up a lot faster than either of the two previous rows.

Lastly in this week’s stitching, threaded running stitch, which I chose for the opportunity to use some stranded cotton, even if it was only for threading.

So, about two thirds done and all down hill from here!

Read Full Post »

Old Stuff for New Beginnings

I’ve just started teaching a monthly embroidery class at Jaylaurs, a fabulous fabric and sewing shop in the nearby small market town of Brigg. I worked with three lovely ladies at the end of last month, all of whom enjoyed experimenting with some new stitches and I hope that they and some others will come along to the next one on the 30th of November. I created some more Stitch Play samples using more basic stitches, mainly based round running stitch, chain stitch and split stitch…

…but it was the more complex stitches like knotted buttonhole stitch, Pekingese Stitch and feather stitch that they wanted to try out!

Jayne, who runs Jaylaurs, asked me to create some purse flyers to give to people who expressed an interest in the classes and while looking for some suitable images and ideas I found some work I had done as examples of lessons I taught to Y5s and 6s a few years ago based on couching and whipped and threaded variants of running stitch.

They had been doing some batik and I wanted to get them to embellish some of their test pieces. This one is my sample piece with simple leaf shapes.

I had just bought a load of fancy threads for textile work and threaded and whipped running stitches were great ways of using threads that were far too thick and slubby to be used to stitch with themselves. The chenille thread on the left works particularly well.

The other sample was again to use the fancy threads, but this time couching them down in various patterns.

The thread with the fluffy ‘flags’ was very fine, so I remember couching it down backwards and forwards along the line to build up a thicker layer and seeing where the ‘flags’ fell as I worked along the thread. I hadn’t planned it, but they seemed to always end up together in clumps!

And then I found this: an early bit of found object work, using various bits and pieces that I had picked up around school. It includes an odd stud earring (flanked by two short screws) that was never claimed after PE and finally found its way into the school piano and a broken trouser fastener (centre) kindly donated for use in the piece by the lad in my class at the time. His trousers had suffered a catastrophic fail as a result of an overenthusiastic tackle in football at break and he spent the rest of the day in his PE shorts. The fastener was recovered from the playground following the incident.

A bit of fun and some good memories of some of the amazing children I have taught over the years.

Read Full Post »

Felting Project

We had the OFSTED call this week. That acronym might not mean much to anyone who hasn’t been involved in the British education system but OFSTED carry out school inspections. And anyone who has been involved with them will know that they pretty much sow terror, despair and misery in their wake.

I head up our Nurture/Learning Support team and am also the behaviour specialist so it was decided by senior management that the few hard core behaviour problem children we have in school would be taken out of their various classes and corralled in the Nurture Room where instead of lessons they would do something interesting, arty and creative for the duration of the inspection (a day and a half) under my tender care. What I think about this is pretty much unprintable, but as these six boys are often violent and abusive, no one wanted to risk the outcome of the inspection on one of them kicking off.

So I decided that we would felt. First  I showed them some pieces of handmade felt and demonstrated how to pull tufts of fleece and lay them out in layers to form a big piece of flat felt (about 70cm by 70cm) for the base of the design. They used blue and white fleece to create a stream running diagonally from one corner to the other and I showed them how to ‘paint’ with tiny wisps of different coloured fleece to make pebbles in the stream.

 

Then they added different greens all around the stream for grass and bushes and started to create the felt. While they took turns in pairs to roll the huge sausage of felt, bubble wrap, net curtain and fleece, I started the rest off rolling fleece around small balls to make flowers. Once the fleece had felted tightly around the balls I cut slits into the top to make petal shapes and they carried on rolling, watching the slits become holes and the felt gradually shrink further and further down the balls until they became little tight cup shapes.

The next day they made a piece of green felt about 40cm by 30cm and designed some leaf templates. I cut leaves out of the felt while they added stitches and beads to make the centres of the flowers.

Most of them had never embroidered before so we had to give quite a lot of initial support, but several of the boys really took to it and once all the flowers were done they began to add central veins to the leaves with whipped and threaded running stitch.

Once each element was finished they told me where they wanted them putting and I needlefelted the flowers and leaves in place, which worked brilliantly and was much quicker than stitching!

The finished piece:

They are extremely proud of it and I’m just pleased we managed to keep a powder keg dry for the best part of two days.

Read Full Post »