Painting with Stitches

Wow!  What a day!

This workshop was a while ago now but I would like to share it with you as the technique used for creating stitched pictures is a wonderful way for those of us who cannot draw to create our own unique pieces.

First let me introduce you to Sue Dove author of Painting with Stitches.  A very talented lady with a passion for painting and embroidery, Sue creates colourful, quirky textile pictures by creating a collage in paper and oil pastels first, before turning this into a hand stitched embroidery.

Sue came up from her studio in St Ives to do a one day 'Collage and Stitch' workshop. To provide the inspiration for the final piece we began the day by tearing up magazines (very therapeutic!) to create a collage. To keep things simple, the theme was flowers.

This is how mine looked in it's first stage of construction.

The next stage was using oil pastels to fill in the background.

Having completed our 'drawing' it was now time to create the fabric version.  We began rummaging through loads of scrap fabric that Sue had brought along, chosing pieces to replicate our 'drawing'. We started by laying out the background fabrics and then adding the detail.  Once this was done we could then begin tacking the pieces in place before beginning the embroidery.

Time was running out fast and unfortunately I only managed a little embroidery on the day. Below you can see the comparison between my original 'drawing' and the stitched piece.

Sue's work is mainly embroidered by hand and I know she always has a piece in her bag to work on when she has a spare minute.  I found it quite hard on the fingers, to sew through all the layers of fabric so I'm afraid I cheated and did most of mine by machine.

You can see though, I got there in the end!  To keep all the large background pieces in place I added stitching creating the illusion of a jigsaw puzzle and to finish it all off I added a crocheted border.

I had no idea how this was going to turn out when I started although I was rather pleased with the result. It's not my usual kind of work but the process used was interesting and I would definitely use this technique again as it is a wonderfully free way of creating a picture.

We will be spending the weekend with friends when this post goes out so I shall look forward to seeing what everyone has got up to this week on Handmade Monday when I get home.

I shall wear purple!

Hello everyone

I'll start with a huge thank you to everyone for the wonderful, helpful and supportive comments left on my previous post.  Unfortunately I didn't manage to comment individually this time but I did read them and found them all so friendly and considerate - thank you :)

Recently I have joined the South Devon Branch of the Embroiderers Guild.  It is a very friendly group of ladies, with a wealth of knowledge for many crafts not only embroidery.  I am really looking forward to attending some of the fantastic workshops they hold.

As I have done very little embroidery, I thought I ought to try out a few stitches and started to think about a project.  Have you ever heard the poem called 'Warning' by Jenny Joseph?  Maybe if you hear the first line it will jog your memory -

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple

With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.

Sound a little more familiar now?  If you would like to read the whole poem, just click on the link above.  

Well I love the idea of this, so have decided to use this poem as my theme.  I am making a doll and will dress her using the ideas in the poem and my own interpretation of how I think she may like to look!  I shall then use embroidery to decorate her clothing.

Here is what she looks like so far!

I chose to crochet her body as it is something I am familiar with.

I used chunky, soft, multi-coloured yarn for her hair, crocheting a cap the same as her head first then looping strands of yarn in layers.  I have not yet decided whether to trim the hair or leave it as it is!  As her character is a little off the wall, I think she may look fine like this :)  What do you think?

 I embroidered her eyes onto small white pieces of felt, using 3 or 4 different colours and black for the eye lashes and pupils.  I may add another black line below to define them a little more but I shall wait and see what she looks like when I have added the other facial features.  I then needle felted the whites of the eyes in place.

She looks a little naked don't you think?

I'm working on her underwear as we speak - watch this space!

Thank you for reading!  I hope you enjoy the poem; it makes me smile :)  Off over to Handmade Monday now and of course, must watch the Strictly results later!!! Enjoy :)

Patchwork Throw

Well hello again!

I am so, so, sorry, I have been absent for a couple of months now and I have really missed 'talking' to you all.  I will try to rectify this from now on!

We went on a 3 week touring holiday of Scotland in April and this was the beginning of why I have been away for so long.  I took a little bit of simple embroidery to keep me occupied and this is another part of why I've been missing.  Well it's finished now so I thought I would share it with you (actually it's been finished for a while but I just haven't got around to writing the post - but let's not dwell on that, I'm here now!!!)

We changed our sofa covers recently and whilst they were starting to look shabby there was still a lot of good fabric in them so I decided I would have a go at my very first bit of patchwork.  I wanted a throw to cover the new covers to keep them clean for at least a little while.  I think you all know how it is!! TV dinners, wine, crafts etc. they all take their toll :(

So I cut up 25, 12" x 12" squares to make a 5 x 5 square throw (it's just under 60" wide now it's finished) and embroidered a simple outline embroidery on each square.  Here is the finished article.

I chose to make a rag throw so allowed the seams to show on the right side.

Here are the top six squares.  Top left is a design taken from a pot a friend has, and the bottom left and right designs are taken from the wallpaper in the bedroom we stayed in at our friends' house at the start of our Scotland tour.  

Can anyone guess who the two famous people are in the top centre outline?

We visited the place one of them came from on our way south, just after leaving Scotland and my husband had his photo taken by his statue!  Any ideas?

Squares on top right of throw.

I like the poem 'Owl and the Pussycat' so hence the centre top design and of course I had to have a wine bottle in there somewhere!!!

The central square of the throw is a number 50 with 2013 embroidered below as both my husband and I have celebrated our 50th birthdays this year, and are having a great time doing so I may add!!  Bottom left is A Rennie Mackintosh design as I have a soft spot for his work and top right some fuchsias as they are one of my favourite flowers!

Centre bottom square is a thistle depicting Scotland as that's where I was at the time!

The bottom left square is taken from a photo of the viaduct used in the Harry Potter film that we visited when in Scotland.  My husband turned it into a line drawing for me (he's clever like that!)

Bottom left square is my own interpretation of a 'wee highland coo' copied from a little crosstitch coaster kit I bought on my hols.  I'm not very good at drawing and couldn't quite get the back legs right so I used a bit of 'artistic' licence and covered them up with grass instead!!  It doesn't do it justice on this photo but looks a lot better in real life :)

I really enjoyed stitching these outline embroideries.  I used Planet Penny Cotton as there are lots of fantastic colours to chose from.   Some of the designs were taken from this book and others were free off the internet.

Ooh, almost forgot!  This is the pretty fabric I used for the reverse!

and here it is in situ,'thrown' on the sofa!

Thank you for reading folks and I hope you like it.  Why not have a go yourselves?  It's a great way to recycle fabric, such fun to do and something that will be so very personal to you.

I shall endeavour to make sure my next post is not so long in coming next time!

See you soon
x

I have finally got around to linking up to Handmade Monday over at Handmade Harbour for the first time in months.  Hello everyone :)

Wet Felted Pot

Hello peeps!

Saw our daughter and boyfriend off on their 'Round the World' trip on Thursday.  They have started off in Singapore, where they said it was soooo hot they didn't want to leave their air conditioned bedroom.  I can't even begin to imagine how that feels!! Especially with the chilly weather we have had this weekend.  They are off to Australia tomorrow morning so maybe it will be a little cooler for them!

We have been busy tidying up the garden this weekend.

I pressure washed the patios and OH repaired the leaky shed.  The smiley face is the clean bit! You can see how grubby the patio was! Thankfully it all looks a lot better now.  After all that hard work, we treated ourselves to a glass of wine (or two) whilst watching 'Strictly'!

Did a bit more gardening this morning but now am snuggled indoors with both the heating and the fire on .......

....... enjoying writing my blog and then a bit more crafting and over to Handmade Monday to find out what all the other talented crafters have been up to.

Wet felted pot

I am really enjoying my felting course.  We have just completed week 5 and have just 3 more left.  Last week I made a pot.  You can see in the photos below the process I went through to achieve my pot.

Below is the finished pot.  It is felted in a grey Gotland fleece, ideal as it holds it's shape well.

I needle felted the wavy lines on afterwards and crocheted the pom pom trim and needle felted that on too.

Next week (after half term) we will be starting on our final project.  I have decided to make something useful - a crochet hook holder.  I shall line the inside in fabric so it's not too bulky and as I have just purchased my new embroidery book, thought I would decorate this with a bit of embroidery/cross stitch.  Here's a sneak preview ....

...... bet you can't guess what word I'm stitching. Lol!

Hopefully I'll have a bit more to show you next time.  Have a great week everyone.  Happy Crafting x

I'm back!

Hello, hello, hello!

Long time no see!  I have had a combination of a couple of really busy weeks leaving me no real time to write a post, followed by a rather quiet time with nothing much to write about!

Bit of disappointment on the Hobbycraft front.  The project I was going to do for them was for Children in Need but unfortunately timescales were against us so we have agreed to postpone this until next year.

I have had another couple of workshops over the last month ..........

... this one at Countess Wear Village Hall (above)

.... and this one at the Courtenay Centre!

I'm very pleased to say that a great time and lots of fun was had by all - oh! and the girls all learnt to crochet!

Felting

I have started a wet felting course and am about half way through now.  Wet felting is something I didn't think I would ever get into, but I am really enjoying this so far.

Here are my finished pieces over the last few weeks

I have been waiting for my last piece, the grey pot, to dry out thoroughly and now I think I may embellish it with a bit of needle felting and maybe a crochet edging.  Next week we are making a small 3d  purse and then we start working on our final piece.  Not sure what to choose yet but think I may make a bag.

Embroidery

I bought a new book recently, just because I fancied it!  Here it is A Rainbow of Stitches

It is full of embroidery templates which I am sure will come in very handy one day.  Here is the first one I tried - a very simple 'puddy tat'

Off to join in Handmade Monday this evening, the first time in a good few weeks, so why not make yourself a cup of tea and take a bit of 'me' time to follow me over there to see what all the wonderful crafters have been up to.

Thank you for reading and I'll try and finish my pot for next week, hopefully I'll be back on track from now on.