Paintings in Felt.

I just had to pass this one on. I found this link on Heegeldab's blog. Jeanne Roberts who makes pictures out of felt, she share her technique, as well, though the skill involved must take years of practice. I love the flowers but the portraits are just amazing.

Straight stitch

Well, the simplest stitch so far has taken me the longest time to do. I wanted to try and do something with sheer fabrics and stitches under and on top but the everyday world took over this week and I have just rushed to complete it this morning.


I love this simple stitch and the things it can do to lead the eye round a piece etc.

This is cheating but here is an experimental piece I posted earlier this year

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It was EG yesterday and we had a talk called "Adentures in vanishing fabrics" by a gentleman called Arthur Ridley.
He showed slides of his work and exp0lained the processes and also had loads of pieces to look at. His hats and masks were great fun.

Palestrina stitch

Another new-to-me stitch this week. I like this stich, great opportunities for variation and texture, once I can stop myself lapsing into buttonhole stitch there is a nice rythmn to it.

I had a search to see what I could find on Palestrina, I knew vaguely that it was a town in Italy. My search turned up this picture of the little hill town near Rome with a quaint custom in June. The gentleman below it its most famous son who rejoices in the wonderful name of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina a composer of church music.


This idea didn't quite come off but I wanted to use the yarn my daughter brought me back from Italy(the thick one).

You can learn to love......Oyster stitch

Learning this stitch was about as difficult as trying to open the real thing!

I thought I would show this piece in all its horror. I could not get the hang of this stitch, I ranted and raved at it, pulled it out, pulled it into knot. I was just about to give in, when the penny dropped. You can see on the white lines how I struggled but fared better with the rougher, thicker yarns which gave a very satifying texture.


The inspiration came from this picture from Tony Boon's site which has some great photographs and some fun things too.



One of these days I will try and do it justice.


Congratulations to all those who have managed to produce beautiful samples.

Tuesday

I've just spent a wonderful day in workshop with textile artist Cas Holmes It was part of Kent County Council Arts Development Countywide Migration Project and I was there thanks to the Sevenoaks branch of the EG. We made a mixed media piece where we worked backward, doing the stitching first and then adding the other media. Fascinating and great fun, the theme was journeys either personal or actual. This was my piece after my stitching



In my dreams my Senior Bus pass can take me......

and this is it at the end.


Nowhere near as beautiful as Cas' work but you did get a great taste of all kinds of new possibilities. She was very generous in sharing her techniques. A good day.

Posting delayed because blogger was being awkward with photographs!!!

Now to get to grips with TAST stitch Oyster, another new, to me, one.

In my Easter Bonnet................

......well you knew I wouldn't be able to resist, didn't you. TAST week 14 and another stitch I had never heard of. After a couple of tries where I kept trying to do the bottom bit without putting the needle through the material, daylight dawned and it began to flow. I really like the stitch and will give it a try in some thicker yarn as I can see it has great potential for alteration. But I just had to get this out of my system first.

This is the sketch I did in The Scribbler

Happy Easter everyone.

A gentle art????

Purple Missus,who incidentally has a nice line in things you would like to touch(see below), left a comment on "Just a quickie" which made me laugh and set me thinking. I find when you mention Embroidery to non needle-threaders the usual reaction is a polite, sympathetic smile. Little do they know that so many of us have a desire to slash and burn, amongst our silks and fabrics are to be found soldering irons, hammers, and pliers. In fact you are liable to find your embroidering friend in the aisles of the DIY store eyeing the brass fittings and the washers as possible additions to the latest project. Cling film and vegetable bags fill us with delight and we comb £1 stores and charity shops for items that we can rip apart, stab with our needles, dye or otherwise recycle and transform.


This is a piece I did inspired by an article in Issue 2 of Cloth Paper and Scissors using the afore mentioned cling film (shrink wrap) and plastic vegetable bags.

Soooooo cute.......

My I point you in the direction of my friend Tony's blog I have been smiling over this picture ever since I saw it. Those little legs!!!! Fantastic. Todays picture is quite high on the cuteness scale as well.

Well here we are, one quarter of the way through TAST. What an amazing few weeks it's been. I would like to thank everyone who has left a comment, either here or on Flickr and of course to Sharon for keeping the whole thing going. There are so many wonderful pieces on the Flickr site it is always a joy to take a look, so many lovely uses of colour. We all have our favourite things that "speak" to us but one of the things that draws me to a piece is the feeling that I would love to reach out and touch it and there are many of those as well. New month and the stone for April is a girls best friend. Diamond. Could be an expensive month!!!!