Finished upcycled mandala

I continued my hair slide at “In the stitch zone”, having decided in the end to use the little coiled rings and stitch a red bead in the middle of each one. I’ve spaced them singly, twos close together and a three, placing them all fairly centrally, thinking that they are less likely to get tangled in my hair than near the edges.

I cut out two pieces of pelmet vilene and a piece of red felt, intending to put the layer of felt behind the stitching. I roughly pinned them together to check how it would work.

I did a row of running stitches around the edge and centre hole, with a good secure knot at the beginning to be able to gather it up over the vilene. I did the back first to check it would work.

Then I did the front, and it was almost done before I realised I’d put the felt over the vilene. I didn’t want to unpick it, so the felt is between the two layers of vilene which seems to work fine.

I put a tiny bit of PVA on the back, over where I had snipped to get a neat finish, but unfortunately it seeped through a little. Not a problem, it would be against my head, and would probably dry invisibly (well, almost). I slip stitched / ladder stitched the front to the back, in the middle and round the outer edge.

The slide is finished, and it’s used up a few bits of my stash that I wasn’t sure what to do with.

I’m pleased with the colours and textures, and wore it to the session this week. A few of the group noticed, and Alex took some photos for me.

It works with the orange things that I wear as well as the red!

Spring Gathering

Last Saturday was the first Spring Gathering of YHEG (Yorkshire and Humberside Embroidery Group) at the Regan Centre at Riccall. The venue is used for the Summer Gathering, what used to be Regional Day of the Embroiderers’ Guild, there were workshops morning and afternoon, and the usual lovely lunch.

I chose to do Liz Almond’s blackwork sessions, one in the morning and continuing for the afternoon session. Most of the other workshops were just for two hours, so you could choose two different ones.

I’ve not done much blackwork and not particularly successfully – the usual counting problems! But I really want to finish my blackwork castle from “In the stitch zone” last summer. I’ve only done the outline so far, and thought this would be the push to pick it up again.

Liz had got a pack for each of us, with fabric, needles and enough patterns to keep us going for six months (she said!). More like six years, I thought! We could stitch on Aida in the kit, or swap it for a piece of 28 count Jobelin if we wanted to. I thought it was an ideal opportuntity to try it. But there was no white or cream, just a pinky peach, which I wasn’t sure about at first. But after a rummage through Liz’s bag of floss I came up with a pinky chestnut that I found was kinder on my eyes. (The last photo is the nearest in colour.) Blackwork doesn’t have to be done in black.

The pattern that I chose to follow was intended as a bookmark, with the motif repeated several times. This is just a tiny part of it.

I started off ok, with backstitches following the pattern……

…..until I got to the top of the second set of steps and turned left. I soon realised I’d miscounted and done one step too many, which meant the pattern was too far out from the centre motif. Fortunately it was soon unpicked and corrected. This is where I’d got to at the end of the sessions.

There were also sales tables from many of the individual stitch groups, always good for a bargain. Not that I needed anything, but who can resist?

I have got back to it during the week ……

…… and finished off the first block, apart from x-stitches or beads in the middle of the two central motifs and the centre square. I’m not going to do the bookmark as the pattern, but work outwards from here.

Liz had a huge amount of samples and finished pieces of work, and told us about her website with lots of information, freebies and patterns. I spent several hours browsing on Monday evening and I’m planning on going back soon http://www.blackworkjourney.co.uk

Upcycled Mandala Brooch Workshop

This week at “In the stitch zone” we started a new project, an Upcycled Mandala Brooch. As usual I was grabbing bits of fabric, threads and notions of various types in the last minutes before leaving home, and I ended up with three inspiration type packs, still leaving me with far too much choice and stuff, but not sure what I was really wanting to do.

Alex showed us a few examples and made suggestions of shape and size, and mentioned that they could be attached to a couple of different types of brooch backs, a hair slide or bobble.

I settled on a rusty red piece of dyed(?) calico out of the red pack, and then decided I didn’t really want another brooch, but a hair slide similar to my felted one would be useful. I then went off piste even more with an irregular shape. The tacking lines are the outline of the finished slide (it has a straight piece that goes under my hair in the middle section). The fluffy yarn was only suitable to couch with, but gives a nice texture. The variegated ribbony yarn was best couched with the closely woven calico too.

By the end of the session I had almost couched it all down. The under-and-overs remind me of Celtic knotwork, easier to manipulate than draw!

I had got some beads and other bits with me in the red pack, but think the little gold ones mght get caught up in my unruly curls. Alex had asked what we thought about having another week on this project, as a few folk hadn’t been able to come, and the project for the following two weeks will only take a week to do. We all agreed this was a good idea, and it also means I can find other bits to add when I have a better look in my stash now I know what I’m aiming for.

Ping Wynny and fabric painting

The talk last month at Seata was by Gillian of PingWynny (Handmade Textiles). It was also a “Show and Tell” of a huge range of her beautiful work, quilts, cushions, pictures / panels, 3D vases, mainly in bright, vibrant colours and fabrics, a mix of machine and hand stitching. Gillian also told us about her workshops and classes, one of which is a 15-minute drive away once a month…. and the one on Wednesday evening this week was on fabric painting, something which I love and haven’t done for ages. Too good to miss.

The only thing I needed to take was fabric, either silk or cotton, and frames / hoops. Last minute as always, I was scrabbling about for suitable cotton and my frames. I’d bought a box of slot-together ones from a sales table for 50p, already coloured with paint, so not going to mess up good ones. Perfect.

Gillian was providing the paints, brushes and salt, mainly Setasilk and a few Maribou (which I have previously used on silk). I wasn’t aware that they could be used on cotton. They are all iron fix.

After a quick demonstration and showing us some of her examples, we were ready to start.

Rather than cutting my fabric, I attached my strip to two frames and made a start, with the green and yellow one first, basically in blobs, and adding salt at the end, then the middle one working the colours out from the centre before adding salt. These two were done on damp fabric (just a fine spray of water). Gillian lent me a hoop for the bottom one, which was done with spirals of colour on dry fabric and then wetting the darker areas to encourage the paint to spread. I was so engrossed in what I was doing that I forgot to take photos, so these were taken when the salt was removed once it was all dry.

The wrong (?) side of the fabric gives a more subtle colour.

I’m especially pleased with the spirals.

I’d also taken a very large frame with a fine piece of calico stretched over it, which Gillian asked if I was going to use. Yes, using some of the techniques again with a different palette. I blobbed colour and then sprayed with water, which made the paint spread into interesting tendril effects.

More paint, more water ……

…… more colour……

…… another colour, I needed to be careful that the purple wasn’t too close to the yellow, because I didn’t want mud!

Well, a little mud. It was very wet at this stage, so a little salt, and then a hair drier to move some of the water. I was really pleased with the results, but had to put it in the car to bring it home.

And by the morning, it had become this. I still like it, just not quite so much.

It’s a shame that very few of the tendrils remain. That’s the nature of the beast, you never know exactly how it will turn out, but it is also what makes it fun and exciting. It all needs ironing now.

Dragonfly 3

It was way back in February 2023 when I started this dragonfly piece, and it progressed in March 2023 (Dragonfly 2) until other things took over.

It continued briefly in May 2023, when some more of the horizontal gold threads were couched down across the vertical threads intersections.

At some stage between then and February this year, I must have finished the couching, but there’s no photographic record to show when!

I started buttonhole stitching around the cake-wire, capturing the excess threads in to the stitching, partly to thicken the line slightly, but mainly to make sure that it was all secure before cutting off the ends of the thread. It’s a fairly slow process, as the stitches are tiny and close together; also the thread, of which I’m using two strands, is inclined to shred after a while.

A close-up image, showing a few holes in the organza on the outer edge, so tiny that you can’t see them in reality. But this isn’t a problem, as once the buttonholing is finished it will be cut out up to the wire.

I’ve started on the second wing, but there’s still a long way to get round them both.

I’m pleased with how it’s looking so far, and the colour looks much more vibrant in reality.