The Great Scunthorpe Embroidery Challenge 2

Last Saturday was the second Great Scunthorpe Embroidery Challenge, the winner to be decided by the members at the end of the day. This is now to be an annual event, and this time the theme was “Flower, bud, leaf or root”. No stitching was to be done before the start, but we could practise in advance and prepare backgrounds, etc.

The only thing that I had done was decide that I would do a flower, and that It would be suitable to attach to my colour-play canvaswork. I was still sort of meaning that I haven’t started anything new yet this year, working on finishing off a few things first!

That gave me a colour palette to work with. I stretched and painted a piece of white linen(?) with the same acrylic ink as I painted the canvas with a few weeks ago. I found some scraps of handmade felt from the felting workshop with Eve Marshall that would be just big enough to cut out some petals. I also found a partly-cut piece of chiffon scarf, but with quite a lot of the rolled edging on it, and the bag of threads that I’ve been using.

I planned on using the same back view of the aqualegia for my shape, and all set to go.

As often happens, I got carried away with my stitching and it was almost lunchtime before I remembered to take photos. I cut five separate petals from the scraps of felt and couched down the back of them with a bronzy / gold perlé. I was working in my hand, and manipulating it all as I went. The length of chiffon had the rolled edging on most of it, and I gathered it up as I stitched. When I offered it up on the pink background, it all looked a bit flat, so I took it off and stuffed a circle in the middle (underneath) with a little fleece to make it more 3D, and then re-attached the chiffon.

I strung several strands of beads from the Alysn Midgelow-Marsden kit to put underneath…..

…… and they are just visible through the chiffon. I just had time to attach it to the pink background (I’ve left all my threads ready to attach it to the canvaswork) before it was time for the judging.

We all have five beads and can choose how to award them, all for one piece, or spread out in ones or twos, and the winner is the one with the most beads. (They used to be put in saucers, but now we have little numbered cloth drawstring bags, so we can’t see who has got what.) As ever it was hard to decide how to distribute them. There was some fabulous work.

I’m not going to attach it yet, it would just be another area to catch my threads around. So, back to the canvaswork, also not sure yet how much of the pink backgound fabric to use. It will be easier to see how it will fit when I’ve covered more of the canvas.

Alysn Midgelow-Marsden workshop

Last Saturday at Lincolnshire Textiles, we had a workshop with Alysn Midgelow-Marsden, combining metal and beads with fabric and stitch. After a short explanation and demonstration, and a quick look at some of Alysn’s samples, we were all keen to get started.

Organic shapes were suggested, often a bit more forgiving if not perfect. I’d taken a lot of flower photos on my phone in the garden earlier in the year, and I thought that I could use one of those. I settled on these of Aquilegia, Columbine or Granny’s Bonnets, as they are commonly called. They are such complex shapes that I have never attempted to draw them previously …..

…… but luckily I’d also taken a back view, which was much simpler to draw.

We all had a pack with instructions, a piece of soft metal (mainly copper), some velvet, sari silk, scraps of scrim, etc., and a pack of mixed size beads. On each table there was a selection to choose from. The difficulty was choosing which colour pack to have, because several had various elements that jumped out at me. I settled on a burgundy velvet and a copper with several colours across it.

As often when I get excited and keen to make a start, I forgot to take photos. I’d already drawn with a stick, turned over, burnished, cut out and made some holes to stitch down through, before someone mentioned taking photos. This should have been the right side ……

…… but the back looked more like the shape of the back of the flower.

I tucked a scrap of fine silk under the metal, some scrim and a sari silk strip at the bottom, and started adding some beads, picking them up quite randomly to make little strings and loops.

A close-up photo of the textures and details.

I added more beads, and frayed out the edges on more sari silk scraps. The time went very quickly and it was soon time to pack up and go home, but I’d had a lovely day. Thank you, Alysn.

I want to find some of my own bits to add to where I’ve got to so far. I’m thinking that I’ll have some of the bits coming off the bottom, but not quite sure yet how it will end up.