Jess Grady workshop

Last Saturday at Seata we had an all-day workshop with Jess Grady. We had a late start as her train was cancelled, and Julie very kindly fetched her from Doncaster station.

Fortunately there was a good sales table next to where I had sat. Good news and bad, as even after I had a good rummage through at the beginning, I kept spotting other things of interest because more was added as other members put things on the table. Bargains too good to miss!

When Jess did arrive, she soon had her samples set out for us to look at and be inspired by. After a quick outline of the plan for the day (we’d had a talk by her pre-lock down, so had an idea of what to expect), we got started on flowers / abstract gardens. Jess came round to each table to guide us and make suggestions on how to push our own ideas further.

I’d chosen a neutral background of a soft, fairly heavy fabric, and used what I think was the wrong side because I liked the effect of the weave. I’ve no real idea what it is, possibly a cotton / linen mix. I’m sure it came from a sales table at some stage, but it’s good to stitch in to. Jess had brought a huge bag of recycled ready-cut circles in various fabrics, papers, metals and plastics (many packaging of some sort). I decided to work out of my comfort zone with the pinks, and then picked out a couple of threads that don’t stitch easily, the rainbow-coloured ribbony one and a slubby knitting yarn.

I made petals by folding and stitching down the pink and purple circles, folded smaller pink paper circles in half, made them into little cones and put them in the middle, and then a tassle-like centre in some mauve shiny rayony thread.

Then I twisted more fabric circles in various weights and textures, and stitched them down.

I went for another rummage and look at Jess’s samples, and she was working on gathering up a strip of fabric / ribbony stuff. She said it was a good way of using things that won’t stitch through the fabric. I tried unsuccessfully to reproduce her effect, but was very happy with the way the slubby yarn gives the impression of clover or lilac. I think it will be a very useful technique.

I twisted the rainbow-coloured ribbon into petal shapes, and put beads in the centres.

Jess was having another look at what we were doing, and suggested twisting some crepe paper. I didn’t like the pink she was carrying with her, but she said there were other colours at the front. I wanted mauve or purple really, but a yellow picked out the yellow in the ribbon. It worked well with several layers of petals and coiling up the last bits in the centre.

Jess also suggested using twisted wire to make some leaf shapes, but this is as far as I got by the end of the session. Another work in progress!

The top photo shows the variety of work achieved by the group by the end of the day.

Continuing with the scrappy nine patch

Even though I just wanted to continue with this piece after Alex’s workshop, I really needed to finish off other things first (some of which I have managed to do). I took it along to “the move it on session” last week at S.E.A.T.A. (Scunthorpe Embroidery and Textile Association), and have continued with it this week between other projects.

I started by anchoring down some of the bullion knots on the limpet shell, with some matching sylko. That stopped them wriggling around so much! But once they were not moving all over the place, I realised I need lots more, so back to the Bella Donna viscose thread.

You can see how it quickly unravels, but the sheen gives just the effect I want.

The limpet shells are perfect to obscure things partially, which pulls you in to have a closer look. The two limpet shells were just the right size for one of the recycled jewellery spirals that Margaret gave me last month.

And another shell, over the printed fabric, looks as if you are seeing what’s inside if it didn’t have the top missing.

The little bead fishes got caught in the net.

A scrap of Angelina from some long forgotten project gave a little sparkle on the fleecy piece of fabric, before the shell was attached with some long stitches in perlé thread.

I’ve started to couch down the ends of the Prima Donna viscose thread from the “Pomatoceros” (a tube feeding annelid worm).

Most of the pieces are anchored down now, but time to assess what else to add.

Some long legged chain stitches represent the ropes on the fishing net.

A variegated thread is used to anchor down the shell that already had three holes in, and the fabric cascading through it.

Then a twisted cord in Madiera Metallic added another layer of sparkle. The dyed / painted piece of fabric has been ruffled up, and stitched down to look like patterns in sand.

A few beads are added in the folds of the tea dyed calico.

A satin stitch shell was added in perlé, and a few strands wrapped in gold coloured silk to give the effect of patterning on the shell. Some of the very unravelled Bella Donna from the “Pomatoceros” was plunged to the back and then brought up from the inside of the shell, and a few strands of perlé were unravelled to give some movement.

This is where it has got to so far. The difficulty is knowing when to stop. It’s lovely to work on and by far the most free thing I’ve worked on for a while: it’s good to respond to what’s there without having a preconceived idea of where it’s going.