Colour play canvaswork

I’ve started attaching the velvet and felt to the canvas background, stitching through the velvet with Sylko in the same colour with tiny invisible stitches. I didn’t want the felt to be even all the way round, so manipulated the velvet, pinching it up to make little folds and pleats, which make valleys and mountains to stitch into later.

I lined the felt up with the velvet at the bottom, as I didn’t like the way it looked separated through the scrim. The fold in the felt …….

……. gave me the idea to make a feature of it, so overcast a ridge up the side and across the top, which extended with diagonal stitches in the same perlé on to the canvas.

I had some eyelash yarn in the same tones as the metal, and did big straight stitches from under the scrim with the “eyelashes” hanging down. With a little care, they hang down well on the front and the back won’t be seen!

I then did some eyelets, and part eyelets in two shades of pink perlé between the diagonal zigzags. Using the fine pink perlé, I did long straight stitches in various lengths to anchor the velvet across the bottom.

I continued the straight stitches in varying lengths, it almost looks like freeform Bargello.

I wanted to add some blue to draw attention to the tiny glass beads, trying a selection, but none of them was quite right. They are much more turquoise.

I’ve done little French knots in a really fine turquoise rayon which wanted to knot, but not where I wanted! I used a perlé in shorter stitches, more of the mauvish one, then some turquoise and mauve in more broken lines. The bottom row is more green and ends in a straight line at the bottom. And finally so far, some more cushion stitches in the variegated ribbon to echo the other bottom corner. It’s all a bit random at the moment, but hopefully will blend from one area into another as it progresses. I’m loving the colours and textures, and seeing it evolve.

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.