I almost finished stitching the green area before moving on to the turquoisey strip. I used a variegated thread in wavy horizontal lines, then diagonal lines on the pinky and bluey grey areas in another variegated slightly thicker thread.
On the “cloudy sky” area, I used a much thinner blue (light and dark with much longer lengths before the colour changed).
I went to the end of the shiny fabric with my running stitches to give a bit more stability to the fabric.
Then I became more selective on using the light or dark areas of the thread as I neared the top.
It’s nearly there. A couple of areas need a bit more stitching: the wall at the bottom, the lighter green patterned fabric just up from the wall on the right hand side, maybe the french knot and random stitches in the fields above the sheep, and the very top. I should finish it before Jan’s workshop next week, but I also need to do my Monthly Stitchalong piece for then.
I’ve been working on the slow stitch landscape from Jan Dowson’s workshop at Seata last month. I’ve more or less finished the french knots, lazy daisy and stab stitches on the sheep and lambs.
The dry stone wall in the foreground is part of the hem cut off a favourite old pair of black jeans, some using the right side of the fabric, some the wrong side, some horizontally and some vertically cut into random sizes. I’ve stitched with a mix of perlé threads in different weights using blanket stitches including some distorted ones, more french knots, pistal stitch, straight stitches to give the impression of depth and texture, with moss and lichen growing on the stones. Not finished yet, but wanted a change of thread colour…..
……so started with green running stitches, some longer stitches to look like twiggy bits that will probably become flowering cow parsley.
Then some random stab stitches……
……changing thread colour every time I’d finished a length. As I thought, it is good to work in my hand now that I’ve finished the french knots for the moment.
At last week’s Jan Dowson landscape workshop, she gave me a small piece of sheep printed quilt fabric, and I’ve been dressing the sheep in French knots. It’s a very slow process.
I’m deliberately not doing perfectly regular knots, altering the size and amount of wraps, leaving some a bit loose and loopy, but catching down with another French knot any that look too loopy. I’ve used a single strand of stranded cotton for most of them, in 3 or 4 different shades of cream and beige.
For the lamb I’ve done lazy daisy stitches and stab stitches.
I’ve almost finished these two, but I’m going to put a few brown knots on the back leg.
On the sheep further away, I started with more spaced out French knots with less wraps, and some really loopy stitches at the front lower down. I’m working in my hand as Jan suggested, but it feels strange for the knots. It certainly feels slower than using a hoop with one hand on top and one underneath. Once I’ve finished the sheep, I think it will feel much more natural working in my hand.
There’s a long way to go, but it’s a good piece to pick up when I’ve got a few spare minutes.
Last Saturday we had a long awaited Hand Stitched Landscape workshop with Jan Dowson. On Saturday morning, I was still undecided about what to do, busily scrolling through my thousands of photos. For all the photos that I take, I don’t take many landscapes (or people). Most are details or macro / micro of flowers, fungi, stitching / textiles, work in progress. I narrowed it down and printed half a dozen and madly gathered scraps in the right colours.
We all gathered round at the front for a brief look at some of Jan’s work and techniques, and listened to instructions and the plan for the day. Jan handed out large sheets of heavy paper, goody bags with written instructions, a selection of scraps to add to our own and a pattern for a little bird.
We had to simplify our chosen landscape, a sunset over Scunthorpe steelworks.
Jan walked around, looking at our ideas and drawings, and making suggestions. When she saw my photo of sheep at Brampton Banks, near Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, she thought it lent itself to the technique better than the steelworks photo. It has more obvious horizontal lines, and would be easier to do for a first piece.
So I did a few quick sketches. The photo was taken further down the line, I’d got so involved with starting that I forgot to take photos until much later in the day.
Here are my scraps and Jan’s, mixed together as I started making choices.
This was much further on. I’d originally ignored the sheep, and started tacking down when Jan came round on another circuit, and said she had some printed sheep fabric I could use. I wasn’t convinced at first, thinking it would look rather twee, but cut out the smallest group of four, and then the two slightly larger ones for the foreground. I must say I was surprised: it brought the whole thing to life, and the scale worked. It now needs stitching. I’d just about got it all tacked down when it was time to stop for lunch.
The plan for the afternoon was to use scraps to form the little bird, and then stitch on feathers. I used a variegated perlé. He still needs legs and the eye stitching down, and I’m not sure if the eye placing is quite right, but the design of the silk scrap for the head has a centre where it fitted (see the photo above, with the paper bird pattern, in the yellow and blue piece). As always the day passed really quickly, and soon it was time to look at what everyone else had done and then pack up.
I also remembered to take my copy of Jan’s book and got her to sign it for me. Thank you Jan, and for a lovely day.
There’s a lot more slow stitching to go, but it’s something that can be picked up and worked on, now the main decisions have been made.
debbidipity 