Finished stitching in thin air

The above photo shows the finished needle lace. It looks rather messy, with all the loose ends, knots of the cords and fraying edges, and it needs cutting down to the pattern shape. But before I dared to cut it, I re-machined with a small machine stitch over the existing pale blue machine stitch outline, that I’d used to hold the cords in place, with a thread that matched the background fabric. The fabric frays fairly badly.

I checked the original piece with perlé threads. This really was the stitching in thin (mid) air, between the sides of my improvised plastic-coated wire frame work the size of the finished piece.

I offered them up to check the two matched size-wise. The photo just shows them together.

I used my rotary cutter, quilting ruler and a cutting board to cut as close to the machine stitching as possible. I then went all round the edge with watered-down PVA, left it to dry, and just to make sure I’d not missed anywhere put on a second coat. I also did two coats on the back piece, making sure it was all covered but not too gluey, which might have left dried bits of glue visible. It all seems fairly secure and shouldn’t fray either.

I used blue pony beads to raise the stitched-in thin air piece on the back of the shard.

I made a twisted cord (much too long, so lots of spare) to stitch around the two long sides. The stitching was a bit tricky with the glued edge. I resorted to a thimble in the end, as I was making holes in the end of my middle finger trying to push it through. This meant I didn’t get it finished last week in time to hand in. The assembly team want the bottom to be left as it is, so they can make any adjustments as they put the whole lot together on the framework.

A close-up of the finished point, it worked better than I expected.

On the back I’ve left the extra threads at the bottom. I think it must have stretched a little with the glue, but it can be cut off or not as they see fit. It’s already to hand in next month.

End of Autumn

I’ve been working on the Travelling Pages to do a Travelling Book for SEATA (Scunthorpe Embroidery and Textile Association). It was decided to change the way of working the Travelling Books. Previously we all had our own book that travelled each month, either a small group or latterly bigger groups. Some of the time it worked beautifully, passing on the book you had for a month and taking home a new one to work on for the next month. Other times it was discovered that somebody in the group had taken the wrong book, or occasionally one had not been returned (somebody on holiday, ill, or forgotten it), which proved somewhat problematic at times as geographically we are quite spread out.

So a new format was decided on, which hopefully will work more easily. We each have our own book which we keep rather than passing it on. And each month the folk that want to take part, or are able to, do a piece of embroidery (or whatever) that fits an A5 book, and another page showing inspiration, method of working, stitches, etc., the page signed and dated. Both pieces are put in a blank envelope, and early afternoon everybody who has put one in can take one out: a lucky dip. We then put the pages into our own books.

There is also a box to put in theme ideas, and one will be pulled out at around the same time. This will have advantages and disadvantages: when you knew who was in “your” group you could get ideas for the theme long before you got the book (just hoping somebody else hadn’t had similar thoughts); or if you knew you were going to be on holiday for the meeting, you could get in front of yourself and have it all ready to put in at the previous meeting. I rarely managed this, usually finishing it off on the morning of the meeting, even if it was only sticking it in the book having been waiting for something to dry overnight. I’m planning on being more organised now!

The theme this month was Autumn, certainly something that inspires me. I love the colours and crunching through the leaves in the woods. It seems to have lasted a long time this year. The leaves started changing colour in September, and it has only been this last week or so that the temperature has dropped rapidly and now most of the leaves have dropped.

I watched a TextileArtist.org Stitch Club workshop on felting on transparent fabrics with Jeanette Appleton a couple of weeks ago, and thought that I could adapt the idea a little, stitch leaves on to the transparent fabric and then felt it.

Organza with leaves stitched in different weight threads

The piece has much more texture than just using merino tops, and has an almost smocking-like appearance. It’s certainly something to experiment with further. 

I’ve missed the challenge of Travelling Books since lockdown and I’m pleased that they have started up again, albeit in a slightly different format. It was an opportunity to try something new, work with a theme that you wouldn’t normally consider, or use colours or stitches out of your comfort zone, and two A5 pages wasn’t too onerous. 

Left hand page – inspiration, method etc.

Front

Back

And what a treat to get a piece of somebody else’s work in your book! I’ll have to get out the two that I’ve got and have a look at them again.

It seems fitting that the weather has changed for the colder, and sleety rain on our way home tonight, as it’ll be December next week, and I can start Christmas things properly, instead of the odd sneaky play.