Finished colour play canvas work

As always, I work better to a deadline! Lincolnshire Textiles have another exhibition at the Chapter House in Lincoln Cathedral next year. Two years to work towards it, with the theme of Botanicals, but with a competition at the October meeting to encourage at least one being finished, to give the procrastinators a nudge. Only one piece can be entered, and the visiting speaker Anne Brooks of HANNEMADE is judging the entries, and a members’ choice.

Just the incentive I needed, not that I am competitive, just the deadline. It’s turned out to be an amalgamation of several projects and workshops, which has meant I have finished several projects.

It started in July 2024 with the “Impressive Metal” workshop with Alysn Midgelow-Marsden , which I then used for the “Colour play” with Alex Hall at “in the stitch zone” in January through to March, “Colour play canvas work 3, 4, 5, and 6”, with updates each week until we started a new project. This is how Colour play canvaswork 6 looked then, the canvas work still on the frame.

It did have a few more stitches added before taking it off the frame, folding in the edges and checking for placement before……

…… mitring the corners, not the tidiest at the back!

A close-up of mitring one of the corners.

It was then slip stitched to the velvet……. and left until a couple of weeks ago.

It still needed a backing, with another piece of mount board covered in fabric and laced, so that it could cover the lacing on the back of the main piece.

I also found a white Tyvek flower that I did with Karen Lane at a Seata workshop some time ago. Fortunately I hadn’t painted it because I didn’t know what colours to use, which meant I could use colours to go with the canvas work. It’s a bit wishy-washy here. I also painted the stem, before using a heat gun to tighten it all up and make holes in it!

It looked about right after I’d added another layer of colour……

……. but it wasn’t quite right after the heat gun, so I added more colour.

The machine stitched pansy had a few hand stitches added near the middle on the bottom petal.

The placement of the big flowers changed, but the Tyvek one, especially the stem, wasn’t quite right and after suggestions and trial and error……

…..it ended up like this. Here it’s propped up for the judging. There was some fabulous work, so no surprise I didn’t win. But a win by getting it finished, not just one project but five! At last year’s competition I’d asked how to decide between so many beautiful pieces of work, and someone had said they chose which one they would like to take home and live with. Another win, I’m looking forward to getting it up on the wall and seeing it every day.

It just needs a ring to hang it from. The back of the canvas work might not be neat, (it’s well hidden) but the back as a whole is very tidy. Oh, the only other thing, I don’t think I signed it, nor have I come up with a title yet. I can also put all the threads away, and I’ll have another plastic wallet to use for another project.

Colour play canvas work 5

I started on the top left corner with a stitch new to me, Crescent stitch, and then played around with scale and shape; a few are more rectangular than square. It also means that more of the background canvas is visible, maybe too much. I’ll assess that further down the line.

The zigzag stiching continues with the variegated ribbon, which isn’t good to stitch with. It catches if you so much as look at it, but picks up the colours in the copper so beautifully. Then I used a gold-ish stranded, which is much better to stitch.

I carried on filling in with straight stitches down the right hand side.

A row of burgundy wool zigzags to leave a gap between the block of them, more straight stitches to anchor the felt, the pink strip, and then an eyelet into a corner of a zigzag.

It looked OK, so I continued with different size eyelets in the same gold-ish colour, and more straight stitches in the very strange peach-coloured cord. This one unravels at the end if you are not really careful pulling it through, but it has a lovely texture, and again is worth the effort.

More straight stitches fill in around the eyelets, but I realised that the burgundy wool had gone one hole too high at the top (difficult to see as it is so near the staples), as well as some of the straight stitches to the left. I unpicked them before stopping. It’s nearly there now, and it’s come on fairly quickly over the last month or so. (Colour play, if you missed the beginning.)

Colour play canvas work 4

This week’s progress has involved some unpicking, much as I am reluctant to unpick! I’d torn the edges of the pink backing fabric from my flower for the Great Scunthorpe Embroidery Challenge. I wanted the frayed edges to spill over the velvet and the outer edge, and I’d already done the stepped diagonal stitches, which I liked and didn’t want to cover up. It wasn’t very much to unpick, and was soon re-done.

One of the torn scraps was anchored down with straight stitches on the left hand side. Then a petal of the hand made felt was attached over the corner.

I then echoed the pink straight stitches attaching the velvet at the bottom, to attach the bottom edge of the pink fabric. I did more rows of irregular straight stiches in different colours and weights of thread, including a row of the knitted ribbon which matched the greeny gold sari silk strip perfectly. The flower is just laid on top to see how it will look…..

…… before doing more pink straight stiches and starting to fill in between the two rows of zigzag.

I put more knotted stitches near the eyelash yarn, in different textures and colours; they could hardly be called French or Bullion knots! There are more cushion stitches near the bottom right, coming up to meet the straight stitches.

The bottom is nearly finished, leaving across the top to do. It’s fun to work on, and the colours are feeling more comfortable than when I started. It just needs a final push before I get distracted with the next project at “In the stitch zone”.

Colour play canvas work 3

I’ve enjoyed getting back to the canvas work, and continued with eyelets and part eyelets using the colours of the straight stitches down to the bottom corner, then filling in with more random straight stitches. I think the bottom left corner is now finished.

I went back to the bright pink perlé for a few more eyelets going up the left side. I used the burgundy ribbon from Liz to do straight stitches; the end started to unravel, so I couched it down to give another texture on the velvet. I then did Parisian stitch, first in variegated ribbon (again, thank you, Liz), and three shades of Appleton’s wool ….

……. and back to variegated ribbon in lighter colours in shades that match with the metallic flowers, which flow into a yellowy gold ribbon in more randomly sized straight stitches.

I used tiny stitches to anchor down the sari silk in the middle of the bottom, and worked between the two lengths with the same coloured straight stitches.

On the bottom right I’ve started with a greeny ribbon that’s the same colour as the greeny sari silk on the velvet, with cushion stitch and some diagonal stitches on the bottom right.

I now need to look up some different stitches to introduce different patterns and textures. Looking at it close up, it looks busy and overly bright in places while I’m working close to it, but putting it further away and looking again it looks well balanced. We have a catch-up week at “in the stitch zone” so I may get it finished before starting the new project the following week. I’ve still not started anything new this year! Just working on WIP’s so far.