I’ve continued working the diaper pattern from last week, and realised I can do variations of this one pattern on several of the castle towers, getting quite different effects.
It will look quite different if I have the diagonal stitches touching, rather than off-setting them, also whether I put in a horizontal stitch at the top and bottom of each rectangle.
I was keen to try out variations, but realised that the castle really needed to have some fabric strips putting round the edge of the blue background fabric, to stop it fraying any more…..
…….. also to be able to stretch it on a frame and put it on a stand, making it much easier to work on, with one hand on top and the other underneath.
I’d counted my backstitches and worked out how many repeats from one side to the other. I was being too impatient to get stitching, so started at the top rather than working out from the middle and outwards from there. I was also playing thread chicken with an old wooden reel of Coats Satinised Machine Twist.
I was really pleased with how it was looking, and continued stitching…..
……. only to find that the last pattern was two threads short of the backstitch edge. I’d had about 6 inches of thread to spare. I was happy with the colour, so didn’t want to unpick and start again and, on looking at it, realised the darker effect on the right hand side and lighter on the left makes the tower appear rounder. Phew!
I then did two rows of the same pattern, but with the diagonal stitches touching on a narrower tower.
I’ve reassessed the threads I’m going to use in better daylight, eliminating some for being too light, too grey, too mauve, or too turquoise. This is the selection to choose from at the moment.
I’ve started with a thicker perlé in the foreground.
It’s also slightly brighter.
I’ve also made the decision to use the same thread and diaper on the symmetrical blocks, so the foreground section will be mirror-imaged. (And writing that has made me aware that I haven’t mirror-imaged what I have done on the left hand tower.) Some unstitching to do next, then.
This is what we have been working on at “In the stitch zone” with Alex Hall at Scunthorpe Library. I have done very little blackwork previously, a couple of little pin cushions, but that’s about all.
I’m not good at counted work, too easily distracted and lose my place in the pattern. I also find working black on white hard on my eyes and, with the high contrast, prone to trigger migraines.
All the same, having seen the start of Alex’s piece I was keen to have a go. We were to use coloured thread rather than black, and a suggestion of working on 14 count Aida. I decided to base my palace on Neuschwanstein, a wonderful castle that we visited with our German friends when camping in the Black Forest many years ago, unfortunately before digital cameras.
When we went to Neuschwanstein, it was a glorious morning, so I decided to use a pale blue linen rather finer than Aida (first mistake) for the background.
Last minute before the first class, I machine stitched round the edge of 8 by 9 inch fabric to stop it fraying as I worked. I used a zigzag stitch, first two sides ok, then something jammed up. Bobbin? Fraying edge? Soon a case of more haste, less speed, but eventually I got it sorted out with tweezers and scissors and quite a bit of tugging.
Once I got to class, I tacked in a centre line both horizontally and vertically, which showed part of the machining problem: the fabric was nowhere near square. Fortunately it is big enough, and can be stretched and mounted square when I eventually reach that stage.
I have a bundle of Paintbox threads that I bought years ago, which I have sat and stroked a few times, but didn’t want to break in to.
I finally have done, using the middle darkest blue for the outline. I’m using running stitch and will go back round to fill in the gaps. The scrappy sketch at the top is what I’m working with, and making the size of the shapes by eye.
By the end of the first session, I’d got a door!
I had hoped to draw up a scale(ish) pattern by the following session, but didn’t get to it. So I continued with the scrappy sketch, using the door for proportion.
Alex had given us a couple of sheets with turrets, arches, windows, etc., which helped for my triangle at the top of the tower.
I then started putting in a turret. The slight curve didn’t work, so a bit of unpicking, much easier with running stitches than back stitch. After a couple of attempts trying to work it out, Alex advised doing a straight line as everything else is straight lines.
It immediately looked better, but by the end of the second session I’d only got to here.
I’ve had a couple of short sessions since. It’s hard on the eyes even with my strong glasses on, much easier to count running stitches than back stitches …..
……for mirror-imaging the bits that need it. I’m working in a hoop at the moment to make this bit easier, by seeing it all at the same time, but being very good about taking it out each time I finish stitching. And I’ll either attach it to a square frame or work it in my hand, once I’ve done the outine. It’s a slow process and will be a WIP (work in process) for a while.
It was a busy time at the Grasby Embroiderers Exhibition last weekend. The first visitors arrived before we were officially open, but it worked well as we were all ready anyway and good to have keen viewers.
There were several bodies of work on display, some of which had not been seen before, including the bras, a fund raiser for Breast Cancer. We had all started with a white bra, the same size (36FF), so plenty of space to stitch. The brief was a famous woman, real or fictitious. We all had completely different ideas which ended in very different looking bras; from the top left: Grace Darling, Claire / Grayson Perry, Snow Queen (mine), Shirley Bassey (Gold Finger), bottom left: Flower Power, and Gertrude Jekyll.
I used white and siver threads to stitch simple snowflakes in various sizes, Angelina fibres to sparkle and catch the light, fluffy yarn to look like snow-drifts, and strings of beads to represent icicles. The bras were stuffed and stitched on to a painted canvas
We each started one body of work (“New Beginnings”) with a pack of black and white threads, fabrics, papers, etc., a different stitch to play and experiment with, a page of quotes for self reflection and the starting point of one of two sayings: “Time and tide wait for no man” or “Castles in the air”. Also we had a white Ikea frame for a piece “Where we started”.
Two thoughts immediately jumped into my head: the song “Both sides now” by Joni Mitchell and the German fairytale castle Neuschwanstein, which we had visited years ago with our German friends.
My stitch was Half Rhodes stitch, a canvas work stitch. This was where my preliminary ideas started, but in my pack had been a piece of wallpaper with half a butterfly on, which I played around with in PhotoShop, mirror-imaging it, horizontally and vertically. This led to the swan pieces below of white on black and black on white in tiny reverse chain stitches. In the other white frame are Lorna’s sand ripples in sorbello stitch (white on white), and in the foreground her “Time and tide” piece.
The red and white box, with silhouette of a castle round the four sides, has a tiny bead and wire red swan on a little mirror hidden in the bottom of the box. The starting points evolve and develop as the work progresses. Most of the rest of the group ended up using colour in their pieces, but it was good to go back to basics and look at line / shape / form and texture, and work in sketchbooks
The flowers and angels were new bodies of work for our exhibition at The Old Rectory in Epworth, but looked different in a different setting and differently staged. My tulip on the left had lost its shape and form a little at Epworth, the humidity had made it wilt. It may need a couple of tiny stitches to anchor it, but so far it seems OK where I have hung it at home. The black cloth makes the other flowers sing, but drains the pale green of my canvas and makes it appear white, at least in the photograph.
I love the bright colours and abstraction of Mary’s angel, a complete contrast to my cream angel with very fine gold thread and simplistic stitching. Her wonderful flower, behind on the right, is so free, and the use of colour is stunning; if I were to try something like that it would look overdone and a mess, because not knowing when to stop would be my downfall.
The lockdown challenges are a riot of colour when all displayed together, just what we needed to keep our spirits up, a surprise through the post each month, giving an ideal opportuntity to experiment and play with some new and different techniques.
The red dado rail behind my “I am little” work was a happy accident, but unfortunately I took the photo before the radiator had been covered with another black cloth. This was part of the “Revisted” project, and most of the others developed earlier work from old sketchbooks and bodies of work from before I joined the group. I took the title of “Portrait” that had been used some time ago. It started at just the right time when we were emptying my dad’s house, and came across my infant school books and old black and white photos of when I was four and five. The title comes from a page in my first school book, with the tiny drawing reproduced on the left and on my name plate.
There was a sales table (fabric, inspiration packs, our postcards) and a tombola, both of which all but sold out. The money from these was split equally between Grasby Church and Breast Cancer.
Tea and coffee, and homemade cakes and biscuits (donations to Grasby Church) with well spaced tables, the weather was bright and sunny, so it was easy to have the doors open for good ventilation. It all felt safe and welcoming, with a steady stream of visitors, but never so many together that it felt crowded.
It seemed that most of the visitors on Saturday and Sunday morning were fellow stitchers, and mainly locals on both afternoons. No rhyme or reason for this, but it was a very friendly atmosphere and lots of the visitors knew one or more of us. It was good to see people that we’d not had any contact with since March 2020 at least, so lots of chatting and catching up, and compliments about the work.
debbidipity 