After seeing the exhibition of colonial samplers in Boston back in December I was inspired to use one of the quotes I found there in my own work.
I created this piece for Bridget Frankowiak, also known as BeeFranck, over at Mr X Stitch because she is just so awesome! And I know she loves traditional samplers.
The background fabric is the product of one of my painted fabric experiments. I liked that is looks a bit mouldy and gives a sense of age to the piece.
Last weekend I went down to Brighton to attend a work shop with the embroidery artist Rosie James. If you are not familiar with her work, Rosie uses stitch to draw her pieces, often on sheer layers. I love her work and was very excited!
Over Saturday and Sunday, Rosie showed us her process and let us experiment with various different ways of making marks on fabric using a sewing machine. There were several techniques I would not have thought of, like putting wool in the bobbin and sewing from the back and loosening the tension to create different effects.
By the end of the weekend I had two pieces almost finished, several samples and a bunch of pieces in mind for the future! I even had a go at quilting which I really want to pursue.
It was a really fun weekend. I met a lot of interesting people and now I get to call Rosie my friend because she gave me a lift home! I've finished the two pieces and mounted them. I've got a sneak preview of them here. I like both pieces a lot so I'm going to blog about them seperatly.
A big thank you to Rosie for an excellent weekend! If you want to see more of her work, check out her blog StitchDraw here.
I just finished another quilt square for my Feminist Statement quilt.
I wanted to include famous women on the quilt who have influenced me, the first being Elizabeth I. She was one of Britain's most successful monarchs and she always followed her own mind.
For this square I used printable fabric to include the very famous portrait of Elizabeth I by Marcus Gheeraerts. I then added a blackwork border in keeping with the period. I used a traditional blackwork pattern but had to work out how to turn the corner, which was interesting as I haven't done counted embroidery in quite some time!
I attached the border around the portrait with gold machine embroidery and then added hand embroidered tudor roses on the corners. I embroidered the roses on stitch and tear so they are slightly raised yet still part of the piece.
I'm quite proud of this square as it uses some techniques that I haven't used in quite a while and stretched my skills. I really enjoyed doing the blackwork and might have to do some more in the future.
This past Friday was the international Etsy Craft Party day. I went to one in Whitstable organised by the lovely Samantha Osboure of Fishing for Pearls (check out her store here).
We met in the Made in Whitstable Big Black Hut where 12 local artists are selling their wares for the next 6 weeks. If you are in the area please drop in, there is some lovely stuff there.
We had a great time chatting and crafting, here are a few photos:
The Made In Whitstable Hut
The embroidery I was working on
Our supplies...
Samantha and I working away
I hope everyone else had as much fun at their Etsy Craft Party as we did!
April had a fifth Friday, so you know what that means... a Phat Quarter swap! This time the theme was books. I had several ideas, some of which I might still do, but I decided to let my partner choose what I created. Mafiosagrrl chose Fairy Tales and so Into The Woods was born!
I decided to look at Little Red Riding hood. I had some fabric that reminded me of bark so after investigating illustrations from the book I decided to do a scene in the woods. I wanted the piece to be from the wolf's perspective but also wanted him to be in the frame.
I appliqued the fabric onto a white background, making Red and the wolf surrounded by ominous dark shapes. I used simple shapes for the trees and Red to give the piece a contemporary feel.
Red was filled in with satin stitch to make her a solid entity. I added in the wolf's snout with back stitch and coloured pencil at the bottom of the frame.
You can see more pieces from this swap on Flickr in the Phat Quarter here
The Profanity Sampler
I wanted to combine a traditional looking border and style with a profane statement. This piece is meant to look harmless from a distance, until you read it! It made me smile every time I looked at it and it made my cast laugh, which is what I was going for!
I incorporated woven roses and a chain stitch and back stitch border to pretty up my profanity. I really like it, I hope you do too :-)
