Exhibition Report: Medway Open Studios

Recently I attended a Fabric Manipulation workshop at INTRA in Rochester. Through this 6 week workshop I developed some interesting techniques, the build up to which I will share with you in another post. But this weekend the artists of Medway opened their doors to the public in the Medway Open Studios & Arts Festival. My Fabric Manipulation piece was on display so I went to see it, the finished pieces of the rest of the class and some great local artists.

A particular favourite I discovered today was Heather Haythornthwaite who creates beautiful prints. Her three prints of historically notorious Medway prostitutes took my breath away. She combines interesting elements to create her images inclusing text, old maps and images imposed with regular printed shapes. She is a part of the Ridley Road group and can be seen at stop number 6 on the Medway Open Studios Map.

Stopping in at INTRA I saw my oen piece beautifully displayed along with work by Faye Lamb, Bernice Friend and Rebecca Davison.

My piece is in the top right of this photo.

 

Finally I saw some lovely textile work in Sun Pier House, a large work in process wall hanging by Jenni Burrows really caught my eye.

 

If you are in the area you should check out all of these artists and art venues.

Find out more about Medway Open Studios here

The Medway Open Studios map can be found here

Look at workshops on offer at INTRA and Unravel & Unwind here (highly recommended!)

Find Jenni Burrows here

Find Heather Haythornthwaite here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Let's Get Back To Business!

Hello my dears!  Yes, yes, I know it has been a long time.

2013 into the beginning of 2014 was a super busy time for me with my work which put a bit of a dampener on my crafting time.  I had some great experiences but some great challenges as well.....

.... As you might notice above the blog has had a name change.... I can no longer call myself a crafter at sea because I am no longer at sea!  That's right, my land legs have called me home and I am now a land-locked sailor.  I am currently looking to get into the theatre scene here in England.  It's all a bit scary but what I needed to do in life.  It has given me time to craft and catch up the blog though!

I have a few projects on the go right now and I have a few things to catch you guys up on that I worked on but didn't get chance to blog about.  Keep your eyes open in the next few weeks for posts on the following projects:

I finished adding the second layer to my beer cap belt.

My friend had a baby and I made her an embroidered gift.

My friends got married and I made them an embroidered wedding album.

I played around with eco-dying some fabric from natural elements I found on a walk.

I made a necklace organiser for my travels.  It is now going to be very useful at home as well!

I have an embroidery based on a song by The Band Perry... this is still a work in progress....

And finally, I worked on Legally Blonde: The Musical.  It was a very interesting challenge but I made it work!

I am also working on some online courses which I would love to share with you so there is a lot to come!!

Twilight in Paris

In January there was a stitch-a-long on Instagram based on Jenny Hart's Sublime Stitching patterns. I hadn't realised how prolific the craft movement is on Instagram until then so thought it would be a good time to join in. Also, I've wanted to stitch the Sad Valentine pattern for a while now. It reminds me of the Twilight in Paris music video from the 80s cartoon Jem & The Holograms.... Yes, yes I'm a bit Jem obsessed lately.... sue me :-)

So I altered the pattern a bit, pulled out some funky pink and neon threads and stitched along:

I decided to frame it with a fabric wrapped hoop in neon pink, a very Jem colour! It now has pride of place on my wall above my framed Jem posted (see...obsessed!!)

If you want to see everyone else's Stitch-A-Long look up #sublimestitchingsal on Instagram for some stitchy goodness!

Women of Influence

Goodness! It has been a while since I posted but I have had so many projects, crafty and otherwise, on the go that I've got a bit behind. I've been working on family tree research, which has taken up quite a bit of my time and is very interesting. At some point I will have to share some of the best bits here. I have also been doing a little bit of stitching, the first piece of which I will share with you now.

My Women of Influence quilt square will be part of my Feminist Statement quilt.... when I finish it! It's one of those WIPs that goes on forever.... but I digress. Looking back at my childhood I have noticed many things that had shaped who I am today. Two of these things are She-Ra and Jem from Jem and the Holograms. Though both of these women are only cartoon characters I think they influenced my a lot - strong women who know what they want. She-Ra helps those in need and Jem has a fabulous wardrobe haha! So they both had to feature on my quilt. I wanted them to be on the same square as they are from the same era and the same media.

I've had the image of this square in my head and sketched out in my sketchbook for a while but finally got the chance to realise it now. I used a simple back stitch so the colours and the image itself were the main focus.

I used only three strands of thread at the most for the main outlines then striped down to one or two strands for the details and features. I'm always concerned about how facial features come out in my stitching but I think these came out ok.

This was a pretty simple embroidery piece but I think it will be one of my favourites in the quilt when it is completed!

More Jem embroidery to come!!!

SpiroHazard

The latest Phat Quarter Swap was themed around toys. I was very fortunate and got Olisa aka cocoaeyes as my swap partner. She made me a piece for the food swap so now it was my turn to return the favour!

I knew that Olisa loved hazard signs and wanted to include this in my piece. I then found out from her that she also loves Spirograph. I decided to create a take on the biohazard sign in a hoop for her, but instead of the biohazard symbol I would use a Spirograph pattern!

I found a pattern that I liked and centred it in a black triangle on a yellow background. I thought the Spirography design might take a while to stitch but the satin stitching of the triangle was actually a lot more time consuming - I always forget that about satin stitch before I start it!

I wrapped the hoop frame with some black fabric so the whole thing was a hazard sign and sent it off! I was really pleased with how this turned out and how much it was personalised for my recipient. I think Olisa really liked it too - right Olisa?!

Brand New Day

My piece finally arrived in New Zealand so I can share it with you!

I made this piece for my friend Jo because she donated the vintage linen doily I used for my dirty doily. We are both huge Joss Whedon fans so my piece is based on Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog.

My favourite line fro Dr. Horrible is in the song Brand New Day where he sings "and she may cry but her tears will dry when I give her the keys to a shiny new Australia"... and so here is Billy's gift to Penny - a shiny new Australia! With a heart shaped key and everything :-)

Work In Progress - Surprise!

I have actually had a little bit of time lately to get some stitching done and so have been working on a piece for a friend. Now, I can't show you the finished piece until it reaches her in New Zealand as it is a surprise, but I thought I'd give you a little sneak-peak :-)

Enjoy!

Phat Quarter Swap! Food

Ok, let's share some stitchery! I made this piece for the August Phat Quarter swap.... I know it's a bit late but I've been busy :-) Finally, I have a decent internet connection where I can upload the photos - yay!! The theme was food so stitched a design based around one of my fave David and Goliath t-shirts...

The cheese is not the mother of the sad little nachos.... in case you didn't get it!


yes, that is a french knot pepper border!


I felt brave and used an orange background.

Personally I think this is super cute!! And I know Disobedient Child, who was my swap partner loved it!! Yay stitching! My Sketchbook Project is taking a long time to finish, hence why there is a lack of stitchery on the blog right now. But soon, my pretties - I promise!

Profanity Sampler WARNING!!

At the end of my last ship contract I was feeling a little down. It had been a frustrating contract, with what seemed like setbacks at every turn. To cheer myself up I decided to create a little sampler to brighten my spirits every time I looked at it...

BE WARNED!! Strong language is used in this piece, don't go passed the shocked housewife if you will be offended :-)

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 :-)

Suck It!

My cast and I have become obsessed with the show My Life On The D List with Kathy Griffin. It was my friend Kyle's birthday and he is particularly in love with Kathy. I knocked him up this little offering which he absolutely adores!! I used satin stitch and backstitch and a little bit of thread blending for the silhouette of Kathy.

For the next two weeks I have cast change over on my ship so I will be MIA while I alter millions of costumes... wish me luck!

Is It A Bird?... Is It A Plane?...

So after my Spiderman embroidery, my friend who is obsessed with Superman asked me to do one for him. I chose to do the Superman logo in satin stitch and fill in the background with seed stitch. It didn't take as long as you would think! My friend loves it, but now I think I want to do a Superman outline like Spiderman... what do you think?!

My Spider Sense Is Tingling

When I went to Universal Islands of Adventure in Florida we saw a sweatshirt with Spiderman embroidered on it. My friend who is a huge Spiderman fan loved it, but the sweatshirt was super expensive so I said I would embroider it for him. The design was a really cool outline in red, blue and white in satin stitch - probably done by machine. I did it by hand of course! It didn't actually take as long as I thought as it is a simple outline. Now I kinda want to do a Superman version... maybe this will turn into a comic series?!

Hope For Japan - Finished!

My charity piece for Japan is finally finished! I decided to add a hand printed background and Japanese characters around the outside of the flag to finish it off...

When I get home in about a months time I am going to put this up for sale in my Etsy shop and the proceeds will go the the Red Cross to help Japan. If you're interested you can email me here

You can still donate to the Red Cross here as well

Hope for Japan

On the Hand Embroidery Network, we have been trying to get people to stitch the Japanese flag to show our support to Japan in their time of need.

I have finished stitching my flag but I think I want to create a whole art piece out of it. Its a work in progress :-) I filled the circle with little crosses and then outlined the piece with split stitch.

If you want to read the thread in the HEN forum about this check it out here

If you would like to donate money to the Red Cross to help Japan go here

Be My Valentine...

Ok, I know it's march and really this should be a St. Patrick's Day something, but I'm English so he's not my patron saint anyway and my Valentine piece wasn't finished for Valentines day because I was so busy... So here it is!

This piece was inspired by a mural I saw in Nassau, Bahamas. I had a bad love experience there (that's a whole other blog post I can tell you... maybe even a series!) and the red colouring of the mural made me think of the intensity of my feelings. It also made me think of the technical drawings of Da Vinci. This got me thinking about anatomical diagrams and hearts.... and so my Valentine was born!

The text is sewn in back stitch with blended thread (you can't see it very well in the photo unfortunately). I used three different colours of pink and red, mixing one strand of each together before sewing. I got this technique from Jenny Hart at Sublime Stitching, so go check out her tutorials in her website.

I used satin stitch and a very tiny brick stitch for the heart itself. The brick stitch took quite a long time but was very therapeutic!

The background of this piece is ochre silk dupion with an overlaid white crayon tint. I ironed this off several times a reapplied it get a ghosted effect. I added torn pieces of red satin along the bottom edge to show the damage done to my heart.

This piece is very emotive for me and it was like therapy stitching it. I think it's good to get our emotions out through art sometimes, just for catharsis!