God Save The Queen

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.

Etsy Craft Party!!!

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!

Phat Quarter Swap: Books

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

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 :-)

Exhibition Report: Savage Beauty

I am finally home! I finished my 10 month contract on my current cruise ship, changed over the cast and got home safely. I was charged an obscene amount to get my bags home though, but that's another story :-)

Before I left New York I got the chance to see the Alexander McQueen exhibition, Savage Beauty, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In short it was spectacular.

Alexander McQueen is one of my heroes. His work combines soft and hard, tailored and draped, ordinary and fantastical, printed and plain. The exhibition was beautifully put together, staged in well designed spaces that reflected the feel of the pieces within.

Each section of the exhibition had an excellent and well informed introduction and included quotes from Lee throughout. These ranged from informative to profound to just plain funny! Here are a few of my favourites:

I spent a long time learning how to construct clothes, which is important to do before you can deconstruct them.

I want to empower women. I want people to be afraid of the women I dress.

When you see a woman wearing McQueen, there's a certain hardenss to the clothes that makes her look powerful. It kind of fends people off.

Britain always led the way in every field possible in the world from art to pop music. Eve from the days of Henry VIII. It's a nation where people come and gloat at what we have as a valuable heritage, be it some good, some bad, but there's no place like it on earth.

As a place for inspiration it's the best in the world... You're inspired by the anarchy in the country.

Someone wrote that [the watch chains - from Highland Rape A/W 1995-6] were tampons... that's not even perverse; it's just gross.

I want to be the purveyor of a certain silhouette or a way of cutting, so that when I am dead and gone people will know that the twenty-first century was started by Alexander McQueen.

As I was reading the last quote, two girls were next to me and they laughed at it... but it's true. The styles that have been started by Alexander McQueen have seeped into the high street and been watered down for the general consumer. These people have now idea how influenced by him their wardrobes are!

This exhibition was profound and very sad for me. Alexander McQueen was a real artist and genius. His work and words speak to me on so many levels it is hard to explain. Seeing his work on display almost brought a tear to my eye as I remembered that he is no longer with us to create such great work. Sarah Burton will continue his legacy well, but the House of McQueen will never ben the same without Lee.

If you are in New York you need to go see this exhibition. If you can't make it get the book, every piece has been beautifully photographed and there is even stuff in there not in the exhibition.

You can see more photos from the exhibition on the Met's Flickr photostream here

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?!