3.16.12

See what we found in the trash? Blacksmiths throw out the greatest stuff. We took these treasures back to the classroom, used "found" fabric and vinegar from the dining hall to encourage stains one would ordinarily avoid. It was important to keep the fabric wet with the vinegar and weighted down so as much fabric was touching the rusting metal as possible. 

This next piece was a fairly beige, boring piece of cottonish upholstery. It was happy to keep itself soaked with the vinegar.

In the piece below,  I tried to use a shibori technique where the fabric was pleated and then tied around a long piece of waffled rebar.

 

It was not very successful showing the waffle pattern but that is because I did not have very much vinegar or a way to keep it from drying out. It is a synthetic fabric and was very good at drying itself.  It started out a bright white and became a rich, creamy ivory.  This and the other rusted even more when I came home and hung them on the line. Maybe they did not rust more but the patterns blurred and the rusty parts expanded as the moisture wicked away from the main design.

 I think this has some potential, do you agree?

3.15.12

Our second pieces have a more finished feel.  Mary Ann brought in her Crazy Quilt piece she was making for her brother that featured a picture of their father and some items that would remind her brother of his childhood.  She was looking for a real, old-fashioned Coca-cola bottle cap to flatten and attach to this pretty sampler.

Lisa was inspired by children's books and one in particular moved her to make what I think the author called the lady with the umbrella? Maybe.  THIS lady has the cutest purse and shoes of the tiniest pieces of felt you ever saw. They were clearly smaller than the scraps she was looking through when one got lost.
I started some work on a second sampler. I practiced some stumpwork with the acorns and a background of Sashiko oak leaves. I also practiced weaving over laid threads and some couching of a weird little eyelash yarn also in my newly discovered favorite color combination.
 This is my favorite color of variegated thread, #4130, called both Chilean Sunset and Pumpkin Spice, depending on which website you are tracking. I have not bought any for myself yet but I am still hoping to get to a "real town" and go to a JoAnn fabric if I can not find a needlework store near here. I will look for it in all the sizes it is available.

My final project is a pin. Do you see what is going on in the picture? It is a dog delving into a trash can.  Dee Dee had some fabric filled with pictures of dogs in a nighttime city scene.  I loved this guy immediately.  I did a little embroidery enhancement, and then used needle felting to make him scruffy looking. I discovered that if I matched the embroidery exactly to the surface it was too subtle and melted into the background. The embroidery on the trashcan is much more effective.  Dee Dee suggested I add the flash of yellow/green to reflect the light from a neon sign that was somewhere "off stage".  

It will always remind me of the nickname my roommates gave me--Backpack--since I was always digging around in the bottom of the backpack to find that one thing I had to have at that moment. It also stands for the time our embroidery class went to the blacksmiths' refuse can, looking for metal to rust onto cloth. Since my return, I have taken a second look at a lot of things around my studio to see if they can be used in new ways. Come back tomorrow and look at my iron treasures.

3.14.12

I have shown you a lot of work my Folk School teacher made but you haven't seen pictures from our class work. These first samplers we made took us the better part of three days.  Here is the sampler Lisa made. See how orderly and neat?

Now look at Mary Ann's. Also easy to follow and organized. Have a look at mine. What do you notice?  I chose yellow as a challenge because I rarely work with yellow and I thought it might stretch me a little. It sure didn't restrain me at all!

I made an attempt to fill in an egg shape and enjoyed seeing how to make the stitches follow a curve.  

I tried out the shisha mirrors and had so much fun I am looking around to find something appropriate for mirrors. Maybe I will work them into some kind of piece for the bathroom. If I could adapt the round shapes into water drop shapes, I might have something. I have the start of a beach theme going in the downstairs bathroom so maybe these mirrors will work.

I found rings to try "off canvas" work and then I attached them to the work. They are in the lower right corner below the mirrors which are attached in lavender and purple. I really enjoyed that and I am also looking to find some things that need rings. Come back tomorrow and see our second pieces.

3.2.12

Dee Dee's sampler of chain stitches embellished with felt and button-hole stitched flip flops with either an attached drizzle stitch or bouillon thong. I sure love the colors. The idea of making a picture out of a sampler--GREAT!

3.1.12

Here is another Dee Dee sample. The rectangular stone is Ocean Jasper--one of my favorites ever. The piece is here as part of my continuing fascination with relief embroidery.

I like the stitches she used for the bushes and rocks. The stitch is called mounded stitch and worked in the heavier wool it is very effective.  Look at the tall trees  and the stars--fern stitch and a favorite of mine, FRENCH KNOTS.

2.29.12

An extra day in the month! How exciting! How will you spend your extra 24 hours? (Facepalm) I could have had a V8!

This is a relief embroidered piece that Dee Dee made using an assortment of felt and buttons as well as a product label. 

Here is another with sticks, needle woven fronds, and three little monkeys carved from bone or possibly tagua nut.

The weaving looks very difficult and it was when I just looked at it and tried on my own to make it happen. Dee Dee showed me a way that made it so much easier.

2.28.12

This beautiful piece of embroidery came from Dee Dee Triplett's trip to Guatemala. I doubt you can tell but each stick of each petal is made of bouillon stitch--that is a stitch that requires upwards of 10 stitches worked around it.

 It is amazing in person. The next one was "recycled" by the seller into something appealing to the tourist crowd.

 See? A handy little tote.

Here is an apprilla. I have been interested in these for some time now.  Probably because they are a style of "relief" embroidery meaning they usually have a three dimensional quality.

2.18.12

Bought myself some embroidery scissors. By now, I will know if I love them or hate them. I chose the red pair since that was my only choice and I wanted to shop locally. KIND of locally; my closest favorite quilt shop is Bless My Stitches in Murphy, North Carolina.

2.12.12

Guess where I am today? I am at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina. I will be studying Innovative Embroidery with Dee Dee Triplett. Her link will take you to one of her pages on the Southern Highland Craft Guild pages and from there you can click to see other pages of her soft sculptural work. 

I will be bringing my camera and computer and I hope to get permission from classmates to photograph their work to put here. 

I will try to write blog entries each day I am gone, but you will have to wait until the week after to see everything I have done.

11.8.11

What I learned in Sashiko class I also applied to BLOTTO block raffle. The guild offered a free day of Sashiko lessons with Beverly Gibson and Scottie Blumke who are VERY good at Sashiko. That decided me. I would have to buy more BLOTTO solids. I chose a sky blue and copied some of the branching maple section of the print fabric, enlarged it unscientifically (I eyeballed it) and prepared to do the Sashiko embroidery.

When I finished, the branches didn't look right, so I couched tan floss outlines with brown quadrupled sewing thread. Then I wove my own fabric for the stems with the sewing thread. That is not cheating, right? Technically it is embroidery or surface embellishment, not a new fabric. See the close-up? I chose to weave unevenly, sort of higgledy-piggledy to give the branch more of a bark quality.