New Work.

The Textiles course has just started back after the Christmas break. We have started work on more delicate felt incorporating threads and adding machine embroidery. We will also be adding machine embroidered lace edging which really intrigues me, since I've never tried doing this before. The following photographs show a couple of new pieces that I have been working on as a result of this course. Both of these are basically merino wool tops, with machine embroidery. At present neither look terribly interesting since they still have their water soluble layers covering the wool tops. Once the water soluble is rinsed away I shall gently and lightly felt the wool beneath.

I do love playing with textiles.......... Thanks Ruth (shes the teacher letting me loose with everything.)

This first piece is approximately eight and a half inches in diameter. Hopefully the leaf edging will turn into a lace once the water soluble has dissolved away. The next photo shows a detail of the stitching. I shall post pictures once I have been brave and put this into water.

The last piece will become a scarf. The colours are basically leaf green, yellow ochre and sage green. It is currently around forty inches long and ten inches wide. I have barely started the stitching which will hold it all together, I hope. The stitching may take quite a time to complete - I have images of stylised flowers and leaves in my head.

Much fun and games.

WISPs

Well, I have quite a collection of WISPs (Works In Slow Progress). Some I have mentioned before - like "Face". (See the last entry to my Blog). Here are two more.

The first, was the Mystery Quilt run by the Quilters Guild of Great Britain, published a couple of years ago. A rather interesting, and quite challenging design, I found it hard to make the corners and points match. It certainly tested my skills:


The first photo shows the top- don't look too closely at the points..... This still awaits quilting. At present, it is held together with safety pins.


The second photo shows the back - pieced mostly from remnants left after the "top" was completed.

The next unfinished quilt - partly quilted at present - was the result of my dislike of ironing. Yes, I do not like ironing clothes, but give me a selection of freshly washed fabrics..........
The fabrics used here all came from a selection of my husband's old shirts. (I cannot bring myself to throw away fabric). Oh, how I enjoyed cutting them up! The floral print and the dark blue came from a couple of old blouses of mine. and were added to balanced the otherwise pale colours. The white was part of an old, much washed cotton sheet.
I did not have to plan the colours too much, since my dear husband prefers shirts in a narrow range of colours.
As an experiment, I pieced them using my overlocker. I needed to learn how to use it, so had a lot of fun doing this. The quilting was by machine.
I really can't remember why I gave up on this, since it really won't take much more work to finish it.
The first photograph shows the top.



The second photo shows detail of the stitching and also the construction of the blocks.

The last photo shows the back of the quilt. You can see how much quilting I have already done. I feel quite ashamed to think its been hanging around for a couple of years waiting to be completed!

The back has been pieced using bits left over from the top. I just wanted the effect to be random, since the quilting would be mostly swirls and irregular quadrilaterals.

Back to the stitching.

Its taken me a while to get back to posting again. Apologies to anyone reading this.

The image shown here is "Face". I have been working slowly away at this for some time. It can definitely be called a WISP (Work in Slow Progress).

"Face" is a collage of various layers of light and wispy fabric overlaid with a variety of machine embroidery and hand embroidered stitches. I have recently been trying to add more definition to the stitched outline I had started with, adding some coloured gauze. Adding the dark shade has overbalanced things a little with the nose (to the left) looking far too dark. The top of the head needs adjustment too (towards the top of the photo). However, playing with this image is teaching me such a lot about colour values. Before starting this piece, I had never tried using such flimsy fabric - just loved touching it....

"Face" is just one of a series of WISPs which I have haunting my sewing space.

Those promised photos.

At long last, photos of the projects I have been working on lately.

Firstly, the paisleys. There are three of them:

This is Paisley One - hand-made felt with rather too much machine embroidery I really feel less would have been better with this one. However, I shall not be unpicking this one just yet.

The next photos are of Paisley Two. Again, the hand-made felt. (Thanks so much for teaching me Ruth!) This time the motifs were made using fabric scraps with much fun being had stitching through dissolvable fabric. The background design is an all-over paisley motif.

The third design, Paisley 3, has an all-over paisley motif background. Onto this I have placed a stumpwork paisley motif. I hope that I can give the name stumpwork to this technique. It was made using the same method, but has interwoven threads for a centre. Anyway, see what you think:

The next photo is of my new figure - Serenity. Not to be seen at her best, yet. She still needs some more work to finish off the body and then that chaise longue..... Well, I have drafted a design, but we will have to wait and see how this project gets on.

The last two photos show my dear friend Coco, who is snoring merrily on the chair next to me as I write. She has decided that she rather likes felt - I've found that its difficult to dislodge a cat when wanting to work on a piece she is sleeping on.