Mini wall hanging

Its funny how you always find the right things when you're not looking.  I was walking Bonnie a few weeks ago and found this chunk of wood in some mulch around a tree she was sniffing at, and instantly liked it. 

I'd been getting frustrated how I could finish off my experimental drawn thread piece and then like magic, I found the wood and knew it would work perfectly for me. 

I have to say I'm glad this piece is finished, because it was really fiddly to weave the ends of the threads into the fabric, right, left and upwards, but despite that, it's turned out to be one of my favourites. 

 I can put the magnifying glass away now and give my eyes a rest. 

It's done !

Yes, it's done!  Finally!  The wall hanging is complete.  65 hours and many bars of chocolate later .... but, I am pleased with it.  I like the colours and the balance.  I know its quite representational, but ... that's me!

This is my piece that contains mostly hand stitching, and boy ... was there a lot of it.  So hopefully the next assignment will be quicker with more machine stitching.

My source was Anglo Saxon & Viking metalwork and art, so I used colours that were muted as their fabrics would have been rustic and woven.  I've used rusted osnaburg as a backing fabric with a wool plaid as the main ground fabric, with purple/blue and gold to represent the wealth of the kings who acquired the fantastic metal work that inspired me.

It's then secured to a length of jarrah wood with black upholstery tacks, and hung by two hooks and a black chain. 

I'm now just tallying up the cost of it, and finalising the instructions to make it and then I can sit back and catch my breath.  Next step .... design a set of accessories.

Since the last post I did attend the Craft Fair at Perth Convention Centre last week.  I go every year and am always waiting to be bowled over by something new and exciting, but it seems there's just nothing new out there.  Have we been saturated with craft, or is it just me ?!  Where's all the embroidery and textile work?  Years ago you used to see lots of hand stitching and heirloom work ... where's it all gone?

I'm hoping to go to Brisbane in June to attend the Textile Fair over there.  Unfortunately its not coming to Perth, so it means a 5 hour flight ... hope its worth it.  I'm hungry for idea's and stimulation.  Thank God for the internet!!

Harvey Show

Do you ever have those times when you start something and then wonder why you made life difficult for yourself? I have !!  I decided to hand stitch the scroll using a brick stitch, similar to the design etched on the Viking shield that had inspired me, but! .... 9 1/2 hours later .....I wondered what had possessed me. I hate unpicking so continued, and finally finished it.  I'm happy with it, just not the amount of time it took to stitch.  I've still got to outline it with a gold thread yet, but in the meantime I've been playing around with Anglo Saxon alphabets and the next step is to applique some onto the background plaid.

I used the embellisher machine to push the frayed scrim into the plaid and then gently ran it all over the scroll to hold it firmly in place.

After all those hours sitting and stitching I need to stretch my legs, back and neck so I've had the weekend off to do other things.  Hubby and I decided to go to the Harvey Show on Saturday and had a wonderful day.  The weather was perfect ... warm (not hot!) sunny Autumn day, just lovely.

There was wood chopping and sawing, farming machinery, vintage cars, side show alley with the kids rides and food stalls.

Best of all was the exhibition pavilion with the flowers, cakes, vegetables, photography and embroidery.  The bottom left hand photo is of part of an amazing textile quilt that had a farm/country scene with loads of animals on it, it was truly amazing and a work of art ... just love the cheeky emu peeping out from the side.

And what would a country show be without the equestrian events ... unfortunately we missed the Clydesdales as they'd been on in the morning, but we got to see the small buggy display and the toddlers with the miniatures ... always makes me smile and think of "Thelwell".

All in all, a relaxing and enjoyable day ... if only all weekends could be like this.  Now its back to the ironing ....

That pesky wabbit ...

I hope you all had a lovely Easter.  Thanks to that pesky wabbit my 2 weeks of starving and losing 1.3 kg has all been a waste of time - after chomping through tonnes of chocolate over the weekend I've put it all back on again .... oh well, it was fun at the time (eating the chocolate ... NOT the dieting!!).  So here we go again, counting calories and eating salads ... ho hum.
I'm sure sitting on my backside stitching all day doesn't help either, but I'm happy with the progress I'm making on the wall hanging.

I appliqued a knot pattern on the top edge of the hanging, using a brown velour fabric and gold thread.  It shimmers depending on which way you hold it to the light.  I've just placed some of the finished elements onto the fabric to see how its coming together.

Then below is the start of the scroll design.  I've machined stitched the dyed scrim in place using the same gold thread, and now I'm in the process of filling it in with hand stitching - a long, slow process.

I needed a break yesterday after 5 hours of stitching, so walked around the garden and decided to go snap happy and take some pics of the flowers.  We've had a bit of rain recently during the night, and a few overcast days, and its done wonders for the garden.  The leaves on the rose trees are actually green and not a crisp brown where they've usually been fried by the sun.

So for all you folks in the northern hemisphere who are despondent after a long cold winter, here's some summer colour to cheer you up and remind you of what's around the corner for you.

 Whilst we prepare for our winter ahead.

 

 

Trying my hand at drawing

I've been a bit slack with my drawing and journal side of the studies, so thought I'd spent a quiet Sunday catching up.  I'm trying to do an art journal of our holiday to the UK in 2008, so I set up the laptop with our holiday snaps on and started copying some of the things that appealed to me, like all the lovely flowers that were out at the time.

I like drawing, but find it difficult.  I know you have to practice, but I just don't get the time to do enough of it to be able to just pick up a pencil and draw freely any time.  I always get screwed up with angst thinking I'm going to balls it up, so I sketch in pencil first, then go over it with a fine black marker, and rub out the pencil (cheats way, I know!)

I also have a thing for statues .... I love drawing them as I like the shading you have to do to bring them to life.  Trouble is mine come to life as something completely different .... this is supposed to be Lord Lister (at Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow).  Not surprisingly he doesn't look like him at all .... more like Moses with a sleepy eye .... lol !!  Oh well, we all have to start somewhere.

I did manage a day this week back into the wall hanging, and created the celtic brooch section for the top right corner.  I started with pelmet vilene for stability, layered with purple velvet, then two layers of gold spun craft fabric on top, and finally a piece of rusted purple silk as the final layer.  I'm pleased with it, but still unsure how it will all look in the end.  I need to soften it into the wool plaid ... any ideas anyone !!??

The rest of the week has been a bit frantic for household and garden chores ... lawns need mowing, new bed arrived, needed to be assembled, old one disassembled, pond pump died, fish frantic, me even more so, dad to the rescue, hubby home from work when everything sorted, hah!  Today is babysitting my grand-daughter so no C&G today ... maybe over Easter will be more productive.

Progression and discharge

Today was a productive day, but a bit slow.  Everything took a long time to do.  I coloured my paper cast of the Saxon cross with Treasure Gold Classic, then rubbed a purple Shiva stick over the raised motifs.  Now I've got to allow 48 hours for the shiva stick to dry.

So whilst that's drying I got on with the background fabric.  I chose a wool plaid for the ground fabric but still wanted to decorate it with pattern, so I took the plunge and used discharge paste for the first time.  I wasn't that silly though and tried it on a scrap piece first, hence the length of time it took me to do everything today.  Lots of time waiting for things to dry, then ironing, then rinsing in water, drying again, pressing again.  I was happy with the result on the test piece so went ahead and did the wall hanging piece, and I'm feeling alright about it.  In fact, I'm starting to get my confidence up now that I've finally got off my butt and started it, for some reason I've been a bit intimidated about this design.

After discharging the wool plaid I still had some discharge paste in the bowl so rather than try and scoop it back into the jar I used it up by playing about on another piece of fabric I had.  This time I used a floral stencil, then using shiva sticks I added coloured stripes randomly across the piece.  I like it, but want to jazz it up a bit more, after I've waited 48 hours for it to dry ... patience is a virtue they say.

I've no idea what I'm going to do with it afterward, but enjoyed playing around and trying new things.

Module 9 Wall Hanging

Before commencing my wall hanging I decided to finish off my crazy patchwork sample to be a stand alone sample, finished as a mini quilt.  I did this with the folded star window, but didn't quite get the corners of the  binding right, so I tried again, determined to master the mitred corners.  Think I've got it.

Then I added a sleeve at the back so that I can insert a rod and hang  it up for display.

After procrastinating for a few days I finally took a deep breath and started to work on the Anglo Saxon/Viking inspired wall hanging.  I don't feel good about this design, just feel that I haven't got it to come together like I want it to, but its early days, so we'll see where it leads.

To start I made a polystyrene mould of the cross I want for the centre of the design, and glued cord to create an impression in the finished cast.

I then covered the mould with water soluble paper, pressing it into the grooves I'd made, and leaving it to dry for 2 days.  Now its done I have to colour it.  Of course I'd like to paint it, but the whole thing would dissolve ... Duh! so I'll have to go with a wax or something.  This'll need some thinking about ...

... and the hardest part is - I can't even have chocolate to help me through the frustration, as I've taken a vow of abstinence, in the bid to lose weight.  By the end of the week I'll be ready to throttle something.