November samples

2018/Week 44, Hairy Loch
The reeds in this loch above Leverburgh on Harris have always appealed to me. Out of context they look like fine scratch marks on metal.

Thinking machine stitch would be too clumsy, I hand stitched a little section on silvery satin fabric. Not quite the effect I'd have liked but as much as I had patience for!

18/45 White Line
Once you start looking, there's inspiration everywhere... this was a badly eroded white line at the side of the road.

I free machined a section on Lutradur 70 over black cotton fabric, using a fine white cotton thread (Madeira Tanne 50). Then I zapped it with a heat gun. The unstitched areas vanish altogether.

18/46 Map Lichen
The last of my Harris inspirations, though this lichen grows locally on Skye too. Rhizocarpon geographicum is called map lichen because it looks like a map in an atlas, or an aerial view of a patchwork of fields.

I free machined my piece on Solufleece, filling the areas with different colours and patterns without worrying about realism. Some are dense and solid, others open and lacy. The challenge as always is linking everything together so it remains whole when the Solufleece is dissolved away! Only stitched thread is left, no fabric at all in this piece.

18/47 Full Moon
Binoculars gave a wonderful view of the scars and craters on a spectacular full moon this week.
I embroidered a circle completely filled with little star patterns to resemble craters.

The thread was shaded pale grey, though that doesn't really show up in the photo. I was disappointed that the white guideline made with a fine SewLine pencil wouldn't quite go away... lesson learned.  

18/48 Crocheted Blanket
Just had to commemorate this... I finally finished the blanket I've been crocheting on and off for 18 months or so! I never meant to make a blanket, didn't need one, I just started playing with yarn left over from a couple of cushion covers. Then I liked the hexagons so much I just kept going, and, well, we haven't got a single bed in the house so it had to fit a double to be any use at all...

So here it is - 425 hexagons, each in six colours so that was 5100 yarn ends to darn in, groan. Pretty, though.

And here's my stitched sample based on the hexagonal motif.

Free machine embroidery on Solufleece, of course. I domed the "popcorn" stitches by stitching round and round. 

Look, no fabric!

 

Now, what to do with all those yarn ends? Of course I saved them, wouldn't you?!

September samples

18/36 Purple flowers

 

Three purple-shaded flowers together caught my eye recently – devil’s bit scabious with knapweed and ling heather. Shying away from precision and detail (for once!) I got out the Embellisher and needled hand dyed green and lilac scrims through green felt.  Tiny clumps and tufts of wool fibres were added with a hand held felting needle. Without even injuring myself!

18/37 Seaweed

Have you ever really looked at seaweeds? They're fascinating, the range of shapes and colours! So I did a few little seaweed experiments using free machine stitching on Solufleece. 

The feathery ones are easy enough... bladder wrack, not so much. For the air sacs I stitched round and round (and round), distorting the fabric to make little raised bubbles. These aren’t solid, they’re hollow. You can get more height working without a hoop, but I only wanted tiny ones. The end results are a little messy, but they look alright as a group; I might take these further.

18/38 Hedgerow berries

This little piece started with a mix of yarns arranged on sticky soluble film (AquaBond). I free machined all over this base with green to link everything and fill it in a bit, and added a few blocks of satin stitch in shaded green for a leafy effect.

For the berries, I had in mind rowan, rose hips and blackberries. I machined clusters and individual dots using straight stitch in those colours. Then to make the berries stand out more I added a little hand stitching, mostly French knots (there always has to be French knots!).

I was quite pleased with this one after dissolving, maybe I’ll do more!

18/39 Seed heads

On holiday (Harris, since you ask - very nice thank you!) without my trusty Bernina, I had to resort to hand stitching. But nothing as normal as fabric – I used Somerset paper.

For each seed head I embroidered “long tailed detached chain stitch” (phew!) into and around a small punched hole. The thread was a lovely space dyed fine cotton from Oliver Twists. And yes, I did take my Japanese screw punch and a cutting mat on holiday… wouldn't you?! Well, you have to have some rainy day entertainments in the Outer Hebrides!

 

I love the crisp effect of stitch on paper, the embroidery really stands out.

August Samples

18/31 Chain stitch on soluble fabric  (that's 2018, week 31 by the way!)
A technique geek one this time. Not many people seem to play with hand embroidery on dissolvable film, but I can't resist. It's quite challenging... try it and you'll see!

I worked rows of chain stitch in grey, blue and turquoise pearl cotton, adjacent but not linked. Then to hold them together I threaded pink-mauve through the straight stitches that appear on the back of the fabric when you stitch chains.

Carefully dissolved, and voila! A fabric made of chain stitch embroidery. So what if it'd be quicker to knit, this is something different. But which side is best? The back looks like this:

 

18/32 Pattern Stitch fabric

Still in the mood for creating "fabric" from just stitches on dissolvable film, this time I went with machine embroidery. But built-in, automatic embroidery patterns, not free machining.

 

Thinking of the sea (it's right in front of my desk!) I chose a curled, wavy pattern:

I stitched three layers of this pattern on Romeo, working from dark at the bottom to light at the top. By the third layer, the Bernina had sussed that I wasn't using its pretty patterns as intended and started protesting by breaking the thread, but I pushed it on - I am very cruel to that machine.

In the end it was quite successful. I deliberately (honest) didn't align the stitches of each row, but it's all stayed together well and the curly pattern shows in places.

   

18/33 Gannet eye

I love watching gannets diving for fish in the bay - they're so spectacular! They look amazing close up too...

 Solid free machining (sometimes called thread painting) on calico.

 

18/34 Hand embroidery in air

There's such a craze for "hoop art" at the moment - embroidery displayed in the hoop used to make it. So of course I have to try it with dissolvable fabric!    

 

I decided I'd need a solid fabric edge, as tying a lacy confection onto the hoop would be messy at best. So I hooped up some felt with my dissolvable film and made sure all the stitching was attached to that.

I used tiny circles of felt for the flower centres - you do need somewhere to fasten threads on and off! They're linked with green running stitch, knotted at the junctions. Then simple straight stitch for the flower petals and French knots for the centres.     

 

18/35 Felt jewellery

For a change, I followed an online course in Wool Felt Jewellery throughout August. It was great fun, I can highly recommend Fiona Duthie's courses! 

 

We learned all sorts of techniques to make wet felted beads, cords and lace. I especially loved the cords, and made several bangles. I haven't done a lot of felting, so there was a lot to learn; I made sure I tried everything while there was someone to consult - Fiona and other students were very helpful.

 

My final experiment was this brooch idea, combining the felt I'd made with a bit of free machining on dissolvable fabric.        

It's a felt bead trapped in flat felt as it was made, then revealed as an "inclusion". I cut out the circle, then stitched it onto a larger circle of felt that I'd edged with cable stitch worked on Solufleece.

I focussed so much on learning all the new techniques that I ran out of time for making finished pieces. But I still want to make myself a cord necklace, with slider beads and inclusions.

It was wonderful to find I could make small felt pieces at my desk without getting water everywhere. Now I know that I'll definitely do more wet felting to combine with my stitching.
  

June Samples

18/23 Dragonfly wing
At RSPB Ham Wall (Somerset!) the other week I was astonished by the clouds of thousands upon thousands of dragonflies and damselflies, rising from the plants on either side of the broad path we walked. Mostly Four-spotted Chasers and Common Blue damselflies, I think.

Inspiring! But having done a dragonfly piece a few years ago, this one:

...I didn’t want to do anything too similar. So for variety, I based my sample on the detail of a dragonfly wing.

I used Solufleece reinforced with a bit of Aquabond on the back. Dark turquoise for the bolder lines, light turquoise with a multicoloured metallic thread on the bobbin for the fine network, giving just a hint of sparkle. A wired edge holds the shape and allows 3D shaping to create shadows.

18/24 Dragonfly pattern
Dragonflies again, but this time a pared down, stylised design. Hand stitching with fine machine embroidery thread, on a background of turquoise mulberry silk paper glued to thin white card.

I wish I could stitch something like this on a floaty, sheer fabric! But there’d be no hiding place for thread ends and travelling stitches.

18/25 Wild flower verge
My walk from Harrapool to Broadford was ruined when the verges were mowed flat just as the wild flowers were at their peak. Masses of ox eye daisies, orchids, clovers and buttercups, all cut off in their prime before they had chance to set seed.

I made this little piece in memory of them. It’s three layers of free machine embroidery on dissolvable fabric.

And then I sent a photo of it to the council, who were getting the blame. They claimed Transport Scotland was responsible so I sent it to them. They said it was about road safety, but didn’t reply again when I pointed out that the flowers were beyond a wide pavement so that was nonsense. At least the picture got my messages noticed, giving me a chance to suggest they look at Plantlife’s guidance and delay the mowing in future.

18/26 Ripples 

I’m lucky enough to have my desk looking straight out onto a wonderful sea view - Broadford Bay. The ever-changing colours and moods of the water are mesmerising.

For this sample I decided to use one simple hand embroidery stitch in a range of sea colours. Partly because I wanted some simple, slow hand stitching to take on a trip. I decided on twisted chain stitch, which I thought looked suitably ripple-y.

The fabric is indigo-dyed open weave cotton, backed with navy felt. Embroidered with all sorts of space dyed, blended and plain threads, some mixed with metallic blending filament.

Of course I didn’t do a single stitch while I was away, and it took me ages to finish this once I got home! It wasn’t easy getting the twisted chains to lie nicely, but I quite like the effect in the end.

May Samples

18/18 Pizza

Every week I think, what’s caught my eye? What have I seen recently that’s a bit different? It doesn’t (quite!) always have to be nature…

A trip to the city, a rare meal out – pizza! Pizza Express Vegan Giardiniera to be precise. Artichokes, olives, mushrooms, red onion, vegan “mozzarella”.

So here’s a little piece inspired by (not meant to look too much like!) a pizza. It could possibly be a brooch?

18/19 Primrose lace

OK, so I’ve done several versions of primroses before… but they’re everywhere right now, I just have to play with them again!

For something a bit different, I tried an open, lacy piece – entirely in free machining on soluble fabric.

     

18/20 Whelk shell

This spiral design came from an unusually colourful whelk shell I found on the beach – looking down the whorls from the apex.

I used the Embellisher to make a background, first meshing together loose weave cotton and scrim then adding a rough spiral of white and purple wool fibres.

Then I just had fun with hand embroidery in various purple, yellow and cream threads – running, stem and chain stitches and some French knots.

18/21 Bluebells

I think bluebells are my favourite wildflowers... though I might waver when foxgloves and primroses are about. It’s not the individual plants but the effect of hundreds, thousands of them - that fabulous blue-purple carpet. One of the special treats of a UK spring!

So it was the density of flowers I wanted to capture with this little sample, and I decided the only way to get that was to overlay several layers of embroidery. 

I free machined three strips of stems/leaves and flowers on Aquasol, using Madeira Rayon 40, ranging from 3cm to 4.cm tall. After dissolving and drying I overcast the layers together at the base.

18/22 Cape Daisy

I love to photograph flowers really close up, the centres are often fascinating. This one is a Cape Daisy.

It led to a little sample combining machine and hand embroidery. I pencilled the outline on white cotton fabric, and coloured the centre yellow with fabric crayons. Then I free machined the petals using grey-purple for their outlines and variegated lilac filling.

In the centre I stitched French knots in dark purple perle 8 and golden yellow stranded cotton, with a few purple straight stitches added to fill gaps.

March samples part 3

18/12 Tête-à-tête
Flower of the month - a real favourite, the miniature daffodils that make a wonderful splash before much else is out.
Trying not to be too precise for a change, I used the embellisher to needle felt bits of green tapestry wools onto a Harris tweed scrap. Then I used thin strips of a very fray-ey (that's what I wanted!) yellow satin fabric to work free cross stitches for the flowers.

18/13 Orts
Have you heard of orts? They're leftovers. For textile people, the short lengths of yarn or thread leftover from any needlecraft or fibre art. I can't throw them out... but what to do with them?

Last year I bought yarn for two cushion covers for the sofa in our window, and crocheted them in a wavy pattern to reflect the sea view.

There was lots of spare yarn, so I started crocheting hexagons. Still ongoing, but I like them so much I've now bought more yarn and am heading for a double bed throw! So much for using it up, ha.

Each motif has six colours, so that's 12 ends to darn in and snip off...

And so, at last, we get to this week's textile play time. Using the embellisher again, I covered wool-viscose felt with a layer of yarn snippets. From that I made myself a book cover, a pin cushion and a mini travel needle book.

        

March samples part 2: Yorkshire buttons

Bit of a departure here, but no apologies – my only brief for this year’s samples is to respond to anything that interests me. Preferably different to my other, “work” stitching.

I firs came across Yorkshire buttons just the other week on Gina Ferrari’s blog Fan my Flame, where she’d finished a beautiful handmade coat with some. Being a Yorkshire lass though and through, I was ashamed I’d never heard of them. And obviously had to try making my own!

Pretty, aren’t they? But more decorative than practical, I think. Little seems to be known about the origin of these buttons but I can’t believe they ever made a worthwhile industry.

They’re basically ribbed spider’s web stitch, freed from any fabric. A stitch I love anyway – see my Limpets post for example. There are several articles online with instructions, but I found Mary Hickmott's was the best.

You create the spokes on a notched circle of card, then sort of back stitch round and round them, going under two spokes forwards and over one back. You need an even number of spokes, say 12 to 18. This was my first attempt - I ran out of thread! The loops shouldn't be so big.

It's tricky to estimate the right length of thread to complete without a join. It depends on the diameter of the template, the number of notches, and the thickness of the thread. A nightmare for me, with my waste phobia.  And I didn't enjoy pulling vast lengths of thread through for every stitch - perhaps not something to do sitting round a table with other people either, you could take an eye out! 😉

This is how they look when you pop them off their cards:

I love these! The free-standing spider’s webs might be good for cards or hanging decorations, even jewellery? Slightly gathered into little domes or dishes, you could possibly use them in an art composition. 
 
But for buttons you thread the remaining yarn through the loops and gather up over a disc of card (or maybe recycled plastic) for a flattish finish, or a bit of toy stuffing or wadding for a domed shape. Unfortunately a lot of the pretty stitching is wasted on the back with a flat button; maybe that’s a reason to make them spherical.  

Thicker threads are quicker to stitch and variegated ones look fantastic, But the centres can be a bit ugly and bulky:

So using a thinner thread for the spokes is sometimes a good idea:

And if you have 14 or 18 spokes you can do a bit of weaving for variety - just weave under and over two spokes at a time.       

Each button I made suggested other variations to try… but I’ll stop now before I get addicted!

         

February samples

My latest weekly whatnots: stitching just for fun.

18/05 Hand embroidery on soluble fabric

Experimenting with some bright, lustrous (but also very slippery and springy) threads I was given. On a network of green FME and felt dots I hand stitched simple flowers using straight stitch, French knots and buttonhole. It was hard work! No hiding places for all the ends, and tough getting the thick thread through the centre repeatedly. Shows potential though?   

18/06 Heart
Well it was mid February... what else could I do? Bright yarns, trapped in a sandwich of soluble fabrics, machine embroidered freely and with some built-in patterns. Finished with a few French knots in shaded pearl cotton thread before dissolving.

18/07 Log pile

A pile of logs sits drying in our garden, and I love the pattern they make. But I didn't fancy stitching in woody colours. So, I created spirals of space dyed wool yarn (Colinette, I think) embellished onto a base of indigo dyed wool.  The wool was actually an old blanket - I hot-washed it to shrink/felt it then dyed in an indigo vat (not specially for this sample, I hasten to add). Then free machined lines in indigo rayon 30 Alcazar thread.

18/08 Snowdrops
Flower of the month. I've embroidered snowdrops before, and wanted to do something a bit different. So I focused on a close up view of open flowers, so you can see the beautiful centres. I made a lacy design of linked motifs, ending up with no visible fabric.

The flowers were free machined on Lutradur 30 then burned out with a soldering iron. Finally I hand stitched bullion knot stamens with a single strand of yellow cotton.