My latest gingham creation is finished and in the shop.
I love making these, stitching the tiny squares, embellishing those with tiny stitches before adding them to a mount and stitching them again.
These are true labours of love.
I am going to be AWOL for a while now.
This little guy will be one year old soon and I am needed for a party in London.
There will be cake!
There are always scraps lying round here, scraps of paper, cloth, ribbon...my motto? never throw anything away. These little pieces are variouys scraps which have been gathered together and embellished with stitch, beads and ribbon. If you look at the first image where they are laid on a sheet of white paper............ try and imaging more being added to that sheet. I'm aiming for a mini design sheet here so there could be stitch, collage or more scraps I haven't decided yet.
(the paper is A3 size, the scraps approximately three inches long)
Another two samples, (not yet finished) to go into the hand made cover from a few days ago. I am now trying to work out how many I will be able to fit into this little cloth book. I do have a plan for attaching them and another plan if I need to add more to the spine for more samples but as I haven't yet quite finished these two I'm not going to work on that yet. It isn't a question of how many to make, putting a number or a limit on that....I could quite happily stitch and doodle these little things forever.
I'm jumping the gun anyway. There are three so far. One is finished, two aren't. Three will be nowhere near enough and I'm itching to put the next one together. I want this to have a ''weight'' to it if you know what I mean. You will definitely know what I mean if you are a stitcher.
I'm enjoying this hankie work so much. Playing with the layout of cut up handkerchiefs with pretty edges, adding doodles...hexagons, flowers, petals, stems before adding hand embroidery stitches using bright, fresh colours. This one is the second piece of a plan I have, it will live with this one. There will be two more of these but not before I play a little with the lower edges of this one and fill the empty space you can see here.
My favourite area on this one is the hexagon flower which is shown in isolation in the second image. Ideally I would have preferred the applique piece to be elsewhere on that one, not centred but it is covering a stain. Despite laundering vintage cloth it is sometimes impossible to remove every mark. Some marks are worth keeping, worth showing but some definitely need a little disguising.
Hankie play is still going on, cutting them up, stitching on them...needle cases and other plans. The new piece here is the first piece for a new idea but since taking these images I have had another, more tempting idea. My brain has a lot to answer for. I love how this collection is growing and how it looks in the last image. The new piece won't be a needle case or a button cloth. Like I said, it's for something else and the only reason I'm not saying, not revealing the plan is in case it goes wrong. That idea will most likely be delayed for a couple of days now though because of the light bulb moment I had earlier, the other new idea.
Later today I am going to test something, pin a few hankies together, work out the technical aspects of a piece (there will be more head scratching) and hopefully begin the embroidery on the next ''hankie thing.'' I bought new fabric pens earlier this week. I will get chance to try those out too when the doodling on hankies part of all this comes into play. (I doodled on the others...can you see?) I speak about that patterning here, those doodling choices.
Continuing the flower and hexagon theme, the needle case theme. I am enjoying these explorations so much. It takes me back, way back to a big collection I created years ago when I was studying, studying all things Nanna related.
nanna (plural nannas)
It's basic, it's functional yet pretty, it's memories of tablecloths and hankies, it's comforting.
I'm not 100 percent sure what the end outcome of this will be, what will happen to the needle cases I am creating at the moment. For now I need to keep them, I can't bear to part with them, maybe I never will. I am getting ideas for other pieces from this work though. It's feeding my ''to do'' list...more of that soon.
The 12 month ''artist book'' adventure began this morning. It's not too late to join us. You can read more here.
When you last saw this piece here the lower half was unstitched. The doodles were there, the patterning but I hadn't gotten round to the embroidery. I have now.....flowers, flowers from designs in vintage embroidery transfers to be exact. I have taken my floral patterning from vintage embroidery transfers for as long as I can remember. There is usually a simplicity to them. Occasionally I have adapted the flower shape or the petal shape but these ones are unaltered or at least they are as near to the original as they can be.
This type of pattern, this transfer design reminds me of my Nanna Burns and my Nanna Garstang. It reminds me of the tablecloths they would stitch and it reminds me of my fascination watching them, begging to ''try'' , badgering them and more often than not making a mess which had to be unpicked.
This piece now needs an embroidered reverse, more doodling on vintage hankies, more simple patterning and a little stitch before it can become a needle case, yes, another needle case.
Ta da! It's finished, I didn't think I'd make it, other things happening yesterday but here it is. What can I say? Speedy fingers? I'm just a little bit in love and am so tempted to keep it for myself but as I kept this one for myself I thought it best not to be selfish. So it's in the shop. It's a big one, 12 1/2 x 13 inches with an embroidered lining and an embroidered reverse, finished off with a hand embroidered button.
I'm getting very excited about something we are doing in class at the moment too. I am going to work on that a little more tonight and share with you tomorrow because the girls have seen it today. Think pockets, think little gathered pockets, think cutwork......
My ''related posts'' thingy which usually appears at the bottom of posts doesn't seem to be working. It's a mystery. But maybe you would like this, this and this.....button connections.
Doodle doo, I have missed you. It's made an appearance today because I have been asked about these, can I make some more. Flicking through doodle doo is what I need to get the ideas flowing for more little books, it works so watch this space. (although don't expect anything imminently because I've got beds to change and a car to clean and a casserole to put in the oven and a duster to flick)
The fabric piece here...it's finished! Well, the surface is finished. I have big plans for this, an idea that I hope will enhance. All my fingers are crossed as are my toes.....I will be doing this in class but don't worry, you will get to see it when it's done. I have also decided I am keeping this one for myself.
Remember the queue for the damp stretching board? This will be going on next, yes that one is finished too. I told you I was working hard, that my fingers are dizzy, positively spinning actually.
Just to say that it's not too late for you to join us in class for ''embroidered pockets''. This one is a marathon, 12 weeks of class with a two week holiday when yours truly goes partying to Glastonbury. I give you holiday??? I'm good aren't I. Read more here.
phew, fingers crossed here that the addition of prairie points alters this sufficiently for you not to get sick of seeing it. They aren't permanently attached, they're just laid under the folded cloth for now. I actually don't know if I will use them yet, I will decide later.
The strip of white, second picture, between the edge of bullion knots on the left and cross stitch on the right, that strip is finished now embroidery wise. I completed that side last night and began another section. Later today I will doodle on more cloth which I will then cut up and use for applique on the large area of Broderie Anglaise.
I got a new phone today...free.....payment zero...an upgrade which according to them is long overdue. I have been playing with it all morning. I haven't done half the things I intended to do today.....oops. One thing I did do though...if you are registered for ''embroidered pockets, human cloth'' you should have received an e mail from me this morning. If you didn't get that then please let me know. We start Monday, no lateness, no slacking, no talking at the back, get your pencils sharpened!!