Geometric Landscapes

I've been progressing my simple geometric landscapes and have been building up the layers of yellow dye for the background cloth, with the aim of creating interest with textural marks whilst keeping the cloth a plain colour.  The left hand side is the back of the cloth and the right hand side is ...well...the right side of the cloth.

I think I may have made it a little too dark and am thinking about trying to remove some of the colour and although I have never tried it before I thought I try using Milton as I hear that can remove dye. I would have started it tonight, if only I'd had some. My thinking is that it should be easy to control, just gradually adding a drop at a time until you get the effect that you want..

I have also started stitching the fabric squares, mostly in red to start with and I will stitch each square a little and then gradually add more until I think they have enough and I think it would be nice to keep some areas unstitched for contrast.

As they are still work-in progress, the fabric has just been folded over so hopefully they will look better when they are stretched. My plan was to make the stitching uneven, in a bumpy field sort of way but I've found this surprisingly difficult. OK not even in a  Royal School of Needlework, sort  of way but not that as uneven as I'd planned to do. 

 

I have also been doing some other stitching experiments. For these 'grasses', I have used several different threads and woven them in and out of each other as I stitched and I quite like the effect.

I also stitched some tufts again with different threads, although  I would worry about them working loose if they were on a finished piece, I like the effect of mixing threads and together. Note to self: must do some more mixed thread stitching..

Since starting my geometric landscapes, Janet Edmonds has pointed my to another artist Vanessa Gardiner, who paints geometric coastal landscapes, albeit a lot more refined than mine. 

I've only done a little research into her work so far but I'm quite inspired to follow the geometric landscapes further. I've got so many ideas in my head at the moment....

The Proud Owner of New Textile Art

I'm used to buying fabrics, threads and and the paraphernalia that goes with it but last weekend I bought two lovely finished textile pieces. The pieces were beautifully stitched by Melanie Forrester and were shown in our Taking Textiles Further Exhibition in November last year ....and I've had my eye on them ever since.

 

The stitched part of these pieces is around 4 1/2 inches square and there's not a millimetre of unstitched fabric to be seen. You can see the beads and chains from the jewellery that the designs were based on.

As you can see the stitching is beautifully done and I love the raised chains that sit on top of the other stitches and as for those french knots......

 

Besides the fact they are beautifully stitched another reason I think i like them is because they are so different to my own work. I'm very pleased with them - thank you Melanie.

Fabric Printing - Gridlock II

I have finally finished 'Gridlock II' - just need to add the hanging device. It measures roughly 80 X 90 cm and at first glance it's not obvious that there is any stitching.

 

 

 

But as you can see from the detailed photographs  that I have done quite a bit of stitching.

 

I like the overall effect and it has inspired me to work in a similar manner on my purple gridy piece. I plan to discharge a strip of the fabric and stitch on it but this time I would graduate the colours of my thread so they were darker in colour at the bottom and lighter in colour at the top, which would echo the gradation in colour in the dyed fabric. Watch out for Gridlock III!

Printed and stitched Christmas Cards

Each year I like to make a few of my Christmas cards and the number I make depends on how much time I have and how long they take to make. This year I have made some very simple and quick cards. This card was printed using a thermofax screen I bought from here at the Knitting and Stitch Show. I covered up the berries, so they didn't print which allowed me to add them later using a high tech skewer dipped in red ink.

 

But I couldn't go without stitching any cards and when I saw the Kutch Christmas Card in Stitch Magazine I thought I would have a go at making it. I really enjoy hand stitching but this made me realise that I don't enjoy it quite so much when every stitch stitch is dictated by a pattern, I find it more enjoyable to stitch more freely. After a number of attempts at this card I just had to give up, it wasn't turning out how it thought it should and the time I was spending on it didn't justify the result. Perhaps I needed to read the instructions more carefully?

 

So I needed a plan B and I found this Pattern on the internet, which is intended to be stitched onto card rather than fabric. I liked the simplicity of the card and it was something I could achieve in the time I had.

 

 

The background fabric was left over from the cushions I made recently. I have been using a number of leftover or discarded pieces of fabric recently and I find that very satisfying. I always knew I right to keep all my 'rejects' and left overs!

 

I reduced the pattern to 80% of it's original size but this taught me a lesson. Instead of reducing the image to a size that pleases me, I will reduce it to a size that fits comfortably inside a readily available aperture card. Actually it's got to be easier not to use aperture cards at all, as I find it difficult to get the fabric taut inside the aperture. As I was stitching these cards an idea suddenly came to me for next year's cards - I just have to try to remember it! Mmm...

 

But this year's card making is probably not over yet as I hope to make some fun cards with my nephew when I see him in December. I've been collecting a few bits and pieces for these cards and I am really looking forward to it. I hope he's as enthusiastic as me because if not ,it'll blow my cover and I'll have to confess it was me that wanted to make them all along!

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I started this post yesterday and it seems that blogger and/or me had a wobble and so I apologise to anyone who saw an unfinished post. Now onto my Christmas cards....