Keeping You Interested!!

I am very conscious of the fact that a lot of what I do is very repetitive. I am not complaining, my main work, the 'wrapping cloth' series is really important to me and I love everything about that creative process, the constant creation of embroidered text, the subsequent distortion of that text, the sampling of other techiniques to compliment each cloth, it's all a true labour of love. Having said that, I think it would be extremely tedious if you came here each time and saw nothing but text etc etc. I think it's also really important, as a creative person, to constantly try and push boundaries, come up with new ideas, ideas that I can hopefully use further down the line to compliment existing and ongoing projects. With that in mind I have been busy with this, do you remember the post when I spied an idea from looking at the back of this work?




Well, this morning I cut some templates from an iron on embroidery transfer. This is one of the modern transfers, why don't they make them blue anymore?????



And hey presto.....the template becomes the feature of the patchwork piece. I am sure there are more possibilities from this technique and I am definitely going to look at this further. For the moment though, I really want to push on with the text hexagons and get near to completion of my current cloth. I feel happier now, knowing I have at least given you something different to look at today.

Yesterday I went to Leeds. I was out until the early hours of this morning supporting my son and his band in a 'battle of the bands' competition. They are SOOOOOOOOOOO good, (o.k. I know I am biased,) but they really are, check them out here and well done to James, Chris, Allisia, Al and Patrick for storming through to the next round!

It's good to be home again after my litle foray over the border! I decided whilst I was away that I need a laptop....(in my dreams) I couldn't bear being away from this little baby and had withdrawals from checking my stats. I have an obsession with checking EVERY single visitor to my blog. Looking at where they are in the world, how long they spent on which page etc etc. Sad I know, but I don't care. That is quite a task on a daily basis, but when you have three days to check it becomes mammoth. No it's not a laptop I need, I need to get a life!
Anyway, after much stat checking I decided to make a concerted effort to finish my cloth. You will not be suprised to see that we have images here of text and hexagons. These are such a fundamental part of what I do that they will appear here regularly. Well maybe not hexagons, but text......definitely. I hope to have this cloth finished within the next week but there are still a lot of hexagons to make and join together so wish me luck.




Regular readers of this blog will know that I am always thinking about my next project. With that in mind I have been looking at some of my samples. I quite fancy making some broderie anglaise edges so have been staring at these trying to imagine shapes, patterns etc and wondering should I combine a little vinatage lace here and there. Decisions, decisions.

On another subject, the lovely Jenny Flower has given me an award. If it's ok with her I am going to take a couple of days to think about this one, it's much appreciated though, thanks Jenny. Also, in the next few days I intend to sort out my link list. I have come across some lovely blogs lately that I would like to add and maybe remove a couple of old ones that I don't visit so much anymore. Must go, my hexagons are calling!

Phew!! At Last...

I managed to get these three 'mini cloths' in the shop this morning. Now I know this feels like it has dragged on and on and on......(or is it just me who feels like that?) but I was working as fast as my poor abused, pricked and stabbed fingers would let me. I am so envious of people like illustrators etc because they can print zillions of images and hey presto....a shop full. And there's me with a pathetic three after what seems like eons. I would like to say though that I ADORE the work of a lot of illustrators, such a talent. When I first started this blog I used to go on about how I wish I could do it, I honestly feel that I am highly frustrated illustrator, sadly I can't draw to save my life. So I carry on with my embroidery, and yes, I am truly a happy embroiderer, I just wish I was a faster embroiderer.





I have to go to Scotland for two days tomorrow, back on sunday. I don't know how I am going to cope without access to my computer, the withdrawals have started already! One advantage, I am going to Carlisle at some point in the trip. It will be good to see how the place has changed, if it has. I met my husband there, got married there and had my first baby there, so lots of memories.
Thanks for bearing with me with this work, Now I have to make progress with my cloth, find something else to post next time (I really don't want to bore you all with continuous images of damp stretching text), a piece of cake eh!

I have hardly done any work at all these past two days. Various events have overtaken me (I won't share because I don't want you all yawning and falling asleep) Anyway, the upshot is that my 'mini cloths' will not be ready for the shop until at least thursday and my latest Wrapping Cloth is severely neglected. I did manage to tack some transfer printed fabric onto petal templates last night as a finish for one of the mini cloths, hopefully these will be appliqued and damp stretched by the morning, fingers crossed!


On another subject, I delivered these two cloths to a gallery in Bacup this morning. I didn't even get lost on the way which is an achievement for me. I have absolutely no sense of direction, I even turn the wrong way coming out of my own front door.....I kid you not!

Quick Update

Feeling a lot better today so I got up early and attacked my work with determination. The three mini cloths are almost finished. I am at the basting, pinning and tacking stage. I feel like I am on a roll, so can't stop....... work to do!

Still Playing Catch Up!

This cold must like it at my house because it doesn't seem to want to move on at all. It is beginning to annoy me now as I think it's really holding me back. I haven't touched my cloth for days, it seems too overwhelming at the moment but I am determined to make progress with it at the weekend regardless of unwelcome visitors. In the meantime I have been working on a couple more 'mini cloths' for the shop. I already have this one and now one more is almost finished with another comming along nicely.
This will be the second one, quite heavilly embellished with vintage lace appliqued onto the surface here and there. Some areas also have petal applique using vintage embroidery transfers. As you can probably see there is also some text, ever present in my work.





I decided to create a little pocket on this one with a bound buttonhole and vintage linen button.

The third 'mini cloth' has some cutwork and surface embroidery. I still need to decide what else I will put with this and am leaning towards a small smocked panel at the moment.

Unlike the embroidered samples in the shop which need to be placed in a frame, the 'mini cloths' will be fully backed and have a hanging mechanism in place. I think these little rings, which I have bound with cotton tape, are probably the most suitable solution.

Decision Time and Lack of Progress

I think you are all going to have to bear with me for a while. There hasn't been a lot of embroidery going on around here these past two days. I have a STINKING cold and it is extremely difficult to embroider onto white silk whilst you are sneezing at the rate of approximately 10 times a minute. (o.k. maybe slightly exaggerated but it certainly feels like it happens that often) What I have managed to do however is join some hexagons together for my cloth. They still have the tacking stitches in place, hence the scruffy stitches you can see.




I decided this morning to have a play with all the bits of my cloth to see where everything would look best placed. I also wanted to have a play with my latest mini cloth, try and get some ideas for finishing, edges etc. So this is how my table looks today, with fingers crossed for a cessation of sneezing.




Here I am still deciding where to place the patchwork section when it is complete, (which may be some time the way things are going) I absolutely love this piece of work, my favourite part being how well the embroidered cotton tape sits on the silk, the contrast.

This cloth is going to be the first one I try on etsy. It will be interesting to see if it sells there and if it does o.k. that is probably going to become my main outlet. Exhibitions are a good way of getting your name known but I am beginning to question the wisdom of having my work tied up in a venue for six weeks, gaining recognition and compliments, but without sales. Sometimes I think it's just a very expensive ego trip.

I am off to find a tissue!!

Progress, Sneak Peek and Kind Words

I have begun to stitch my embroidered text and trailing floral patches to the card templates. This is when the making of a cloth becomes extremely time consuming, I never have enough templates or embroidered patches so consequently need to spend at least another full day embroidering more and another day damp stretching. I tend not to beat myself up about not having enough of either, making my cloths is such a pleasure, I suspect if they took a year I would still enjoy creating each one.




In the meantime I thought I would give you a sneaky peek at the now finished mini cloth. I am currently trying to make at least another two of these and when that is done I intend to put them in the shop. You can see here how I have joined the applique piece to the patchwork text hexagons and also how the prairie point edge looks on the finished piece.




Another reason to be happy today is this review I received on blogged. Many thanks to the lovely Camilla of Made by Milla.

9.7!!!!!!! Ta very much!!!

Productive Saturday and New Friends

I had a great day yesterday, great because I got loads of work done and feel I am making real progress with my latest cloth, whilst my brain is doing its job coming up with lots of ideas for other work. Now I just need to have a word with someone about extending each day by about four hours and everything will be perfect! First off I cut out all my card templates for the hexagon patchwork, very tedious, but as you know I like tedious, time consuming etc etc etc,



Then I cut out my damp stretched embroidered hexagons,




and my damp stretched embroidered text hexagons.





I even sacrificed a little blood for the sake of my art. Very noble I know, but a total waste of one embroidered patch.




I also made some prairie points to edge one side of the 'mini cloth' I have been working on. This will most likely find its way into the shop, but not on its own, I think I will have to make a couple more to put in there with it.





When I dragged myself out of bed today I discovered that my stats had gone through the roof. The reason for that being Jude of Spirit Cloth kindly bigging me up and adding me as a link. Take a look at her blog, it is really exciting.

I want to thank everyone who came here from her link and I hope you come back again every once in a while.