Colour

With the work I have been doing recently I have obviously been thinking about colour a lot. My pure white palette was in existence for so long that I had become almost ignorant of colour and its possibilities. So I searched for this book amongst the boxes and bags.....and yes...I still have boxes and bags, I'm such a tramp!! (no sorting out or organising at all this week)
I put this book together as part of my degree course. I was exploring transfer dyes for printing, attempting to come up with a unique colour palette for a project. I love this book now, at the time I hated it. It seemed so tedious mixing tiny amounts of one colour with tiny amounts of another and painstakingly recording it all. Now though I am so happy I persevered, it's a delightful record of colour. It has helped me a lot with recent work, referring to it for colour matching etc. Believe it or not I actually know some people who threw away so much work when they finished the course, how happy am I that I am not one of them. I love to be reminded of Uni and more importantly I love to be able to refer to all this work when I need to.

There really hasn't been much embroidery going on this week. I have been so tired and other stuff has needed doing. Cushion four is, wait for it, in the rubbish bin! I just didn't like how the embroidery was turning out so it had to go. All is not lost though, every negative sampling brings new thoughts and I am going to start again tonight so all is not lost. Every experience can teach us something can't it.

Have a lovely weekend, I hope to see you on sunday! x

Flowers (and cushions) everywhere!

Thanks so much for all the great comments here and on FLICKR about my cushions. I really do appreciate them and yay!!! I sold one of the first two I made on saturday! In honour of that occasion and to keep my cushion numbers consistent and also (the main reason) because I just love making them here is another one!! This one is rectangular with a pocket closure (like a pillow case), and is also in the shop.
For all my good intentions, work seems to have taken over somewhat since I went back yesterday. I know it's only day two after the holidays but I am so exhausted. By the time I get home, sort out the meal, clear away the dishes, it's 7pm and I have very little time for embroidery. I suppose I get spoilt in the holidays just picking it up as I please but it's mightily frustrating not being able to embroider whenever I get the urge, which as you can imagine is every minute!

I am working on cushion number four, very slowly but working all the same. I am going to try and add another dimension to this one, hopefully give it something of an edge, something that makes it stand out from your normal every day cushion.

The book, well the book is still a big part of my plan for the coming weeks. My problem is spending time on the computer when I could be sewing. I am in need of more discipline I think, set aside time for computers and time for embroidery. Having said that I did manage to create and order some new business cards on sunday, they should be here soon fingers crossed. I also decided to sell these, so they have been seperated and listed in the shop. They would only have lived in a drawer for the rest of their lives so why not.

Have a great week, I am off to embroider before bedtime!

Proof of some kind of domesticity going on...

Told you I would show you the proof.....proof that I have done almost zilch to get my humble abode back to normal! Also proof that my priorities are in order though. These are my lovely new hooks, hooks to hang my work and keep it safe from all the debris that is lurking here, I can sleep soundly now.
In all seriousness I do need to employ a decorator but you know I am so fed up of the upheaval caused by the building that I want order for a while, even if it is undecorated, box filled order. I need quiet, no intrusion from strangers, peace to gather thoughts and make plans. If you could see my new room, and I daren't show you, it is blue in one half, the half that was my son's room, with football posters on the wall that wasn't disturbed, a football lampshade and a blue carpet. The other half is lilac, it was my daughters room, with a pretty beaded lampshade and a pale carpet. Down the middle I have the most glorious stripe of wooden floorboard where the wall used to be, and the ceiling, well I am sure you can imagine! The point is that although it is horrendous it is clean, I cleaned the dust and debris, and when a decorator gets in there it is going to mean mess, stripped paper, paint fumes and everything else unpleasant. So there it is, I can't face it, not at the moment anyway. I would much rather think of embroidery, have happy zero stressful thoughts.
Incase you are wondering aswel, my children haven't suddenly become roomless!! My daughter no longer lives here, (sob, sob) and my son has moved into our old room which we have transformed into a perfect bachelor pad for him. Infact it is so nice in there I am thinking of turfing him out and swapping back!!

I also want to tell you about a piece that is hanging here. (photo above) The pretty floral fabric is the cover that used to be on my daughters baby basket. She slept in the basket for her first 8 weeks and then I gave it to a friend of my mum for her new grandaughter. What I didn't know was that my mum removed and kept the cover all these years. She gave it to me this week and I am so happy she had that thought, it will be treasured.

Now back to the supposed point of this blog, boy have I rabbited on today, sorry! I wanted to show you this, this is the back of my latest work. I think it is really appealing, textural and I had to share.

And here is the front and the completion of this weeks work. Two cushions that I had so much fun making. One fastens with buttons and rouleau loops the other with a little foldover pocket that shows on the front as opposed to the back for no other reason than I like to be different. I have put both of these in the shop and would obviously be delighted if they sold if only so I had an excuse to make some more!! I get the feeling I will make some more anyway then I can put them in my gorgeous room when I eventually achieve gorgeousness in there!!

Well it's back to work on monday. I know some of you work in schools like me and you too are going back. Let's have some mutual empathy going on, I will definitely be thinking about all of you, only six and a half weeks to the Easter break so it will be a piece of cake! (I keep telling myself that) I have so much to do in these next 24 hours, things to make and photograph for midweek posting. Somehow I think it will be a struggle to get two posts in before next weekend but I am sure going to try.

Have a great weekend.x

I'm having so much fun!

Following on from my sampling I have been making this. This piece is now finished, made into a 'product'. I don't want to show you yet because I am in the process of making another one and that will be another post for the weekend. It is such fun doing these little coloured pieces, sorting through my threads, picking colours and using cotton cloth.

I have even made some matching buttons which finish this perfectly.

This is the second one I am working on. It hasn't been damp stretched yet and the tacking outline of the design is still visible. Hopefully I will have this finished at the weeknd and then I can show you properly what I have been up to!

and rouleau loops have been made too!! It is such a long time since I made any of these and they look really good on the finished work.

Holidays are nearly over........I still have so much I want to do. There hasn't been much going on 'house' wise except the hooks for my work are hung and my pieces are all hanging safely. ( got my priorities right don't you think?) If I get a bright day at the weekend I will try and take pictures of that if only to prove I have done something to begin sorting out the mess.

Last week I sold a piece of work to Sabrina in New York. Today the hearts for my shop had rocketed and I wondered what was going on, had I been on the front page in the middle of the night or something? Well no, check this out, I am so honoured to be complimented by a curator from the American Museum of Art and Design!! In fact I am in shock and am going for a lie down in a darkened room!

Everything stops for embroidery.............

Builders, what builders? Finally they have left, left me with an upside down inside out house. I was going to show you pictures but I decided I didn't want chaos in blogworld, only pleasant things welcome here. To be fair they have done a sterling A1 job, that however didn't stop me wanting to inflict injury on them whilst they were creating mess in places I didn't even know existed. No offence.....but I hope never to clap eyes on them again! I hope they live long, healthy, prosperous lives, just not in the vacinity of my little house. I have boxes to empty, decorators to employ, 'things' to sort out but hey, embroidery, embroidery is the only thing my brain wants to contemplate. ( I will concede to having bought some rather nice hooks to hang my work on, my concession to home improvement thoughts)
After my urge to stitch following my ebay purchases I have been doing a little sampling. I absolutely love these, four little samples that have led to a bigger piece which I hope to show you later in the week.

You can see here that my folding obsession continues. What is it about folded cloth? I even have my eye on a little white cupboard with a pretty glass door in which I can place folded cloth. It will be of no use for anything practical but my folded cloth will look gorgeous. If I give in to temptation and buy it I will definitely show you.

I have worked these pieces on 100% cotton cloth in DMC floss, 2 strands. I have huge amounts of DMC floss, every colour imaginable that I have collected over the years, some given to me and some I bought myself. My phobia of using colour is getting closer to being cured evry day!!

I want to say thankyou to everyone who wished me well when I was under the weather. I really do feel much better now. Holiday's continue for the rest of the week, more embroidery, yay!! Maybe, if I can be persuaded, a little sorting out will also happen..........but don't hold your breath!

Inspiration

Hi! I meant to post early this week but it has been horrendous here, dust, builders, boxes, rubbish and to cap it off I have been unwell. Some kind of gastric thing the doc says so although I have been off work for three whole days almost nothing pleasurable has taken place at all. One good thing did come from this health hiccup though, plenty of time to browse online and look what I got off ebay! The most beautiful vinatge cloths, I put my bids in and waited and waited. I got beaten to it on another two but I am not very good at this auction thing, I don't have the patience or the inclination to watch the clock go down and pounce, credit card in hand to out bid some stranger who obviously wants something more than I do.
I couldn't believe how opening these packages and handling these pieces of cloth inspired me. I felt a compelling urge to stitch, honestly, I was so excited. ( does that sound like I need to get out more?? Maybe to some people but I know there are others who will totally understand what I am talking about) These pieces reminded me of how much pleasure I got from making 'wrapping cloth eight'. I had truly enjoyed the use of colour in that, colours like those our grandmothers would have used.

Then I found this, in amongst all the debris, a sample from about two years ago, very simple stitching on cotton fabric using similar colours to those in my vintage cloth.

Then I came across these, samples I had made to use in my teaching practice when I was doing my PGCE. Heavy 'proper' hand embroidery, time consuming and extremely satisfying to create.

This one has to be my favourite, it's probably the placement of the flowers, I like order and precision although you wouldn't believe me if you could see my house at the moment!! In a funny kind of way I also love the spaces, the white emptiness.

So here I am, a highly excited, inspired embroiderer with a very sore stomach itching to stitch! I am on it, new work has begun. I don't know what it will be yet, it may turn into an edge for swaddling band two, a new swaddling band, a component of a totally different piece I have been ruminating on, who knows, definitely not me yet. Enjoy what is left of the week, holidays next week (yipee) and hopefully more embroidery and lots of blogging.