Small stitching

 Recently I have been enjoying myself with some new embroidery projects. I have long wanted to improve my free machine embroidery but never really known where to start :( However, a few months ago I had an opportunity to watch classes with  Wendy Dolan and Pat Archibald which were the perfect opportunity to kickstart that wanted improvement. 

As it happened I already had Wendy Dolan's book Layer, Paint and Stitch and just before lockdown last year had purchased a Pat Archibald kit, so having the chance to take a class with both of them (albeit remotely) was too good to miss. 

The Pat Archibald kit was called "Twilight on the Moor" and was really straightforward to do. As you can see it involved piecing the strips of fabric together and then some wavy line quilting to attach the pieced fabric to the backing. You can just see at the bottom of the piece the beaded embroidery embellishment. The kit also contained metallic foil and glue granules to add a bit of shimmer. I wasn't overly happy with how that turned out as it took a couple of attempts and the glue granules seemed to be concentrated in the same spot so the shimmer is not quite as light and random as I would have liked! Overall though I am pleased with it and would definitely give the metallic foils and glue granules another go. After I had completed this I came across a video tutorial in which Pat Archibald recommends using an old salt shaker for scattering the glue granules and I think that would probably have solved the problems I had with the granules clumping together.

It was possible to buy a kit for Wendy Dolan's class too but I decided to go with what I had on hand. The background is painted calico and the sea is free machine embroidery with various threads and scraps of organza. I really enjoyed having a go at this. I used a mix of metallic and polyester threads for the machine embroidery and scraps of whatever organza I could find. It was difficult at times to get the tension right with all of the different threads being used but I got there in the end. 

 

 

Here on the West Coast we are lucky enough to experience some amazing sunsets so I would like to have another go at these techniques with a palette similar to the above sometime.

Emboldened by the classes I have been using free machine embroidery in the Embroiderers Guild Artist Trading Card swap I am taking part in. The theme for the first one was January brings the Snow, and I used FME for the bare trees in the foreground.

February thaws the frozen ponds again was the theme for the second one. The ripples in the puddle are hand-embroidered with beads for the splashes and the boots and legs are Free Machine Appliqued. I really enjoyed this one :)

March brings breezes was the theme for the latest one. I could not get my head around this one for ages so it ended up being very last minute :) I had lots of ideas about dancing daffodil fairies but in the end went for a pieced background with a hand embroidered wind when I ran out of time! 

Whilst this swap was in progress the Embroiderers Guild pulled the rug out from under the membership by freezing all the Branch Bank Accounts and advising members that Branches would cease to exist! As you can imagine tensions ran high with legal challenges being proposed and petitions being set up. It has been an interesting few weeks :) 

Lost Connections

 The start of a new month and it's time for another Endeavourers  reveal and the theme for this quarter is Memories. As ever the problem is pinning down a project for the theme from the multitude of ideas floating around in my head :)

 

 During my deliberations I kept coming back to Alzheimer's devastating effect on my Dad's memory in the last couple of years of his life. Lost Connections above is my attempt at representing some of the confusion and frustration that he, and we, felt as the disease took an ever stronger grip on him.

 

 I started by creating a collage of family photos which were then printed on to fabric by Print me Pretty 

 

Then I pulled fabrics from my stash to represent the layers of confusion behind which my Dad's memories were hidden.

 

I decided to use the same technique for this quilt that I had used for my Tucked Away Treehouse for the Endeavourers Improv Challenge, so these fabrics were layered up over the background photo squares for 6 of the 9 blocks. 

Then using the techiques from Ann Small's Layered Cloth, the fabrics were stitched together and the layers then slashed. As you can see I used a mixture of parallel lines, squares and concentric circles for the stitching and slashing. 

Two of the remaining 3 blocks, my parents' wedding photo and a photo of my Mum, were backed and outline quilted.

 The final block, a photo of my Dad, was also backed and outline quilted but it was covered with two layers of organza before being edged with a zig-zag stitch. 

These three blocks portray the strongest recollections my Dad had during this time. I suspect that if he had lived longer it may not have remained the case, but throughout his illness he did not lose the knowledge of who and what my Mum was to him. 

The strength of that connection is also portrayed in the thick, multi-coloured thread joining the two photo blocks.

I used this Newspaper Yarn (from Oliver Twist) to connect the blocks vertically and when one of the lengths snapped as I was stitching I decided to leave it in place as an apt accompaniment for the fraying blocks. 

Once again this Endeavourers Challenge has been a really interesting and thought provoking project to work on. Each step of the process makes me question and ultimately justify my choices of technique and materials to best represent my chosen theme. Needless to say there are always things that I might do differently were I to repeat the project. Unusually though, this Lost Connections quilt is pretty close to the idea I had in my head at the start of the process so I can't ask for better than that! 

As always my thanks go to Catherine and Janine for hosting the Endeavourers Group and organising these challenges so well. Head on over to the Endeavourers blog to find out how my fellow Endeavourers responded to this theme.

 

You win some, you lose some

 Sewing clothes for my grandsons is definitely testing my abilities and not just my ability to stitch a straight line! I have been making more tops for the boys, and matching patterns has again been a challenge.

First up a Snowman top for the littler grandson

and a win! A Snowman the right way up :)

Next up, a much more ambitious Octopus Hoodie for the older grandson. Some wins here too

Check out the pattern matching on that front pocket! I confess to being a little bit thrilled when I saw that :)

Sadly the joy did not last, unbeknownst to me there was a disaster waiting in the wings!

 

 I hadn't realised until I put it together that I had cut the hood pieces out upside down because what I thought would be the top of the hood when it was sewn was actually going to be the bottom. So those octopi and boats you see above are all going to be upside down when the hood is worn up! Naturally when I realised that I also discovered that I didn't have enough material left to cut out another two hood pieces :( 

Rather than ditch the hood altogether ( I was tempted!) I decided to soldier on and hope that my grandson wouldn't even notice.

Fortunately he didn't and neither did his parents until I told them!

This snuggly Bear top for the littler grandson restored my faith though.

A perfectly placed hedgehog made me so happy :) 

Then just for a change a double-sleeved Fair Isle t-shirt for his big brother. I have actually had this fabric since the recipient was a baby so it was really good to finally get around to making something for him with it. 

You can no doubt imagine the happy dance that ensued when I saw these stripes :) Fortunately there was no patterns to match up or make sure they were the right way up with my last makes for them.

Given the length of the queues outside our local Post Office before Christmas, these outfits were made up into several parcels that would fit in the letterbox at the end of our road to be sent off. I am happy to report that they all arrived safely and the recipients were pleased to receive them. The little chocolate gifts inside each parcel might have had something to do with that too though :)