Playing with abstract

Last weekend I took a class run by the local branch of the Embroiderers' Guild, to work with silk fibres and stitching to create a semi-abstract landscape. Well out of my comfort zone as you can imagine :)

The class tutor was the wonderful and very patient Pat Ashton Smith who brought along several examples of her beautiful work to encourage and inspire us.

Having never taken an embroidery class, and certainly never with a group of talented embroiderers I was a bit nervous to say the least, but the ladies in the class couldn't have been more welcoming.

We had been asked to bring along a photo for inspiration and I chose a view from our recent Silk Route trip as my source of inspiration.

This photo was taken from our hotel balcony and shows the spectacular mountains surrounding the city of Almaty. We were fortunate enough to drive up into the mountains later that day and it was equally as stunning looking down on the city.

Armed with my photo and some of these lovely threads bought in a haberdashery in Samarkand, I set off to the class.

Pat provided us each with a pack of Silk Cocoon strippings, which sound much less attractive than they were! They are apparently what is left of the cocoon when the silk thread is removed and are a fluffy, soft handful of fibre. The strippings also contain a natural glue within them, which would be utilised later in the creation of the piece.

We were given free rein in the glorious jumble that was Pat's silk fibre stash, and it was as much fun as it sounds! Having picked our silks we started pulling apart our Silk Cocoon strippings to create the base of our textured landscape.

The base is built up of layers of Silk Cocoon strippings, which are then overlaid with the teased out silk fibres. The base is quite deep at this stage and certainly doesn't look like something that will lend itself to embroidery.

The magic though is in the next stage.

 The base and fibres are sandwiched between two sheets of parchment paper and ironed with a medium-hot iron. The heat of the iron releases the natural glue in the Silk Cocoon strippings and bonds the fibres together. This was when the ladies amongst us who had been particularly generous with the application of their silk fibres learnt to rue that decision! The silk fibres only bonded where they came into direct contact with the cocoon strippings, so heavily overlapping sections were almost impossible to bond. This wasn't particularly a problem if the loose fibres were intended to be stitched down with the embroidery, but wasn't so great if they were to make up a large part of a hedge, or sky.

Fortunately, most of my fibres bonded well enough and those that were maybe a bit loose would eventually be covered up with the embroidery for the trees.

So, here is how my piece is looking now! At the class I added the seed stitching for the mountain crevices and some back stitch for the sky. At home I have enjoyed using some variegated threads purchased at the class to add in the trees, I have no idea what the stitch I have used for them is called as I discovered it in a quilting and embroidery book that I bought in Tallinn, so the text is all in Estonian! I am sure someone will rectify that when I go to the next class though :)

Next up is some more stitching for the bare branches in the foreground and to work out how to add the magpie! All suggestions welcome :)

Quick gift for Father's Day

When the lovely Kellie at Plush Addict asked me if I would be interested in writing a guest tutorial for her blog featuring some fabric from her wonderful store, she didn't need to ask twice :)

At the same time my son was looking for a new and improved holder for his CD's on his long drives to and from work. Having all your CD's fall out as you round a bend is not a great idea, it seems!

If you know a music-loving motorist that would appreciate a handmade gift this coming Father's Day, head on over to Plush Addict to find out how to make your own Visor CD wallet.

Waiting for Wonky

This month's block request for the Fat Stash Brit Bee came from Nikki, who requested a scrappy Improv block along the lines of the blocks in Lu Summer's Quilt Improv quilt book.

Now, as it happens I have Lu Summer's book as my parents gave me a copy for Christmas. It is a lovely book, but like Nikki I have only browsed through it and dreamt of making something similar but never actually got around to it. Time to pull out the book then and have a go!

Nikki sent a lovely bundle of scraps that easily separated into a warm and a cool pile so that's what I did. Next up I browsed through the book and thought that I might have a go at Lu's Quarter Circle block. Then I decided against that, I might be happy attempting curved seams for myself but I am certainly not up to inflicting my attempts at curved seams AND improv on anyone else just yet :)

Chevrons seemed like a better way to go!

Well, it didn't quite work out as planned as you can see!

It was only as I was putting the strips together that I realised I had completely skipped the instruction to change the strip placement from lower to higher on the second and fourth strips. As you have probably guessed by now from several other mishaps, angles and more specifically visualising them in fabric really isn't my thing. Perhaps I should have stuck to curves after all :)

Somewhat chastened by my lack of chevrons in the first block I decided to play safe, surely not the point of improv I know, and go back to basics.

This block is reminiscent of the slab blocks from the Sunday Morning Quilts book that I made for my first Bee. I hope it fits the bill.

Do tell me how you tackle improv piecing, as clearly I could do with some tips!

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