January 2012 – Dreaming In Stitches

Typical isn’t it – can’t finish a piece of tapestry for months, then complete two in two weeks.

Well, alright, a bit of a cheat really, as the Dunstanburgh Castle piece was much smaller and I was trying to see how long an A4 sized tapestry could take.

Here it is…

It’s a mix of tapestry wool, crewel wool, space-dyed rayon and pure silk (courtesy of the sale of Debbie Bliss silk, at my local shop).

Although I painted the canvas before working it, I found the white squares very off-putting while I was sewing. I had to take regular breaks because I was developing a nasty fuzzy sight effect – presumably from constantly looking at all those squares.

I really am going to have to make the effort to find a more sympathetic canvas.

It used to be fairly easy to get different types of canvas, but lately, it’s become much more difficult. The local wool shop used to carry a reasonable stock, but now, they’ve almost given up on canvas completely. You can buy a small range of kits and they still have Anchor or DMS wools, but that’s pretty much it.

I’m going to have to do some research to find suppliers – preferably in real shops – I just need to feel the canvas and see the yarns, which is very hard to do from websites – although websites seem to be the only places I can get most of my materials now. Are we such a dying breed, that it’s not worth stocking yarns and canvasses?

I’ve been a bit quiet for the last few days – nothing new there – but this time, it’s for a reason…I have finished the big piece!

Finally, the fingers were functioning well enough, and in fact, there was surprisingly little still to do.

Here it is.

Most of the time that I’ve been working on it, I’ve called it ‘the big piece’ (it’s about 50cm x 80cm, if you were wondering), but as I came to the end, I kept thinking of the word firmament, so that’s what I’m going to call it.

This has been the largest single piece of needlepoint that I’ve ever made. I feels like a long time now, since the car boot sale, when I picked up the offcuts of upholstery canvas and a bag of tapestry wools, last spring. It’s been incredibly good value for money, as it’s kept me out of trouble for months. (OK, I might be turning the proverbial blind-eye to the cost of additional wools and silks, but I don’t worry about little things like that…)

So, there it is. Soon to be consigned to the pile of other pieces I’ve made over the last few years. I can’t bear to make any more cushions with them, so they’ll have to sit on the shelf until I find the inspiration to do something with them.

Working on loose weave upholstery canvas has been the biggest eye-opener for me on this project. It has a life all its own and behaves quite differently to the usual canvas, with its regimented lines of perfect squares. As soon as the weather picks up, I’m going to be out there in car boot land, looking for some more supplies – unless that is, anyone can point me in the direction of a supplier which doesn’t involve trudging round muddy fields?

Onwards then. Nature abhors a vacuum, apparently – so I’m already well on the way with Dunstanburgh Castle. I decided to make this roughly A4 sized, to see how long it would take to sew it and also to give it a marginally useful life after sewing – I’m looking for ways to put the tapestry out into the real world, other than in cushions.