needlepoint – Page 3 – Dreaming In Stitches

Tree updates…

Well there’s good news and there’s bad news…

On the positive side, I have finished stitching the tree.

Sadly however, like everything else stitched on this scrim, it has succeeded in doing a very good impression of the Leaning Tower of Pisa…

I’ve cropped the picture above so you can see the scale of the problem – to be square, the stitched area should reach all four corners – oh dear.

I’d been discussing ways to stretch it over a frame with the Other Half, but I’m afraid the angle is going to be too extreme. So now I’m wondering about stitching a complementary colour into the missing corners.

So perhaps not quite so finished as I hoped.

)O(

In other news, I have started a new piece. After all the tent stitching in tree, I’ve decided to go for texture in the new work, so lots of different stitching this time. I’ll post about it another day, but if you want a preview, take a look at the little widget I’ve added on the bottom right hand column – it’s my latest Instagram snaps.

I have to thank Elizabeth at Bottle Branch for alerting this techno-laggard to Instagram (huge thanks Elizabeth!) – she mentioned in a recent comment, that the Daily Tree Project would be ideal for Instagram, and I wanted to know more about it. I wasn’t sure at first – I’m not the biggest social media type you’ll find, but when I saw that I could incorporate it into this blog, it seemed to be the perfect way to give snapshots without doing a full post. (I think if you follow me on Twitter, you should also get a link to new snaps).

So if you scroll down there, you’ll find snaps from the new embroidery and today’s tree photo. I really like the idea of putting snaps up more often, although I’ll still do a proper monthly Daily Tree Project update post. So if anyone is interested in a more up-to-date glimpse into the current WIP or the latest tree pics, feel free to scroll down and have a look. (If you click on the snaps, you’ll see a bigger version).

Happy stitching.

)O(

Mid-month update…

slow stitching

Plodding on, and on…

The end isn’t in sight – yet – but I think I must be over half way by now….I ripped it out of the frame this morning to take a quick picture while the sun made a rare appearance.

The giant clips I bought a few weeks ago are a tremendous hit. If you are working to a pattern, or have worked out in detail exactly which colour you want where, then it might be possible to roll up the canvas on a traditional frame and just work the parts that are visible as you get to them, but that’s not the way I like to do it. I’ve realised that I stitch in much the same way that I paint – so I need to be able to see the whole design all the time (or near as damn it). This is much easier to do with the new clips, because they’re so easy to put on and off – they also cope well with the extra thickness of the stitched areas – my old clips (the ones that came with the frame), simply ping off as soon as the canvas gets too thick.

Working with a lot of 4ply knitting wools in this piece has made me start to plot what I’m going to do next. I’ve completely fallen in love with the texture and the stitch definition of these wools, they are a dream to sew with and ideal for the tiny hole size in the linen scrim that I’m using. So I’ll be on the look-out over the coming weeks for the colours I’ll be using on the next piece. I haven’t quite got as far as a proper plan, but the little grey cells are certainly having fun.

Happy stitching!

-)O(-

Waiting…

slow stitching

The word of the week here is WAITING….

Perhaps that should be anticipating.

I’m waiting for some new crewel threads to arrive for the current project – I’d sorted out the yarns I was going to use for the rest of it, but the tapestry wools were just proving too thick for the scrim – not fun to deal with, so I’ve ordered a selection of solid colours to complement the delicious 4-plys I’m already using.

My excitement at embroidery actually making it to the TV last week, has set me off feeling experimental – so I’m also waiting for a delivery of different canvas materials – I want to see what I can do with some alternative base fabrics – well it’s good to flex those creative muscles from time to time. I know I’m never going to be a proper embroiderer, but give me a piece of loose-weave canvas and well – who knows…

I’m also waiting for some extra long and strong bulldog clips to arrive – these will – I hope – make it easier to clip the thicker parts of the worked canvas to the frame (this is what passes as technical stuff around here) – suffice to say, the air can get quite blue around me when the plastic clips ping off the frame, leaving the canvas floppy and recalcitrant – I’m pinning great hopes on these new clips.

And a BTW – I’m eagerly anticipating the arrival of my new field guide to mushrooms (readers at Mostly Motley will remember) – found the recommended title online second-hand and a bargain to boot – thank you Catherine.

In the meantime, happy stitching.

-)O(-

The story so far…

slow stitching

It’s very nearly the end of the month, so I thought I’d show you a quick update on the current piece I’m stitching. I haven’t given it a proper name yet, although the astute amongst you might be able to see a tree hidden in the pattern, and I suppose tree might feature in the name eventually, but I’ll wait to see if it shows itself more clearly as I stitch, or whether it decides to remain obscure.

So don’t get too excited, this is slow art remember…

Nearly two months in and perhaps a quarter done.

I know you’ll be questioning the sanity of anyone who opts to use tent stitch only on a piece that’s the best part of 2′ square, but what can I say – it feels right to me, or should I say it makes me feel right, because there is undoubtedly a soothing sensation that comes with the act of stitching something relatively fine. And after the textures of the last piece, the urge to create something smooth was undeniable.

Many of us find a peace from the process of stitch – in its many forms – and this is especially true for me in this piece. There is nothing extraordinary about filling little areas of scrim with yarn, and yet, inch by inch, as I sew, the focus of my mind changes and I know I’m calming down, feeling tranquil. It’s that transformation that I love – the fact that at the end I can see a little more filled in canvas, is just an added bonus.

I continue to be delighted with the way both Natalie and Victoria’s knitting wools are performing, they stitch brilliantly, but best of all, as the tiny sections of colour grow and you stroke your finger over it, it feels soft and warm – it’s sensual.

I’ve started to incorporate a few sections in silk. It’s much more of the prima donna to work with – there are creative tantrums, but I want the occasional shininess to slip into the piece and silk does it like nothing else, so in it goes – in moderation.

So there you are – at this rate probably not going to be ready by Christmas, but that’s ok.

Happy stitching!

-)O(-

Spiralling in blue…

heritage hunting, slow stitching

When you doodle, is there a recurring shape or pattern that always seems to flow through you? For me it’s a spiral – if I’m chatting on the phone, looking for inspiration or waiting for the next question at the pub quiz, I can be quite sure to be doodling in spirals.

And so I don’t find it surprising that I seem to be drawn to spirals I see around me.

This one is a special spiral because it combines all my favourite things – spirals, shades of blue, shiny bits and best of all, can you guess….

yep, pigs!

This particular pig is Sulis. If you go to Bath, you can find him behind Bath Abbey. He was made by Natasha Rampley and was one of the Bath pigs who adorned the city for a public art project in 2008. They’ve all gone off to good homes (I hope) now, but if you want to see them, they all have their pictures on the King Bladud’s Pigs website.

Happy Stitching.

-)O(-

PS: Just so you know, if you’re seeing any adverts on my blog, it’s WordPress, not me putting them there. If I’m feeling flush one of these days, I’ll go ad-free, until then, please forgive.

Pebbles in the mind…

heritage hunting, slow stitching

One of the analogies for the process of meditation that I love, is the one about the busy mind being like water rippling over stones – still your thoughts and you’ll be able to see the stones that lie beneath.

I rarely manage to see the ‘stones’ – but every time I walk along a river bank and see pebbles, that image comes to mind.

This little photo was taken last month on the banks of the River Findhorn in Scotland.

Although I so often work tapestries in bright colours, part of me is aching to translate these natural tones and textures into yarns. But so far, my imagination and my hands haven’t found a way to communicate effectively. Oh well, it’s filed away somewhere in the recesses of my mind – maybe one day my subconscious will see a way forward.

At least my old worries about achieving the palette are beginning to fade – I’ve seen some knitting wools that would work perfectly.

Time to let the still mind do it’s work.

Back in the frame…

slow stitching

Oh what a summer! I’d almost forgotten what it was like to have weeks and weeks of warmth and sunshine. As expected, with the girls at home there was no blogging – I tried to keep up with blog reading, but even that eventually ran away from me, but things will return to normal – I hope!

Although there were no updates, there has been some stitching on the new piece – albeit mostly snatched half hours, between taxiing the girls and cooking endless cheese toasties. This is where I am today…

This is the new piece painted up - in alcohol inks. — This is the new piece painted up – in alcohol inks.

I’m sticking to the plan of using only tent stitch or derivatives for this piece (which also has no name as yet). There was so much texture in Splodge that I feel the need to go flat again for a while. But I am having a wonderful time trying out new yarns. In addition to the lovely yarns from Natalie Fergie, I’m also incorporating a couple from Victoria at Eden Cottage Yarns. They are perfect for working in this linen scrim and give me the tonal variations I was looking for. It seems to me that this is the route I’m going for the future – needlepoint yarns are fine, but there is so much variety and texture available from knitting yarn dyers – it’s a wonderful resource for people like me – and using so much, it makes far better sense to buy larger quantities.

During the summer, I realised that I have hundreds (well in fact that’s probably thousands) of photographs, sitting on my computer, taken because there’s something I like about a scene, a colour or a texture – but they just stay there, rarely revisited. So I thought I might try an experiment and put up the occasional photograph here – a kind of ‘something about this appealed to me but I’m not entirely sure what’ approach. So if you start to see random photos, you’ll know what it’s about…

Perhaps something like this…

The roof of the Chapter House - Elgin Cathedral. — The roof of the Chapter House – Elgin Cathedral.

It’s good to be back. Happy stitching.

Splodge and overlapping…

slow stitching

And breathe…

It’s finished. Five months of stitching, but to be fair I wasn’t really giving it as much attention as some pieces I’ve made – we’ve been having a lot of mundane ‘life’ for the last few months and somehow although the stitching is always relaxing when I actually get to sit and do it, sometimes I don’t get beyond the ‘thinking about doing it’ stage.

This is one of the first pieces I’ve worked with large sections of like-coloured wools. I’m not sure I really enjoyed that, perhaps the on-going decisions about which shades to use is part of the fun for me.

Now that it’s stitched, I think it has more Moorcroft than oil-spill about it, but Splodge has stuck, so that’s what it will remain.

As I was getting closer to the middle of Splodge (I worked from the outside to the middle), the usual thing happened – I started thinking about the next project I want to make. This has become the norm for me now, I think it’s my brain’s way of preparing for the loss of a project – a bit like buying a new puppy when your faithful old dog is starting to ail.

There is one particular piece I’m trying to work out based on the stone and glass textures in a section of a church wall, but so far I can’t seem to get it down in a way that works – yet.

But perhaps as a reaction to the palette I used in Splodge, I’ve found myself going back to the stained-glass approach for a bit of relief. So the project that has overlapped with the end of Splodge is going to look something like this…

I intend to keep this all in simple tent stitch. The first few stitches went in at the weekend, including some of the sock wool I bought from Natalie Fergie, which I have to say stitched like a dream. I’m seriously thinking about adding more shades from her collection, it has a fabulous texture as well as working easily.

So there you are, on to the next one.

Happy stitching.

P.S. The girls are on holiday, so I probably won’t be here much until September. We’re not planning any major expeditions, but I have to fight them off to get near my computer. I’ll try to keep up with all your blogs, but please forgive lack of attentive comments for a while.

Journey to the centre of the splodge…

slow stitching

Wish me luck chaps, I’m going in…

Yes, after considerably longer than I originally thought it would take, I’m now getting nearer to the centre of the splodge.

Remember when it started…

A few weeks in…

And now in the best Jules Verne tradition, I’m going into the middle.

It won’t stay in the frame now, so I’ve taken to lying on the sofa with it propped over my knees – I hesitate to think what the nosey neighbours think I’m doing.

Hope I’ll have something complete to show before too much longer. If I’m not back before July, send a search party.

Happy stitching.

A bit of cornering…

slow stitching

I’m wondering if those of us engaged in slow work, should introduce a version of the building trade’s ‘topping-out’ ceremony to mark important milestones along the way. This weekend, I finally completed the four corners of the splodge/spring flower. So today I’m having a little cornering ceremony.

Champagne is in short supply (and anyway it goes straight to my head, which would wipe out the rest of the day), so instead I’ll have a pot of coffee and a slice of lemon drizzle cake.

Now that I look at it off the frame for a few minutes, I don’t think it’s very flower like – more like what happens if you drop a tin of reddy/purple paint onto a piece of canvas from a moderate height. But then that title doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue. Oh well, never mind.

The good thing, is that it is now beginning to have some weight. One aspect of this type of needlepoint that I love, is the way that as it is stitched, the texture of the whole cloth changes, moving from a flexible, thin loose-weave fabric, to a thick, soft and tightly bonded cloth.

Right, celebrations over, time to put it back on the frame and get into the middle.

Happy stitching.

Dithering…

slow stitching

I thought I’d just pop by and say hello. The downside of choosing a very slow art form, is that blogging about the progress on a larger piece, risks being about as interesting as watching paint dry – in fact I sometimes wonder if paint drying wouldn’t be quite fascinating…

Anyway, I’m still at the Spring Flower, although at the current rate of progress I’m more likely to rename it the Last Bloom of Autumn.

I didn’t take it off the frame to photograph it today, so this is what is looks like at the beginning of May.

I suppose it's about a third stitched now... — I suppose it’s about a third stitched now…

The most recent corner... — The most recent corner…

Last week I had a fit of inspiration and even went so fas as to sketch out a new piece. But now the feeling seems to have left, so I’m not sure if I’ll do anything with it.

If I’m honest, I think I could do with a bit of a yarn fest. I’d like to spend a couple of days fingering twinkly, jewel coloured threads and let the imagination take over.

This morning, I was skimming through the latest issue of Current Archaeology and spotted this…

Escrick ring, from the June issue of Current Archaeology.

It’s called the Escrick ring. Apparently experts now think it may date back to the 5th or 6th century. It’s made of gold, with a sapphire and red glass. Now that’s what I call bling – and they think it was for a man to wear! See, my jewel fetish creeps into everything. (I admit to a particular thing for sapphires – did you see the one Mrs Thatcher used to wear).

Of course when you’re in dithering mode, lots of other things grab your attention. I’ve been delighted to discover this blog from the National Trust Textile Conservationists.

I don’t think I have any of the skills needed for this type of work, but I’m green with envy at their access to such amazing pieces of needlework. The slow nature of stitching, inevitably means that something of the spirit of the person who spent their time creating the piece is inextricably woven into the fabric, and how incredibly wonderful it must be to be able to connect back with those people. I’m afraid if I was allowed to touch any of those pieces, I’d just have to sit holding it, with my eyes closed, attempting to commune with the person who made it.

Ahh well, better go and weave some more stitches into my own work before winter sets in…

Happy stitching.

Playing…

slow stitching

Several weeks ago, when I was once more celebrating my 39th birthday, I was given a set of linocutting tools and pieces of lino. I seem to remember in the dim and distant past that I did this once at school – but then again, I might be fantasising. Anyway, I was itching to have a go – did in fact do a little bit, but the one thing I didn’t have, was any printing ink.

I ordered some, but it has taken weeks to get here. I had thought that I’d be able to manage with the various paints and inks I already have – I did give it a try, but I couldn’t get the consistency to what I imagined was ‘right’.

Well, the long-awaited ink has now arrived and so I spent a happy hour this morning, practicing printing.