Couching

I decided to take the chance with this week's TAST to return to some of the stitches we have done in previous weeks and to use them to attach various threads on to a background.

A while ago I went to the Art Gallery of New South Wales exhibition "Goddess". It was a wonderful exhibition of art of the goddesses from India - sculptures, paintings, printing - a bit of everything. It was a inspiring exhibition. Since I went I have had a bit of a thing about the hot colours that they painted the walls of the exhibition - particularly hot orange with hot pink. So this week, I didn't feel I could put that off any longer.

As usual I had far too many ideas but settled on a postcard with a hot orange and pink background. This was fuchsia pink linen with bright orange and fuchsia pink sheer ribbons fused onto it. I thought that this shiny background would show off the matt wools I wanted to attach. Echoing the grid of the ribbons I used a variety of stitches to attach the wools. (chevron, single short tailed fly, cross stitch, buttonhole and couching stitch.)

My favourite is the contrast of the chevron stitch in pink and red over the purple wool, but I also like the orange buttonhole over the pink knobbly yarn - I like the texture produced. I think that I will also be using the background style for future fabric postcards.

Fly Stitch and Fly Fishing

Fly Stitch - TAST - Week 8

This is one stitch that didn't give me a clear idea. In the end I decided to use some of my monoprinted fabric and follow the curves marked on it with flows of stitches in similar colours. I used short-tailed fly, closed fly stitch and reversed fly stitch.

As I was stitching I began to think of water weed and sea weed moving in the current and it reminded me of going fly fishing with my Dad when I was a child and being mesmerised watching the weed moving in the trout stream. Dad used to make his own fishing flies and had quite a collection. He died a few years ago now and on our last trip back to the UK to visit Mum we started to sort out his fishing gear, including lots of hand-tied flies and hand made fishing rods. Sadly none of us knew enough about it and wished he had been there to share his enthusiasm and knowledge with us.

So perhaps the stitch was telling me what to do with it after all!