Opulent - TAST wrapping up

Horray! Finished them all. Here are the last few...all those stitches I couldn't get the hang of and left until last!!
Cretan, Crested Chain, Lace Border, Chain Braid and Crossed buttonhole. The border is Chained Bar stitch over sari yarn.The background is trapped threads between orange sheer and a mesh for making hats (which I don't know the name of).

Inspired by those opulent hot colours and spices of India.

Now onto this year's challenge...

Watery waves: TAST 39-52

At last I have some time, so I am trying to catch up with all the TAST stitches within the year!! I am hoping to just creep in under the wire. This sampler is inspired by the coast and waves and is on a postcard sized piece of monoprinted paper that I made a while ago.
The stitches left to right are:
Reversed buttonhole bar, Berry, Spanish Zigzag Knotted, Pekinese, Thorn, French Knots, Pistil, Drizzle, Twisted Satin, Linked Double Chain, Spanish Feather, Knotted Cable Chain and Scroll stitches.
Again all were new to me, so I just tried to learn how to do the basic stitch. Maybe next year I can explore what else can be done with them and to push the boundaries a bit. I may do it as part of the Take it Further Challenge with Sharon B of In a Minute Ago.


This one shows a close up of pistil and drizzle stitches - they are great fun and for texture, so I will definately be using them again somewhere.

Below are a couple more close ups. This challenge has been so much fun and I am looking forward to next year too. I still have a few stitches I have skipped and will try to catch up with them before the year is up! 46 down: 6 to go!!

As usual, life is in the time of pre-Christmas holiday madness. I am really looking forward to time off and starting the new year with a new challenge.

Long ago I realised that new year's resolutions were not for me - I usually last until the 3rd week in January! But this year I am looking forward to replacing Take A Stitch Tuesday (TAST) with Take It Further , Sharon B's new challenge. This time it is a monthly themed design challenge with weekly reports of progress.

I've a few TAST stitches yet to post and it is week 50 (already?!). But I will finish them at some point soon!

The photo is of tree bark from Darwin Botanical Garden earlier this year. Just an amazing texture...

knotted buttonhole chain

I'm not sure why but this stitch makes me think of ancient jewellery and archaeological digs - maybe Celtic bands. So the sample had to be in rich opulent colours and the "chain" had to be gold. I feel I want to add more stitching to this. I'm just not sure how or what yet...but it will come to me.
I had a great day at my art class yesterday. We did assemblage and I'm really pleased with what I did...a little treasure chest. I'll take some photos and post soon.
I started a new job today and we are off on holiday to Alice Springs and Ayr's Rock (Uluru) at the weekend - so life I'm definitely living life to the full. We have booked a 4WD campervan - I'm so looking forward to experiencing desert and wilderness. The skies are supposed to be amazing...
Then my Mum is coming to visit from the UK for 3 weeks, which will be wonderful. I'll do my best to keep up with TAST - it is a way of life at the moment!!

Cross Rice Boss

Just a quick post today. I enjoyed doing this week's TAST stitches - but it was very time consuming!

It's hard to believe that we are in week 38 this week...and I'm still going. I'm really enjoying the weekly challenge and almost keeping up. I've skipped a few stitches and still plan to catch up with them sometime soon. Those I have skipped are: cretan, crossed buttonhole, crested chain, shisha (to get the hang of it!) and this week's stitch, which is knotted buttonhole band.

Cable Chain Seaweed

As soon as Sharon B suggested this cable chain for this week's TAST challenge, I thought of seaweed. You know, that one that bursts when you stand on it on the beach. As a kid it was a regular beach activity, along with rock-pooling and building sandcastles. I like to think of it as an old fashioned version of the bubble wrap! In England there is one called bladder wrack (great name isn't it?). There seem to be lots of different types - the ones when I was growing up were muted green and browns.

I found a fantastic set of rock pools last year near Port Stephens in New South Wales, just up the coast from Sydney that would make an intriguing embroidery. I'll put the picture in the next post to do it justice!

I have always loved rock pools and still they are my favourite thing at the beach - only now I take my camera. I can spend hours looking into them to see what is caught by the tide and hiding in a corner. A whole world in a pool of water...

Shishas, Scrolls and Portugese Stems

I really enjoyed scroll stitch and portugese stem. Once you get the hang of them you could go for miles! They make lovely textured lines and I could see them being used in a thicker thread for some realy punchy height. Top picture - on handprinted calico.

The shisha stitch is one I have wanted to learn for ages. So I was delighted when Sharon B (InAMinuteAgo) made it the TAST stitch of the week. My first feeble effort is shown above. I will have another go and hopefully have more success. It is on a base of free machine embroidery over threads, sari yarn and fabric snips (which were originally on soluble fabric).

I'm looking forward to next week already!

Catching up with life...Starry Doodle Cloth

Where is the time going? Have I said that before?!

The new job is going fine - but I am struggling to keep up with my creative hobbies.

So I am multiplying stitches for TAST. I like the idea of a doodle-cloth and have done a starry one to learn single stitches. I may add to it, if I think other stitches will work in a star shape.

So this one has basque stitch, wheatsheaf stitch, lazy daisy, half chevron and some cross stitch variations...

I just love orange and turquoise together!

Rocky Inspirations - the whole piece

This is the full piece. I was thinking of rocky textures, of lichen, moss and rock surfaces. Hopefully, this piece has that feel.

I couldn't have done this without learning the TAST stitches - most are new to me each week and I am enjoying the ride. For this I used a variety of TAST stitches so far: french knots, bullion knots, arrowhead, long and short stitch, cast on stitch, buttonhole wheels, wheat sheaf stitch and a few others...the details are in the pictures in previous entries.

I have just got Beaney and Littlejohn's Trees as a Theme book - so bark and tree inspirations next, I think! I've got this amazing photo of the inside of a tree fern...

Inspired by rocky textures

Catching up on TAST stitches - inspired by lichens and rocky textures. This is a combination of buttonhole wheels, with french knots, bullion knots, cast on stitches and some wheatear stitches. The background fabric is machine stitched cotton, with melted painted Tyvek and throwers silk waste for texture. This is the last corner of my larger piece, which I will post soon.

Catching Up!

It's been a busy few weeks - catching up from the UK visit and starting a new job. Now that the dust has settled I am catching up with some TAST samples!
The first one is a "double-whammy" - with satin stitch and french knots on hand printed calico.

This one is french knots and long and short stitch on melted and painted tyvek, mounted on machine stitched cotton, with silk throwers waste. This is part of a larger piece I am working on that is based on textured surfaces - rust and rocks that I have been enjoying recently.

Butterfly stitch on hand printed calico.


Lastly wheatear stitch to couch down silk throwers waste on a background of gold sheer, painted, melted tyvek and machine stitched cotton.

TAST - Basque Stitch

What a great stitch! I loved basque stitch. It's another one I will definitely be using again.

The background is one of my hand printed fabrics - using a roller on glass and then laying shapes as masks before printing. The circles are made by elastic bands and the long swirl with a thin thread. I really enjoy the effects that they made.

As I was stitching this one I was thinking about micro-organisms; things that you might see under a microscope. Shades of my past are creeping out! They also reminded me of plankton (I think that is what they were!?)- from the time we went swimming with dolphins off the coast of New Zealand. The sea was so full of little organisms that it looked like soup!

This one was fun to do!

TAST Palestrina Stitch

I really loved Palestrina stitch. I started it the week it was set - but wasn't inspired. I was away on holiday with just boring plain felt and couldn't get going. It wasn't until I got back and saw this piece of fabric I printed with wrought iron swirls that I suddenly saw a way forward! I really have to have the right background before I can move forward and get inspired with a stitch. It makes all the difference for me. Somehow the fabric tells me what stitch would set it off the best!!

The background fabric is a bought blue, slightly mottled, cotton. It has blue and red wrought iron swirls printed on it and also a henna hand print shape. You can see the fingers and thumb if you look closely. I'll post a pic another time. It is from a template for doing henna hand designs and I got it at an art exhibition called Goddess, here in Sydney, last year.

Below is a close up, because I just loved the texture and shapes in this section!

Rusty Barnacles and Woven/Whipped Wheels

I really enjoyed the rhythm of the woven and whipped wheels.
I have been very inspired by a photo of barnacles I took a while ago on a trip to Bundeena. It can be seen at my Flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/luci_f/387560245/). It has inspired several pieces of work that I have done. I also wanted to try printing photos onto fabric. I don't have the proper stuff to do this directly, but stumbled on method that works for me. I print out the photo on my bubblejet printer. Cover my fabric with clear gel medium and then put the photo onto the fabric and smooth down. The photo transfers pretty well and I get some colour blurring and randomness which I like!
The picture below shows my results - with varying quality of prints and black and white version - onto cotton in the top row and muslin at the bottom. The muslin also had a rusty red monoprint of the same image onto it from a different angle.

I decided to use some of the muslin as a base for the woven and whipped wheels stitches and the end result is at the top as an ATC. I was fairly pleased with this - as it has the same "feel" as the barnacles I photographed, but has evolved to be more abstract.

I am planning to make my first fabric book on the day out at Bundeena, where I took the barnacles photo, as I now have several small pieces inspired by that day. Any hints and tips and links on how do go about this would be really helpful. In particular how to stiffen the pages. Thank you in advance.

Running Stitch

Today I was so inspired by what everyone is doing as part of TAST that I couldn't wait to get back into it.

I decided to go through my stash to find an interesting background. I recently went on a fabric printing course and have accumulated quite a few experiments that I thought could make interesting backgrounds.

I decided to keep it simple - as I have a few weeks to catch up. Much as I would like to have spent all week weaving lines of running stitch at different spacings! I'll have to save that for another time. Often that is part of the problem - too many ideas - not enough time!!

I really loved the fabric printing - it's going to be a big passsion. I love the bleeding edges against the sharper ones. The sharp ones are printed straight on top of the fabric. The blurry ones made by putting the fabric onto a paint covered surface and pressing the print block on top of it. The longer you leave it the blurrier the edges.

The blue shapes are made with a wooden block - an offcut found on the street near a building site.

I love this stamp (below). It is an old door handle that I found thrown out by a neighbour. It is repeated 5 times here - so the print is each row of 4 shapes.



This is my very favourite stamp - another door handle. There is just something about it that I love, expecially when it is repeated lots of times.

OK - so it is now in the open. I confess...I'm one of those people who just has to pick things up off the street to see what I can make or do with them...Fortunately I have a very tolerant hubby!!

Back home!

Isn't it great to be back home?! Especially after an amazing adventure! The three weeks in the Top End of Australia have flown by and I now have a head full of images and memories of a fabulous place.

I took my needle and threads with me - to try to keep up with the TAST challenge while I was away. I managed to do this sample - Oyster stitch. I enjoyed creating the patterns and rhythms and loved this stitch - once I worked out how to do it. It took 2 trips to internet cafes to do so! The light in places you stay is never that great - so the other stitches had to wait - although I did check to see what they were when I could. Palestrina next and running stitch and it's Tuesday again...so I'll have to swing past Sharon B's "In A Minute Ago" blog to see what this week's challenge is. Think I am going to be busy! I'm also really looking forward to seeing what everyone else has been doing in the group.

I'll write more about the trip to Darwin, Kakadu and Katherine soon - and post some pictures. It will definately go down as one of the best trips of my life!

Happy Easter, Holidays and Bonnet Stitch!

Happy Easter!

This week's TAST was a quick straightforward sampler - straight rows of bonnet stitch. But I like their symmetry and will be thinking about what I can use this one for again, when I have more time.

We are off on holiday for 3 weeks today! Flying to Darwin first and then driving onto Kakadu National Park and Katherine Gorge. It is finally starting to sink in. We are taking camping stuff and will spend some time out in the wilds - should be fun. I am so looking forward to being in the wilderness. Sydney is a great place, but having grown up in the English countryside - I am really looking forward to seeing some open space. I am looking forward to seeing so many things - ancient Aboriginal rock paintings, waterfalls, wildlife, Katherine Gorge. I'll tell you all about it when I get back.

Knotted Cretan Tree Bark

I have a passion for trees - verging on being a tree hugger! I'm the one stopping to stroke bark as I walk past a beautiful tree that catches my eye and doing strange things with the camera to get a close up of the beautiful colours and textures...

Knotted cretan stitch from TAST had that organic feel to it and I felt sure that some kind of tree would be part of the stitch study this week.

A while ago I created a couple of tissue paper and scrim backgrounds based on Yvonne Brown's article in Quilting Arts Magazine (Winter 2005 - issue 20). Of the pieces I made, the yellow ochre one looked unfinished until I added burned sienna to it ...and all of a sudden ...tree bark. It was the perfect background to practice knotted cretan on.

On Saturday I had a studio day with friends in the Blue Mountains, near Sydney and had overdosed on trees - so this was the obvious way to go. I used a sketch of tree bark that I had made as the template for the stitch areas - but took lots of artistic licence!

I found the stitch a challenge, but think I got there in the end. The main challenge was to get the tension right, before the knot tightened and left a loose loop. I've been brave and posted a close up, because I love the textures!

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.

Up and Down Buttonhole

This felt like a fun stitch to me and needed to be treated that way. It also seemed a stitch to cover lines or seams.

I have this old T-shirt that I loved - it just didn't love me. It didn't flatter me. I bought it because I loved the colours and patterns on it. So I just couldn't throw it out. It's been in my fabric stash for a while now. Today was it's day!


The T-shirt material was pretty stretchy - so I fused interfacing onto it to stop it going completely our of shape as I stitched. I eventually got the hand of up and down buttonhole and decided to fill the shapes of the fabric. I didn't use a frame and there are a few areas where the tension is a little iffy. I began to think of landscape - a patchwork of furrowed fields with hedgerows between stretching to the hills. The church shape was unintentional; it's just where I stopped stitching - but is a similar shape to many village churches where I grew up, which were a part of our landscape.


This was a fun piece to produce!