A River running through!!!

For Embroidery day …..  This past year, a group of us each created a piece of stitchery which had to have a river running through.  There were nine of us …..  each piece was totally different.  The piece had to be 10 inches wide with a final length of no more than 14 inches.  Each of us had to supply something that had to be included in our final piece.  I put in a piece of shisha mirror which is ‘hidden” in the meadow below the river.  There were long blue beads, a variety of threads (many of which were a part of the base for the meadow), that unique button on the front of the barn, a wide piece of ribbon, feathers, orange silk waste, cheese cloth (which I painted), etc.  My river is a piece of crumpled brown paper painted blue and then adorned with lots of beads.  I machine embroidered all the trees and then hand embroidered the meadow over top of the confusion of threads secured under the cheese cloth!!!   The orange hill represents the pine forests of BC that  have been destroyed by the pine beetle.  The barn is from my imagination …..  I just liked it!!! 

Module 2 - “How Does your Garden Grow” Chapter 1 - Collecting Resources, Looking at Shape and Form

 

With this chapter, I attempted to do some drawings.  I did them all in pencil first and I  had to use an eraser.  Then once I was reasonably satisfied, I inked them in and erased the pencil markings.  I see in a couple of places that my erasures were not as well done as they should have been.  Most of the pictures are from magazines.  However, I did take a lot of photographs from my garden and I still have them for future references.  I noticed ALL my page photographs are dark on the bottom and light on the top …..  I still have to figure out how I can improve on this.  I take my photographs with a mini i Pad where I can easily use the focus function.  There is a lot of light in the room from sky lights and large windows.  So why the pictures come out dark at the bottoms ….  maybe it is my shadow???   

 

Shape and Form

Page 1

rounded and oval forms (the seed pod of the tulip sneaked onto the page – not quite a smooth round form!!)

 

 Page 2 

Thin and spiky

Page 3

Heart shapes, pleated shape and more ovals.

Page 4

Spikey!

Page 5

Tubular and trumpet shapes

Page 6

Crinkly edges.

Page 7

Pictures of a single  rhododendron flower

Page 8

I didn’t include the stamen shadows. I believe when I did this I was quite confused by all the lines.

Page 9

Fabric – unbleached cotton

Stabilizer – Avalon Madeira tear away cotton soft white (Art 9436).

Thread – Gutermann  polyester -  black (colour #10)

I found this difficult to get the right proportions of each of the petals.  One cannot erase and I did not rip out any of the stitches.  Fun to do!!! 

Page 10

More examples of photographs of flowers and subsequent drawings (tulip and a single geranium flower)

Page 11

My example of a Cefyn Burgess stitched piece.  Cefyn Burgess has used basic line drawings for his stitched pieces.  They are fluid in style with no shading.  There is a freshness to his work.

Page 12

I picked some flowers from my garden.  A great time of the year to do this chapter as there are so many examples to choose from the garden.

Page 13

My original drawing was of the 4 flowers ….  I forgot to put in the leaf of the columbine.  I also added the middle flower (a small allium) after I had stitched the piece.  There was just too much space between the columbine and the California poppy.  As an afterthought, I could have put the leaf in and maybe that would have solved my problem. 

Page 14

Fabric – unbleached cotton

Stabilizer – Avalon tear away as above

Threads – Guttermann – polyester-  black (colour # 10)

Adding the 5th flower in the middle didn’t really work.  I tried!!!  The space was too big to leave empty!!  

I enjoyed this type of stitching!!!

Page 15

A second attempt of a simple line drawings of flowers a la Cefyn Burgess.

Page 16

The drawing!

Page 17

Fabric – unbleached cotton

Stabilizer – Avalon tear away as above  (Note: I did not realize I was using the tear away until after I had finished stitching all these pieces!!) – an excellent stabilizer!!!

Thread – Guttermann – black polyester (colour # 10)

The stitching. 

Page 18

My sample of Grinling Gibbons’ work. Grinling Gibbons was Dutch/British wood sculptor in the Baroque style.  He sculpted full sized still life elements in lime wood as decorative garlands around fireplaces, doors, windows, etc.   His work is found in many of the mansions in England.  In my attempt at the drawing of my selected photograph,  I did include some shading.

Page 19

This arrangement was my first attempt to capture Grinling Gibbons’ style.  On retrospect, I felt that this was more like a Japanese Ichiban arrangement. 

Page 20

This is my drawing of the above arrangement. 

Page 21

I then decided to place all of the elements closer together. 

Page 22

Fabric – unbleached cotton

Stabilizer – Avalon tear away as above.

Thread -  Guttermann – polyester black (colour # 10)

I stitched the spokes of the maple leaves first to try and get everything in the right place.  Then the flowers.  the middle flower on the left is not in the right place … the other two flowers were a little bit better.  I do like the idea of stitching around most of the elements of the piece twice.  My shading of the bottom leaf is not very good.

Page 23

My selection of vases and a tea pot!!!  This is not easy to do.  I should have over lapped the various elements a bit more. 

Page 24

Two examples of taking out some lines and deciding what should be positive/negative.

Page 25

The sample I chose to stitch.

Page 26

Fabric – black felt

Stabilizer – Avalon Madeira tear away cotton soft (Art 9436).  I did draw the picture on the back and stitched the outline from the back.

Thread – Guttermann – polyester – white

Stitching – Granite stitch.  I did find stitching a bit difficult to stay with the selected stitch. However, I  did get lots of practice!!  I also found out that is better to go up and down that to go cross wise!!!  I often got into a muddle and went willy nilly!!!  

One change I would have done was to move the handle into the center of the piece instead of the outside. Also to have the still life elements overlapping more.

In this chapter, I did practice my drawings.  Still have to use an eraser to get the proportions in place.  All lots of fun. 

Module 1–Chapter 10 - Stitching Colours, Line and Texture

 

Mini Samples

Page 1    Stitch and a blob.

All the samples and projects in this Chapter are completed using free embroidery, feed dogs down, using an embroidery foot on the sewing machine, and a straight stitch.  There were occasions where I wished I had an open toe foot so I could see where I was coming and going a little bit easier!!!  I need to get one!!! 

Threads:   Where I used  Aurifil – 100% cotton – it was the # 12 weight -  there were no colour numbers for the #12 weight;   For all the black felt samples, Black Guttermann thread was used in the bobbin.

Stitching:  in all the stitching I attempted to ensure that I was true to the stitch chosen.

Sample 1

 

Fabric and stabilizer – black felt

Threads:   Aurifil –- turquoise (tint) ;   Aurifil –  magenta (hue);  100% rayon embroidery – magenta; WonderFil  metallic – gold 8858.

 

Sample 2

Fabric and Stabilizer – black felt

Threads:   Aurifil – turquoise (tint);  Aurifil – red orange (hue); WonderFil – metallic – silver 881; Gutermann – metallic – blue green  143

I had difficulty with this sample.  I did 3 rows of metallic stitching on the opposite diagonal.  I looked too messy so did more over stitching in the original direction with the heavier Aurifil threads.

 

Sample 3

      -

Fabric and Stabilizer  -  black felt

Threads:    Aurifil - magenta (hue);  Aurifil - chartreuse (hue); WonderFil -  metallic - gold 8858; Guttermann – metallic – burnished gold 24; 100% rayon embroidery – magenta.

I did a lot of overstitching to decrease the intensity of the bright chartreuse thread.  This looks like wavy shadows in the water!!!!!

 

Page 2   Stitch and a squiggle.

Sample 4

Fabric and Stabilizer – black felt

Threads – Aurifil – spring green (tint); Aurifil – magenta (hue); 100% rayon embroidery – magenta (hue); 100% rayon embroidery – spring green (tint).

I liked the effect of the finer threads over the heavier Aurifil threads.

Sample 5

Fabric and stabilizer – black felt

Threads – Aurifil – blue (tint); Aurifil – orange (hue); WonderFil metallic – copper MT7722.

 

Sample 6

Fabric and stabilizer – black felt

Threads:  Aurifil – yellow orange (tint); Aurifil – violet (hue); 100% rayon – violet (tint0; WonderFil  metallic – shiny gold 8858.

Stitching – I laid down the yellow orange first and  then all the other threads crossing and crisscrossing. 

 

Page 3  -  Round and round, back and forwards.

Sample 7

Fabric and stabilizer – black felt

Threads: Aurifil – magenta (tint); Wonderfil metallic – gold 8858.

Stitching.  For the top part of the sample, I did overlapping circles, whereas the bottom part I echoed the circles on top of the original ones.

 

Sample 8

Fabric and stabilizer – black felt

Threads: WonderFil – metallic gold 8858

I liked the effect of the gold thread on it’s own!!!

 

Sample 9

Fabric and stabilizer – black felt

Threads:  Aurifil – golden yellow; WonderFil metallic – red MT7714.

Stitching – tried to do this on the diagonal.  I was not very successful so I cut it out as a square.  There are two rows of red stitching; one going in the same direction as the yellow stitching and one in the opposite direction.

 

Page 4    Doodle and Stitch

 

I took two patterns from this page and stitched them on to a transfer painted bridal satin from Chapter 1. 

 

Page 5  Stitch and Doodle samples

Sample 1

Fabric – Bridal satin form Sample #5 listed in Chapter 1

Stabilizer – black felt

Threads: Aurifil  100% cotton 40 weight – orange (hue); Aurifil 100% cotton 40 weight – blue (tint); WonderFil metallic – dark blue 8850; WonderFil metallic – orange 7713. Bobbin thread – Guttermann – black.

Stitches – some difficulty in stitching circles from side to side and then straight stitching in between. My right angles were not always 90 degrees.

 

Sample 2

Same fabrics and threads as for Sample 1 above.

Stitching – I like these two samples and that the colours of the fabric and the threads are somewhat similar. 

 

Page 6      More Doodles

These patterns are from Zentangles – a great source for doodling!!!  I like the bricks in the middle as well as the flower on the bottom left of the page.  How I would use them I do not know!!!  

 

Page 7       More Doodles

 

 

Page 8     Shapes and colours for the resolved sample (‘Pottery’ by Patrick Caulfield)  

 

I printed off two copies of the picture.  There are variations in size, colour and value. Every time you look at the piece,  there is a different shape, a different colour, a different size. Some of the shapes are similar but exaggerated in another way.  There seems to be no focal point.  Yellow takes you through the piece from the bottom up the right hand side and red goes up the centre and to the left. .  Blue is spotted through out in the pure hue as well as a variety of tints.  Then there is violet, shades of green, different colours of pinks including some peach.    There are no shadows.  The piece is very complex in many ways.

 

Page 9    Shapes from the “Pottery” piece.

Everytime I looked at this piece I found another shape.  All the shapes came in a variety of sizes. 

 

Page 10   -   Lines and Shapes

I drew 4 sets of lines and shapes and chose 2 of them to stitch. 

Sample 1

 

Sample 2

The photographs a bit out of focus on this page!!! 

 

Page 11      More lines and Shapes.

Sample 3   (first stitched sample)

 

Sample 4  (second stitched sample)

These exercises were not as easy as I thought they would be.  I was trying to achieve different shapes and make it interesting with colour and patterns in the shapes.  I am not sure if I succeeded.  I painted the examples using Golden Fluid Acrylics (Quinacridone Red, Primary Yellow, Ultramarine Blue, Titanium White, Dairylide Yellow, Permanent Green light).  

 

Page 12  Stitched Sample #1

Fabric – black felt

Stabilizers – black felt and Avalon Madeira stabilizer tear away cotton soft white (Art 9436)

Threads : WonderFil metallic – silver 881; Trident – red;the rest were Gutterman threads – blue 251; yellow 850; orange 462.

I was not happy with this piece.   I used silver metallic thread to follow the lines and I did too many.  There is a confusion of threads in the middle.  Also, I should have outlined the shapes in their selected colours and not silver.  The blue blob was too big for the piece. I really liked the the orange blobs. Also my threads should have been more vibrant ….  I should have used metallic or rayon instead of 100% polyester. (the actual piece is quite dull – the photo enhancer on the computer programme increased the colour intensity).   I really like how the stabilizer worked.  So easy.  This was one case where I would have preferred an open toe foot for the machine instead of the embroidery foot that I have.  It is a clear plastic one but hard to see through to the stitches.  

 

Page 13     Stitched sample # 2

Fabric and stabilizers – same as for Sample #1

Threads: WonderFil metallic – gold 8855; Mettler silky sheen rayon 1912; rest of the threads were WonderFil 100% rayon embroidery; green 4125; orange; blue 3123; yellow (no colour numbers for orange and blue).

Stitching – I liked this piece better than sample #1  in a number of ways:  fewer metallic gold stitched lines, the blobs were outlined in the colour intended, the rayon threads were certainly superior to the polyester threads.  The green blob should have had more overstitching around the edges.  It is hard to distinguish the stitch formation on the red, blue and green.   The shapes of the blobs were different shapes and sizes.  I seem to have two of each colour and maybe I should have made the green blob orange.  Also the yellow thread is not very yellow…  it should have been a brighter or darker version.

 

Page 13     A drawing of resolved piece.

I spend some considerable time deciding how I should tackle this piece.  I had fun doing it.  I used Golden Acrylic paints to colour in the fruits. (same colours used for the samples above)

 

Page 14    Resolved piece

Fabric – transfer painted cotton polyester

Stabilizer – white felt and Avalon Madeira stabilizer tear away cotton soft white (Art 9436).

Threads – Aurifil 100% cotton 12 weight – green (shade).  The rest of the threads are listed under the individual fruit.  All the Aurifil threads used in the pieces below were 100% cotton 12 wt.  In most cases where I used metallic and rayon threads, I stitched with both in the needle.   I did try to put one of the finer threads with the Aurifil with little success. The bobbin threads were all Guttermann threads and they matched the fruit colours

Stitching.  I kept faithful to the selected stitching pattern for each piece of fruit.

 

Pumpkin

Threads:  Aurifil – red orange, orange; Wonderfil metallic – orange (tint) 7713; WonderFil rayon – orange 1137.

 

Apple

Threads: Aurifil – red violet, pale green (grey);  100% rayon embroidery – light grey. wine red.

 

Pear

Threads – Aurifil – yellow (tint), yellow green (tint); WonderFil metallic – gold yellow 888; 100% rayon embroidery – yellow

 

Banana

Threads: Aurifil – yellow green (tint), yellow, golden yellow (tint); WonderFil metallic- gold 8858; 100% rayon embroidery – yellow.

 

Grapes

Threads: Aurifil – violet; WonderFil metallic – silver 881;  100% rayon embroidery – violet (tint).

 

Strawberry

Threads: Aurifil – green (tint), red; WonderFil metallic – red MT7714, green (tint) 3142.

I used the doodle on page 4 for the main part of the strawberry.

 

Pomegranate

Threads: Aurifil – red violet; 100% rayon – wine red.

 

Orange

Threads: Aurifil – red orange, orange; WonderFil metallic – 7713; WonderFil rayon – orange 1137.

 

Kiwi

Threads: Aurifil- spring green, yellow (tint); WonderFil metallic – dark green 7725.

I used the doodle on page 7 for this piece.

 

THE END OF MODULE ONE!!!!!