Completed treasure

You'll remember my post about the embroidery which came to me from my dear heart's Bridge partner. Well it is all done and made into a cushion just in time for Christmas. I had to do a bit of adapting as there were centering marks printed top and bottom and at the sides to take into account, hence the side borders here to achieve a square shape.

The fabric was some I just happened to have which does, I think, fit both the colours and the 70's vibe perfectly. 

I am particularly pleased with the piping, for which I had to learn both making a continuous bias strip and how to attach piping to a cushion. It is by no means perfect, I'm avoiding showing you the completed corners, but it was a fun thing to learn about and seems to have worked OK. 

Sadly the hoop ring mark has proved impossible to press out, even with a damp cloth, and is there because the embroidery had been left in its hoop for I don't know how many years - novice embroiderers take note!

It was interesting to complete this; not my usual sort of thing at all, but nonetheless an enjoyable project.

Now I have all the Christmas gifts out of the way, I might just go back to that tambour work which has been waiting for me to finish it since out Caroline Homfray workshop in October. More fun to be had.

little boxes

 I have been creating more little boxes. The first, another version of the one I created some time ago, the Foxy Loxy Boxy which now lives with darling daughter. The new box is the same construction technique and also utilised an embroidery from a past Sussex Stitchers workshop, many many moons ago; this time a little piece of blackwork which was finished at the time, but to which I have added a bit of gold just to give it a lift before putting it on the box top.

The box was lined with a toning red fabric (such a hard colour to photograph) 

and I was really pleased when I managed to get the pattern lined up on at least one side. The other three sides aren't bad, but not quite as happy as this one!

So, flushed with success, and given appropriate encouragement I thought I'd make another one. I had an old kit, picked up in a quilt show from a sales table I think, which included the pre cut cardboard and instructions to make a hexagonal box. It was a Dilys Fronks kit, and I have only just realised, having Googled the name, that I have admired her quilts at several quilt shows in the intervening years.

I thought this might be a quicker make, as glue was involved - none of that fiddly lacing of fabric onto inner and outer boards, but in fact it has probably taken just as long. First one glued the lining fabric to each of the sixteen rectangles of card for the sides, and the two hexagons for lid and base. Glue dried, the sides were stitched to the edges of base and lid, before flipping them up and stitching together to form the container. The lid top and bottom were then covered - more glue involved, before cutting two strips of fabric, turned in along the long edges, to be stitched around the "walls" of the top and the base. Sounds simple, and it was, but all that gluing, despite my being as careful and frugal with it as I could, meant that sometimes I was stitching through fabric firmly stuck to the card. Pliers were occasionally utilised. Fingers and shoulders got very tired. Several pairs of glasses were donned (sometimes together) and removed, and sometimes the stitching was so close to my face I nearly stitched my nose to the box! However, it is all done, and I am very happy with the result. I used a lovely Japanese style fabric for top and base

The inside is lined with oriental butterflies

Top and base match, but are not identical, and I'm very happy with the wisteria flowing down the side there.

The sides of the base are a rather nice deep red shot silk. It is repurposed from a shirt bought many years ago from a charity shop, just because I liked the fabric. Never worn, it feels new and is a much better colour than appears here.

I am particularly pleased with the gold thread, beads and sequins which I added to the fabric on the lid, they just lift it a little and give it a bit of sparkle.

It is destined as a Christmas present for my dear heart's daughter. I will pop some chocolates inside, tuck it into a repurposed shoe box and mark the parcel FRAGILE! I hope she likes it.

completing others' treasures

As Rachel has noted in a previous project, sometimes one finds oneself being offered someone else's unfinished work, along with a comment on the lines of .... "I don't know what to do with this, but I thought perhaps ...."

My dear heart plays Bridge several times a week with several different partners including a lady called Joan who entered her eighth decade recently. She is a very fine soul, with firm opinions (not always in accord with mine it has to be said), and a heart of gold. She has come to the conclusion that her house is now too big for her and that she must move, so is "clearing out". During this sifting of life's accumulations, she came across two bits of embroidery that her mother had started but never finished. Perhaps, she suggested to him, I might know what to do with them or have some use for them. One, a Christmas tablecloth with sprigs of holly and several half-finished robins has been put to one side to be "thought about". It came with no thread or instructions, and I am quite sure I am not likely to finish it, and will have to find it a kind home with someone who will. 

The second was in its own plastic bag, had all the instructions, a clear diagram

an image of the finished item and a goodly tangle of wool thread all tied up together. The only thing missing is the butterfly.

It is definitely not something I would ever take up by choice, but when I saw that it had the approval of one of my go to stitch authors, Jacqueline Enthoven, I looked a bit more kindly at it, and pondered the Man's suggestion that, if finished, it could make a rather nice cushion that could be given to Joan for Christmas

When removed from the bag only the large flowers, the fluffy "thistles" and those few dark stems had been finished. The colouring is more orange than this and, published in the seventies, it has a distinct whiff of avocado bathroom suite about it.

One "thistle" still has to be cut to make it fluffy - the stitch instructions refer to "looped stem stitch" but it felt more like Turkey Rug stitch to me as I completed it. So far the stitching has been going well and quickly, though I suspect all those little details, the stems and French knots will take time. I think I may have the perfect vintage fabric stored away to provide a back to the cushion. I hope I can get it finished in time, and then go back to something a bit more in my line of stitchery! 

Tambour pleasures

Sussex Stitchers had the most wonderful day workshop learning Tambour embroidery with Caroline Homfray yesterday. She was a delightful and very patient teacher.

Here you can see examples of her own beautiful work, brought to inspire us.

And the sample of her design, Moorish Window, she had worked for us to show how our own project should be done. 

We began by framing up a piece of silk organza (tight as a drum, or tambourine of course) and learning how to secure our starting thread, Then Caroline showed us how the tambour hook was pushed through the fabric, picked up the thread below, and came back to the surface to create the distinctive chain stitch that is such a feature of this style. Once we'd mastered that we traced off her design and began work on our projects. As we worked, she also took time to show us how to add beads on the surface and by working from the back. There were sequins too, and a wonderful tool called a bead spinner which was absolute magic.

My effort is below, along with the practice leaves I did just to get the feeling of the process. Those squiggles in the middle were much trickier than they look.

As you can see, I didn't get very far, the technique looks so simple when you see an expert doing it, but there are all sorts of pitfalls: locking your starting thread, remembering which way the thread and hook should turn before pulling thread up to the surface, bringing the hook back up through the organza without catching the fine fabric or the stitch you made previously, not splitting your working thread (shiny machine rayons proved tricksy), and then there is adding beads and sequins (sparkle, hurrah). It was the quietest workshop I can recall attending; we were all concentrating so hard, apart from the occasional expletive as the past 25 minutes work unravelled with a slip of the tambour hook (there was a mischievous suggestion that a swear box might be a good way of raising funds for the group).

If you want to know more, her website shows her beautiful creations and has links to tutorials and her online classes, both embroidery and drawing. You can also find her videos here, on her sister Sarah's YouTube channel including how to attach shisha mirrors using tambour embroidery, must investigate that!

What a talented pair they are.

Project completed

Over the past year, there has been a slow moving project happening in stops and starts in my workshop space, in between other things. 

In August last year, my clever son in law built a box window seat in the bay window of their flat. Foam seating blocks were measured, cut and delivered to me with a request for covers. I suggested it might be nice to use the same design that I had used on the ring pillow for their wedding, the Triskele symbol, here on silk velvet.

Approval for this granted, there followed a period of testing and trialing colours and techniques. I used plain calico and wanted to achieve a mottled effect, and for there to be none of the undyed fabric visible. Their sitting room is green, so I had to get the green right, hence many pieces of fabric with many different layers of colour.

Once colour and technique were approved, my first task was to use long stitches to mark out the shape of the cushions, so I knew where my parameters lay. Then I stitched the spiral patterns which would be drawn up shibori style to create a resist once the dye was applied. To ensure there was no ground colour remaining I washed in colour to the areas where the spirals would sit, having soda soaked the fabric first, as this fixes the Procion dyes. Stage one complete.

Stage two was to pull up the shibori stitching, then crumple the fabric into a shallow tray and dribble in the first layer of colour, predominately a variety of soft greens. There was also some magenta, but this became rather pale once the fabric was washed out and the stitching removed. You can see below the piece which would become two side cushions. I didn't want the magenta as strong as in the trial pieces, but here it has turned into a tentative hint which would be swamped by the next layer

Next the stitching was reapplied in the same place and more magenta painted in as they both rather liked the contrast this produced. I did this on wet soda soaked fabric so the colour ran in patterns across the cloth.

Once again the stitching was pulled up as tight as possible (you need good strong thread). 

The fabric was carefully crumpled into shallow trays for the next layer of dye, a strong petrol green which, as before, would pool in the hollows, creating a variety of intensity in the final layer of colour.

I was very happy with the way the magenta highlighted the shibori circles, not too glaring, but enough to delight. You can see here the deeper colours which result from the crumpled fabric. Much more interesting than a plain overall green and the colours applied in previous stages, I hope, give life and variety to it all.

There followed, of course, all sorts of YouTube investigations on how to sew a box cushion, and how to mange zipper strips and the zipper pulls to achieve the long opening at the back: this was my first attempt at upholstery. I was helped greatly by two YouTube feeds, one from The Funky Little Chair, a wonderfully useful set of how to videos if you ever want to try your own upholstery. The other was an invaluable tutorial from Sew Sweetness addressing the thorny question of how you get the zipper tab onto that long strip of zipper tape - you simply need a fork! 

So, many lessons learnt, Dacron and stockinette applied to the foam blocks (absolutely vital) and covers completed, the final stage was to see if they fit. I think you'll agree they came out rather well, though I say so myself. I was thrilled to discover I seemed to have got it all right, and one of their three cats gave it all the seal of approval.

He, the cat, asked me to tell you that it made for a very comfortable resting place for the entire following day, and also to note that he doesn't usually look this disheveled. This is his summer clipped look, rather than his princely winter Maine Coon coat. 

The humans were pretty pleased too.

Chalkhill Blue

Back in March I introduced my second bit of stitching for our Sussex Stitchers banner and gave you an update in April. I'm pleased to say I have now finished my little butterfly and am very pleased with the result. It has been slow going though. As mentioned before, the application of magnifying lamp, extra glasses. alternative glasses and bright light still didn't quite compensate for my ageing eyes, at times I was stitching, glasses off, with it held right at the tip of my nose! Perhaps it is time for another visit to the optician.  However, the sunny circle is attached to its blue background and a ring of flowers in fly stitch and detached chain have been added to give him some nectar to sip while he flutters there. The colours are not quite right here, too dark, but when I adjusted for the blue ground the detail of his wings became rather washed out

Here you can see a bit more of the silk shading, all a single thread of floss; also the very enjoyable and, I hope, appropriate Turkey Rug Stitch which has given his furry little body just the right texture

I'm very much looking forward to seeing our banner completed, with all the individual embroideries gathered together. Sussex has provided all of us who are taking part with some very interesting imagery and we have a fine range of techniques and expertise to express those ideas.

Flowers and bluebird

I have finished one of my Uzbek embroideries. It has, as you can see, become a bit bubbly. In fact, when allowed full rein it is as domed as the crown of a hat, but I've been trying to tame it into a slightly flatter profile!

I think it is the result of the stitching round the flowers being too close together resulting in too much thread for the cloth to hold. I haven't blocked or pressed yet, but I don't think this is ever gong to lie flat. So, some thinking to be done about what use to make of it. Perhaps a cushion cover, or a box lid top with some extra padding to make a raised dome. That might at least look vaguely intentional! I am pleased with the colours though, and the stitching was fun. Chain stitch is such an easy one to do, but so effective depending on direction and the colours used. The dark leaves are Bokhara couching which, again, was an interesting one to work and merits future investigation.

Now on to the bluebird, which is on much thicker fabric so hopefully no distortion here. This is the design which was drawn freehand by the young man in my previous post.

I might have to spend a little while extracting my threads though!

Uzbek embroidery

So what did I see of embroidery in Uzbekistan? A tremendous amount, far far more than one would ever see in the UK. We were treated to both historic embroideries and visited a number of places where embroidery is carried out as a part of the economy; textiles being created either for personal and domestic use, or to be sold to locals and tourists. On two occasions we were also given a piece of fabric to stitch and some teaching by the embroiderers there. The wealth of amazing embroidered items, from the older pieces in the museums to newly embroidered items for sale was breathtaking. 

The Applied Art Museum in Tashkent was our introduction to embroidery, along with many other beautiful arts and crafts. Here and in Samarkand we saw household textiles, bed and cradle covers, prayer mats, suzanis to hang on the walls, blouses, jackets, babies clothes. Many of these might be a part of a bride's dowry, or created to beautify the home, be that a static house or, in the past, a yurt belonging to nomadic folk, where textiles provided both decoration and warmth. Traditional motifs included flowers and birds, pomegranates, peppers, stars and rosettes. The stitches that we saw used were predominately chain stitch, including that done as tambour work, and Bokhara couching. It all sounds very simple, almost naïve, but the variety we saw, the colours, patterns and designs were absolutely stunning. The pictures below will give you some idea of our delight.

Bokhara couching - row upon row of thread laid and couched, sometimes outlined in chain stitch

detail of the image below, a suzani, Bokhara couching and chain stitch

Suzanis are a very traditional part of the brides dowry. They are often made in several pieces, the fabrics loosely tacked together to allow the design to be drawn. Then they are taken apart and individual family members stitch their piece before all the bits are reassembled. A lovely way for a family to stitch their love and hopes for the bride into a gift which will serve to remind her of their affection for years to come.

several suzanis on display with our lovely guide Mashkhura explaining their creation

a more modern embroidery, but still using traditional motifs

exquisite goldwork on velvet

detail of above - you can see some of the sequins sparkling in the light

Having feasted our eyes on this loveliness we later visited several embroidery workshops and a wonderful collection of embroidered items in a private house.

In Gijduvan we were shown how the threads were dyed with natural pigments

then we sat down in a leafy courtyard with bulbul birds calling in cages above us, while several lovely ladies and young girls showed us how the embroidery was done

we were each given a piece of fabric to stitch - some of us were too creaky to sit on the floor, so no sneak peek of me here, just some of my lovely companions. Even the youngest girls of the household looked incredibly professional as they sat and stitched

and these are just a couple of examples of their work

We also visited the Bokhara workshop of Rakhmon Toshev. This amazing space had an astounding selection of beautiful embroideries on the walls, and great piles on trestles around the room, from which a selection were displayed to us, with explanations about the designs, and the skill and time involved in their stitching. 

Some were embroidered on a plain background

while with others the entire ground was covered in chain stitch - in this case done with a tambour hook rather than needle. 

The daughter of the master embroiderer showing us one of many beautiful textiles. Later we were given some fabric and thread and shown by him how to stitch a design

The Summer Palace had yet more colourful embroideries on the walls. One could have spent hours there just making sketches and taking notes about techniques and colours.

You can see here how suzanis are joined back together once stitching is complete

Finally, Akbar House, home to a marvelous collection of historic embroidered garments and household items and a vast array of embroidered goods for sale.

above and below, some of the beautiful collection of historic textiles and our host telling us about them

a wealth of embroidery, layer upon layer, laid out before us

The workshops we were given were interesting for a variety of reason beyond the simple one of being shown what to do. I was very struck by the almost workaday attitude to the stitching. We are used in this country to going to workshops which emphasise the importance of technique, methods of transferring designs, how to mount our work in a hoop, Perhaps we are introduced to concepts like Slow Stitch or Mending, working with found objects or recycled fabric. We are encouraged to explore themes and concepts in depth. Here, we were "just" doing embroidery.

The designs were drawn freehand onto the fabric with a biro, in this case to order - I asked him for a bird

The stitching was done using much longer pieces of thread than we are used to - no "elbow's length" restrictions here, just however much thread comes out of the pile. And by pile I mean exactly that. The colourful tangle below was the one from which our master embroiderer pulled out whatever thread he considered appropriate for the design we had chosen. In the case of the good ladies in Gijduvan, if the thread was too long, or wouldn't come out clean from the tangle she simply snapped off enough for her purpose. 

So what did I bring back from these workshops? Two pieces of embroidery, one partly done, and one just started, and two plastic bags holding a tangle of threads, mostly silk, but some very badly behaved deep red rayon which I have had to wrestle into submission! I have been enjoying the simplicity of "just stitching", watching the patterns form in the couching, depending on where you lay the couching stitch down and how much slant you give it, and the flow of the chain stitch as it works its way around the design.

work in progress

the chain stitch draws the fabric in however careful you are but once all the fabric is covered this will even out. Below the Bokhara couching forms leaves at the edge and the yellow elements in the flowers. I have supplemented the threads given us with some stranded floss in toning colours just in case I run out!

it's a lovely red, but boy it was springy and twisty and unwilling to comply with my intentions

my bluebird of happiness with his tangle of thread, awaiting further stitches

So, a long post about embroidery, but with so much to see there was a lot to talk about. It is still a living craft there, something done for a practical as well as aesthetic purpose, and it was a huge pleasure to see so much of such variety. I hope you haven't been bored?