Remembering and Honouring

This is a hard post to write. If you look at my "word cloud" you will see Christine Chester's name shining large because I have mentioned her so very many times as my source of inspiration and textile education. I first met her when I did the Tie Dye Mini Quilt Course at Studio 11 when she first opened it back in 2012. I was the only participant, and it was the start of 11 years of inspiration, experimentation, laughter and friendship as the Studio 11 community grew. 

Last month this dear soul; friend, teacher and incredibly talented and thoughtful textile artist died after a courageous battle with cancer. We, her friends and students, joined her family last week to say goodbye to her and to celebrate all she had given to us over the years. 

Christine created a vibrant community of like minded folk centered on Studio 11. She gave of her time and skill so generously as our teacher, and also scheduled regular textile "Re-treats" where other textile artists came to share their skills and inspirations with us. In 2019, when she faced the challenge of losing the Studio because the rent had risen beyond her ability to pay, she simply packed everything up and relocated to her basement flat, rearranging her own life to prioritise her creative endeavour and, of course, source of income. I deeply admired her fortitude and refusal to give in to this difficult circumstance. Then Covid19 hit, another challenge, which she rose to by devising a series of Zoom classes which we could all do at home. This carried us through the pandemic in an incredibly supportive way, keeping our creative ideas flowing with courses on transparent fabrics, a "potato chip quilt" and Poetry of Stitch, exploring stitch as a mark making and expressive tool. Zoom also allowed her to host folk from further afield, extending the reach of her teaching beyond the south coast. In mid 2021 she found another real life studio for us to come to, and we were once more able to meet face to face, enjoy each other's company and share our creative endeavours. The new studio was a lovely airy space in an old building once used by the Plymouth Brethren as a meeting house. It was a beautiful place in which to learn; full of light, vibrant with colour and music, peppered with laughter as we, her students, were joined with her again in one place. Sadly, with her death it will close and become once more an anonymous old building on a small street in Eastbourne.

You may remember that in May 2021 she reconnected me with a cushion that had belonged to Ganna, through a piece of total serendipity. It has taken a back seat over the past few years due to other projects taking my time. I have now returned to it, and with each stitch I am connected in my heart with both my beloved grandmother, and with Christine. She used to say to me that I shouldn't feel guilty about not finishing things, if the inspiration to start them had fled. I store those words carefully in my heart as a quiet wisdom. But this project will be finished, with daily stitch, in honour of her and all she gave to me and to my fellow Studio 11 members. We gained so much from here, and do not know what we will do without her.

So here's the plan

This is a design from the work I did in the summer on insects

based on a photograph taken years ago of a dragonfly casualty - blame the cats

and some fabrics dyed at Studio11 on the day we spent with Christine as part of City and Guilds

one watery and flowing, to evoke the nymph stage of the dragonfly's life, one crumple dyed with evocative shapes lurking in the random patterns. Beneath, a teal cotton velvet, garnered from curtain shop remnants, to provide practical strength for ... a sketcher's bag to hold sketchbook, pencil case, camera and water bottle

I'll create a front panel using the water ripple fabric with organza layered over and stitched into with the dragonfly wing pattern in couched and linear stitches. I'm also thinking of using wave stitch in the finely patterned areas to emulate, but not copy the cell structure. Then I'd do the rear panel using the crumple dyed fabric and hand quilt over those lines that evoke a wing shape.

The strap will go across my body and will be the velvet on the underside and a strip of the ripple fabric on the top to tie in with the embroidered panels.

I'll probably adapt the image below to a design like the one above, as it's more graphic and has a clearer reference to the actual wing shape - here played with in Picasa

Are you getting the idea?

Stitching a Galaxy

I'm making a start on one of the pieces I dyed recently at Studio 11. It's sort of a practice for something else - a Winter Solstice cloth - but I want to find out how the stitching will work on this piece first; trial techniques, see what the needle feels like moving though the three layers of cloth. The middle layer is a dark blue linen, not the dull browny colour you can see at the right. It has a lovely drape and texture, then there's muslin at the bottom to anchor stitches in. The top is a piece I dyed using shibori techniques - a process I could get very addicted to! I'm just tacking the three lays together at the moment and plan to extend the stitching into the border so have left plenty of edge for that.

And before I forget - here is the second white work piece for City and Guilds. I love the strong shadows the trailing border gives, and the light and shade where the stitches run in different directions, which doesn't show up too well here.  I'm still debating whether to redo those rectangles at the side with their wobbly bars and uneven division!

Pure Indulgence

Along with lovely fabrics and threads, my big weakness, in fact probably my biggest, is for books, especially books on .... lovely fabrics and threads. I was (dangerously) bumbling about Amazon -  looking for something else entirely, when this appeared before me. How could I resist? Arts and Crafts has always been a favourite style of mine, having been in love with the Pre-Raphaelites in my teenage years and early twenties. William Morris is one of my all time heroes and of course, he was at the root of the Arts and Crafts movement, along with a number of other great craftsmen and artists. I haven't allowed myself to dip into this too much yet, there are too many other things that need my attention, and still too little time to give them. 

I also picked up a reprint of May Morris's Decorative Needlework. She was one of William and Jane's two daughters and influential in both embroidery and design, as well as being a champion of practical education for women to enable them to earn a living.   The V&A holds examples of her work, which you can see here, there is a delightfully colourful brief biography of her here and an article about her embroidery on the marvelous Textile Blog here.

But back to my own embroidery efforts for City and Guilds. Things are happening -  albeit more slowly than I'd like. Here is one of my "holes" samplers -  finished, though not properly pressed or anything, but I'm really happy with the way it's gone

and here is the next one, still in progress. The one above uses simple satin stitch and overcasting to finish the edges of the holes. The next piece has buttonhole stitch round the larger openings and woven bars - those are the bits that stretch across the rectangular holes - the one on the right far too wobbly; it may have to be redone! Also a technique called trailing - like couching, but with the stitches placed so close together that they cover the thread being stitched down. It makes a rather nice definite frame at the top and will be mirrored at the bottom

The scariest bit with this technique is cutting the fabric away to make the holes. You can see this most clearly on the back, where the central square has the four sections folded under. I'm tacking them down before running buttonhole stitch around the edge, and plan to divide the square into four with two more woven bars, hopefully not wobbly ones.

Once the stitching is finished I'll tidy up the back by very carefully snipping away the little points of fabric. City and Guilds insists on good quality finishing!

Making holes

Happy New Year to those of you who pop by from time to time. I'm sorry for my long absences, but work has been dominating my life for the last several months; so much so that I almost feel that I've lost myself. This week I'm trying to get back to some semblance of normality. 

I missed the last City and Guild tutorial of 2013, but managed to get to Saturday's and we were given a lesson in white work and cutwork. I'd done the latter before, with tuition from my beloved Ganna, but have never done white work. This little sample is really cheating, I've used a soft green thread rather than the traditional white, but it's coming along quite nicely I think. I designed the pattern on tracing paper, as I was intending to fold and trace from a section, but ended up doing the whole design so it's a little squonk. Then I used delicate dotted lines with a fine line pen to trace onto the fabric as it is slightly sheer. Now I'll try to complete it with some shapes done as holes and others with satin stitch. 

One of the things Barbara is constantly reminding us is to make sure to separate the strands of embroidery floss and recombine them, so that they lie flat as you stitch (and to constantly untwist the kinks). I'd never been told that before, but am really impressed with the difference it makes to the satin stitch - it catches the light so much better as the strands are smooth and lie in harmony with each other. The fabric is salvaged from Aunt Cecil's store as she isn't really able to concentrate enough to stitch any more, which is very sad for her.

Hope you like it so far.

misty sunrise

Early to work means not missing the beautiful. Actually you don't have to be out that early at this time of year, the solstice approaches

Oh! Did I show you this?

From April this year - bit if a theme going there ...

Planning

.

This may come to something, but is just a pile of thoughts and learning at the moment. 

We have to do a three dimensional, hand embroidered piece of work for C&G. One option might be a box, though I'm not sure I have the skill, let alone the time to make one. The idea is for the box to have bee wing patterns on the outside on three panels, a bee on top and inside, a lining that evokes honey somehow perhaps with light gold satin .... excuse the i-Pad image quality and sketchy sketching

I'm also thinking about a bag, which needs to be functional, based on dragonfly wing patterns, no thought out design as yet. Probably not something frou frou though! One of our group is making a wedding reticule (don't some of those look delicious?), which sounds delightful but way beyond my capacities!

Or perhaps a beaded pendant/brooch based on a little box in the V&A. The link is to a view of the top of the box, a little sportsmanlike dog; this view shows the bottom of the box, a lovely butterfly in the finest imaginable mosaic pieces of cut stone

and here's the thinking with a pencil about how to make - I'd try to create upstanding wings using a stumpwork technique - again, if I have the time and skill

In fact, it all depends on time and skill really - I have to consult with our tutor on which to choose ..... but now to examine dragonfly wing with a pencil and paper ......

Late late late!!

Hello all, if anyone is still paying me the compliment of keeping an eye on this neglected blog! Thank you those of you who've commented over the past couple of months - I'd not been here at all, then came today and found four comments that encouraged me back to the study chair to say "hi - I am still here - honest!"

The getting lots done in September got waylaid by the demands of work - my normal 27 hour weeks have ballooned to full time and more, in fact a couple even reached the exhausting heights (depths?) of 43 hours. We're installing anew library management system ....... then there's the Saturday classes, textile and embroidery, and the homework for the Saturday classes. All in all I'm rather exhausted. But still having fun.

My City and Guilds has got very behind as I've been struggling to keep up with both stitch and design. The most recent smocking was tremendous fun, and prompted me to get books out from work on old time smocking, two published in the sixties and one in the early eighties - you can imagine the startling designs that accompanied chapters called "the modern approach" and "modern adaptation of stitch and design", all written by a woman with the wonderful name of "Oenone Cave". A quick search of Google images brings up the most amazing selection of smocking in a whole variety of techniques. These range from  traditional farmer's smocks and some great vintage patterns to the most amazing dresses. I particularly liked this lovely Arts and Crafts dress on the V&A website and some fascinating Pinterest content.

My two small efforts have given me much pleasure to do, though I have to say the tiny little movements in and out, in and out, when doing the gathers in preparation for the pretty bits gave me some trouble and some sharp pains in the hands and arms. Unlike general running stitch which has a flow about it, and which I used for Uffington, the gathering stitch for smocking has to be done with the utmost regularity, yet is irregular in character. You mark the fabric with a grid of regular dots, then take the tiniest stitch on each dot at the back to draw the fabric into pleats. These are then stitched across on the front. Here's how they turned out - both on upcycled fabric from charity shop finds.

The piece worked on some checked shirting fabric was easiest as the regular pattern was a great help in placing the stitching. The other, on a bit of linen tray cloth was harder as while one stitches, the close gathers have a tendency to wriggle about in a most unruly fashion. I was pleased with the one row of soft green stitching, made by using both yellow and blue in the needle, but a LOT of unpicking was done!!

Still, a lot of fun was had as well .....

Oh, and I will scan in and post the pages from my summer insect project. I'm now trying to catch up with producing three designs for a "something", bag, box, scarf, based on the design work done during the summer - for which read scrabbled together at the last moment a month late to be presented to my tutor the weekend before last!!

Phew

Appliqué

Finally finished my decorative appliqué homework, which always feels as though its not what I'm supposed to have done, but I've really enjoyed this.

I love having a muslin backing cloth, as it lets threads bury themselves, and gives you a place to work a couple of small stitches before starting to stitch - no knots, I hate knots!

Stitching it all down

The leafy light green block is reverse applique, the green fabric mounted on the back, with tacking stitches outlining the negative space that needs to be cut through from the front. I cut the red silt form the front, then blanket stitched it down. I chose the motif carefully to make sure I could align warp and weft of both fabrics and still have the stem at a sensible angle to extend downwards.

I used very sparse, stretched fly stitch to attach the orange "sunflower" stem; breaking this at the centre with a little sliver of blue organza to echo the sky above. I chose a stitch that echos the running stitch used in the sky, as well as the triad of the fly stitch.

For the grass at the bottom I wanted to make sure the stitches helped in holding down this very loosely woven fabric. I used a toning soft green silk, to blend into the sheen of the fibre, rather than fighting with it. Then I couched on some of the loose threads from the sunflower fabric to the left, using the same green as is in the sky, shiny and vivid.

So here we are! I think it needs to be backed by something dark, but for now, it's just a sampler.

Anny, you're right, it is rather Autumnal isn't it!

Now to the functional applique ....

Confession

I went to Stitchfest 2013 and confess to coming home with "stuff". The best bit is this

I also bought some dye from Christine, and had bought some little clip on lid pots for the dyes, but she has her own, much better pots as part of the deal, so those little tubs? Perfect for sorting and storing the silk scraps I got from the Art Van Go stall! 

Happening!

Developments

Thinking

About City and Guilds actually, my appliqué homework, which has been languishing through lack of inspiration. Finally getting somewhere

The thought and the fabric work together, along with a cup of tea of course, and some Rokia Traore in the background

Time to press and tack and stitch!

Do you remember the giraffe?

It was this, piece of dyeing, done back in September last year, a strip of sheet, folded in half, then bound hand and foot with elastic bands

it came out like this, see how the fold down the centre allows the tied elements to mirror

Well, on Sunday, I did a session with Christine at Studio 11, using soy wax and a variety of tools. I bravely tore the fabric in half, and treated each half differently.
One half I did as a swirled tray dye, squirting the dye on to run into different parts of the swirls. I'd be very tempted now to tie lots of little shibori knots into the colours, in a swirling pattern, then drop the cloth into a bucket of really dark dye. I think it might sparkle

The other half was laid out on a plastic sheet while I applied soy wax using a brush and swishing it out from the center of each pattern, so that it looked like slender petals. I brushed little bits of texture into the space between the flower shapes. Then I swirled the dye on, using a pipette, watching it bleed and soak into the fabric along the lines of the wax, sweeps of spiraling colour that ran into each other, then dropping dye into the spaces in between to add a sense of background. Because the fabric was dry, the colour moves about quite differently. That's why with shibori you soak the fabric first, so it doesn't wick into the tied bits.

So, two bits of fabric with the same start and the same colours, but a totally different effect.

Then there's my moon garden, which has evolved from this

to this - click for a bigger version






For the rest of the bits of fabric I dyed there on Sunday, here's a little slideshow, with one screen print as well, the background from my session last Saturday when we did breakdown printing

I really am having extraordinary fun!

I'm also going to Istanbul on Sunday. What inspiration!

spring green

On Sunday afternoon, the garden was like this

one cat keeping watch at the top of the walk

the fattening hydrangea leaves, swollen with rain and freshly visible after their spring haircut

  the sun shone through daffodils and violets

  

Wol was happy in his world

  the hazel was in blossom - I'm not sure I've ever managed to notice the flowers before, they are so tiny, yet the catkin sheds its pollen to fertilize them with a caress of breeze

 another cat guards the pagoda

 while the old dears chat to each other in the sunshine 

and up in the rooftops (now there's another grid!)

the starling suns his iridescent chest 

the sun shone in his blue blue sky 

and it was very very warm and peaceful 

then in the evening I stitched, then stitched some more yesterday and a final few today

Counterchange

I deliberately played with the regular counterchange of the squares, by allowing the beads and French knots to expand away from the centre, floating out towards the edges and challenging all that serious stability.

Today I also had an exhausting trip to London for work. 

Still not feeling quite up to scratch