I have had quite a bit of time to think about my 4th Back to Basics Project. Since last posting about Back to Basics my hussif has been assessed (successful!) and displayed. I have also done quite a bit of thinking about the next Project which is a library bag with an embroidery design and a construction element. The design has to be based around, or incorporate, the student's initial. It requires sturdy, plain fabric for the outside and a patterned fabric lining.I wanted to keep the bag (which, since I read almost everything electronically, I will not use for library books) within the same colour and design range of my earlier Back to Basics projects. I also wanted to use fabric from my stash.
I came up with some khaki drill and a Japanese cotton floral.Gay Sanderson, who runs the Back to Basics course, had pointed out to me that my Project 3 embroidery design incorporated stitches that looked very like the J of my initial - so I had been working on this. It led me to think about J curves and for a while I toyed with the idea of a pulled back curtain - but in the end I was drawn to extending the floral design of the husif.
This took me to framing the husif design with trees, incorporating upside-down J curves in the branches. I was also keen to make them Australian trees - so ended up with a flowering gum and a wattle tree. These also give me scope to use a range of stitches, since texture is also a criterion for this project.
One of my fellow students, Mary, kindly gave me some of her large graph paper so I cut it to fit the embroidery space on my bag and scaled up the drawing.
I'm planning to incorporate quite a range of stitches, and I've managed to get some of those elusive shisha mirrors from Barbara Mullan to include this time.My first embroidery step, however, will be to get the outlines of the framing tree branches in place. I will miss the July meeting of the group next week because of my knee reconstruction (which, incidentally, has gone well - home tomorrow) but I'm happy to take my time on this one. It is such an enjoyable group to belong to that I'm in no hurry to complete the full 5 projects that comprise the course!
3 comments:
this latest project looks very interesting,great design skills you have and can see you spend a lot of time in the planning, I just rush at things and then pay the price for not planning properly. Trust knee is healing well, have been told I should have injections in mine put putting this off for as long as I can
I'm spending time in planning because the course requires it, Margaret. I'm also inclined to rush in! Knee going well so far. Trying to get on top of it while I can. Good luck with yours.
This looks like an ambitious plan, but I know you will do a great job with it. I bet you are already working on it now! It will be fun to see it come alive with a wide range of stitches and threads. Happy stitching!
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