Towel in Celtic Backstitch

The other three hand-towels I bought to embroider had an inset Aida panel. I decided to try one of these as a 'grab and go' project for a recent trip to Canberra. I took a pattern from the book Celtic Backstitch by Helen Hall. I chose a pattern that could be repeated across the towel. 2 repeats (3 motifs altogether) were an almost perfect fit.

I settled on Perle 8 Dinky Dyes thread in variegated pink,made a copy of the motif and put these into a drawstring bag along with a couple of needles an my travel scissors - and set off.

It took me a bit to get back into the swing of counted thread work. After a couple of false starts I decided to use double running instead of Backstitch. That way I can advance the pattern more quickly, getting it mapped out before coming back to fill in the second row.

 

This was an improvement. Even so, when I had finished the motifs it looked a bit insipid,

so I whipped the running stitch with a variegated blue Dinky Dyes Perle 8.

This has achieved the effect I was after - a textured pattern in blended colours. These are slightly larger than the other hand towels I have recently embroidered and a good thickness. 

Icons Project

,The Embroiderers' Guild is SA has set 'Icons' as the theme for its contribution exhibition for the South Australian Living Arts Festival in August this year. Partly triggered by that and partly by the Kantha work I did earlier this year, I have been working on an idea inspired by the events that lead to the defeat of the government led by Julia Gillard, Australia's first female prime minister.

Whatever the policy issues associated with that defeat, there was undeniably a great deal of misogyny and harassment meted out to Ms Gillard while she was PM. In an interview after her defeat she placed her treatment in the context of women generally, summing this up as "It's about all of us".

I, and many other women in Australia, agreed with her. Her treatment was sharper and more intense because she was the figurehead - but it serves as a symbol of an attitude and culture affecting, in less public ways, all of us.

I wanted to create an embroidery that expressed this notion. It seemed to fit the 'icon' theme.

I began by searching photos online. There are many photos of Julia Gillard available, but few full-length ones. I needed one that showed her easily-identified hairstyle and tailored look (the one of her in a chair knitting didn't quite do it!). 

I traced the photo and settled on on to a piece of fabric hand dyed by the Embroiderers' Guild. These are the pieces of cotton on which the Guild's hand-dyed cotton threads are laid to dry. The one I chose was quite pale with pinks and greens radiating out from the centre. I backed this with a thin wadding and calico.

I couldn't, however, get the facial features right, try as I might. Finally I hit on the notion of printing her face on fabric, using cotton printing sheets. It took a bit of adjustment but worked in the end.

I stitched around the edge in a reddy-brown and later padded the face from the back

I filled in her figure using chain stitch on the clothes and stem stitch on the arms and legs.I was able to get texture and light variation by the direction of the stitch, and by varying the tension.

I then began to create little outline or stick figures of women, radiating out along the colour lines of the fabric and embroidered the quote at the bottom.





These soon became addictive. I found myself looking at the passing parade of people in public places and sketching shapes.



The first figures were done in double running stitch. I then added some stem stitch, back stitch, French knots, bullion knots and a few satin stitches into the mix.

One night at the theatre, as the actors on the stage struck poses I took out my notebook and sketched in the dark. The sketches were rough but proved to be great guides for my stitching. Getting the basic shape was the trick.

The joy of stitching this, was in making it up as I went along. I could take my fabric, a few threads, needle and scissors and stitch it whenever I had a few minutes.

    I have purchased some fabric with which to bind/frame the piece.

I am not sure that it fits with what the Guild envisaged for Icons - but I'm pleased to have done it regardless.

I shall post the finish soon!

Ottoman double running progress

It is a long time since I wrote about my progress on the vase of flowers piece I started with Carol Mullan at the SA Embroiderers' Guild Summer School. The Maharani's Fishpond rather took over!

I did eventually finish the piece - not without some difficulties, mostly derived from lack of concentration.

Much of the design is worked using double running in steps. I enjoyed learning that technique. The artichoke-like motifs afforded me some challenges. I needed good magnification and a lot of concentration to count


 I struggled a little with getting strong enough colour on the linen, which is Permin lambs wool (colour description, not fabric). The single strand colour, although dark, did not make a solid impression on the linen.

One of the techniques outlined in our notes was to overlay the double running stepped grid with double running stitch on the diagonals. Although this does not look as ordered and geometric as the outlined grid, it does afford a sense of solid colour, so I worked this in the larger blocks of the design.                                                                                 While stitching this, I  pondered what to do with the finished piece. Framing does not appeal to me. I've been carrying the piece around in the Ottoman pouch I made from Alison Snepp's design and it occurred to me that this might be a good way to use the piece of linen.

I found a piece of denim and lined it with some batik that had served as a tablecloth for many years until it fell into holes. I salvaged some of it. Although pairing it with the Ottoman double running piece creates a mix of ethnicities, the colours work.

It was tricky to get the size and layout right, so the linen would end up on the back of the pouch and right way up (apologies for the horrible colour of the denim in the photo!).

I didn't succeed in getting it perfectly geometrical, but this is a piece of folk craft and I will adapt as I stitch. 


More on the construction soon.

Maharani's Fishpond outer border background

I have been doing the background fill of the Maharani's Fishpond. Again, it's been pleasurable - free-form stitching in single thread running stitch. I've only used a few pale colours.

The overall effect is pleasing, but difficult to photograph.
Those with keen eyes will notice  I have begun to stuff the central motif - but more on that later!

Embroiderers' Guild of South Australia Summer School

I am currently in residence at the Summer Schools of the SA Embroiderers' Guild. I usually attend one class, but this year booked myself in for the full complement of 2 classes of two days each and a half day class. It is being held at a school in Adelaide and I am staying in the boarding house with about 15 other women. 

I don't usually directly blog while away, but I am testing the use of the Blogger App on my iPad. It is more limited than my computer, but I want to,see if it will work well enough to serve me while I am travelling later this year.

The class I am doing today and tomorrow is an Ottoman Double Running and Darning Project with Carol Mullan. This is the photo of her finished piece from the Guild website. I can't link to the website from this App.

It has been an intense and productive class. We have all made good progress, working from many different starting points and directions. One of Carol's particular strengths is her flexibility and capacity to encourage diversity.

I began in the centre, then worked outlines - I still get quite excited and inspired to see the shape emerge.

The pale yellow section slowed me down - it was very hard to see against my ecru linen, and I think I will redo it in a darker shade. 

I plan to do a bit more tonight and look forward to getting further tomorrow.