Churro cowl

It's an odd time of the year in Australia to be posting this - but I'm trying to tidy up the year's work.

After the workshop on New Mexico Colcha Embroidery in August, I decided to knit up the churro wool I had purchased so I and my friends at the South Australian Embroiderers' Guild could see, feel and smell some of the wool that forms the basis of Colcha Embroidery.  I had purchased four skeins from Southwest Wool - three in natural colours and one dyed with natural, local dyes.

Winding wool from skein to ball is challenging when living alone, but my new dining chairs came to the rescue.

I wanted to use up as much of the wool as I could in a significant project that would both serve me well and be available to show people if I needed to do more talking about New Mexico Colcha.

I opted for a cowl that I have had my eye on for a few years, from Cowlgirls.








The feel of the wool was very firm and tough. It twisted as I knitted - and needed to be untwisted like embroidery thread often does.







Nevertheless, it knitted up fairly quickly. I'm a loose knitter, and wondered a few times if I should reduce the size of my needles.



I was also unsure how this was going to feel against my skin.




The pattern, however, was turning out really well once I got the hang of it. It had a nice variation - basically in three sections, a two-row per colour rib band, a centre of bobble bands and a one-row per colour rib band. This not only provides a result interesting to the eye, but is interesting to knit.

It was also interesting to see the way the colours appeared in relation to each other. The natural grey wool appears blue, and in the narrower border, the taupe takes on a grey tinge.


I am surprised at how much I like the result. I love the colours and the overall effect.


The best surprise is how comfortable it is to wear. It is lovely and warm, flexible and feels good. I wore it all evening at home after I tried it on, because I didn't want to take it off.

Shame it's the wrong season here - I love it!

New Mexico Colcha Workshop

In August I conducted a workshop on New Mexico Colcha Embroidery for the Embroiderers' Guild Certificate Course. It much followed the format I had used for the session with the Ethnic Embroidery Study Group last year.

Because I don't actually have any examples from New Mexico, I used a lot of photos, a couple of pieces I had embroidered myself, some of the examples worked by the EESG, the wool I had bought from Weaving South West (which, incidentally, I have since knitted into a spectacular cowl, which I'll blog about soon)

and the kit I had from the original Piecework article.

I also prepared new kits, using a very open-weave even-weave linen and motifs from Weaving and Colcha in the Spanish South West

There was great enthusiasm for the embroidery. Everyone got down to the task with energy. I had to be asked to demonstrate the stitch. So long have I thought and talked about this now that I forgot that it might not be familiar to everyone!

I have not found anyone yet who does not enjoy doing this. The flexibility, coverage and result all lead to great satisfaction

and the shapes of the traditional motifs prove  appealing.



Several people have continued working on the pieces and created items of their own volition - in other words, incorporated it into their repertoire of embroidery. Two substantial pieces were displayed in the Guild's recent Members' Exhibition.

This truly beautiful bag was the result of Mary Moore's participation in the workshop
















and this coat, by Barbara Mullan, with Colcha embroidery on the pockets and back, is  spectacular.

Participants were entranced and engaged with this embroidery. It is a tribute to the women who have worked so hard to preserve this tradition, especially Esther Vigil, who has been so helpful and supportive of my interest in it.

The Certificate Course Challenge this Christmas is a piece made with couching. I'm guessing many will be made in the tradition of New Mexico Colcha embroidery.

Guardian Cushion 4: Colcha Angel

The last of my Guardian Cushions is rather different in style. I really wanted to work one of Esther Vigil's colcha angels - from her Colcha book. Somehow, batik didn't seem to suit and I searched my stash for something more suitable, coming up with a piece of rusty red dupion silk.This set me thinking, so, rather than stitching the figure in the colcha stitch, I made a pile of my silk fabric pieces and chose some that I thought would look well on the dupion.
I then traced the pattern, cut some pieces and played around. I used an adhesive backing to attach the silk cut-outs to a cheese-cloth backing.


I decided this would look better if machine-appliqued rather than hand-stitched (I am stepping well outside my comfort-zone here!) so set to work using some gold synthetic thread.




When I had the pieces outlined and stitched together I plunged into stitching it to the background silk. The gold thread was clearly designed for use in an overlocker, or machine that held the reel upright, so I had many breakages and rethreading but got into a pattern of intervening in the thread feed to minimise the problem.

I modified the halo shape as it seemed a bit small. I'm not sure this was the best idea - but I stuck with it. The original shape was more in keeping with the oval stylised head, whereas the round shape halo might be better with more flowing angel hair.

Although I love the Dijanne Cevaal panels and the challenge of finding the right thread and embellishment, I was pleased to turn to the purity and vibrancy of silk for this final cushion. It's as an angel should be.

During January, while I have been posting these Guardian cushions (which could not be posted until after Christmas) I have been to the SA Embroiderers' Guild Summer Week - and also on holiday. I will begin posting those projects towards the end of this week.

Dijanne Cevaal Owl Cushion

At the October Craft and Quilt Fare in Adelaide I had resisted the temptation to buy one of the owl panels that Dijanne Cevaal had available. A friend urged me to buy, but as I had four untouched panels at home I resisted.

That was before I conceived of my 'guardians' theme.

Niamh likes owls. Owls too, have, in literature, performed the role of guardians of humans.

I contacted Dijanne and bought a panel.







I figured this is a mystical owl so chose red/gold colours to reflect that. I still had some of the lovely red/gold over-dyed stranded, as well as some lovely red silks.

I tried a range of stitches on the wings and breast, trying to get a notion of feathers. I did a couple of rows in colcha stitch. On the breast I used long single chain stitches, double in some places to get coverage.





I went looking for beads for the head- flat, round ones to go in those circles. The ones I found were a little yellower than I was looking for, but I went with them anyway.












I found some owl-coloured ones that I decided to use for the wing tips.

After trying a few seed beads and larger ovals in the central head section, I settled for an outline of large ovals and chips of gold bugle beads to infill. It took a while but I was pleased with the result. I also had to go back to the bead shop several times - and captured the market on round flat beads!

Amongst my cache of broken jewellery I had a pair of earrings that were perfect for the eyes. I stitched the surround in red metallic and attached the silver disc with (I confess!) super-glue.




The beak is a shell from an odd earring.

         I used midnight purple for the background and a straw-coloured silk for the feet - to pick up the gold in the head.



I chose the batik (again from Chrissy at Batik Fabrics Online - superfast pre-Christmas service) to suggest trees. I wanted the owl to seem to be emerging from the greenery, so did not put a border on this one.

I'm very pleased I relented and sent for this one. It turned out better than I  had dared hope.

Dijanne Cevaal Dragon Cushion

After working the Sentinelle,  having so much fun, and earmarking it for Veronica, I decided to work a series of 'Guardian' figures for each of my grandchildren. Esther Vigil, whose excellent books on Colcha Embroidery had been so useful for my New Mexico Colcha Embroidery Workshop, had told me she was embroidering an angel for each of her grandchildren.  This got me thinking.  I already had the Sentinelle, to stand guard over Veronica.

I also had a dragon, another guardian figure - especially in Chinese mythology, where the dragon is a hero with power over the water - so I set to work to create a Dragon Guardian for Fionn.

I wanted this dragon to be a hybrid - a green dragon blending to red-gold.

I used silks, some red beads, metallics and a splendid red glass bead for the eye.

I couldn't go past the overdyed stranded cotton that I bought from the Guild earlier this year - it has a dragon's name on it!

I'm not sure why I was so sure of the green on the dragon - surely not a hang-over from the Hobbit drinking song in Lord of the Rings? Maybe it was the lure of some bright green silk.

I found a lovely dark green silk for the plants and practiced my colcha stitch.























The background is midnight blue Madeira metallic  and I filled the spaces between with running stitch in stranded cotton.


























I had purchased batik on which to mount this dragon but didn't feel I had enough. I thought he deserved a bigger cushion than my half-metre would make. I considered ordering more but also thought he got a bit lost in the gold of the batik.















I remembered a large quantity of dark denim I had bought a few years ago, got it out and rather liked the contrast. I washed it and set to work


It is quite a different look to the Sentinelle but I like its strength and boldness. Hope Fionn does too!

Sentinelle Cushion

For the last couple of months I have been working on some of my Dijanne Cevaal panels. I began with the Sentinelle - for the sheer enjoyment of doing it. When one of my granddaughters expressed enthusiasm for it as it emerged, I conceived the idea, first of making it for her, and then of making a 'Guardian' cushion for each of my grandchildren. This was helped along in conception by Esther Vigil, who has made an angel embroidery for each of her grand-children.


The term 'sentinelle' relates to the English term 'sentry'. It is someone standing guard, watching over, guarding.

I began this one with the halo. Given the shapes in the screenprint, I looked to see if I had any round beads and found a couple of packs of heart shaped ones almost the exact size I was looking for.

Having done that I needed bugle beads for the outer edge.






While I was buying these I found the large lozenge shaped mauve beads that fitted well with the other shapes on the cloak

From the beginning I had the notion of using shisha mirrors on the cloak. The circular motifs seemed to cry out for it.

I experimented with metallic thread to hold them in. Somewhat to my surprise, it worked quite well. It took a bit of time, and required working with a relatively short thread , but proved fun to do.

I worked the mirrors in first, then added the surrounding spokes and the lozenge beads.
















Because I was, at the same time, obsessed with Colcha embroidery and Colcha/Bokhara stitch, I used the stitch for some of the embroidery on the cloak. It worked well for the long folds - stitched on the diagonal rather than the full length of the fold.

For much of it I used chain stitch. I also ran some gimp down the edges of the folds. This was quite hard to keep tight, no matter how hard I tried. I tightened it several times.

I also worked out colours as I went - working from a general notion of the effect I wanted.



The metallic mirror surrounds worked the same way - I used two metallics in dark blue and bluey-red.



I filled the background in using a black synthetic with silver - very easy to use and providing some texture along the lines of the print








I also used a very fine copper metallic to outline the facial features and more bugle beads on the head band.








Here"s the finished panel, being blocked, ready to be mounted in batik. The blue of the panel is truer here than in previous photos.

Once again, I'm delighted with the batik - from Crissy at Batik Fabric Online.

Again, I worked a border in one of the Kantha edges from The Art of Kantha Embroidery, by Niaz Zarman.

Here she is, very crumpled, in all her splendour and, on the right, with continental pillow insert on Christmas Day.

In the next couple of weeks I will post the other three guardian cushions.