Wednesday 27 March 2024

February Stepping Stones Swap

Oh golly gosh, I really like these cards! There's so much wonderful variety and texture, and perspective, in them. It's interesting to me at the moment to look through them and try and see it from a design and composition point of view - in a few weeks I'm giving a talk on Colour and Design, two incredibly broad subjects to be crammed into a short session, and quite a lot of the design element involves composition, perspective, the vanishing point, the rule of three etc, and you can clearly see these principals reflected in these cards. 

The two cards on the right hand side really emphasis the vanishing point, as the lines recede into the distance in a clear triangular shape, as if they are disappearing to an imagined end point on the horizon. I've sort of done the same thing but in a more wiggly way, as has the card in the centre. The perspective here is created by making the shapes smaller and therefore appearing further away in the landscape. The horizon lines are still there but being meandered to rather than walking a direct route.



A few of these cards are appearing to be viewed more from a birds-eye-view, so they don't have a horizon for anything to vanish off into. They are more textural and use other compositional tricks (most of which are usually completely subconscious, I doubt everyone would have been reading into why they have placed certain elements in certain places). The rule of three, or odds, appears several times. Things in threes look more harmonious, natural and visually appealing whilst bigger odd numbers challenge the brain slightly but can create a balance with the central point and even numbers either side of it. 




I love these little teeny weeny buttons on this paving piece. the colours here are lovely with the little knots and picot stitches embroidered into the gaps between the slabs, and the cut out fallen leaves just lightly stitched on top! It's really clever. 


The little lady in this piece is really evocative too, especially with her yellow dress contrasting beautifully with the blues!! (I've been thinking a lot about this talk, can you tell?)




The stitching on this one is really nice too, lots of little french knots and detached chain stitches to build up texture with the moss or flowers - different sizes of french knot too to create subtle changes in height. I like how the buttons have been stitched down!


The vanishing point perspective is strong with this piece - it's very visually striking, all lines point to the flowers in the centre so your eye can't help but be drawn to it, and then with the pop of the red against green and white it's almost like you are being zoomed into it for a closer look. 



At the end of the day though, once you've analysed all sorts of reasons as to why a piece works, all that really matters is that the ladies had fun making and stitching and thinking about their pieces, rummaging through their stashes for that perfect fabric, or searching for inspiration around them. The more you practice and make and do, the more easily you can understand or bend and break the rules and enjoy what you're doing with confidence. There is no right and wrong, and these beautiful cards clearly show that by being themselves.


Sunday 24 March 2024

Stepping Stones ATCs


I loved making these ATCs. I wasn't sure it would pan out with the felt stones but actually I really love them and the way the different textures cast shadows and give it an overall three-dimensional effect. 
The colours really appeal to me as well. I have a little stash of small offcuts of felt which I purchased as a bundle and included a whole rainbow of colours so there's always one that fits my needs and for this one I had a few options to consider - sandy beige or a dark brown or a moss covered green. Strangely it was this bluey/grey that spoke most to me and I love how it seems to reflect the blues of the water. 



Each of the three stepping stones have been stitched with a different stitch to make them look slightly different. The bottom one is textured all over with seed stitch, the middle one edged with blanket stitch and the top, smallest one, outlined with back stitch. I think if they had all been done the same it would have looked a bit odd so I'm glad I took the risk of making them different. To help with the perspective and give distance, they also get slightly smaller the further away they go (or the higher up the card they sit).
They have all been given the same french knots at the bottom though to bring them together. I'm not sure what the knots are representing really - bubbles or lichen or just knobbly bits on the rocks, but they look cool so that's ok. 


There is fairly simple stitching on the rest of the card. The top fabric has no real stitching on, the green grassy fabric already has a grass texture print on it so all I've done is add some single strand straight stitches just to emphasise the grassy-ness of it, and there's a wonderful shiny textured ric-rac at the bottom to mark the edge of the bank. It's probably a bit chunky for the piece really but I loved the metallic strip going through it that I thought could reflect the water below, and the colours went so beautifully with the greens above. 



The two blue fabrics have been divided by a strand of Stylecraft Moonbeam yarn which I couched down before stitching the central stepping stone on so that it was pushed into the background. Stem stitch in a darker blue thread has been stitched to make ripples curving around the stones, and then a single strand of metallic thread has been stitched in random horizontal straight stitches to act as the water running through. I did actually add these in after my green stems so I had to slide my needle underneath the green reeds to make some of them, rather than leaving lots of gaps behind - it makes it look a little bit more natural as the slight metallic sheen peeps through.


Whilst the stems further away have been made with two strands of stranded cotton, I've used stranded cotton and cotton perle threads at the front to make the reeds chunkier and seem closer to the viewer. Glorious flower sequins have then been stitched over the top. I think these are super sequins, they have a slight cone shape to them so they aren't flat, and the petals are translucent and slightly pearly so they catch the light in a really delicate way. I would love to find out a big supplier of these to be able to offer them in my shop but I've only come across them in small packets at stitching shows, they don't even have a supplier name on to help me track them down. If anyone knows - clue me in!
To stitch them I have used a single strand and stitched between the petals into the central hole, then made a tiny french knot (one strand, two twist) in the centre to finish them off. 





I love the movement in these, and the fact that there are shadows cast which helps to give it life. You can almost hear the water trickling through the stream as you hop over the stones. 
To finish, the final stitch run down is; seed stitch, straight stitch, french knots, stem stitch, couching, blanket stitch and back stitch.

Monday 26 February 2024

Barton in the Beans Stitchscape

 

In desperation I have turned to Googling interesting place names in England to find new and exciting names for my Stitchscapes. They are harder to come up with than the ideas for the pieces themselves - not that they especially need names but it's nice to be able to call them something when you want to refer to a specific piece. 

Today the name that stood out to me was Barton in the Beans, which is apparently a hamlet in the parish of Shackerstone in Leicestershire. According to Wikipedia (font of all knowledge) it has no shops or a pub (gasp!) but does have a church and a post box. So that's ok then. 

The reason Barton in the Beans stood out to me was because the petal beads I have used at the bottom of the piece do look a little bit baked bean-like when viewed from afar. They are really interesting beads from a newly discovered shop called Old Bicycle Shop who seem to specialise in slightly unusual ones in all sorts of odd shapes. The ones I've used here are called tulip petal beads and have the hole at the bottom, with a slight curve upwards like a petal. There are different types and shapes of petal bead which you can see in magnificent detail on the Old Bicycle Shop website - it's a dangerous place to look if you wish to keep your bank balance intact.  

I liked these ones because they almost looked like little marbles on the inside, with some areas clear and others milky. The curve makes the beads sort of fall and cower over but they perk up if you poke them with your finger so that's good fun. 

I have surrounded the petal beads with drizzle stitches to add height, and stacks of little green/petrol coloured matte seed beads to help add more texture. Any visible blotches from the batik fabric below have been filled in with satin stitch to give padded areas and the whole section is just a mish-mash of different things going on in a sort of haphazard way which I love. 


This piece was initially put together following a workshop as it was a leftover pack, and you can read more about the origins of the fabrics and the beads too, on a previous post of mine, here
It has quite a few layers but actually only four fabrics in, but with two fabrics put on as layers using both the front and back of the fabrics to see what the difference is. 
As all of the layers have been treated differently, I'm not sure now you would be easily able to tell that they were the same fabrics but it's an interesting exercise to try. Sometimes the back is more what you are looking for than the front is. 

Edging my bottom layer with the mad textures is a corded fancy trimming, which has caused some comments on a Facebook post I made saying that it reminded them of barbed wire fencing - not exactly the look I was going for. Personally I think of those woven living hedgerows made using willow branches or similar, and someone else commented saying that it looked like little decorative scalloped wire border fences that their grandparents had in the garden to separate the flowerbeds from the lawn. 

Everyone can always see something so different in these pieces and that's what art is about. It doesn't matter what I say it is, art is personal to everyone and you'll all look at it differently. Are you in the barbed wire fence, scalloped decorative border or woven living hedge camp? Or are you in a different camp entirely?

I've kept the fabric above quite simple and just used the lines that were already in the pattern, going around each of them with a single strand back stitch. To edge the fabric I've used a lovely hand dyed yarn from Lamington Lass, which appears in quite a few of my pieces at the moment, the colours just really speak to me and different bits of it work with different projects. 

The little snippet of fabric above that to the left is the same fabric but turned over. It's a much paler version as the print was only one sided on the fabric, but the tone kind of sits nicely with the other paler fabrics and mirrors more the paleness of the sky. To this I've blurred any remaining pattern lines with seed stitch and edged with french knots. 

My first big mountain took ages to do. I'm not sure why I fancied so many little seed beads on there, I was obviously having a blingy moment but I do really like it. The beads actually went on first, before any other stitches in this layer and I've tried not to be too uniform with it but to give a fairly evenish cover. Once the beads were on I've used a two different green colours to roughly fill in patches of the batik with satin stitch, concentrating on the larger splotches otherwise it would be too much thread and endless hours trying to cover every little pinprick. I like the effect that using two colours has - especially as it has coincided with a lightening of the fabric colour as well. It's like the sun has just peeped through the clouds on that one spot and lit it up. 

I've used two different colours of embroidery thread, split up and put back together to couch down on the edge of the fabric to finish the layer off. 



Batik fabrics are just so lovely. I have a real addiction to them and their colours and uniqueness. There are off course the slightly more twee versions which depict butterflies or elephants in slightly startling colour combinations but I favour the ones that are just different types of mark making and texture with more muted and relevant colours. The top mountain fabric I've used is very different to the lower one, it's less busy which makes it excellent to depict a mountain further away in this instance where you wouldn't see so much detail anyway. 

I have simply gone around the blotches with a single strand back stitch, and evened out the line by going over it again with a single strand whip stitch in the same colour. That's all this layer needed really, a step back from the mayhem going on in lower layers. 

To keep a clean edging I have again couched down embroidery thread, but this time using the same colour throughout and the same colour as the stitches within the layer. 

For my white sky I have used a single strand seed stitch on the lower level, edged with bullion knots (using two strands), and single strand running stitch on the upper level, edged with french knots (again two strands). Although the fabric is the same the front and back were slightly different colours so I have matched this with my threads as well - not that I'm entirely sure you would notice unless in good lighting. 


So there we are! My little Barton in the Beans Stitchscape. If you live in Barton in the Beans, I would love to know if there are any places around you that would resemble this little landscape scene or if it is just complete fantasy. 

My stitch run down for this one is; french knots, running stitch, bullion knots, couching, seed stitch, whipped back stitch, back stitch, beading, satin stitch and drizzle stitch. 

Saturday 24 February 2024

January Boundary Lines Swap


*Edited to add, this has been sitting in my drafts since the 7th February waiting for me to press publish! 

What a cracking start to the 2024 Stitchscape Swap. There are some familiar faces/styles, and some shiny new ones too which is rather exciting! It was actually quite comforting to see the envelopes plopping on the mat and recognising the handwriting; amazing how much of a kinship can be felt with someone that you've never met. 
I always hold my breath at the start of a new year in case no one wants to join in any more. The first few months and the last few months seem to have less participants in, but then it grows bigger in the summer when the days are longer and creative juices are pumping. 

These cards are amazing though and do exactly what it says on the tin - represent boundary lines!
The prompts for these cards included: Walls (through fields, buildings, up-close detail), fences (picket fences, chain-link etc), map lines, country or county boundary lines.
Some of these are more transient than others. There's nothing that says "a boundary" quite like a wall, so that's super obvious, but then sometimes if you are visiting in Wales, you can accidentally slip over the boundary into England without even noticing! Which happens to us fairly often when we go on family holidays down that way. 

These cards seem to cover all of those topics, we have wonderful chain link fences (made with chain stitch!), big stone walls and little stone walls, rough field boundary fences, houses and their hillside garden boundaries and an embroidered map! I wonder if the map was based off somewhere real or if it is made up? I love the little pine trees on it, it's almost like a treasure map - you can imagine Jack Sparrow saying to turn left at the group of three pine trees, wade through the river, then turn right towards the clump...


There are some lovely textures in these cards too, and lots of different stitches. I can spot fly stitch, bullion knots, running stitch, chain stitch, french knots, seed stitch, straight stitch, detached chain stitch (lazy daisies), blanket stitch, couching, back stitch and one which I'm sure is a named type of stitch but I can't think what it is, for the fence posts in the card below. 


They're lovely, absolutely lovely!



How tiny the back stitches are in the above card! It is such a fabulous texture though if you run your finger over it. 


I wish I had put in a gate. I saw this card come in the post and immediately got gate envy. It looks like it has been made with strips of dark brown felt which have then been stitched over to couch it down but also create a kind of wooden grain effect which is fab. 


Abi's card is so sweet with the little houses. She always has such wonderful little snippets of fabrics to make her cards with and I love that fancy yarn she's used for the bottom boundary and fabric edging. The sections of squared fluffy ends make fantastic hedges or Rhododendrons or something, and then the cord they are stitched onto or within is a great clipped edging. It's such a brilliant feeling when you have the perfect fabric or trimming for a project. 

And finally, Jackie's piece below looks almost like an oil painting in a National Trust house. The stitches and colours wash into each other and it merges and blends beautifully, but actually is quite intricate when you look up close at the tiny stitches. You can imagine it as a giant painting hanging on the wall of one of those massive swirling staircases can't you?

As always, individual photos are available to view on my website on the dedicated ATC page, as well as future themes and prompts if you need them. I hope you'll be inspired to have a go at next month's theme; Stepping Stones!

One Step at a Time

 

We've been feeling a bit under the weather in our house lately - lots of coughs and sniffles which just seem to be lingering forever. I can't work out whether these are new colds or the same one as before that's still hanging around. This time of year I just always feel so tired and this year I've got even more on my plate than usual which isn't helping but I find that I'm struggling to relax and take it easy when I can because the to-do lists for various things just never end and I feel guilty for not doing it and just overwhelmed by it all. 

As my lovely OH says though, you can only do what you can and just take things one step at a time. Which seems apt as February's Stitchscape Swap theme is Stepping Stones. 

I've gone for calming blue tones, using up some little mini samosas of fabric I picked up at the Ardingly Quilt show with The Mother at the end of January and the plan is to make my stepping stones from felt to meander through the water and lead you to the grassy bank and beyond. 



I love these colours together, and the grass print fabric works really nicely here too! I'll add more greens at the bottom as some kind of water rush type thing which will help balance the colour out. 
Even my stepping stones are blue! I have a large stash of small wool felt squares which I ordered online as a bundle from Billow Fabrics. They have really lovely colours, lots of soft tones, and you can pick up a mixed scrap bundle from their website which has stood me in good stead for a couple of years now! The range of colours is so broad that there is bound to be one in there that suits your project at any given time. I could do with another bundle now though to refresh some colours. 


I'm not planning on doing lots and lots of stitching in this one (she says!) but let the composition do most of the talking. There's no point my stitching in any water until after I've done my rushes at the bottom anyway so I'll see how it goes. 
I've started adding a little bit of a glimmer by using the shiny section of Stylecraft Moonbeam yarn to couch along the top edge of the bottom blue fabric. This is going down first and then I'm stitching my stepping stones over the top to blend it more into the background rather than it being a prominent edging. 
Each stepping stone is having different stitches in as well. So far the big bottom one has seed stitch all over it, the middle one is edged with blanket stitch and the top little one is just stitched down with a border of back stitch. 

We'll see how they turn out!