Fiery Haze Stitchscape

 

Every Stitchscape has a story, sometimes they're stories that I've written about them (like for Bartholomew's Oast House, Mrs Heggardy's Windmill or Lionel's Lighthouse) but usually it's just the story of how they came to be; where the inspiration started, or didn't start, and what was happening around the time of their creation. 

For this Stitchscape, its journey began in October 2021 at a workshop I ran at Made & Making where we unfortunately had a few last minute cancellations due to illness - more of the dreaded C-lurgy - so it ended up being a tiny class of two lovely ladies, a mother and daughter, and me. 

In every workshop there's always a period around about lunchtime where I'm not needed for advice or demonstrations for the minute so I wander around chatting to everyone and joining in the group conversations around the table but, with only two people in the class, both of whom were already fairly self sufficient and with experience in embroidery and textiles, there was quite a lot of time for me to sit twiddling my thumbs. The class was focused on making and using felt rocks in a Stitchscape so I ended up making a few spare rocks in case it would come in useful and decided to join the ladies in making a Stitchscape from the scrap boxes. 

I have lots of little oddments in those boxes, all sorts of patterns and things sneak their way in there, the jumble of fabrics is barely contained now which isn't exactly the outcome I wanted - the whole point was to keep the mass of offcuts at a reasonable level but I'm sure I somehow manage to leave with more scrap fabric than I started with! 

The rocks I had been making were in a dark charcoal grey and it made me think about silhouettes and sunsets so the colours I picked out of the box were all oranges and yellows to contrast with the dark grey. It's a colour scheme I've returned to every now and then because it works so well visually but this piece does remind me of the first few Stitchscapes I made which have oddly shaped pieces stitched into them because I literally plucked them out of the scrap box as they were and just trimmed off the frayed edges. For sunsets the happy scrappy technique works really nicely because you do get that in those beautiful skies, where cloud lines are tinged slightly different colours and random shapes are picked out of the ether and painted a different shade of orange to the rest. 

There was actually only one lonely little rock left over at the end of the class so when I got home I added a few more to go with it, using different shades of grey from my wool felt stash. 

Considering that this is only a 15cm hoop I didn't actually finish it until about two months later -  although it travelled with me on the bus every week, staring at me in the bag wondering why I wasn't stitching it and bringing its layers to life. Sometimes you just need a break I think. 

Eventually though some form of stitching mojo returned enough to get this piece done! The top fabric layer, a gorgeous batik fabric, has had the blobby shapes filled in with satin stitch in a couple of different colours to almost match the colours of the print underneath. I like to vary the angle of my satin stitches when doing things like this, it often looks more natural than keeping everything going in the same direction, and the light catches the threads differently which I prefer. Over the top of this fabric I had put down strips of other fabrics to hint at those gold tinged clouds I was nattering on about earlier, a tiger batik-esque print which I've just quietly edged with a single strand of back stitch and bullion knots in the same colour around all of the rough edges, and a ditsy floral print in yellow and cream which I've completely covered in french knots. The thread colours do match the fabric ones underneath so you can sort of still see where the flowers are overlaid in the print, but obviously it's just a jumble of texture now rather than a pretty floral fabric. 

The background batik looked a little empty after all of that so I've also added some single strand running stitch winding its way around the edges to give it a slightly more horizontal stripe look and to bring everything together.

Underneath is a polka dot fabric which I've worked diagonal back stitches in both directions over, using the centre of the dots as my reference points. It's been edged with quite chunky couched embroidery threads, all in the same colour but with each strand separated out first and then put back together so that they aren't twisted and will bunch and puff up a bit. 

I actually put down this yellow polka dot fabric in the hoop first to try and create a sense of perspective and the sun going down with all the cloud action in front. The deeper orange contrast colour is where the sun has sunk and given its last fiery glow, do you think that comes across or am I thinking in too much of a high and mighty manner? 

The couched thread edging has been repeated on top of the orange layer which is another floral and stem print that I've worked whipped back stitch over any obvious lines. The top few fabrics are quite busy and heavy looking so I wanted to balance them a bit with some simple patterns between the texture and the rocks. 

The rocks themselves have been textured with back stitches pulling the felt down to create cracks and crevices (literally stitching straight through the rock and the backing fabric) which I've then sort of filled in with french knots to match the felt colour, and some shiny seed beads in a few different colours and sizes for a pop of lightness. The top grey fabric has been simply textured with some two strand seed stitch, and edged with french knots in a slightly lighter shade of grey to match the lighter grey rocks, and the patterned fabric below has been worked on with a single strand of back stitch just to edge the pattern and keep it as it is pretty much. I have some black jute tape (like the stuff I've used in several kits like Woollydale II and Bluebell Garden) which I've cut into small strips and stitched across the centre, then deconstructed and fluffed up to be scrubby brush plants tucked in the rocks. 

It wasn't finished until November in the end but I think it was probably worth the wait! 

The total stitch run down for this piece is as follows; bullion knots, running stitch, satin stitch, back stitch, french knots, couching, seed stitch, whip stitch, beading and straight stitch. Simple stitches that rely more on the colours to create impact than the textures they themselves are making.