Balcony Stitching

It has been so manic lately, the calendar has just been full every single day pretty much - and if there was an odd day off in the middle of things it was used to tidy up, do washing, catch up on admin...no creative time at all! I've been too tired in the evenings to pick up a project and most of the time we were in bed at 9pm anyway!

Last weekend the weather was lovely, and we ended up getting a takeaway as neither of us felt like cooking after travelling back from Rye for the workshop I'd done. Reece had dropped me off in the morning and helped me to set up, then took Fin for a Daddy/Son day in Hastings until I was done. Apparently the smell of fish and chips had been taunting him all day but he'd manfully resisted, until I suggested buying in dinner when we got home. It just so happens that our nearest takeaway, a 30 second walk from the front door, is a fish and chip shop! So it seemed the obvious choice.

Whilst waiting for it to arrive, I decided to set up a little chair and table on the balcony to watch the sun go down, and then decided that I deserved some me time! With the hoop I'd started the day before as a layering example, I picked out some favourite shells from the collection and started to stitch them down and add on some trimmings. 

I didn't get that far with it, and it's currently been relegated to the 'work in progress' pile but it was such a nice evening to sit and sew, then eat salty fish and chips whilst the sun sank down into a cloudy haze and the air turned slightly chilly, forcing me inside to warm my fingers up. It was a real sign of long lazy evenings to come! Hopefully anyway. 

Rye Stitchers Talk & Workshop

Last weekend I had the privilege of being invited to a talented group of stitchers in Rye for a Stitchscape talk and seaside themed workshop. When asked to do a workshop, I usually offer to create packs, for anyone interested, of themed fabric strips (5 for a 15cm hoop) and backing fabric with hoop. I always take threads, scrap baskets and other bits to workshops so they can swap things out if they want to but sometimes people like just that extra little head start rather than starting at an empty canvas/hoop. 

I tend to layer up the fabrics into different scenes, and try not to make too many of the same combination so everyone's is different, although it can be tricky as I have a limited collection of themed workshop fabrics big enough to be cut up like this. For these ones I've given everyone a sky print fabric as that is the most popular, and then played around with a slightly greener seaside theme (more grasses in the view), more blues for watery focus, or more sandy fabrics for obvious reasons. The above photo was taken before I'd properly layered them up on each hoop so they look a bit odd but, once layered correctly, they are all popped into a paper bag with my usual print out pages of extra information and handy tips. Ready to go!

I take a huge number of examples to workshops and talks - doubled up if it's a combination day! The poor car was groaning all the way to Rye. When I do give a talk I like to give out example pieces as I go so that not everyone is staring at me, but also so that they can more clearly see what I'm referring to as creative stitchers are usually visual learners. One rambling 50 minute spiel later and it was time to re-set the tables after a cup of tea so that they could have a go themselves!

It is always interesting to see which bits of the talk or which parts of example Stitchscapes people pick up on and use in their own projects. The above lady had listened to me saying about experimenting with the back of the fabrics for a more muted tone and went for quite a pale kit, turning most of them over to dull the colours further. I really love what she did with the white trimming (made of Stylecraft Moonbeam yarn) as she knotted it whilst couching it down, creating those fantastic bobbles which look like clouds or foaming waves. 

My collection of random bits and bobs is growing massively, and I love to mix in laces and felt, yarn and cords. I tend to have a handful of stuffing on hand in case anyone wants to attempt a felt rock, although in this case the stuffing has been stitched down into the sky to create fluffy clouds!! This lovely lady had brought along her own fabric (and even gifted me a piece of the wonderful arch pattern fabric at the end - thank you again!!) and, as most people had that sky print I mentioned earlier, she decided to make her own, textured version of it. She also deconstructed a two part lace which was in my box and stitched the preferred side down with beads to create wonderful bubbles breaking on the sand.

We did have a few rocks being created too, and these ones go really nicely with the pebble print fabric I'd brought along in my scrap basket. The rocks are a brilliant way to quickly build up texture and springboard more texture from as you can trap things between them that poke out, or just leave them as they are. 

Some very organised ladies brought along their own shells which were pre-drilled with holes in for easy stitching, combining them with some of the shouldered ones I had picked up and added to my workshop collection of shells. The shininess of the smooth shells works really nicely with the washed white of the ridged shells. 

A little bit of green can go a long way with sandy beaches. You wouldn't necessarily think to add green; when you think of walking along the shingle or sand, you don't notice a lot of green but actually when you look closer at rockpools or washed up seaweed deposits, or those little dry spiky grasses poking out and stabbing your feet - they add just a small touch of contrasting green. 

One of the stitches we were looking at and demonstrating in the class was the wonderfully textured drizzle stitch, which sticks out from the hoop like a wild helter skelter and looks fab in many situations. The green drizzles above work really well against the textures of the hessian and raffia also stitched down with the shells. 

The workshops I run would have to be several days long for anyone to actually finish a piece like this but, I really hope that there is enough inspiration, and take away information, for anyone attending to carry on and just have fun with it in their own time afterwards. It's always slightly daunting to give a talk to a group of accomplished stitchers, they probably know more than me, or have a greater collection of 'stuff' than me, but it is amazing to be able to share knowledge and ideas with them - and there's usually one or two things that they haven't come across or thought about before which is really nice. It soothes my imposter syndrome!

I've had some wonderful feedback from this group too which has been so lovely and muchly appreciated. I even shared a bit of it on my most recent newsletter as it was a real happy dance (around the kitchen) moment when it popped up. 

There were more Stitchscapes started in the workshop than pictured, but some of the ladies packed away too quickly for me to catch them! Hopefully a few finished pictures will float my way and I can share those somewhere for you to see. 

On The Cliffs Edge ATCs

With all of these sea themed Stitchscapes around I wanted to do something a little different for the Cliff's Edge ATCs. These are for the May swap theme and we've already had some spectacular entries for this theme come through in the post. I considered looking at the edge of the cliff as if on the beach looking up, or just straight on, maybe having some nesting birds or gulls - perhaps even having a side on view of several peaks out to sea, maybe with a sunset...so many options! Finally I plumped for the precarious position of looking down over the edge of the cliff, with some little flowers clinging on to the chalky surface and waves crashing onto the rocks and sand below. I hope that this viewpoint comes across!

As usual, I made four of them, although there isn't a lot of difference in these ones this time (not like the Butterflies cards). Everything was cut by eye so there is a difference in the rock shapes and some of the spacing, or the position of the flowers but that's about it. 

My watery blue sea is very simple, two shades of blue floss in a single strand were stitched into running stitches, petering out as they went further away from the sand. Then I have whipped over these, mixing up the colours to create slight variations, and also introducing a single strand of blue metallic thread in as well for a little bit of sparkle. The three colours have then been stitched into french knots to create those bubbly wave edges. 

I've used a slightly more open weave cotton fabric for the sand to give it a bit of texture, and I haven't done any specific stitching on this layer at all. It is tucked right underneath all of the other fabrics to help push it to the back and make it look the furthest away. 

The rocks have been made with a big spotted fabric and I have worked straight stitches in rows through the lighter splodges and couched down a full set of 6 strands of the same embroidery thread for the edge. 

A piece of cotton scrim in green has been added over the cliff fabric to give a grassy texture, and I've discreetly stab stitched this down in green just to hold it. Fly stitches in a variegated green yarn have been added along the edge nearest to the sea to enhance the grass idea, and then my lovely happy yellow daisy flowers in two strands of yellow have been randomly scattered along that very edge; sometimes overlapping the sand or the rocks to show that they are one of the highest layers. The big dark centres are fairly chunky three strand french knots. 

For the chalk cliff texture above (thinking that the grass and daisies is sort of a ledge poking out) I've covered the surface in seed stitch, alternating an ivory/ecru colour in two strands, with a grey/beige colour in one strand to create discreet stitch heights. The single strand of griege has then been used to work whip stitch in the direction of the chalky crags and furrows going down towards the beach. 

I do really like these cards, and they were simple to make (although all of the little stitches were quite time consuming as always). The full stitch run down for these is; running stitch, whip stitch (over running and seed stitch), french knots, fly stitch, straight stitch, couching, detached chain stitch, seed stitch and bullion knots. 

They look so much better as their individual selves rather than crammed into one hoop - amazing to think that these were once just individual pieces of fabrics and threads and bits. Now they are each a something!

Rockpool Stitchscape Class

I've had some fabulous workshops recently!! These photos are from the Rockpool Stitchscape workshop at Made & Making a couple of weeks ago (everything is a couple of weeks ago - where on earth does the time go!! These photos have been sitting in my drafts for ages.)

What I love about this class over a creative Stitchscape class is that it is all about the texture. It's about stitching down shells and felt rocks and just stuffing any little hole with trimmings - destroying them or cutting into them, looping them... basically creating texture as much as you can. 

Those in the class can choose how they want to add their shells and what scene to add them into, whether it's a sandy beach, a sea scene with cliffs and some shells, the shoreline or, in this case, a pond! For the above piece, a lot of the fabrics were turned over so that the reverse was showing, making the colours a little bit muted, and then she absolutely went to town with adding 'stuff'. There's a fabulous big eroded shell which had some holes through the centre so it was easy to stitch down in place over felt rocks she made. I take furnishing tassel trimmings to these classes because you can twist them and stitch them down to look like seaweed or sea urchins and she's added several colours all over the rocks. Pieces of wool have also been cut and stitched so that it waves around with its ends poking up, and there are some bead sticks as well which create a lovely alternative texture. 

There was so much going on in this piece I had to photograph it from various angles!

I have slowly been collecting sea themed fabrics like the ones with pebbles or waves, there's also some sky fabric which is a favourite for a sunny seaside theme. This piece has a lovely cove with water curling in around the cliff's edge to a little rocky area filled with shells and sea glass that this person had brought with them. The shiny rock was cut from a sequin tape I had brought along which won't fray because of the glue used and looks great cut up into small pieces to stitch down.

Here we have a lovely sandy beach with a cliff just off to the side. Lots of lovely trimmings were used here to edge the fabric layers - several colours of Stylecraft Moonbeam yarn which is a knitted tube that can be teased apart for great texture. The green fronds were made with deconstructed Stylecraft Re-create yarn which is recycled and has little flecks of other colours in among the green. It works perfectly with the white of the shells. 

I should have said that the top image for each piece (four Stitchscapes in total) is how each hoop was looking at lunchtime. They change so much from when the fabric goes down to when the bits and bobs start getting added on! This final lady is a repeat offender for Stitchscape workshops and she came prepared with some of her own sea themed fabrics which are deep and mysterious looking. The dark blues are just lovely and you could almost imaging those waves to be snow capped mountains!

I try to have a quick clean around at lunchtime once all of the fabrics are finished with to create the backgrounds, mainly because it means that the final clear up goes a little bit quicker. This time around I also had some helpers to speed things along! Obviously Fin was directing proceedings from the table top. 

Water Lily Lagoon Stitchscape

 

A few days ago I finished this little example hoop that I'd put together as a demonstration of layering for a Made & Making class. It is loosely based on the Reflections Stitchscape that I'd made at the end of last year, but a little bit bigger and darker. I just loved making the water and reflections and ripples, and thought I could give it another go to make it better. 

I just love the colours that make up the water. They loosely follow the colours of the fabrics underneath but also try to be a reflection of the fabric they are meant to mirror. I've not edged the water fabrics like I did last time, but blurred the lines between them by stitching into the other layers to create that slight ripple. 

The dark blue water was fairly easy, lots of nice dark blues in wiggly lines or patches, all worked in long straight stitches following the line of the shore. The next fabric was slightly more yellowy so I've worked over the top with flashes of yellow to match the fabric (and maybe reflect the lilies?) but also a light turquoise to reflect the mirror fabric. Luckily I'd worked the water first so when it came to stitching that sky piece (2nd layer down from the top), I could add some little patches of discreet yellow seed stitch in with the turquoise to help match those two pieces up. 

The bottom water fabric is different rows of pale grey and throughout the whole water section I've experimented with using a DMC Silky floss in silver rather than a more metallic thread. It's a little bit more subtle. 

The lily pads have been randomly spotted over the water, drawing out the shapes first in back stitch, then covering them with a rough satin stitch. There are a couple of different colours of green used on these to make it look more natural. The flowers themselves are two sets of three detached chain stitches. Three larger chain stitches first, then filled in with three more small chain stitches to either make them look bolder or to hint at them being a sort of cup shape. 

They didn't look right just as chain stitches though and the bottoms were a bit messy so I've taken some artistic license and added a matching yellow bead to the bottom of each one. To help with a sense of perspective I've used larger beads for the closer flowers and smaller ones for those meant to be further away. The lilies in the distance have been made with a couple of stitches in green with french knots to show the yellow for the flowers. Buds have been made in french knots for those closer as well. 

The trees and bushes along the waters edge have been made by pulling one strand from a double knit acrylic yarn and allowing the other twisted strands within it to bunch up. These bunched strands have then been couched down so that they aren't quite in a straight line and there's a little wiggle happening there! Oily green beads have been added throughout to represent light reflecting off the water and into the trees. I've discovered that it often helps to lift a Stitchscape if there is something shiny in it, even if it's not an intentionally shiny piece.

The batik fabric for the mountains has mostly been left alone. I loved the colours that were already there so I've just filled in a couple of the easier sections, like the dark navy splodges, with rows of straight stitch set slightly apart. There were some areas which were slightly lighter that I've added a sky blue to, hinting at areas of sunlight. To create some movement across the layer, and also fill in some of the gaps I've added rows of running stitch - which remind me a little of marching ants! (But that could just be because we watch a lot of 'the ants came marching' music videos thanks to the small person in the house.)

The edging is a thin cord which I've couched on which has given a really defined hard edge. To be honest I'm not that keen on it, I'm wondering whether bullion knots would have looked better and bit softer but I've kept the cord in as the colours went so well. 

The very top grey layer is a discreet batik print and I've gone around all of the obvious pattern with a single strand of back stitch. The french knots actually also follow the pattern where there were some dots in the print and this one was edged in bullion knots. My little cross stitch kisses have been added top and bottom to blend in the calico backing (and I was actually reminded by someone on Facebook to do this when I put up a photo asking for opinions!! I love that it has become a little trademark of mine.) 

So there we go! Another Stitchscape to add to my collection. The stitch run down for this one includes; straight stitch, satin stitch, detached chain stitch, beading, french knots, running stitch, couching, back stitch, seed stitch and bullion knots.