It's so easy to start many projects. Having an idea and starting a hoop can be done quickly when you have as much practice (and as big a fabric stash) as me, and it's often the follow through that can be tedious.
Helping others to start their own hoops and being in a class full of creative ladies helps to fill my head with ideas as well and, as I'm usually wandering around the room demonstrating stitches and chatting through ideas or discussing the lack of artistic subjects and recognition in schools (a big topic close to my heart), I don't often get a chance to sit and stitch myself when I'm in that creative zone.
This particular piece was started as an example demonstrative hoop for the Rye Stitchers workshop a couple of weeks back and I was inspired by their use of the trimmings and interest in some of the stitches I was showing them.
Because it's only a 12cm/5" hoop, it was a perfect size for the bus, and also to grab when I was out and about or, as the evenings have been getting longer and warmer, sitting out on the balcony watching the sun go down.
I wanted lots of texture in this piece, for it to really explode out of the hoop and make your fingers itch to touch it and see what it feels like or what things are made out of. That's the joy of textiles, they feel so good to be touched. For the rockpool-esque section at the bottom I've got raffia, Stylecraft Moonbeam yarn (the knitted tube that works so well with its shiny and matte sections), stitched bullion knot barnacles, drizzle stitch in green for seaweed...and then at the-stitchery in Lewes I came across some faux suede type fringe trimmings which looked interesting.
Always raid the furnishing section or fringing sections when going through a haberdashery, you never know what you'll find!
The fringing looked like the below image when I picked it up, I actually got it in two colours but I think this lighter one works better for this piece. The length and width of each strand was completely wrong for anemones or scrubby little beachy plants but it had a lot of potential.
I started by cutting the length down to something more manageable, about half way really, then divided the strands into three. It turns out that this stuff was really easy to cut through because it's so thin and synthetic, based on a woven fabric perhaps with some kind of fluffy bonding on either side so that it doesn't fray? (I did dispose of the pieces I cut off but actually you could save those to use in other projects to become driftwood or fence posts or something.)
The bottom band I also trimmed down a little as it was too tall, and then folded in half so that the band was on the inside when I rolled the fringe up into a little mad tube. I stitched around and over the band all of the way around so that it would stand up and they just look so fantastic!! The length is still a little too long and wild but there is such a lot of character and it really adds something eye catching to this hoop, a total contrast from the smoothness of the shells.
One of course wasn't enough so I ended up with three of them, happily waving around in the golden evening sunshine.
This piece isn't quite finished yet, still more to add to the bottom to make it a little bit shiny so I will write up another blog post for you with a run down of all of the stitches and different layers. I think the message in this post is to see what happens when you destroy things!! Try to look past how they present themselves to you on the shelf in a shop and see their potential to be other things. Most people probably have looked at this fringe and thought of upcycling bags, hats, boots or jackets to become cowboy/girl accessories, perhaps it's only me that looked at it and thought 'sea urchins'! What would you have thought of?
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