Finishing up my run of seascape classes with a flourish is the Sussex Stitchers! I gave a talk to this group earlier on in the year and was delighted to be invited back so soon to teach a workshop.
They also opted to go for a beach theme, but this was a mix between ladies wanting a pack from me and also those bringing in their own materials. I think all of them brought in their own 'stuff' to add on and I spent quite a lot of the day wandering around admiring their collections of threads and trimmings and interesting bits that they'd brought in to trial. You really don't need very much to make these hoops so they are brilliant way of using things up when you just have a small scrap left.
The above piece is really interesting, look at those wonderful textures! This lady brought her own fabrics in and had been previously experimenting with colouring and heating materials like Lutrador, Tyvek and a special type of felt which kind of melts away when heated, I forget it's name. The colours and layers are just stunning and it goes to show that you don't have to stick to printed cotton fabrics to create a Stitchscape, it really does enable you the freedom to use whatever you like (although I am reminded of the lady who made a piece all in layers of tweed fabric - it looked lovely but was almost impossible to stitch through when layered up!).
Some of the scenes created were very specific. This piece was inspired by a painting of the coastguards cottages with the Seven Sisters cliffs in the background. It's wonderfully evocative don't you think? The use of the frayed edge to represent wild grasses hiding the full view of the cottages is lovely - and quite a lot of these pieces really use different textures well, have a look at some more....
....felt rocks, driftwood, fancy trimmings, string, sequins....
And the one below has used the splotchy colours on the batik fabric at the top as pathways for lightning! How amazing is that?! It's such a great feeling when a fabric works out and inspires something unexpected.
This lady (lightning lady) had brought in a really lovely fancy yarn as well which, bless her, she ended up donating pieces of to half of the group, myself included! I have looked the yarn up and it is fairly pricey otherwise I would have tried to include it in a kit but, in case you are interested, it is the thread/yarn with the tiniest of sequins in and it was from Lang Yarns, called Paillettes - image below for you.
What was so nice about this workshop is that I was taught some stitches too! I'm not above learning and I can't possibly know every stitch, so when I saw one that was being done I didn't recognise, I sat on the floor and watched a demonstration by one of the ladies themselves. Later on she was doing another stitch I didn't recognise so I sat down to learn that one too! I will have to start incorporating them into future classes I think as they are brilliant ones for seascapes.
What a brilliant collection of hoops! There's lovely variety here, especially with the direction of the view; some are on sand looking out, some are in the sea looking to land, a couple are more birds-eye-views, others are on rocks with the waves splashing up (one lady used some toy stuffing to trap behind her fabric rocks so it looked like the spray was leaping out at you) and some are on clifftops looking out over the sea (one with just the triangular tops of beach huts nestled into the cliff for protection).
I think they're all brilliant! Thank you for having me back ladies.
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