April Farmyard Friends Swap Cards

Hehe, these guys are so cute! There were lots of cheeky faces plopping through the letterbox in April (yes, I know I'm behind and writing this up in July!). That super pink pig snout in particular is very sweet. 

The theme, as if you didn't know it already, was Farmyard Friends and I think we've covered quite a few different varieties of farmyard animal; sheep, chickens, cows, pigs, sheepdogs...there's even a beehive!

There's a really varied range of styles and methods here again too. One of the most striking is that floofy chicken on the top right. She was stitched up by Sam and, we have checked, she used turkey work to stitch the feathers (as a two-for-one on the farmyard theme!) which has worked brilliantly well. 

There are a couple of cards with elements of cross stitch on and lots of appliqued or layered fabrics, plus a pig with a button nose. 

There's so much detail in the farmyard card above. The beehive with the little bead bees, the hay trolley with hay spilling everywhere, flowers growing up the tweed farmhouse, sheep in the pasture and a blossom tree with blossom blowing away in the breeze. It's absolutely fantastic how it's all been fitted in, so delicate!

This cow looks like a perfect match for his little pink pig friend, both seem to have had their layers stitched on the sewing machine with little details hand embroidered on. I love his fluffy fringe!

Sabine has also opted for cows but had the best fabrics in her stash for the job, the brilliant stone wall print and the cows in the the field print! She's outlined the stones to give them some definition, and then layered the cows over the top of another green fabric, blending the two together with straight and pistil stitches by the looks of things. 

I love the use of the frayed fabric edge here to look like a bed of hay - especially when combined with lots of crossing straight stitches. And the edge of the pig sty just being stitched semi-circles with extra woven threads criss-crossing between the rows is really clever. It makes it look like another fabric cut out. 

This chicken is really interesting with the cross stitch chicken but then couched purl wire and extra straight stitches to create her nest, and detached chain stitch (lazy daisy) flowers underneath. Seems like several styles all coming together to create this card. And it's so beautifully edged too!

What a brilliant collection! Well done to everyone who made a card and sent it in for the swap. 

AOH at Pretty Neat Gallery

 

Well, the diagram of what Pretty Neat Gallery & Studio will look like, has now become a reality! The gallery has been open for a couple of months or so now, and kicked off with Artists Open Houses which is no mean feat. 

I first met Paula, the owner and founder, at a workshop at Made & Making where I was hosting an autumn themed workshop which didn't end up being very autumnal at all! (You can see the blog post about it here.) She was one of the participants and we got chatting and she mentioned that she was planning on opening a gallery studio in Kemptown, Brighton, selling artist's seconds or work which they didn't feel they could charge full price for but was still eminently sellable to the right people (and for a slightly more budget friendly cost). It would also have workshops on all kinds of different creative subjects, some of which Paula would teach and some she would have tutors come in for - and was I interested in being one of the tutors?

I said yes but then there were complications with the initial location, and then the second location had to be done up so things kept changing but finally it was move in day, and within a week or so of getting the gallery space ready with furniture, painted walls and signs above the door - it had filled up with artwork and was open to the public as part of the AOH trail! Amazing work on the park of Paula and her team. 

We weren't able to get to the open evening for the gallery which was a shame, but went to visit it at the weekend instead to see my work on display alongside several other local artists, all using different mediums. (The above photo has been pinched from one of the other artist's who went to the open evening.)

The set up is a real mix of table displays, wall and shelf displays, with the artists all mingling in together rather than being in a block. Which is interesting because often galleries keep work all together rather than muddle it up but it works surprisingly well in this setting. It's the first time my work has been in an actual gallery though (apart from pop up exhibitions) I think so that's amazing! 

There was apparently lots of interest in my pieces and a few little bits sold, I'd taken cards, prints and framed/hooped originals. I didn't make any major sales though until the day after the AOH exhibition ended and then I sold an original hooped Stitchscape! Woohoo!

I wonder what it is about people not seeming to want to buy textile pieces. At several events people have purchased painted art without really thinking about it, but the textiles - although it earns a lot of discussion and chat about methods and mixed media etc - is a much harder sell. I'm definitely in the wrong industry. 

I really hope that the gallery continues to do well. I know they have lots of different exhibitions planned throughout the year, and I have lots of different workshops booked with them as well, all of which you can find on my events page, or on the PNG calendar page. 

If you don't know where it is, the gallery is in Brighton Marina which has a surprising amount of other things going on there! There is free parking, for starters, and you can also go crazy golfing, eat at a variety of restaurants, go on marina tours in a boat, there are little cafes, a selection of shops....all sorts of things! So definitely make a day of it - we did, after visiting the gallery we took a hungry Fin for lunch at Nandos across the road and did a little wander around the marina. I did try and convince Reece to do a boat tour but he wasn't having it...I'll work on him!

 

Farmyard Friends ATCs

April's Stitchscape Swap theme was Farmyard Friends and I really struggled with this one for some reason. I had initially wanted to make something featuring cows, but couldn't find my chicken or cow fabrics (I've since found them - typical!) so settled on sheep instead, although I feel like I always do things with these sheep and they appear all of the time. 

To make them a little bit different I've gone for different colours (usually they get stitched just in white)! More natural coloured sheep in browns and light greys - the next step might be to do those multicoloured spotty sheep and mix up colours in one sheep rather than giving them a solid coloured fleece. 

I've chosen fabrics which reminded me of hay bales or wheatfields with ploughed elements, without trying to make it seem so obvious. The top layer is just a linen texture green fabric and I've added a couple of rows of running stitch for some interest there, the next layer down is an alternately striped and kind of floral spot print which I've gone over with back stitch on the stripes (changing it up to use different thicknesses, either one or two strands) and I've added sets of three french knots in the flowers which remind me a lot of haybales left in an orderly fashion on a newly harvested field. 

That fabric has been edged with a slim waxed cotton cord, and the layer beneath it edged with a fun mini looped trimming which fitted in nicely. The fabric has that cross-hatched pattern on it already, with the blank circles so I've copied that exactly with long straight stitches, weaving the stitches in and out as I worked round so that they sort of hold themselves in place (rather than only working one way and then the other which would keep one direction on top all of the time). Again the shape of the circles is reminiscent of hay bales, and the lines of ploughed fields. All very subtle!

It gets less subtle from then on though, the sheep are sheep (french knots and straight stitches) with a french knot edge like a little hedge. The flowers are cup sequins or star stitches with french knot centres and I've popped a blanket stitch along the edge to be a bit fence-like. 

They aren't my favourite cards but I hope that the subtleties help make it look well thought out and not stitched in a slightly disgruntled rush after not being able to find the fabrics I wanted. The sequins, I seem to recall, were added because the card didn't have much oomph to it - perhaps because I'm so used to the sheep? They do look nice though and bring the colour yellow through to the bottom of the card if you are thinking about colour balancing. 

The stitch run down for these cards is; running stitch, couching, back stitch, french knots, straight stitch, seed stitch, star stitch and blanket stitch. 

TACKS Workshop

More than a couple of months ago (I’m behind on my blogging again!) I had a lovely big workshop in Meopham with a really active group called TACKS, which stands for Textile Arts, Crafts, Knitting and Stitching. (TACKS is much easier to say!) I had met some of the ladies before in Arundel and Rochester so it was great to see them as well as meeting lots of new faces.

Before we'd even started the workshop I was presented with TWO completed Stitchscapes! Both ladies had been to previous workshops or talks, one at Wainscott and one in Arundel so had either started their own hoop or purchased a kit to make. Isn't that amazing? It was a great start to the day for certain.
This big green sheep hoop was being given as a gift so had even been done up on the back, covered with felt and with a little stitched label on the back! It's very sparkly with metallic threads, shiny yarns, beads and gorgeous metallic batik fabric.

I love, love, love seeing completed kits too - each one is always so different! I find it fascinating to see which bit of the pattern other people get and what they do with it. Just in designing the kit I can only work with the bit that I get whilst thinking about what other people might receive but I can only guess at that so seeing it in reality is fab. 

The workshop had no set theme so I’d made up packs which varied between coastal and countryside, and some ladies also brought their own materials which is always fun to add variety.
There were quite a lot of fussy cut sheep, all placed upright for once, as well as experimenting with using toy stuffing stitched down to make their woolly coats. Once we had the stuffing out it was also used for clouds and sea spray, as well as for actually stuffing felt or fabric rocks - it’s a diverse thing to have in your Stitchscape stash!

I love how in some workshops one particular trimming, thread or stitch becomes an accidental focus and ends up in multiple hoops.

This particular piece was being worked on by a lady who was a crocheter at heart (we won't hold that against her) and admitted that she didn’t really know how to embroider and was far out of her comfort zone. She had brought along with her an image that she was trying to emulate, with a river and stone wall in a rocky valley - which can be a hard thing to do for your first foray into Stitchscaping because you end up comparing your textile hoop to the image and they aren't really going to look alike.

Initially she was stitching each of the stones into her wall individually, and complaining just a little bit about the length of time it was taking her and that it wasn't working out like her picture so I went and grabbed a chunky knitting yarn from my stash and started pulling one of the strands in it to make the rest all bunch up like stones. If it were me I would probably have gone the whole hog and couched down lots of strands stacked on top of each other of this pulled yarn to create my wall, but I like that she's kept her stone stitching and just added the pulled yarn at the bottom, along with some strands of eyelash yarn being used as scrubby grasses. 

Sometimes you do have to go with the feel of something rather than an accurate representation. 

This lady is the one who made the big green sheep hoop at the start of this post and, interestingly, I think there are quite a few similarities between the two hoops. Lots of couched edges and sparkly bits, but this time with shells and furnishing trimmings! Really lovely. 

You can also tell, I think, who was sitting next to each other! The layout for the workshop was tables arranged almost in a 'U' shape but the tables themselves sort of had little pockets of people in groups around it and I think these three hoops were all created on the same table, with inspiration being taken and given between the three ladies! I wonder if you can see what I mean?

If you are in the area this would be a brilliant group to join. They not only have workshops but, if you didn't fancy joining in with the workshop on offer, they still have areas for you to bring your own projects, they had a show and tell, a raffle, a little pop up shop, shared news...it was so brilliant to see!

Rodmell Sunday Stitchers

Following on from my last blog post, I had a whole weekend of workshops. No sooner had I finished up with the Made & Making workshop on the Saturday I then had a private workshop with the Rodmell Sunday Stitchers - on the Sunday, funnily enough. (By the way, the link to the Rodmell group may not be entirely up to date as it's to the village hall website, but the contact email address for the group is still current at the time of writing this blog post.)

Rodmell is just next Lewes in East Sussex and is somewhere that I have driven past loads of times before but had never actually gone into the village. It's very quaint, lots of thatched cottages and flint walls (which is very typical of the Lewes area anyway) and quiet. But it does have a lovely village hall where quite a large quilting and sewing group meet. 

I was invited to do a workshop with them after their bookings lady saw me at The Stitching Post during Artwave in September last year. I quite often get approached by groups and booked for the following year - it makes me feel oddly professional. Not that I'm not professional, but there is just something about having that event in your diary for a years' time that feels a little bit more special. I can't explain it any better than that so I hope I don't sound very odd. 

Anyway, this group were a really interesting mix. Several of them go to different types of workshops in other places and had a few different techniques and ideas in mind that they were blending with what I was showing them to create a slightly different way of working, some had never hand stitched but were dyed in the wool machine sewers so the slow stitch aspect was more difficult for them, and others just sat and quite happily stitched away in their own little worlds, just happy to create. 

These groups are absolutely essential, in my mind, to a community and to bring together people who may otherwise be quite isolated. If you are a crafter/stitcher who stitches at home; in front of the TV or in the garden, or at the kitchen table, and you are always alone during this process, I really urge you to see if you have a creative group like this in your area - even if they only meet once a month. It has such huge benefits. The ladies all talk each other up, share their resources, skills and experience and have a common interest to be a starting point for conversation. Depending on the group, extra day trips are booked, exhibitions looked at and friendships formed. You cannot be unhappy when you are creating just for yourself, and when other people are all chipping in with their "oh wow, that's amazing, what a great idea, what a clever clogs you are, such talent, so neat, what a great colour choice, where did you get that trimming, that's a perfect addition to that piece" comments. 

This was a mixed bag workshop so some ladies had asked for the beach - the majority of them were going coastal actually - and some were after more of a floral/countryside type theme. My workshop packs are very relaxed, they are just to be used as a spring board and the fabrics can be swapped around, changed or removed to suit each person and the idea that comes to mind. Even with a coastal theme you can put in a floral fabric so nothing is set in a themed stone. 

This lady (above) was going great guns with the bead sticks. I can't remember how it came about that I suggested she might like to have a go at creating the bead stick, but I had a few bead tubes with me and a beading needle. I turned my back for a few minutes and when I came back these enormous, long and spindly bead sticks were waving at me from her hoop - aren't they splendiforous? Apparently she has lots of beads at home just loitering with intent so I think we all know what she's going to be doing with them now!

This lady (also above) finished her hoop! It rarely happens actually so it was a novelty - we had two finished hoops by the end of the day on this workshop - but as she wasn't a confident hand stitcher, she was very happy with what she had achieved, and rightly so. Organza had been brought along from her stash and she's stitched that down to make a scrunched wavy texture for her water, added beads and a fluffy chenille trimming for her water's edge, stitched seed stitch with a variegated perlé thread on her sand, cut shiny sequin tape and stitched it down with the shells for some wet look pebbles and had a go at french knots to add a sandy texture. It's lovely. 

The hoop below (for a change) was by Sabine who has been to several workshops and events that I've been to. I would class her as a 100% Stitchscape convert success story - I've even taught a workshop at her house with her friends! She is a very neat stitcher, as I'm sure you can tell from her blanket stitch flower in orange - and she has used an eyelash yarn to add texture to the other stitched flowers, such a clever idea! 

There were some really beautiful ideas and different approaches in this class which made for a fascinating day. If you are in the vicinity of Rodmell perhaps it would be something you might like to join in with. I can recommend it completely.