Wednesday was time for another Stitch Art class at Leeds art gallery. This month's session was based around the current exhibition of photographs by Peter Mitchell, entitled 'Nothing Last Forever'. A lot of the photographs are of Leeds in previous decades, documenting old buildings, shop fronts, decaying structures. Once I started looking at the pictures I realised some were familiar to me, having seen them on 'X' (formerly Twitter). That account's called British Culture Archive @britcultarchive, and features other photographers too.
This photo of a terraced house with its neighbour having been demolished makes me think of those abstract works of art by Piet Mondrian, and the Mondrian collection by Yves St Laurent. It's the blocks of colour on the walls of the demolished house, the way they're divided into sections by the unpainted brickwork.
The quirky framing of this particular photo is a clue about what we concentrated on yesterday. How images were framed. It seems that Mitchell's very particular about how his photographs are framed, and we were tasked with creating a stitched frame for an image reproduced on fabric. Because of copyright we couldn't use Peter Mitchell's work, but the class tutor had taken photos of local settings/buildings and used an image transfer method to reproduce these on squares of material.
We'd to think about using colours from the image, and about what type of stitch would enhance it. I stuck to variations on running stitch rather than anything fancy, thinking the straight lines reflected the geometric shapes of this dilapidated building.
I usually stitch on my own, so it's fun to feel part of a group and especially to see how others interpret the theme. As it was a council run session you get the inevitable feedback form at the end. Did I feel happy? Had I learnt anything? And a new question that's cropping up lately, did I feel safe!!! Yes, yes and yes.
I finished my piece off at home, and added it to the fabric book I'm compiling, alongside last month's attempt at sashiko. I wasn't completely okay with the curved stitching I'd included, and went on to sew over that and minimize it, so the curve was less obvious.
Weirdly, it reminded me too much of a McDonalds arch, the one they have in their logo!
I still wasn't entirely satisfied with it, but that doesn't matter. The transfer image is done using an inkjet printer and special transfer paper that you can apparently find on Amazon. (What can't you find on Amazon?) I'd really like to try it out, but there's the cost of the printer cartridges and the transfer paper. It all adds up.
This morning's crafty-ness didn't involve spending any money. This bagful contains lots of small scraps of fabric, all the leftovers, the thread ends, odd bits of wadding. It's intended to be used as filling for cushion pads. After all, why buy them when you can easily make your own? But I wanted to have a delve inside this bag, to check if any scraps big enough to be still of use had found their way inside.
Even the teeny-tinies like these morsels can be sewn together to make a scrappy block. The way I look at it, you've spent good money on fabric, so why not get as much value out of it as you can.
When it comes to patchwork, I do feel like I'm making progress with various things that're on-the-go. After piecing those scraps together, I sewed more blocks on to this patchwork.
It's now as large as it's going to get. Excess blocks were added to this jumble of craziness.
Both patchworks are now sat in the queue, waiting for wadding/backing fabric/quilting. Bit by bit, they're inching nearer completion.
Before I go, behold! I don't know what the collective noun is for strawberries. A deliciousness of strawberries? That sounds about right. This lot were collected yesterday evening from my allotment. Honestly, strawberries are the most rewarding of soft fruits to grow. So little effort for so much reward. I love this time of year! Don't you?
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