Skip to main content

The usual round of stitching and reading and eating too many Bueno bars ...

 

It's late on Sunday afternoon and it's been the greyest of days since the colour grey was invented.  Honestly, not a speck of blue sky to be seen, and now it's getting dark.  So it's lights on and curtains closed.  I'm in need of some vivid colour, and this painting 'A Japanese Girl' by Jacob Kramer fits the bill nicely.  The zingy yellow and orange are stunning, aren't they?  I only saw this for the first time mid-week, when I tootled along to Leeds Art Gallery for the first StitchArt session of 2025.  We were looking at portraits this time, and were given a piece of cotton stretched over a hoop, a needle with a big fat eye and a box of embroidery thread to rifle through.  The idea was that we sew a portrait, of ourselves or someone else, and incorporate images that reflect the person's likes and interests.  The theme came about because of a new exhibition at the gallery, all dedicated to portraits.  
First of all, my portrait of me really doesn't look a great deal like me!  But I was quite pleased with the detail of the plait, as well as the reel of sewing thread.  I added appliqued fabric shapes to reflect the patchwork I make, as well as a few inches of a very old tape measure that's too decrepit to be used for its original purpose any more.  There's a silver coloured charm shaped like a sewing needle, and a trio of ink-stamped bees.  Because - well - because I like bees!  I did an introductory bee keeping course a few years ago, and one of these days I'd like to get my own hive.  
Once I'd finished that StitchArt piece I had another go at Tori Chatfield's Abstractuary challenge.  The prompt I picked was 'Found Objects'.  I'd seen and admired the work of a textile art who goes by the name of Hens Teeth on Instagram.  She works with a lot of vintage materials, including old and worn envelopes that she embroiders on to.  I'd been meaning to try stitching on paper, and I found a couple of envelopes from letters sent to my late mother when she was young.  They're postmarked 1954.  I stitched the one with the tall flowers first, and learnt in doing so that my needle wasn't slender enough and I was using too many strands of embroidery thread.  My second effort was subtler and I worked with the thinnest of needles and a single strand of thread.  I stamped a couple of dragonflies on one of the envelopes, and might go back and stamp on the other envelope too as that adds a pretty detail.  I'm not sure I want to continue with handsewing on paper, but it was interesting to give it a try.  
Another Abstractuary prompt is the artist Kandinsky, and I'm still working on that.  I drew various shapes on a sketch pad, based on one of his works, then drew a similar design on white cotton.  I'm using mainly satin stitch to make the straight lines, which gives a good effect but it's not the quickest of stitches to do if you want it to look neat and even.  
I'm also still fitting in my minimum of 15 minutes a day for the Ann Wood 100 days stitchbook challenge.  The page began with mainly white fabric on a plain calico background, but I've been gradually covering more and more of it with running stitch, and added lines of beads too, from a charity-shopped necklace, as well as adding a shisha mirror.  
That's all the crafty stuff I have to share for now as sadly real life has to get in the way sometimes.  Dull hoovering and buying groceries, cleaning out kitchen cupboards and drawers.  I even tackled the Mystery Drawer in the kitchen.  That was where odds and ends were stuffed into.  Old bicycle clips, several torches, bits of plastic that'd broken off something or other but who knew what?  Single shoe laces, little plastic clips from the stalks of long-dead orchids, metal thingymajigs that could be used for taking pebbles out of horses hooves for all I know!  Out everything came, and if I didn't know what the heck it was or why I was keeping it, then into the bin it went.  The drawer was emptied, cleaned, lined with brown paper and refilled with only what was useful and had a known purpose.  It's these small victories over household chaos that keep us going, isn't it?  

Oh, I also managed a little reading here and there.  I finished 'Home Going' which was terrific, very thought provoking, often very sad.  I've just started 'The Earthquake Bird' so I've yet to figure out whether it's a worthwhile read or not.  Let's hope so.  

Okay, that's all for now.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and we'll see what next week brings us.  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Fabric bowls & electrical cables ...

To add to my seemingly never ending list of works-in-progress, I've started making a fabric bowl.  Or should I call it a fabric basket?  I'm not sure.  Anyway, I've made the odd bowl or two before, like this blue & white one that I keep cotton perle in.   I decided to use upholstery material, which has both advantages & disadvantages.  On the good side, it has a certain stiffness, which helps the bowl stay in shape.  On the irritating side, the kind of material I'm using frays like mad, and I'm forever picking up threads off the carpet.  The bowl's a simple construction, and I've used a circle of cardboard covered with brown felt for the base.   It'll look much better when I've embroidered and stitched into it.  I've made a start on that, and appliqued on a rectangle of plum coloured velvet for extra interest. When not stitching, I've been catching up on my reading.  I finished C J Sansom's 'Dark Fire'.   Real...

Sari scraps, PVA, a couple of books and a necklace

  I'm typing this as snow's falling, and has been steadily all day.  It's not settling to any great extent, though I bet by tomorrow morning the paths will be slippery with ice.  Which always makes me paranoid about falling over and at the very least looking undignified, but at worst breaking a bone or twisting an ankle.  Oh well, it's ideal weather to stay inside and craft, isn't it?  I finally got around to listing packs of sari scraps on Etsy this morning.  I only made up six bundles as I've no clue whether they'll sell or if I've set a reasonable enough price point.  Time will tell.   This is a link to the listing, if you're interested.  This vaguely pink fabric isn't from one of my Etsy packs.  It's from a bit of experimenting I was doing yesterday.  I'd seen a post on Instagram showing how a DIY version of batik could be done without using hot wax.  The Instagrammer used PVA instead, and I wanted to try this out....

Threads of Freedom and charity shop bargains

  It's Saturday afternoon, and I haven't done half the things I'd meant to.  Partly because I spent most of this morning messing about with paints, stencils and the gell plate.  Never mind, everything on today's 'To Do' list will join tomorrow's 'To Do' list ... it's hardly life or death if I don't haul the hoover around the room or pull up weeds in the front garden.   I thought I'd show you what I made on Wednesday.  I'd gone to my monthly StitchArt group, and this time we did something a little different.  There's a project called 'Threads of Freedom' which is working with various community groups across the city.  It's about creating little stitched pieces, some of which will be included in a textile panel to go on display at Leeds art gallery.  There was lots of fabric we could choose from to sew with, and I picked this vintage tray cloth with the roses embroidery.   My own embroidery's not a patch on those flo...