caro-rose-creations

The clothing

Besides the young man,s wedding coat there were three other pieces in the exhibition.  A widow's dress from Palestine.

You could tell it was owned by a widow because it had been torn down the front.

Those cross stitch patterns are so distictive.

Then two outfits, with different embroidery designs, from Pakistan, or near Pakistan.  They both had coins from Pakistan sewn onto the pieces as decoration.  Both were very heavy.  This was caused by the metal that was sewn onto the surface and the material used.  The material was a heavy cotton but the fullness at the bottom of both pieces was formed by adding lots of inserts, with lots of seams.  They would have moved beautifully when the person wearing either of them moved.  They were made for movement. The sleeves in both pieces are a work of art in their own right.

Outfit No 1

The coins, beads and metal pieces added to the weight and the fabric inserts came in from under this.

Press studs were used as decoration as well as coins.

And buttons.

You an see Pakistan stamped on this coin.

These sections on the sleeves must have taken ages to stitch.

Outfit No 2

Not as much metal used in this one, but lots of buttons.

and beads.

Then just to finish, from some other pieces.  There was this use of herringbone stitch.

 And this well used rug.

With small squares of fabric appliqued in place around the edge.

Some elephants from the exhibition.

Sorry about the quality of some of these images but I love these wonky elephants and wanted to show them.

Applique.

This is a very wonky one.

I love those pink feet and that closed herringbone works well at covering a large area.

One of the few embroideries I have seen of this God.

I like how they have used negative space to define the ear.

Tomorrow some of the clothing.

Helping hang an exhibition

I spent a day helping hang an embroidery exhibition in a large gallery at Bribie Island north of Brisbane recently.  The bulk of the exhibition was antique Indian embroideries contained in clothing, wall handings and curtains for doorways.   It was hard but enjoyable work.

There was one display bay that was painted blue.  No-one wanted to use it, I thought it was great and immediately took it to display a young man's wedding jacket and a selection of skull caps.

I still haven't got my camera back so these images are taken with my iphone.  (Lots went into the trash and some are a bit fuzzy.)  Four of the five skull caps are cross stitched, the fifth is Shiska mirror work.

This image is fuzzy but I liked the colours and the design.

Considering these pieces date from the mid 1980's the colours have kept their brightness.

This one is stitched in tent stitch.

The mirrors used in this one are very small and the fabric is worn and fuzzy, it's not me shaking the camera.

More tomorrow.

 

I'm not getting very far with my sewing.

I spent ages preparing my embroidery for my friend.  Too bad I didn't read the instructions properly.  I got nearly to the end of the first plate only to find most of it should have been stitched in one thickness of thread not two.  It took me days to pull it all out.  Now I have to start again.

There is just so much other stuff going on that I'm not finding time to stitch.  Some of the 'other stuff' is another book in the Rain Wild Chronciles series by Robin Hobb, 'Blood of Dragons".   I have made myself put it down and only read one chapter per day.  That is so hard to do.

I might start to re-read all Robin Hobb books again, and there are lots of them.  They are so exciting to read I'm sure I missed some facits of them.  It must be age.  I never re-read books but now have an urge to re-visit a lot of books I have read before.

Wandering around facebook

I often wander around the web poking in corners and turning over rocks.  You have to be careful because sometimes you come in contact with nasties but today, without really looking, I found Gracie's Garden Bazaar in the labyrinth that is facebook.

What beautiful original embroidery.  I followed the road to her blog and there found a wonderland of her work which she calls hand embroidered art.  Have a look and be inspired.  Isn't that hair fantastic? This is sleeping beauty.  I like the way she has combined painting and stitching.

Here is another one.

Starting a new embroiderey and an update

During my few days away I prepared some linen for an embroidery that I am going to do for a friend.  Here are a couple of tips I picked up.

When working in a frame wrap both the inside and outside hoop to hold your work so that it will only move when you undo that screw.

I like this one.  To keep it clean when you are not working on it cover your work with a shower cap.  Works like a dream.

And the update is my heart quilt.  It definately is not a single bed quilt.  I am off the end of the board and onto the pilates mat and am nowhere near the corner yet.

Another observation that I have made with stitching the needle turn applique is that working one heart a day doesn't improve my technique.  But working 3 or 4 straight after one another does.

The day after I got back

 I rushed back from my holiday to set up the second hand stall for the Embroiderers' Guild Mother's Day Craft Fair.  (What a mouth full.)  I had been sorting goods for weeks before and trying to stop people from picking through it.  I should have not have wasted my time, it was a mess when I got back.  Still, this morning at 6.30am it was all systems go.

I had sat up late printing sales tickets and organising the stock in my dreams.  When I arrived my teaching space upstairs had been rearranged into a craft market and downstairs looked much the same.

This old building had once been a Masonic Lodge and the "robing" room had been turned into the "morning tea room."  Over the years the Guild has been donated a collection of supper cloths that aren't really worth adding to the collection but are great for putting on the tables for these kinds of occassions. 

 Over the years I have seen most of the cloths but the blue and white one in the front of the picture was new.  It seems to have been drawn onto headcloth, crocheted around the edge and then embroidered in a soft cotton thread.  It is not the most beautifully stitched but it is charming.

 There are a number of different motives.

All simple stitches but the overall effect is charming and the white on blue adds to this. 'If' I had time I would like to stitch a cloth like this.

Tomorrow is baby sitting.  No rest for the wicked.

TAST 2013 - Raised Cross Stitch Flower

Being Dyslexic I have problem with direction, I always reverse them.  Not too good when you are following a map, I nearly always head off in the opposite direction.  When I started this stitch I read work in a clockwise direction which I was sure I had done. Except when I looked at the first flower I had worked it in an anti-clockwise direction.  This completely freed me from following the directions at all.  So some are worked in one direction, some in the opposite.  I also experimented with working a number of wraps and then wraps over the bar before.  It didn't seem to matter, they all looked like Rasied Cross Stitch Roses, even when I used difference thickness of threads.  I

I found the flowers rather "chunky" so I used a thicker perle thread to work fly stitch leaves and I'm not unpleased with the results and I am nearly caught up.

Link to Pintangle.

Op Shopping

Whilst up in Toowoomba last week I had to check out the Opportunity Shops.  Some are better than others and I managed to buy a bundle of second hand zippers at 20c each, some embroidery, tins to put my threads in and I found a 'give away' from a 1950's magazine.

I had forgotten that embroidery was transferred to fabric via iron on transfers.  There were 6 sheets of patterns each with a very cute name.  I think I liked the '50 little flowers',

and 'to bring you luck' best.

 I don't know that I will every use them but I might.  I know I won't use them as transfers but I might trace off that Gemini transfer for my husband.

A busy week ahead (& TAST)

Oh boy, I don't like the look of my dairy.  I have babysitting Monday, Teaching Tuesday, Up to Toowoomba again Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.  Back Saturday to set up the "Secondhand Rose" table for the Mother's Day Fair which will fill Sunday and then it starts again.

I am behind with my Take a Stitch Tuesday pincushions and my Kogin embroidery patterns as well! (Don't even think about the patchwork and quilting.)

Stitch 61 - Up and Down Feather Stitch

This is one of my favourite stitches so it was no bother to stitch this piece.  I first stitched it in a random manner around the pincushion using a fine variagated perle thread from Stef Fancis.  I then used chain stitch in a watercolor thread for the flowers, and then, using one strand of a silk thread stitched isolated up and down feather stitch beside the ones I had stitched first.  To move the thread from one flower to the next I worked small chain stitches on the branch.

I like this stitch so much I also worked it around the join at the bottom.

Link to Pintangle