caro-rose-creations

Nose to the grind stone

I am going to be behind with my TAST sample this week.  I was hoping to get it finished last night but I was just too tired.  So I have to set aside some time today.  GET TO WORK.

 

Children's Embroidery Class

Saturday afternoon is my children's class and this week we had another crazy patch sewing bag finished.

It is really gratifying to see 12 year olds finish work of this standard.

Now we are working on some things to go into the bag like this tape measure cover.  The are finding feather stitch challenging but they will master it.

Because of a meeting being held in our normal room we had to move downstairs with the ladies in the general stitching meeting.  All were impressed and it looks like I will have some more volunteers to help with my holiday classes.

Embroidery skills

After working with Jenny Adin-Christie, a master of her art,  I have started to look again at some embroidery works that I admire.  The Japanese artist Takashi Iwasaki is one one who uses embroidery as well as Painting, Drawing, Collages, Sculptures, Prints and Abbies to express his creativity.

How do you compare these two artists?  I don't think you can.  Takashi's work in built around very simple stitching but wonderful colour and design.  Jenny's work uses highly developed technical embroidery skills, and in the case of her white work where every thing is stripped back to design her technical stitching skills make the design sing.

But both are artists in the true sense of the word, only they bring different interpretation of their inspiration.  It is us, the viewer who respond and make judgements and these are going to be as different from each other as people are different.

Lecture at the Queensland Embroiderer's Guild

Jenny Adin-Christie will be giving a lecture at the guild rooms 149 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley this Saturday, 5th of May, at 4pm.  Afternoon tea will be served at 3.30pm before the lecture.  There is access to buses and trains close to the guild rooms and usually parking is available in the surrounding streets. 

Jenny was part of the team that did the embroidery on that dress.  Her association with the Royal School of Needlework has spanned from being an apprentice to being a tutor and Assistant Head of Studio.  Jenny was the guest speaker, where she was given outstanding reviews, at the recent Beating Around the Bush gala dinner in South Australia for Country Bumpkin.  

Her lecture is entitled “Preserving the Past and Creating the Future, the Work of a Professional Embroiderer.” The lecture runs for about one hour and Jenny will have a display of embroidery. All members and their guests are welcome.

Panic Stations

My daughter-in-law started having contractions this morning and it looked as if they new baby was going to arrive early.  Four weeks early in fact.  But after a couple of hours they stopped and baby has dropped and looks to be position so we are all rushing around making sure everything is in place just in case. 

I was tidying up the old toys so that my grand daughter can play with them when she comes to stay.  On the teddy's I found a whole lot of old clothes from my children's childhood.  (They were passed on to the teddies because the kids grew out of them, as you do.)  Two little embroidered tops that were stitched by my mother -in-law.

And a cardigan I knitted for my first child.  We lived in the tropics so I knitted it in cotton.

They are all washed and ironed ready for the new baby.  I am also busy making new curtains for the nursery.  You watch the baby will change it's mind and not come for another month.

Back home

I had a bit of a hair raising trip back home to Brisbane today .  There were major accidents on the range and then on the highway coming home.  But I have had a wonderful three days away with friends and the stitching  was just fantastic.

My class was a "white work" class with Jenny Adin-Christie.  Jenny was trained at the Royal School of Needlework and was part of the team that worked on the wedding dress for Kate Middleton to wear at her wedding to Prince William.  I can not speak highly enough of her wonderful skills in needlework, teaching and interpersonal interactions.  You go to a workshop thinking you will learn one or two things.  This workshop had me writting down at least six or seven a day.  Jenny is only a young woman of 34 years but with skills that most of us only dream about.  The world will gain so much from her skills and her creativity.

These are some images of her work (which she has designed and stitches)  that are on her business cards.  The first was for a commission the remaining ones are all available as kits.

I have ordered some of these kits so it looks like I am going to learn Goldwork.

Off to a workshop

I'm off to a workshop in Toowoomba for a few days and hope to learn heaps.  I'm doing a three day workshop with Jenny Adin- Christie in Whitework.   I can cope with all the drawn thread work it is that satin stitch that has me worried.

(image source)

 

Devil Stitch!

That's the title in my Spanish embroidery book.  I thought it was Chicken Scratch.

Then I found another old Mez Lehrmuster embroidery sheet that had lots of variations of stitches to use on gingham.

Completed stitches

How to construct the stitches

Completed stitches

How to construct the stitches

I have only seen this fabric in tea towels and am not sure if you can buy it today.  Still the designs are nice.

How to construct the stitch followed by the completed stitch.

How to construct the stitch followed by the finished stitch.

Spanish Embroidery Patterns

This book is titled '236 Puntos' (Stitches) .  I wonder what the 236 means?  It coast 50 pesetas and was published in Barcelona.  It includes illustrations of borders, smocking, seam finishes and various stitches.   There are some very interesting designs in this book and as with most books of this era they assume that you know what stitches to use in the design.

There were a couple of examples of Lagartera embroidery designs.  I bought a copy of a book back in the 1970's which I still have of this kind of embroidery.

And there was a recent publication by the South Australian Embroiderers Guild.

There have been a number of articles in magazines but all in all there is not a lot about this kind of embroidery in English.  These are scans of the designs from the vintage book from Spain.

Only the centre image seems to be the type of stitching that is classified as Lagartera Embroidery.  The  top image says border in polychrome and the bottom one is an antique pattern from the region.  Still it is interesting to find something new on this style of embroidery.

This is an interesting site that shows how it is stitched

And here is another book

Old emboirdery stitches

I came across another old book from the Anchor Needlework Series.  Book No5 price 1/-.  From the designs in the book I would think that it was published in the 1940's or 50's.  Not all of the pages are there  and many of the stitches seem to have been inspired by Indian Embroidery. 

There are two little birds that have been used  as a design to stitch around the hem of a babies dress.   The stitching is very fine and delicate and there are 12 birds around the hem of the dress.  I have enlarged the images so that I could see the stitching.  I think that it would work as a larger desgin stitched in a thicker thread and would make a great motive on a tote bag, although the eyelets and drawn thread work might have to go.

I have redrawn the birds so that they are around the 5" size .  Download Anchor birds 

Another thing I have to stitch.