The Lake House: A Personal Project

I actually started this piece back in the Spring as an anniversary present for my husband.  Then, however, finals came quicker than expected and I got distracted.  It still has some work to go on it- more stitching of course!  I'm not going to stitch the whole thing solid, so the trick will be in deciding when there is "enough" stitching.  

The image is of my husbands' grandparents' lake house.  It is truly one of our favorite places in this world.  Until recently, there was no wifi, cable or cell phone service there.  We all just hung out, cooked, ate, sat by the fire, played in the water, hiked, read books, worked on puzzles, you get the picture-- pure bliss!  The lake backs up to the Appalachian Trail and has some beautiful hiking spots.  We have many, many wonderful family and personal memories at the Lake House.  It was where I first met his whole family all at once.  My favorite memory was when he proposed to me on the dock at sunrise.  

I wanted this piece to feel like a memory.  I was also inspired by the work of my colleague, Susan Brandeis, and how she utilizes layers, printing, and stitching in her work.  I printed (digitally) a photograph I had taken of the Lake House on both cotton sateen and silk organza.  I layered them with 1 layer of 1/8" cotton batting and a backing of cotton muslin.  I added the batting because I did not want the stitching to be flat and I thought the loft that the batting would give to the stitching would be nice. 

The threads I am using are the Valdani cotton sewing and quilting spools.  I love the colors and the soft transitions from color to color on the variegated spools.  The stitches I am using are just basic straight stitches and chain stitches so far.  I'm going to add in some metals into the water but I want that to be my last step.  More leaves on the trees first! 

Cabinet of Curiosities: Pinkeep

This summer I started a new course--The Cabinet of Curiosities: Part 1 Caskets with Tricia Nguyen.  I have long been fascinated by the 17th Century Stumpwork, especially as I have a project of my own that I want to use the techniques for (more on this later when the "idea" is coming together!).  With the help of a Legacy Scholarship awarded by the EGA and my ever-encouraging husband, I am excited that I get to take this course!

In addition to the historic knowledge I am gaining from it, there is also a series of mini-projects that I will be working through to learn the techniques.  The first of these "mini-projects" is the Pinkeep.  The materials for this project are 1750 Montrose linen canvas (approx. 24 count) and Soie Paris thread (3 strands).   The stitching is done all in tent stitch.   

I am using all the same materials, dimensions, and instructions as the project instructions require.  The only difference is that I have used different colors (though still from the 17th Century Color Palette) and my own design.  I based my design for my Pinkeep off of a photo of lily-of-the-valley at my old house.  I had taken a ton of photos of my lily-of-the-valley patch there a few years back when I was prepping for my RSN Silk Shading module.   Someday maybe I will be able to exhibit all my lily-of-the-valley's together!  

This is the first time I have worked with Soie Paris.  It has been an interesting challenge, especially with using the 3 strands.  I have been stranding them the same way as I did with my RSN canvaswork to try to keep it nice and flat.  The silk is soooooo slippery though!  I'm slowly getting the tension more even and smoother and it's great to work with a new thread.  I love the shine of the silk and the vibrant colors and I think once it "clicks" with my fingers I will be a huge fan of the silk threads. 

I thought I would try tramming the stem to make it more raised.  I am happy with the results (mostly) until the stem turns to the horizontal.  I stitched it bottom to top and maybe should have stitched it top to bottom.  Regardless, I'm fairly certain the top portion of the stem will be coming out.  No project is truly a project until something has been ripped out of it I suppose! 

RSN Canvaswork: Progress After 8 Days of Class

After my 8 days of class for my RSN Canvaswork module, I still have a lot of work to do to finish!  I have made a plan with Tracy and feel confident in being able to get it completed.  She went over each new area with me so I feel like I know what to do to finish.  It is now "just" a matter of time and stitching.

Below are photos of my progress at the end of my 8 days.  I finally got used to working with the black and white stripes.  When I first started them, the contrast really played with my eyes.  Once I got to the shoulder area where the directions were changing, the contrast did not seem to cause as much eye strain as it did when I was working on the torso.

The hat also does not show the rather large chunk that I took out.  I felt it was slightly too dark and I thought if I was not happy with it at that stage, it was better to just take it out and try again.  The same can be said for the other flower (the one that is currently a lilac color)--it's totally coming out!  I think the color is not right.  I added a shadow color to the base thread color and I think I should have gone the other way and added a highlight so the overall flower color was lighter.

I am really excited to start back on this next week.  I really enjoy the canvaswork.  It is a lot more time consuming that I ever thought, especially mixing all the thread colors.  I found that is was imperative to keep detailed "recipes" for each mixture so that I could go back and remix them correctly and achieve the slight tonal differences in the sky and blouse.  My notes for this project look like a funny code because of all the color recipes!  

RSN Canvaswork: Progress After the Weekend and Day 5

I thought when I was preparing for my canvaswork module that canvas stitches are bigger so that would mean that they would definitely go quicker.  HA!!!!!!!  They do not.  I am really enjoying this technique though and love mixing the colors-- which is a good thing because the color mixing I think takes as long as the stitching.  

This weekend I finished the neck and one side of the sky and put in a bit more greenery.  Yesterday "Take Out Tuesday" struck me with a vengeance.  I spent the morning (literally the whole morning) picking out.  In the afternoon, I started work on the sleeve.  If you will notice, the stripes follow the drape of the shoulder and sleeves and present an interesting problem/challenge for the canvas stitches.  The horizontal stripes are horizontal Parisian, vertical stripes are vertical Parisian and the diagonal fold is diagonal Parisian.  I'm presently working on finishing up the diagonal part before class so Tracy and I can figure out how all these directions are going to meet and follow the shoulder line.  

 Neck in diagonal ground. 

 "Take Out Tuesday" in action

Progress at end of Day 5

RSN Canvaswork: Progress Day 3

At the end of Day 3, I have been working on the stripes for the top and the butterfly.  

I quite like the color mixing and the texture of the canvaswork.  Mixing the threads takes a lot of the time but I think it worth it.  The stripes on the shirt are mixes of DMC stranded cottons and Valdani variegated stranded cotton.   The butterly is composed of mixes of DMC stranded cotton, DMC stranded rayon, DMC stranded metallic, and Valdani variegated stranded cotton.  Maybe I can put the butterfly's body in today so I can say I've finished something! 

For now, on to putting in some more stripes before class officially starts for the day.  The other night I gave myself the homework of pre-mixing all my thread combinations so that is saving a bit of time here in class.  

RSN: Canvaswork

My last RSN Certificate module has started!!!  I embarked on my canvaswork piece on Tuesday and will be hopefully making loads of progress between now and next Friday.  

The design I am using is an illustration that was on the cover of Vogue UK in May 1936.  It's been a bit tricky knowing who to credit for it as I have come across a couple different credits.  The Vogue UK website credits Alix Zeilinger for the cover, however it was also the illustration for the cover of Vogue US in May 1934 with the dress yellow and black striped.  It's a new thing for me to not use a design of my own as my other modules have all been designs I have created it.  Canvaswork is not a technique I am very used to though and all the ideas that I was coming up with did not seem to be the best for the module at hand.  I have made a couple changes in that I have added more garden at the bottom and have added a couple sprigs of Lily-of-the-Valley (I kind of felt it needed it!).

On Tuesday, I spent most of the day transferring my design and framing up.  I started on the sky towards the end of the afternoon.  I had terrible jet lag and so was not making lots of "fast" progress.  Yesterday, I started more of the stitching working on the greenery and starting the shirt.  Lots more photos to come as I make a bit more progress!

 

Canvas Practice Continued . . .

So, I had a lot of fun with the 1.5" squares of the stitch samples.  They went really fairly "fast", so I decided to challenge myself with a little composition.  I figured it would be good to test these stitches out in non-square shapes.  It was good that I thought to practice this, and Chloe, thank you for your suggestions on what to practice too!  

I decided to use my design from my RSN Certificate Goldwork as I liked the design and it had some good solid areas to work with.  I have done all the leaves in cottons (mixes of solid DMC's and variegated Valdani embroidery floss).  On 3 of the leaves I used the same stitch for the whole leaf and just focused on shading with the stranded cottons.  For the other 2 leaves, I attempted to transition from one stitch to another.  

Further plans:  Blossoms will be white and maybe a wee bit of pink or gray for shading in cottons.  I was planning on doing the background in wool but not certain what color yet.  I thought the shine of the cotton on the lily of the valley would be nice contrast with the wool background.