A Little Early Christmas Cheer

I had not really stitched in months.  I know I am not alone in this.  Though we find ourselves at home due to Covid-19, so much has turned topsy turvy.  I had finally carved out some time to stitch and I wanted to stitch something frivolous and full of joy.  Something that was a small project just purely for the joy of stitching. 

Vintage Ceramic Christmas Tree as shown on Southern Living

I started thinking about my absolutely favorite Christmas decoration my Mom had when growing up-- her ceramic Christmas tree.  I loved how the ornaments would light up and how you could move them around to different pegs.  Recently, I looked them up and found that to my surprise these charming little tress were now "trendy"!  A find that both made me giggle and twinge with a bit of sadness.  My mom had the traditional green one and there was a small chip in it that just made it more special to me.  In my search for images of ones like my Mom's, I found this fun video showing Molly Sanyour, a contemporary potter, creating her own modern versions.  

I decided I wanted to stitch my own little tree reminiscent of my Mom's ceramic tree but in my beloved metal threads and wires.  I wanted this piece to exude cheer and joy and embrace a slight wonkiness that so many Christmas heirlooms have.  

The result was this little Christmas tree created with loops of colored metal purls and combining other metal work techniques with beads and crystals.  

Then since it brought me so much joy and since my kids loved this piece, I made it into a virtual workshop and kit to share with others.  And, I stitched another one!  This time I used a mix of emerald green and Grinch green purls.  

And because this one was so much fun, I kept stitching different versions to give to friends.  These move fairly quickly and (and this detail is important) is something I can easily stitch for 5 minutes here and there between other responsibilities.  I'll share those soon-- I don't want to spoil their surprise!  

I wish everyone reading this post a safe, healthy and magical holiday season.  As many of us find ourselves having to forgo our usual traditions, I hope we are able to find joy in the tiny details and new ways of celebrating together, and I look forward to when it is safe to gather again.  Happiest of Holidays to everyone for whichever holiday you celebrate this season!

Experimental Canvaswork Lily of the Valley : 2 New Pieces

For part of my City and Guilds course, I needed to complete an experimental canvaswork piece.  I decided that I wanted to see how metal threads reacted when stitched using canvas ground fabric and canvaswork stitch patterns.  I ended up doing two of these instead of one for a couple reasons.  Originally, I was going to do the first piece with much more experimental techniques on the floral motif.  However, as I started stitching the piece I became more interested in the idea of challenging the stitch pattern with naturalistic shading.  Could I get the shading to override the geometry of the stitch pattern?  After I finished that piece, I felt that it was not experimental enough to turn in for that module so I decided to go back to my trusty trial motif and execute it with the metal materials.  Again, sticking with the traditional stitch patterns and allowing the materials to illustrate the different concepts being explored. 

My first piece (which is now off to be displayed as part of the Small Works: SDA at 40 exhibition): 

At my old house I had a wonderful garden that I planted as stress relief from my corporate America job.  I always had something in bloom and it felt so wonderful to get dirty and nurture the plants that I then ended up photographing, sketching and finally stitching.  It is a very intimate process I think when you grow the plants that then lend inspiration.  I had a wonderful patch of Lily of the Valley that I planted around the time I got married that I continually studied as they are my favorite!  This was actually a design from some of the observatory photography that I did for my RSN Silk Shading piece.  I have always loved the odd angle that I took this photograph and the fact that though it is recognizably lily of the valley it lacks the delicacy that most lily of the valley motifs posses. 

I began this piece by goldleafing the background.  I thought it would be interesting to turn this photograph into an icon of the flower I love so much.  I was thinking a lot of the Byzantine icons and the ecclesiastical embroidery that I love so much.  Why should gold only be used for saints in this way?  I was originally going to go back and lightly stitch the background with 1 strand of cotton to give it a similar feel as that repeat like you see on copes.  However, I decided against that in the end as it felt a bit too busy and I had a deadline for the SDA exhibition.  I think I will probably do this in another piece in the future as I think the idea does have some potential.  

For the canvas stitching on this piece I wanted to translate the naturalistic shading like you see in silk shading but through canvas stitches.  I thought it would be really interesting as upclose the piece feels very different as the shadow of the stitch pattern highlights the geometric nature of the stitch patterns.  While from a distance, the stitch pattern is lost and the shading of the thread colors becomes the focus.I used a mixture of cotton and silk flosses. 

The second piece was another iteration of the same Lily of the Valley design that I've been using for to experiment with for other techniques:

I painted the entire canvas on this piece.  The main background has been goldleafed and then stitched with 1 strand of cotton.  The blossoms were silver-leafed and the leaves were painted with color concentrate pigments.  

All the stitching on the Lily of the Valley is executed with metal threads, the blossoms in 90% silver both using passing and smooth purl and the leaves and stem in gilt smooth passing.  All the stitch patterns are traditional canvaswork stitch patterns that have not been manipulated.  I wanted the change in materials to be very evident as I have also stitched this piece in fibers with canvas stitches.  

 
I have to admit that both seeing this piece while stitching and photographing this piece have proven difficult.  Between the reflections of the metals and the large open holes from the canvas and stitch pattern, this piece is a bit of a hypnotic maze to look at (especially for hours at a time!).

A New Mini Clover

I've been working on a number of these so more to come shortly!  My goal is to have at least 20 of them if not more.  They all fit into 2"x3" Victorian metal frames.  They are all pretty similar (and in some cases the exact same) size as actual clover that I've picked and dried from my yard. 

I'm experimenting with different techniques and materials.  I want the group of them to work from very traditional stitching to non-traditional collage-stitching.

Here is the latest finished one:

 Details:  Valdani 6-strand cotton flosses on 18 count cotton Aida cloth.  Cross-stitch leaves with a stretched gilt pearl purl outline and stem.  Blossom is composed of bullion knots in natural silk floss and Gilt Sylke Twist.

White Clover

I love clover and I wanted to do a white clover after I finished my Red Clover piece.  This clover is tiny.  The frame opening is only about 3.5" tall!  

I used similar techniques as the Red Clover, mixing Valdani variegated embroidery flosses in long and short and bullion knots with stretched gilt purls.  The ground fabric is even weave linen.  I wanted to keep the techniques fairly simple on this piece since it was so small.  Mounting this piece was quite fiddly with it being such a small oval.  Overall I'm pretty happy with it.  The variegation did not fall quite as nicely on the leaves as on the Red Clover but I did not let myself plan which area of the variegation to use.  I did a couple of the leaves multiple (multiple) times so I guess I kind of cheated that way a little bit.  Also, I used a plain stem stitch on the stems on this piece instead of the stretched pearl purl on the Red Clover piece. 
On to the next weed!  

Lighthouse Landscapes

Recently, I've been playing around with color mixing, contemporary goldwork and mixing it all on digitally printed fabric.  For this piece, I started looking at lighthouses in North Carolina and Prince Edward Island.  I have always loved lighthouses as I grew up going to the Outer Banks near Cape Hatteras all the time.  In my research of lighthouses on Prince Edward Island, Canada, I found the New London Lighthouse and loved the quaintness of the lighthouse and the drama of the beautiful coast in the background--seriously there are some amazing photos of this lighthouse!

I started by roughly watercoloring a piece of cold press paper with a "land" area and a "sky" area.  I wanted to keep the watercolor loose so that my stitching could add the detail.  I then scanned it in and had it digitally printed on a cotton/linen canvas fabric.

Once I had my canvas, I experimented with different fabric scraps and decided on this beautiful silk and metallic tweed/brocade I bought this summer at the Silk Society in London for the body of the lighthouse.  The roof is created with leather kid.  Pearl purl is used to define the details of the lighthouse and create the balcony and mica bits were used for the windows.  For the sky and the grass, I used long straight stitches and Valdani thread and mixed in some cutwork. 

Overall, I'm fairly happy with this piece. The only sad part about it for me is it photographs a lot heavier than in person.  The silver I used in the clouds shows as gray here but in person, it is just glimmers of silver and the grass is not as dark as it is showing. 

I really enjoyed working on this piece, and I think that this idea has a lot of potential going forward.  It was a great challenge to try and create a lighter feeling composition with goldwork materials and to mix the color mixing techniques with the gold materials.  Even more exciting are the ideas I have for future pieces!

EGA Sun Region: Red Sails in the Sunset Seminar 2016

This past weekend I had the amazing opportunity to teach at the EGA Sun Region "Red Sails in the Sunset" Seminar.  I really enjoyed meeting and stitching with some pretty wonderful stitchers!  The closing speaker was Gwen Nelson (former President of the EGA) who presented a showcase of some of the pieces from the EGA collection.  It was my first experience teaching for the EGA and I already am looking forward to the next!  Below are some images from the two workshops that I taught and the awesome students that I had in class with me.

Day 1:  Interpretations of Moss workshop

The students were responding to a photograph of moss digitally printed on Kona cotton (from Spoonflower) and re-embroidering the patterns of the moss and lichen with creative metal and basic embroidery techniques.  Techniques included (but I did not limit them to):  long straight stitches, french knots (with cotton floss and with smooth purl), bullion knots, stem stitch, s-ing and chipping.  It was a lot of fun seeing which techniques they enjoyed and how different each student's moss and lichen became. 

 

Days 2 and 3:  Dandelion of a Thousand Wishes workshop
 Students learned creative metal techniques using my Dandelion design.  The techniques they learned included:  a variation of burden stitch, couching, silk wrapped purl, stretched pearl purl, cutwork, cutwork over string padding and chipping.  It was a very non-traditional approach to goldwork and the students seemed to really enjoy themselves (it was a super group!).  I've included a few photos here of some of the student's in progress work.  It was so different seeing how shiny their dandelions were using the new metal threads (I had used tarnished and old bits for mine).  It was also great fun seeing how they clipped and pinned back the dandelion fringed pieces as their pieces blossomed!

Kits!

Kits are ready for the EGA Sun Region and the EAC Inspiring Threads Seminars!  I'm looking forward to meeting and stitching with new friends!

Haystacks of Giverny: Satin Stitched Color Map

After completing my Haystacks of Giverny piece, I thought it would be interesting to make a "Color Map" of all the different color combinations that I utilized in the piece.  I thought it would be interesting to show the different color combinations in equal 1/2" satin stitched squares.  This way all the variables would be somewhat controlled to allow for the color combinations to be the main focus.  I also stitched the squares of color in the order that I used the color combination on the final piece.  The first color used is the top left square and the last color stitched is the bottom right. 

All but two of the color combinations that are the plain satin stitch use 3 strands of the variegated Valdani embroidery floss.  The two that do not are a single strand of the variegated Valdani floss and were the colors used for the seed stitching in the background of the image.  For the combinations using stretched gilt purl, I stitched a 3-stranded split stitch around the edge of the square and then worked the stretched cutwork like a satin stitch with the 2 strands of Valdani plus the stretch gilt purl.  

A few important things to keep in mind when viewing this.  I purposely used the 3 strands in the same needle and purposely allowed the strands to twist as they wanted to as I worked the square.  For the squares with stretched purl, I did not use pieces of cut purl that were uniformly stretched and I allowed the pieces of cut purl to nestle together as they wished.  Now, why would I do this you may be wondering.  I also wanted to use this Color Map as an experiment to capture the quick brush strokes of the Impressionists and Post Impressionists painters that I have been studying.  They were known for their en plein air painting and speed with which they applied the paint to the canvas--not because they were being sloppy but because they wanted to capture the fleeting movement and experience of light in nature and natural settings. 

Satin stitch is the smoothest stitch you can use as it is supposed to lay nice and flat to the surface of the fabric.  This meant that in order to capture the gestural quality of the brush strokes I had to depend on the color and thread mixing not on the texture or pattern of the stitch.  

 

I really enjoyed stitching this Color Map and it has given me lots more ideas for future stitching.  I think was I was most excited about though was to see the range I could get utilizing only 10-11 different threads. It was also very interesting to me to see the squares with the stretched purl.  Now, just to figure out more time to stitch!

Queen Anne's Lace

I finished another weed over the weekend.  This time a Queen Anne's Lace motif.  I used a mix of Or Nué couched smooth passing (couched closer for shadows), stretched pearl purl, stretched s-ing, chipping and french knots.  All the metals were the old throwaway "weeds" so some are tarnished more than others and I stretched some more than others to experiment with creating depth that way.  On the stem, I stretched the pearl purl so that the green would show less where the highlights would be.  The thread I used is the olive green variegated Valdani sewing thread.  I may go back in and add more silver chipping or I may just redo it with more traditional goldwork techniques and only gold and silver, we'll see!

Red Clover

Last summer when I was working on my "Weeds" embroideries, we had a large clump of red clover down near our boat ramp.  I found tons of 4 leaf clovers from it and refused to let my husband spray, cut down or otherwise get rid of the clover patch.  It may be odd, but I think clover is a particularly pretty weed and it brings back memories of childhood Spring and Summer afternoons spent making clover crowns and jewelry.  

I got really excited about this patch of clover.  I pressed the leaves and sketched the plants.  Took photographs galore.  It actually became my evening event a few times a week to walk down and see how the clover had changed or if more had bloomed.  

With this piece, I wanted to continue my Weeds embroideries using the scrap gold thread bits but I also wanted to experiment with doing long and short stitch using a Valdani sewing and quilting thread that was variegated.  I LOVE their colors and in studying the clover it was interesting how stripey and veiny the leaves actually are. I thought maybe using this mercerized sewing/quilting thread it would give it that not-quite-smooth texture of the clover leaves and by using the variegated color it would be interesting to see how long and short would use with less control over the color change.  The small leaflets off the stems are padded with a layer of felt under the long and short.

The actual bloom is created by using a mixture of bullion knots (using a different variegated color of the Valdani sewing and quilting thread) and stretched smooth purl.  I padded underneath it with 1 layer of carpet padding and 1 layer of felt.   I wanted the bloom to be pretty dimensional.  The bullion knots and cut purl are worked the same as you would long and short layering the rows in to create even more texture.  Finally, the stem is overstretched tarnished pearl purl couched with the same Valdani thread as the leaves. 

Gregg Floral

The Gregg Museum at North Carolina State University has so many wonderful examples of textiles in their collection.  I recently had the opportunity to study a group of men’s waistcoats from the mid-late 18^th century.  This design (for a workshop proposal) blends elements from a linen waistcoat embroidered with chain stitch floral designs and an embroidered waistcoat pocket flap.   My goal was to interpret the designs seen in the historic examples with a blend of traditional and experimental goldwork techniques. 

 I loved how the buds were stitched on this pocket flap with spangles and smooth purl. 

 I loved all the chain stitching on this waistcoat.  All of the embroidery is just chainstitch plus a couple french knots.  The mix and placement of the different colors was really nice and created a lot of detail to the miniature floral designs. 

 

Below is my final design.  I interpreted the chainstitch from the waistcoat using colored metal purl.  It was a lot of fun doing such a large chain stitch and created a lot of height without padding!  I have done satin stitch behind the chainstitched metal using a Valdani thread.  The flower center is french knots of stretched purl and Valdani thread.  For the buds, I took the idea of the spangles and purls and I layered colored and stretched purls to create more height.  The leaves are a combination of chainstitch and chipping and the stems are s-ing.  

Just before Christmas, I ordered my first Valdani threads and I have to say... I quite like these threads!!! My colleague, Susan Brandeis, loves them!  The colors are absolutely beautiful.  They are so much richer than the DMC's I am used to using and the variegated colors are really nice.  Here I'm stitching with the Quilting and Sewing Cotton thread.  Susan kept telling me that she loves the way it sits on the fabric and she is totally right!  It is mercerized so it has a very soft sheen to it and it does sit on top of the fabric in a way that embroidery floss does not.  That being said, I'm still forming my opinion of it with certain stitches like long and short where the threads need to blend together a bit more.  More experimenting is on the way with the Valdani threads!