Cut-back appliqué sample done

I actually did this sample on Friday night, but had no chance to take a picture in daylight until this morning. I've had a busy weekend, but a very encouraging one and, even though I feel rather under the weather (a bit buggy and very tired), I've made a few important decisions and that feels good!=) I really must get up to date with my C&G work though.... Decided not to apply for the job I was interested in as I'm still very run-down following the burn-out type episode in autumn 2007 and a very demanding 2008, and that I'm not going to use up my precious energy on work when I need it to get better and to devote to more important things.=) I also want to have time and umph for my hobbies and interests instead of just getting in feeling fit to drop.

Anyway, you've seen the acrylic painting I did (2 posts ago) which was prep/design for this sample and here is the photo it came from:

And here's the finished sample, which was stitched with machine rayon thread (yes, on the machine, which was an interesting experience as the feed dogs won't drop, but I found I could move around freely anyway with the darning foot on!!), then cut back to the relevant layer to get the right colour. The green layer is one of the pieces of fabric I dyed a few weeks ago.

Hope to be able to be able to get on with the manipulated techniques sample this week, but I have quite a lot of domestic things to catch up with, so no promises! Haven't done any more on the goldfinches yet, but I might well do over the next couple of days.

I was asked about my music. Well, I haven't really touched my poor viola recently! In fact, I've palyed her about twice in the last month and one of those times was my lesson! The other I did a few scales and exercises and nothing more. I did cut my nails this morning though, so I hope to get some prac in later today. In my last lessons, we did get to the end of Book 2 at last, so I hope to be moving on to Book 3 this year and getting both it and Book 4 under my belt.=) My playing is a lot smoother than it was at the beginning of last year and pieces that looked really hard to me then are now much less challenging. I haven't made great strides, but I have progressed and enjoy it, and that's what matters most.=)

Samples 3, 5 & 6 complete

Thanks for the compliments on Sid the Snake (not Wily, Susan!!!), I rather enjoyed working on him from start to finish. Only sample number 2 to get finished now, the long overdue peacock feather. In the meantime:

Here's the finished, 'distressed' version of the tiger skin piece. Not very impressive is it? Wasn't anything special to start with, but now it looks a real mess!!!

This is the small, simple sample we did in class yesterday and I think many of us will use our wrapped cords to decorate the boxes we'll be submitting our 'Line' modules in. When I look at several of my samples etc, I really do fail to see any real, concentrated linear work in them, but I'll try and bring some of that out more when mounting the pieces etc. I picked my favourite pink and purple colours to use here and it was good to get some more of my Pearl #5s into use.

This is sample #3. It's meant to be of appliqué and layering, but whilst there are certain areas that have about 6 layers of sheer fabric, I think the peacock feather (#2) will answer this technique as well. It's supposed to be a butterfly near some buddleia, but the plant is really not well done and I know the butterfly is rather over-simple. Lack of time and umph, I suppose. When you're not really happy with a sample, you don't much feel like putting loads more work into it!! The leaves are much nicer colours in the real thing. Light was poor when I took the pix. This is the drawing, (done with Inktense pencils and black felt tip pen) that I took it from. I confess to having traced this from the source photograph rather than waste loads of time trying to get the shape right.

The bulk of yesterday's work was on the so-called 'resolved piece', design board exercise. I have trouble with this description as it's really just a number of pieces of art based on one or two source photos and, given that we aren't really meant to develop it for stitich - not even to plan it to stitch, I can't see how it's in any way 'resolved'. Sometimes the logic behind the terminology escapes me, so if anyone can clarify this, please do!!=) I didn't get far with it as art is not my string point as yet and I had an accident shortly before leaving the flat yesterday morning. My right little toe had a high speed collision with the edge of the fireplace and would now make a great source for a colour module exercise!!! I can walk better on it today and it should give little trouble by Monday, but I was feeling rather worse for the shock to the system etc yesterday. It's certainly not broken anyway, so there's nothing to worry about and I had my viola lesson sitting down afterwards!!!

We're hoping to go and spend a year in Taiwan from Aug/Sept next year, so I hope that works out. Whilst I'm there, I'll be able to have a go at some of the bead based crafts that are big in that part of the world and also do some research for the C&G Diploma level written work, when you have to produce studies into three countries with strong embroidery traditions. I'm planning on doing China, Norway and Brazil. If funds allow, I'll see about doing C&G level 2 stumpwork during that year away too, but money is always a major factor, so I may well not get to that and just end up taking lots of kits with me to work through and enjoy.

Hoping to get the peacock feather done over the weekend and also a couple of pieces of seahorse-y art done for this design brief business, then I just need to get and cover a suitable box and mount all the work so far. Ooof, there's a lot to do! I've had no chance to do more than a single row on my band sampler!

Finished shell sample and other C&G work

Finally got the shell sample done after almost 2 weeks. It hasn't taken me that long in itself, (as most things don't when you get on with them!!!), but I've put in 4 sessions of work on it and here's the finished item. I rather wish I'd added some colour to the fabric in some way or used something other than the prescribed calico, which is rather too dull for this piece, especially as it doesn't have much colour in itself.


Last week's work was on birds or feathers, so I took some images found on-line of peacock feathers and was also able to work from a real one that Diane, our teacher, had brought in. That really helped to get the feel of the texture and the full effect of the sparkle of the thing! It also means that both of my designs so far have been taken largely from real objects rather than copying photos (which are so flat, aren't they?) and that's good as many later things will have to be from photos etc and the course requires some direct observation stuff. Here you can see my efforts at quickly reproducing a peacock feather in oil pastel, then in pastel pencils, although the long, green fronds on this one were hard pastel block as I didn't have the right colour pencil. Actually, I don't think the soft texture of the pastel pencil would have been as good, so all's well that ends well there.

The idea of this exercise is still to work on line (we'll be doing that up until we start 'colour' in week 7), but also to use appliqué and I finally learned how paper-backed Bondaweb is used! I also discovered that my fusible web was not paper-backed, so I've since ordered some from an E-bay seller. It came yesterday, but, as the seller is one of these with a Recorded Delivery fetish, I'll have to wait until tomorrow to actually get it. I've stopped asking these sellers not to use 'signed for' services as they're not at all flexible in meeting customer requirements on this! Since when do I want to pay for a service I do not require and will entail me either having to go to the Delivery Office to collect my package or arranging re-delivery when I can be certain there's someone in to sign?? They ought to pay me for the trouble...... Grrrr!!! Anyway, this is how far I've got on the sample piece - just bonded the fabrics and back-stitched around the edges in one strand of matching cotton. It was really hard to do this as our teacher wanted us to use thin wadding, plus a calico backing, so, especially when it came to the inner motif, I was trying to find my place through 6 layers and it wasn't fun. We're doing appliqué again this week, (although I'll be working from home this time), and I will not be using so much backing, if any at all!


Hope to get that sample complete v soon. Am planning to do the feather fronds in varying shades of Anchor Marlitt to get the colour variations and the sheen, but I'm waiting for the 'invisible' thread I ordered on Friday to come. Hope it arrives today! We have no class next week, but I don't want to spend that time playing catch up!

No more on the band sampler as yet, but I hope to have some more done over the weekend, when we're away again, but I'm not planning on taking my C&G work with me as I did to Scotland last w/e.