Focus and finish on Friday

Focus and Finish was a slogan from one of my recent work locations and I think this is what I need with regards my felting activities. I have done such a lot of experimenting and have just so many ideas of what I might make incorporating this experiment and that experiment into but I never do it.

So on my first focus and finish friday I set off to finish the felt and Shetland tweed jewellery I started at Christmas.

Done

I stopped talking about my framing ideas and actually finished some felted pictures in box frames.

Might needs some further improving but in reality done.

I also finished my stitching sampler. I have to keep up with my course work !

Great progress , but then yesterday over a coffee with a dear felting friend , Els, who was telling me about the new Fiona Duthie on line class , a whole load of ideas came into my head and today I am again back to the experiments again . But maybe it can work , have focus and finish Fridays and play with felting experiments the rest of the time.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Samplers

In my head, samplers are regular organized pices of needlework , usually with a psalm or poem incorporated. A bit like this one , made quite a long time ago.

According to wikepedia they did not start like this. Women used them to record a stitch they had seen and did not want to forget. This was in the 15th and 16th century . The samplers were 6-9 inches wides and were totally covered in stitches. They were highly valued and often passed down through the generations. By the 18th century they became a way of showing skill at stitching and at this point started to incorporate religious or moral quotations.

So I have gone back in time , and I am making a felt sampler to record the effect of stitches, added before felting , at the prefelt stage and after felting. This sampler is currently just about to start the stitching after the final felting stage and Is pretty disorganized affair. I have tried to keep to a purple /pink theme and tested hand stitching and machine stitching. Until I read up about the origin of samplers , I wasn't so happy with my work. But understanding the history has made it all make a lot more sense. Here and some examples of my stitches so far.

Stitching onto pongee and then felting it all in . The transparency of the silk , means the underneath stitches are visible. Not so good. Underneath some stitching at the prefelt stage , I like the couching , but the chain has become too loose as the fibres shrunk.

Stitching on bought prefelt , with my machine and adding it on top of the fibres. Quite effective.

Some stitches made after prefelting. I like the effect of the knots and the pleat, but I am not so sure about the blanket stitch around the eyehole.

Posted with Blogsy

Samplers

In my head, samplers are regular organized pices of needlework , usually with a psalm or poem incorporated. A bit like this one , made quite a long time ago.

According to wikepedia they did not start like this. Women used them to record a stitch they had seen and did not want to forget. This was in the 15th and 16th century . The samplers were 6-9 inches wides and were totally covered in stitches. They were highly valued and often passed down through the generations. By the 18th century they became a way of showing skill at stitching and at this point started to incorporate religious or moral quotations.

So I have gone back in time , and I am making a felt sampler to record the effect of stitches, added before felting , at the prefelt stage and after felting. This sampler is currently just about to start the stitching after the final felting stage and Is pretty disorganized affair. I have tried to keep to a purple /pink theme and tested hand stitching and machine stitching. Until I read up about the origin of samplers , I wasn't so happy with my work. But understanding the history has made it all make a lot more sense. Here and some examples of my stitches so far.

Stitching onto pongee and then felting it all in . The transparency of the silk , means the underneath stitches are visible. Not so good. Underneath some stitching at the prefelt stage , I like the couching , but the chain has become too loose as the fibres shrunk.

Stitching on bought prefelt , with my machine and adding it on top of the fibres. Quite effective.

Some stitches made after prefelting. I like the effect of the knots and the pleat, but I am not so sure about the blanket stitch around the eyehole.

Posted with Blogsy