Some new 'things' to keep me going

Here are some items I bought from Grace at Beyond Measure.  They are beautiful, lovely scissors in a leather case, a darning egg which opens to hold needles and some floss, also a beautiful needle holder.  Have a look at her Facebook site, she has some lovely items and will be opening up an online shop soon.

Embroidered Textile Works

These are some of the works that have been keeping me busy these past few months.  They are works completed on dyed linen napkins.  All fabric is linen which is stitch, dyed, rusted, screen printed and whatever I was playing with at the time ........  All approx 12" square.

Dogwood Nest

It's been such a long time since I've posted so I thought I would give a quick update.  I am currently at the final stages of working on the Storm project with an art group - 'Ceangailte'.  We are a group of 14 mixed media artists and planning our first exhibition in the coming months.

So today, instead of putting the final touches to some work,  I had a play with some dogwood.  I love how this turned out and hope to make a few more over the coming weeks.

Book Making

I have taken a couple of classes recently with Sandi Sexton in Dublin and made these books.  They are pretty addictive and I think I will be making quite a few of them.  More workshops will be listed for September soon.

Boro Exhibition - Somerset House, London

I am just back from a trip to London where I went to see the most amazing exhibition of Boro Textiles.  These were original Boro pieces made at least over 100 years or more and they have been preserved over the years and are now part of a collection which was made available for viewing at Somerset House.  The pieces were all stretched and mounted on frames which I wasn't expecting but it showed off the pieces to be beautiful works of art - I had to restrain myself from touching these works but photography was allowed so I managed to take a large number of up close photos as well as purchasing the catalogue that went with the exhibition.  Here are some of the images.... I took over 65!

Boro Inspired.... continued

Back in July last year I posted a picture of a piece of work I was working on entitled 'Calm' for an upcoming exhibition with a Storm theme,  I probably started it in March of that year - and here I am a year later and I am still working on it.  I had put it aside for a long time as I was uninspired with it but after looking at it lying on the floor for several months I have now added quite a few more layers of fabric and stitch and its starting to take shape.

More Discharge Dyeing with Bleach

I've now made my sampler into a book of some sort.  Each section can be viewed differently - I like how its now turned out and I've added some simple stitching to sections of it.

Front Cover - closed

back and front covers 

Growing Imaginations

Cork Textiles Network has been asked to decorate the tree in Bishopstown Library (I havn't actually seen this so I dont know if its a painted tree or artificial tree in their foyer)  - this is my contribution - its around 10" in height.  The base fabric is discharged linen which turned out a lovely peach colour, the other snippets of fabric are also discharged linien and 1 small piece of rusted fabric. 

Discharge Dyeing with Bleach

I am currently working on a workshop based on discharge dyeing with bleach.  I have my sampler almost complete now and just need/have/want to add some stitch.  This is all sample based and demonstrates what you can achieve very quickly and simply with limited tools and equipment.  The stitch will be added to show how you can embellish these designs.  I had initially intended to make a fabric book out of the samples but fell back to my own comfortable way of patching and layering. 

Banjara Kantha and Stitch

Its lovely to spend these dark wet wintery evenings just stitching - I find it very therapeutic - hopefully, lots more to come. These first pictures are of a coin purse inspired by Linda Kemshall's recent video on banjara embroidery and I still love making them - total addiction now.

This piece is just simple running stitch which I have been inspired to do since taking a Kantha class with Dorothy Caldwell in London recently - lots more to do on it though.  

Cork Textiles Network

At this year's Knit and Stitch show in Dublin, Cork Textiles Network will have on display a number of 4" deep boxes decorated by its members.  There is an open theme and I am looking forward to seeing these all on display at the show. This is my entry entitled 'Freedom' made from rust dyed cotton with thermofax print and discharged satin with hand stitch.
Hope to see you there :0)

Knit & Stitch, Ally Pally

I am just back from a great show at Ally Pally and inspired by the lovely work and people at the show. I went to the show on the Thursday afternoon and all day Friday, Thursday was the first time the show opened late and this was a great option.  When I arrived, the exhibition spaces had almost cleared of the many people who visited early in the day and I was delighted to be able to speak with Dorothy Caldwell, Leslie Morgan of Committed to Cloth and James Hunting.  All were so helpful, informative and allowed photos of the works on display and talked openly about how they present their work, finish them and any other questions asked were answered in detail.  What a great way to learn from the professionals. I also took a 2 hour workshop on Kantha stitch with Dorothy Caldwell on the Friday, spent most of the time talking and taking many photos of her beautiful Kantha samples so I didn't achieve a whole lot but luckily I am booked again for Dublin for the same class.   Here are some of the photos I took fromm Dorothy's exhibit and also from James Hunting.

And James Hunting's work below - there are so many tiny stitches and detail on these that my camera on my phone barely captured them - they are more beautiful in real life.

Banjara

I have been recently inspired (addicted) to making a Banjara sample.  Having watched Linda Kemshall on Design Matters making her lovely sample I decided to do some research and have a go at a sample myself.  I loved doing this and have plans for many more but be warned, they take a lot of time.  No cowrie shells as yet but managed to buy an old necklace at a market in Angel over the weekend so I just need to drill some holes in them :0) 

White Noise Embroidery

Some work which is now complete - lots and lots of french and bullion knots going on here.  Its off to the framers for a box frame to see how it looks.