Knitting and Stiching Show

I spent a long and tiring but very enjoyable day at Alexandra Palace on Saturday with my friend Jo visiting the Knitting and Stitching Show.

It was, as always, a feast for the ardent crafter with so much to see and inspire. We felt a two day visit would have done it more justice. Of course there was the obligatory buying of 'goodies' ! I think I was quite restrained with just a little collection of rust themed fibre, threads and other metally bits.



I also saw these wonderful copper buttons which I bought from Dale Rollerson's Thread Studio. It was great to see Dale and introduce myself as it was her Embellish Stitch Enrich course that I took earlier this year. I was looking for some sort of embellishment to put on one of my rust pieces and these just fit the bill. They are already sewn in place and look great.


There were a few more purchases - mainly stock things like calico and buttons. I also bought some knitting yarn for my daughter. She had described something new she'd seen so I hope I;ve got the right stuff. She will no doubt enjoy playing with it regardless.

On Sunday we car booted and I purchased these lace bits for 50p - bargain! They have already been dyed orange and brown and will appear in a rust piece at some later date.

Long Absence - But more rust!

I am shocked to find that I did not post at all during September!

I have been very busy but too often in a place away from the computer so I've been unable to post. Here is a selection of photos which show some of the pieces I've been working on. They are all based on the rust theme I am currently exploring ready for the planned exhibition next year.

The first one started as needlefelted fibres and fabrics which were then covered with organza and felted again. I did a bit of heating before adding machine and hand embroidery and then heating a bit at the end.

This second piece has some Lutradur which had a rubbing of the rust surface I have been using printed on to it. The backing is acrylic felt so after machining I heated both surfaces to create the holes. The piece was finished with some clusters of beads.

The final piece for now is based on a piece I saw in a recent Quilting Arts by Morna Crites-Moore. I couldn't find any old woollen jumpers so I knitted some squares and felted them before cutting them up.

Each of these pieces still need to be mounted for presentation but I'm still thinking about just how I will do it!

I've also done some pieces with the fabric I "rusted" so I'll get some photos posted in a few days. I had great trauma while sewing the main piece as I lost count of the needles I broke. The tension on my machine also went mad and I found free machining very hard work. I suspect the rust had something to do with it as I've done normal stuff since and had no problems.

First "rust" creation complete!

A productive few days away have resulted in the first of my "rust" series.

This piece was inspired by the colours and texture of the sea wall at Pagham shown in the last post. The construction was based on some work of Jane LaFazio's shown in the last issue of Quilting Arts. I laid down some layers of wool fleece, sari silk and silk wste which I roughly needlefelted into a felt background. Then some scrim and organza was placed on top and needlefelted again before finally I needlefelted some lines of wool yarn to reflect the lines of the layers on the rusted piece and act as a guide for the hand stitching.

I then spent several glorious days hand stitching to add the texture I wanted.

Rust!

My obsession with rust continues! I seem to see rust everywhere I go, so much so that I really must get down to creating some art work with rust as the starting point.


At Pagham Harbour there is part of what must have been an attempt to secure the harbour wall and it has rusted beautifully, so much so that holes are appearing. Every time I see it the texture of the surface cries out for something to be done so I have started a sketchbook to collect together my ideas.



To give you an idea, here are some of the photos I've taken:

Sampler for Samuel

Weekends at the caravan have paid off as I've managed to get Samuel's sampler fiished in record time! I trust Hope doesn't realise I've done this one so much quicker than hers!

More for Folksy

I've just added these two creations to my Folksy shop.

They are both needlefelted - the left hand one is made using wool and silk fibres and the right hand one is recylced sari silk. Both have hand stitching and buttons to finish and are mounted on painted canvases.

Where does the time go?

Yet again it's several weeks since my last blog - too many weekends getting away from it all at the seaside!

I have been busy making a few more things for my Folksy shop so must get them finished and post some photos on here as well as getting them in the shop. Got lots more ideas that I will have to make the time to get going on them.

I'm also very excited as my friend Jo and I are planning an exhibition. I've suggested it to her in the past but we've both been a bit nervous about the prospect of exhibiting our own work but now seems the right time and we're both very excited about it. We're still in the very early stages of just planning the date and venue and thrashing out some initial ideas but hopefully we'll get going on the actual work soon. We've been meeting regularly and have planned a day out together in August to get some inspiration so keep reading and I will post more details soon.