Drawing up fabric and making new surfaces

Silence can be 'Golden'

but in my Blog's case its cos have been madly stitching a new 'Landwrap',

having been asked to make 'a copy' on 'one I made earlier'.

There were 65 patches- fabrics to match or dye or piece

Measurements to check again and again

But finally it was finished

The experience has left me with the strong feeling that 'copies' are virtually impossible,

a visual similarity was important for the context

but 'copying' would have lacked integrity- the stitching had work in the new piece too.

It was an interesting exercise!

Mean while ... the stitching of new surfaces  continued

   

These are off to the dye-pot

One fragment will not be re-dyed

Oil- sticks have left the memory of the stitched folds and holes.

These mini-mountains are going to be over-dyed and then unpicked when the cloth has dried out.

A fine paper tissue stitched over a gorgeous rough linen- a new surface to explore.

One of the sunny silk pieces that was dyed last month- iron on smocking dots and stitch with linen thread

Drawing up the threads has the thrill of a magic trick

The width reduces from 48 cms to 12 cms

Another one for the Dye-pot

(then stitch- then re dye)

Exciting!!

Amazing few days!!

It happened by a chance

But GREW to become a fabulous set of visits.

Number One

Alice Kettle and others at the Queen's House in Greenwich

A staircase installation of flowers celebrating the Stuart gardens; 'Queen Anne's Lace'

A portrait  of Queen Henrietta Maria, A 'Garden Bed' as rug

Referencing the costume decorations and details of the other Royal portraits in the room

And the techniques used in weaving and tapestry making

 A modern Royal portrait

which somehow sat so comfortably which it's Tudor and Stuart counterparts

The whole was truly breath-taking and a 'Must See' exhibit!!

On until August 18th

Number Two

Kaffe Fasset at the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey

Which celebrates Fasset's career in paint, stitch, cloth and yarn

And is the first since the retrospective at the V&A 25 years ago

and thirdly 

a talk at the V&A between ceramicist and writer Edmund de Waal 

and author Tracey Chevalier

on her book 'The Last Runaway'

which explores the art of quilt-making

and the silence of Quaker life in 19th cent. America

Sins of a Stitcher!

 I only went for the Talks- Honest!

These were cut 1/2 metre lengths from

The Dyeworks

based in Gloucestershire

www.dyeworks.co.uk/contact.html

Polly Lyster trawls France and Turkey for linen fragments to dye

She makes recipes based on natural indigo

and then dip-dyes

up to ten times

to make these beautiful tints

Also found a clutch of linen spools!

My excuse was that I needed something for the journey home

Ohhh! and Meg Andrews had a fascinating darning sampler

from North Holland, stitched by Geertuid A. Kruyt.

The stitch patterns were very similar to twill weaving patterns

and looked like fantastic reference for field patterns!

Manchester Antique Textile Fair

Just come back from a GORGEOUS day 

at the Textile Society's 'Antique Textile Fair' at 

the Armitage Centre in Fallowfied, Manchester!

This is an annual event, which celebrated its 21st birthday this year.

GEORGINA von ETZDORF ( of beautiful print fame)

was 'in conversation' with MARY SCHOESER

she had brought LOADS of scarves, ties, dressing-gowns etc with her

so THAT was a real treat!

In the afternoon there was a talk by JAQUELINE HYMAN

who is a textile conservator and worth listening to any time.

She was talking about the work she has done with Bolton Museum

on their Coptic and Ancient Egyptian textiles- she has such enthusiasm

and loves her work.

(I did a mini-course with her a number of years ago)

In between times I spent a small fortune on 'stuff''!

Mostly at 'DYEWORKS'

beautiful dyed linens

(you can see where this is going...)

beautiful LAND shades

then some linen threads (from a house clearance apparently)

a mini vacuum-cleaner from Jacqueline's 'RESTORE' stand-

(this is to give a commission of mine in the Quaker Meeting House in Chester

a Spring Clean)

then, cos I reckoned I could stitch some of this beautiful Linen

on the way home on the train

I went in search of some needles

(amazing hard to find surprisingly)

Will post photos tomo!

Here comes the Sun!! :D

Bin dying threads and fibres

to use with the

stitched and knitted

'Land Impression' blocks!

Bin preparing linen for smocking!

This beautiful cloth is kindly donated by a dear sister.

She gave me a pile of linen shirts!

I love working with linen as it seems to melt in your hands as you work with it.

Touch is such an important part of stitch and our relationship with cloth

(I've run out of pleated fabric that I've had stashed 

from a time when I borrowed a friend's pleating machine -

that was years ago)

Now it back to the 'iron' and 'gather' method

it takes time but it 'purrfect' for an evening with the cat

and 'Lewis'

Therese de Dillmont described 'smocking'

in her Encyclopedia of Needlework:

Decoration of the gathers, known as 'smocking'

This kind of work occurs in the national costumes of the Hungarians, 

as well as in England where it is still in vogue.

"Smock" is an old English word for shift or chemise, hence the term "smocking" came to be applied to the ornamental gathering of the necks of these garments

and also of the elabourate, beautifully embroidered "smock-frock" of the labourers...

( from page 13, under the chapter heading "Plain Sewing")

Stitched and Knitted smocks for Collector's dolls 2003-5

 I first became interested in knitted and stitched smocks some years ago

as they seemed to represent the nearest the English had to a national costume

I spent happy hours researching children's clothing

visiting the costume collection at Platt Hall in Manchester

and studying French layette and children's underwear.

Why French?

Because the stitches were so small and the seams so tiny!

Then I cut scaled patterns for Collector's dolls

This doll above is 25" high, but most were 14 - 20".

The cardigan was knitted from Appleton's crewel wool

with size 20 needles (about the thickness of a paperclip)

Most of the dresses were made from Liberty's Tana Lawn

This how I remember being dressed when I was little-

in hand-me-down smocked dresses