Entwined Memories Exhibition...Knitting & Stitching Show, Dublin 2014

Sooo exciting....it's almost Knitting and Stitching time....all roads lead to the RDS!  I was thrilled to have a couple of pieces selected for the 'Entwined Memories' Exhibition by the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland.

Both pieces were inspired by childhood memories of the Sunday afternoon drive....

The first piece 'Our Feet Now Touch the Ground' was inspired by an old photograph of two of my brothers and myself, taken on one of our Sunday drives, or as we used to say 'spins'  to the Hill of Slane c.1968....it's one of my favourite photos from the family album.   Around this time last year, we were all together once again, having lunch near Slane....I thought it would be fun to try and recreate the photo....and it was....we laughed and giggled and eventually got the shot!   

I printed an image of the original photo and a copy of the map onto cotton fabric...these were layered and stitched together with the original route highlighted in red...the new photo was printed onto silk organza which is somewhat transparent.  In order to get the effect I wanted, whereby you were looking through one image to see the one behind, I raised the organza onto insect pins. 

Bective and Beyond....

The second piece selected for the exhibition is a series of embroidered fragments entitled 'Bective and Beyond'.   These grew out of my work in the Cead Creative Embroidery module in NCAD last year. Bective Abbey  was another popular spot for the Sunday Spin....what a wonderful playground!   I love the cloisters and all the nooks and crannies at Bective....it nurtured a life long love of ruins and abbeys for me....so many more yet to explore....

Creative Embroidery update...

Well I knew starting out that I would not be the most prolific blogger...I've just realized my last post was 7 months ago!

So, to update....I completed my Creative Embroidery module last Spring and loved every minute of it. I persevered with my trials on sewing machines and am now in love with my Bernina 1008....it really is a no nonsense, sturdy and reliable machine. I've learned to keep needles sharp and not just replace them when they break!  

I continued with abbeys as my theme and produced a little collection of embroidered fragments. These were all made using free motion embroidery on soluble film.   There's a huge variety of soluble materials out there and some worked better than others for me....it was all a matter of trial and error.

                                             Sampling....free motion embroidery on linen...

                                         soluble film has been washed away...no hoop used

Initially I was working without an embroidery hoop as I found it awkward to use with the sewing machine, however, as time went on and my pile of samples mounted, I returned to the hoop as I found I had much better control over the stitch.  As a result pieces got smaller and smaller....this was not the way I had intended going....I had envisaged a larger wall hanging for my end of year project.   But the smaller the pieces got, the more I enjoyed working on them...

                                          I liked working with the soluble fabric above...it was
                                          sturdy and taut in the hoop and washed out easily,
                                          I have no idea what brand it was, it had the feel of
                                          perhaps a silk habotai.
                                       
       

The one below was more of a tearaway type of soluble...and it did just that!  Not so easy to work with, I think all the solubles have a different use....I was just playing with what I had to hand.

                                   

Here's a sample of the completed fragments.....lots and lots of stitch, worked over and over to give definition to the piece....

I then began work on some background ideas...stitching on layers of scrim and calico...painted over with gesso....

I added a couple of layers of colour....first a layer of procein dyes which happened to be on the table after a morning of silk painting...the colour wasn't very strong so I went over again with a layer of fluid acrylics....these gave a lovely vibrant colour...

I used insect/entomology pins to support the embroidered pieces.  I wanted to give a feeling of depth and used layers to achieve this.   The middle layer is organza fabric with free motion script added...this was something I played a lot with....I'll post more photos next time...

So, I've decided to enter the world of blogging!   Being a complete technophobe it will, no doubt, take me a little time to get the hang of this blogging business....the intention is to update from time to time with photos of my work and what inspires me....thanks for stopping by!    Starting with.....

Creative Embroidery, CEAD Ncad

                                                                    Bective Abbey, Trim, Co. Meath

I'm currently doing the accredited Creative Embroidery night class in Ncad.  My chosen theme to work on is Historic Abbeys and ruins....I'm constantly being drawn to these beautiful old buildings and have hundreds of images on my Picasa albums....I thought it was a good opportunity to visit this theme and explore it through stitch. I'm particularly interested in focusing on free machine embroidery and am currently battling with three sewing machines in an effort to achieve 'hassle free' free machining!  

I've put aside my original and trusty Singer - I can't drop the feed dogs and have long since broken the cover for them.  I bought a lovely new Pfaff Select 4 over a Bernina a couple of years ago with free machining in mind (I was wowed by the IDT feature)....however, the needle keeps catching in the bobbin holder, bending and breaking...threads keep getting caught in the bobbin...I don't particularly like the darning foot....it's plastic and rather than seeing through it, it seems to obstruct my view....I know it needs a service badly to hopefully sort it out.  After reading LOTS of online reviews, I bought a second hand Bernina 1008...this is kind of working out for me, but just when I think I have tensions sorted out....I end up with broken threads again....I know it all takes patience....and I'm thinking lots of new needles, I will persevere!   And so, to the last machine....a beautiful Novum from the late 50's...bought on a whim of nostalgia.... it's similar to the machine my mother had taught me to sew on....I bought it online for €25 and had no idea if it would sew or not, but I was just happy to have it as a decorative object.  However, it sews like a dream, I can drop the feed dogs and so far it's accepted readily any thread I've put through it....only drawback is that it doesn't zig zag....so single line stitch only.

The image above includes inspirational photos from Bective Abbey and samples for backgrounds using painted Bondaweb/Wonder under. I'm loving the effects of the Bondaweb...I think it works really well in achieving a weathered, distressed look....