Stitchmap Challenge - Victorian Pin Cushion - Part 3

Making the Gum Nuts.

Reading through the instructions in the magazine, I first made my gumnuts. They are made up of 6 stranded cotton, and a wooded bead. 

Hubby gave me some small files and so I've been able to make the centre hole larger, to fit more thread through. 

This was where my fingers get a little sore, as I'm holding the tread fairly tight, and they just get stiff from not moving too much.

I wrap the bead until  it's totally covered.  Here is one I experimented on first.  I used brown beads, so that if I didn't totally cover the bead with thread, the bead would not be that noticeable.

Once the whole bead was covered I then stitched button hole around the top and continued for a couple of rounds to get the end of the gumnut right.

Here are my finished three gumnuts, this took me about 2 hours to make these three.

The gumnut blossoms were a bit more of a challenge, as I wanted them to be soft, but still stiff enough to stay in position, I also didn't want them to be flat on the background fabric. So I made them up like you do when you make pom poms.

Then cut the stranded cotton of the card, and soaked it in a solution of pva glue and water.

Waited for them to dry and trimmed the edges, seperating the threads with a pin I fanned them out. I then painted the tips with yellow acrylic paint and them let them to dry a day more.

Making the leaves were easier, they were drawn onto fabric, thread laid down, and couched into position, then sewn around the edge with a slanted chain stitch,

I then cut them out ready to be placed on the cushion.

This photograph show's back and front.

Part 1 - Guidelines

Part 2 - Inspiration
Part 3 - Embroidery elements of pin cushion
Part 4 - Attaching to Cushion



TTFN

Arlene

Embroiderers Guild Forum Project Baggie

For this we received a bag of goodies from one of our forum friends and from the contents we are to make a postcard (to send back to the person who sent you the baggie) and something else from the rest of the baggie.
Here is the baggie I received from Julie.

Here is the postcard that I sent Julie, thanking her for my baggie

Here is what I have been making from my baggie:

I've made a book mark for my sister-in-law's 50th.

I am also making a magic needle case: Once I have finished I will do a tutorial on it as well.

I also made a traveling page for Elizbeth. It's A5 size (half A4)

The contents of the baggie I sent Kim are pictured below.

 

Here is the postcard I received from Kim, whom I sent my goodies to.

And here is the book cover that Kim made with her baggie.

TTFN
Arlene

Stitchmap Challenge - Victorian Pin Cushion - Part 2

Ideas for my Pin Cushion.

My inspiration comes from walking Rosey, and the latest edition of the Embroidery and Cross Stitch magazine.

Here are some real gum nuts that I picked up on my morning walk with Rosey.












Here is my sketch. I also intend on doing a gold work one, so have drawn it on the same page.

My next step will be to make the embroidery elements for the pin cushion, and attach them to it.
Part 1 - Guidelines and colour choice
Part 2 - Design choice
Part 3 - Embroidery element of pin cushion
Part 4 - Attaching Elements to the Cushion
TTFN

Arlene

Stitchmap Challenge - Victorian Pin Cushion - Part 1

I'm a member of Stitchmap a yahoo group that has the aim of teaching the art of embroidery and other needle crafts.  We have a few challenges a year, and I chose to participate in this one.

We're to make a Victorian Pin Cushion. I'd never seen one before and so my friend Ann, sent me this photo.  If you have been to this post before you will notice changes, because it's a current challenge and some are still working on it, I can't post certain details here. (Watch this space for later on).

My chosen technique is stump work, and here are the colours and materials I'll be using.

 I will also be adding a few more browns for my stems and gum nuts, but that's all.  I had not known the theme for the pin cushion when I chose my colours. But think this will work well.

This is the end of part one, part two is inspiration, sketch and part three is the embroidery elements of the cushion and part 4 is it finshed, the making up of it.

Part 1 - Guidelines and colour choice
Part 2 - Design choice
Part 3 - Embroidery element of pin cushion
Part 4 - Making up Pin Cushion

TTFN
Arlene

The last to work on Candji's Silk Ribbon Embroidery block

I know I'm late with this one, sorry Candji, I hope it's worth the wait.  It's a very large block, so keeping it large was a challenge. It's size is 15.5 inches square, that equates to approximately 40cm square.

My work is the yellow and white daisy's and roses in the top right corner and the two shell like flowers in the centre bottom.  I found this a hard block to work with, not sure why, maybe the size, but I hope Candji likes it anyway.

This is a close up on the white and yellow daisy's and roses, with beaded centres.

These two were made with a silk organza ribbon with a variegated dye colour with two large pink beads and three trails of smaller ones.

TTFN
Arlene

My work on Carolyn's Pansy blocks

The colours of this block is not as deep as in real life, so the photograph does not do the block justice.  The block I chose was the one my pansy motif would match. I added the button trail and beads, a silk ribbon butterfly, beaded lace and a Lacey braid.  I also did some Cretan stitch and detached buttonhole for the seam.  I didn't want to do any more as I thought it would clutter it too much and I wanted to keep it as elegant as possible.

Here is the closeups.

The butterfly:

Here is the pansy motif with added gold beads for the centre..

And the button trail with beads

Next I worked on the group block, I had to keep room for the last person to work on, my work mainly consisted of Fargo roses.

The ones in the centre and the ones shown in the bottom right corner. I also added the Lacey braid above those small ones in the corner.

TTFN

Arlene

Totems by Fibers and Fabrics

My craft group are holding an exhibition in the Perc Tucker Gallery from now until 17th October. If your in the north please come and visit and see some really amazing work. I want to thank publicly all the lovely ladies who have put this together especially my friend Barb, who helped me with the finishing of my totem - my lady on the swing.

TOTEMS - A SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION OF A GROUP

FIBRES AND FABRICS ASSOCIATION INC.

17 September until 17 October
A lot has changed since 1975. This was the year the Fibres and Fabrics Assoc. Inc was formed after an advertisement was placed in the Townsville Bulletin by June Oliver calling a meeting to gauge the interest in fibre arts in Townsville. Having been rejected after entering an art exhibition with her craft skills, Oliver sought out like-minded people with similarly impressive skills. About 20 people attended this first meeting at the Townsville Arts Centre on March 19, and it was decided to form a fibre craft group.

This exhibition, titled Totems – a symbolic representation of a group showcases the variety of textile arts that are currently being practised in Australia. The theme for the exhibition was chosen to encourage members to look into their ideas, feelings and personal circumstances and reflect them in their work.

Their blog
 
TTFN
Arlene

Upcoming Round Robins and Do Your Blocks

I just love doing them, what can I say, here's the next round of Round robins for me.

Basically beaded:

And my lovely English Garden blocks, can't wait to see what the Gals get up to on these.

 Coming up soon will be the Traditional Floral, but it's still a month or so away, I guess.

I'm hoping to match this block and the english garden ones into a small lap quilt.

I'm currently working on Candji's Silk Ribbon Embroidery RR, and the Pansies DYB, so hoefully will have pictures of those by the end of the week.

TTFN

Arlene

My Sister in Law's Brithday present

My sister-in-law Donna (my brother's wife) turns 50 on Wednesday 15th, we went to the Gold Coast last weekend to celebrate with her. I made her a gift, which she expected (not fair), and here it is.  She was over the moon, but her comment regarding it threw me a little, she said, does that mean I now have to read books - only kidding she said.....  she loved it.

They recently moved to acreage, and now are getting a collection of animals, so far 3 horses, 3 dogs, a sheep and her lamb. We asked when the chickens and the rooster was coming, but only got - we don't do feathers.....

So one of her friends gave her wellies for her birthday, just perfect, covered with horses......

Happy birthday for tomorrow Sis.....

TTFN

Arlene

Tweed Valley Embroiders workshop

This weekend whilst I was on the Gold Coast I attended this workshop with one of my Embroider Guild forum buddy and her guild.  We had a great time, here is the link to their blog regarding it.
The picture below is Elizabeth, Kerry and I.

Annette and Barb I did buy a great book about dying, so will show you on Wednesday back at Fibers

TTFN

Arlene

Stumpwork - Part 6 - Finishing touches

Now for the last part, I hope you have enjoyed following along this journey of making my lady on her swing.

The finishing touches were the little bits of grass at the base of the tree, putting her into a frame and covering up the material that was not painted, and she’s all done.

A few strands of grass.....

A side on view of the finished piece gives a different perspective.

Then I had to decide big frame or little frame.  The little frame just didn't do it justice.

But then the big frame was so big, I had to disguise the unpainted material somehow, so that made me think of the left over material from her dress, and there is a lot of it.

It's had to believe months of work, reverted to a few pages of text and photo's.
I hope you have enjoyed seeing how this lovely lady and her tree were made. She will now be displayed at the Totems Exhibition at the Perc Tucker Gallery from the 17th September to the 17th October.  Then she's flying off to the UK for assessment with Kay Dennis.

Part 1 Inspiration
Part 2 Tree and Background
Part 3 will be the under layers of my lady.
Part 4 adding dress, head, hair
Part 5 hat
Part 6 finishing touches
 
TTFN
Arlene

Stumpwork - Part 5 - My lady's hat

As for ‘My Lady’s’ hat, that had to be the same as her dress. Here is how it was made.


A small piece of vilene coloured and covered with the material. I then placed chiffon over the top of a wooden cap, and glued into place on top of the hat.

Here are the pieces of the hat:

Clockwise from top left: Material, ribbon, Vilene with circle for hat, wooded cap on top of the chiffon (same as the petticoat).

Here is the construction of the hat, first the circle was cut and the material glued on top of it, and then turned over the edges for the rim of the hat. The top of the hat was the chiffon glued over the wooden cap, and placed on top of the material.

A ribbon was tied and placed around the rim of the top part of the hat. I then made another bow and put on top of the knot on the top of the hat. Place it in the tree and stitch in two places.

I think it looks great hooked up in the tree.

Part 1 Inspiration
Part 2 Tree and Background
Part 3 will be the under layers of my lady.
Part 4 adding dress, head, hair
Part 5 hat
Part 6 finishing touches

TTFN
Arlene

Stumpwork - Part 4 - Dressing my lady

The next step was to start on her dress, this had caused me so much dilemma during the process that I gave up on the pink apron and hat I was originally going to add, and threw caution to the wind so to speak and changed colour altogether.

I still stayed with the yellow lace and yellow chiffon for the petticoat, the photograph above shows the lace for the petticoat.
Next came the under skirt part of the petticoat, this was a bit trickier to place, as I wanted the windswept illusion.

Sewing one side first, and then attaching the other side over the swing seat. At this stage I was still going to use the pink apron and hat, but then placed it on top but it just didn’t seem to fit, the colours were all wrong, so I put it aside and kept covering the body with the chiffon.

I made my shoulders with more white felt and made my head from a slip. The slip is a small circle drawn onto some calico, approximately 3/4 inch in diameter. Gathered around the line, and pulled tight with some toy stuffing on the inside, securing the thread. I then took the needle through to the front side of the face, and going from right to left and just catching a small amount of stuffing, and calico I made the nose. Then using the same thread, secured the head to the background around the edge.

Once I had placed my head on top of my shoulders, I stepped back to make sure my portions were keeping true to her size. I painted her face an off fawn colour, using my pastel watercolour crayons. This photo shows the petticoat finished, with head and arms in place.

Now to my dilemma of her dress, I found some material that I had picked up from the UK, and placed on my piece, it was exactly what I wanted.

As the material was already gathered it was easy to get the flowing effect I was looking for. I used yellow satin ribbon to pull the material in at the waist, wrists and the neck. Using the yellow chiffon for the sleeves.

Now that ‘My Lady’ was dressed, next she needed hair. I didn’t want dark hair as it would be too close to the tree colour, and white or yellow blond was too light, Coffee dyed silk Boucle' turned out perfect, as you can see in these next two photographs; white would not do, but the coffee colour perfect.

Thanks to my friend Barb from Fibers for her help with this decision. My next stage was to add facial features. I had added two chain stitch for the outer part of the eyes, and using blue thread I did two colonial stitches for the eye balls, apparently we need to do a black dot for the pupil of the eye. Lips were done with another larger detached chain in pink.  Oops, I still need to add eye brow's too.

Part 1 Inspiration
Part 2 Tree and Background
Part 3 The under layers of my lady.
Part 4 adding dress, head, hair
Part 5 hat
Part 6 finishing touches


TTFN
Arlene