Stumpwork - part 2 - Tree and background

Order of work:
1. Paint background

2. Add tree (do not finish)

3. Add swing (now finish tree)

4. Add lady

5. Finish off by adding surface embroidery.

Step 1 - Painting background:

Acrylic paints watered down painted onto wet white cotton. Once dry I mounted into frame for embroidery and placement of swing and wrapped wire pieces.

Step 2 & 3 - Adding the Tree and swing:

Next I wrapped wire with thread and placed into position and couched into place. Then I made my swing, it's made of balsa and wire, painted it and then wrapped the ends around the tree wire already couched and secured later under raised chain band with some more couching stitches.

This photograph shows my progression of the tree, with the raised chain band in place, covering the attaching wires for the swing, the feature of the tree – the large woody grain and springy looking branches, made of several wrapped wires added at different intervals placed in the middle of the tree. I have tried to use chunky brown variegated threads to give a more natural and rugged look.

At this stage I was happy with the tree and swing so far.

 
 
Part 1 Inspiration
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 1 - my ideas and inspiration

Title: Lady on a swing


Ideas and Inspiration:
Photographs: I have a photo of me with Kylie Minogue at Madame Trousseau Wax Museum in London. Kylie is sitting in a very regal position and I’m standing beside her. I love the way she is sitting and the drape of her lovely sequined dress. I then searched on the web for photographs of ladies on swings; I love dresses that are big and flowing, and their were plenty that certainly portray this.

My tree had to be special too, I love trees and I have collected some pictures of magnificent trees, but this picture was my inspiration of this piece.  This is my favourite picture of trees, mainly because I took it, in Aberdeen in Scotland, they look so majestic with the sun shining though their branches and the snow nestled at their feet.

So combining these ideas together I got the idea of a lady sitting regally on a swing under a very large tree, with her dress draping softly with the breeze. So my next task was to draw what I wanted to stitch, this part was one of my challengers, getting the proportions right. Here is my sketch drawing of my lady on her swing under the majestic tree. From this drawing I took most of my measurements and colour ideas.

Of course the finished item is a little different to this, mainly due to colour clashes that I had when putting it together.

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





Arlene

Stumpwork - My assessment piece finally finished

Well after months of work and procrastinating, I have finally finished this piece. With encouragement from Barbara, it's now complete, thanks Barb.

Close up shots, first of her hat

And her wind swept hair

In the coming days I will put up a tutorial as to how she was put together.
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

Townsville's successful 'Show and Tell'

Over on Fibers and Fabric's blog (my craft group) http://fibresandfabrics.blogspot.com/2010/08/north-queensland-show-and-tell.html
You can read the wonderful article my friend Carol has posted about this successfull event for our group.  Thanks to all for attending, roll on 2013.....

TTFN

Arlene

Stumpwork Round Robin - my work on Karrin's block

After four full days of designing, drawing, needle lacing, stitching, and stabbing my fingers many times with needles and wire, I have finished my work on this gorgeous block, I certainly hope Karrin likes the finished product, as I would certainly love to keep this one myself. I tried to keep with Mrs bloomers theme, and added a bird as Gerry kindly suggested, and a wisteria vine.

My first step was to design what I wanted to do, so pencil in hand, I jotted down in my art journal.

I then scanned the block and drew directly onto it so I would have a better idea of size.

Colours was next, this is what I chose.

Here is a photo of the finished block:

This is my work, the bird and the wisteria vein, I also added beads to the seam of fly stitch running down the centre.  I originally had planned two birds, but I made my wings a little bigger than first drawn, and had them going the same direction, hence the two wings on our bird.

My bird has a needle lace body, with long and short detached wings with buttonhole edge, and woven tail feathers. He is made from a variegated stranded cotton.

The vein was a bit more complex. The wisteria flowers are cone shaped, these are slips that are made up of hundreds of colonial knots, also in a variegated floss.  Here they are before I started, the two at the bottom are the wings.

The vein itself was wrapped with green wool, and then couched into place with the darker thread and with raised buttonhole wraps as the curling vein.  The leaves are picot stitch in the same thread as the vein. this made the larger which was the effect I wanted.  I also added some bullions and knots are each end for some added interest to the vein. Here is a close up of the wisteria flowers and the top of the vein.

I was really happy with how it turned out and envy Karrin for owning such a wonderful piece of work. Karrin I had a lot of fun doing this block and my small part of it, and can't wait for mine to come home. 

TTFN

Arlene

Summer DYB now complete

In the second half of last year I was in this round robin, well I have finally finished the sixth block of this set. Thankfully now with my recent round robin, my sixth block is being done at the same time, of which I am very grateful.

Here is now the full set:

Top two are done by Rebecca Beesley (left) and Lyn Gaskill (right)

Second row are by Rita Cruz (left) and Kerry Leslie(right) a lovely fill in, as Cobi was unable to complete my block, but wonderfully supplied the peacock for embellishment. Kerry also used the whipped chain stitch for week 47 of BAS http://kerrykatiecakes2.blogspot.com/2010/02/bas-week-47-whipped-chain-stitch.html

The bottom two are done by Karrin Hund (left) and myself (right).

Thank you to all these ladies who worked on these blocks.

So now onto my block

I choose softer colours then the others, as when they are finally put together along with two fans (one from my first round robin, and other blocks of similar colouring they will all fit nicely together (I hope).

Here is a close up of the woven roses, and as those who know me I'm love doing them. Along with chevron stitch below.

This next picture is of a lace motif I have been wanting to use for some time, it's pure white and with just a little colour enhancement, fitted nicely. I also added a button butterfly.

Next is a fan, with white and pink beads, below it is buttonhole seam treatment.

This motif I have loads of, dyed it to the colour I wanted and then added a double fly stitch along the seam and added purple and mauve beads to finish off, fly stitch around the flower in a soft green to add as foliage.  Above it is a spider and her web.

To Finish off  I added this dragonfly, a Cretan stitch in six strands of floss, and the middle seam of herringbone, button hole wheel, detached chain and finished with gold beads.

I'm extremely happy with the outcome of this block, and can't wait to finish off the other fan and the other larger blocks to complete the quilt.

TTFN

Arlene

Crazy Quilting International - Kerry's Pansie DYB blocks

This is my work on an individual block (left) and the group block (right).

My work on the group block is the button trail at the top left of the block, along with the dark mauve Cretan stitch seam treatment with the blanket stitch with beads, and the yellow silk ribbon daisy. 

Here is a better look at the whole block

Now a close up of my work.

I choose to put my buttons across the lace trim to break up the long seam down one end, I think it worked well.

I'm extremely happy with my work on the individual block, I am sure my work is getting much better as I do more blocks.

Starting at the top left and working clockwise, I started with a blanket stitch seam and added small half daisy's (a suggestion from my friend Robyn) and one in the far right top corner. A Pansy motif that you will see is very similar to all the other blocks I have done in this round robin, certainly a feature of this block. I then added the dragonfly and daisy trim with beads beneath it.  A feather stitch seam with colonial knots is left of the dragonfly. Here is a close up of that seam and the Dragonfly.

 I then highlighted the flower in the centre by adding chain first around the petals, and then buttonhole stitch over the top part of each petal, with red beads and an orange crystal for the centre. I decided not to do the butterfly as they were done on other blocks, and I thought I'd do the flower instead.

A seam of herringbone below this flower and three lace leaves that I hand dyed and added more gold beads for the centre.

As we move above this to a row of chevron with yellow silk ribbon detached chain stitch, with another flower of silk ribbon to fill in. This photo shows the first seam and the last of the seams.

Kerry I hope you like the work I have done, I really enjoyed working on them.

TTFN

Arlene

North Queensland Patchwork and Quilting Show and Tell

Southern Cross Crazy's DYOB - 1st seams done

I have worked on this block over the past couple of weeks and have finally finished my first row of seam treatments.
before block:

And now with it's first row of seams done.

Oops, upside down, but that's ok, keep watching to see what's next.

Arlene

Am I chuffed?????

Yesterday was World Scout Day, which is celebrated all around the world, hence the name.  Also on this day are when awards for Leaders are announced for service to Scouting.  I am so thrilled to announce that I was nominated by my Regional Commissioner, and I will received an award.  The Silver Arrowhead - for especially good service to the Scout Association of Australia over a period or 7 - 8 years.

Seven other leaders (whose names I can't mention), received awards in my region. 2 for the certificate of merit, 2 Silver Arrowheads (one which was me), and 3 Silver Koala's (my regional commissioner being one also).

We actually get presented with the medallion in November when the Chief Scout of Queensland makes his trek north for our Regional Conference.

If you want to read about the awards, here is the link to the national website:

http://www.scouts.com.au/main.asp?iStoryID=5586

TTFN

Arlene

Southern Cross Crazy's DYOB

I have finally made my block for this follow along.  I choose a Christmas theme as I don't have one for my Christmas decorations yet.

I thought it turned out ok, will start doing my base seams this weekend, have a Scout camp to attend, and there will be a lot of down time, so I might as well stitch.

TTFN

Arlene

Round Robin update - Lisa's Pansie blocks

Ok, the other round robin I'm in is this one with the Pansies, the blocks that are making their way down under are just stunning. Here is my work on the whole block that I chose. I just loved these colours.

I added a gather Pansie motif (the large one), crochet ones on the right, and three smaller gather ones on the bottom left. I then added hand dyed 7mm meandering silk ribbon on one seam and added some purple bullion and colonial knots.  A spider for good luck and buttonhole stitch butterfly's at the top. A Cretan seam with flower sequins and beads, and the centre is a grid pattern of pink thread with green and pink beads at alternating intervals.  Last of all my favourite flower motif (I have quiet of few in white, so I can dye them to my colour choice). 

This is the group block, I added the large ribbon Pansie and the chevron seam.

TTFN

Arlene

Round Robin update - Diane's Stumpwork block

G'day All,

Well only two round robins now, which is giving me more time to finish of some of my other projects now, will post about that soon, but first here is the info on my currently round robins.
First of all, Diane's Stumpwork block, the colours of her block gave me the idea of a vase of Hydrangeas, the are made of seven slips of colonial knots, they took me two whole days to make, and that was just the knots. The actual putting of the piece together took another 4 hours.
Here's a photo of the whole block, my work is the bottom right hand corner.

And here is a close up of my vase

close up of the vase, it's made of shiny stamped kid leather.

And a close up of the gather flower and seam

I didn't do any more as there would not be much space left for Karrin to work.

Only one more block to go, then they'll all be home.

TTFN

Arlene

My winning peices at the Townsville Show

I was so excited when I found out the results of the Art and Crafts division at the Townsville Show.  I had 11 entries, and I was so thrilled when 7 of my entries were placed.
So without further rambling here are all my winning entries....
First of all, my first place ribbon embroidery piece.

and here are the four second places, Doris was one

My scroll was another

My felt bag was another second place

and my gold work sampler, next to it is one of my third place pieces, the etui box

And my other gold work piece got the other third spot.

And that's all my winning entries.

TTFN

Arlene

I'm soooooo excited.......

I'm so excited, I attended the gathering last night where the results can be seen of all our entries at the Townsville Show.  Of my 11 entries I got 7 that where placed, I got a 1st for my ribbon embroidery,

4 seconds, my goldwork sampler, both my stumpwork pieces and my felt bag, and 2 thirds, that was for my etui box and my goldwork peice.

With my prize money I'm going to buy a book I've been wanting for a while.

TTFN
Arlene