STAGE 3 - APPLIED FABRICS

Hand Applique

Hints and tips

• 
  
  Use herringbone stitch or buttonhole stitch

• Pin and/or tack fabric onto a background fabric and work stitches over the cut edges. fabric which fray easily use closer stitches or turn the edges under. Fabric which doesn't fray can be applied with small running stitch worked vertically or slip stitch

• 
  
  Other suitable stitches would be chain stitch, blanket stitch, crossed stitches, feather stitches and couched lines

I decided that my first applique work would be stitched by hand. I have taken this idea from a sketch I did in the last assignment and moderated it quite a lot!

So, here are the stages I went through

I decided to have the frayed edges because I like this effect on other artists work but now that it is finished I think I would have prefered it turned under in places and done more neatly - next time??......

When I had finished the sewing I decided to add buttons - which I seem to always do - and a few beads and overall I am happy with the finished piece and I could see it as a cushion cover or a wall hanging.

Project 4 Stage 4 Developing Design Ideas

What have I achieved?

I must say that I have not enjoyed doing this Project as much as I thought I would - I am chomping at the bit to get stuck in to weaving and using yarn and doing more sewing so I have really struggled to get motivated.

One of the projects I struggled with was the colour perception in Stage 2. For some reason I couldnt see the differences of colour with the complementary colours. Having said that, I have used complementary in the latest project and it has stood out to me very well the tricks your eyes play with different colours but when I was looking at the squares it didn't work for me - perhaps that is why I like working with colours of the same hue or different shades of the same colour.

I am very pleased with the drawings I did in Stage 3. I enjoyed colour matching a piece of fabric and matching the colours on the photo I have of the cotton reels. I particularly enjoyed drawing the pebbles in a jar. This seemed to come along so naturally and I have also enjoyed developing this drawing and changing the colour to black and white and then complimentary colours. I could use the drawings to develop further and I can envisage them alread being turned into fabric pieces. I also can't wait to further develop the mosaic structure that I made taking inspiration from a photograph of poppies. I can also see that being developed into a stitiched piece.

I am confident with my working method but I have to hold myself back and take it slow instead of just working on the first thing that comes into my head without taking more time on it.

Creating Shapes and Three-dimensional Forms with Fabric #2

Understanding the Textile World

Things I need to do:-

• Collect a collection of examples of  furnishing or fashion fabrics in the following form:

• actual fabric pieces  tweed, silk, pile, felt, voile, muslin, glittering - visit furnishing and fabric shops - get small samples - need to get spec of fibre content and origin of fabric

• photocopies from books - see recommended books

'A Woman's Work is Never Done' T-shirt (one-off)

Machine-embroidered organza with metallic thread

Carolyn Corben

UK, 1990

Horse head dress from Sind, Pakistan (Moira Broadbent)

Horse chest band from Sind, Pakistan (Moira Broadbent)

Photo micrographs of typical geosynthetic fabric structures.

Quilts exhibited in the V & A Quilts exhibition Summer 2010

 

• photographs
• magazine cuttings - Interiors, Elle Decoration, Vogue

A new handblock-printed range featuring organic cotton from India.
http://www.vanessaarbuthnott.co.uk/
Country Living
• internet

New Fabric! P+B Textiles - Wild Thyme
Carolyn Gavin's Wild Thyme is a lively contemporary eco collection, with stylized birds, dots, pods and stars within the main print, which are echoed throughout the collection. Colors are fresh and modern, but not overly bright. This collection is great for quilts, home decor, children's clothing and just about anything else you can imagine.  

New Fabric! Liberty of London - Lantana
Just in from Liberty of London is Lantana, a collection of high quality cotton and wool prints just right for garment sewing. As is the usual with Liberty, the prints are eclectic and modern, with a range of moods from bright modern florals to cosmopolitan navies, blacks, and greys. The Purl Bee

Tweed

New Fabric! Echino Ni-Co Oilcloth

From the ever-popular Echino series, Ni-Co is now available in sturdy, spill-proof, weather-proof oilcloth! Etsuko Furuya designed this contemporary print that gathers disparate objects and tidily places them on a backdrop of natural color. Stamped with dots and stripes, Ni-Co is brimming with youthful energy!

My sketch book
• visit Nostell Priory - are the furnishings original or reproduction? - if reproduction where and by whom were they made?

Creating Shapes and Three-dimensional Forms with Fabric

Some books to read for the next assignment:

The Art of Manipulating Fabric by Collette Wolff

Surfaces for Stitch: Plastics, Films and Fabric by Gwen Hedley

Layers of Stitch by Valerie Campbell-Harding and Maggie Grey

Bonding and Beyond by Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn

I think I am going to buy this. I have also reserved two books at the library - The Art and Craft of Applique and Textile Arts which should be with me soon!

Amish, the Art of the Quilt

Magnificent Molas: The Art of the Kunas Indians

What have I achieved?

As I have worked with my main selection I am liking it more and more and have added alot of variations to the finished piece, I feel that I could just go on and on with it and never know when to stop!

The fabric I have chosen to work on is nice, clean, cream cotton which I can use like a blank canvas without it making a statement for itself, more like you can make several statements on it. The other fabrics I have used is a coloured cotton and a pink gauze. When I bought the pink gauze I never thought I would work with it (don't know why) but I feel that it works really well with this project and I am pleased with it.

I feel that the scale of marks and shapes work well on the fabric because of the blank canvas effect. I would not of liked to work on any other fabric as it would detract from the design.

I have extended from the ideas I did from the smaller samples but have stuck to the original design but changed the colours abit and added stitching and fabric overlay to make a bigger impact.

I did not really like painting onto fabric - I find it too constrained and it doesn't seem to do what I wanted it to do - I have found the whole assignment rather frustrating and didn't really enjoy myself until I started making marks with stitches! So if this last assignment has taught me anything, it is that stitch is my preferred medium so far but I am quite happy to mix painting and stitch together in the future but not printing!

I feel that I haven't put my heart and soul into this latest work and I feel quite despondent about it so I am going to submit it and then forget about it and start again with the next piece of work that I start.

I am going to use this blog now for ideas that I find and work it alongside my book which is my log book.

Here is some inspiration from embroiderersguild.com which I am liking very much

What have you achieved?

I am usually a very colourful person but I have got to say that I have struggled abit with this work so far. I have felt very constrained in the colours that I have had to work with and I haven't enjoyed it. Maybe that is the reason why I haven't finished the assignment on time because I have found other things to do instead because I didn't like what I was doing.

I did enjoy using colour to express emotions and I hope to develop some of the ideas further. I have stitched one of my drawings already.

I have embraced using contrasting primary colours which I have never done before and will be developing that into knitting and crocheting at a later date.

I find water colours rather wishy washy where as gouache is very strong and I prefer to work in strong colours.

I enjoyed creating the colour exercises in Stage 5. Again, I have not worked with red and blue together and I liked the colour combinations I created. They were far more interesting to create that working with paint as you kind of know what the outcome will be before it is finished.

I am again pleased with what I have achieved and it has made me realise that I prefer to work with strong primary colours rather than pastel colours. Before, I didn't think about it, I just chose the colours that I felt was right but I now realise that I was being slightly 'safe' - but not any more!!!

Coloured Stitches

I have noticed that usually when I have put colours together for knitting projects I have mainly stuck to the same colours or at least the same hues. I have just noticed this when I have had to put colours together in a different way - a way to make me learn more ABOUT colour - hope that makes sense! I have put two primary colours together, a thing I would never usually do. I chose blue and red and again had to put them onto a black background.

I have got to say that overall I am very pleased with the outcome and am happy to have been given the oportunity to play with colours abit more.

I would say that red is very predominate on this piece of work, both when it is next to the dark blue and black but when next to the more turquoise blue the turquoise stands out more to me.

I am still not convinced though that I would use this colour combination for my personal choice as I still like working with similar colours together more that colours that can be described as 'wrong'. I will continue to experiment with this method however, and maybe I will change my way of thinking - or maybe not! only time will tell!!!!