Random Stuff!

This post is full of random stuff, with no link between any of it... sometimes it happens that way! I've just got back from Granchester where I've been speaking to The Cambridge Quilters. No matter how often I talk to groups I always find it nerve wracking and convince myself everyone is going to be bored silly! But they were a lovely group of ladies, who laughed in the right places and said nice things about my work so it has been an enjoyable morning. If you are looking in ... thank you Cambridge Quilters, it was lovely to meet you!

Thank you all for the wonderful supportive messages you left on my last post. I don't know why such a lack of confidence seems to accompany working creatively but it does and your encouraging words meant a lot. As promised some more photos of the shirt, which is far from complete. Hand sewing text is laboriously slow!


But I'm enjoying seeing the work grow and eventually hope to cover the whole things with these messages.

All of them have been things that I have actually said over the past few weeks so I think it will be interesting to read them in years to come.

My Dad said it reminded him of when I was a teenager and didn't want to come home at a reasonable time etc... that was different though, wasn't it?

It is now all packed up and ready to take to London tomorrow. I should also thank my tutor James Hunting for his support and help during this module. He's been brilliant!

I've had a super parcel in the post this week from Andrea of Indigo Blue who send these fabulous wiggly bags made by her year 10 students. You can read how she went about it on her blog. They are fabulous Andrea, thank you so much and please thank your students too. It's not too late if anyone still wants to make wiggly bags (these are bags used by children receiving treatment for cancer. It keeps their IV lines tidy and out of the way) - just drop me an e mail.

What else.. Julia at Marmalade Kiss is having a giveaway so do go and pay her a visit! And I have to tell you about the latest book I am reading - The Time Traveller's Wife - it is fantastic and very clever. It tells the beautiful love story of Henry and Clare who meet when Clare is 6 and Henry is 36 yet marry when Clare is 22 and Henry is 30... you just have to read it! I'm having trouble putting it down at the moment!

Finally, I would like to leave you with something I saw in the Times this week that amused me... something for those of you who keep chickens and are also partial to a little knitting... a project for the weekend!

They are rescued battery hens whose feathers are not as thick as they should be so they have little sweaters to keep them warm. Was it wrong to laugh?

Another module finished.

It has been a long time since I posted anything about my degree but that doesn't mean I haven't been working during all the Christmas prep, Young Embroiderers, exploding ovens etc etc. The last time I posted I was looking at materials and in particular the idea of protection. The idea of making a jacket with the "teeth" around the cuff has been put on hold (I took note of your comment Jodie!) but I'll come back to it I'm sure. Meanwhile I moved onto the next assignment which was about language. I looked at banners from the suffrage movement and from there went on to look at artists who use text in their work, in particular the work of Arthur Bispo do Rosario and Tilleke Schwarz. Before long I found myself back looking at the idea of protection and in particular how we protect our children. I involved the boys and we got to talking about all the things mothers say when children leave the protection of home to go out - things that in their eyes are seen as nagging but really are just hidden ways of saying "I care, I want you to be safe... I love you."

From this came the idea of a protective garment so I chose a school shirt - something they all might have worn to leave the house and I have embroidered messages all over the surface, much in the same way their friends scribble messages of friendship over their shirts in marker pen when they leave school. This isn't finished due to to me slicing the end of my thumb while chopping carrots which is making hand sewing a bit tricky, and I doubt it will be completely finished before assessment day.. on Saturday... but I'll show more at the end of the week.

The final assignment has been a personal project concerned with aspects of domesticity. Again I was drawn back to family life, my role within the family and once more the idea of protection. It was also apparent that text and lists were featuring heavily in all my work and so I decided to make an apron as a symbol of both domesticity and as a protective item covered with lists of words. This then evolved into three aprons to represent the multiplicity of my roles within the home - as a wife, a mother and a housekeeper.

This one was "Mother"

All three aprons are worked on a fine muslin with machined drawn fabric work edging and free machined lettering. Fun and games working on muslin let me tell you!


This one was "Housekeeper" - I didn't want to use the word "Housewife" and I don't like the American term "Homemaker" I wanted to incorporate a piece of traditional looking needlework on the housekeeper apron. Stewart objected to me putting ironing on the list as he does most of the ironing!

And the last apron was "Wife"

It's funny but Stewart didn't object to me writing "nag" on the list of words on the bottom of this apron!

The idea behind the three aprons and that they are made from muslin (apart from the fact muslin is often used as a cleaning cloth) is that they can be layered so that the different roles can be worn "on top" but without completely covering the other roles.

I quite like this as a concept but I'm not sure how well it works. I've called it "Who am I?"

It wasn't easy to photograph and looks better in "real life"

So now it all has to be packed up and taken to London for assessment on Saturday and we get a few weeks off before the next module starts!

Buttons, zips and poetry.

The latest assignment in my current Opus module has been about materials. We have had to look at a particular culture and how they use certain materials. I started by looking at the region of northern India, Pakistan and Afghanistan where garments are richly decorated with materials such as mirrors, coins, shells and buttons which offer symbolic protection to the wearer.


They often use items such as zips around edges and openings, not as functional items but again as a form of protection as in this jacket from Pakistan.

What I love about these modules is they are like journeys of discovery and can go off in all sorts of directions. Looking at buttons I got to look at Pearly Kings and Queens and from there to the fabulous work of John Galliano who has used bright coloured buttons to decorate garments.

Back again to zips on edges and I started to think about shark's teeth!

We then had to look at modern waste materials and how we might use them for protection and from this evolved my version of protective edging like teeth - rows of "teeth" made from crisp packets! The added "buttons" are from bottle tops from fizzy wine... oh how I suffer for my art!

From here I wondered what this would look like as an actual edge on a cuff...

... and what if I used the coloured side of the packaging and made extra rows...

... and then made this as a cuff too! I'm now starting to plan a whole jacket covered with these protective elements but think I might be getting carried away!

Completely changing the subject some of you may have seen Ali's post about sprucing up her kitchen... all part of a little game going on this week called kitchen poetry. Details can be found on Simple Sparrow. I think mine might be less poetry and more limerick but I thought it would be fun to play! And so today in my kitchen.... my shopping!

A pumpkin to make some pumpkin bread, a squash to make spicy butternut squash with cashew nuts and fruit just to eat!

Barnacles and Buttons

Many years ago when my friend Jude and I did our City and Guilds Machine Embroidery, Jude made a tiny but exquisite sample of feather stitch that looked just like a barnacle encrusted rock. So today in my City and Guilds class when we worked through samples of whip stitch, moss stitch and feather stitch there were several attempts at barnacles. There is something quite satisfying about working very small... these barnacles are only about 0.5 cm in diameter.

Still working small... there have been more buttons. Hand stitched this time and carrying messages.

Bigger than the barnacles at 1.5 cm but still pretty small. Not sure I want to work big again!

Once again, thank you all for your kind messages of support. Cutting back my workload... and working small is definitely helping!

Redressing the Balance

I started this blog 15 months ago as a way of charting my progress through my degree - a sort of visual diary to keep me on track. But it has evolved into so much more. Cakes, sock creatures, family life... not to mention the occasional pair of pink pants, all seem to have taken over. So I thought it was time to redress the balance. This semester I'm taking a module called Cultural Stitch and for my first assignment I'm looking at the reverse applique Mola work of the Kuna Indians from the San Blas Islands, Panama.

I've started with some sketchbook work, looking at the designs, the techniques and the colours.

I've played around with some different fabrics.

And some more cut out designs using patterned papers.

Which in turn have led to a sample using patterned fabric.

More playing in my sketchbook and I've been looking at things that are revealed and concealed, especially snippets of text.

I've changed the scale and started to look at tiny bits of text revealed

Which in turn has led to these little reverse applique buttons.

I'm not entirely sure where it is all eventually leading but I'm having a lot of fun playing. Talking of Opus... or more specifically Prism (the Opus exhibiting group), I can share my good news with you now that I've had official confirmation. My piece of work has been accepted for the exhibition in the Mall Galleries in March 2009 - but not only that, it has been retained to be photographed for publicity photos. I can't tell you how excited I was about that! When the publicity comes out I can share some pictures with you!

*****

Totally unrelated... there's a 200th post giveaway on Itching2bstitching to high light Breast Cancer Awareness month so do go have a look.

Plus I'm taking part in Indigo Blue's Christmas decoraton swap - thank you Kitty for sending me the code for the link on my sidebar!

A Flurry of activity

Browsing favourite blogs this week I noticed Helen Suzanne had put some little stash bags of goodies in her etsy shop - including some of her hand made felts, lovely fibres and other treasures. Being a fan of her work this seemed too good to miss so I treated myself... and what a treat it was when this little lot arrived in the post!


I was immediately inspired to use some of the fibres and make some felt of my own - out came the bubble wrap, hot water and soap...


and after some vigorous rolling and bashing... some felt. I was planning to stitch into this but got a little sidetracked...

and decided to make a felt background for a commission I've got to work on. I was planning to start stitching on this too but then I got completely carried away...

and I made some red cobweb felt...

and some blue felt....

which looked fabulous in the sunshine (yes... sunshine!!!) while it was hanging out to dry.

And finally some green felt too!

The plan is to stitch into all of these pieces eventually so I might have something to show next week. And lest you think this is turning into some kind of craft blog, there has been baking too.

Apple and cinnamon muffins

for breakfast.

And I make no apologies for another Nigel Slater recipe,

frosted marmalade cake...

for afternoon tea.

And the reason for this flurry of activity - I got the first draft of my Opus essay handed in on Tuesday, had a tutorial last night and apart from some minor tweaking it is finished! Two weeks before assessment day... Yippee! Expect to see some more flurrying in the next couple of weeks!

Have a wonderful weekend!