More Peacocks

These ones are in cotton rather than silk. I really like making the peacocks. I enjoy the free motion feathers. The satin stitching is a bit wonky and hurts me to do. I spent yesterday stitching one and still haven't recovered yet.

Elephant Tea Cosies

Before my series of surgeries last year I had injured my back. I am cancer free (so far, fingers crossed) but the back issue remains. It has made sewing a challenge. I have some bulging discs that are affected by sitting, especially sitting and leaning forward.
I am trying to teach myself to sew while standing, but my control is not great yet. In order to practise I have been doing a lot of free motion while standing. Mistakes are less apparent in a sketchy style. However, I am accustomed to the heavy satin stitching of the dance costumes I have made for so many years.
These tea cosies have been great practise for re-learning to sew. These ones feature some of the satin stitching while the peacocks have far more free motion.

Peacock Tea Cosy

This cosy is duppioni silk and cotton velvet with free motion stitching.

I love how the sun brings out the details.

Absentee-ism

I seem to have been absent a lot lately. I have actually been in and out of hospital with various surgeries/biopsies both of my own and family members.
Mum has been in Niagara (where there is a severe C Difficile problem) for just over a month. She should be home tomorrow. Maisie has had umbilical surgery to repair a hernia. That was a day procedure. Holy Hanna! how the little ones bounce back!
I am back in tomorrow for a more serious procedure that will keep me in for a couple of days. They really try not to keep you in for long anymore. This is more preventative than anything else. The cancerous changes so far have been contained. I will be quite nervous until the pathology is back though.

In the meantime I have been making a lot of kid's hats and adult fascinators. Hopefuly I can get some pictures on here once I get back.
Til then...

Another attempt

I tried free motion quilting before (not terribly successfully) and then did a lot of free motion embroidery recently. Then I found this blog ww.dontlooknow.typepad.com and HAD to try her pillow tutorial.

My result is above, which has my first attempt at free motion quilting. I have done embroidery but not quilting. I was quite rusty with the embroidery as well but it came back (to my not amazing previous level) by the time the pillow cover was done.

Thanks for the comments on the picture of me in my new dress. I have worn it often since then.

Dress

Maisie and I with friend Barb at my son's grade 8 graduation.
This was the only year both of my children will be in the same school. By the time she starts highschool, he will have finished university.
I thought the ceremony was on Wednesday eve, but it was actually Tuesday so I had to miss the last class of my textile arts course. It was a frenzy trying to alter his trousers and get my dress finished. The skirt was from an outfit I made for a wedding a few years ago. It was kind of big and droppy as the skirt so I wore a black one. I cut an empire top and added the skirt to it but the hem hung longer at the back than front. Once I saw all the asymmetrical hemlines in fashion now I remembered the dress, pulled it out and finished it off just in time.

Happy Canada Day! Blogger will not let me upload anything- but I have a title!

More Embroidery

Layers of silk, organza and thread have gone from a swirly sky,

to this,and eventually to this.

I am going to add some beads as stamens in the centre poppy and stop. It has to be done at some point. Now I need to figure out how to finish it. This one is for my Mum, who just got out of some major surgery about an hour ago. All is well so far.

Hat Head part 2

These photos have been taken on the hat forms that are shown in the last post.
I am mainly a garment sewer so I thought I would combine the two things. I free handed the vine and flower design then added a bead in teh centre of each flower. I thought it would be for me and I wanted subtle, but I don't wear a lot of beige or cream in the summer. Oops. Maybe I will try and black and white one. It might be easier if I do it before the hat is halfway constructed like these ones were.
This one has leaves that I made by cutting then singing the edges. I stitched them on a half completed hat and added a flower pin I had made. Voila! a perfect summer sunhat that can match any outfit. Maisie loves it!
These are for you Irene! I combined the stitching with a garment. A hat is a garment, isn't it?
Soon I will try to show myself in something I have made. Thanks Ruthie, Irene, Ann and Karen for your support.

Hat Head

I did a bit more on trees and stuck it in a frame (loosely) for this pic. I might paint the sky a pale gray blue instead of white but am holding off to ruminate a while.

These are some hatforms I drew in free motion. I did about 7 of them but only a few are shown here. I have been painting them, then embroidering and embellishing them some more. Here are two in progress. The flesh was painted first, then the hat, then background. On the red hat the blue leaked onto the flesh. I had to run with it. I added a bit more flesh tone on her nose, but left the blue everywhere else.
Some more stitching and painting. I stitched in one leave on the side and tried to stamp two more but did not like the effect.

So I appliqued some silk leaves over top and added copper foil to them. I then added some gold and copper foils to the swirls on the left. I might add more. Taking a break on it for now.

This one reminds me of Nefertiti. You can see above I am adding some diagonal designs to try to mimic the hat in the sculpture. Not sure about it. Never sure though.

Free Motion

I have always wanted to learn free motion embroidery. What I do is so tight and controlled and I wanted to loosen up. I have been taking a course in Textile Art at a local college and so have been doing a lot of free motion work lately.
I love it!
The trees are about 9x9" and aren't quite done yet. I roughly stitched in the scene, then loosely painted in the bushes, leaves and ground. The bushes and leaves were done with a technique using tiny snippets of silk held down with tulle. The foreground was stitched back and forth with shades of green. It wasn't until I added some deep green into the front that the depth was really created.
This one has more applique. I drew the design on the top and stithched it. I planned to use the reverse side as the right side but decided I wanted to elephant to face right, so I had to add the silk, stitch from the back and cut away the rest once it was all stitched. I am still playing with it. It probably should have been done with black bobbin thread as the white really shows. I want to paint the background and add more stitching and maybe some gold leaf.
I gave up trying to use my Husqvarna Mega Quilter,(which I LOVE for other things) and am using my Pfaff 1550. I had to buy a foot, but I have less tension problems than before.

Musings

Lately, and by that I mean about two years, I have been sewing a lot of simple things. Smaller things like hats, scarves and other accessories as well as children's items, some pillows, curtains, aprons, purses.
I haven't had a lot of extra time, but that is not the main reason. I am big and not happy about it. It is hard to dress a body you are not happy with. Nothing looks flattering to my eyes. However, none of my older clothes are going to look flattering to anyone else either. Really, it shouldn't matter. No one cares what I wear. I am not a celebrity or public figure. I really admire women like Carolyn and Angie, who are larger than your average model, but dress to please themselves. They are well dressed and I am not. I really need to look to them as examples. I don't have to be happy with my weight, but I really should tart up this old body to look the best it can now while working on that aspect.

Teach Yourself to Sew: How to Sew a Bias-strip Scarf - Threads

Teach Yourself to Sew: How to Sew a Bias-strip Scarf - Threads

Oops

OK, sorry about that last post. I was interupted while I tried to write it.

I love scarves. I especially love scarves that are a little bit different, a little bit extra. The ones that call to me are usually textured, but soft and almost always very colourful.
The technique of encasing fabric and stitching over water soluble film has been covered at Threads Magazine in the post above.
This one was one of my first from a few years ago. I gave it to a weaver from the Artist Educator course I took last year. She gasped when she saw it so I knew she really appreciated it.

I usually do bias strips either close together (below) or a little more open (above) and add ribbons and yarns into the mix. Lately I have been experimenting with shapes and more free hand embroidery and the scarf with blue swirls and the green one with pink roses (two posts below now)are the result.
This is a recent scarf with silk bias strips, yarn and organza ribbon. It is dense but very soft.

Lace Scarves

Made using silk, yarns, soluble stabilizer and LOTS of thread!