I did a one-to-one day with a wonderful textile artist when I was on holiday. It was a joy being in her colourful studio talking threads and lots of other subjects.
I started by choosing a background for my piece. I had decided that I would challenge myself and use different colours to my normal ones. The trouble was Stevie Walker likes the same colours as me so I settled on blues. Stevie dyes old blankets for the background material. I then choose some silks, scrim and merino locks and started to play. I started at the top of my piece and worked down. It didn't take long to get used to the embellisher and I really liked the effect you could get using silk.
After lunch in her lovely garden I started some free machine stitching. The trick is to have the foot working fast and the hands slow. I must remember next time to turn my work when I want to go over a line as it is easier that way. Stevie gave me lots of diagrams to take away so now I must face my fear of the machine and practice, practice, practice. To get the lines right(ish) for the cow parsley I first drew it on plain paper then traced it. I pinned the tracing paper to the background and used that as a template to stitch through. It is best just to do the main lines then take off the paper and do the more detailed work freehand. I did not do that so mine is wobbly in places as I couldn't see it through the paper.
There was no time for hand stitching so I finished that at home and added some tiny beads and some white neeps to the grasses at the bottom.
Here are some images of the finished work, the machine I used and some of the colourful locks. There is also and image of a sample machine stitched piece of Stevie's. She wanted to try doing a 3d effect.
I am inspired to do more.
