Still going

Just noticed the date: 18/6/18. Lucky I find the dates interesting, or I wouldn't be posting at all.

I have been plugging away at my Transformation tapestry. I got a few hours in last week, none yet this week.
It is slowly growing and I think I am about two thirds of the way through. (I hope it is that much, anyway.)

Here it is.

The thickness of the double warp is making it hard to follow the cartoon, so I have started just making it up - more than usual. I will have to hope the plants look a little bit like small oak trees starting off. The stems are rather wobbly because I didn't want to sew the slits and I have been attaching the nearby colours. I am not into realistic with this one.

We decided that the only criterion was that it should be 25cm high. I might have to make up the top, just to get it to the correct height. The cartoon was that height but I have this bad habit of making my tapestries shorter than the cartoons. Must be something to do with how I beat them down. This one will be interesting because I have done a lot of double warp and that seems to be behaving a little differently.

It is good to experiment - in fact, it is what I often want to do, rather than come up with a wonderful piece. This is true of my tapestry weaving and my embroidery. I tend to be more experimental with my embroidery, probably because it is quicker and more forgiving.

We are supposed to be showing our pieces to our tapestry weaving group this weekend, it being the 4th Saturday of the month. I had planned to have it ready but wasn't all that aware of the date and that this month has 5 Saturdays. The 4th Saturday has come a bit early. So it will definitely not be ready. Oh well, I may get it done by the end of the month. Maybe.

Still playing with the string and transfer dye

We have another theme for this month's embroidery group - Blowing in the Wind.
I didn't have any great inspiration but did think the string and ink images were flowing, so decided to play some more.

I have also had some metallic thread for years. I haven't been confident to use it, so thought I would give it a go. As I was thinking of a wind instrument, that you blow into, and as they are brass, I decided to use my metallic thread.

I probably should have used a stronger colour for the instrument but am not too concerned about this little experiment.

I drew the image onto soluble fabric and sewed it. Then I dissolved the fabric and let it dry.
Once is was dry, I sewed it onto the fabric that I had used for the transfer dye.

I think I have put the instrument in the wrong orientation, in regards to the image, but I have successfully used the thread and have come up with my little A5 piece.

Not a great design but some learning done.
I might go over the instrument with a darker colour, just so you can see it!

Struggling On

I couldn't resist the date today - 3/6/18.
I haven't been up to much lately, just trying to get into my tapestry.
So here is a picture of where I am up to - which is a bit concerning because we said that we would have our pieces done by the end of the month. Our meeting is on the 23rd, which isn't really the end of the month!
So I had better get cracking.

Most of it is doing textured weaving over two warps, under two warps, etc. So I does go relatively quickly. And I have decided not to try to have any real detail in the foreground or background, so that saves a lot of unpicking and angst.

The acorn is taking shape. Some of it hasn't worked as I envisaged but I will keep going, I don't think I can make it any better. I just hope it looks like an acorn when I have finished. I may have to say it is an abstract acorn.