Still January

 I have decided to try to post at least once a month, very different from the once a week that I used to do. 

So here I am at the end of January. I have just finished a two day workshop with Ro Bruhn at the Embroiderers Guild, Victoria, which now has Australia added to the link so that we don't accidentally go to Canada!

Ro makes fabric books. And other things. The workshop was about the fabric books. It was a two day workshop with the two days a week apart. 

It was great to be able to get back to the guild rooms. There are Covid protocols in place but they weren't intrusive, especially as we do not need to wear masks indoors at the moment. Long may that last!

Most of the people at the workshop are hand embroiderers but there were a couple of us free motion machine people. However, I ended up not doing much free motion, I didn't set up my fabric properly for that so had to keep the feed dogs up - motion but not free. 

I had gone to the workshop to start making myself do something. It has been a very quiet year creatively. So I didn't really have a theme in mind. Not sure it mattered, it might have helped. 

Because I had lost my blackwork folder (don't ask!!! I have just done an intermediate course in blackwork embroidery) and had searched through all my folders, I had found lots of samples from past textile courses that were never looked at. I pulled them out and put them in a box. The lack of theme meant that I just pulled stuff out of the box and used them. So I suppose I do have a theme - stuff I had. 

I thought we had to make lots of 'pages' for the book between classes, not the case. This led to some rather boring pages. However, I was able to put together two pieces of fabric to make a signature ( two pieces of fabric stitched together to make a page). In fact, I made two. The class today was about how to make the cover and then put the signatures into the spine. I will be able to make more signatures and sew them into the book. Then I will have a book to put in a box, or on a shelf, full of stuff that was in a box. 

I has been interesting to get out samples, some of things I will never do again, and to utilise them. 

I will spend time this week (and in coming weeks) putting pages together and making more signatures for the books. AND I have finally begun using the sewing machine again!

All good. 

Back cover.

My cover has pieces of fabric that were used inside the book.

One 'page' sewn into the cover.

Another couple of 'pages'.

Front cover.

21/1/21 How can I resist??

 Fortunately, I have something to blog about - albeit a bit disappointing for me. I have STILL not found my blackwork embroidery folder. We were supposed to hand it in in October but Covid changed that - it is due in tomorrow!

As it was a strange year, we did it by email. I therefore have all the notes, images, etc, photographed and scanned. So I am going to hand it all in tomorrow - minus the actual pieces. It is all very sad - seeing all the pictures of my work has brought it all back to me. I had totally stalled in my creativity when I lost the folder!!! 

I did move on, eventually. I did my tapestry weaving (thank goodness for challenges, you have a theme and can work on that, not having to come up with totally new ideas!).  It is finished now - and I have taken note of where I put it!!!! Now I just have to remember to send it when the time comes. 

I also joined Stitch Club and have been looking at the various prompts to get you going. One spoke to me. I have spent HOURS working on it. It is the crumpled paper, abstract design. I have now finished my third (yes, 3) blackwork piece - not that this one was blackwork, it was blackwork designs done in colour. 

I spent hours on the embroidery and then printing out all the notes. But I will actually have something physical to hand in, that is good. 

But the reminder of all that lost work has started me up again, thinking about where the folder could possibly be. I live in hope that, once we have been through the assessment stage, and I have handed in what I could, and it is all over red rover, that it will turn up. 

I have enrolled for a course at the Embroiderers Guild this coming Saturday, I have to find lots of bits and pieces. Maybe I'll find the folder then - when it is too late! But then I will have my needle case and my bag for putting on my magnifying glass that attaches to my daylight lamp. That would be nice. 

You Live and Learn

 I had to post today, the date is 2/1/21. 

I went for a walk today near Warringal Park and saw some seeds coming off the thistle growing there. I had never realised that those seeds I have seen blowing around, for many, many years, are from thistles. As I said, you live and learn.

It was still and humid and warm. There were storm warnings coming in on my State Emergency app but they mostly missed us. A breeze did spring up and the temperature dropped a degree or two, not much. 

I made my way home, away from all the trees, in case the storms actually arrived in my location. Fortunately, there was rain but that was all.

There are a lot of trees in this area. When you look at them, you see why fire races up them and rushes to the tops of the trees - all that bark hanging down saying Burn, Burn. Hopefully the fire season will not be severe this year. So far, so good. We are having a wonderfully cool introduction to summer at the moment. 

2021

 Well, today is the first day of 2021. 1/1/21. Let's hope is has less disruption than 2020. 

My brother tells me that the number is a prime number and that its factors are 47 and 43. I think I understood what he was saying. Apparently prime numbers only have 2 factors. 

I have been trying to get motivated - most people I know are feeling like they are struggling with creativity. It takes energy to come up with an idea. The making can be challenging and involving and slow but the initial idea is the thing that takes the most energy - that is what I am finding at present, anyway. 

I have just looked at a video from the Stitch Club, part of TextileArt.org, and the message I got was to try new things, or old things you used to do, and not worry about making anything, just play!! I need to have a think about that. Finding all the bits and pieces may be too challenging!! Also, there were a few ideas and I think I need to focus on one at a time. But it was interesting and refreshing,.

Another idea was to enter a challenge, or a call for entries, which has a theme and try to work towards that. This can be especially good if it is something you have never done before. I'll have to have a look around and see what ideas come up. 

I am still playing around with the blackwork embroidery. I am currently working on a piece that has been painted in random colours, based on the crumpled paper idea. I am just making it up as I go, don't even know what, if anything, I will do with it when I finish. In fact, I have used a piece of fabric that doesn't have much room for making it into anything, or even framing it (not that I would want it on the wall). I may put the various pieces together and make a small folding book - who knows? Who cares? 

One of my Facebook groups has suggested doing postcards this year, to be sent by mid-March. So that might get me going. I have done my first. I am not that happy with it, I think I have done the petals too big. But I won't worry about it too much, I may need to send it, we have to make 11 and I won't throw it out just yet.

I have based this one on a flower that is currently blooming, and will do so for months, going on past experience. The hollyhock. I am collecting the flowers when they fall down and putting them in the freezer. I have used them in the past for dyeing, may do so again. Not immediately, but they are there if I need them. 

More inspiration from other sources

 I joined the TextileArtist.org Stitch Club earlier in the year and have been lurking on the site, not taking up most of the challenges but still being inspired by the initial tutorial and then the amazing responses by other members. 

I have - finally - tried one of the ideas. It was by Sabine Kaner. She suggested getting a piece of paper and crumpling it, then flattening it out and tracing some of the creases to create an abstract design. 

I thought that this was an interesting idea and that it wouldn't take too much creative energy to give it a go. 

I ended up with a design that I thought was doable. I traced it onto some calico and coloured it with Inktense Pencils. 

The pencils were much brighter after I used a wet brush to spread the colour around. 

After several weeks of it lying around, I then decided that perhaps I could use the same design for some blackwork embroidery. I traced the design onto even weave fabric using a water soluble marker (remembering, from past sad experience, not to let the sun shine on it!).

Many hours later, I now have a blackwork piece. I suppose it is really a sampler, as I was filling it in with various stitches and threads. I based it on my nightly doodles and just decided to see what developed as I sewed. 

The initial design had quite a few small spaces that didn't really suit the blackwork patterns, so I changed the design a little. 

In the meantime, I still had the calico. The initial impetus, in the Stitch Club, is to do hand embroidery but I thought I would try out some of the decorative stitches on my machine. The blackwork was taking ages and I needed to do something quicker. The blackwork designs influenced the patterns I chose

. 

Justifying my design

 As I posted recently, I based my latest small tapestry on water. 

A few days ago I took some pictures that totally related to it. So the inspiration came after the event. Well, I looked at the water and thought - that's what I was thinking while I was weaving!

I have started another small collage but am not completely happy with it. As I'm not sure exactly what to do next, I haven't done any more. I'll have to see what will come to me. 

Just had to post today, so many 2s. 2/12/2020

Finding inspiration in unexpected places

As I mentioned earlier, I have been working on a small woven tapestry for the upcoming AusNZ online tapestry group's 2021 challenge.

The theme this year is Weaving Water. I have a LOT of pictures with water in them! Because of lockdown and only being able to walk for an hour a day (for a couple of months) I have been along various paths along the Yarra River. It is always brown water. Apparently it is due to the clay soil. 

I just noticed that I started it about a month ago, not a bad timeline for me. Maybe because of the lockdown I have given it more time than I would have normally. 

It is quite abstract, based on a piece of paper with paint smeared on it, ready to be cut up for collage. It is also in a landscape format and the tapestry is square. I also managed to turn the image upside down at one stage and it took me a while to work out why my, not very carefully done, cartoon didn't seem to be working. So then I ditched the cartoon and just looked at the image and tried to put in what I thought it was looking like, not what it actually looked like. 

It was a very relaxing way to be weaving - no good image to follow, no right or wrong bits (apart from some bits that just didn't feel right and got pulled out). 

I went for a walk along Darebin Creek this week - without a mask!! Hooray! The water was running fast because of recent rain and was also brown. It reminded me greatly of the tapestry which is almost finished.