Almost Normal

I have been really poorly with this flu thing - I keep feeling better and then it comes back to bite me again. It is only in the last few days that stitching, drawing and walking have been possible and then only in short bursts.

I meant to tell you about my visit to my friend Elli Woodsford who does fantastic work. I expect you have seen her book Machine Embroidery and Textile Decoration (Elli wanted to call it Body and Sole as it had lots of lovely projects for bodies and shoes). I saw her, and managed to infect her, the day before I took to my bed. Anyway, one of the reasons for my visit was to see if she would be in the DVD I am making on the embellisher machine. I am doing lots of stuff with mixed media and paper on the felting machine and am also excited about embedded stitching, but thought it would be good to make up some yardage and turn into jackets and such-like wearables.

Not only did she agree to help me but she produced some wonderful pieces, like this jacket, made on her embellisher. So I will be able to show you them.

We will visit her Embex Studio for some filming. I have another mystery guest for the DVD and will tell you more later. I am determined that it will be full of ideas and information but not too static. I plan on having free, downloadable technique sheets to go with it as I find it annoying to play movies in my workroom.

Elli has lots of animals - three lovely dogs, a Maine Coon cat and a Ragdoll like Smudge (a distant relative of his, actually, also bred by my daughter). Her Ragdoll is called Genghis Ken and is quite unique. He has his own Facebook page (Ken.Genghis Ken) and gets up to all kinds of evil deeds, egged on by the dogs who are his partners in crime.

Ken was very interested in the samples that I took to show Elli. In fact he thought a little more distressing was needed, as you can see.

So they had to be placed in Elli's larder for safety. Then he took an interest in my scarf and that had to go in the larder, too.

It was a really good and fun meeting, especailly with Genghis.

Comments

Thanks for all the heartening messages, they really helped.

Anna, I have heard that Kingcombe was wonderful. Can't wait until next time.

If anyone is still waiting for their prize, do email again, in case yours got lost.  Fiona has sent them all out and thank you for saying that you are pleased. I am working up tp another giveaway on Workshop on the Web's Facebook page so watch out for that.

Giveaway Winners and a Thin Week

It has not been a good week as I have succumbed to proper, old fashioned flu. The kind that comes with fever, aches and pains, cough, cold, headache and general grumpiness. 

Not only have I felt horribly ill but I have missed several things that I have been looking forward to for ages. Namely:

• The Kingcombe Stitch Retreat, four days of heaven with my mates.
• West Country Embroiderers Dorset Day
• My favourite cousin's big birthday lunch

To add insult to injury I have also given the flu to my friend Elli.

My friend Jane (Wild) has also been a victim - one day ahead of me. Our suspicions that we caught it at a singing workshop were given credence when our singing tutor had to cancel a class due to flu, another victim.

The one bright note was our daily phone calls to check on each other, not so much conversations as prolonged coughing sessions - Jane on her phone, me on mine, spluttering at each other. At least it made us laugh - which made us cough more.

I am on the mend at last but I have such pains in my ribs from all the coughing, Poor  Clive has been worn to a frazzle looking after me.

Winners of the Book/Softsculpt giveaway are:

June Carroll, 

Gilby,

Smarcoux, 

Susan D, 

Amanda, 

Anna Nowicki, 

Hazeltwig, 

Jacky Ives,

Gill,

Naida Willis,

Angela Collins,

Jean Dobbie,

Pian Bates.

I shall try to contact you via your blogs but, if you'd like to save a sick woman a lot of trouble, contact me with your snail mail addy, please. maggie@workshopontheweb.com

Give-away Time

I have a give-away today (more on that below) but first an apology. I have been a bad blogger and not answered comments lately. Slapped wrist. I think it is because the only blogging time available lately has been in the evenings, on the tablet and it’s not so easy to open a blog twice and jump about.

Comments

Your comments on the embellisher post were thought-provoking and I agree with Heather that the embellished pieces are generally more interesting when added to another piece of work – after all it is just a tool and all our tools should work towards making cohesive work. However, my experiments using just the embellisher have proved fruitful and I am now moving on to adding slips of stitch. Planning to push ahead with the knitting and embellishing now for the article – liniecat’s chopped-up bits sound fun. Tried that once and it wasn’t great but I shall revisit it.

I am not going to rush the DVD but will try to have fun with it, Ros. It will be out sometime before the autumn, I guess.

Heather, I think that flow-improver would work with acrylics in a similar way to extender but it might make the paint too runny for collagraphs.

Giveaway

I find that I have lots of Softsculpt that is surplus to requirements. It works really well as a print block – just heat it and press something hard into it while hot. When it cools down, it will keep a deep impression and can be used as a stamp or block in the usual way. Heat in oven, with heat tool or iron but be very careful not to overheat – and be especially careful when picking it up after heating.

However, I like it best as a base for stitching as it can be shaped very easily. For this ‘book’, I heated it with an iron and then placed it over two bottles to get the shape of an open book. It is easy to lay up fabrics and stitch them to the softsculpt using a strong needle - see below. Stab stitch through to attach fabrics and adornments.

I also use it as edging and spurs, impressing with a pattern, painting and then buttonholing the edge (see right).

This is not a good photo but the arrow points to the Softsculpt strip. The piece in this photo was pressed with the lid of a potpourri pot so look out for interesting things to use as pressers.

Dale Rollerson has kindly given me some of her booklets ‘Let’s Play with Romeo’ to give away. Her ideas for using dissolvable film could go really well with the Softsculpt.

Anyway, if you would like to try for the goodie,s just leave a comment on the blog. Say which you would prefer, book or Softsculpt.

Old Books and Bad Cats

I am going great guns with the stuff for my embellisher DVD. I have also roped in a couple of my friends who have specialised knowledge of bits I am not good at! So we will get to visit them and they both have exciting studios. I am keeping their identity a secret for now so you can have a surprise.

Have also been buying materials - why do you never have the right stuff? Foolishly left my expensive silk chiffon on a tabletop and it got Smudged - interesting design but not what I had in mind.

Washed it and silk dyed some for sampling and now it is sitting in soggy lumps due to the weather. We haven't had rain (or sun) for ages so dyeing this must be the equivalent of a rain dance.

I am determined to make a jacket out of this yardage of excitement, so I had to look back at one of my old books for a pattern. This one was the first book I had anything to do with. It was a collection of projects by people like Ruth Issett, Sian Martin, Sarah Burgess and several other eminents and was edited by Val CH. This was the cover of the American version: the UK title was Starting to Stitch Creatively, which we all hated.

I made some little flat pots with hand stitching and machine auto patterns - see below. It was fun working with all those great people. I much prefer the American cover and title.

The reason I needed to refer to it was the fact that Ruth had made a jacket with Markal decoration, taping off areas as resists and brushing Markal (Shiva) oilbars onto the fabric with a toothbrush.

I loved this jacket so much that I bought it from Ruth. I still wear it sometimes and it always gets comments. She gave a scaleable pattern which I might try, although I think my fabric is too floaty.

This is nearly the end of the stitchy part of the embellisher movie and I am about to move onto the mixed media ideas. It is so good to be working properly on big pieces. Loving it.

Don't you love this elephant below. My friend Maureen Beale made it and I kept forgetting to take a photo for you. I think this wonderfully channels the current vogue for stuffed heads on plaques (have you seen the sequined zebra that keeps appearing in the Sunday supplements?).

Off now to see if the rain has stopped enough to hang out my sample pieces. Otherwise it's going to be the workroom floor and the hairdryer - too impatient to wait. I am having a give-away soon, so keep checking the blog.

Embellish, Stitch and Knit

Just to answer comments first. Heather: thanks for the lovely comments about WoW. I liked the collagraphs on your blog. The paint makes so much difference and I have found that it does not work at all well with runny acrylics. The extender is really useful as the paint dries out too quickly otherwise.

I am very grateful to you all for the comments on the embellisher machine. They are such fun but I think they are most useful when combined with stitching. I am also keen to make a finer fabric as the embellisher can be a bit chunky.

So I am using silk chiffon as a base, with applied silk fibres and fine stitching. I do plan to make a jacket, Lynne, maybe more than one. My tailoring skills are not great so it will be a very simple pattern. Also quite hooked on the idea of using knitting on a finer embellished surface. Chunky knitting to give a contrast. Sara Shinton has an article in the March Workshop on the Web on making and using strips knitting and I'm hooked - see below.

Not very sharp pics as I am using the tablet for this post but you get the idea. It's all such fun and is taking up so much time but I haven't had a big project on the go for a while so it's good.

We have a paranoid sparrow in the garden. He started by attacking his reflection in the car wing mirror (not to be encouraged) and moved on to the sitting room window. I was watching this pantomime unfold from the comfort of my chair. He disappeared, only to return almost at once for a repeat performance. By now, of course, someone else was on the case, and his third attack revealed a huge cat face on the other side of the glass. Haven't seen him since.

Lynda's book and Embellisher Machines

Forgive me if you have heard this elsewhere but Lynda Monk's third class on the book Exploring Creative Surfaces is up on the d4daisy site. I am bombarding you with this information as I had a lot of people who missed the last lesson (even though we emailed the list of purchasers, as well as blog and FB). I love what she does with scrim.

I have almost finished the work room sort out and (ta-da, fanfare of trumpets) today I am going to spend the whole day working on a new piece. While clearing the notice board I found some inspiration snippets, guess that is why I put them there, I also wound up with a very tidy board. Won't look like this for long.

I like to keep small pieces of work that I have been given, or purchased, as well as items torn from magazines, sketches and the like.

There is also the odd photo of a grandchild or, in this case, right, a drawing of a cat from many years ago. She was called Tigger Johnson and she was very grumpy. This is a typical Tigger Johnson pose - in a corner with her back to the world.

I do also have a big board on which I place work in progress to see how it is coming along. This has my birchwood stuff on it at the moment but I have become distracted from this by the arrival of a new embellisher from Janome.

A germ of an idea about making a DVD featuring the embellisher machine has taken root lately as my Embellish and Stitch book is almost out of print. I am especially interested in using the embellisher with paper for mixed media work as I developed a way of using printed tissue with it. Do you think this DVD would be a good idea? Are we still using our embellishers? Comments on this welcome.

I'd also like to make a jacket as I have lots of lovely fibres in greys (Shades of Grey again).

When the noticeboard was cleared I found a snippet torn from one of the Sunday supplements. It is in lace so I thought I would combine embellished fabric with stitched patterns.

Don't want a traditional flowery lace, but might use this page from one of my sketchbooks (based on rocks) as a starting point.  I will keep you posted on that.

Comments

Heather: I did wonder if it was you in the exhibition, was going to get in touch. It was a good exhibition, especially the thoughtful use of stitch.

Ann: know the feeling of not being able to open the studio door but I am quite smug at the moment. Won't last.

Robin: I hear what you are saying - especially about working black on black. These days I can't decide whether I see better with or without my glasses. Have to keep peering over the top!.

Technology is Out to GET ME

I have been pressing on with the workroom tidy but it is slow going. Is it just me or does this cold, miserable weather slow one down? 

It is looking quite respectable now and I have even managed to find room for the odd piece of work or inspirational artefact.

Needless to say lost treasures have been recovered. This book on using digitising software was a forgotten delight. This page shows African motifs digitised.

The one below is on the cover and explores a variety of surfaces with a simple design. It  made me want to explore that some more as I’d forgotten what fun it was.

I had also forgotten that I have these programs on an ancient, very slow, laptop so I tried to install them on my newer machines. Zero success on that, so far. I can foresee a chat with the guru, the wonderful Stephen Bogod, coming up in the next few days.

Being a glutton for punishment, I also tried to install itunes on the very new machine and couldn’t remember the password. I am now waiting for an email from Apple and feeling rather anti technology. Why did I think it was a good idea to do all this in one day?

On Saturday, we planned a day out as all this snow and cold has resulted in cabin fever. So we shot off to Cirencester to review the Bath Textiles exhibition at Corinium Museum - see below.

We also hoped for a relaxing lunch and a stroll around the shops. What we got was increasing snow fall which became a blizzard on the M4. So we just scuttled around the gallery (lovely exhibition – will be reviewed in the free bit of March Workshop on the Web) and grabbed an all day breakfast in the Little Chef on the way home. Not what we had in mind.

Thanks Lynn, Robin and Heather for the sympathy. The funeral of my cousin went well – it was a humanist service and the presenter was really lovely. Although not based on any particular religion, it was very spiritual.