TAST 2010 - BUTTONHOLE WHEEL CUP

Ole!  Week 20 of Take a Stitch Tuesday:  buttonhole wheel cups.   I started with wheels that were too large  to create, say, a lily of the valley blossom, but I still managed some variations using the basic technique.  I forgot to take a pre-embellishment scan; it would have made descriptions easier.  I did like it plain, and could easily have filled in with small cups and partial fans. I'll explain each flower starting at the top and from left to right:

Row 1: 

1)  Large yellow wheel with picot edging and woven spokes (2 spokes up, 2 down).  thread is a variegated perle (DMC, I think). 

2)  Coral wheel, worked from the inside and pulled tautly to create spikes on the outsidew (most are covered).  Thread is one strand of Caron Watercolours.

3)  Large rainbow colored wheel (Caron Wildflowers "Tahiti").  It's a little hard to see, but there are 2 ruffled edgings.  After completing the first buttonhole round, I began another toward the inside.

4)  Multi wheel with buttonhole worked from the outside as shown in Sharon's tutorial.  This wheel had 16 spokes.  I first tried wrapping them four at a time, but the resulting triangles were not even .  For the do-over I wove up and down four spokes at a time.  I tried changing the up and down positions about halfway, but it looked untidy.  I left it as you see and put a French not in the center.  The thread is another Wildflower colorway.

Row 2 

1)  Small Tahiti wheel, edging to the center.

2)  This wheel has lots of increases in the first couple of rows, then I started decreasing to pull the edging toward the center.  It's like a pouch.  I could stuff it and gain more dimension.  I think it resembles an upside down Rasta cap with its Carribean colors.

3)  Small yellow wheel gets it bumpy texture from working 3 buttonholes in one stitch then 1 in the next.  It is worked from the inside toward the center, the same as the 3 coral wheels. 

4) Coral wheel, see above.

Row 3

1)  Coral wheel, see above.

2)  This is worked like #4 in the first row, except there are 14 spokes, the weaving over 2 spokes at a time.  One round of buttonhole edging.

Now I'm off to pack.  I'm taking a quicky trip to CA to see my dad who is now home after several weeks of hospitalization.  It's a brief visit between DH's chemo treatments.  I'm pleased to say both gentlemen are doing well, and so am I.  I'll be working on Week 21 out there!

TAST 2010 - RAISED CUP STITCH

OMG is that background what I think it is?  It is if you're thinking towel!  I made a batch of Earl Grey tea stain the other day and couldn't just pour the leftover down the drain.  What was handy was a threadbare dish, er, tea towel I'd used as a blotter from my last dye session.  "I wonder what it would be like to stitch on?", I mused as I stuffed it into the Pyrex measuring cup that held the tea.  As soon as the towel was rinsed and dried I found out.

I finished Week 12 early, so I was happy to keep my fingers from wriggling in anticipation of  Monday Night and the latest TAST temptation.  I worried (not really, this was a rag!) about embroidery needles and sharp points catching on  tiny, terry loops, but since the velour finish had long ago worn away from the printed front side, the fabric was very giving and yielded to my large tapestry/yarn needles with ease.  For this sampler I ended up using only #5 perle cottons and fingering weight wool/silk yarns.

About 2/3's down I started a line of twisted chain.  I wanted a little more height so I layered a second row right on top. You can see I got much better dimension with yarn seen in the single layer of twisted chain below (brown).  The gray line is knotted buttonhole stitch threaded with a piece shiny raffia, probably something that once tied up a package.  Seems like I had just gotten down that charcoal line of Sorbello than twas time to download Week 13, Raised Cup Stitch!  Am I the only one who has a pavlovian response to Sharon B's challenge posts?

I got all of those raised cups stitched waiting in a doctor's office for DH.  They are all worked with the silk & wool yarns.  I love their organic shapes, how they flop and smoosh together.  The white one in the center  is an example of decreasing to make the cup turn inward.  The coppery bit you see are "stamens" emanating from a French knot.  I added irregular cretan stitching awaiting DH's lab work the next day, routine medical, btw.  I was satisfied that that finished the upper portion, but had to experiment a bit to get the rest as you see below.

I tried couching down some pussy willow yarn, had a little spiral going, but the color seemed to light.  I made it worse by weaving in a darker yarn.  Ugh.  Check out the raised cup centers, wooden and agate beads too big, faux pewter spacer beads.  No, no, no.  Too fussy.  Not in keeping with the rustic look I wanted.

What was I thinking?  That thing ,btw, is a freeform crocheted motif that's been waiting around forever to unite with its  kind to become a scrumble.

So I end up with unfilled cups and graduated French knots on the bottom.  Swapped out some of the beads in the other row with French knots --  and

a bullion (white cup on the left!).

And now a sort of tutorial.  Working the raised cup stitch reminded me of a motif I learned a few years back on the CQ Embellishers forum.  I was thrilled to make it, especially since I hadn't learned any fancy stitches.  The other Embelles used this effectively as sea anenomes in some of their wonderful underwater fantasies.  The motif is so simple, it really doesn't require illustration.

Thread a tapestry needle with yarn or chunky thread.  I find this easiest to do on my left index or little finger, but a pencil could be used instead.   Begin at the top finger joint and wrap the yarn upwards about four times, covering the tail as you go.  Wraps should be loose enough for you to work the needle underneath.  Pass the needle downwards behind the wraps, holding the top coil with another finger.  Now work around buttonhole stitch around, pushing the

stitches close together.  When the round is completed, weave in the end.  You now have a little ring motif you can stitch to your work and embellish with beads.  I used to like to make these using a funky variegated yarn, sparkly and frizzy.  They can also be used to make little nests as in the example below

This is from my project for Sharon Boggan's Encrusted Crazy Quilting class.  If  you haven't tried one her courses, you do not know what you're missing.  They are outstanding and comparable to a semester of study complete with textbook. 

TAST 2010 - Portuguese Border Stitch

Portuguese Border Stitch
Originally uploaded by Fiberdabbler

Perhaps I should explain the funky background first. I know you would have difficulty recognizing it, but it's from the same sheet fabric and experimental session I talked about in my previous post. I was playing with Dylon cold water dyes. I honestly don't remember if this piece of cloth was used as a rag for clean up or if I was testing colors. Whatever. I rusted the colored results, the ran Shiva paintsticks over a rubbing plate. I found this piece stored with my textured surfaces samples. The lines on it made me think about the spirals and concentric arcs I wanted to try with the challenge stitch. I was thinking about the paintstick lines as a shortcut for marking where I wanted the foundation straight stitches.

I covered the area I planned to stitch with straight stitches following the contours of metallic lines.  I left some of the even stitching bare, as you can see, but hidden below the overweaving are straight stitches of varying length and orientation.  I tried several alternatives weaving over the bars:  1) changing direction from one row to the next; 2) single passes only
(eliminating the second journey); 3) changing direction of the single journeys from row to row; 4) working the two journeys over side by side short stitches instead over one longer base stitch; 5) I tried stairstepping using the two stitches in (4), alternating from one side to the other trying to make a zigzag appearance; I could not get it to work, and 6) weaving or lacing in such a way there is only a single strand look; result -- looks like the rungs were just looped or laced; I couldn't get the same V shape as in the original stitch.

Cotton perles were used and in one instance two strands of floss.  I'm not sure what the variegated boucle is, but it certainly enhanced the texture.  The rows below it were worked with a single strand of Watercolours with very subtle changes.

REALLY LATE HOMEWORK

 A year ago I was happily absorbed in an online class with Linda Monk and Carol McFee.  Please refer to my only public post (there was a wonderful disscussion forum with the class) for a little background and a feel for my obvious exhuberance.  Despite other projects that did get blogged, I never stopped working on my textured surfaces.  I spent happy studio hours until the day before I left for CA for the summer.  I regretted having to leave the work behind and also that Linda's and Carol's incredible book, Stitching the Textured Surface was not yet available.

Last fall I did get the book and downloaded the accompanying online class, a truly exceptional bonus, but have not had time to get back in the groove.  What I'm going to show are experimental samples.  The mediums and background treatments are recorded in a notebook.  It's the notes I was after to work on a mullti med  project for , yes, another class I'm presently taking, Kimono Collage with Jane LaFazio.  More about that in the next post.

You can see all of the samples with brief descriptions here on my Flickr site in the Textured Surfaces set.

ABSTRACT FLYING ANGEL DOLLS

These dolls are the first of three types of angels we are making in Chaska (Mai-Liis) Peacock's online class. I worked on them at the same time, and they are for the most the same except for halos and embellishments.

Their faces are my first attempt using polymer clay for anything. I used some Sculpey III in beige. I didn't use a mold; I kneaded small balls and flattened them to round and oval shapes and used my finger to roll a concave back which I thought might better conform to the stuffed head. I did not try to sculpt this time around. I drew the faces with permanent markers and added a little blush. I wish I had taken the time to get better proportion. I'd like to try watercolor pencils or some other medium that would allow me to properly blend and create the illusion of contour on a flat surface. I'll work on more expressive faces as I continue learning to create dolls. I'll be dabbing little spots of glue around the faces to make the hair better conceal the sides of the face cabochons.

About the hair. The bright aqua is some kind of fibery yardage I bought as a remnant at Walmart. I had no idea what I'd use it for at the time; I only bought it because it looked interesting. It's sort of like a lightweight Pellon interfacing. It drapes, it crinkles, it's translucent. I came across it looking for something else, and I don't know why I even thought to use it for doll hair -- just one of those serendipitous moments when I decided I liked the way the stuff scrunched! Dare I say, it came to me out of the blue... The second angel has purple hair.

I first tried needlefelting some purple wool. It worked well, but to get a sculpted hair style I was afraid I might chew up the fabric too much. I settled instead for stitching on curly eyelash and feather yarns.

I had a wonderful time shopping at Michaels looking for potential halos. Infinite possibilities with lots of wired eyelash and bead garlands all sparkly and pretty for the holidays. Oh the ribbons!

I cannot wait to shop the after season sales! My turquoise haired angel has a halo made with

gold star garland (found in party supplies!) twisted with a multi colored glitter eyelash. Her purple haired companion has feathers for a halo. The feathers came as trim, glued and stitched to ribbon. I had first considered it as a substitute for the beaded fringe at the bottom of the doll, but the ribbon was too rigid to follow a curve even when clipped. It was next to impossible to try to sew by hand, yet I was set on having a feather halo. I ended up cutting individual feathers with parts of the ribbon (I couldn't pull the feathers out) and glued them in a way to frame the head. The meant the back of the angel's head wasn't pretty, and I couldn't stitch more yarn over it for hair. What I did was place a spoked wire "donut" from the jewelry findings section and placed a bejeweled button in the center.

I had such a good time making these angels. It was like having the best play date ever with my inner child.

A NAME I CALL MYSELF - TIFC May

The May challenge concept is a question I ponder all the time. What do I call myself when trying to explain my creative endeavors? When I tried to work through The Artist's Way , polite arguments in my head erupted into battle. Considering myself an artist won out for the time being, but that word itself is inadequate to describe the scope of activity in which I engage.

I invisibly wince when an outsider responds, "Oh, you do crafts!". My body reacts with an inward cringe if they add, "Me, too!" My inner snob and judgemental self silently separate that crafter from me and my artistic values. For me the difference has to do with creating from within, compulsive self expression, following a whim or instinct rather than a pattern. For me the barrier has nothing to do with technical proficiency or aesthetic appeal. My TIFC above, albeit an exercise, is a piece of art because it is a piece of me. It's not pretty, doesn't show proficiency, but it's not intended for anyone but me.

Let me explain my interpretation of both concept and palette for this month's challenge. In a nutshell, I'd resort to looking in a crystal ball to find a suitable name for what I do.

a. needle artist

b. fiber artist

c. textile artist

d. mixed media artist

e. all of the above

f. none of the above

g. some of each

Most of my artistic pursuits involve thread or fiber, some kind of needle or hook. For sake of convenience I generally tell people I'm a fiber artist, leaving them to presume I spin and weave (I don't -- yet) and no inclination that I bead. I have no commercial goals; I keep or gift everything I make. I love to learn new techniques and share what I learn. I have fun. All the time. And to those of you reading this, you will understand why I call myself

FIBERDABBLER. I don't know that there is an answer to the May concept question. Dare I suggest it doesn't matter semantically how others perceive us? I'm evolving, and I love the mystery of not knowing what comes next.

TAKE IT FURTHER CHALLENGE - FEBRUARY

Given the choice of basing design on a memory (my earliest being when dirt was formed) or designated palette, I chose the latter:Hmm, is that gray or slate blue? What's that dark color? Indigo? Purply blue? Again I worked entirely from stash. The two pieces of ivory satin that resemble vanilla caramel swirl (yum!) are from a piece of white silk/poly blend that I rust dyed. The teeny, tiny rust colored silk at the bottom left is dupioni. Why isn't there more? I could fib and say I was conserving a favorite fabric, but the truth is I miscalculated with the stitch, flip, cut technique. The slate piece is a piece of ultrasuede, the dark blue (with a tinge of purple) is moire, the print is from a gentleman's tie. The remaining three portions are light blue charmeuse. Confused? The upper right is overlayed with a blue sheer that has been machine stitched to resemble punch needlework, and if you look closely you can see it is printed to look like hand painted , concentric curves. It's from a lot of embellished sheer sales samples I caught on eBay!

This a work in progress picture I took, cropped and printed out to give me a clearer idea of my borderlines and guide me toward envisualizing embellishment placement and scale. At this stage that center seam treatment is looking pretty gimongous and my other stitching too dainty -- and puny. I continued adding and subtracting until I think I have it where I want it, although I may yet do a little tweaking.

PRUDENCE'S PROJECT PINK

SCRUMBLING FOR A CURE

Here are a couple of scrumbles and some small motifs done in various pink yarns that will be sent on to Prudence Mapstone in Australia for Project Pink. Prudence will join them with others from around the world and create items for charity sale. The pic on top above was taken with flash and is closer to the actual colors. The pic below that is the same thing taken without flash and seems to better define the texture and dimension.

I DUNNO...

... perhaps I should have left it alone. There's not that much different; I just filled in a couple of gaps.

With the exception of a cotton thread or two and the yellow cord, flosses and perles are silk and hand painted by Victoria Clayton. The feather stitching is done in perle and the chain
stitches are the same colorway done in 2 strands of silk floss. I'm not sure of the name, but it was from Vicki's dragon series. The chenille is also hers, and most of the silk ribbon, too. I used a bead soup of assorted sizes to fill in some of the negative space between the feather stitches.
On the far right the little flowers are purple sequins with size 8 triangle beads, which stand up in the center. The two purple pailettes in the center top are dyed shell, rough sides up.

I really came to enjoy this palette challenge and was surprised that I was able to work entirely from my stash.

HEALING DIVA

My second doll for Mais-Liis' healing doll class. She was so persnickity during the construction process, I decided she was a diva, demanding and opinionated. She has a mind of her own, and she wanted me to know it. I allowed her to have her way, which, in the end, is probably a positive thing, for as outrageous as she turned out, she has enough sass and brass to make a believer of any skeptic. She needs to be a take charge doll, as her recipient suffers from lupus.

I like the mask concept -- good because none of the faces I had on hand seemed to fit -- so I chose a sun ; it goes well with the fabric I actually picked for my third doll. I try to use glue sparingly, but it couldn't be avoided since there was no other way to apply the sun. It's a little too small, but I justified it as a mask which wouldn't cover the entire face. Well, it's on to stay, and Diva Dearie is stuck with it. By the way she bewailed the fact that my photos are truly terrible (hence you can't see how well the gold of the sun works with the other gold embellishments), but I drew the line at taking her to a professional portrait studio.

Next came the hair. I envisioned a feather headdress and crocheted a "wig" with feather yarn

(the color is Phoenix!). Diva Dearest said it looked like a bad coonskin cap and insisted I cut off the long braid which was to have doubled as a boa. Some compromise is good. Then she got into the stash I was auditioning for Doll #3 and had to have the gold trim I purchased in CA and was hoarding for a project with a decided Hispanic flair. After throwing a tantrum in my head, she prevailed. What to put the braid on? My thought was a poncho. She demanded a kimono.

Some compromise is good. I did pick the fabric; it's wool that I fulled (felted) from a thrift store skirt. The trim turned out to be stiff and very fragile, and hand stitching was not an option. I used glue, but it seems to exaggerate the stiffness. I wasn't able to machine stitch either , sigh, because DD was already wearing the fitted (showing off her tiny waist) garment I'd best describe as a hapi pullover with obi.

DD's dainty, reversible brass hands were flopping like flippers. I stabilized them by beading bracelets. Called for something around the neck. I thought beads from the bracelets could be stitched around the opening. Oh no, DD wants something grander, an Egyptian style collar, for goodness sakes. I think it's excessive, but she's the gal who's going to wear it. I think I was able to tone it down some using bugle beads the same color as the background.

The remaining dressings went easily and surprisingly without confrontation. The healing stones are nestled in silk satin inside a pouch I crocheted with gold elastic. I embellished it more heavily than I might have otherwise, but my hope was to counterbalance the top heaviness. The bow and eye bead got off center from the back of the obi. I couldn't correct it without ruining the trim -- and I certainly wasn't going to waste another inch of it! DD pooh-poohed the idea of a headband, but I convinced her some ornamentation was needed to interrupt the explosion of hair. I couldn't come up with a means of fastening hair sticks from which to dangle baubles. Instead I made a bead cluster with three gold leaves and a cloisonne butterfly charm. To complete Her Glitziness, I loosely wrapped her with 2 kinds of gold thread.

FREEFORM ORNAMENT AUCTION!!!

Follow this link to the International Freeform Crochet and Knitting Guild's site for info on a silent auction of scrumbled ornaments which adorned the Tree of Life, Tree of Peace exhibition!
100% of the proceeds will be donated to Women to Women International!!! Cool stuff, great Cause!

HEALING DOLL #1, Harmony

This is my first completed healing doll made for Mais-Liis Peacock's current class at Joggles. This is Mais-Liis' harmony doll pattern which I made up in a batik. I wanted to go a little more "formal" with this doll because of the potential owner, so she lacks the woodsy nature of the sample doll. I cloaked my doll in a remnant of silk paisley, and I crocheted a turban with metallic copper and faux feather yarns. I then draped her with incredible novelty and hand painted fibers. For additional personalization I placed a ruby red crystal on the headpiece to represent the recipient's birthstone and added an elephant (which the future owner collects) as a good luck symbol. I also placed an evil eye bead on the rear of the turban to watch her back, so to speak.
My doll wears a sacred heart milagro over own, and after much consideration placed the special healing stones on the dolls tummy, giving her a pregnant look which I decided was appropriate since I think of my friend as a nurturer.

It also occurred to me that cloaking the stones would protect them from impure handling or curious fingers of grandchildren. This doll is not a toy! I have hidden other healing items inside the doll and even in her ruana, and each thing is there for a specific reason. I had purchased several pewter charms with words like faith, harmony, balance, courage, but have decided they would be aesthically and spiritually superfluous.

DRAGON FIRE

TAST 33 - Scroll Stitch

TAST 34 - Portuguese Knotted Stem Stitch

TAST 40 - Linked Double Chain

I gathered cotton perles and flosses in shades from peach to burnt orange, added a spool of sparkly peach ribbon (2mm) and went to work on a piece of craft felt. My only intention was to make lines of textured color utilizing missing TAST stitches. Honestly it's just an abstraction, although I admit I thought of flames and feathers, a swan, a dragon, even a shrimp. I also thought of underwater plantlife and dried grasses. I resisted temptation of depicting anything and just kept following my initial line of knotted stem with some deviation here and there for interest.

RUST IN PIECE & OTHER DYEING ARTS

I'd been intrigued with all the rust dyeing showing up on favorite blogs lately. It looked fun and seemed easy, but I didn't decide to try it until I saw one could capture images. I didn't think I had much rust around, but I remembered a set of seriously oxidized stack chairs with this great grid. I set out to see if I could capture the pattern. I got this ---->

I should have left it on the chair seat longer and should have pressed down to get those little verticle lines which work underneath the cross ones. But I could see the possibility was there.

I also found a few other experimental goodies. Here they are after washing clockwise from top left:

Cable chain link

Arm of stack chair (pink is accidental ink stain)

Mixed bag (box cutter blades, nails, steel wool)

Arm of stack chair (silk/poly cream charmeuse)

Mixed bag (reusing above items)

Stack chair seat

I experimented overdyeing the rust as well as rusting on previously dyed fabric. It works both ways, but my trials were done in haste and I don't have anything showy to display. Couple of swatches can be seen in another picture.

Since I was in the mood, I cleared time and space and went for a second dye session with Procion Mx dyes, trying 6 more colors: lapiz, teal, turquoise, dusty mauve, evergreen and marine. Like my first session I just wanted to see the dyes on different fabrics, and I followed a low immersion, marbly tone on tone technique.

L>R lapiz, teal, turquoise, dusty mauve, evergreen*, marine. Turns out the evergreen Procion was an acid dye and turned everything but the piece of silk chiffon I tried a light blue. The silk was a very pretty green. I intended to try some wool, but didn't get around to it. I did, however, experience some success with a 4 dye process. It was supposed to be 3, but I had so many uncolored areas I went back with a 4th dye and an eye dropper to saturate these places.

Top left is silk habotai, then 2 different pieces of linen, and below is a soft cotton. I did a few other trials like using leftover dyes and times and dutifully recorded everything in my dyer's journal. Below is a sample page and a picture of some other things I dyed including a piece of dotted swiss and a swatch of cream print cotton. Toward the bottom are a couple of from the overdye rust.

SPIRIT OF FRIENDSHIP DOLL EXCHANGE

This pretty lady journeyed from Colorado to be with me. She was created by Leslie Ehrlich and has found a comfortable stance next to my computer and seems to want to keep an eye on me. Well , actually I'm not sure what her intent is. It's like she's totally absorbed in whatever I'm doing. Could it be she shares my eclectic taste? I've named her Delilah Delightful as she is an amiable companion. Or guardian -- I'm hoping she'll protect me and my technical lifeline from evils of the internet.

There is a site where you can see pix of Delilah's and Rose's friends gathered for a garden party. Crazy Quilters International (CQI) keeps a blog gallery. Labels appear on the left sidebar. While visiting the gallery do check eye candy entries and winners of a recent purse contest!

LA PINATA: TAST 15-17

April 10 I was just short of apoplexy. I thought for a thankfully brief
while I might have to choose whether to download TAST 15 materials or catch my flight to CA. I had already packed an activity bag with supplies I'd need. I even prepped an 8 x 7 inch piece of Aida cloth I'd dyed by tacking down a gnarl of dye batch waste thread into a center oblique S-curve. I placed some of my dyed gauze and rug canvas roughly on the other diagonal and stitched that down, too. I was ready for whatever stitch Sharon B might send our way. It turned out to be the Oyster Stitch.

Good that I had time and beautiful space for stitching, as I had to do a lot of practice betwixt doodlecloth and project fabric. Even then I didn't quite get the knack so my oysters look mutant -- plump with texture, I'd like to think, however incorrect they may be. In a setting like the above, who minds frogging? I had a balcony with table and chairs. In addition to poolside, there were two lovely garden patios where I could choose to work in sun or shade. Gurgling fountains refreshed and soothed to the point not quite right oyster stitching could become palatable. And although magaritas are helpful, they can only aid digestion so far. I got tired of oysters and just started filling in with other stitches until I could access TAST 16 , which I did compliments of the hotel lobby computer.

Ahh, the Palestrina! More knots for texture. I've mentioned before that I often work spontaneously. This is not to say I stitch away with random abandon; I am mindful of basic design principles, and although the composition may be abstract and asymmetrical, it still requires attention to overall balance. I consider this with the placement of color, type of stitch and direction. The only thing definite about my sampler at this point is a colorway and specific stitches I want to use. If I'm lucky the piece will eventually suggest a form; in this case it wanted to become a bird so I began to create general shape -- just enough to give a hint of birdlike form. As a kid my favorite puzzles were the find the hidden object kind; freeform affords me an opportunity to share such a challenge with viewers. For myself as viewer, I prefer to look beyond the visually obvious and seek the intent, technique and methodology of the artist. I firmly believe appreciation of anything involves contemplating "the good, the bad and the ugly".
Did you experience the return of Quetzaquatl or the uncloaking of a Klingon warship? Can you sense a bird from the Painted Desert, a butterfly, or just a jumble of colored threads? In the cloth my bird is rather shaggy and made me think more of a pinata decorated with colorful crepe paper. At the very least you'll surely agree with me that it represents something festive from south of the border.

I'm getting another inkling from the sampler. Hmm, it wants to live on as a large handbag -- or tote. Obviously it's familiar with my stash collection of southwestern and Hispanic fabrics. I may have to re-do my running stitch border from TAST 17 . Add a little bling, maybe.

MUSTANG MOON

TAST 13: KNOTTED CRETAN STITCH

I try to explore new fabric techniques and surface treatments as I make these TAST samplers. I use a small format, no particular size, just random pieces , that gives me just enough space to do something with in a week's time. These are not intended as major projects, just mini samplers for study, so if something turns out not to my liking or an experiment fizzles, I haven't invested too much in time and materials. I mention this because as you look closely, you'll see I was so fabric frugal, I used the selvedge. I loved this dye batch from a couple of weeks ago, and there was no way I was going to sacrifice even part of the large pieces of quilters' cotton for the sake of experimentation in the name of fiber arts and science.

What you see here as the background is about a 4 x 4 inch scrap of buckram thrown in with the dyable melange. Now, were it not for Sharon B's class in stitch development, I would never ever have dreamed of trying to stitch on stiff ol' buckram. But you know what? After scouring and dyeing, it has substance without stiffness and is a pleasure to stitch. Meanwhile back in the lab, I played with Angelina fiber for the first time. I scrunched some pale aqua cheesecloth where I wanted to use the Angelina. I laid a few wisps under the gauze, and a little more on top. In manipulating the mesh, I thought I saw a horse, a spectre of one maybe... Ok, ok, dark fabric, must be night, need a moon... I once applied a flat back jewel like a shisha with cretan stitch. Could I do it again with knotted cretan? Reaching for an acrylic gem, I spy something shiny the same color. Already on my work table for another project is a package of equine confetti (it'd be horsey sequins, but there are no holes) I spotted among the party supplies for upcoming Derby. So what if they don't have holes, I'll bond them down with the Angelina! It worked, but I'd use less next time. I placed some violet tulle over (a local store that specializes in Derby hats sells 6 inch tulle in a myriad of colors, purchasable by the yard for 35 cents, or by the roll between $6 - $9; I splurged on 2 yard pieces of all my favorite hues), pinned it down and chain stitched the edges.

I opted not to add much detail to the big horse; I wanted to let the fabric suggest the form. I thought stitching over the mane and tail areas added enough definition. With a needle I coaxed a few strands of gauze out from under the netting. It's a time consuming effort, and would make allowances for this if I ever want little tufts peeking out. You should be able to see little wisps between the ears, here and there along the mane and tail. I added a few scattered beads to fill gaps in the night sky, and probably overdid those on the moonbeams. I added one more horse to the surface; it too is of a different color, but it matches the fuschia moon.

WHEN THINGS GET UGLY, ROC ON!

You don't have to be nice. It's perfectly all right to express your distaste. I did for days. I thought I had a good design plan. I had a nice assortment of novelty yarns that, believe it or not, co-ordinate quite well together. And the ground fabric is not that dirty, fulled camel I've been working of late; it's nice wool suiting I found in my yardage stash. The piece just wasn't speaking to me. Ugly was getting uglier by the stitch.



What a disappointment. The visual properties of the individual yarns are completely lost, and there's an obvious disparity in scale. I think I blew it from the beginning with the big, fat chenille. It was one of three yarns I used to create a spiral. Geez, you can't even see the other two yarns -- and no, they not that feathery stuff. The more I tried to add to detract from the chenille centered blob, the worse it became until I reached the point I decided I'd had a good practice (I couched with feather, cretan, herringbone, knotted and up & down buttonhole, etc) and would simply skip the TAST 12 show and tell.



I felt bad about that decision; it didn't seem right to publish okay stuff and omit the less successful ventures. So I changed my mind and took a new look -- you may know how I am about turning things around to gain a new perspective. I went to work again trying to "make it work". I didn't. But despite a total design failure, I had a delightful time couching away and inventing absurd interpretations in my head. And on the positive side, I suppose I did achieve lumpy, bumpy density of texture.

BETWEEN A ROC AND A HARD PLACE

Princess Leia has trouble with Tribbles during a close encounter with a roc chick/pet roc/third or fourth roc from the sun in an anomalous breach of that time-space continuum thingy in a dimension far, far away...

"She's lost it this time!" I can hear the chorus, "Beam her up, Scotty!"

FINGER 1:NEEDLE 1

I have been so intrigued by the layering, needlefelting and machine embellished surfaces my fellow TAST-ers have been sharing, I had to jump in. Finally. I have a fair amount of colorful rovings, batts, tops and locks that I knew I would use someday. The rovings especially nag at me since I put them away after my first futile attempts and spindling, something I'd still like to learn.

I began with the piece that now forms the top portion of experiment 1. I used a foundation of fulled wool (camel color), overlayed some gauze I dyed with onion skins(peach or light rust), and placed whispers of burnt orange roving in two directions. Boldly I reached for my multiple-needle needlefelting tool and pounced. More
pounces. Imagine my disappointment when I realized the needles just weren't penetrating. :-( I decided they were too fine and reached for the two single needles that came with some starter roving. One needle at a time worked for me. I could add more roving, and was even able to needle down snippets of curly novelty yarn . This was exciting until despite all warnings and precautions , I let my attention slip and stabbed my finger. Vengeance was mine, however, as I broke the needle in my later exhuberance.

Next came a sandwich of natural burlap between two layers of peach cheesecloth/gauze/scrim/whatever. Even with a goodly amount of roving punched in it seemed bland, so I added some fuschia gauze from my newly begun home dyed stash. I small pieces of brandy silk crepe and some thought-I'd-never-use-it synthetic paisley meshy stuff in the unlikely combination of fuschia and oranges. Ohh, it punched in to lend some suble accents.
I did the same with the soon to be top portion. I decided the pieces should be joined at some point. I had these tacky faux pewter pony beads in a matte finish that somehow blended in with the grey yarns and #3 perle. I even had spacer beads to match. I added them more to get rid of them than anything else. And then I had those handdyed toothpicks... I tried to nudge out some of the burlap for variety in texture, and would definitely leave more exposed the next time.


Before I could even finish experiment 1 and started on 2. For this my background is heavy cotton velveteen in light purple. Ironically I bought about 5 yards of the stuff at a giveaway price the same time I bought that crazy paisley mesh (I guess technically it's a fine, loose knit nylon fabric). I hit up my fabric scrap tubs (those 40lb kitty litter tubs with lids!) and tossed on some cotton, silk, the paisley (as much as I could), some scrim and started working with my remaining needle.
Here's where I realized how a machine embellisher could really do the job! I wanted some more texture. See that
straw colored accent? It's from my collection of mesh produce bags. This happens to be constructed from a shiney
synthetic raffia, which had a tendency to disintegrate as I stabbed away with my needle. My sewing machine was already set up with a walking foot and set on zig zag (about as fancy as my machine gets). I made a few random passes to
secure the various layers and hopefully yield a little more textural interest. Just noticed, to the left you'll catch a glimpse of red. That's a bit of plastic netting from a bag of yellow onions. I neglected to mention that my raffia bag once held Yukon gold potatoes! Also forgot to say the stitching in Exp 1 is all crudely rendered up and down buttonhole stitch.

SUNCHASER

Sunchaser shoo's the Sun away from lands that need rain to places that can bask in its warmth and glory.

Sunchaser is a figment of my imagination, and this is how he evolved. I looking through a pile of cloth I had dyed. I selected this piece of buckram which had softened nicely after its dye bath. The slightly blotchy aqua was a result of my second experiment which was to mix some of the leftover dye baths from my primary dye attempt. I began by placing a blob of thread with trailings that I'd cut off the side of some muslin from the bright yellow batch. The gnarl was just the right shape and size for a focal point sun, so I stitched it down with barred chain, the spikes worked to create rays. At this point I fluffed the trailing threads and let them fall. The yellow trailing looked pleasing enough so I tacked it down. Here's the magic. It was as I worked the barred chain around the mini tangle, Sunchaser made his appearance!

I had no clue what to do with my obvious central theme, so I just began stitching the barred chains around the motif. I started with floss and tried to let it increase in brightness as I switched to #8 perle. After some pondering, my Sunchaser legend took root, so I realized I needed a dark and a light side and something more than the sun to suggest sky. Also in my recently dyed pile was some yarn, a synthetic that took several overnights to take on any color at all. I decided to try it for clouds. I began tacking it down with barred chain but I didn't like the look and figured I would cover it with something else, tiny seed beads maybe. I left it. I concealed the stitches, though, on the dark side with buttonhole stitch to begin the rain. I tucked in some cheesecloth from the same dye batch as the buckram. Though probably not visible, both fabrics have an occasional splash of yellow. On the dark side I ruched a piece of Frosty Rays (net tubing with metallic thread in the center) and used matching ribbon for French knots. I scattered a few in yellow on the other side.

From this point on I basically just used barred and alternating chains to fill space. For me this is not a tidy stitch. I believe it has a will of its own, and I was perfectly happy to just give in and let it have its way. I think it must take a stitcher of experience and determination to take charge.