A happy new year to you all! Hope you all had a great Christmas, and are now in the mood to start 2012! I haven`t got off to a very good start as half way through the holiday I got a nasty infection, was put on antibiotics and couldn`t have a drink. It was the first time I have not been out on New Years Eve for many years. I just started to get over that and then went down with a horrible cold, so have been feeling very sorry for myself. I haven`t done any sewing, I just couldn`t be bothered, but this morning I did get out my Trish Harper Camelot pattern and cut some pieces out, but I seem incapable of making a decision on which fabrics to use! Debby however has spent the holiday making a king size quilt. Chris her husband tells me that she has stayed up late most nights working on it, got so tired she kept making mistakes and spent the next day unpicking them, only to repeat the process the next day and the next and .... However she must have got some of it right because it is nearly ready for quilting.
I thought long and hard this morning about what I could actually show you on this posting. I have no new work, lots of ideas as usual. So I have decided to show you some of my old work, most of it is not patchwork and quilting, but in my other life, for those of you who don`t know, I used to teach textiles and fashion, so you might be interested! I have no work of Debbys to show you, although she has done a City and Guilds in Embroidery, and has produced some fantastic things in the past. The pink piece above is a couched sample, I have always loved couching and the textures you can achieve. In this one I have used several pieces of fabric apart from threads of all thicknesses. I think one of the reasons I love doing it is because it is so easy. I am left handed and quite often struggle with new stitches, unlike Debby who seems to be able to produce any stitch beautifully.
The 2nd piece is a manipulated sample that I did many years ago. When I was teaching one of the modules that my students had to complete was Manipulated Textiles, and this is one of my pieces. I have to add that the students who were only 16 when they did this project had wild imaginations and produced some amazing work over the years, my sample seems quite boring in comparison.
It is strange because although I loved doing all this kind of work, I always come back to patchwork and quilting. All you really need is a needle and thread, whereas a lot of textile work these days involves things I don`t particlarly want to use such as glue, paint, heat guns and lots of other weird and wonderful stuff, and I really don`t like getting my hands dirty. The red sample above is one I did for a crazy patchwork workshop a couple of years ago. I decided to go contemporary, although I did make some little silk evening bags too, but much preferred this one. I had to push myself slightly because as I said before I am rubbish at learning new stitches, but I really enjoyed it. Finally the heart sample is one I made years ago. I had lots of little bits of silk and decided to use them up, each heart is different. I am very fond of it, and one day I might even frame it!
On a different note Debbby and I have decided to change the hours when we will be in the shop, and are going to do one week on and one week off, apart from Thursdays when we are always in the shop together. I have a class on Thursday morning, and then we see reps and get on with our paperwork in the afternoon. We both felt that we just don`t seem to have the time to create new samples and think about new ideas, let alone housework, so decided we might have more time this way. We will give it a try anyway, and hopefully it will work. I look at a lot of blogs and this last week people have been posting what they completed last year, and it is so depressing, they must spend their entire lives at the sewing machines, or stay up half the night! I don`t think I will ever be that organised, and how on earth do they get their photographs in those lovely 3 x 4 grids, I might have to go on a course if I have time!
Happy stitching.
Poor you Joan, hope you are feeling much better now. I know exactly how you feel on not getting your hands dirty with embroidery - it is all about wielding the needle. Glad that Camelot quilt has at last seen the light of day. Can't tell you how many bits I cut out and changed my mind (and cut out wrongly). Shall eagerly await its construction. Happy New Year to you both.
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