Monday Workshop - Stitch Sampler

Our Monday Workshop in January is going to be a Stitch Sampler.  You will be taking a single stitch and working with it in different ways and in different threads.

A supply list will be available at the meeting on Saturday 3rd January 2015 and online shorty after.

In the meantime if you are interested The Constance Howard book of Embroidory Stitches is worth looking out for. 

More about Constance Howard can be found here....

Contemporary Applique By Julia Triston and Rachel Lombard

 

I think the outstanding feature of this book is the photography. There is a photograph on virtually every page, all to inspire. The book covers all aspects of applique from ancient times to the present day. It talks about cultural aspects of the technique and  traditional methods. There are suggestions to help with design and ideas for projects. It is not a project book but has a 'how-to' chapter describing materials and equipment, transferring designs, and applique by hand and machine. The last chapter is 'From tradition to innovation' and includes sections like 'Pushing the boundaries' and 'Breaking the rules'! There is a photograph of a saddlecloth made in the 5th-4th century BC and photographs of work made in 2013. The authors have definitely covered a lot of ground

Digital Magazine / 03

As we are now in December, I thought a didital magazine that 'celebrates the crafty life' might be of interest. For those of you who made 'Wrapped Temari' with Jean in November take a look at the wreath made of balls of wool on pages 110 - 115,  I'm thinking of a wreath made of temari balls....:)  What do you think...?  Will it work...?

Happy reading...

Please do leave a comment below, with a page number, if you see something that may interest others....

Still life photos...

Have you ever wondered how those lovely still life photos that you see in magazines, books and online are taken...? Here's a short video showing you how... hope you enjoy it...



Kim Klassen shoots still life from xanthe berkeley on Vimeo.

Chiyoe Kubota-Temari Ball Artist

The Tamari Book by Anna Diamond

As our Monday Workshop was all about making Temari, here's a book about it too...

Marbry Corbet talks about this book on her blog here...

If anyone has a book about Temari and think others may like it then please leave a link to it in the comments below this post.

Digital Magazines / 02

Here's another digital magazine for you to enjoy....  this time it's a  FASHION - ENTERTAINMENT - LIFESTYLE magazine and this issue is all about Brazil.

Read more about this magazine here

Happy reading...

Please do leave a comment below, with a page number, if you see something that may interest others....

Monday Workshop - Temari

Our Monday Workshop in November is going to be all about Wrapped Temari. 'Temari' are a simple fabric ball which is decorated with stitch or by wrapping.

For our workshop Jean has provided us with a list of requirments as follows:-

* 1 pair of old, but clean, tights
* 1 old, but clean, pop sock
* darning needles for 3 ply wool & No 5 Perle
* glass headed pins * embrodiery & paper cutting scissors
* knitting wool - 3 or 4 ply - not grey!
* reel of cheap matching thread
* Perle threads No 5 - 3 colours which go well togerher - plain or varigated
* silver and/or gold sparkly thread

If you are keen to know more here are a couple of links...

www.temarikai.com            temari.com

CREWELWORK DAYSCHOOL WITH NICOLA HULME

We had a lovely crewel dayschool with Nicola Hulme on Sunday 2nd November, 2014.
Most of us were beginners and Nicola gave us a very good start to learning this beautiful technique.
We were given a choice of 2 designs on Scottish linen twill.  After a short talk on choice and number of colours we were let loose on Nicola's excellent boxes of Appleton's wools.

Nicola then gave us a demonstration on Lattice work and how to stitch our lines in a sympathetic way to suit our design with plenty of guidance on how to measure with our needle and thread.  We then stitched the intersections to secure the lattice work.

There were two options to finishing the lattice shape, either a single French knot in the centre of each diamond or to fill each diamond with multiple French kmots.

Le Petit Théâtre Dior - Making of "Miss Dior" dress

STITCH and STRUCTURE Jean Draper

I bought this book because I was intrigued by the sample on the cover. I wanted to find out how it was made. The section about this technique is very short and makes it sound so easy.

There was a lot more variety of techniques in the book than I had expected. It covers design as well as experimental ways of constructing new fabrics and using them to produce 3D constructions. Each chapter finishes with suggestions as to 'further work: you could......'

It is a book for browsing and inspiration. I haven't tried following any of the techniques yet. I will let you know when I have!

Digital Magazines / 01

Digital Magazines are a great source of inspirational ideas. Some magazines may be familiar to you in the printed form but there are so many more available. On the left hand side of this post is a list of digital magazines for you to browse may I suggest making yourself a tea or coffee before you start and make sure you are sitting in a comfortable chair...:)

To start you off below is a huge 188 page magazine - 'basic fashion design sourcing ideas' while this magazine has been written for students, I'm sure you will find something of interest to inspire you....  Happy reading.

Please do leave a comment below, with a page number, if you see something that may interest others....

Sheila Hicks: Begin with Thread

Sheila Hicks: Begin With Thread from Ford Foundation on Vimeo.

10 000 photos-1 km of thread-350 reels of thread-73 000 embroidery stitches-6 kg of scraps of fabric-100 needles and sewing pins

Black Books - Favorite Place from DaBrainkilla on Vimeo.