3-D Thread Painted Sculpture - still in process

I did manage to get my 3-D thread sculpture experiment to stand up, finally! Reading directions helps sometimes. In any case, fabric stiffener was used to stiffen it.

The next one will have more stitching and I will have more patience and do it right! This reminds me of coral.

Back to the Drawing Board!

My experiment from the previous post needs more work!!! A lot more work!!!

Here's the stitching on a Styrofoam ball. I should have covered the ball with foil as this piece stuck to it and I had the dickens of a time getting it off. Not to mention that a lot of the glue from the water soluble stabilizer (below) did not dissolve. In my wisdom, I decided to add the Ultra Solvy to the Aqua Magic sheet already in the hoop. Not a good idea.

Here's the first one! What a disaster!! But, not one to give up, I did a second one using same thread colour.

This one was pinned onto a foil covered ball. This time, it came off without any difficulty.

However, too much of the stabilizer was rinsed off. Only the threads going around the top are keeping it in shape.

 More of the Aqua Magic Stabilizer was dissolved in a small amount of water to form a paste.

The paste still didn't stiffen it enough to stay in shape. Next time I will use fabric stiffener. And I will do a lot more stitching as the lines I did were fragile. I was in a hurry to see the result. I should know better after all the years I've been doing things like this.

trimmed!

Next time I'll do better ( SMILE )!!!! And, I'm going to use a slightly smaller Styrofoam ball.

Enjoy

Colour Confidence in Embroidery

Colour Confidence in Embroidery by Trish Burr is a must have for any serious embroiderer. The following description was taken from Traditional Stitches:

Based on her own experience with long and short stitch shading (needle painting/thread painting), gained through trial and error over the years, Trish Burr provides a greater awareness of how color affects our embroidery and what brings it to life. Each aspect is clearly illustrated by example and includes tools for selecting colors, choosing shades that enhance our embroidery, why some shades blend better than others, and the importance of contrast with light and shadow. There are projects to represent each color group including stunning roses, camellias, fruit and the birds. However, the highlights of the book have to be the chapters on color combinations and complementary colors. There are more than 200 stitched examples with DMC thread keys.

I knew I couldn't say it any better.



Here's a few sites which mention Needle Painting:

• Mary Corbet's Needle n' Thread
• Berlin Embroidery Designs
• Needle Painting Embroidery on Pinterest
• The French Needle Blog
• Royce's Hub Needle Painting
• Needle Work

Nancy Bergman Workshop

This Saturday, Sunday and Monday I will be attending two workshops given by Nancy Bergman, quilt artist, from Ontario, Canada. I was first introduced to Nancy's beautiful work when I attended the Kitchener Waterloo and Area Quilt festival in 2004. I had a small piece entered into the exhibit called Constructions of Canada, and was attending the show. Nancy also had a piece there called Kenora Boatyards - 1906. Needless to say, I was smitten by that piece and kept going back to view it. This piece caught everyone's attention as it won the 2004 Grand Prize, Constructions of Canada. Take a few minutes to view more of Nancy's work.

The Cabot Quilt Guild and the Eastern Edge Quilt Guild are hosting two of Nancy's workshops

• Woodlands for the Landscape Quilter
• Sky, Water, Islands, Shorelines, Icebergs and Thread Painting Pine Trees for the Landscape Quilter

Hopefully I'll get some photos to share with you. According to the course descriptions, it should be three interesting days!

Books

While on vacation, I collected a few books and magazines. Take a look! Actually, the Machine Embroidered Seascapes by Alison Holt, was waiting for me when I got back home. I thought I'd include it too. It's an excellent one for those who are into thread painting. The Complete Feltmaking, More ... Texture with Textiles and Needleweaving were purchased at a second hand book store on North Avenue (Wicker Park area of Chicago). The Christmas with Possibilities is bright and cheerful with easy and quick to do projects. They are also easy to adapt to make other Christmas things and not just the ones shown. The Christmas one was a Joanne's purchase with a 50% off coupon. (Love those coupons).

As you can see, I have a variety of interests! Will I ever get the chance to do all in my 'want to do list?!' I can always try. . .
Enjoy!

Farmer's Field

I took a walk along the road beside this field. The sky was blue but off in the distance I could see clouds. Within ten minutes, dark thunder clouds appeared and I felt a few drops of rain. I just made it back to the motor home when the rain came down in buckets! However, it passed over quickly and the sun came out again. I managed to get these photos just in time. Each of these scenes has the potential of a thread painting and/or applique. Think about it. How would you begin? What fabrics would you use? How large or small would it be? . . . the field could be: strip pieced, thread painted, hand embroidered, a single piece of hand dyed fabric. Would you paint the sky, use dyed cotton, transfer paint, water colour pencils/crayons? For my sky, I'd use a piece of hand dyed satin. I just love the shiny sheen from the satin. Don't stick to traditional cottons but explore other fabrics. Some might work out but you'll never know unless you experiment. These are just a few ideas to get you thinking about small landscapes.

The black birds at the bottom were awesome. One minute the field was dotted with black and then they just swarmed up into the sky. My mother, who is 90, calls these the 'dirty weather birds'.
Enjoy!

Daisies and Dandelion

A few posts ago, I wrote about a piece of wall art that I had completed as a donation to the Cabot Quilt Guild for the Mother's Day weekend quilt show. It is part of a silent auction. Well, here is the completed piece. It is framed 8" x 10".

The sky is hand dyed satin (this fabric gives a lovely lustre to the sky). The green hills / grass are strips of commercial fabric that have been stitched with the sewing machine. The tree trunk and branches are thread painted and sewn onto the background. The foliage is stitched on by machine to give a 3-D affect. The daisies were hand stitched and then added to the picture (again, the flowers are in 3-D). The dandelions are French knots. Most of my landscapes have dandelions somewhere in them (unless they are winter scenes). When I was a child, I would pick these flowers as a present for my mother. She would accept them with a smile.

Latest Work

I just finished another piece of wall art. It's a donation for a silent auction later in May. At this time, I'm just showing a small corner of the piece. The 'rock' is silk that was printed from my computer. Refer HERE for information on printing onto fabric. The daisies were embroidered individually and hand stitched in place. The orange flowers are French knots. In the completed landscape there is a hand dyed sky, hills and a large tree with foliage. The skeleton tree was thread painted onto organza. Foliage was added after it was placed on the background.

First Flowers

It was a beautiful sunny Sunday here in St. John's. Here are a few photos from my garden. I think the one with the stump has potential for a future thread painting. The tree at the bottom is hugh! When we moved in this house 20 years ago, it was about 4 feet tall. Now, it's way above the second story and much taller than the light pole beside it. I like the texture of its bark. Maybe it, too, will find its way into a piece of art.

My Sweet Prairie

I've been corresponding with Monika Kinner-Whalen, a fibre artist from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She does the most wonderful freestyle embroidery by machine as well as by hand. If you have ever travelled across the Canadian prairies by car, you will see that she has captured the beauty of the landscape in marvelous stitch.  Materials used in her art include silk and cottons, sheer ribbon, glass beads, rayon and cotton threads. Please stop by her site, My Sweet Prairie for a visit. I don't think you will be disappointed! Permission was given to use any of her photos from her web site. Check here as well as The Needle and Thread Network.

Monika is also the feature artist in A Needle Pulling Thread / Spring 2012.

Back Garden 01 - Work in Progress

I am working on another piece of wall art. For now, I'm just calling it The Garden. This will probably change before it's finished. I started with a piece of commercial fabric in various shades of green. This has a stabilizer attached so that I can do free motion stitching on it. The fence and tree trunks are not attached yet as I have more to add to the background. The tree trunks were done, using free motion stitching on white cotton, using cotton threads in various shades from white to grey to black.

Sites to Visit

Today I have a variety of web sites and blogs for you to visit.

Judith Trager, an international quilt artist. See a brief video with Judith here.
Jamie Fingal, mixed media artist. Whimsical house quilt video
Sue Gilgen, landscape quilts and fiber art. Video one,  Video two.
Leni Wiener, raw edge machine applique and thread painting
Nancy Daley, fiber artist (paper making video)
Eileen Doughty, quilt artist. Check out her sculptures here!
Carolyn Lee Vehslage, quilted wall hangings
Ken Smith, textile artist from Australia
Mary Manahan, quilt artist
Judy Cooper, textile art

Bonnie McCaffery's Vidcasts

I've been watching various vidcasts on Bonnie McCaffery's web site. They are worth watching! The 2009 International Quilts at Houston were spectacular.

I also watched Terry White demonstrate 'beading by machine'.Terry has a book out called Thread Painting Made Easy which can be seen on her web site. Also check out her YouTube Videos.

I have spent a good portion of the day on the web. Check out some of the blogs I've joined.