fabric painting.

 

by painting onto fabric directly you can stitch over the top to highlight details. i like this method of sampling, because it's quick and effective. i have embellished with beads and varied the thread type.

pleating, folding and smocking.

 this is my sample from the princess pleater. (a smocking and pleating machine)
way to take further - embroider and print onto pleated fabric.

 this was one of a few fabric manipulation samples from a few workshops. i thought about experimenting with pleating, but decided to stitch instead :)

this is a direct smocking samples of 'honeycomb' stitching. it adds texture and interest to any fabric.

embroidery hoops.

i have been embroidery for the last two days and forgot how much I LOVE IT. i've been working in embroidery hoops as i find them convenient and neat to work with stitch. the embroidery hoop also keeps work flat and tight and allows you to add much more detail to hand stitching. it's also good to use them on the sewing machine and you can embroider freely without sewing your finger... i have had to learn to be patient!

i have created a few samples; (translating colour from my photos)

alison willoughby.

  http://www.alisonwilloughby.com/

we had a stitch workshop today with the lovely alison willoughby. what an inspirational, talented woman. dressed in all black, teamed with a trendy hair cut and giant bangles she gave an introduction to hand stitching and how she uses it in her work (£900 skirts... covered in everything!) she came round the group one by one to talk to and find out how we were getting on with the project. she seemed to like my sketch book; laughing at the button heads.
she suggested i shuold;
- look at line and colour gradient; striping down my photos to their simplistic form - like the doodble i do over the top and then translate this into stitch and knit.
- work in a more sophisticated way with stitch, but allowing myself to work over the top in a more messy manner.
- she said to choose a few favourite photos. disect them and translate into needle and thread.

this feedback led me stitching till one in the morning. i was on a inspirational, creative roleeee!

what i need to think about;
- types of thread and wool.
- colour gradients
- knit
- panels, folds
- lines
-blocks
- machine and hand stitch
- more controlled style
- keep having fun
- layout
- scale
- beads, buttons and other embellishments.
- look at jacobean style embroidery and crewel work.