Pyegreave Rosette, the reveal!

So here's the completed work. 10" across.
This is from Florence Knapp, Flossie Teacakes Guide to Paper Piecing.

All the templates came out a treat, and are collected in a little labeled bag, for future reference. It took a while to get all the bits of basting thread sorted.

Then I pressed and starched the rosette. And I'm pleased, if I do say it myself.

I learned a ton of technical ideas from doing it. Each successive stage counts heavily on the accuracy of the previous one, otherwise you couldn't get the outer rim to work at all. So that was good, to find it did fit.

And it's better to have some dressmaking experience for this, since easing and molding the fabric around the templates and to each other is very much like fitting clothes to your shape. Also tricks like which direction to stitch in, varies with the shape and position. All in all a really good project, highly recommended.

I like the movement in the stripey star, contrasted with the stillness of the center one. And some pieces are uniform, some less so. It avoids that dead in the water effect of static pieces just sitting there, always a Good Thing. Many decisions in this little thing.

As soon as I recover, I'll see what's next.

Joy cometh in the mailbox

The mail has done well by me lately. Lovely patchwork book from Mittens, hand dyed fabric atc, artist trading card, from Magpie.

As you see, they're in the right context.

Closeup of the atc

The first rosette is almost done, after a few changes of fabrics, and a lot of learning.

I have to go press now, the iron's workload the heaviest in memory. Then final stitching and fitting, and removing of templates and basting stitches. And pressing.

Then a little interval before I see what's next.

Thank you, M and M! Great friends, great timing.

Hanging in after a day of blunders punctuated by lovely visits

I was peacefully continuing to piece and realizing that one of these fabrics, the stripey one, is polished cotton and not very friendly. Doesn't like to stay put, frays easily.

So it was unfortunate that in a moment of abstraction, it was next to a bit of it that I accidentally stitched in a patch inside out. Screams.

Then I started to unpick, got halfway round, was interrupted by a timer in the kitchen, returned, picked up where I thought I'd left off. And took out the wrong piece. One that was perfectly in place. Difficult to remove because perfectly fitted. The piece had to be tossed, damaged. And the unfriendly bit next to it was fraying. And I still had to remove the inside out piece.

Then I cut a new piece and right in the middle of this upset..my unexpected friend suddenly let herself in the back door with her excitable dog while I was in the other room. And said little dog, so happy to see me, jumped up among the pieces, tools, etc.  More screams.

Friend retrieved her immediately, but I was hyperventilating by then. I tend to take blunders personally, especially if they're mine.

Friend relates her own current  chapter of car breakdown stories, and I suggested that paper piecing would be just the ticket to calm her nerves.. whereupon we both fell about laughing hysterically. Dog looks at us as if wondering how she got landed with these awful people.

Then Handsome Son arrived as scheduled, chatted with friend, who went away to watch tennis and forget her auto woes, and we had tea and scones and a lovely visit. He admired the piecework piece, but marred the moment slightly by asking "So, is it going to BE something?"

So, once again alone, after son departed for shore, I resumed the struggle. And it's looking much better now.

 If friend hadn't arrived in medias res, I'd have taken pix of the mistake(s), not being one of those cheerful fibbers who pretend it's easy, work of a moment, heavily editing out all the setbacks and language breakdowns.  So you missed that part.

I've also changed my mind about the final section colors, now that I'm seeing the work to date. Couple more to stitch in tomorrow, then I cut and piece the outer ring. Hoping to get the pieces the right way out.

And in the middle of all this, postie arrived with my lovely new cutting mat, much easier than the surface I was on, and fits,as you see, right onto my lapdesk. Great timing.

Aside from that, Mrs Lincoln, just another productive and socially significant day chez Boud.

Piecing and learning and pressing on

Another hot day, so I was busy indoors paper piecing another project. I've gone as far as I can with the silk piece, and need to let it alone a day or two to see if the design works.

So I embarked on another orgy of template making and cutting and fitting and piecing. I'd already picked out the five fabrics from my newly arrived package of cotton squares.

Here's where I am. All the covered template pieces need to be pressed before they're fitted together. Well, the v shaped ones are already fitted, they were in two parts. Front first

Then back

with paper template action. The sticky-out dog ears don't matter -- they'll be dealt with as I assemble. It's looking quite promising up to this point. Three more areas to make and assemble, and we'll see how it goes.

I've adapted a Flossie Teacakes rosette design here. And I've discovered there are two sorts of templates: the paper ones in the exact size of the piece, which are wrapped in the fabric, and the plastic ones you cut to  include seam allowance, when you're cutting out the fabric pieces.

This is not clearly explained anywhere I've looked. I sort of stumbled on it. So in case you're interested, now you know. So you only need one plastic template per shape, using it to cut around for your fabric bits. It's the other kind of template, paper, you need in multiples. I was just guessing at seam allowance for the pillow, but there's an easier way to do it, with the plastic template with seam allowance marked on it.

The other reason for using plastic, aside from making your own templates, is that you can see through it to decide just which bit of pattern you want in the piece, before you cut. It's part of the fun of designing.

So this is where I am. Pressing tomorrow, then pressing on.

Silk tumbling block suncatcher, rough draft

This is where we are right now.

Silk backing, with the first tumbling blocks cut out, and others waiting to be cut. These are the whole pieces, but the edges  will be folded over the paper templates. So these are bigger than the finished pieces will be.

This is just a bit of playing to see how they work together. Silk is not the easiest fabric to work with, slips around, but it's lovely enough to persevere anyway. Great transparency. 

Mise en scene, bring your own accent grave

Here's where we are:

Background, completed pillow, epp patches orl present n krect. They're so exact and neatly nested, in fact, that they look like fabric printed to look like patchwork! You can't tell it's pieced. I insist that means it well made, not that it seems to be back where it started...

Then, middle ground, are the 60  degree diamond templates for the silk tumbling block design happening next, and the silk pieces.  Since this will be see through, the seam allowances need to be consistent. We'll see how it goes.

Then, foreground, a mass of cheap and cheerful printed pieces for whatever happens after that. This will involve playing with and sorting and other kindergarten type "work".

And while you're here, this is the back of the above pillow which I printed from a scan of a lovely batik tunic I have. Scanned, printed on transfer paper, ironed onto the fabric.

 Not to be used in epp any time soon. The tunic, that is. But printed out versions are a possibility.

I think I like the idea of two sided pillows, for variety, and there may be more.

I have other pillows I've made using linen table napkins, which are a good size, press up a treat, and are hemmed already. The two you see here are probably 15 years old, still like new.  Gracious living. I think.

Ideas all over

So the pillow top is almost done,

fusible hemming tape done, needs to be stitched down, then the back attached, stuffing. Done.

So I'm looking at another idea or ten.

One is this heavy cotton runner I forgot I had, motifs of various exotic things, which I'll work into some design, using the plain backing as a contrasting element.

And the other is this batch of habotai silk samples, just waiting to be turned into a kind of suncatcher, pieced and hung in a window to catch the light.

I'm thinking about clamshell shapes, as you see, a few templates cut out, but that might change.

I might end up, whatever shapes I use, backing it up with another piece of translucent silk, one of which I have,from way back, already hemmed. It dates back to a workshop I taught on freeform embroidery on silk. I dyed the pieces for the students, but this I left white..

I have a second set of samples in shades of white and black, too, so this can go on further, if I like the first try.

I like very much being able to find art materials all round that I'd hardly registered before.

First epp project done, yay!

All the columns stitched up, here's the result, pressed and looking good, before the Removal of the Basting and the Retrieval of the Templates.

It's fun to find that I didn't catch any template in the final stitching, so they were easily removed, once the basting stitches came out.

This was fun, though it was a bit like topping and tailing where you sometimes  throw the fruit among the stems and have to fish it out. I had to rummage in the debris for a template here and there.

And the patchwork looks like fabric, great joins, no gaps, rayon is forgiving.

I have a piece of sage green linen to mount it on for a pillow top, with another piece of linen for the back.

Meanwhile I followed up on the paper piecing book by downloading and printing out her templates so I can get adventurous. 35 pages, to be exact.

 A lifetime supply. The book is really only half the story.

And my other reference book on various quilting approaches arrived. From the V and A. And very good.

Can I admit I have ordered a bunch of various cotton bits, and template plastic..so I can get right into Flossie's designs. Well, I have.

Now I plan to have a pot of tea.

Why I never made it to my book group today..

Before I got in the car, I checked the mailbox. And this was in it.

The afternoon completely  reshaped itself and ended up being a plunge into this wonderful history and account and biography and how to's of English paper piecing. Priorities.

Just look

 I did stitch a column of my own epp piece, humbly, after seeing these dazzling works.

My inner bookkeeper loves this

Isn't that a nice word? Three double letters in succession, where was I, oh right.

After I got two columns stitched together, and had to refer to the pictures to see which way up they went, I realized that if this is going to be portable, it needs a better command system.

I used masking tape up the back of the first two columns, but didn't like how it pulled when I took it off as I sewed along.

So, I numbered the columns and the blocks' positions in the columns. That way, even if I drop the lot,  I can easily establish what goes where and which way up.

Then each column of patches got its own envelope. I refrained from numbering the envelopes, since that would veer into ocd territory, and it's better not to. This project is compulsive enough.

And I didn't label the Ziploc bag I put all the moving parts into. I have a feeling I would not be safe with a label maker, somehow.

I can see my house all labeled up like those diagrams in beginners' foreign language books. Wall! Table! Pen of Gardener's Aunt! ( old French teacher joke).

Patchwork design sort of done

A few adjustments might happen before I stitch. But this is the 81 patches, laid out 9x9. About 14.5" square.

 I was thinking about this, well, dreaming last night in fact, woke up and realized it was a chance to have a radiating design from a central motif, here the cross shape in greens.

This is something I've done many times in different art forms, seems to be a recurring need.

Then I went on arranging and changing as you do, to get echoes and internal movements, some about color, some about shapes. Some of the best fun I've had in the studio in years.

I already see a couple of places where patches need to switch places. Pictures are helpful that way. In fact I'll do that now and post the result. Back in a few.

Okay, one change led to another, as they do, but I think I'm there now. Very subtle changes, now they're done, but they fixed a couple of annoying bits.

Patches ready

Here are the 80+ patches, ready to organize in some interesting way. Each is tacked over a cardstock template. I got pretty good at this after a couple of dozen!

I grouped them with like designs, to see what I have.

 1.5" squares, laid out 9x9 would give  an approximately 15"x15" total square. Which can make a good pillow top. Or something.  Since the squares will be whip stitched together, there won't be any measurable increase in total area.

The main reason for laying out and counting was to see what I can make with this collection. The cutting and seam allowances have taken up, I estimate, about half the original fabric area.

It will be fun to push these around and see how they relate. You can already note how some designs move over into others.

This design is a beginner try, to see how the construction works. When I assemble them, I'll know what to do better, with more ambitious ideas. I already learned a ton from doing this.

EPP in progress.

Sounds medical, but it's English paper piecing.

This is the progress to date. It's the stage where you tack the fabric squares onto the templates, to make neat patches.

After I get all the patches set up like this, I can arrange them in a design I like, before overstitching the patches together.

At that point, you avoid stitching through the templates, then once all the piecing is complete, you take out the tacking and release the templates to use again.

These are 1.5 inches square, pretty much dictated by the printed designs.

And they're definitely of the just one more school of  work.  So this is the latest technique I'm learning.  Very portable, the whole lot fits into a medium sized bag.

Announcing a new rabbit hole

Too hot in the studio to weave, a bit humid for knitting, so until cooler weather,  I need a portable rabbit-, I mean artform. One I can do in little sections, anywhere.

And thanks to Kate Jackson, the YouTube presenter of The Last Homely House East of the Sea, which I love and recommend, I'm trying my hand at English paper piecing.

Me, the nonquilter. This is the sort of paper piecing where you remove the paper templates at the end, for reuse.

I like working in parts that will be incorporated into something bigger, a lot of my art works that way. And reusing the templates appeals, too.

I don't have a fabric stash, never use it much. But I realized I have a rayon vest already printed patchwork style, giving me a lot of patterns, and I haven't worn it for ages.

So here's the vest

And here are the patches cut out,  and sorted into like designs,plus scraps,just in case.

And here's the kit of patches, template and card stock ready to go. Needle, thread, scissors, done.

So we'll see how it goes. Meanwhile, I've added e.p.p. to my esoteric fiber vocabulary.

New weaving adventure

Weaving a kind of industrial landscape.

 using handspun and dyed yarn which you see here all rolled onto tubes.

And this will be different from previous tapestries, because there will be smoke and flames and drama, all being well.

At that point I plan to pull raw top through and have it rearing up. Just flailing about, not woven neatly, see the black and white and red stuff there? That.  Also the copper armature wire you see there, which has featured in several weavings.

It came out of an old washing machine being stripped for parts by a friend's husband. He asked her if that artist friend might want it, he couldn't use it. Done. It's beautiful.

So tomorrow I'll see how this goes. The variegated yellow looks a bit agricultural, and a bit of copper might happen there. Or something. Won't know till it's upon me, or I'm upon it.

Painting with yarn and texture. I really like working big ideas in small format.

I could call it Dark Satanic Mills, but the reference might escape the viewer.

And I did a classic Dumb Move. Accidentally cut a warp thread when I was fixing some slubs. Arghghg. But I find, as I learn, that a lot of seeming disasters are quite fixable if you keep breathing and take a minute.

Here I cut a new warp thread, knotted it to the cut ends and went from there. Works fine. You can't see the repair now that it's buried.

That could apply to a lot of life situations, come to think of it.

Goats Magosh Redux

In today's mail, two innocent little Ziploc bags of roving ends, lovely cheap way to experiment with fiber.

So you think ooh, a couple of nice chunks of roving. So you pop them open.

And there's an explosion of color and texture and scent of clean happy fleece animals.

And you play with it all, and separate bits to see how it spins, since you need all the help you can get if you're me, still working toward consistency.

And you make sure your readers know about Goats Magosh.

Nice people, handwritten message on the cover invoice.

Meant to be a scarf, turned out to be a table runner

I finished all the sections of the supposed summer scarf, joined them up, washed and dried it, tried it on and decided it looked like a table runner.

So now it is.

Onward!

The potholder loom returns

Bit of spinning, bit of dyeing to get the yellow I need, then a couple of sections of the summer scarf I was thinking of before, when  the rhl turned it into a wall hanging. I'm just a helpless prawn of fate, I tell you.

There will be a series of sections, to be crocheted together in some interesting way I haven't thought of yet.

This is very airy. The Tunisian crochet hook is working as a  weaving hook. I also use it as a shed stick on the Hokett loom. All purpose tool.

And, when I found the potholder loom, I remembered the little motif, top left there,  I hadn't taken off it, so I did. This is handspun and dyed, and it will be part of something bigger. I think. Interesting organic shape.

I have three tapestries in the studio waiting to be framed, and I think all this may be displacement activity to avoid the dreaded, I mean great fun of,  framing.

Dyed roving ready to spin

Learned a few things, one being that even the smallest drop of red overcomes even a lot of yellow. I plan to dye more roving yellow, since I accidentally got orange there.

All in all, ready to spin this batch and see what happens.

I have dyed, and here are the pictures

Results of the dyeing caper, from white to bright:

Draining over the sink. The roving doesn't seem to have felted,  always a concern.

I can spin colors together or card them together, depending on what I need to weave. And  I can spin the solid colors. There's probably enough for a small tapestry.

Nice evening's work.

Help, I'm dyeing here!

Food coloring and microwave dyeing of roving. This is done in stages so as to get the dye completely into the fibers without cooking the roving.

I think this is the last of the Coopworth roving. It's friendly and I'm hoping for good tapestry results.

Ideally when it's done, the water is clear and the fiber is dyed. The white vinegar is the mordant, and once the dyeing is done, at the end of the dye, teehee, sorry, the dw detergent helps get the last traces of unabsorbed dye out of the fiber. That way it won't migrate onto the user.

Since I'm wanting this for tapestry, not wearing, it's less of an issue, but still a good idea.

And since this is food safe, it's okay to use the regular microwave.  Gloves were out for show, then cropped out.  I never remember to put them on. My fingers are an interesting series of colors now. I do use the wooden spatula and the tongs. This stuff gets hot.

All this means that spinning will happen soon. And I'm wondering if it would be nice to get a Turkish spindle..again. Wondering, that is, not getting.

New artwork, partly tapestry

So this just came off the loom. Possibly finished. Definitely keeping the loops.

Finally got to the gallery to establish that I'm in the show

The Gallery at Mercer County community College. I picked a few favorites. The reflections on the glass made it difficult to get others.

And Alice the gallery director obligingly took a pic with me and my work, Red Building, and the certificate showing it's now in the public collection.

Seascape off the loom

Just off the loom, and will rest a while before steaming, finishing and framing. The fringes will not show after finishing.

Like this

Just thought you might like to see the right off the loom stage.

This is Seascape and it's 5"x 8", a golden rectangle.

We'll see how it goes now. I see definite technical improvement.

And I have an idea for the next one, needed to finish this one to free up the loom.