In a second online workshop led by Mandy Patullo I made this robin. It is a textile collage with scraps of fabric and stitching onto a background of printed fabric. I used a twig from our garden to make it a bit more playful. It has something of a Christmassy feel to it, but not too much, so it doesn’t clash at any other time.
Some little ecoline paint and a stitched boat on a piece of cardboard, which became rather nice.
This is a piece about my father-in-law and his favourite things. He has been somewhat under the weather lately so I thought to try and cheer him up a bit.
It's all hand-stitched with some appliqué. I also used some paint.
I wanted to give it a bit of an old-fashioned sampler-like feel.
By using the same stitches and recurring patterns I tried to increase the unity of the piece.
This is the Plum crazy wrap, a design by Shannon Dunbabbin. It is a very easy pattern, for which I used an aran weight yarn : Rowan Fine Art Aran, so that it knits up pretty fast.
I wear this wrap with my beautiful shawl pin that I love!
This is a bit of a story… During the pandemic, I took to walking through the village my parents grew up in. I wanted to look for my roots a bit. My mother’s parents started a garage after WW2. That garage is long gone but I remember many Sundays playing there as a child. Walking through that street I discovered to my delight that, because the neighbouring building was demolished and there is now a footpath, the side wall of the original workshop still exists. I was so happy to be able to see and photograph the brick walls my grandparents built there.
A workshop by Haf Weighton was the ideal occasion to do something with this experience. So with paint and stitching I pictured the wall in the present, adding some elements from the past through old photographs (I printed the images onto fabric). With stitching I tried to bring these elements together into a whole, using the texture of the fabric as a reference when choosing stitches. I did not use many colours, because I wanted to retain the atmosphere of old black and white photos. Oh and the young lady on the scooter is my mum!
This fabric roll is the result of a workshop I did with Gwen Hedley. I started by making marks on the fabric with paint, using very simple tools. Then I cut up the fabric and pieced the patches together. The fabric strip becomes a sort of harmonious roll by blurring the joining lines with simple handstitch, extending the marks and colours from one patch to another with stitching.
I attached the fabric onto a wooden spool and on top op the spool I glued two pebbles.
I think the colour combination worked out fine, natural and a bit funky at the same time.
For this piece I stepped a bit out of my comfort zone by using bold colours.
I embroidered figures onto a piece of fabric cut off an old pair of trousers. It is inspired by the work of Saima Kaur, who herself is inspired by the expressive folk embroideries from India.
It's a bit of fun, what will the day bring: yay or nah? But in the end, every day is just one day!
EmPower People is a craftivism project aimed at uniting crafters in all mediums to engage people across communities, so as to spark conversation, engagement and action to uphold social justice and human rights. The project launched a call to knit, crochet or sew a purple bandana and to wear it proudly, while you speak and act against injustice. This crafting community is committed to embrace humanity and family, to embody community, and to emphasize equality.
I am all for this and also feel strongly about craftivism. So I knitted this bandana, a pattern by Casapinka. And I wear it proudly, at the moment while I am doing my social distancing. I knitted it in Noro Tokonatsu (a cotton, silk and viscose blend) which I have found a wonderful yarn! Aport from its significance, this bandana is also beautiful and warm!
You can find the patterns for the different bandanas here.
I had a sweater that was still in reasonably good condition but had become too small. I loved its fabric and colour so decided to walk the recycling path here.
I should have taken a photo of the original sweater, but I cut it up before I even thought of that.
From the sleeves I made long fingerless gloves. I cut them from the main body, picked up the stitches with my circular knitting needle and cast off neatly, cutting an opening for the thumb and sewing round it. Really happy with them!
The shawl neckline of the sweater was kind of special so I cut it off in its entirety and made it into a cowl. By sewing round the edge with a nice yarn (Manos del Uruguay Serena alpaca cotton blend) I managed a ruffled edge. With the same yarn, I embroidered some flowers. I added an invisible press stud so it stays well in place. Not completely my style, but I still think it is a successful project and hopefully will make someone else happy.
Then there was the body of the sweater, which I cut into broad strips, sewing them together into one loop cowl that wraps around the neck twice. Again I picked up the stitches, and added a small knitted edge in a colourful yarn (Mayflower Egyptian organic cotton Print). The colourful edge makes this a really pretty cowl, I think!
