Family history in paint and stitch

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 is the brick wall:

A pieced and patched fabric roll

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.

What mood shall I choose?

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 bandana

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.

 

Sweater becomes mittens and cowls

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!

 

So instead of an unused sweater, I now have 3 nice accessories 😊 

portrait of my Dad

Another Stitch challenge, this time through a workshop given by Ailish Henderson : a collage portrait with fabric, paint and stitching. Since childhood, I have never drawn or painted again and I found this challenge a bit terrifying to be honest.

But since I promised myself I would try all the different challenges, I poured myself a cup of tea, took a brave sip and started sketching. I added a bit of paint, a bit of fabric and paper collage, and some stitching.

The result is my Dad, as a green man...which suits him just fine!

A silk painted scarf

Now this is a fun craft : It’s easy, quick and has a lovely wow-factor!

First you create a design on the scarf (or just some lines or shapes) with outliner, a kind of paint. Mine was copper. 

When the outliner has dried, you fill in the spaces you just created with silk paint, which is a really fun thing to do. 

When the silk paint is really dry (next day), you have to iron the scarf, to secure the colours.

Washing my scarf made the copper outliner disappear. I don’t know if that is supposed to happen, but I like the scarf without the copper lines too. 

Et voila: a unique piece is created!

with the outliner :

no more outliner, because it is washed out. Also the colours have slightly faded:

Paper glove

This glove is the result of an assignment set by Jennifer Collier, via TextileArtist.org. At first I was not that thrilled about making a paper glove, because it didn’t seem to make much sense to me. However, the process was very enjoyable because I love paper and finding the colour combination was fun. Besides, I found yet again that stitching through paper is great. 

I used a wallpaper sampler, a bit of decorative paper from my stash, a soap wrapper, a bit of plastic waste, three small buttons and some ribbon, and of course some thread and wool yarn.

This made me think about how I can use more paper in my work. There are so many more possibilities than you might think at first sight!

Mixed media landscape

A mountain landscape in winter. I used mostly recycled fabrics, such as a worn handkerchief, worn kitchen textiles, pieces of clothing and old sheets, but also some sheer fabric and a few quilt fabric scraps. I added paper, stitched onto the fabric piece : a small picture of some logs, cut from a magazine and a piece of food packaging material. And of course lots and lots of stitching!

An icy cold winter, with a hint of light in the sky.

A messy puzzle to start with :

In my kitchen, there is this friendly cloud.

He is made from wool, needle-felted into a fluffy and very friendly cloud shape. Though it still never rains in my kitchen!