Chapter 4 - Spiralling into stitch

You'll know by now why it's taken me so long to get around to blogging my progress on my course. I have been working away at it in the background but the work for the exhibition just had to take precedence for a while. Add to that summer school (more of which later), a holiday in the Cotswolds and over three weeks of family visiting the summer has just shot by. Finally I feel like I can try to get back on top of things but it is taking a little while to get into a proper routine again.

And so ... Chapter 4 and I'm stitching again!

Fig. 4.1

I always head for the needle and thread first and these samples were actually worked whilst I was in London visiting my son. In case you aren't able to see the caption to the top piece ... From the outside row 1 is double wrapped running stitch in two colours of space dyed rayon thread. Row 2 is chain stitch using two strands of stranded cotton. Row 3 is thick silk yarn couched with space dyed rayon. Row 4 is french knots in cotton perle 16 thread and Row 5 is feather stitch using two strands of stranded cotton.

Fig. 4.2

I stitched the large sample in my hand without a frame and prior to mounting it in my sketchbook the spiral centres formed little peaks. A lovely textured surface.

Samples 4 and 5 are more needle lace spirals with beads added to accentuate the spiral.

Fig. 4.3

Machine stitch for samples 6 (ordinary straight stitch) and 7 (whip stitch). I have to admit that these were actually quite fun to do and there is more machine stitch in my samples from Summer School.

Fig. 4.4

Sample 8 is a piece of hand-dyed scrim which I stitched on the machine using a spiral movement. Some of the resulting holes were then outlined with buttonhole stitch. I love the delicate feel of this piece though I'm not yet sure how I might use it in a final piece of work.

Sample 9 has woven spirals worked on random wrapping on a cheap wire bracelet. They look almost rose like.

Fig. 4.5

Sample 9 is a spiralled machine made cord couched down in some places with a contrasting thread. I love the three-dimensional nature of this sample and also the non-uniformity of the cord.

I'm adding some of the pieces I did at Summer School here because I based my work there on this module.

Fig. 4.6

Jean asked us to bring a black and white photograph for inspiration to her first session and I had chosen a photograph I took of the 'gherkin' office building in London as the spiralling pattern of the windows attracted me and fitted with my theme.

Fig. 4.7

 We had to continue the lines from our photograph onto the opposite page of our sketchbook to make a rough design.

Fig. 4.8

We then placed scraps of fabric and lengths of thread in a soluble fabric sandwich (sticky soluble on the bottom and transparent on the top) and then machine stitched them together.

Fig. 4.9

When I got home I tried a variation on this theme using a technique which Jan had told us about and this time just laid threads between the two layers of soluble fabric. I then stitched through each join by hand adding a tiny glass seed bead at each junction and leaving thread tails on my stitches. It produced a very soft and unstructured piece of lace! It's a technique I may well return to in the future.

Fig. 4.10

Another experiment - laying pieces of glue covered string down onto plastic and leaving it to dry overnight before adding machine stitch once the piece was sandwiched between the two sheets of soluble fabric.

Fig. 4.11

 I did this piece when I got home - again playing with the soluble fabric sandwich but this time laid spirals of silk fabric between the two and then machine stitched them together. I needed to take more care to ensure that I had caught them all with my stitching than I did however and needed to make some running repairs by hand once the soluble was dissolved away. I'm definitely hooked on the soluble fabrics though and will certainly be using them again in the future!

Fig. 4.12

Jan had us making up designs from a photograph - looking at the essence of what had attracted us to the image in the first place rather than slavishly copying it. I had used a photograph of a little purple snail on a yellow flowering plant for this design which was then drawn onto TAP paper using PITT brush pens and transferred onto soluble fleece before hand stitching onto a fine net. This was such a valuable exercise and I learned a great deal from Jan's design tips.