Linen Tunic: My Garden

   A little bit of this, a little bit of that, and before you know it you have something wonderful, quite different, and really fun to wear. I have wanted to make one of the Japanese style aprons to wear as a tunic or top for quite some time. 
   My theme or story for this piece is my little front garden. It is quite wild and unruly, but it gives me a great deal of pleasure just to be there in the midst of the nasturtiums, ferns, and other growing things. Just as I no longer strive for perfection in my art, I have no desire to tame the great outdoors.

    After searching for ages, I finally came up with the closest pattern I could find to suit my needs; Simplicity #1133. This pattern had a huge dart along the side seam that I eliminated by pinning the edges of the dart together. I wanted to have one entire piece with no seams so I could freely paint and stitch away. It is made from the Natural Linen I carry in my shop.

   After sewing the garment together, my first step was to spray it with Jacquard's airbrush ink. After heat setting the ink, I started applying my nasturtium shapes and rectangular strips of fabrics. The flowers were glued on with a teeny bit of glue, and the rectangles were hand basted on. The last thing I want on a garment is a fusible that will be stiff and heavy feeling. 

 After machine stitching around the edges of the flowers and leaves, I painted in my moths with my Giant Moth Stencil using Neopaque and lumiere. Next came the really fun part as  I started drawing in the abstracted stem shapes for the hand embroidery to visually tie all the shapes together.

 I wanted to emphasize the edges of the garment, but I didn't want anything too fussy or exacting. I first worked a row for Cretan Stitch around the edges, then an irregular blanket stitch, and ended with short little stitches for just a little touch of added color. I found some beautiful old shell buttons that were just the right size for the tab closures at the shoulders.

  Detail of the stitching on the back.

   For the rectangular overlays, I used scraps of my hand dyed cotton. I love the way the fabric puckered up after washing to give it that beautiful bumpy texture. 

   Now I am getting ready to start another tunic. My next effort will be in black linen that will be cut on the bias, so it will be interesting to see how different the fit is. I am thinking rust tones,splashes of brilliant blues, and little bits of a lovely pearl gray hand dyed sateen. I haven't quite decided on a theme yet.

Inspiration: Where Is It Hiding?

   For the past two years, I've been taking an online course called the Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design to learn about art licensing. I am finally beginning the last module next week. One of our recent assignments was to design a collection of tea towels. The designs had to be hand-rendered, geometric, and mostly non-representational.
   I often get asked where I get my inspiration from. I suppose the answer to that question is that I am inspired mostly by nature, but I am also inspired by pretty much everything I see. 

   So, after searching for ideas, I began sorting through my photos for ideas. I came across photos I had taken of buildings  in  Ferndale, California. Ferndale is a picturesque small town near where I live with lots of interesting Victorian architecture from the late 19th century.
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   I began sketching some of the architectural elements from this building I noticed while walking down a side street. It is interesting to discover what is actually right under our noses, that we take completely for granted, and that we fail to even notice or appreciate so much of the time. I have seen these buildings for years, but it is amazing how oblivious I had become to their quirky and creative characteristics.

   Since I started teaching workshops on Block Printing, I am always in need of more block designs. So, I decided to make a few hand-carved blocks for printing on linen. I will be teaching a 2 day workshop on Block Printing on Fabric at Village Sewing in Santa Rosa on Oct.19-20 this year. 
   So I am experimenting with the different ways blocks repeat and create new designs, and I love the secondary designs that develop like with the triangular shaped block.

   I really love doing the block printing, but I guess I love the challenge of coming up with new designs even more. I am working now on tiled designs for block printing. It is so much fun playing with the different types of symmetry to see how many variations I can come up with.
   And the other day I had some friends here from out of town who hadn't ever been to Ferndale, so we headed over across the bridge to check out some of the amazing little shops and enjoy the sights. Of course I took my camera with me, and I found so many more details in the hand carved wood on many of the storefronts. Who knows how they might pop up in my future artwork?

The Moth Bag

This is the last of my linen bags. All of the others sold very quickly, and I am very grateful to those of you who purchased them. Each bag seemed to find its way to the person who was the perfect fit for each one.

 The bag exterior is 100% Linen. It is hand painted, hand embroidered, and machine quilted by me. The interior of the bag has a laptop, iPad compartment, 2 side pockets, a zippered pocket, and 3 other smaller pockets inside for carrying smaller items.

Leave a message if you are interested in this item. The cost is $300.00 plus shipping; leave a comment if you are interested in a purchase. Note: This bag has been sold. 
Stencils used: Moths,  Scrolls, and Lattice.

Thistle Journal Cover

   I am hoping that if I actually get caught up with the Christmas rush and customer's orders, I make the time to finish up a couple of my own projects. First of all, I would like to finish this journal cover I began probably three months ago.
   It never fails, what begins as a simple little project takes on a life of its own in no time at all. I always find it amusing that what some people consider to be obsessive attention to detail is to me absolute mindless bliss.

   I began with a beautiful blank piece of linen that was prewashed. I lightly marked the center spine area of the cover, the perimeter, and then a few circles that I wanted to leave open except for the stitching.

I painted the images with my Thistle Stencil and began working the hand embroidery around the outside of the circles. I photographed the piece, printed it out, and then began drawing on the image with pencil to help me decide what to do next.

I really enjoyed every minute of working on this. There were many evenings when I couldn't wait to settle into my old chair, surrounded by wisps of brightly colored thread and needles poking out everywhere, and watch a good film. I finally realized that I needed to stop stitching on this piece and begin something else before every speck of linen was covered up!

Tuesday Drop-In Class

This is a linen bag that I am making. The hand embroidery is still in progress. It has been hand painted with my stencils, and it will be machine quilted after the embroidery is finished.

For the past few months I have been teaching a drop-in class at Eureka Fabrics in Eureka, CA. It is always interesting to see who will turn up, and it is never boring. I love having a roomful of people, but I also enjoy having just  a handful of people that I can give my undivided attention to.
Although the focus is on quilting and fiber art, we basically cover whatever it is people need help with.
Starting August 1, 2015, we are starting on hand embroidery where I will be teaching most of the basic embroidery stitches, and then we will move on to make a journal cover utilizing what we have learned. The class info is listed below, and you can sign up here: Eureka Fabrics.

For the first two weeks we will be working on a variety of hand embroidery stitches, and the third week we will be making a journal cover using some of the techniques and stitches you have learned. The journal covers will be simple projects you can finish in one afternoon.

Schedule:

·       Tuesday, August 4, 2015:: Hand Embroidery Basics, 1-4 pm

·       Tuesday, August 11, 2015: More Hand Embroidery, 1-4 pm

·       Tuesday, August 18, 2015: Journal Covers, 1-4 pm

Supplies:

For Hand Embroidery:

·       White or light-colored fabric, 4 10” squares

·       Embroidery needles in assorted sizes; my favorites are size 5/10.

·       Embroidery hoop, anywhere from 5”-7” will work best

·       Embroidery thread in 2 colors that contrast with your fabric

For the Journal Cover:

·       You will need to bring a journal or sketchbook with a cover that is not too flimsy.

·       Fabric large enough for the outside, and you will also need fabric for the inside of the cover.

·       A button for closure if desired.

·       Embroidery threads and other items for embellishment.

·       Batting if you wish to machine quilt the cover.

Note: The fabric needs to be large enough to cover the front and back of the book plus enough for seam allowance. It will be easier to embroider if the fabric is not cut to size yet.

When deciding which images to use for this bag, I wanted to use something I had not worked with before, so the moths were perfect. This particular species is known as the agrius cingulata (pink-spotted hawk moth). The actual moth is more pink than red, and I found it in the book Night Visions by Joseph Scheer.

This is the other side of the same bag. It will be embroidered differently from the front of the bag.

Paint and Stitch: the Little Bee Bag

     As I continue to attempt to simplify my life and determine what the true necessities are, at times I also carry that over into my work.

I am really terrible at packing for travel, but for my recent trip to Santa Fe for a workshop with Betty Busby, I was determined to try to tackle this issue. One of the things I did was to make this little bag that measures 5" wide by 6" high. It actually holds my cell phone, identification, credit cards, cash, lip balm, and a pack of kleenex: the bare necessities.

     The bag is made from a medium weight natural European linen that I have fallen in love with. There is something so incredible about the hand of this fabric that makes it especially lovely and wonderful to work with.

     First I painted the fabric with my Bee Stencil. The bag has the honey bee on the front and the bumble bee on the little back pocket. The stencil is made in two parts so you can paint the body first and then the details in a different color. I used Lumiere paint in copper and silver, let it dry overnight, and then heat set it for permanence.

     I had painted the linen pieces on a Saturday night, and the following morning I heat set the paint and began stitching. Even though it was a Sunday and I should have been doing household chores, I kept finding excuses to sneak back over to my studio to do just a couple more stitches on the bag. By the end of the day I had all the embroidery done.

     The really fun part for me was the hand embroidery. It is kind of odd, but doing the embroidery feels to me like learning a new language. It is still a bit awkward as I learn to compose artistically with this medium. At the same time it is very exciting as well as rewarding to see the end results. I love the interplay of the colors and the texture created by the stitching.

     I work in two pretty distinct ways: either very planned or intuitively. They both have their benefits, and some work, like my wholecloth pieces, does require more precise planning and composition decisions before beginning the actual piece. I really love to work intuitively though. It is always so exciting to begin with only a vague notion of where I want to go with a piece; then I proceed one step at a time until the next step is revealed to me. I think it only requires having faith that once you have that creative momentum it will continue until some inner sense tells you the piece is complete.

It All Started When......

      When I was very young,I learned to do hand embroidery from my grandmother. I always loved doing the handwork, and I spent many enjoyable hours working side by side with my grandmother learning new stitches and embroidering things that have long since disappeared to who knows where.

      Many years ago, in fact so many that I can't remember, I bought this old kit in an antique store. Someone had purchased the kit, embroidered one teeny little flower, and shoved it right back in the envelope.
      Every once in a while, I would get the urge to do some handwork and pick the piece up again. I would do a few little stitches, and then put it aside and forget about it.
     A couple of months ago I once again picked up the piece and commenced to actually finish the embroidery.
      I can't explain what it was that happened, but I fell in love with the process as well as the fabric. That beautiful old linen was like butter in my hands. The embroidery thread was not quite so delightful; it was really old rayon that tangled incessantly and caused me a whole lot of grief. I persisted and finished all of the embroidery,and now only the edges need to be finished.

The main part of the fabric has the date stamped on it: 1927. I think this must be longest running UFO. When I work on something old like this, I always wonder who the person was that purchased the piece originally.

The interesting bit is that I could not wait to do more work with this incredible fabric. I procured more linen and better thread; now I am totally hooked and I can't seem to stop.

Here is an almost finished corner. The kit also came with 4 napkins that are supposed to be inserted in the top of the lantern. The lanterns were embroidered on the gold linen first and then sewn to the background using the needle turn appliqué technique.