Big Bang Theory xstitch

I made this for my boyfriend's Christmas present, finishing it Christmas Eve afternoon. It's from a pattern from weelittlestitches, which has since been updated to include Amy and Bernadette. I'm still trying to work out how to include them in this hoop, maybe they'll need to be attached at the bottom using ribbons. It was a really fun pattern to stitch, I was in too much of a hurry to finish it to wrestle with the french knots in the text though.

Exhibition!

Today I handed in my tree hoop to the John Hansard Gallery Central in Southampton for the I am the Warrior exhibition, which called for people to bring in creative work for a constantly-evolving display. There's some really interesting work there right now, it's open till 27 April. It's the last exhibition at the gallery, which is an offshoot of the John Hansard Gallery at the university, sadly I didn't even know it existed before now. It's the first place I've displayed my textile work that isn't related to college courses, so I'm quite excited!

Sumptuous Surface Embroidery

I'm currently in the middle of the Sumptuous Surface Embroidery  e-course run by Sharon of Pin Tangle. The terrible picture above is the first piece which had to be in neutral colours to concentrate on the texture. I've still got to do the textured top section and work out what to do with the middle section between the leaves - I can't decide whether to do more low relief pulled work or make it high relief textured. I've learnt lots of new stitches and enjoyed using beads and buttons in my work, even though I've lost as many down the sides of the sofa as I've sewn on.

Metalwork squirrel

In February I went to the Royal School of Needlework for a day course in goldwork, where we started making this squirrel. I had to get up stupidly early to get the train after hardly any sleep, so it involved a huge amount of concentration (as well as being worried about the snow trapping me in London, it didn't even settle but was very pretty). We spent the morning doing the felt padding (more intricate than it looks) then learnt different goldwork techniques in the afternoon. As you can see, I still have a lot of work to do on this, am hoping I haven't forgotten how to...  It should look awesome when it's finished. I'd love to do another course there, despite the ridiculous amount of steps and getting lost in the corridors trying to find the toilets...

Another tree picture

 

I took this on another lunchtime walk, I take far too many pictures of these particular trees as I find the branches so interesting. I keep meaning to base a textile piece on them.

Random lunchtime photo

I took this on a muddy walk through the park near the office last month.

This camera has since died and been returned (corrupted several SD cards) so I'm on the lookout for a decent compact camera (as decent as you can get for £50ish, anyway), as I can't carry my bridge camera everywhere. Any recommendations?

Edward Gorey ballet cat

Edward Gorey ballet cat, a photo by xsilverdaisyx on Flickr.

I made this as part of an Illustration Stitchalong on Flickr - it's based on a drawing of a dancing cat by Edward Gorey. I continued with my tea dying adventures for the backing cotton, most of the stitching is done in split stitch and random satin stitch to get a fur effect. I wanted to do one of his spookier drawings, but I didn't want to put myself under too much pressure time-wise. Besides, I love kitties and ballet...

Other C&G project

Oops, haven't updated for a while, sorry! These are photos of my other C&G project, based on nature and decay.It hangs from a stick and invisible fishing line. The base is calico, with embroidered leaves in various neutral colours, then organza and satin embroidered leaves stitched on top, with burnt edges (I managed to set fire to one using a joss stick...). I added larger holes towards the bottom of the calico, merging it into shredded scrim. All of the fabrics were tea-dyed (luckily Happy Shopper teabags worked as well as PG Tips).

 



 

 

 

Above you can see some details of the satin burnt leaves towards the end of the scrim.

 

The photo above shows the leaves embroidered onto the base calico.



 

 

And here you can see a close-up of the top section, which has smaller holes and more leaves.

 

Overall I'm pretty happy with it, I won't be trying to machine embroider onto organza again for a while though!