Tiree

This is a felted, embroidered and embellished piece I made for my Dad.  It was inspired by the colour of the sea on the lovely island of Tiree, the outermost of the inner Hebridean islands here in Scotland, and one of my favourite places.

I decided to try a free-er, more organic feel to the boundaries of the piece, so I took my Dad's advice and tried working to a roughly circle shape.  I made the felted base with my embellisher from all sorts of different fibres - wool roving, Wensleydale locks, angelina fibre, bamboo fibre, tencel fibre, silk tops, silk throwsters waste, cotton nepps, silk fabric, cotton scrim, muslin, and I also trapped 3 tiny cowrie shells from Tiree onto the surface in pale organza.

Then I embellished the surface felt further with all kinds of things.  I used lots of different threads (rayons, silks, chenille, slubby, fine, cottons, linens) to give more texture, by couching and hand embroidering in bullion, French knot, feather, chain, stem, running and sorbello stitches.

French knot stitch and one of the cowrie shells

Bullion stitches and couching

Feather stitch and chain stitch

I also added some needlelace pieces in wave-like shapes for extra height and varation.

Needlelace pieces

I used a 12 inch wooden embroidery hoop to frame the piece.  I really enjoyed making it and choosing how to embellish it.  The only difficult thing was knowing when to stop!

Needlelace

I've been looking for ways to add texture and 3-D-ness to my embellisher work.  I came across the concept of 'stumpwork' during my internet research - I had never heard of it before, and was intrigued by the name, so I bought this book.   Apparently there's a lot of stumpwork in the Bayeux Tapestry, which I remember going to see as a child on a family holiday to France - a totally amazing piece of work.

The book also gives a basic introduction to a technique called needlelace, which is a cross between sewing, embroidery, tatting and lace-making.  I decided to try to learn how to do it, using the book as a guide.  The instructions were really clear, and it all made sense to me, amazingly (usually my spatial awareness is pretty awful - hence the lack of knitting skills!) - so I've been practising this new technique, hoping to add some needlelace pieces into the fibre works I'm making for Christmas presents.

To make a piece of needlelace, you need to have a firm boundary, which you couch down, and you need to work out the final shape first.  I started with an easy rectangle!

You work on a 'pad' of fabric, with waxed paper on the top to form a tough surface to work against.  Once you've finished the lace part, you sew buttonhole stitch all around the border, and then cut off the couching threads to release the piece.

I tried a piece with space-dyed threads too, which seem to work quite well:

And finally, I realised I have been very remiss in not yet posting any pictures of my crafting partners-in-crime.  Well I say partners, more thwarters really.  Particularly if it involves eating, hiding, or sitting on what I am trying to work on!  This one is Rubedo, or Mr McGruber as he is more commonly known.