Buttons, Beads and Bling: 2013

Monday 21 October 2013

Embroidery Workshop at Abbotsford

Last Saturday I went to a day work shop on embroidery, there we learnt Flame Stitch and Blackwork. It was great fun - although I was the youngest there! Most ladies there had done embroidery or quilting before, or had sewing as a general hobby.
We were given a power point talk about Abbotsford and the ladies who lived there. Abbotsford House is the former house of Sir Walter Scott the famous Scottish poet and novelist. The house is in between Galashiels and Melrose in the Scottish Borders.
He and his wife built the house around an old farm house, and there are many quirks to it - such as the "hangmans door" that was built into a tower outside the guests bedroom window!

The house was full of books - in the study and the living area - all around the walls!

Hand painted Asian Wallpaper

Me in the Asian room.

We were then given a tour of the house by Sandra the educational officer and also by Alison Delaney the embroidery artist - we got both a historical view point and a creative/designer view. We were then told to take pictures of details we found interesting and could some how be put into embroidery.

Here is some pictures of Alison's work:

Blackwork - like cross stitch, but always black on white.

Flame stitch purse with some black work samples.

I had a great day and took pictures of the nice scenery on the walk home:

Cows

The river Tweed.

Rugby club

My attempt on even weave and pearl embroidery thread. I was told the stitches should have covered two holes not one.

Abbotsford also have a facebook page and a website.

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Friday 11 October 2013

Sir Walter Scott

My project is loosely based around Sir Walter Scott - a famous Scottish poet and novelist from the Scottish Borders. His house is between Melrose and Galashiels and is beautiful! It has lovely embroideries, books and decorative plates around the rooms.

My main inspiration is beautiful plates and the patterns in them. I also want to use some quotes from his poetry.

Crochet cashmere plate, printed onto paper and then screen printed with a flower.

Photocopy of crochet plate with screen printed drawing on top.

Abbotsford House

Embroidery at the House.

Tomorrow I will be going to an embroidery class at the House! I am excited we will learn blackwork, silkwork and other historical techniques! We also get lunch =]
I will write a post afterwards - with pictures! Hopefully I will learn alot and can put it into my uni project - we are about to start the fabric development class.

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Thursday 10 October 2013

Week 4 - Uni

Cashmere crochet sample - inspired by this beautiful edge.

Gold crochet edge inspired by the plate edge.

I am now week 4 at uni! Its getting a bit hectic! Here are some samples of work I am doing. Basically my project is inspired by plates and crockery - the colours, form and also designs on the plates. I am combining this with my love for knitted fabric and crochet. I have printed on a few knitted and crochet samples and then worked into them. its taken such a long time! For the next 4 weeks we are starting our fabric development - so the print room and knit studio will be were I will be destined!

Also good news! I am starting up the printing on knit swatches with a lecturer at uni! I did it for a bit in 3rd year, its good fun

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Crochet sample inspired by a lost lid.

Thursday 26 September 2013

Kilbowie Creative Residency

During the summer, I attended a creative residency with the Heriot Watt print technitian.
The project has been running for a number of years and is set in a centre called Kilbowie, Oban.
We had 9 16 year olds in the textile printing group and we showed them how to screen print - with pigments, metalics, foil, and reactive dye painting.
It was great fun! And the kids were all lovely!
Here's some of their work from Oban:

Reactive dye painted Tree with foil and bondaweb leaves detail.

Reactive Dye boat

Sketchbook

Designing their cushion covers on Kodatrace.

Reactive dye screen painting.

Sketchbook page.

Yesterday they came for a day's master class at the university and printed cushion designs that they had created in Oban.
Here is some pictures of their work, which will be displayed in January in North Lanarkshire:

Rose Cushion - Drying

Black and white Cushion back - Freshly Printed.

Castle Cushion front drying

Pigment shape cushion front drying.

Bird Cushion drying.

Another Castle Cushion drying

Boat Cushion covers

Friday 26 July 2013

Pearl Anniversary

My friend's parents have been together for 30 years! And that means its there Pearl Anniversary!
I decided to buy a pearl frame and make an embroidery sample for them as a present. Here's How I got on:

Finished piece in frame.

Close up

Close up of embriodery

Close up of embroidery and embellishment

Close up of frame and edging.

I used different embroidery stitches such as cross stitch, running stitch, back stitch, slip stitch, heringbow stitch. The fabric is linen and I used pearl buttons, beads and silver trinkets to embellish the peice.
Heres a few pictures of the sample in progress:

I made the & way too big!

Writing almost finished!

All done! Just before frame was added!

Well thanks for viewing my blog! :D

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Wednesday 10 July 2013

Lobster Skirt

Close up!

Following my post I put up yesterday, I decided to make another skirt, this time out of 1/2 a metre of fabric. The shop assistant at the fabric store said it wouldn't work. It sort of has and hasn't....
It's not very floaty but it still looks decent and I can move around in it ok.

To pull the elastic through I tapped the end to a pen lid!

Side seam stitched and ironed out.

Sailor Skirt I made yesterday!

Today's lobster Skirt!

Here's the blogger who made the tutorial for this skirt!

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Tuesday 9 July 2013

1 hour skirt

Me in skirt

Well the weather has been so hot here in Scotland! from 22 to 27 degrees in different areas! Today I spent the afternoon in Melrose and bought a nice naughitcal navy fabric with white printed boats, anchors etc. I then found a pattern on how to get a skirt out of 1 metre (yard) of fabric! Here's the link to the blogger who came up with it!

Basically you get a peice of fabric and you fold it in half long ways. then cut down the fold. then take the two right sides and put them together and pin the two shorter sides together at both sides.
Next sew those sides up but at one side leave a 2 inch gap. fold the bottom hem up and iron and sew. then fold 1cm from the top and iron. Then fold the fabric so that the 2 inch you didnt sew are flat against the fabric.and stitch around. thread some elastic through the tube at the top sew the two ends together and basically that it. (check out Meghan's blog its a lot better than how I'm explaining it :S)

Here are the pics tho: