The Challenge

The top third is the first stage - simply seaming black and white strips of fabric together.

The middle section has been cut a few times and re-arranged, twice.

The bottom section has been cut, re-arranged and re-stitched until I could not cut through the layers any more.

It was interesting to see that although I had originally started with a wider strip of fabric on the third section, the resulting surface was comparatively tiny because of the amount of seams involved.

Never mind how disconbobulated it became, there were still beautiful patterns emerging on both the back and the front of the new surface.

Chapter 10 - Piecing - A Method of Cutting and Seaming

The exercise was caried out in paper first. This gave better insight into what I was trying to achieve and the problems I might face when working with fabric. I was able to experiment with ideas and find out what worked, and what didn't.

 For the fabric sample, two lengths of fabric, 15cm x 90 cm were joined, wrong sides together, and the seam was frayed and pressed open.

The second cuts were made vertically, alternate strips were flipped, then the panels were joined, right sides together, and the seams pressed open.

 The third cuts were diagonal, the panels rotated, then joined together, wrong sides together, and the seams pressed to one side.

 Vertical cuts were made through the previous stage, panels were re-arranged and joined right sides together with frayed fabric sewm into the seams.

 Horizontal cuts were made. Panels were re-arranged and staggered. The seams were then decorated with folded triangles.

Linda Miller

I was really excited to be doing a workshop with Linda Miller and the Wolverhampton ladies, but struggled with my promise to myself to keep everything within my Module 2 theme. After the African influence of the Mary Sleigh meeting, however, it occurred to me that I could do a zebra, with its lovely stripes, and keep to the theme of black, white and rusty coloured (bleached black!), whilst practicing my machine embroidery!

THE ZEBRAS by ROY CAMPBELL
From the dark woods that breathe of  fallen showers,
Harnessed with levels rays in golden reins,
The zebras draw the dawn across the plains
Wading knee-deep among the scarlet flowers.

We had a lovely day. Linda is a really nice tutor. Very friendly, encouraging and helpful. Everybody ended up with excellent results.

Mary Sleigh

Joined Wolverhampton Embroiderers Guild. Its an hour away, but firstly, I wanted to be a member of the Guild again, and secondly, their programme this year looks excellent. My challenge, however, is to use inspiration and influence from lectures and workshops and incorportate the ideas into whatever chapter I am working on in C&G! 

On Saturday I went to see a lecture by Mary Sleigh. She gave a talk about her inspiration from African and Indian cultures and textiles. She had many examples of beadwork, kantha, and raffia cloth.

The raffia cloth samples were strip woven. As raffia is taken from palm leaves, the length of the fibres is determined by the length of the leaf, therefore, the warp and weft will always be quite short, therefore a large raffia cloth will always be sewn together in sections. The patterns used are very similar to the strip patchwork patterns developed in this chapter.

Some strips were stitched as a resist (as in shibori) and then dyed with indigo. Others were black, tan or natural. Again, very similar to the colours used in this chapter.



dyed fabric using stitch resist (shibori)



seminole patchwork by Kate Pike

Images taken from Mary Sleigh's book, 'African Inspirations In Embroidery'

Sketchbook day 4

A pathetic attempt at a lemon using aqua pencil

Sketchbook day 3

berberis with fineline pen

fucshia with fineline pen

Sketchbook day 2

fuscia in charcoal pencil

Japanese Maple in charcoal pencil

Sketchbook day 1



Oh, dear! I'm soooo far behind! But here we go.....

masking tape



tissue paper

glue

emulsion paint

Chapter 9 - The Fibonnacci Sequence and Golden Section

Fibonnacci was a mathematician who devised a formula of proportion. It is a series of numbers which is the same ratio found in natural patterns such as sunflower heads, pinecones, leaves and trees.

The series is based on the sum of the two previous numbers, ie 0+1=1, 1+1=2, 1+2=3, 2+3=5, 3+5=8, 5+8=13, 8+13=21 etc.

The Golden Section comprises 2 small squares, side by side. Next to this is another square that is the same width as both tiny squares. Moving around the centre in a spiralling direction, is another square which is the same size as the previous two, and so on. By drawing a diagonal line across the shapes (see 2077) a spiral is formed, as can be found in fossils and shells.

The formula creates a series of rectangles in a beautifully proportioned arrangement and makes a good formula for designing with simple shapes.

Chapter 8 - Not What it Seams!

 extra fabric inserted into seam and frayed

 the reverse of the previous sample also gives an interesting, much neater 'piped' effect

 a further experiment with 'neat' inside a tatty seam / frayed fabric added to a 'neat' seam / 'neat' inside a tatty seam

 extra fabric frayed, then cut and pieced to experiment with joins

 wider fabric added and heavilt frayed. This could be knotted or beaded to give further interest.

 extra fabric added to seam, then cut into strips, The extra fabric was then cut at an angle, frayed, and machined down. The strips were then pieced together.

 short strips of frayed fabric sewn into seam.

knotted string

 

 folded triangles of contrasting fabric

 this zip would have had much more impact if it had metal teeth

 tabs; these could have cord running through - see below

 frayed scrim

 Ribbons

The top one is decorated with machine stitching, the bottom is different widths of fabric, layered and stitched together.

Cords

knotted,

 twisted & machine zig-zagged,

several fabric strips twisted & machine zig zagged (this was probably too chunky as the zig zag stitch was not quite wide enough to stitch across the twisted strips),

knots in a bunch of fabric strips,

twisted & machine zig zagged, then knotted

Toggles