Cathartic Embroidey

I have at last finished an applique embroidery that I began in October knowing I would be returning to the UK very shortly to nurse my lovely father through his last weeks. Now back in the US I have set too to finish all the work I started before I begin any new projects. This is quite a large embroidery and very much about knowing you are going to meet a difficult time.

Eric the Cat

I have just come across a photo of a embroidered work that I sold a while back and have realised that this was the perfect scale to make my stitched images. I now need to try and figure out what size it was and get back on track.

Large Embroidery Finished - Nip from a Cat

After an epic battle with my sewing machine (most of the problems could have been solved by oiling and cleaning) I have finally finished another large picture. I still need to stretch it as this one is far to big to become a cushion but I am so thankful to be able to move on. I am trying to be very disciplined and not start a new work until I have finished the one I'm working on, I have to do this because I would never finish anything!

 It has sparked ideas and ways to move forward with many technical problems solved. I stopped the unstitched areas of the picture from distorting by bonding white fabric onto the back of the work, this kept the fabric weight and stitch tension fairly even throughout the embroidered images. So where on each figure there isn't coloured applique on the front there is white applique on the back. I am still trying to work out the perfect scale to make the image so I can retain the detail of the stitched drawing, this scale is a bit large as a lot of the stitched line detail blends away as you move back to view it but I am getting there.

Finished Orville and Emu

I have finished my massive embroidery at last! Had many finger injuries along the way, got so sick of it and almost threw the whole thing away and almost did the same to my machine as it was playing up continually. I think that this was stretching the capability of my cheap machine to it's absolute limits. Blame the tools!

I have decided to call it 'British Blokes with Birds' and have entered it into a fiber exhibition in Annapolis, now shall wait to see if selected.

Aghhh so much sewing! Thankfully I am back to making wooden things for the next few days.

A Stitched Doodle

I began embroidering these characters without an end image in mind.

It is quite big and took a few days so I was really disappointed that the end result looked so horribly twee. A good lesson in how important it is to plan before doing anything. I have been thinking hard how to save it and some bits I like: the flowers and the characters expressions. I think my main dissatisfaction is that it looks a bit too much like something that a machine could make and lacks the freedom of human drawing.

No it is just horribly twee, PLAN before you work!

I have tried dying it in tea to see if it would soften the contrast and bring out some of the lines. Marginally better but still too flat, I do like the dead flower.