Fibre+Needlework

Books: Stitch magic + Drawn to stitch

by kath_red on November 25, 2011

in Books, Fibre+Needlework

November: Month of books at Whipup.net

Stitch Magic: A Compendium of Sewing Techniques for Sculpting Fabric into Exciting New Forms and Fashions By Alison Reid, published by STC Craft/A Melanie Falick Book (April 1, 2011).

Stitch magic is as the title says a compendium of techniques. There are a few projects showing off the techniques, but primarily the techniques are stand alone for you to use as you will.

For example cut fabric shapes, can be used in a variety of ways to enhance and decorate a simple design. Different methods of cutting and attaching are discussed, as well as which fabrics will work best with this technique – then you can make a belt and a place mat using what you have just learned. Next you learn about folded shapes and can decorate a bed throw (pictured above) using this striking yet simple technique. Pleating, pintucking, quilting, cording, and smocking all are designed to take you from simple sewing to more detailed and complex sewing. It’s time to move up to the next level.

Drawn to Stitch: Line, Drawing, and Mark-Making in Textile Art by Gwen Hedley, Interweave Press (USA) (October 12, 2010), Batsford (UK) and distributed in Australia through Capricorn link.

Textile artist Gwen Hedley, takes the most basic of drawing concepts – the line – and explores it with stitching. The first two chapters of Drawn to stitch, discuss materials and techniques (collage, weaving, sewing, printing, and drawing), and this then leads in to Chapter three which Gwen Hadley describes as “the kernel of the book”. This third chapter is visually stunning. Gwen uses examples of textile art and deconstructs the techniques used. This chapter showcases sketches, inspiration images and samples of work when discussing how a certain piece of work came into being. The final chapter – my personal favourite section – takes line drawings and sketches and shows how they can be interpreted in stitch.

This book is not only visually stunning and an essential manual for fibre and textile artists but also for others looking for a different perspective on drawing – it is part instructional manual, part workshop and part inspirational journal.

Examples of Gwen Hedley’s work – from her sketchbooks

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Book: The Art-Full Tree

by KateG on November 6, 2011

in Books, Fibre+Needlework, Historic Craft, Holidays, Paper+Mixed Media, Sewing+Fabric

November (and a little bit into December) is book month at Whipup.net

The Art-Full Tree; ornaments to make.  Jan Gilliam and Christina Westenberger.  The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2011.

If your thoughts are turning to decorating your tree this year, you might like to have a look at The Art-Full Tree, which is inspired by objects in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum.

The book begins with a quick history of the museum, that was started by Abby Aldrich Rockerfeller who started collecting and exhibiting folk art in the 1920’s, at a time when common crafts and amateur arts were not highly valued.  She left her collection to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and this collection forms the core of the current Folk Art Museum in Willamsburg, Virginia.

The museum has had a long and treasured tradition of decorating a holiday tree every year with ornaments made by staff, volunteers and guests of the museum.  Some of these ornaments are inspired by items in the collection, and others are based on the skills of each contributor.

The Art-Full Tree presents 33 ornament projects that have been inspired by some of the most popular items in the museum collection.  The book is an interesting combination of museum catalogue, inspiration notebook, project instructions and stitch guide and template sections.

Each project features the original artwork, with a short history of the item and some information on the artist or style of art.  There is a very detailed materials list, and step by step instructions and photographs on making each ornament.

There is a wide range of crafting techniques used in the creation of the ornament projects, including needlepoint, paper craft, punch needle embroidery, foil work, metal punching, painting and collage.  My favourite ornaments are Recycled-Card star (inspired by a compass design quilt), Scherenscnitte Birds (inspired by a cutwork picture), and Aluminium Butterfly (inspired by a metal weathervane).

I really like the process of taking a formal artwork in a formal setting, that is meaningful to the people around it, and appropriating all or part of the work to inspire the creation of anther objet, in this case tree ornaments.  I feel that readers of The Art-Full Tree will be inspired to look around them, in their local museums, public spaces, or around their own treasured and meaningful objects, and to create ornaments for their own family trees that are small and perfect reminders of things that they love.

To win a copy of The Art-Full Tree, please leave a comment on this review.  The comments will be open for 72 hours, and a winner will be selected at random.  Good luck!  Congratulations to Becky!

About the reviewer: Kate is a busy mother of four with many craft projects on the go, including, but not limited to, crochet, knitting, sewing, dyeing, paper making, spinning, felting and bookbinding. Kate has challenges in the areas of finishing things, saying no and craft supplies storage. She also has a very very patient and tolerant husband.

DISCLOSURE: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation PROVIDED WHIPUP.NET REVIEWER KATE WITH A FREE REVIEW COPY.

 

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Guest blogger series | Hidden message glow in the dark embroidery

by contributor on October 14, 2011

in Fibre+Needlework, Geek Crafts, Guest blog series2 2011

Guest blogger: Devon from Miss Make blog.

Hello! I’m Devon, an avid maker, baker and nature lover currently navigating through my 20’s in Los Angeles. I originally started my blog Miss Make when I started working at the Urban Craft Center just to show friends and family all the cool stuff I was learning how to do. I now teach sewing and quilting there, and I’m admittedly a little obsessed with using my blog to spread the love and knowledge of making stuff to any and all remotely receptive audiences.

Hidden message glow in the dark embroidery

It is a plain and simple truth that if something glows in the dark, it’s inherently cooler.

Whether it’s an action figure, stars on a bedroom ceiling or the little hands on your watch face, there’s something extra captivating about that magic green glow from within. [Mini science lesson: It’s actually not magic, it’s compounds known as phosphors that ‘trap’ electrons from light beams and slowly release them in the minutes and hours after exposure.]

The last time I was visiting the Urban Craft Center, my crafty happy place, I saw that they had added some glow in the dark embroidery floss to their shelves.

I obviously bought some immediately. I mean, it glows in the dark.

Because it looks so much like regular white floss – you only see that telling greenish aura if you’re really looking – I thought it would be fun to mix it in with white and create a secret message that you can only see in the dark.

This little embroidery project is quick, super easy and has lots of squeal appeal [that “ooh!” when people see the hidden message]. I’m by no means an embroidery expert. My skills basically end at being able to thread a needle and tie a knot. But when this was done, in about an hour no less, I wanted to show everyone I knew. [“No seriously, go hold this and stand in the closet, trust me!”] It would be the cutest thing to leave under the bedside lamp of a loved one so that they see it when they turn out the light.

I made a pattern that you can download here for free. You can find glow in the dark floss online, just do a search. I used DMC Mouline E940. The rest of the supplies you can easily find at your local craft / fabric store.

Directions:

  • Trace pattern onto desired fabric with transfer paper, chalk pencil or disappearing pen.
  • *Tip: If you want to transfer the pattern to dark fabric, tape the fabric to a bright sunny window with the pattern behind it and you’ll be able to see and trace. Or, see my blog post about making a light box with a few standard household items and trace it that way!*
  • Put the fabric in a 6” embroidery hoop. Using the glow in the dark floss, embroider all the lines that are red on the pattern. One long stitch per line is enough.
  • Switch to regular white floss. Embroider all remaining lines.

Charge your project under a lamp for a few minutes, find a dark space and marvel.

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Guest blogger series | It Ain’t Only About The Flies

by contributor on October 12, 2011

in Art+Design, Fibre+Needlework, Guest blog series2 2011

A crafty type and a lover of mischief, a whim, a ‘Why Not?’. Tania is also a mum of three, a wife, a graphic designer, a juggler extraordinaire (in training). You’ll find her over at Myrtle & Eunice, celebrating her crafty hits, confessing the misses and always bewildered by the pile of dirty washing.

It Ain’t Only About The Flies

It’s not that I’m obsessed with flies, cos I’m not. Certainly, if you happened to refer to the November page of this year’s Whipup calendar,  you’d turn to look at me all sideways and squinty and doubtful-like. But THAT fly – the one composed of a bazillion stitches, was really all about the obsessive joy in (finally!) mastering the french knot. THIS fly, the one above, was all about the sudden fascination with the crafty potential of fly screen.

I almost did my eyeballs in. Crafting with fly screen is like crafting blind. The grids of tiny squares appear to move and intersect, creating a moiré effect. Half the time you can’t tell which is shadow, or which is the surface you’re working on. And it’s a SHOCKER to photograph. Navigate the light, the shade, the shadows cast, the greying effect of the mesh, the disappearing into-backgrounds, then give up in a huff. Put away your camera, live it in real time.

In real time – and you’ll probably have to trust me on this – it is possible to appreciate the delicate intricacies of embroidered fly body hair.

As a crafty type who never knows when to leave well enough alone, I couldn’t help but try my hand at cross-stitching a flying fly…

…which in one fell swat, becomes a cross-stitched, well past-his-prime fly.

It struck me that flies were not the only obvious subject matter. Too busy losing focus to fly screen, to notice teetering laundry piles, a disaster kitchen, and an impressive spider web population inhabiting window frames, it finally dawned upon me. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

While the bug lovin’ middle kid is chuffed to bits with his fly-eating, window-inhabiting spider,

I have been forced to concede to the Mr’s long-held theory: not one part of this house is safe from the craft.

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Guest blogger series | Creative nostalgia

by contributor on October 3, 2011

in Fibre+Needlework, Guest blog series2 2011

Laura Bray is a designer, writer and lifestyle expert. She inspires creative women to live a life of balance & simplicity by sharing her modern twist on traditional home arts. Whether you stitch, cook, are raising children, or just want to be a better housekeeper, you are sure to find great tips and tutorials on her blog.

Creative Nostalgia™ With Laura Bray

Is there a woman alive who doesn’t struggle to have it all? We want to juggle all our roles in life. We want to be a good wife, mother, housekeeper, crafter, and more but time doesn’t always cooperate and we end up abandoning some part of us. All too often, it is our creativity.

My mother once told me of a conversation she had with my great-grandmother (her grandmother). She was complaining to her grandmother about how busy and difficult her day had been. Feeling foolish, she apologized, saying she couldn’t imagine what my great-grandmother must have had to do as a young mother, without the modern conveniences of life. My great-grandmother replied  saying that in her day, there were no washing machines, so no one expected her to get anything done except for laundry on ‘Wash Day’. No easily accessible grocery stores meant that Thursday was ‘Market Day’ and everyone knew that was all that would get done that day.

When my mother told me that story, I experienced a deep revelation regarding my own expectations and how I use modern, ‘time-saving’ conveniences to make myself crazy instead of make my life easier. Didn’t we invent all these machines and gizmos to save time? Instead of allowing us more leisure time, we use them to get more and more done in less time. What if I applied my great-grandmother’s lifestyle, but implemented the use of modern machines? Would I have more time? An experiment was born.

I’ve adopted what I like to call a Creative Nostalgic™ lifestyle. Like my great-grandmother, I do laundry on Mondays. That’s all I expect myself to accomplish. I don’t have to wash anything by hand, so my laundry chores are done in a few hours in the morning, leaving me the rest of the day to play in my studio or go on adventures with my daughter. And so goes my week;

  • Monday is Wash Day
  • Tuesday is Ironing Day
  • Wednesday is Sewing Day
  • Thursday is Market Day
  • Friday is Cleaning Day
  • Saturday is Baking Day
  • Sunday is Rest Day

By the end of the week, everything that needs to get done in the house is completed, yet I’ve had plenty of time to be creative and focus on my other roles as a wife, mother, business woman, crafter and friend. Sometimes, I even implement creative projects that match my day’s chores. If it’s market day, I might sew a few fabric produce bags from vintage curtains to take with me to the grocery stores.

My experiment is working too! I don’t feel overwhelmed. I am able to nurture my family without sacrificing myself and my art. It all started with a short phone conversation between a loving great-grandmother and a wise young mother and, today, I encourage you to listen to the past with nostalgia, and then craft a better future.

To celebrate my visit with all of you on whipup.net today, I’ve created a little set of embroidery images that embody the spirit of my Creative Nostalgia™ Days of the Week. I used them to create a fabric cover for a notebook for my to do list. They would look darling on tea towels as well!

Click on the image to save and then print the embroidery designs.

Enjoy!

 

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