STUMPWORK, a new addiction

After a longer than anticipated wait I am finally teaching myself STUMPWORK EMBROIDERY. 

 Armed with the RSN stumpwork essential stitch guide by Kate Sinton I am now roughly half way through my first piece of embroidery.
http://www.searchpress.com/book/9781844485864/stumpwork

  
I love these RSN guide books because they are so easy to use.
 My way of achieving my design is a little different as it mostly consists of looking at the stitches in the book and picking the ones that appeal.
 I started my design by drawing two lines and stem stitched them, then satin stitched a couple of leaves.

 The blue bell flowers were stitched in single brussels stitch and the larger flower is turkey rug stitch

 Each stitch is so enjoyable, even if some take a little time to master.

 I used single brussels stitch for long leaves, attaching some to the fabric and stitching some of them detached so they began to form the three dimension effect I wanted.

A mix of straight stitch, satin stitch, stem and outline stitch to create the earth and grass.






The photo below shows a side view highlighting the three dimension leaves.

 

Detail of woven picots and detached woven picots being stitched.

 Next step is to embroider completely detached pieces to sew on to complete the work. At the moment I am undecided and have to choose a butterfly or dragonfly to sew

A good look in the cold light of day

Saturday was the first day of military odyssey for this year.  I really like this show because as it covers a large period of history it meant that there was (as always) a nice variety of items on sale.
http://www.military-odyssey.com/index.php?ix=1&iw=251&iz=0

The first thing a saw as we arrived was a beautiful old parasol, been a bit taken with parasols for a while and this one brings my total up to three.  

I got a Christmas present for my niece, a brooch for myself and then it was time to buy fabric ....... lots of fabric. 

Looking at the pile in the cold light of day this morning part of me felt I had got carried away - OVER FORTY METRES OF FABRIC!!!  Not all of it was for me so another part wished I had brought more.  I had sent some pictures to my sister for her to make decisions on and some I just brought to see if she would like it.

 Here is the thing, this show at Detling is once a year, the fabric I got was only £2.00 a metre.  We have a very good fabric shop in Ramsgate and the prices there are good - but not £2.00 a metre good.

This I got to see if my sister would like it to go with her 10 metres of  embroidered cotton and 5 metres of natural lightweight linen.

Left to right :- 7 metres of a heavy brushed cotton type fabric (I was thinking of sharing this); 2.5 metres of white spots which will become a skirt; 5 metres of green & 5 metres of lightweight floral to make fifties style full skirted dresses; 2 metres white cotton for a blouse and finally 3 metres of stripe for hippy trousers and maybe a skirt.

£35.00 for five items of clothing decided on plus the decision needed for the blue.

These three remnant pieces I got with my sister in mind for £1.00.  If she decides not to have them I am sure I can find a use for them.

So lots of sewing to keep me going, especially if saturdays haul is added to the fabric I already have.

GOLDWORK EMBROIDERY PROJECT - the first few stitches

 I HAVE DECIDED TO SPEND some time on my own enjoyment. Over the last few months I have been so concerned with creating items for my on-line shops and the ill fated shelf in Margate that I stopped making things just for fun.  That isn't to say I haven't enjoyed making all the bits and bobs because I have.  I think that I have been neglecting me.  So the goldwork project I started is top of the list.  

With two very good books from SEARCH PRESS http://www.searchpress.com/ 
and a couple of sets of SIESTA FRAMES http://www.siestaframes.com/
 

I have made a start.  The frames seemed to be the best option for setting up my work although I did struggle to get the recommended drawing pins into the wood.  Both books are well written and explain everything clearly - a godsend for a style of embroidery I am new to. If I could only have one of them it would be this one. http://www.searchpress.com/book/9781844487028/goldwork

 This is quite labour intensive but I am enjoying it so much that I am not noticing the time passing. 

This last picture shows the areas where I have used soft cotton thread padding before embroidering over them.  My goldwork at this stage is copper not gold.

ART OR DESTRUCTION?

 I RECENTLY read an article in a craft magazine that gave instructions on how to make a cushion from old embroidered tray cloths, chair covers, doilies and table cloths. The way to do this was to collect these, cut them up and arrange the pieces prior to sewing them together.  

SO MY question as I begin a new project is when does 'upcycling, re-purposing and altering' items stop being art and become wanton destruction.  
I have just purchased this
little wooden pot froma junk shop for £1.00,  as you can see the original design on the lid has been quite badly damaged.  After conversation with my mother we decided it probably dates from the 1930's.  We also decided that the amount of damage that has happened to it means that it will be acceptable to do pretty much what I like to it.  So is this just me being precious
or do others feel the same at the start of a new project?  Is it right that we believe we can improve on the crafts and skills of our ancestors or are we really paying a form of homage to them.


I started to sand this pot and found when I (quite easily) removed the varnish that although the original design would take a lot more effort to banish on the bottom part of the pot the lid has only remnants left.  Not quite sure how to incorporate it and I do not want to paint over.  Some thought is needed.