A Filet Dragonfly

Behold my filet dragonfly! I am very proud of him as he is my own. Drawn on paper, transferred to a graph, then worked onto my own hand made mesh.

The mesh is made by drawing two threads, leaving two threads, in a pattern, both vertical and horrizontal. The remaining threads are then whipped together for strength. Making  this mesh takes time.

Using my dragonfly graph, I then worked out a weaving plan for linen stitch. This weaving plan has to be precise, as one incorrect turn of the needle, or one skipped over or under, will throw the rhythm of the linen stitch out.

Watch this space as there will be more filet to come.

Coral Calypso - an Exhibition

A week ago, my local embroidery group held an exhibition. We only hold one once every five years so that there can be enough work to show off a really fabulous display. I personally had 10 pieces in this one, the most I have had in any exhibition I have been involved in. So here I will show you the ten, some you have seen before, some not, and some you have seen in progress.

Piece 1 - The above white table mat featuring reticella, measuring approx 50cm x 36cm, this piece is my pride & joy. It took five years from conception to completion, including designing, sampling and one failed attempt where at the last minute I changed the design, and didn't think it through before starting to stitch. The consequence was my reticella design wouln't fit the space. You can read about that story here and see the result here. Then there was the twelve months that the piece sat there waiting for me to cut into it. After one failed attempt already, I was scared it would happen again, even with all the extra counting & thread marking I did this time around. Luckilly all that counting paid off & the design worked, to the point that I am extremely proud of the end result.

Piece 2 - Is an experiment in combining pulled and drawn work as well as in design. I had come across a book showing how to create and use mandalas in patchwork, & thought I may be able to use the same concept as a base for some drawn work. The piece of fabric was a scrap that I had aquired from somewhere, and there was not much room for sampling stitches, that is if I wanted the end result to be square. The square also presented a problem with designing, as I found six sided shapes didn't sit well, they needed to be four sided. So I played with a drawing program I have, overlaid a number of four pointed star shapes, then set about eliminating lines until I was happy with the resultant design. Then came the fun of stitching. Pulled work is not something that I have done much of, so the stitching had to be simple. Satin stitch, eyelets & four sided stitch, it is amazing the effects these three simple stitches can have when combined together, used in differnt counts, or used where some threads have been removed. Over all I am happy with the result.

Piece 3 - This little bag is also a combination of pulled & drawn work. It bagan as a holiday project, one where I threw a piece of fabric, some threads, and mabe a book or two for inspiration, into a bag & see what I could come up with. As soon as I started stitching, I realized the fabric was open to pulled work, but I had only brought drawn books with me, so I started on drawn work which kept me busy for my holiday. The pulled work background came later, and the lining & twisted cord came two days before it had to be handed in for exhibiting. Nothing like leaving things to the last minute. Am I happy with it? Mmmmm,......... it's cute and functional and I intend to use it as a little work bag.

Well, the above pieces were all new, the rest have been seen here before, but I will show you them again anyway.

Piece 4 - A cream table mat also started when on another holiday.

Piece 5- My first piece of reticella, which has now been in a few different exhibitions. Might be time to retire this piece, even if I am still very proud of it.

Piece 6 - My Seahorse Sanctuary, which took pride of place by the front door. A piece of creative drawn thread work done a few years back for a course.

Piece 7- My first full piece of Tenneriffe lace. This piece was designed for, and given to a special friend for a special birthday. I so want to do another piece, one for me to keep. A slightly differnt design though.

Pieces 8 & 9 - Bookmarks, both of which are a form of drawn work. The one on the lft is filet, while the one on the right is an all over filling, something that I want to play more with.

Piece 10 - A bobbin lace fish that went to Japan for an OIDFA dispaly. A huge challenge for me to work as he is double sided

For those of you that made it to the exhibition, I hope you enjoyed what you saw. For those of you that didn't, you missed some stunning pieces, so I hope you enjoyed seeing what I had displayed. Anyone see a common theme happening here in my work?



Filet Bookmark

This is the second sample of filet that I worked on the side of my table mat. I showed you the first sample here. This one had a different drawn count than the first one, so leaving slightly larger holes. I've also worked a linen stitch into this one in a pattern that I adapted from Pauline Knight's book "The Technique of Filet Lace". There were no instructions of how to work it, I had to work that out for my self, and it certainly got my brain working!

In retrospect, the linen stitch would probably sit better if I had worked it on smaller holes, but that after all is what samples are for. Something to put in my notes for future reference, and in the meantime I have another bookmark to use.

A Bookmark Sample

When I had the idea of working some filet on the inside of my table mat, I first played with some samples along the side of my piece of fabric. The above book mark is one of those samples & I deliberately made it bookmark size so that it could be useful.

This one is worked by first creating a mesh, withdrawing threads in two directions, then whipping over them to make them strong. As I wanted a special hem finish around the edge, I very laboriously wove all the ends back in to give solid fabric again along the edge. I then worked the filling stitch & finally the hem. Just for the moment I can't place my hand on the reference I used for the filling stitch, but there is one very similar in Moyra McNeil's book "Drawn Thread Embroidery".

A very pretty, useful sample.

Filet

Well, the cream table mat that I mentioned in my last post is finished, well almost. All the stitching is done, & it just needs to be blocked & cut from the remainder of the linen. So you will all have to be patient to see pics.

One of the ideas that I had for this piece was to work some filet in the center. I set myself a challenge way back in November 2007 to try the technique & did so here & here. Filet can be produced a few different ways. It can be crocheted , made with pre-made purchased nets, or on nets made by ones own hands. Adriana over on her blog has shown us some of her stunning examples here, in which the netting is made with a needle & thread, sort of like a fishing net. A different type of net can be made by withdrawing threads from fabric, like in the photo above.

I have tried filet crochet, & working on pre-purchased nets. The crocheting is easy, the purchased nets upset my hands & give me dermatitis, so working on meshes made from withdrawing fabric is my next mission, and was to be included in my cream table mat. However, after working the above sample, I decided that the filet would not suit the border that I had stitched, so scrapped that plan & looked for another filling. That still left me with this sample that I had to find a design to fit the space. It needs to be stitched before I can block my cream table mat as the sample is on the edge of the fabric.

So on Saturday I went searching for a design that would fit. I have graphed it out, & spent hours on the stitching order ( which has to be worked out first). Finally yesterday I got to stitch my little design, ( a practice on my pre-purchased mesh), hours of planning for 5 minutes of stitching! Oh well, I put it all down to practice & the planning maybe won't take so long next time. There should be pics of my practice piece soon & then I will work on the fabric mesh above. All have to be done before I can block my cream table mat.

Filet Lace

Back in November I listed my personal challenges for 2008. One of the things on my list was to have a play with some filet lace. Behold! Challenge complete! The two pieces pictured here are both worked straight from the book "Filet Lace - Stitches & Patterns" by Margaret Morgan. I must admit I was a little scared of trying as I was worried about all that under & over stuff & ending up where you start. It was not as hard as I thought. I am only up to page 40 in the book (there are 168), but I feel like I am ready to tackle a design of my own. The only problem is that the mesh has been very hard on my fingers, giving me a small dose of dermatitis, which I think has come from the dressing that has been used to stiffen the mesh. I will just have to withdraw threads from fabric & make my own mesh to avoid this problem, something that has been an aim anyway.

Deadlines, 2008 Personal Challeges Update & March TIF Thinking

Back in November I set my personal challenges for 2008. The year is ticking along, the deadlines are getting closer & my challenges are well & truely happening so I thought I would post an update.

The wedding is progressing. I have measured two bridesmaids & the bride, made the patterns for the bridesmaid's dress & made one toile. This has been fitted on one BM & changes have been put in order. This afternoon I will start the patterns for the wedding dress.

Quilt No 1 is nearly finished, just a little more quilting then the bind. Yippee! I am at the point that I am tired of working on it so I am glad the deadline is close. ( Only a few weeks.)

Quilt No 2 has fabric bought & washed ready for cutting but that is it. I have a design in mind but that may change. The recipient of the quilt knows how much work I have on & has gladly said it can wait untill the next big birthday. That would be in just over ten years time, so that will give me plenty of time to finish. Nothing like deadlines that move.

The piece of Reticella, yes well.......... we all know the story about that one. For those readers who don't, the story starts here. It has turned into a piece of counted thread work which is well on the way to being finished. It needs to be finished by April 14th for an exhibition. It may just make it.

The filet work has started. I have had a small play with the needleweaving, & linen stitch but that is all. I haven't really the time to play at the moment with so many other looming deadlines.

Then there is the TIF Challenge. I have managed to produce one for January & February. So far so good. I am not sure about March, other things that are higher priority are taking over. This month's challenge can be read here & I have managed to do a little thinking. At the moment I cannot get past the little things in my garden, like the grasshoppers, aphids, worms, spiders, ladybugs, butterflies, beetles, wasps, etc etc. Without these little things, the bigger picture of my garden would not function. They all play a part somehow, from airating the soil, to pollinating the plants, to eating predators.

The one thing that I have noticed about all these small creatures is that they all have spots in some way, shape or form. It might be spots for camouflage, spots for eyes, or spots for decoration. So maybe spots will be the theme for the March challenge.

More Lace

How beautiful are these? I aquired a bundle of old laces on Saturday & in amongst it all were these treasures. I am fairly certain all three pictured are hand done.



The top one is a length of filet around a meter in length. I can see little ends peeking out every so often where the joins have been done. I also have another shorter length in a different pattern.



The middle one is a piece of bobbin lace. By looking carefully I can see a few spots where the twists are just not quite right, a sure sign of being hand made. It is about 80cm long.



The bottom one is a beautiful collar done in Battenburg style. I know this is hand done because of the filling stitches and when I looked really closely, different threads had been used in some parts. I think perhaps the maker ran out of the lovely fine thread she was using & had to make do with what she had on hand to finish. Another thought is that perhaps it has been mended in a few spots & the original thread used not known. More likely this was the case.



A very talented person has made them, I just wish I could have met her so she could teach me how. I will take them all to my local Lace group in a few weeks & proudly show them off. One of our members is very preficient in the history of lace & how it has been made, so she will definately let me know one way or the other how they have been made. Whether hand or machine done, they are still all beautiful & I intend to clean them all & recycle them into something new.