January Take it Further Challenge

I have rashly decided to take part in Sharon Boggon's Take it Further Challenge. I tried to do the TAST challenge last year, but once a week was just too much to add to other committments. Hopefully a challenge that only has to be finished once a month will be easier to accomplish. The challenge for January has been posted. I have thought long and hard about it, just whom do I look up to and admire? I have come up with two names.

The first is Ann Stone. I am willing to bet that none of you have heard of her. She was a friend and neighbour for nearly 20 years. I first met her when she and her husband moved into the bungalow opposite. For many years she had been a professional dancer, and now she was able to indulge in her passion for art. Her paintings were amazing, but she had many other skills including stitching, and she was the first person I knew who created art from textiles. Her work inspired me to have a go, and Ann encouraged me on every step of the way, always telling me that I could do it, even when I had serious doubts about myself.

The second is someone I met almost by chance about 5 years later. I was now fully seduced by textiles, but needing a new direction. I was introduced to Vicky Lugg by a fellow stitcher, eventually spending a number of years attending her Masterclass in stitched textiles. Vicky was a very supportive mentor and teacher, her support for all her students going far beyond the call of duty, and enabling each of us to call her our friend.

So what was it about these two ladies that is so appealing? What is it that I particularly admire and wish to emulate? I have to say that it was their vulnerabiltiy. Each was willing to push the boundaries and expose parts of themselves in their work. Sadly, they are now no longer with us, but their inspiration lives on.

I'm not sure I can do this in a month. I'm not sure I'm brave enough to expose my vulnerability! However, I have at least admitted that here, and if I keep working away at it I may achieve something by the end of the year. Thanks for the challenge, Sharon. I'm willing to give it a go.

Oranges and Lemons

This challenge got me thinking. How could I display oranges and lemons without the inevitable shapes. Read how it was done, then have a go and see what you come up with. Leave a comment below if you do do something. (The theme can be anything you like, the object is to try the technique)

The background is black felt, the squares are orange and yellow felt. These were cut at random and well worked onto the black so that it appeared to be just one fabric. I counted out the letters first, applying just enough squares to complete the phrase, but remembering to add one between each word to act a 'space'.

When turned over the shapes were clearly visible from the back which helped. Now to write the message from the back - working from right to left, and remembering to reverse all letters!

As I hadn't written the letters first I just traced each the right way with my finger and then reversed the action with the needles. Tracing it first made sure that I got the letters the right way round. Some were easier to do than others, especially as the space was quite small.

This exercise took about 20 minutes. It was done freehand, and could have been more neatly done if I had drawn the letters on the back before meshing. Have a go and let me know! Any questions - either leave a comment or send an email.

Hearts and Flowers

This was particularly easy to work on. The background and square are woollen blanket, the flowers, pre-felted wool, and the hearts wool/viscose felt. The needles loved the fabric and worked very quickly and easily. Well worth a try. I used the Pfaff again for this challenge.

Patches

Published now as a sample of 'Patches', some of you will have seen it before, it is one I use in workshops. I produced it to prove a point.

This has been through the washing machine and the patches still stay fairly secure. There is no stitching anywhere.



Don't forget the offer in the last post, there is only a week to go!














This is the back. It's difficult to see the texture in this photograph, but this too would make a good background for further stitching.

The Spice Challenge

This is not the easiest way to work on scrim. Scrim is a very flimsy material with an open background that easily works into holes. Triangles are easy to distort and a firmer backing would have helped. The points push through the scrim, and it would also have been easier with a different type of felt. I chose hand-dyed wool/viscose felt and this breaks up if worked too hard.

What I am trying to say is that this really was a challenge. I'm glad I did it as I learnt a lot, even though the result looks really simple.

I am teaching a dyeing course at Missenden Abbey at the end of the month. We will also be covering materials that are suitable for use with the 'embellisher' machines. If you would like more details send me an email

nuvofelt@gmail.com

Spice

I have just run out of time. I am away teaching this weekend, so I won't be able to post this picture until I return. The new challenge will be posted shortly, though.

Emerald

Take bright emerald fibres, place them on a black background and this is the result.



The base colour is all important when working with a specific colour as it will influence the final result. The flowers were pre-felted on the embelliser, trimmed and refelted as they progressed. I then well embedded them into the piece. It was worked from the side that you see and then a little from the reverse.



This is the reverse and the result for which I was aiming. Much more sublte. I have machine stitched the outline, but more stitching will be added later today as it is a class sample needed for tomorrow! I will post a picture of the finished item after the weekend.

Blue

When I set the challenge I was actually being selfish and thinking of myself! I find it very difficult to work in blue, and try as I might nothing seemed right as I worked. You will see that in the end colour won over! You see, BLUE was only the inspiration that got me started!

Layers

I call this effort 'Altered Ego'. It isn't really a self portrait, but it looks more like one than the original artwork! Originally designed with torn paper shapes this was put together with layers of hand-dyed felt, partly felted, then cut back and finally meshed together.

Looking forward to seeing what the rest of you have done.

Take a stitch Challenge 2

Another effort for Take a Stitch Tuesday Challenge. I can't put a link in directly to the challenge at the moment because Blogger won't let me, however I will try again later and you can get to it circuitously by clicking on 'Another effort' above.

Watch this space for 'layers', that too will come later

The new challenge

The challenge for this week has just been posted at
http://needlefeltchallenge.blogspot.com

How about making a New Year's resolution to take part? Layers is fairly easy, let's face it, a piece of felt with something on top constitutes a couple of layers - so how can we make the most of them? If you are stuck, try this and then work from both the back and the front to see what happens. I look forward to seeing some stunning work.

Rainbow

This small sample is just to show you how effective fabric can look when manipulated under a needle-felting machine. Cheap polyester organza was 'embellished' prior to being applied to felt. The surface is much more interesting than before.

Rectangles

Well, not very precise ones, but a sample for the current challenge. Yarns meshed onto white felt, cut into shape and remeshed onto black felt - alternating the top surface.

Do Something

A little late, but here is a response to the 'Do Something' challenge.

Carrier rods have been meshed onto yellow felt. Originally quite hard, the carrier rod has been transformed into something quite soft.

Janome Xpression

Well I have finally had time to try the Janome. All in all I like it. It was only a quick tryout, another one later perhaps, but it handled felt and fibres famously!

Nothing too strenuous for me at the moment, my emotions are elswhere (http://ssshhhitsasecret.blogspot.com)

Good to hear that some of you are accepting the challenge. Keep me posted with how you are getting on http://needlefeltchallenge.blogspot.com. Don't forget, it's open to owners of Babylock, Janome, Bernina - and any other machine etc

If you want a cautionary tale, have a look here. I can relate exactly to this story!
http://www.tonicarroll.com/Sewing%20in%20Micro/Sewing%20in%20a%20microwave.htm

A challenge

I have to be honest, I have no idea how many people read this blog. However, I know that I get emails from all over the world, so they must generate from somewhere. Many of them confess to the fact that they have an Embellisher machine, but that they have never used it. Some of these machines have stayed in their boxes, still there after 2 years or so.

Today I decided that something must be done. The following link will send you to a new blog with a challenge

http://needlefeltchallenge.blogspot.com/

Anyone can take part, but I do hope that some of you will be the ones who have yet to discover the joy of taking the machine out of the box ;-)