Down Memory Lane Monday - applique

While  reading one of the quilting blogs recently, I was reminded that I once ventured into the realm of needle turned applique.    It came about when a friend was unable to complete a workshop and asked if I would sit in for the remaining lessons. So with the permission of the teacher I came to learn something quite new to me.

This the result a quilt for my oldest grandaughter

After that I became quite ambitious and thought I would continue, but no quilt eventuated for my bed just a lot of squares that turned into cushions.  These are what  I have left ...the rest have been  gifted.

 

There was a time when I thought I would dip my toes into patchwork, and what followed was a frenzy of stitching which resulted in the following efforts.

First quilt

scrappy strip quilt

pansy quilt

Not much progress eventuated into quilting after that, because  it was about the time that I discovered art so my mad frenzies were then  directed into paint and canvas, although in the end I always return to the more calming love of embroidery.

Down Memory Lane Monday - creative embroidery

I have no doubt a lot of my followers will remember these creative embroidery pictures.  Creative embroidery allows you a lot of freedom to go wherever the fancy takes you, which suits me because I am more comfortable with being able to please myself on which direction I take.

Creative embroidery also allows a free rein when it comes to using stitches from other techniques in a different way.

this was an exercise in applique and I used a seed pod for a design.  I then cut it out and frayed the linen edges and....

turned it  into this

with the taffeta 'flowers' and burnt the edges with a candle to melt them.  the leaves are threads sprinkled onto silk and covered with organdie fused over the threads.

I used various threads to demonstrate some stitches, and turned it into a wild abstract garden

An exercise in couching I called this "Night Wave"

My stitchin fingers friends will remember this .  It is a needlepainting of a West Australian Wattle tree.  I lost count of the french knots when I got to 2000...there are knots on knots to give it a textured look and give dimension to the picture. The I used wool threads, mainly, with a change in some of the grasses.   The background is linen.   I like the way  this  shows up the vastness of the countryside over in the West with the effect of the wide expanse of blue sky.

More next week

Memory Lane Monday- Blackwork

Hi ladies, time for another "Down Memory Lane" post.   Oops! Who was that said today was not Monday....well so it isn't.  Never mind, I have been away so it wont matter being a day late.

This week I wanted to add some photos of  blackwork from my old blog. Blackwork  is another style of embroidery I learned from Ada who I have mentioned before.  I have just begun a bag with Blackwork in colour on the front, but it is too early to show.

Below are a few  photos from my old blog of projects I have worked on in the past.

Blackwork chesspiece. i will put up the individual designs at a later date.

The chesspiece set into a glass top table

A bag I use to keep my black perle threads in

needlecase decorated with blackwork

Contemporary blackwork inspired by Pat Langford

2 of several bookmarks I made with some in colour

blackwork in colour

Memory Lane Monday - Schwalm Embroidery

Some years ago, I had the opportunity to join a group of embroiderers led by a lady called Ada, and I travelled to a town called Maryborough each Wednesday which was about an hour drive from home.

In her book Schwalm Embroidery Techniques and Designs, Christine Bishop a well known and respected embroiderer from South Australia, writes in her introduction about the history of Schwalm Embroidery.  It is a book well worth having in your library.

She writes that Schwalm is a form of late eighteenth to nineteenth century whitework embroidery which incorporates surface stitches, pulled fabric, drawn thread, needlelace and needleweaving.   Traditional design efforts are based on the 'tree of life'..which include hearts, tulips, the sun, pine cones, flowers, fruit, leaves, tendrils and the pigeon or dove.

So here are photos of my efforts at this wonderful style of embroidery which I love and get a lot of satisfaction from.

close up of supper cloth design

Corner design of centre of  large white cloth

Cushion

Cushion

Heart design on cushion

Come visit next Monday for another down memory lane

Memory Lane Monday -Crazy Patchwork -The beginning

Somewhere in cyberspace is the blog I first wrote up for today....wouldn't you think  blogger would be kinder to me on my birthday today of all days. (I am 74...lets hope the years hasten slowly from now on)  Oh well here we go  again....

As I have been getting older I tend to reminisce more about the "good old days", and times past.  I was thinking about my stitching journey and where it began, and so have posted photos of 'the beginning'.

When I was a young girl all girls learned basic embroidery or 'fancywork' as it was called, at primary school. Our teacher was a  Miss Suttee. (dont ask why I remember her)  

In those days girls prepared their "Glory Boxes/Troussou" when they were teenagers in preparation for their future marriage.  Emboidered doileys and duchess sets were popular, and we purchased the sets which were   stamped designs on linen.  

Not long ago I passed on to my daughter some I had embroidered way back then,   that my mother had kept and used for years.  The linen must have been of very high quality  because these worked duchess sets and doileys in good condition, are now prized by embroiderers and textile artists to  for use  in new creations.

In 1992 I discovered embroidery again, when I saw a crazy patchwork bear in a Craft Supply shop in Gympie owned by Debbie Mercer who is now the resident tutor at All Threads Embroidery in Brisbane. I signed up for a workshop and have not stopped since. Which only proves it is never to late to learn.

Prior to the workshop, I thought I could work out this "crazy patchwork stuff" so proceeded to cut up pieces of fabric into shapes and tried putting them together like a jigsaw....you dont have to laugh I did  that mtself when I discovered the correct way.   It turned out ok in the end though.

It wasn't easy getting all those bits to fit in

This was the cushion from that first workshop in 1992

Another cushion I made

The crazy bug had really bitten me by this time, and i began making pieces to fit into jewellery box tops.

Cq bags were next on the agenda.

This became a clutch purse.

Then came the bears....

These are just a selection...a lot of work I have produced happened before the era of digital cameras.   I am definitely going to have to get a scanner to update these records.

Memory Lane Monday - Reef Embroidery

I have decided to have a Memory Lane Monday, and post some photos that were on my previous blog.  Have read how to bring over the photos and posts from my previous blog, but it looks a bit scary and still having cowardly streaks when it comes to technology think this is the easier way to go until I get my friendly IT man to help.

 You might like to take a trip down memory lane and browse through some of the Reef Embroidery Photos.

Click the photos to see them larger.

Everyone will remember the big underwater picture