Herringbone Stitch

Most of the Group had managed to attempt some Herringbone Stitch samples.  The one above is a continuation from the previous month working on a leaf.  The vein has been completed using several variations of the stitch.

Think there was some misunderstanding about the stitch with this one!  It is actually Feather Stitch so she is now ahead for next month.

Two examples of using Herringbone Stitch to add texture and colour to a printed background with a landscape picture and a close up of a bee's wing.  Both are work in progress.

The whole aim of this monthly challenge is to do as much as each person has the time for or can achieve.  This is alovely example of this.

There seems to be an overall colour theme in this person's work and yet another lovely example of what can be done with a simple stitch.

Plain calico was used as the base for this final sample together with several types of thread.  After stitching the piece was dyed with Procion dye using Antique Gold and a dash of black.

Stitch Samples

Discussions at previous meetings about stitch sampling done for City & Guilds prompted one member to look out a couple of their samples from that time.  The one below is a daffodil bulb in couched stitches.

Sue Dove Workshop

Two members of the group had attended the Sue Dove Workshop in the past month and had brought their artwork and resolved pieces to show us all ...

I believe they were encouraged to collage lots of bits of paper randomly to which was added oil pastels.  They then had to chop them up and rearrange them.

 Artwork above (not Van Gogh we were told) and stitched piece under construction below

 Artwork inspired by Angie Lewin and below the finished stitched piece

Chained Feather Stitch 02

Several members of the group had samples to show for Chained Feather Stitch

 Lovely layering on this sample and the inclusion of beads and sequins

 Standard stitch and experimentation ...

 Couching another thread and as a filling stitch (very hard work!)

 A bit of twin needle machine stitching to provide guidelines and then handstitch added

A very brave attempt at curved chained feather stitch - not for the feint hearted, and ther inclusion of small red beads

This was lovely to see.  A template made from an earlier exercise is to be used for the centre of this sample and will be filled with all the other stitches over the months.

Chained Feather Stitch 01

Hope some of you have remembered we are doing a stitch a month.  I have tried using linen thread, stranded cotton, crochet cotton, angora wool and normal wool.  I am now going to colour it with Inktense to see what result I get.

A Stitch A Month - February

Having discussed embroidery stitches at the past two meetings everyone agreed it would be useful  to create a stitch sample relating to their own particular 'Line' topic.  Each month a member of the group is to take a turn to propose a stitch to be undertaken either at the current meeting or as homework prior to the following meeting.  As it happened a stitch book which had been created as part of C&G studies was brought along for everyone to see, however, the format and size of the current stitch samples was entirely left to the individual.

The stitch for this month was to be Chained Feather Stitch and several examples are shown below.

Fabulous February

Several members of the group were missing, however, everyone made use of the time to get on with some stitching.  'Show and Tell' revealed some excellent work from all those there ...

This person was missing when we did this exercise and has since done some 'homework' and created a page in her sketchbook.  Most effective and she had found it useful too, providing another way of looking at things.

Never gave up on a piece of work ... this was one of the pages produced when we used a reed as a pen and some black ink to draw with.  It had been sploshed with water and allowed to dry.  It has now been chopped up and rearranged to create this fantastic sketchbook page.

Apologies for the poor reproduction of these sketchbook pages, however, this very 'arty' member of our group had lost her mojo and, using her own photographs, she stitched a small sample using just 12 stitches and found her love of stitch had returned.  She then went on to produce the 'inchies' shown further below.

These bottles espied by one of our ladies had nicely linked in with the previous month's exercise. She then went on to machine stitch the small sample on the right, very reminiscent of Zentangles?

A small book (Fun with Collage) acquired for pence and written by Jan Beaney provided the inspiration for the piece on the lefthand side of this sketchbook and a small handmade greeting card shown at the previous meeting had encourage this person to have a go at couching using coffee stirrers!  Well done you!

We have discussed the importance of learning embroidery stitches at several previous meetings and it was therefore a surprise when this person found herself producing these 'Inchies' using different stitches at a meeting of a separate group in which she participates.

The seashell pages from last month have now expanded into more sampling and were lovely to see. Discussion followed on how to reproduce them in stitch and 3D.