For Rosemary...

 

Well Rosemary really chose a colour with attitude and it was great fun putting the page together. 

I used a piece of my own handmade felt as a working background again and although I must own to unpicking the stitches a couple of times really enjoyed the raised chain band and was most impressed how very quickly it grew. Add a few beads and a bit of Broderie Anglaise and Bob’s your uncle. 

Margaret

Thank you for joining us throughout the 2021. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year from all the Maids.

For Sue...

 

Sailing away !

Rather an obscure title I hear you say but this piece includes torn map pages and painted bondaweb to represent water. Sues chosen stitches seed and French knots – so very Sue and the colour blue. 

Seventh heaven for me using blue but I hadn’t taken into account how labour intensive both stitches are. Sadly my French knots often became colonial knots but having tried to undo wrong knots I just ploughed on – sorry Sue but I did try! Similar problems with seed stitch – I found stitches were increasing in size and often going in the same direction, having said that I just loved doing this for Sue. I added beads for a bit of ‘shin’ and ‘lift’.

Jenni

For Debbie...

 

In The Deep
Debbie chose Aqua/Turquoise and pistel and herringbone stitch. I bought this flowered fabric at Cowslip many moons ago and this seemed the right time to use it. I have added a baby wipe mop cloth at the top (nothing but the best for Debbie) painted Bondaweb, scrim, felt and sari ribbon. Beads, stars and couched wool also feature. The reverse of this piece is a kitchen roll mop cloth. I cannot bear to throw these and the baby wipes away! How sad am I?
We have now met up and exchanged our pieces. What a delightful time and a brilliant way to keep in touch with best friends.  Rosemary.
 

For Margaret...

 

Front

Back

Margaret had chosen Ecru/natural colours, Running stitch and Back Stitch.

With this in mind I drew a bird and outlined it with a Whipped Back Stitch. I filled the background with Running stitch. The lace was secured with Beaded Running stitch. I then did a whipped Stepped Running stitch and a Double Threaded Running stitch.

I needed something for the wall in my newly painted dining room. Which is now Red and grey. So decided to do a woodpecker and my husband painted the frame in anticipation. I already had the hand dyed background fabric, it just needed a few more trees which I added with Fabrico markers. I also used the markers to colour the main tree. I had a Thermofax of trees which I put along the bottom. It was so long since I had used the screens I had to look up how to use them before starting.

Then using Markal sticks I stencilled the letters down the righthand side. I had been doing the bird for some time whilst listening to a talking book, it was done with a long and short stitch and I admit it didn’t all go smoothly but I got there in the end. It was then appliquéd to the background and stuffed. I used colonial knots for the growth on the tree. And finish with Machine stitching, lace trim and a few buttons.  I’m very pleased with the result. 

Janex

For Jane...

 

This is Jane’s cream and gold page, this is the one that I found the most challenging, but I did enjoy it once I got into the swing of it. The woven circles were ok it was the fiddly insertion stitches!
It makes me think of autumn golds and spiders webs!
I made the woven wheels a few days ago, and the Blandford Cartwheel button, one pattern of a Dorset button. I’ve used felt throughout, either commercial or my own wet felted. This gave me firm edges for the insertion stitches, which are herring bone, knotted herringbone and inserted button hole stitch. Mainly perle thread, with some variegated in there too, and hand dyed vintage lace. It looks rather simple now it’s done, sorry Jane but I hope you’ll like it!
With love
Debbiex

For Jenni...

 

I have used a piece of my own hand made felt as a working background – I love working on felt as it gives a wonderful texture and is just so easy to sew with. 

Using some of my grandmother’s lace and a bit of ribbon and a couple of really cute buttons from my stash I incorporated Jenni’s chosen stitches using cotton threads to keep it natural. A piece of calico on the reverse and job done. I really enjoyed sewing the page and hope it meets the brief.

Thanks for visiting our blog.

Margaret

For Sue...

 

Layered and manipulated background fabrics, hand dyed cottons, silk, scrim and synthetic sheers. Free motion machine quilted. Couched fancy yarns. Seed stitch and French knots in hand dyed threads, silk perle and finer threads. Beads.

Debbie

For Rosemary...

 

I used some of my hand dyed cotton. I drew the pods and did some reverse chain stitch. No problem. However, I found out at the zoom meeting that although the stems look correct on the beaded raised chain band, I have not done the stitch correctly. Maybe that’s why I struggled so much. It was really hard going.
I finished it off with some trim and a button. 

Keep safe Janex

For Jane.....

 

Jane chose fabrics in cream and gold. I used cotton fabrics, dupion silk and gold painted vintage music sheets to make a background with free-cut piecing. 

I'm quite partial of cutting up pieces of my work, so Janes choice of joining/insertion stitch gave me the perfect opportunity to free-cut through the piece and re-join with insertion stitch. Jane also chose woven wheels which I stitched in wool, perle thread and Lana thread, adding a sprinkling of cream and gold beads. 

Thanks for reading

Sue

Vanilla Ice Cream...

 

Margaret chose undyed for her coloured pages, and her stitch selection was running stitch and back stitch. All this simplicity made it quite a challenge somehow! 

Felted background with silk throwsters waste for surface interest. Stitched with a variety of ordinary, threaded or whipped running and back stitch, using undyed cotton and wool threads. Whipped beaded back stitch at the top. 

Debbie

For Jane...

 

Jane asked for cream and gold colours with woven wheels and insertion stitches. It's a long time since I have used either of these stitches so it was "interesting" to try them. 

I have used perle thread throughout for faggoting, lacing with raised chain band and laced blanket stitch. You have to be very careful to keep your place when working woven wheels as it can easily go wrong. Gold fabric was inserted behind the stitches. Machine stitch and beads complete the piece.

Thank you for following us Rosemary.

For Sue...

 

Blue always makes me think of the sea. So I started by making a stamp of several fish using sticky backed foam that I stuck on to some mount board to make it easy to use. I looked out some hand dyed fabric, scrim and a scrap of music paper that I had coloured during a mad dyeing in jam jar session.
I printed a mariners compass onto TAP paper to transfer it to the fabric. And the background evolved from there. A zigzag edge and flowing machine stitching set the scene.
But I had to concentrate so much when it came to the hand stitching because I never normally do french knots I always do colonial knots. But after several false starts I got there in the end. Finishing with single and double seed stitch and a trim of lace.  Janex

For Rosemary...

 

This one just came to me as I was sorting through my black and grey fabrics in my stash. Inspiration came from the backing fabric, which is a Paisley cotton I made myself a blouse and skirt from in the 1980s, which I also wore to our engagement party! You can just see it peeping around the sides. And another piece from an early quillow, with the same sort of flowing swirls and shapes.

A pieced background including some texture magic on silk. Then chain stitch and raised chain band with felt appliqué, to echo and emphasise the Paisley shape. I love the swirly pattern of Paisley, and hope you like this page Rosemary.
With love
Debbiex

For Debbie...

 

Turquoise and Aqua are not colours that I have in my stash so finding suitable colours meant a real rummage! I thoroughly enjoyed using a new stitch (never heard of pistil stitch before) and of course revisiting herringbone stitch was fun. Anyone my age will remember that was the stitch of choice for crimplene dress hems back in the day - I actually winced when I wrote the word crimplene!  Mostly stranded cotton, a bit of perle no 8  and some broderie anglaise, a length of granny's lace she used on nighties and petticoats and 5 heart buttons to show the love that was included in the piece. 

love to all and keep on keeping safe

Margaret

 

For Margaret...

My piece for Margaret who chose Running Stitch and Back Stitch in Ecru. Cotton, linen and upholstery fabrics. Free-cut pieced background. Machine quilted. Perle and linen threads and beads.

Sue

A New Challenge...

 

We decided to keep to 8 inch squares as before. This time each Maid chose a background colour and two hand stitches. The other Maids then completed a square in their choice of fabrics and threads. Some found the stitches challenging but then that is the point!

My piece for Sue for which she chose blue and French knots and seeding stitches was stitched on indigo dyed fabric from a very distant dyeing session. Just shows the colour holds for a long time. I used a thermofax screen with white paint for the cow parsley adding pearl seed beads to the stitching. 

I hope you enjoy seeing our new pieces and can feel that we loved doing them for each other. We will be having a big hand over of the work to each other as soon as we feel safe to get together. Until then please enjoy!

Thanks for reading

Rosemary

'Slow' Stitches.....

 

Like the other Textile Maids I have really enjoyed sewing these eight inch square pages for each other. I kept it simple and used the same format for the pieces just changing the colour to the individual's choice. I had great pleasure covering the fabric in a variety of 'slow' stitches. I have always felt there is a wonderful element in hand stitching that links all sewers through time and I love the simplicity of using a running stitch - surely the first stitch we learn and the stitch that all others develop from. 

It will be such a joy to meet up and exchange pages sometime in the summer, maybe in a garden- with tea and cake involved!

Back soon

Margaret

Rusty Memories.....

 

Here is the picture of the fabrics I chose a while back for Sue’s rusty page.

This is the one fabric that really struck a chord, it kept rising up to the surface! It was one of a pair of sleeves removed from a dress of my mother’s from circa 1965-70!

 

The colour wasn’t quite right, for rust, but I felt inspired by the pattern, the juxtaposition of circles and squares/rectangles.

All my pages for the Maids have circles and squares overlaid! Something about round peg square hole?? And also reminiscent of my first quilt I made, that Sue kindly offered advice on how to hand quilt it.

Then the rusty fabrics just sorted themselves into their own order....bits and bobs of velvet, felt, woollen, and silks as well as luscious prints from Tim Holtz.

I wanted to keep the lines clear and simple, so rather than hand stitching, I chose to machine embroider the circles, as well as the grid of all the straight lines......it was a delight to return to my machine after a long absence.  A variegated thread of rusty, brown and jade complemented the colour palette. Then of course I had to include a flash of turquoise satin!

And that original inspirational fabric was not forgotten but used as the page  back.....

Hope you can keep on enjoying your stitching, or whichever creative outlet you pursue, it’s certainly been good for my soul!

Thanks for reading once again,

Debbie