Fragments

Hello everyone! It's Erica Spinks here again with my final post for this month's celebration of hand stitching.. If you missed my other two posts, you can read them here and here.

This time I am sharing a couple of my small layered pieces from my Fragments series.

Last year, I started a Traveller's Blanket online course with Dijanne Cevaal. We were required to hand-dye three layers of fabric - light muslin for the top, cotton flannel for the centre and cotton for the backing. These pieces were then sandwiched and hand stitched.

Although I still haven't finished my blanket, I have taken some smaller pieces of my hand-dyed fabrics and created these two works. The three layers are so soft that my needle slips through easily.

For Fragments 1, I layered the cloth and cut a rough heart-shaped piece from the top layer. I tucked a small piece of a checked fabric into one side of the heart and secured it with cross stitches (kisses!) along the centre edge.

Using various threads, I used running stitch to sew through all layers. After fraying the edges of the muslin, I used a Derwent Inktense block with water to add some pink colour. (Have you tried these Inktense blocks? They are brilliant - it's just like using watercolours!)

Here's a closer photo of part of the piece. You can see the shadow that the tucked-under piece of checked fabric makes - it provides another subtle colour change.

I'm very comfortable with frayed edges - I love the extra texture they add to a textile work. Do you feel differently?

For Fragments 2, I added some freehand-cut, vertical strips of organza that I have screen printed with black and gold paint. Across the top, there's a strip of the plain organza.

There are a lot of subtle shadows on this piece. You can see through the organza, so the colours of the muslin come through. Sections of the muslin are only partially dyed, so more of the centre flannel layer (the green) shows through, too.

In this detail photo, you can see the effect of the variegated thread - stronger colour in some places but fading away in others. This is stitched with my favourite WonderFil Tutti 50wt variegated thread. 

Thank you for reading my guest posts. Hand stitching is an important part of my creative life. If you don't already hand stitch, I hope you might give it a go. You may become just as addicted to it as I am!

  
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Threads and wholecloth

Hello everyone! It's Erica Spinks here again with my second post. If you missed my first entry, you can read it here.

Like most hand stitchers, I love threads as much as cloth. Non-shiny threads are my preference, since bling doesn't appeal. I prefer cotton, though I will use other fibres if the colour is right. For me, it's all about how the thread feels in my hand.

 Reaching for Words started life as a piece of plain cotton fabric that I folded and then hand-dyed. The dyeing resulted in a partial grid, so I pulled out all the threads from my collection that seemed to be potentials for this piece.

I used my favourite Aurifil 50wt cotton in plain colours, as well as WonderFil 12wt Fruiti and Spagetti threads. Fruiti is a beautiful variegated thread, while Spagetti is the same thread, but comes only in solid colours.

Mixing thread weights is a wonderful way to add variable texture.

I would like to try some of the beautiful colours in the Aurifil 12wt range once I can build a small collection. Linen is another thread I'd like to audition. What about you - what thread do you like to use for hand stitching?

The next piece in my Reaching series will be Reaching for Rain. I hand-dyed this piece of fabric and then coloured a section with Derwent Inktense sticks and then stamped and sponged it. The auditioned threads are a similar mix, with a few others thrown in. I haven't yet started stitching this piece.

The final quilt I'd like to show you is Windows. Again, this is a piece of fabric I folded and then dyed to create a grid. It was stitched with variegated Tutti 50wt cotton thread to create  windows of pattern.

I enjoy stitching on wholecloth, because then you can let the stitches make the pattern.

Sometimes, the fabric speaks to me and I find myself stitching the way it wants. That's the truly magical part!

Do you have recommendations for thread? What brands and weights do you prefer to use? When we stitch by hand, it really is personal preference because we handle the thread so much. We'd love to read your comments.
 
I'd love you to visit my pages! My blog is Creative Dabbling.
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Beginnings

Hello everyone! I am Erica Spinks from Sydney, Australia and I'm so happy to be able to talk to you about hand stitching - my favourite subject.

Back in the 1980s, I went to my first patchwork class. It was at a local quilt shop, a rareity in Australia in those days. As beginners, we were required to make either a sampler or a medallion quilt, of our own design.

We were guided through the process - selecting blocks from a book, drafting the shapes, making the templates from sandpaper, choosing fabric and then cutting it with scissors, stitching all the pieces together by hand, sandwiching it and hand quilting. Even my binding was applied by hand! This was the beginning of my love affair with hand stitching.

Quilting on my first quilt. I don't think my stitches have been so even since then!

Over the years since, I have made countless quilts and textile pieces, some sewn together by machine but most stitched by hand. New 'time-saving' tools have been invented during those years and 'quick' patterns have followed for people keen to produce as many quilts as possible within their limited sewing time.

This, however, has never been why I stitch.

My relationship with the cloth I use is important to me. I need to feel it in my hands, draped on my lap. I need to know that the needle, an extension of my own hands, is full of treasured thread. As it intersects the cloth and joins the pieces, I can feel that it is my own creative effort that is making an object that had not previously existed. With my own hands, and simple tools, I have made something tangible.

Stitching, for me, takes as long as it needs. I do not work to deadlines; I rarely work to themes set by other people.

I simply hand stitch for the sheer pleasure. My enjoyment is with the process.

Detail of Jetsam. Hand-dyed fabric, with knitted pieces and hand stitching.

I am not an embroiderer. You won't see complicated stitching in the pieces I've made so far, though I have ideas for future works that may include stitches of different shapes. I use simple straight stitches, sometimes in rows and sometimes scattered across the piece, as you can see in this detail of stitching in Jetsam.

Simple straight stitches can add a lot to a work. Here's my Watermelon Summer, a piece I made during a very hot February in Sydney. Lovely wonky stitching with hot pink crochet thread really symbolises how frazzled we were!

Watermelon Summer

In my next post, I will show you the threads I enjoy using and some examples of my wholecloth works. I look forward to sharing with you again. 

I'd love you to visit my pages! My blog is Creative Dabbling.
My Facebook pages are Creative Dabbling and Textile Tidings.
Please pop over and say hello.