The winter is still so dark

Needleweaving, a bit of shisha and plenty of bling.

  The winter has been amazingly dark - only managed to make a few cards before Christmas.  I've been using two daylight lamps with little success. The sunny days are full of frantic activity to catch the daylight AND the warmth - I work a lot in the conservatory. Can you embroider in gloves?

   I'm working on my site specific piece for City & Guilds - a lectern fall and stole for the Hospital Chapel for the season of Lent - no pressure then since Lent starts on 22nd February! I finished the stole today and am pleased with the outcome (another photo) but working on this dark purple fabric is SO FRUSTRATING! It is so difficult to see what I'm doing. I feel a bit like those medieval embroiderers who carried their frames on their backs - I'm moving round the house, following the meagre daylight. I managed almost 5 hours today.  


   I've not worked in shades of dark olive, purple, brown and blood red before and they make a powerful combination. The cords are machined and the applied motifs were made on soluble - I'd forgotten two vital points - cords take ages to make properly and 3-d appliqued motifs mean changing the bobbin with every colour change! I hope the Chaplain is pleased with the result.

 All this detailed work gives me plenty of time to think about all the projects I've got to plan for. My next achievement will be a coat/jacket for me to wear! Haven't made anything of note for over 10 years.
I've roughed my design for the "Reaching Beyond" exhibition in July.
Will keep you posted.

Progress is Slow!

December already! Having had a great weekend at Great Missenden being inspired by African Textiles, I'm now working hard on a stole and lectern fall for the hospital chapel. The fabric was a donation and it is proving really hard to handle; it took me 3 hours just to get the piece framed up. We're getting some work done at home and my continuous wait for workmen is getting under my skin - just can't settle at anything for the moment.
I'm branching out to participate in an exhibition next summer on the theme "reaching beyond". You can see the themes, artists and other information at the website Reaching Beyond.  I was told to provide names for the work on show and enlisted assistance from my grandaughter.  I'm sure I'll be testing out ideas and patterns with my friends at the Branch. 
Speaking of the MK Branch, Lucille is now safely arrived in Ledbury and says she will start her own blog to keep in touch! Our Branch is now booked into the MK Gallery Project Space from 6th - 30th December 2012 for an exhibition of Chair's Challenge pieces. We'll also be holding a sit and sew session on Saturday, 17th March to get some experience of working with visitors to the Gallery. Next week I'm meeting the organiser at the University Centre MK to discuss options for exhibiting work there - will keep you posted.

Inspiration from others

Joan Lamb's

Gilda Baron's sumptuous flowers

Shelagh O'Gorman's Garden

I saw these works at Knit and Stitch in October. They are by Joan Lamb, Gilda Baron and Shelagh O'Gorman. I hope the artists don't mind letting you look at them here because they are excellent examples of working on a canvass.

Chair's Challenge for 2012

Calling all MK Branch Members!

This year you can take your inspiration from anywhere within
the Borough of Milton Keynes and then interpret it onto a canvas frame a mere 8
inches square. MK Branch will provide members with one plain white artist’s
canvass each (8” high x 8” wide x 1” deep); if you want to do more than one
project, we would appreciate a donation of £2 towards the cost.

You may use any technique you like to produce your
embroidery as long as it includes stitching! You could stitch directly onto the
canvass or mount your work onto it. You may fill the space and continue over
the edge of the frame – but not beyond it. You may raise the surface as much as
you like as long as your finished piece can be hung vertically, on a wall,
without falling off or falling down. Your total area available is 8” x 8” plus
the thickness of the frame. If you get close to the deadline with little
progress our 21st June Branch meeting will be a sit & sew
opportunity for a burst of finishing energy.

You also need to provide a photograph (*preferably 5” x 7”)
of your inspiration which can be displayed alongside your piece. Finally, a
brief statement of nor more than, say, 50 words could also be useful.

Judging will be done in the usual way on 12 July 2012 with
the award of a £20 voucher to the winner. BUT the Challenge doesn’t end there.
We will be exhibiting at Milton Keynes Gallery in the City Centre – more news
about this later next week.

Starting Over - November 2011

A whole year's gone by since I last posted here. Since then I've started a C&G Diploma with Janet Edmonds at Missenden Abbey and completed a second season on the allotment. My friends at the MK Branch of the Embroiderers' Guild elected me Branch Chair for a second season in September and this blog will be a part of keepin in touch with pictures.

Thanks to everyone who encourages me with the Diploma (you'll hear more about this as we go along). The next post will be about the Chair's Challenge 2011. Happy Communication!

Cheryl

Settling in at Home again

Late on Friday saw me safely home: from the sights and sounds and smells and brilliant colour of Souzhou and Pudong to the grey drizzle of England - coming to earth with a bump has nothing on this. Our last couple of days were spent in the schoolroom - you can see it below. My own small picture is shown here as work in progress and finished article. Mid Autumn Festival in Suzhou gave a real sense of celebration -the restaurants and parks were full to bursting and of course there was much giving and eating of moon cake!
I must say a great thank you to my husband, Jim, who did stirling duty keeping this blog up to date. It is not possible to blog directly from China through Google and he did it all for me - thanks, darling!
I'm finding it hard to get back in the groove of normal life. I hope you have enjoyed this small saga and I might just be back to relate my attack on City & Guilds 7023 and stories of stitching in Milton Keynes.

Work in progress

very small finished article

Central Souzhou at sunset on Mid-Autumn Day


Our workroom

Mon, Sep 20

Six of us said goodbye to our travelling companions this morning and began a mini-adventure at our own silk workshop (yes, Alison, it would have done your head in!).

We are now totally steeped in all things to do with silk. Yesterday was spent in the Silk Embroidery and Research Institute (SERI) where real masters of the art form work to commission from photographs, oil paintings or traditional styles. We noted that their work rooms are not just light and airy but also air conditioned - it's 38 degrees here. We followed this with a visit to a silk factory - cradle to grave so to speak of the silkworm. One of the most fascinating parts was watching four people stretch one cocoon to the size of a double bed whilst making a duvet!

Today we spent the entire day in a former primary school room perched on stools and bent over embroidery frames yet none of us has any additional aches and pains! Of course, having learned all about silk and its various types we had to visit Mei Mei silk shop - an Aladdin's cave of goodies - and, yes, I succumbed to the lure of the beautiful fabric and bought some.

Madame Zhang said we were all too good to spend our time on one picture so we are having more pictures and learning more techniques tomorrow. 22nd September is Mid-Autumn (or Full Moon) Festival here and it's a national holiday celebrated by giving and eating moon cake - pastry on the outside, fruit jelly on the inside but looking like a small pork pie. They are delicious and we have been looking forward to tomorrow since our last foray into a cake shop in Kail Li.

We've had a great time today disrupting the gentle flow of trade in the silk shops and generally making all the staff dissolve into fits of laughter when we ask for silk in our odd-sounding, desperate few words of Chinese. I can't believe this journey is nearly over. I've made some new friends and experienced a totally different world -- can't wait to tell you more about it.

Silkworms munching their way through piles of white mulberry

Master embroiderer working from an antique painting of bamboo

Making a duvet, one cocoon at a time in the Suzhour number 1 silk factory

Mei Mei silk