MAY 2024/ 1

I am sorry that I did not manage a post during April.  Time has run away from me, but Bank Holiday rain, and a need to be in touch after such a while are my motivations today.

Last week when I walked up to Heligan to meet friends for coffee, the hedgerows were so verdant and whilst some flowers were almost over, the bluebells and red campion flowers were magical set in amongst all the green hues. I came across a healthy patch of violets, a few primroses were in flower, although most were over.

I am starting to work on some small stitched and abstract, collaged mixed media panels. I am slowly gathering and sketching ideas. I have made one of my “single-page, folded and cut” sketch books to record ideas that flit around my mind. I want the panels to have a feel of the little miniature collages I have been making. The miniatures are entirely hand stitched, but these will have a mixture of hand and machine stitch. They will all be made from scraps, and fragments; the title of our next Textile + exhibition in November 2025.

During April I had a massive tidy up in my studio. I had almost given up going in there as it was so untidy! I got up really early each morning for a week, and set too. What a difference! It is such a pleasure to work in there now. With the table moved temporarily downstairs  it was much more spacious and it made the whole task seem much more manageable.

 if you enlarge  the photo above, and focus on the purple fabric container, you will see a miniature Suffolk-puff clown. A friend gave him to me decades ago, and if she is reading this, do know he is still well loved. He is beautifully made and assembled, and measures just 3″ high.

The pot inside, with its lid tilted, contains my hem clips which are used very regularly and are a firm favourite amongst my tools.

Another small area that was not easily accessible before.  My 8- sided table has just been a “dumping ground” where it was situated before, but now I am just putting “work in progress” on there. Each in it’s own basket with the fabrics, and threads, plus any other notions needed, for each project etc.

Clean and tidy sink area! When we flooded so badly in the Tewkesbury floods of July 2007, we had to have a temporary kitchen put in upstairs. We stored the sink unit and cupboard along side it, after the renovations had been completed, as I had hoped it would come in useful after we moved. (Our house was on the market before we flooded). It has been amazingly useful, as I am sure you can understand.

I am SO enjoying using my machine again. It is still behaving itself. Any hint of a problem, I clean it thoroughly, change the needle, and it purrs again! I have been recycling one of Robs shirts, in making a bag.

It may not be immediately clear in the photo below, but the colour of the shirt is teal green, and the strip on the left is the button hole plackett, with a line of additional hand stitching to the right of the button holes. I have used a variety of fragments, interspersing them with scraps from my vast collection!

The pocket you can see near the bottom of the bag, was very carefully removed from the shirt by snipping the two rows of stitching which had been stitched down the two side edges, and along the base of the pocket. When it was separated from the shirt it was easy to add embellishment with the deep fuschia coloured hand stitching, and a patch from some snippets of the linen fabric, before machine stitching it back onto a new backing, through the original machine made holes.

The self covered fuchsia pink button,  (the first I have ever attempted to cover) will be part of the closure. The right hand corner of the bag, is going to fold forward, at an angle,  creating an asymmetric triangle, where a loop will be attached and will wrap around the button. Inside the bag above the button there will be a magnetic closure too, so that the top is totally secure. The shoulder strap will be attached to the sides, and will be made from the “ticking” fabric, with inserts of the fuchsia coloured fabrics.

This is the other side of the bag; button plackett at the bottom, a “pocket” sized patch made from the original patch of fabric, revealed when I had removed the original pocket!

The whole of the lining and top binding has been cut from the rest of the shirt, and the buttons are the originals still in their original positions.  Rob and I are very late converts to Wordle, and I have called this bag, my “shirtle bag”,  which he thinks this is a subconscious nod to the title of the game! Who knows! I had never connected the two, at all, but now, of course the connection will not go away!

During May we shall be away for a while, so I am keen to prepare at least one of the small panels, (two would be stretching it somewhat…)  but it would be great to be able to complete the hand sewing, on at least one of them during that time.

Until next time, happy stitching!

Di