Surface, Structure, Stitch at City Lit: Week 4

 Week  4  of Surface, Structure, Stitch   was on Kantha and Boro , definately  in my comfort zone !  And with a week away , I'd been making good progress reconnecting with my  #trainstitching  of #wrapmeintheshore   with  the addition of precious fragments  from the City Lit Textile  Studio scrap box 

The notes  that Louise  supplied    recommended reading  of books  by Ahmad, Gillow, Morrell  and Zaman  - I have  them all (!)  plus the catalogue from the Boro exhibition at Somerset house  which  she also showed.  Apart from an example of a kantha stitched sari silk scarf ( of which I too own several), her  own samples  showed how kantha could be used in  reversible 3d forms, either a  spiral stitched bowl or a strip that could be manipulated in different  ways. 

 I had a go first using  circles of felt and  linen furnishing fabrics  -  another time I wouldn't start right in the centre and would add a coin in the bottom between the layers to  produce a base.

The second one   was a small strip of layered creams and blues with crude running stitches, pulled up  into a shell shape. Lots of possibilities.  Louise  suggested I  make  a much larger piece  of layered fabrics and incorporate ' lumps'  of buttons between the layers  to add further distortions and texture 

 I finished the stitching on the way  home on the train  and  spend quite a while manipulating it into different shapes

 Then , deep breath,  I started pulling up some of the stitching, taking photos as I went along 

 I love the potential of inside and outside  being  equally important

  Finally for my' daily drawing' I did a small patched stitched sample  showing the effect of the rippling from pulling up the running stitch. 

Surface, Structure, Stitch at Cit Lit: Week 3 ( on vacation)

 I missed the 3rd session of  Surface, Structure, Stitch   at City Lit as  I was on holiday for the week in Weymouth( our 13th visit).   I'd had a discussion  with Louise the previous week on  how I might approach adding handstitch to my   machine quilted piece so I'd brought lots of supplies with me to do my homework, spreading out on the dining room table  in the cottage.  My mum was an embroiderer  but my stitching so far has been  very plain, variations on straight stitch,   so  I spent time on the train studying  my mum's copy of  Anchor pamphlet ' 100 Embroidery Stitches' ( Price  6p!)  and a more recent purchase of  Constance Howard's  Book of Stitches ( which  cost rather more  than  secondhand )   

 A lot  of restaurants and pubs were closed during our  stay for either holidays or refurbishment  so we had several meals  at old favourites the Cove House Inn in Chiswell, Portland and the  Taste Cafe at Chesil Beach Visitor Centre overlooking the Fleet lagoon.  Spending nearly a whole day there   on  Ian's Birthday, we were aware of the tides and the effect on the screened views from the underwater cameras ( which I drew  in my sketchbook)

 On the Wednesday when I would have been in my class, somebody posted work on Instagram  at lunchtime  so I could share  in what  other students were doing  . Several were using embroidery hoops so   I had a practice on a bit of old shirt sleeve  of some  new stitches - I particularly  like the 'wave' stitch in different  types of thread .

I then had the confidence to add  these to the machine quilted  piece I'd started  the previous  week 

When I got home, I cut it down to 9"  square, the format for this year CQ Journal Quilts  which has to contain a piece of  something repurposed , having had a previous  life.  My theme was going to be  " Assemblage"  but " Scavenged Scraps"  might be more appropriate since most of the fabrics came from the wondrous  collections of  dressmaking offcuts  and recycled  materials in the  City Lit textile studio  scrap boxes.   

 I'm also taking  part in an invited   Facebook group  challenge posting  a year  of  daily black and white photos " Small Reflections  2020" which  certainly  makes you look at the world differently.