Starting Yet Another Project

Whilst today is a good stomach day (fingers crossed it lasts) I have actually decided on yet another new project!!  This year I received some more rather lovely Christmas cards of The Three Wise Men  - I now have quite a collection - so -  I think they need to be translated - don't you ?!! -

OK so January is a bit of an odd time of year to start work on a Christmas Theme but at least I am 'doing' something!!

Catch up Post - Muse 2 and other stuff

Quick update - Muse 2 has been quilted, now just needs edging and the cord adding. Which I am currently machining and is taking days. I had to bring my peppers indoors a while ago because they were getting eaten by something outside. So in my kitchen I now have 7 plants..... There are 2 yellow peppers, several green ones and only one going red so far but hey at least I have 10 small peppers - I think they are miniature ones if that is possible.

Over the last few years I have become a bit of a fabric and scrap hoarder - it has got to the point that I can't get anything off the shelves without an avalanche of stuff falling. So I have spent the last 6 hours sorting out this...... there are 5 bags (this size) of old clothes which I have kept for cutting up or dyeing - they are going to the charity shop. There are two huge bags of bits which I have saved in case a tiny scrap would be needed which have gone in the bin. I know I don't usually throw stuff away but there comes a time when it is necessary.

Now the space looks like this.... and I am off for a rest !! The other corner still houses boxes of scraps so I am not feeling deprived

:-)

Progress on Muse 2

The 'embroidery' element of Muse 2 is complete. Now I need to join the pieces together. The stitching is paler on the top row,

mid tone for the middle row and darker for the bottom row.

To give you an idea of the scale of this piece I have taken a photo of the pieces laid out next to the original Muse (which is roughly A3, although almost square).

Muse 2 - 1st panel

Just finished the 1st panel for Muse 2 - I want this to be more tonal and subtle to allow the rusted fabric to show more. The stitching is also going to be little more free and open -no solid blocks.

Close up.

There will be a cord outline between the design areas.

As I have not got my old Bernina sewing machine back from the repairers - he has had it for a whole year now!! and my Pfaff does not like rusted fabric I have been lucky enough to be using Val Campbell-Harding's machine, loaned to me by Jane Lemon. (It works beautifully). So yesterday on my way home from Jane Lemon's, where the other Jane and I have been working recently, I decided to pass by and pay my respects to Val. She is still very much missed. I do remember her constantly as I have a lovely photo of her in my studio, watching over my work!

Starting Muse 2

OK so I have started Muse 2 - the rusted one. I cut out the pattern pieces to my new size (bigger than Muse 1) and laid them out in order on the living room carpet....

here you get an idea of scale as you can see the DVD player and old video player....

then it was turning under the edges

and applying them to the 12 rectangles.

I have machined edges using invisible thread -

the edges will be hidden by a cord, when I have made one myself. This time the quilt is going to be made as a pieced one, still with some delicate zentangle stitching on the sections.

Muse 1 more progress

I am not going to show you too much of the progress on Muse 1 as it is almost finished. Suffice it to say I have finished the free machining and I have quilted the piece....Now I am at the miles of hand stitching the two rows of cord to highlight the black edges.... The next time you see her she will be finished but remember it is going to be a long slow hand stitching job - so this will be done in the evenings. In the meantime I will be working on Muse 2 a larger rusted version.

Brilliant Saturday, Mustardseed, Oberon and a course

Spend another happy day at Jane Lemon's on Saturday. With her help and advise I have a new plan for the pod underskirt for Mustard seed - here is a very rough pinned plan..... and I decided the flowers should be re-positioned... Thanks too, to Jane L, I have been able to stitch Oberon's breaches - she loaned me one of Val Campbell-Harding's Bernina machines as mine is STILL at the repairers (its been there since before Christmas). So the breaches are now ready for hours and hours of hand stitching the gold cords.

Finally another thank you - this time to both Jane's because with their help I have worked out a three part course!!! The vague plan had been that if I finish the 7 costumes by July 2011 Urchfont Manor College will let me have a room of my own at their open day to display the costumes. Their part of the deal is that I need to come up with a course I could teach leading from my costumes - well the ideas finally came into view on Saturday. Before I tell you about the course (which I hope will stretch over three linked weekends) I will have to check out the plan with the College. Will keep you informed - keep your fingers crossed I am so excited and have sooooooo much work to do - the rest of the costumes and loads of sampling for a possible course.

Belated Happy Christmas and New Year Wishes

BELATED HAPPY CHRISTMAS to all my blogging friends - Sorry its been a long time since I wrote. I have not been feeling myself for a while but I think I am almost back. Hope you all had a lovely Christmas. I liked the snow for a little while - footprints are so nice in fresh snow. What have I done since I last wrote.... Well I made another piece of felt - this pic is not very good but this will be the lower skirt for Mustardseed, when I get round to working on her more. I also started to put together the breaches for Oberon - I need to do the slashing and cording now... I have also been making the cord - so far I have done one pass on the sewing machine and have 80 metres!! YES 80. Here's what it looks like so far.... I need to do at least one or maybe two more passes on the sewing machine in gold before it will be ready to use.
HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT NEW YEAR - thanks for all your support this last year - hope 2011 brings you all you wish for.

Busy time working on Oberon

Over the last few weeks I have been busy - Last weekend it was a couple of days at Urchfont with Textile 21 and then yesterday I had another day with Jane Lemon. So I have achieved quite a lot for Oberon's doublet. There is a lot more to do yet and then there are the breeches (need to rust dye lots more cotton for those - I have metres and metres of rust dyed fabrics but no cotton to match the doublet !!) and a mask/headdress, oh and my planning for Mustardseed but as you can tell I am feeling great!! Life is beginning to turn around and I am happy again!!:-) Here are a couple of pics of Oberon's doublet in progress - a close up of the neck ruff - you can see the gold cord - I have many more metres of that to a) make and b) stitch on. I tried the doublet on my mannequin this morning -once it has a small amount of padding it will look something like this... quite a slender chap !! Anyone going to K&S on Sunday?

Took the plunge - Oberon

The pattern for Oberon's doublet was drafted from this lovely book.The instructions are not too clear about how to put it together but hey I have a lot of work to do before I get to that stage. So I took the plunge and cut it out half an hour ago..... here is the view of my kitchen floor and a close up... When I opened out the two fronts I noticed that they are not as even as I would have liked - the fabric strips were randomly stitched together and you can see one side has finer strips (closer together) and the other side has much paler larger strips. There are still pattern pieces yet to cut out but I have a bit more work I would like to do to the base fabric for those (ie the skirts and collar). I am going to ponder whether I should slash all the pieces too and have a coloured lining. By the way the seams are on the right side of the fabric so they could fray as part of the decoration. The reverse side is too smooth for my liking. More thinking - whilst I mow the lawn??

Oberon Fabric

Having got up at 6.30 this morning - not sure why - actually I think it is a form of depression - yesterday I did NOTHING but lounge in front of the TV. I did sit outside for a moment, but felt so restless, not in a creative way - I wanted to sleep all day, to run away from everything. This morning I thought it a little early to mow the front lawn - neighbours might not like it. So I have been blog surfing and thinking about my two costumes in progress.

Here is the Oberon Doublet Fabric - out on my lawn yesterday - I will have to check if I have enough now. Someone recently asked what do I do with my costumes... well until recently the Financial times tutu stood in my kitchen (but she was beginning to fade) and the rest were in a pile in my studio - reported in a previous posting HERE. Now they are all in the wardrobe in my son's old room. Most are piled up as they won't go on hangers!

Quick Update

1) The rust fabrics were washed and out to dry (over my plastic green house) - difficult to take a pic without my shadow.. They are now ready for ripping and adding to the pile for Oberon's doublet. 2)I went for an interview on Tuesday - answer today is yet another NO - never mind - will keep looking!
3) My baby is 23 next weekend and I have to make the customary Harriet Hedgehog cake - this is a cake topped with chocolate buttons for the spikes. Can I find a sensible size bag of chocolate buttons NO NO NO - so what did I have to buy - a couple of those multi bags containing treat size bags!! I am going to have to spend a lot of time opening these before I start on the cake - it will take FOREVER - so I hope it is worth it!!!

Overnight

Overnight in the airing cupboard - rusting along nicely - hopefully by Monday the fabrics will be ready!