Leather Tool Roll

Ages ago...(maybe 4 or 5 years 😲) my son asked me to make him a tool roll for his chainsaw files etc. So, because it was going to be complicated, I put it on the back burner to think about how I would do it. At one point I thought I would get on with it, but the leathers I had in the stash did not suit his ideas.

But the vendor I regularly got leather from had stopped vending... so time went on. Then in 2018 I caught a glimpse of a leather vendor just as I was leaving the Bristol show They we’re back last year. She had a good size piece, but for £30. Which I hadn’t got. So I said, what about that misshapen section? So she cut that part off, leaving her with a more squared off piece others might like. The piece I got was about twice what I used here. and only cost £10!

I find it easier to design something out of my head if it already has an interesting shape. 

Anyway, after dithering (🤨will I be able to make something he likes?) I finally decided I better do it for this birthday and get it out of my head!!

Plus - An extra file pocket and a small pocket for whatever. 

A bit of progress

A glimpse...

Halfway through quilting. Hope to finish a work on binding today.

This week’s project

Margins

I am working on a Ramshackle piece for Stretching Art and Tradition 20. The theme is Community. So, perfect for an idea I have had.
And here is a glimpse from early in the week when the sun was shining through the window.

The sun picked up the chalk marks I made for the villages and houses.

Plaid dress finish!

This week has been a bit of upheaval because we had some windows replaced.
However, I did finish a project last week.
At the start of January, while I was still recovering from being poorly, I decided to start a winter dress from this pink plaid.  However, my brain wasn’t quite up to snuff. I must have had some idea of some interesting thing going on with a front opening, because I cut the back on the fold. And not remembering what the idea was, the front ended up with a seam.

😩 as hard as I tried, the lines would not match up on the front seam! So, what to do?
I wanted the fabric to be the focus, so I didn’t want lace or trim or even some sort of embroidery down the front. Then I remembered that the selvedge edge had a bit of fringe.
And so, I cobbled the two edges together and voila!

Still about the fabric, yet a slight textural interest if it is noticed. So a somewhat pinafore look winter dress.😁

And how interesting? It seems too big! But I hadn’t prewashed the fabric, so I will see what happens before I take it in. At least there is plenty of room for some layers underneath.
I want to make a plain dark teal dress like it, but I am dithering now because I am not sure I like the fit. Any thoughts?

Visual Thoughts and Ideas

Sometimes planning is about auditioning. Will these work or will they change?

Road Repairs-the lad

And so the boy has been built.
I sketched him out and then cut the sketch apart to use as a pattern.

And here he is.

Sister Artists

Sister Artists
And the front!

Today I have been stitching the backing on...(while I sat for nearly 2 hours waiting at the hospital eye clinic. I am glad that I have had such helpful Dr.’s lately. )

I tried to keep the embroidery , done by the lady in Mali, the focus. Yet I wanted to set a scene as well.
The work had been called Hunting with Husband. In my head, the story showed the lady working in their plot while the husband gets rid of birds coming to take their harvest.

Sister Artists

So, teasing a bit, I have finished the embroidery. All that is left is backing and binding.

I hadn’t planned to put a backing and I really liked the way the back told the story of the stitching on the front. But when I was showing my friend the progress and mentioned leaving it like that, she suggested a backing. Her reasoning, that whoever would bid on it might be a bit reluctant on how to hang it and care for it. 

Closeup of part of the reverse. 

As I have thought about that, I realised it was wise advice. Someone who knows textiles might appreciate the view of the back. But if it were someone else, they might worry about threads catching, etc. 

The reverse of the stitching. 

So, I am putting on a backing and binding. I will show the complete version when that is finished. 

Another closeup. 

Sister Artists

close up of greenery in the foreground.

The fringe of the precious fabric (which didn’t work for this project). I turned the fringe upside down and secured it with a green crochet cotton thread.

Sister Artists

I am nearing the last of the stitching now. This is a closeup of the stitching on the tree leaves.

The fabric I used was actually shrubbery which I turned upside down to be clumps of leaves.

Sister Artists

so to the leaves for the trees.

I had a precious piece of fabric I knew was the right colour for the leaves. I cut it into sections that would work in an abstracted tree sort of way. 

That is until I had positioned and repositioned them. I just couldn’t settle on it. Then that night I realised the precious piece would just not work because there was not enough of it. If the tree trunks were smaller, maybe. But because they went from top to bottom, they needed more fabric to even just suggest the idea of a tree. 

Next morning, I went to the ‘ landscape’ section of my stash and found something better almost straight away. 

I fussy cut sections and worked with them to layout something much better. Not particularly the type of tree grown in Mali, but it gives the look of a view through the trees that I wanted. 

I am now stitching these clusters of fabric down. 

The precious piece does make a little showing... it had a fringe omit, so now it will become grass growing at the bottom of the trees. 

Sister Artists

Next step:
I wanted to make trees on either side of the scene. I liked the idea of something like bark cloth. But rather than the brick coloured bark cloth I have from Uganda, I found the mulberry bark I have to be a better colour choice. It picks up on the colour of the man’s hat and trousers.

I auditioned a few threads for stitching it down.

Sister Artists

Sister Artists- next step has been the side borders. I had this South African shwe shwe print that picked up more colour from the embroidery. It is more like quilting cotton weight, than the heavier fabric you normally see.  The fact that it has the different prints keeps it interesting.

And of course it wanted hand sewing, too! I finished last night. Took just over one skein of orange variegated thread from InStitches. I alternated running stitch and French knots.

I like Thankful Thursday

I like progress! Today I began to see the progress on this Ramshackle piece, "But Is It Safe?".

The Thoughtful Man has finished painting the ceiling where the plastering had been done. Also, he set my table back in order. So, I have managed to get on with the Ramshackle piece I have been working on.

All the parts have been properly bound.

And I have started stitching sections together.

Someone, some time ago gave me a little bag of what they called “rug yarn”. I think if that’s what it is, it seems more like a thread they might have used to join carpet sections.

Anyway, it is just the right thing for this. There are other colours, too. I don’t know if I will stick with this colour throughout or use another colour.

I put white paper behind the herringbone stitching so you could see it better.

I might also add another row of herringbone over the first set. Not sure yet.
and then there is something about the deadline to consider! So, I better get the side pieces joined on before I think about that!

To see what the others like, follow the link to LeeAnna's blog.

Back to Ramshackle Ideas - 23

Light on the mountains. I will give it a press, 

but I am not going to add more stitch because it is mountains after all 

and I don't want to flatten them.

When I started having all the back spasms and eye problems last Autumn, I was working on a Ramshackle piece about refugees and displaced people. Now that I have caught up with other things, I have started back to work at it. Now all the pieces have had threads snipped, edges trimmed and squared up and the binding ready to apply.

I was closer to finishing than I realised. So, perhaps I can get it done by the end of this Bank Holiday weekend.

The other bead project

While I wait for the spectaculars, I have been slowly working on the other bead project. It sort of got put by when I started finding it difficult to see a year or so ago. With the up-lighter, the room light, the sunshine and some times the positional light, I can see enough to work on my bead and hand stitching projects

So I finally finished last section on the Captured/Abducted dress.

I have 20 more days of beads to use to fill in here and there to even up some of the edges.

Now to cut about 6in from the hem to use for straps and possibly to make lacing in the upper section of the back.

The marks are representing the girls and women continually being captured and abducted in Nigeria. There are the situations where schools are attacked and large groups of girls abducted. But even in various villages throughout Nigeria, girl and women are often taken as they go about their daily task or on the way to school. I wanted to do something to raise awareness.

When I started the project, the numbers I read worked out that from 2011 approximately 30 were abuducted each month! Like one each day! So, each mark (bar and gate) has not only the usual |||| / (5) but 2 more||. One set of seven (7 years from 2011 to the end of 2018) for 365 days.

I am considering putting a line of single beads along the hem to represent families whose lives are so drastically changed because of these abductions.  Practically, it will help with the hang of the dress.

Ramshackle ideas 22

Desert house. The look changes with the stitching.

Somehow enhances the character.

Now to deal with the threads. I have started stitching the forest section.

Ramshackle Ideas 21

The 31st October would have been the deadline for this work if I entered it into SAQA Forced to Flee. But although the theme seems just made for me, there have been too many things that kept me from working on it as much as I like.
I have been doing the machine stitching, even though suffering with my back. and to be honest, was really stretching myself to my limit.
However, I know there must be another venue waiting for it, so I am going to carry on. I did take a few needed days off...well, they were full of other things!

But, here is a little more of what I was doing the past week.

Since I am not overlapping the sections, I needed to fill the space I had left. So, Extra houses for the desert section. The bits that look like croquet hoops are meant to be housing set up for refugees rescued from the sea.

I have given them doors of a sort to look more like a house. A bit like I have done for the housing in the forest for other sea rescuees. (That should be a real word!)

Bead on 21-27 October

week 43 - 2018

bead on fabric

It is becoming very clear that one year doesn't take up as much space as somehow I thought it would!
If I carry on with this, I will have to change some of the bead sets because I only have enough of some components to do one year's worth.
I want to do something with stitch, so maybe the carrying on will introduce stitch and beads combined. I always meant to come back through and add some stitching.
So, some thoughts running around in my mind about this project. Still plenty of time to decide.

Ramshackle Ideas 20

Design dilemma...
Now that the sea section is cut out, the dilemma is the fabric underneath that shows through the openings. Basically, I haven't got any more of the spotted fabric I used for the rest.

Here are some options I considered. I hadn't cut out all of the houses because I was afraid they would be lost!

underlying fabric choices

Left - the reverse of the wave fabric I bought for the project and realised it was too not going to work. It gives a light grey look which gives small glimpses of the waves.
Middle - the fabric I am using for the backing of the work
Right - a blue fabric with small print of curved leaf branch...could read as waves.

The middle was too yellow. The right was very good and would work in another situation, but it doesn't work with the colours in the desert, mountain and forest sections. It is quite a bit too different than the underlying fabric on those sections.
What I chose was the left one.

ready to fuse

When I originally chose it, thinking to use it for the sea section, one of the reasons was that it worked colour-wise with the other colours. (Later I found it was just too bold compared to them and the houses would blend into the waves.) So, what I mean is that the colour works. It gives a similar colour contrast in value as the other fabric does in the other sections. The waves aren't so overwhelming when glimpsed through the openings that make up the sketch.

So, by now I have also decided not to overlap the sections. So, I need to finish off part of the desert.