Having finished the one needlepoint cushion cover the second of the old patchwork cushion covers started coming apart at the seams. So I ordered another needlepoint kit. I enjoy doing needlepoint and as a cushion cover it is hard wearing. This time as I couldn’t find a printed kit that I liked I ordered a charted kit. I’ve never worked from a chart before, so it was a new experience. I have one of Beth Russel’s books on needlepoint and the kit came with instructions, which were missing but were then posted on to me, so I had some tips on how to get started.

Now I’ve had some practice reading the chart I’m finding it quite easy to do the needlepoint this way. It avoids all the inaccuracies that creep in to a printed canvas - however good they are. Most of the time is doesn’t matter, but it was a problem with my last kit with the small squares up the left hand side. When you have to correct on the printed canvas it can get a bit confusing if you aren’t concentrating. I also like the way the design just starts appearing on the blank canvas with a charted design. That is quite satisfying. Here a couple of photos of progress so far.

And here’s a detail:

What I don’t particularly like, is working with double threaded canvas. It doesn’t keep its shape as well and as I never use a frame that is quite a problem. You can see how much off square the design is, if you look carefully at the inch markings on the canvas. I marked the vertical and horizontal centre with a line of overstiching in orange thread. I’m putting all my faith into blocking it when finished!

Life got in the way a bit this last week so I’ve not been able to post any progress report. Last Sunday I did manage to take a couple of hours to do some stamping. I made my stamps using the sticky backed felt that you can buy in DIY stores to put under furniture to protect parquet floors. Apart from circles in various sizes you can also buy square pieces to cut up into any required shape. I used the smaller of my two stencils from the previous post and made a new one with a smaller ivy leaf from the garden. Here’s photo of the larger of the two stamps:

The felt is stuck to a piece of corrugated cardboard cut slightly larger than the actual stamp. You don’t want the cardboard to be too big in relation to the felt shape or else you can’t see where you are printing!

I printed some of the patterns I had made with my stencils. I only inked the stamp with acrylic paint after every second stamp. The contrast of darker and lighter shapes is quite interesting.

I don’t really like completely symmetrical designs so I also did some stamping freestyle. I first of all applied a colour wash with diluted acrylic paint to the sketchbook page and then stamped on the leaves. Once in green and once in purple. I used the radial symmetry designs from last week in this one, interspersed with the larger leaf shape:

For this one I only lightly inked the larger leaf stamp before printing and then used the smaller leaf well inked to print inside the first image. I like the overall design of this piece the best. But I wasn’t at my most creative last weekend. Too many other things occupying my mind. Still it was good to distract myself with some creative stuff.

Continuing on with the leaf theme I had to make patterns using my leaf stencil. Here are a couple of patterns made by repeating the leaf shape. They are quite tightly packed linear designs.

I tried some radial patterns as on the right:

The pattern on the bottom right reminded me of a triangle so I went on to make a repeat of triangles composed of 3 leaves. Because of the leaf shape they actually packed together better a bit offset. The effect is a bit like an Escher tesselation.

You could do the same with the radial pattern on the top right above, which looks to me like an irregular hexagon.

I’ve been making stencils from leaves this weekend. As it’s the middle of winter there aren’t many leaves about. Walking past the tree in the garden into the house I noticed that the ivy had started growing up the trunk and that some of the leaves were quite large:

I chose one large leaf and one smaller one to make my stencils. I drew around the leaf onto thick paper and cut them out using a craft knife on a piece of glass.

The stencil and the cut-out were used to make both positive and negative images of the leaves with pastels. My first attempts were a bit messy but the second set weren’t too bad. I had trouble getting enough pastel on the edges of the stencils to get really intense colour onto the paper. I got enough stuck to my fingers but it didn’t really want to stay on the paper.

Having got the hang of it with pastels on paper I went on to stenciling fabric with oil sticks. The stencils were cut out of freezer paper and first ironed onto the fabric. This gave a nice clean sharp edge to the images. Using the oil sticks on fabric gave more intensive colour. I mixed some of the colours too by crayoning one colour over the other before brushing the paint onto the fabric. I’m using Sennelier Oil Sticks as they were cheaper to buy locally from Boesner than to order Markal Paint Sticks on the internet.

Here are the results:

For this leaf I used a copper metallic paint stick too, but you can’t really see the metallic effect on the fabric.

Using stencils and oil sticks has definite possibilities, especially as pale colours can be used over darker fabric and be seen!

I was browsing the internet as you do - me I’m always googling words for inspiration, both text and images - and came across this “what if” blog. That really made me smile because if one thing stuck in my mind from my Self Expressions class with Myrna at QU it was to keep asking yourself what if? And here is a whole blog devoted to what iffing. Stop by Jude’s Spirit Cloth blog too, because it’s worth the visit.

I shared my find in the yahoo group that was set up to keep our Self Expressions class together and learnt from Linda that Myrna now has her own blog too. That lady is amazing, I don’t know where she finds the energy to do all that she does. But we can be happy that she does and shares her discoveries with us.

Whilst browsing Myrna’s blog I saw a link to Marjie’s blog. She was my dyeing teacher at QU and it’s thanks to her great teaching - lots of fun and lots of real practical help - that I got so involved in dyeing. My quilting and dyeing has taken over most of the cellar in our house - 3 rooms and the stairwell - ok one room gets to have the washing machine and the wine rack in it too but the rest is mine!

Just shows how the whole world is rapidly becoming interconnected by the internet.