Some of my hand-carved stamps

I admit it… I’m a craft dilettante!

I was, several years ago, trying to integrate my rubber stamping hobby into my textile art. I loved the depth it gave backgrounds, and being able to use the stamps themselves as designs to stitch.

Then I ran into a problem. I had too many pieces to keep for myself, and, frankly, I didn’t just want to give them away to relatives and friends who might or might not appreciate them. (I have been asked on occasion, why would you want to do that by hand when a machine is so much faster? !) So it would be nice to sell some of my art.

Unfortunately for the situation, though not in the long run, copyright law applies to stamp designs (and needlework patterns, and designs in books, and coloring books… and a lot more, too!) You might think this is silly, since stamps are tools to make art, but how you are licensed and allowed to use the images you stamp varies by company to company. My stamp collection sometimes doesn’t specify company any more. Many of the stamps I have date from before I went looking for “angel” companies who allow you to sell your hand-stamped work. Even angel companies have different policies regarding how or whether you notify them. Prints of artwork created are generally not allowed, although this can be negotiable.  I didn’t want to have to go to the bother of tracking down the specific policy of each and every stamp I owned, and then keeping all the paperwork needed to prove I was in compliance – and what if I made art that just came out so cool that I thought notecards made from it as prints would be neat? Out of luck.

I decided that the easiest thing for me, was just not to use commercial stamps at all any more. Enter learning to carve my own (which has, in turn, led to woodcarving as an actual hobby {I didn’t think I was capable of hobbies any more!})… Did I ever mention that I play with WAAAY too many crafts? Maybe this blog should be Craft Dilettante! instead of Stitching with a Shimmy!

Color experiment

Color has always been tough for me… I tend to use analogous color schemes — like yellow-green, green and green-blue, so I can avoid the entire issue!

Color experiment

But I spent quite a bit of time learning – once you can pair value (how light or dark an area is) with color-brightness and contrast, and complimentary colors, the world opens up. I play with all of this in paint first these days – no intention of creating finished or resolved work from them, just little experiments in what works and why, and my color choices in threads need to be ripped out much less now, although I have discovered that what works in thread on a small scale may not work when enlarged — for example, three colors that work as a small face don’t necessarily work together when enlarged to an 8 1/2 by 11 inch piece of work. This seems to happen more in thread than in paint for me, at least right now. Still working that out.

Color experiment

I’ve been trying to learn this academically for a long while now – but the more I read, or even pushed buttons for (online resources follow) the less I understood. It finally took getting a bunch of cheap acrylic paint and doing it myself to actually grok it. My experiments may be ugly, but they did what they were intended to do! (I used quite a few of them as backgrounds in my journal, or I’d post more of the photos here.)

I started asking myself, “so what’s holding me back? Time? no. Money? no. Fear? ah. there’s the little monster hiding in the corner. Come on out, little guy! I’m not going to tell you to go away!  M-Monster, R-Romilly.

A little fuzzy red critter slowly crawls out of the shadows… Wow he’s tiny, but boy does he have long legs!

M – Y’y'you’re not?

R – Nope – you’ve got as much right to be here as I do, and you, I’m guessing, don’t want me – us – to get hurt!

M – NO! I don’t! We need to be safe and happy!

R – But when I’m scared all the time, I’m definitely not happy! And I don’t FEEL safe! Besides. It’s lonely.

M – But you’ve got your sister, and the EO, and the cats… Why can’t you be happy hiding where no one bad can hurt you?

R – Because then I miss all the fun – remember the dune buggy rides in kindergarten?

M – No. We didn’t go on any.

R – I know – because we were scared it wouldn’t be as fun as swimming – that we’d waste a day.

M – Ummmmmm…

R – Remember when we got to go in our teens?

M – Yeah – it was fun, but we thought it was probably more fun at 5 years old and in the desert, not on suburban streets in Seattle.

R – Right.

M- But what about mean people?

R – You mean people who will tell me I can’t write and my designs are icky and too expensive?

M – YEAH!

R – Remember how you said we’ve got all those people and the cats? We’ve also got a bunch of other friends…

M – ?!

R – They’ll all tell us we don’t stink, and remind us that we’re loved!

M – But mean words hurt!

R – Yeah, they hurt, but so did running into that car when we were learning to ride a bike — but how fun was the wind in our faces when we got it down? Worth it?

M – WAY worth it!!! WHEEEEEE!!! Bike Riding! YAY!

R – So maybe if we thought of show day as Ride day?

M – Around Green Lake!!!! really really fast! ZZOOOM!!!

R – If we’re going to do that, I need to tune up the bike so we can stay safe.

M – Um… okay? What’s the bike?

R – That would be the book that needs edited and illustrated. And the webpage for it, so you can have a bike, too.

M – Oh. OK. You tune up the bikes and I’ll pack a picnic. With cookies! Whee!!!

Little monster is suddenly running around the room playing airplane. I’m a bit worried that the picnic will consist of JUST cookies! but we’re off!

Notes:

Yes. I’m writing a book. You’d think that a professional technical writer wouldn’t fret about this, but I am.  I’m trying to take the fear out designing or adapting needlework designs for your own purposes.  If you’re interested in updates on the status, I’ll be adding those to the newsletter, as well as some preview information as I get going. And you’ll get the 5-part creativity in cross stitch class as well for signing up! Sign up in the sidebar, or click for a bigger sign up form!

The technique is adapted from something Havi Brooks does every so often when she talks to her monsters.

If you’re interested in talking to your monsters, you might look at Havi’s Monster Coloring book, too. (yes, this is an affiliate link: but if you don’t want me to get a commission on it, you can get there from the link on her name in the last paragraph, too!)

In the “How to doodle” post way back when, I examined how I doodle around geometrically, creating geometric designs, subdivided and filled with yet more shapes. That method can be done using dice for inspiration.

My organic doodling is less structured – take a scribble – any scribble – on paper or digitally and then expand on it.

How to Doodle

1. Scribble. I often use pencil for this. The key when making it is to truly scribble — don’t think and don’t try to make anything. In fact, scribble a bunch of these randomly on the page without looking. I like to keep a stack of pre-scribbled doodles to work with whenever the mood strikes, or several pages of them in my current studio journal.
   

   First Doodle Step

2. Now, pretend you’re a kid again, lying on your back on a hill watching clouds. What do you see? Each scribble is a cloud.
3. At this point I like to use a brush tip pen to delineate what I see. The brush tip makes it easier to make some of the lines stronger and more obvious. You can get the same result with a different color of pen, or a pen over pencil, or whatever works for you. Remember – you don’t have to use all of the scribble – you can make multiple pictures out of the same scribble, or combine more than one scribble into one picture.
   

   Finished and titled doodles. Click to enlarge.

There are no rules in doodling – and it’s about playing, not “real” art.

What we did was the following:

1. Find an iron on transfer or a line art/coloring design she liked from a clip art book.
2. Transfer it onto a piece of counted fabric. In this case, aida.
3. Now fill in the various areas with the stitch of your choice. In my friend’s case, I taught her long-armed cross stitch. You can also use tent stitch, cross stitch, satin stitch, or any other filling stitch, lacy or solid that you like. Or a variety of stitches.
4. Stitch over the outlines with stem or back stitch.
5. Voila! apparently counted work that wasn’t counted.

Note: I’m not sure how regularly I’ll be posting for the next few weeks. Our old lady cat is in home hospice care, in the last stages of thyroid disease AND renal failure, so I find myself watching her and worrying more than I ought to, perhaps.

In the meantime, I’ve been distracted a little bit from my model stitching (I’m having a grand time getting the new line ready – I’m planning on taking part in the Online Needlework show in October, so there’s a built-in deadline that reminds me that stitching isn’t goofing off any more – it’s actually work, no matter how much fun I’m having!) with a couple of projects.

I’ve got a project box that contains a pile of things I’ve started and never, for whatever reason, finished. In that is Tracy Horner’s Cirque des Cercles. When I take a break, I’m putting a few stitches into it here and there. Unfortunately, or not, I started it on black, in a variegated DMC color that isn’t made any more, so I’m HOPING that I have enough thread to finish it. I should – I bought out the store when I realized it was being discontinued! And if I’m one or so skeins short, they DO still sell it in the packages of all the variegated colors that they still sell, at least it wasn’t one of the completely discontinued ones! And I want to do the matching triangle design as well!

Artwork by Harry Clark - Studio, 78

Add to that my new obsession. You see, I’ve been researching Art Nouveau design for my next line of teaching patterns. And in one of the Dover books, I found this (click it for a larger view – it’s amazing!):

And me, being the obsessive I am, decided it HAD to be stitched. So I enlarged it – it’s now about 20X26 inches or so, and I’m in the process of tracing it off to simplify it for stitching. That’s one of the main keys to designing needlework – SIMPLIFY!! This piece in particular, is probably a bad idea, because of all the gorgeous pen and ink details. But when it comes to stitching, I’ve never been known to give up just because something’s a bad idea! (will I ever learn?)

So anyway. This is my new non-cross stitch project. It’s huge, it’s going to take forever, and I’ll try to keep you posted on the progress. I may need to set it aside for a while in the middle, too! I am thinking silk, beads, possibly sequins, and maybe even cotton and wool as well. It seems to scream for the overly baroque treatment!

So I’m stitching my models for the show (and having some of them stitched, again, if you’re interested in model stitching bellydancers or geometric pillow designs for me, send me an email and we’ll talk!). In my breaks, I’m putting a few stitches into my pile of half-started cross stitch projects, including designs by InkCircles, Indigo Rose, Teresa Wentzler and Miribilia (I don’t do anything that’s SIMPLE, do I?!)

Again, the images are in a gallery at the bottom, with descriptions. Click on them to enlarge.

Step 6 – Wired needlelace leaves

The finished leaf, from an odd angle.

1. Start in the same way you started the small petals: couch the wire down along the muslin pattern. Note: This is where I would have done something different: You will be pulling these couching threads out in step 7. I’d suggest using contrasting thread to couch with, rather than something that will blend in, like the blue I used.
   
2. Using 2 very long strands of green floss and the tapestry needle, secure the thread at the FRONT of the work, a bit away from the leaf, and bring your needle up about halfway down one side. Wrap the thread around just the wire up to the point. This will secure the thread when we are finished with the leaf.
   Note: This is another thing I would have done differently: I would have used one strand of fine perle cotton, maybe a size 12 for the leaves. (and maybe for the stem, too…) Needlelace is much easier to work with a thread with some body.
3. Starting with one buttonhole stitch at the tip of the leaf, work detached buttonhole downward, filling the leaf. This is detached from the muslin, not from the wire. Make sure you wrap each row of buttonhole stitch around the wire at the sides. I can’t find a tutorial for this. Near the beginning of next week I will try to video one and get it posted, if I can figure out the technology!
   Note: I wanted a lacy look to this leaf. If you are just trying out this technique, you might want to work a Corded Brussels stitch (with a returning thread bar for stability) instead of the Brussels (just buttonhole) stitch. The corded stitch is easier to maintain tension and make even stitches with.  I’ll include both versions in the video.
4. When you reach the bottom of the leaf, wrap the thread up around the leaf edge and park it to the side of your work.
5. Start another length of thread, again 2 strands, and as long as you can work with: I find that 24-30 inches is about as much as I can handle without it becoming a mess.  Secure it using the same method, but this time, come up on the left side of the leaf, 1/2 way up and wrap it to the bottom. Buttonhole around the wire and the wrapped threads all the way around the leaf.
6. Secure that last dangling thread by switching to your thinner, sharp needle and running it up under the last few buttonhole stitches you have made, between the stitches and the wire.  Clip the dangly green threads and your leaf is finished.
7. Repeat for the second leaf.

We’re both doing much better, thank you. And now for Step 2!

Supply Notes:

I was asked how much floral wire you need for this project. Eep. I haven’t measured yet. Floral wire comes either on spools or in packages of cut pieces. One of either will give you plenty of wire to do this project a couple of times over. About 1 1/2 to 2 yards will be more than enough.

I also neglected the small pieces of yellow felt you will need for the flower center. If you can match the color to the thread you’re planning on using, that’s even better.  2 pieces of felt, each large enough to cut the circle out of.  (I’ll edit the supply list with both these notes today as well.)

Step 2

Stem Stitch finished!

Note: When putting this into the hoop to start embroidering, I realized that my chosen fabric really wasn’t sturdy enough to support wire and padding on its own. If you even suspect this is the case, please get a second piece of muslin and when you put the embroidery in the frame, put the muslin onto the back of it to provide more support. I used a piece of polyester/linen blend that I had lying around that was the right size.

Again, you can click the pictures to see more detail of what happens to my stitching when I do it when sick!

And a slightly different angle and light source...

1. Once in the frame, use three strands of the green embroidery floss and stitch the stem in stem stitch. (Link goes to Sharon Boggin’s wonderful stitch dictionary!)
2. When you have stitched the main stem, use TWO strands of the green to stitch the tendril, also using stem stitch.

Note: Remember when stitching the stem stitch, that the tighter the curve you have to go around, the smaller your stitches need to become.

I’m going to start this today, and post the instructions as a stitch-a-long. You can stitch it with me, or wait for the end when I’ll post all the directions along with the crewel work instructions for the same design.

Supplies

1. Tightly woven fabric of your choice, 9X9 inches square.
2. DMC or silk embroidery floss in the following colors:
   • red
   • blue
   • green
   • yellow/gold
3. 6 inch embroidery hoop
4. 9X9 inch square of muslin
5. One package or spool of wrapped floral wire in 32 gauge. You’ll want white. That way if it shows, you can use a permanent pen to color it into the right color – I often use green for the leaves, but we’ll be wiring the smaller petals on this piece as well.
6. Embroidery needle – crewel or embroidery #9.
7. Tapestry needle – #26
8. OLD scissors or wire cutters to cut the wire Do NOT use your good embroidery scissors for this. Or even your not-so good ones!

Edited to add:

9. 2 small pieces of yellow felt to match your yellow floss – about 1 inch square each.

Pattern - click for full-sized printable version

Step One:

Print out the design. Note: the image to the left may be HUGE. If it prints at a full 8.5X11 sheet of paper, you will want to reduce it to 40%. OR, Click FlowerPattern for a pdf version that you can open with Adobe Reader.

Transfer it to a tightly-woven fabric of your choice, with the following exceptions:

DO NOT transfer:

The leaves.

The four small petals

My flower drawn on my chosen fabric. It's centered on the 9" piece of sateen.

I’m transferring it by tracing it onto a piece of polyester/cotton blend sateen that I have in my box (I collect scraps from interior designer friends who are getting rid of them for just this sort of purpose) with a permanent micron pen. You can also use the blue pens ones that wash out with cold water, but they sometimes feather into the fabric. Once it’s on my fabric, it doesn’t look like much, but this will show you what to leave out in more detail. Click the image for a larger version, if you really want the details!

Stumpwork detail

If you’ve been following me you know I took Sharon Boggin’s Encrusted Crazy Quilting class. I’m loving it to death. Every time I take another class from this lady I find another layer of myself and how to work it into my work.

In this case, I’m trying to find more depth in my work. A friend of mine, one to whom I’ve taught stumpwork techniques, laughed heartily when I told her this. I think she missed my point. Stumpwork is dimensional, yes, and very pretty – I’ll keep teaching it and doing it. But texturally, it’s not particularly layered or deep. I can find cool thing after cool thing in historic stumpwork designs, but in general they are beside one another. The thing about what Sharon does is the sheer baroque depth of it all –

First Encrusted CQ Block

So anyway, class completed, my block now looks like this (click the photos for details):
And I’ve finished a second one:

Second CQ block

And working on a third and fourth (they’re lighter). These four will turn into a small wall hanging, taking lessons from the Sumptuous Stitches class, and the Studio Journal class, I have built to a theme of Madame Pompadour: something I came to as I realized that my blocks all reflected the colors in paintings of her in my print collection. It’s evocative, there won’t be anything specifically figurative, but I’ll know. Although I am toying with the idea of using her quotes in the sashing when I put it together. I rather like “Intelligence has no gender.”