Extravaganza

Last Saturday I went to the Lutterworth Embroiderer's Guild annual Extravaganza. This is a wonderful day out with an exhibition of the Guild member's work, trading stalls, demonstrations, an amazing lunch and then an afternoon speaker.

I went with a good friend of mine and what a lovely time we had, comparing notes on what we had seen, sharing peeks of each other's purchases, and passing knowing looks and nods about topics touched on in the afternoon talk.


Alice always used to attend these events (she was the chairperson's daughter!), and somehow, I am glad I did not go to the extravaganza last year (favouring a trip to the stitching show at Harrogate instead), as this meant Alice was not a ghost at every corner for me this year.


I purchased (it is impossible not to purchase at Extravaganza!) 2 felted Christmas Bauble kits (great fun - take wool tops, a ping pong ball, add some pure soap and roll in your hands until felted!); 2 packets of handmade fabric beads; 1 pack of waterlily inspired coloured threads (a bit like a Texere yarns pack); 1 pack of Lutrador (see below); and 1 packet of mixed buttons (OK, I admit now that they are for an idea for NEXT year's Christmas cards). That was quite restrained for me. But luckily (a) I have had my fill of the Guild theme packs and (b) there was no yarn stall this year.


Onto to the afternoon talk, which was entitled "Granny's Sewing Box". Marion Maule was enchanting. Not too much "I, me and mine" and plenty of artifacts to show and anecdotes to share. Her collection of old, vintage and antique sewing implements, boxes, and books was wonderful. She herself said that if she collected an implement, she liked to find an example of work done with it, and if she collected a book, she liked to find an exemplar of one of the patterns in the book. Everyone in the audience had a moment where they thought to themselves "Oh! My Mum/Granny/Aunty etc had one of those". My moments were remembering the darning mushroom (green and black) that my Mum had that was also a needle store, and the carved needle holder that I thought was made of plastic, but have now been informed may have been carved from a South American nut.

I can't manager any pictures of the bits and pieces at the moment, as my scanner is not connected, but pictures will follow soon. In the meantime, here is some information on Lutrador courtesy of The Thread Studio.



Lutradur Hints and Uses
What Is It? - Lutradur is a non woven polyester material. At first glance, it looks like dressmakers interfacing, but its unique spun woven structure makes it see through in nature. It comes in a variety of different weights; the lighter the material, the easier it is to see through it. It’s a truly versatile material. It doesn’t fray, has a slight sheen, is see through, can be combined with all other types of material, can be painted, dyed, distressed with a soldering iron or heat gun, glued, stitched, embroidered…there are no limits to what you can do with Lutradur! It is also suitable for paper arts, such as making books, altered books, card making, Artist’s Trading Cards (ATCs) and postcards.

Can I run it through the printer? - The heavier weights of Lutradur can be run through the printer without backing paper; however, because of the structure of the material, some of the ink is inevitably lost. The lighter weights can be run through attached to freezer paper; again, the lighter the paper, the greater the ink loss. However experimentation with your printer settings is worthwhile.

What kind of dyes can I use with Lutradur? - Disperse dyes are suitable for dyeing lutradur. These dyes are painted onto paper and then transferred by ironing the dye onto the material. They are also available in crayon form.

What about paints? - If it works on cloth, it’ll work on Lutradur! However, if you use thick paint, you will lose the see through nature of the cloth. Better to work with washes of paint.

And inks? - Absolutely. Pens and pencils, too.

Can I use heat to distress Lutradur? - Yes you can. It is possible to use both a heat gun and soldering iron for distressed effects; it tolerates the heat of a hot iron in the transfer dyeing process, but if you leave the iron on the material too long, you can also produce a distressed effect, sometimes when you didn’t intend it!

How does Lutradur withstand intense machine stitching? - Depends on the weight of Lutradur you are using, and how you are using it. As with any other material, the lighter the weight, the more distortion is likely when you stitch intensively into an area. The heavier weights will take a lot of stitching; the lighter weights, if fused onto a supporting material (which would be visible through the lutradur), can also be stitched like this.

Can you stitch Lutradur by hand? - Of course. Hand stitching can look particularly effective.
Can I print on it?Yes. The transfer dyeing process lends itself to printing as well as painting, with a suitable thickener (contact your dye retailer for more information).

Can I use my embellisher on it? - Lutradur makes a great base cloth for the embellisher, but it can’t be felted onto other cloth.

Threads and Beads

This is the ongoing saga of the layered machine embroidery piece I started a while ago. Various threads were trapped between some sheer gold fabric and stitched over. I was never too happy with it as a large piece, but it has now made its way onto a set of Christmas cards. I cut it into small squares, bound the edges and added a bead as embellishment. I think they work a lot better this size, although I am determined to work on a large piece again. There are six cards in total, all slightly different.

This brings my total of Christmas cards made so far this year to 48! Only 52 more to go! So far I have never met my target of making all 100 cards... but this year is looking the closest yet. This 100 does not include the 30 homemade ones we also make for little chap to give to his school chums!

I have also finished the first skein of silk boucle that I am using to knot a scarf for a blogging friend... just tying on the second skein now...

Catch up

Sometimes you just have to wait until the time feels right to do something... and that has been the case with blogging, knitting and painting the last couple of weeks. However, last night I got the needles going again...

I have finished the socks (yes both of them!). I won't post a picture as there have been many pics of yarn and progress in recent posts.

I have also wound the Noro yarn I bought with the gift voucher from my secret pal, and have started knitting with it... it is a beautiful mix of colours, and works up nicely in this broken rib pattern. I can't say what I am making as it is going to be a gift for someone.

I frogged the black felted bag I was making. I ran out of wool for the pattern I was working to (which was going to have an eyelet design along the top threaded with sari ribbon), and am now going to do something smaller, and perhaps beaded. (I have a lovely stash of assorted beads, and have to confess that I have just ordered a whole pile more from Jilly Beads). I have also been making various brooches and charms... many of which are destined to find their way into Christmas presents (yes, I said the "C" word, but sorry, I am notoriously early in planning!). It is not too clear in the picture, but the bottom one is a beautiful set of tiny Russian Doll beads.

I have made a rosette from the sari ribbon, which I intend to embellish with some beads, and actually, I really like it made into these small items, so I might well make some more for brooches and pins).

I have also been butchering my wardrobe, and cut up a dress bought years ago to make a nice summer skirt. I loved the fabric but the shape of the dress was rather unflattering. Actually, I have just noticed that the fabric is very similar to the wallpaper we have recently put up in our hall, so I had better not stand around in our hallway too much when wearing this skirt!. I just cut it shorter, elasticated the waist (nothing fancy), and think it will look nice worn with a wide belt. I have kept the top part of the dress as well, and think I might just about manage to turn it into a top to wear with jeans. (So thrifty!)

I also drastically shortened a long line tweedy skirt that my husband finally admitted he hated. I zigzagged the bottom and was going to turn a hem, but I noticed the zigzag has made the hem nicely fluted. So I am going to keep it with this rather raw finish. I made a contrast tweed flower to put on it, and reckon it might just see me through this summer.

This wardrobe refashioning has been inspired by the fact that I have managed to lose a bit of weight over the past couple of weeks. I have set myself a target to regain my ideal weight (according to the WHO BMI) before my 40th birthday, it's a bigger target than I have wanted to admit.

Stitched and dissolved silk

I have had a skein of recycled sari silk yarn in blues and greens in my stash for some months. I recently knitted it up and attached some handles, with the intention of making a craft bag for my Mum. The finished item, however just did not work. The handles were curved, and the weight of the sari silk meant it all bunched up and hung in an ugly mass from the centre of the handles. Now, the problem with sari silk, is when you have stitched it up, the stitches just disappear into the yarn, so it is not possible to unpick it. What to do to salvage the beautiful colours and textures in the knitted piece? Well, the answer lay in the dissolvable fabric I bought at the show in Harrogate last year...



I chopped the knitted piece away from the handles, and stuck it to a piece of backing felt, then I put over the dissolvable fabric and stitched through it to secure the fibres. Then quick rinse in warm water got rid of the top layer, and after drying above the Aga overnight, I have been left with this...







The colours glow more than this picture shows, but once again the stitching has disappeared into the fibres of the sari silk. The slight ribbing from the way it was knitted, and the mix of colours remind me of a picture of tree bark posted on "In The Pink" (see post 07/02/07). The next step will be to embellish with some beads and maybe some angelina fibres. I think I shall also try to pleat it a bit to give it some more 3D shaping. I'm excited by this... I think it has good potential.

Alterations

I'm a user-interface designer, and one thing I know is you have to live a design for a while to find out if it really works. So I applied the same principle to the little purple purse that I posted before, and found it really worked better if the dinky little handle was sewn down as a strip to the purse flap.

So here is the amended item... I think it looks much better like this.

Super heroes abound!

There is nothing quite so much fun as making fancy-dress costumes for children. I don't mean the kind from patterns published in books or magazines. I mean taking items you have and turning them into costumes, and all the fun of researching and deciding the details with your little one.

We did just this at the weekend, to come up with a fancy dress costume for my little boy's birthday party.

So from one old negligee, a pair of tights, some gold ribbon, yellow craft foam, an off-cut of black leatherette and an old pair of pants... batman was born...

Ignore the red socks and cuffs - on the day they will not be making an appearance. Do you think Bruce Wayne would have been proud? My little chap was unsure about wearing his pants over his trousers, but even he had to admit, that when we consulted the comic book, that was how the man (bat?) himself did it.