Once I’d drawn up the design I wanted, I scanned it, added a circle round the outside (so when I come to mount it, it should be easy to centre), and resized the whole thing to 10cm (4″) in diameter. I printed this out, and traced it with a transfer pencil: I ironed this onto…
Last year’s work on the Banner meant that I couldn’t do some other projects (and a commission) that I would otherwise have done. One of these was for the Embroiderers’ Guild North East Region’s exhibition, ‘Mining a golden seam’. This exhibition featured contemporary goldwork (in its widest sense) embroidery and textiles inspired by the North…
The last lap, panel-wise. The final thing to do is to get all the embroidered flowers onto the background fabric, then do the goldwork. So, to get things underway, I marked out the design with a reference grid: Mounted the background fabric onto my big frame, and marked out a corresponding grid on it with…
At last, the Banner’s final panel, the top one. This is similar to the bottom panel, so no foxgloves and fewer ferns, but more pearlworts and wood avens. For reasons now lost in the mists of time, when making the flower transfers, I only did the ones for the first three panels, not the final…
Time to set up the third panel, the right-hand one. All the flowers are embroidered, so the first step to get everything ready is to damp stretch them: If you spotted that one of the sheets of ferns has half a side of pins missing, you’re doing a lot better than me – I didn’t…
Starting to put it together, that is, as the flowers are all embroidered. They did need to be damp stretched, though. Here they are, all pinned out ready to be dampened: Now they’re all beautifully flat, I can cut them up. It almost seems a shame, doesn’t it! It’ll be worth it, though, as the…
Now all the flowers are done, they need to be applied to the background fabric, but before I can do that, I need to get this ready. I also need a means of ensuring that I put the flowers on in the right place. As both of these are part of the same process, I’ll…
Time to start the Banner’s very first flowers! The flowers are to go on the wide border surrounding the front central cross, which will be in red velvet. Stitching directly onto velvet is not easy and tends not to give a good result, as the pile can come through the stitches. I looked into this…
Yes, Spirograph II. The last one I did was Spirograph III, but I’m just being awkward. Actually, I got out of sequence as there were problems with the design for Spirograph II, or rather with the limitations of my equipment. Due to the nature of the spiral designs, I need to have the full spiral…
Just the very large spiral to do, then Spirograph III is finished. The trouble is, it’s going to be as much work as all the others added together! This final spiral is 44cm (17.5″) in diameter, which is pretty big, and only just fits on my frame with all of it visible. To give you…