Embroidered Fox

I have been troubling myself this week about how to finish off this picture I have embroidered of a fox. I was lucky enough to see a fox out in the snow whilst walking my dog very early one day this week, which inspired me. But, because the embroidered fox is quite detailed, I cannot decide whether to do quite a stylised background, or continue with lots of detail. Troubling! Maybe, sometime this week, I'll get my head round it! I have also been busy with the mat-making course in Sunderland. I find it takes quite alot of preparation, looking for materials for the following week, washing and drying them - especially as most of the fabric is from old wool coats I find in the charity shops. Then there's the lesson planning and collecting the equipment from my studio, as I can't store it at home. The children's craft club was great again this week, 30 children turned up (there was lots of lovely snow outside to compete with!).It was remarkably calm, and the children all seemed confident in what they were doing, so the session was an absolute delight! Currently, I am completing some projects for the Shipley Art Gallery in Gateshead, one I am particulary excited by is a 'Union' Flag, progged in green, salmon and violet. It looks fab! It has been made by local young women.

A fun and creative activity the girls and I are up to this afternoon, is making hankies for Grandma, using their old Summer cotton dresses and the lovely new sewing machines they had for Christmas. I think Grandma will love them!

New Children's Craft Club

Last Wednesday I started, with a couple of very helpful school Mum's, a Craft Club at the local school. It was open only to children from Year 5 and Year 6, and low and behold, 40 (!) children turned up! It was great! I have worked with all of these children before on large wall-hangings, teaching them different craft techniques over the 6 weeks of making the hangings, and I was pleased to see that they had obviously had so much fun making them, that they have come back for more! The first few sessions, we plan to make some embroidered pictures in hoops bought from (very prompt service). The children are designing their own pictures: some football themed, some for friends birthdays, some are just very cute! As well as this, we are setting up a mat-frame for children to work on when they have had enough of close stitching or would prefer a different project. This is to be a picture of the school crest.

This is a picture of the 'Shipbuilding' wall-hanging I made with the children from Year 5, last year at our local school. They learnt how to batik, quilt, embroider, fabric paint and 'prog' to make the hanging over six weeks. Tomorrow, I am back to Sunderland for the Traditional Mat-making course I am teaching at the City Library. The students are about to start putting pen to hessian to get their design onto the mat-frame. This is when it starts to get exciting! Hope the snow doesn't hinder our progress!

Busy, busy, busy!

Last week was a busy one for me, with meetings at local museums and galleries to plan new programs of work and future projects - one project I am extremely excitied about, but not in a position to talk about it yet;though it does involve working alongside some famous tapestries! I have also been back to running workshops with local young women's groups, such as embroidery and 'sock creatures'; as well as writing lesson plans and schemes of work for my next series of hooky and proggy mat workshops started this week at Sunderland City Library.

I also, have allowed myself sometime to play this week and I have been making some small embroideries of nocturnal animals to use with a school craft group I am working with tomorrow. This is an image of one of the 'hooked' pictures I have made recently, ready for the new mat-making workshops I am running. This picture is a detail of a poppy.

School Craft Club

Tomorrow, I am starting a new craft club at our local school for Year 5 and 6. I have found that over the last few years of working with the school on a number of projects, including local history wall-hangings, that many of the children really enjoy all different craft techniques including sewing, hooky and proggy matting and fabric painting. So, along with some of the mum's from the school, we have decided to get together and start a club! We are starting with embroidery pictures in hoops (as this makes the pictures look fab for display)and there will be a mat-frame set up, too.

New Year Resolutions!

Now that we are having to take down all our lovely Christmas decorations, it reminds me that I really should start making my presents and decorations earlier this year! At my studio in The Biscuit Factory, I sold the only two 'proggy wreaths' I had made within half an hour of my studio opening for the Ouseburn Open Studios event, fabulous but frustrating when I did not have time to make more - as they had taken about 6 hours to make, each!

July is probably a good time to start, or even earlier for many people. My children and other family members, always like something made for Christmas: my husband likes to have a pair of socks, as do a few other family and friends; some friends like to have a silk and tweed recycled covered diary and notebook; my children and friend's children, love to have a new 'friend' knitted! It's always great fun coming up with new designs, working with different materials to create just the right gift.

When I start to think about this, I should probably be starting NOW! But, now that the decorations are down, I feel that I would like to make some Winter decorations, which may then lead me to making some Spring decorations - that will keep me out of trouble, on top of the real work I have to do!

10 New School Window Hangings

Since May 2012, I have been working with over 500 school children from Nursery age to Year 6. The project was for the children to design and create 10 hangings to be hung in their large dinning hall windows, illustrating the school's values. The hangings each needed to be 2 metres by 80 centimetres and to almost create a 'stained glass window' effect when the sun shined.

Every year group was allocated a value and came up with a design for it. These were then draw onto the cotton fabric in the style of the children's designs, then every child from that year group would spend sometime painting on their hanging. The fabric paint we used was COLOURTEX by Specialist Crafts. I have been using this paint for a long time and find it very adaptable. In this case it could be watered down to the right level, so that when light reaches it, the colour almost glows on the right weight cotton.

The 10 hangings are now complete and will be ready to hang in the school dinning hall this week. Which I hope the school and the children love!

 

This is a detail from the hanging painted by the 63 children in the school nursery. Their school value was about Diversity, so they each painted a butterfly, different in shape and colour. The raven appears on all of the hangings, as it is part of the school insignia and a fun image for the children to find on the hangings whilst eating their school dinners.

Rag Rug for Beginners workshop

Rag Rug for Beginners - New Workshop with Louise Underwood

 

Learn to make traditional hooky and proggy mats from scratch. This is a course for absolute beginners. All tools and materials will be provided. The course is for 10 weeks (excluding half-term week), starting Monday morning 14th January 2013, 10-12.15pm.

There may be a small fee for this course but depending on your age and if you are on some beneifits it may be free or a reduced rate.

For booking please contact:

 

Sunderland City Library and Arts Centre,

28-30 Fawcett Street,

Sunderland

SR1 1RE

0191 561 1235



This is a picture of an applique owl I made for the cover of a Natural History bag I made for the Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Liverpool. These bags, and their contents, which included head-dress, large wings and owl 'food' were made for local school children to use whilst visiting the natural history section of the gallery.

 

Made using techniques such hand and machine embroidery, crochet, applique and quilting, the Natural History bags are robust and fun to use! Even more fun to make!

Monday 31st December 2012

We’ve been having a great time with the new sewing machines my two daughters’ received for Christmas and post Christmas birthday. They have been extremely industrious making draw-string bags and patchwork cushions. They have never used sewing machines before and although only 8 & 9 years old, they have both taken to it like a duck to water! Have obviously learnt it through osmosis!

Tuesday 1st January 2013

Welcome to my new blog! I hope you enjoy reading as I enjoy making the mad and fun things that happen daily in my studio and house!