Wet felt, dry felt and old silk pieces

Last Sunday,I went to Northlight Studios in Hebden Bridge for a textiles class with Sally Darlington (www.sallydarlington.co.uk)  In a fast paced day, we dyed, made felt, tried free machine embroidery (with varying degrees of success.  I wasn't proud!), did some stitching and slashing and ate a great lasagne made by Sally.

I like these pieces.......................

A close up of a wet felted piece.... I'm not sure you can properly see the wonderful sheen on the green fibres or the subtle grey tones which is a pity as they are lovely!

a needle felted piece on which I later added machine stitching


I'm so lucky that I have such generous friends............take a look at these pieces of old silk I received yesterday.  They were stitched together and had, I understand, been part of a skirt now too stained to wear. I removed the stitching and washed and pressed each piece and they are now ready to be re-constructed.  May be I'll show you what I do in a later post.

Work In Progress

I've just started stitching on this piece...............

It began at a class I'm doing at The Hive in Shipley with Claire Welllesley-Smith where we tried image transfer techniques.  These transfers are on fine lawn inkjet printable fabric:


                                              

I have chosen a piece of fabric to layer behind the sheer fabric so that the stitches frame and enhance the images, the writing and the stains and I have made.............

a sandwich of vintage linen, light wadding and fine cotton.  

Here is the fabric sandwich with the lawn laid on top:

I haven't got very far yet with the stitching so I'm off to thread my needle now.......