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Saturday, 5 March 2011

A Stitching weekend

For the past few years, I have demonstrated Japanese Embroidery at the Stitch and Creative Crafts show in Manchester. The shows are hard work but good fun and it is always nice to get together with my JE friends. Denise and Jane did not exhibit this year but Denise invited Jane, Sue and me to stay with her so that we did not miss out on a stitching weekend. Unfortunately, Jane was not able to join us.

Since Bridge Between East and West normally gets an outing at the show, I took that with me to stitch. The flowers at the centre of the design are nearly complete; only a few stems and details remain to be done. I decided to make a start on the rows of balls on either side. The balls are all padded but the amount of padding gradually decreases from the largest balls to the smallest. Likewise, although they are all stitched with twisted silk, the number of strands in the twist gradually deceases and the direction of the stitches gradually changes. In order to keep the padding, thread weight and direction of the stitches consistent, I stitched 3 or 4 balls on one side then rotated the frame and stitched the same balls on the opposite side. The balls are very small and did not take long to stitch so I was rotating the frame frequently. It made the stitching rather fragmented but I think it was worthwhile as the finished stitching is nicely consistent.

We probably spent more time chatting and eating than stitching but had a lovely weekend and are already planning to do it again later in the year.

Happy Stitching

My Stitching Nemesis

As long as I have been interested in embroidery the two stitches I have admired most are satin stitch and long and short stitch. These are also the two stitches that I have found most challenging. In Japanese embroidery there are 5 foundation stitches, horizontal, vertical, weft, diagonal and separated. The first four are essentially the same thing stitched in different directions and they are all essentially satin stitch. When you learn Japanese embroidery these stitches are among the first that you learn and they crop up again and again. Since l have been taking lessons in Japanese embroidery I think that my satin stitch has improved no end.

Long and Short stitch also features prominently in Japanese embroidery but the student does not encounter this technique until Phase VII. The two designs taught at this phase are among the most beautiful of all the phase pieces and although I have admired them greatly, I have never thought about them in terms of my stitching journey. I think because they are done in long and short stitch I pushed them to the back of my mind. When I finished stitching Loving Couple it dawned on me that in my next class I would be starting Phase VII, i would have to tackle the dreaded LSS.

I choose my design and fabric, my tutor placed the order and we waited for it to arrive ... and we waited ... and we waited. I was beginning to think that it would not arrive on time and started to consider other pieces to stitch in class. I almost felt relieved that I would not be doing Phase VII after all. Then last Monday, I heard from my tutor that the order had arrived and my piece was with her. I was surprised by how relieved I felt. I’ve been looking forward to my week in Bournemouth for weeks but for the first time I am actually looking forward to Phase VII albeit with more than a little trepidation.

Happy Stitching

Thursday, 3 March 2011

Lacing

I finished Loving Couple several weeks ago and kept telling myself that I had plenty of time to finish and mount it but somehow I put it off and put it off until there were only a couple of weeks left before my next Japanese embroidery class.

I did the finishing two weekends ago (I described the finishing process here when I finished Karahana) and last weekend I mounted it ready for framing. When I had finished Suehiro I took it off the frame but did not mount it immediately. I noticed that some of the stitching, particularly the metallic threads, distorted so now I leave my embroidery on the frame until I am ready to mount it.

The process to remove the embroidery from the frame is the exact opposite of the process of framing up.

Remove the protective tissue paper. Untie and remove the chopsticks. Remove the lacing stitches.

Remove the nails and unwind the horizontal bars and remove the embroidery.

Next I remove the end fabrics. Very often leave about an inch of end fabric to give myself plenty of fabric for lacing; on this occasion that was not necessary.

With the design trimmed I moved it to a prepared work area. I place a big fluffy towel on the table and cover that with tissue paper, shiny (smooth) side up. I place my embroidery face down on the tissue paper.

The mount board I am using is 3mm archival foam board; my framer cut it to size for me. I use a layer of silk wadding between the foam board and the fabric. In the past I have found it difficult to keep the wadding in place while positioning it and the foam board on the fabric. This time I attached the wadding to the board with 505 spray which made things much easier.

This picture shows the silk wadding attached to the board but the board is the wrong way up. The board should be wadding side down on the fabric

I work out how to position the design on the board while the fabric is still on the frame and stitch a guideline using couching thread. This only serves as a guide and I measure carefully to make sure the board is in the correct position and aligned with the weft.

Then I begin pinning. Starting at the centre of either the top or bottom edge, I insert a single pin through the fabric and into the foam between the two layers of card. I insert the second pin at the center point on the opposite edge pulling the fabric taught as I do. I then work out towards each edge pinning first one side then the other tensioning the fabric. I place the pins at half inch intervals, if find this helpful when it comes to lacing.

When the top and bottom are pinned I turn the work over and recheck the position and make sure the design is straight before pinning the two sides in the same way. When the sides are pinned I turn the work face up and check once more that the work is straight and correctly positioned – you cannot check often enough!

For the lacing I used Gütermann top stitch thread and a Japanese handmade needle to do the lacing. To calculate how much thread I need, I pseudo lace by catching the thread around the pins, then add some for luck. For some reason, I thought that I needed to pseudo lace back in the opposite direction but this gave me twice as much thread as I needed and the surplus thread was a nuisance!

Starting at the center pin, I make a stitch roughly ¼ inch long and pull half of the thread through (the other half will be used later). I then make a ¼ inch stitch on the opposite edge starting in line with the end of the first stitch so the thread is perpendicular to the edge of the board. I continue to stitch first one side then the other at ¼ inch intervals keeping the stitches close to the edge of the board. At this stage there is no need to pull the stitches tight but the thread does have a tendency to tangle if you try to pull it through too quickly. In fact, it has a tendency to tangle whatever you do but I find that pulling slowly and steadily with one hand while maintaining a slight tension on the thread with the other hand helps.

When I get close to the corner I fold the fabric under to make a mitred corner. If necessary I use my tekobari to push the folds into place and smooth out any wrinkles or bulges. When I have stitched all the way to the edge, I temporarily secure the thread by winding it around the pins. Returning to the centre, I thread the other half of the thread and lace towards the other edge. I forgot to mention that before I do the lacing, I attach a label saying what the design is, whon stitched it and when. Later I put the same label on the back of the frame.

When all of the stitches are in place, I tighten them. Starting at one edge I pull the first stitch tight. I keep the tension on that stitch with one hand while I pull the next stitch taught and so on until I have tensioned every stitch and wind the thread around the pins to secure it. I then repeat the process and tension every stitch for a second time. To permanently secure the thread, I make two close parallel stitches through the fabric then make 2 or 3 half hitch knots around the stitches. I then make 2 stitches on the opposite edge and do 2 or 3 half hitch knots around the stitches. I make one more stitch an inch or two away from the knots before I cut of the surplus thread.

The remaining 2 sides are laced in exactly the same way and finally the holding pins are removed. Job done!

Susan of Plays with Needles wrote a very good blog about lacing.

Happy Stitching

Tuesday, 1 March 2011

Progress Report - March

Around the beginning of each month I plan to review what has been done in the previous month and set new goals for the coming month.

Frame 1: I have done the finishing and laced Loving Couple onto mount board ready for framing. I will take LC, unframed, to Bournemouth for my tutor to assess before having it framed. I would have liked to frame up my next Phase piece ready for class but there was a delay in delivery so I will collect the fabric and frame up on the first day.

Frame 2: I took Embroidery Bridge Between East and West away for a stitching weekend and made reasonable progress. I really like how this piece is developing and hope to give it some more stitching time soon.

Frame 3: Most of my stitching time has been dedicated to Poppy Pouch and it is coming along steadily. I did not quite meet my target of finishing by the end of February but it is nearly there. I estimate it will take 3-4 hours more stitching to complete this and I hope to do that this week.

I did not do any work on Frame 4 but nor did I expect to. I want to move Floral Melody onto Frame 3 before I do any more to it.

I also completed 4 travelling pages (I will blog about these when I know they have been delivered), 2 Round Robin Doodle Pages (to be blogged when the Round Robin is completed), crocheted a hat and made a necklace.

In March I go to Bournemouth for a 5 day Japanese Embroidery class (woohoo!), that will set the tone for my stitching for the coming month. I usually find that when I return from Bournemouth I only want to work on the Phase piece that I began in class, but I don’t want Poppy Pouch to fall by the way side. Hopefully, I can finish that in the next few days.

Happy Stitching

Monday, 21 February 2011

Poppy Pouch, side two

I rarely enjoy making or embroidering the same thing twice. Stitching the second side of Poppy Pouch is feeling a bit of a chore but I have been chipping away doing a few minutes most mornings and a little longer when I get the chance.

I like to think that I learnt something on the first side and that my stitching has improved. Certainly, I think the rows of couching look more consistent with fewer gaps between the beads. I don’t think there is any visible difference in my stitching on the flowers but it feels very different. At first I found it difficult to judge where to bring my needle up so that the beads would be correctly positioned, it could take 2 or 3 attempts to get it right. Now I often get it right first time and when I don’t, a second attempt is usually all that is needed. I am also getting better at judging how many beads are required to fill a space. I am much less inclined to try to cram in one more bead. All in all, I feel it is coming more naturally to me.

Although I had a lot of stitching time this weekend, I did not make as much progress with Poppy Pouch as I hoped. I could not really settle to it and kept looking for other things to do. I also had a little time for stitching this morning. I knew that I could not stitch a whole petal in the time available but thought that I would be able to manage the small leaf. I really enjoy doing these leaves and they look very 'leafy' when they are done. The stitching went well and I was able to complete it without rushing. A very satisfying morning’s stitch!

Happy Stitching

Tuesday, 8 February 2011

Festival of Needles

In my first ever post I said "As far as I know, I was born with a needle in my hand." If that was true it would have been one of my mother’s sewing needles. They were all I used for many, many. Basically, if the thread went through the eye of the needle, and the needle went through the fabric, I used it.

My first "embroidery" needle came with a kit. My first ever embroidery was not a kit but most of my early ones were and from those I collected together a variety of embroidery needles. I began to realise that there were different types of needle and, to a small degree, what they were suitable for but provided I could, I still stitched with the first needle I laid hands on.

When I think about my sewing kit, there are many tools that I would not like to part with but I could probably make do without or find a substitute. The one tool that is totally indispensible is the needle, yet until recently I barely gave them a thought. I think that is partly due to the fact that I obtained most them for free. I don’t even recall buying any before 2005. I may have done but they were so cheap and insignificant that I really don’t remember. But I remember very clearly the needles that I acquired on Monday, 14th February 2005. They were bought and paid for in advance but this was the day I received my own set of handmade Japanese embroidery needles.

Handmade Japanese needles stored in their needle felt (on the top edge).
Machine-made needles on bottom edge and a pin (for no particular reason)

From the beginning Jems (Japanese embroidery students) are taught to value and care for their needles. They are expensive and not readily available; you can’t get them from your local needlework shop. The needles are stored in a block of lamb’s wool felt to prevent them from rusting. The eyes of the needles are hand finished; there are no burrs to snag your silk. The points are also ground by hand; they are very sharp and very precise. A clean needle glides through the fabric like a hot knife through butter and they are by far the best needles I have ever used.

Lacing needles and a sinking needle stored in the back of the needle felt

In recent years I have developed a far greater appreciation of my needles but I still don’t think that I fully appreciated them until a year ago. That is when I first heard of Hari-kuyo. Reading about this ancient festival caused me to stop and evaluate my relationship with my needles, what the really mean to me.

Size 2 and 3 machine-made needles for bead embroidery stored in a seperate needle felt together with a flat head pin, two handmade needles
(and some more pins for no particular reason)

When I sit down to stitch, I exhale a long, contented sigh. When I pick up my needle, I feel my shoulders relax and as I begin to stitch all thoughts of the minutiae of daily life drift away. Tamura-san advocates a short time spent in meditation before stitching. For me time spent stitching is like meditation, it feeds my soul. I have finally come to value my needles, all of my needles, for what they give to me.

This evening I will be cleaning and sorting and giving thanks to my precious needles.

Happy Stitching

*******

Members of Stitchin Fingers are holding a Festival of Needles.

Susan has blogged about Preparing for Harikuyo.

Jane has blogged about Harikuyo, Festival of Broken Needles on Japanese Embroidery.

Thursday, 3 February 2011

Ortanising

orts [ɔːts]
pl n
(sometimes singular) Archaic or dialect scraps or leavings
[of Germanic origin; related to Dutch oorete, from oor- remaining + ete food]

On the first Japanese Embroidery course I attended, I collected all of my orts in a neat pile on the edge of my frame and threw them into the rubbish bag at the end of the day. Seeing me do this, a fellow student remarked that I should keep all of the silk orts and when I have enough use them to stuff my velvet pad.

I noticed that other students had ort boxes on their frames so when I returned home I made myself an origami ort box. By the time I hav finished stitching Hanayama my box was overflowing with silken scraps. In preparation for my second Japanese embroidery course I emptied the silk it into a plastic bag. It this has become one of my silly rituals to empty the ort box into the plastic bag whenever I complete a phase. There has been some overlap with the two non-phase pieces that I stitch but generally the contents of my orts box pertain to my current phase.

Some members of Stitchin Fingers started an orts jar at the beginning of the year which led me think about my bag of orts. I decided that they deserved a nicer home than a plastic bag. I found a simple jar with a plain lid to keep them in.

I noticed that the orts in the bag had formed layers that represented each phase. They tell a story of my journey and I want to try to preserve that.

Hanayama and Suehiro have become so compressed that I could not easily separate them. Phase II builds on the techniques learnt at Phase I so used the same colour silks for the blossoms and leaves on both phases. I can see some gold threads among the silk. Now I have a separate orts box for the imitation metal threads and yet another for the real gold orts.

This little bundle of threads is from Flutterbies. I expected there to be a lot more than this, especially of the blue silks. I thought that it had taken several attempts until I was satisfied with the wings of "The Blue-Eyed Boy". A quick read of the relevant blog posts showed that I had stitched three practice wings on a test fabric, which I still have somewhere, which accounted for the lack of spoilt silk in the orts bag. (I love having a record of my stitching on this blog that I can refer back to.)

The next layer is Venerable Friends. I don’t see any gold in here so I must have started a separate box by then. I see lots of orange from the big central chrysanthemum. That doesn’t surprise me, I found that very challenging. There is far less waste than from the earlier stages. This is in part because I am doing less reverse stitching as I progress but it also reflects that I am more able to reverse stitch without damaging the silk and can reuse it rather than discard it.

Ah! Did I say I was getting less wasteful of my silk? You wouldn’t think it to look at the next two layers. The first is Himotaba. I remember that I did a lot of reverse stitching on Himotaba, sometimes doing and redoing a short length of a cord several times. Silk is incredible resilient but it can only take so much abuse. There comes a point when the only thing you can do is toss it in the orts box and start again with a fresh length of silk. In addition, the way some of the cords are stitched, you inevitably pierce the silk on the back of the fabric. With the more intricate cords, the easiest way to reverse stitch is to carefully cut through the stitches and pluck out the short lengths of silk.

I didn’t do as much reverse stitching on Loving Couple as the quantity of waste silk suggests. Most of this phase is stitched using variations of short-stitch holding which is near impossible to remove without spoiling the foundation. As with some of the cords, it is simplest to carefully cut through the stitching and pluck it out. I think some of this layer consists of orts from Riches which is stitched in similar colours to some of the Ducks palette and was stitched at the same time.

One phase is missing entirely from the collection. Karahana teaches gold work and most of it entails couching long lengths of gold round and round without a break in the thread. Only a short piece at the beginning and end is wasted. There were a few more orts from some of the other techniques used but all of the real gold went into a separate orts box.

After a little reminiscing, the orts when into their new home, layer by layer. I was surprised that they filled the entire jar. I quite like the idea of having all the orts for Phases I-X in the same jar. I don’t whether to squish these down or to look for a bigger jar.