Back in July 2020 I made a piece of crazy patchwork
Chopped it up and sent the pieces off to 15 members of the group Stitched Together – a splinter group from The Stitchbook Collective, made up of people who would like to work collabratively on pieces of textile art.
The aim is to make some pieces in a relaxed and enjoyable way and then to exhibit them to raise money for both national and local mental health charities.
I sent a little bit of sari-waste ribbon with each piece. This did not have to be used but some did.
Magic happened!
It seems like a miracle to see how all those 2″ squares have been transformed
I have had permission from all participants to share our work on my blog.
It was so exciting to open each envelope and discover a beautiful gem inside.
The eye suggested Egypt to me and the nearest I had to a parchment background was some reused teabags that I had sewn together in layers and painted with Gesso.
I painted it a pale sandy colour and started to arrange the pieces.
Each time I thought I had arrived at an arrangement I liked, I left it overnight and then in the morning realised something needed to change. I tacked the squares down and undid and rearranged them 4 times before I was satisfied.
Here they all are now sewn into place and ready for some surface stitching to complete the piece.
If you are wondering what has happened to the Wild Green Twinches, I will be working on them when I have finished this piece.
Sounds like fun to work on and definitely a beautiful result.
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Thank you – yes it is fun – I love working collabortively.
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Looks fab altogether and the fiddling with placement was worth it.
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Thank you Amanda. Now the surface stitching. π
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Love how the community of stitchers have accentuated the colours – did they each know what the overall colour was before it was cut up.
I have tendency to be a bit stupid with laying out pieces and thinking that “this will do” – then as I found out the other day, I didn’t care for the book cover decorative elements I had used, However they were hand stitched down, and other some rather interesting texture of “thread ends I can’t extract” it’s all good. Found a piece of fabric that will cover those ends and then decided that I would use a tree picture as the cover…still working on the latest new handmade books.
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Yes, everyone saw these photos.
I can take days over layout decisions and often spend as much time unpicking stitches as stitching them. All part of the process.
People who don’t craft have no idea! π
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I posted picture to one of my friends, who has no idea bout “craft” and it was a picture of a lot of bits all over my work table, it was hard to tell what was what…and she replied “it looks like chaos…but maybe you know what is what” π So the next day, I posted her just one of the book covers and nothing else and said “the chaos is not in this shoot…”
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Wow looks so good β€οΈ
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I am really enjoying working on this piece. Didn’t we do well! π
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This is just stunning!
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Thank you Kathy. π
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that’s fabulous. Always pays to layout, think, wait and try another. That’s one of the huge bonuses of digital photography, isn’t it? The ability to record something and then try another option.
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Definitely! It helps to take a photo and look at it on the camera to see what design elements are working and what are not. π
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All the individual elements were lovely but you’ve turned them into something even more special.
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Thank you so much Lynn, that means a lot. π
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Loved working on my little square and being part of the project, and I REALLY love what you have done with them all.
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So glad you approve so far – it felt like a big responsibility to work with everyone’s works of art.
I love our stitchy connections Cathy β€
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WOW WOW WOW
That’s all.
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Awww! Thank you Deb. π
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Such a lovely idea to share artwork and then bring it all back together again. I love those colours with the parchment style background.
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Thank you Cathy – it all seems to be working together well so far.
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The blue to turquoise blend works well Sandra giving the piece much depth.
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Thank you Denis. It is a fun project to work on.
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Only one word will do: wowsah!
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Thank you Laurie! I do love a wowsah! π
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All my favourite shades of blue! You have arranged them beautifully. Look forward to seeing what you make of the green ones.
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Thank you so much RainbowJ.
I think the Green ones will look very different.
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Lovely! It’s like a fragment of turquoise and lapis mosaic.
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Ooo thank you Kate. That is a lovely comment.
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