When I started this blog, it was with the intention it would be a blog of my work (and I have pretty closely adhered by that). Well, could I ever set myself up a more difficult task? I have trouble keeping up with the blog because I have trouble producing enough work to share!
I debated on showing the piece below to you but I do it for a couple of reasons. First, to ask you, have you all seen a renewed interest in embroidery? I am seeing evidence of it all around me and wonder if I am just taking note and it has been there all along or is embroidery on the upswing again. And secondly, I want to share a couple of links to work that I find beautiful. This one is to recent embroidery, the work of Rosemary Milner (who I know nothing about other than I find her work so endearing). The other is to an exhibit of very old (18th century) bits and pieces of textiles (including embroidery) left with abandoned babies at a foundling hospital. The former inspired me to do the piece below, the latter feeds my nostalgic wonderment.
This insect was stitched on my sewing machine using free motion embroidering (no guidelines were used, hence the slight skewing!) on top of a piece of vintage (antique?) lace given to me years ago by my mother’s friend, Sybil, on top of a sample piece of matelasse given to me by an interior designer. (lucky me to have such generous friends!) I hand stitched onto the bee (I can stitch better but I wanted that amateur feel!!) It measures about 3.25″ x 6.25″.
Tags: art quilt, embroidery, free hand machine embroidery, free motion machine embroidery, Insects, sewing, Thread Art, thread painting
January 26, 2012 at 10:03 am |
I have been noticing embroidery work more often… but I’m not sure if its my new interest in it that makes me think its becoming popular!
I love your piece, especially that it is so freehand. If it was more perfect it would not have half as much charm.
January 26, 2012 at 10:05 am |
I love this.
January 26, 2012 at 1:57 pm |
Spectacular! Yes, I do think embroidery is making a comeback. It seems to be cropping up everywhere. It’s never lost it’s appeal to me, though, ever since my grandmother taught me to do cross stitch (OMG!) over a half century ago…. Mary
January 26, 2012 at 4:19 pm |
Absolutely wonderful… just love this!
January 26, 2012 at 10:39 pm |
Beautiful! I don’t know that I’ve noticed a resurgence–maybe it’s just in the wind. I have a book of embroidery stitches that fell out of the bookcase while I was looking for something totally different, and I thought, mmm–should I try it
January 27, 2012 at 9:09 am |
I love your bee and the beautiful background it hovers over. I do think that embroidery is enjoying a resurgence and it’s lovely to see.
January 31, 2012 at 11:55 pm |
Last night I showed Chris your winning quilt on the DVD from the quilt show and he was very impressed & amazed at your wonderful talent. At first he didn’t realize I was talking about you and then he said “That’s our Lauren? I didn’t know you meant our Lauren! Wow!” lol….Cute, huh?
February 1, 2012 at 10:33 am |
There’s definitely a resurgence in anything textile. I remember trying to buy fabric 10 years ago and there was very little choice.
Also, people are doing such innovative things with embroidery these days (your example a case in point!) that it is no longer limited to hankerchiefs or tablecloths. It’s even done on paper now. I am not very good at hand embroidery but I now have 2 books and a dvd on it and I yearn to be able to incorporate it more in my fabric art.
February 20, 2012 at 5:36 pm |
I so love this bee! I like how you added the cream to the top of the wings but the rest are left without. It makes it seem so real, transparent yet with a reflection of light.