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Handmade Cluedo Quilt

April 13, 2013, 2:00 am
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From Spikeworld. | Spikeworld - The blog of textile artist Spike Dennis

Cluedo Quilt by Monica Dennis

Mother Spike’s Handmade Cluedo Quilt

My mother is a crafty soul and a dab hand with a needle and thread. Her current fancy is for patchwork and quilting which has led to the creation of this Cluedo inspired masterpiece.

She made this quilt for my brother and it’s been custom made with each family member as a character from Cluedo. According to the cards at the centre of the quilt Colonel Mustard did it with the Spanner in the Study. Though in this instance my brother’s head has been superimposed onto Colonel Mustard.

The quilt also folds up and tucks neatly into a pillow on which the rest of the family are pictured. I’m Professor Plum (of course), my little sister is Miss Scarlett, Mother is Mrs Peacock and my Father is Reverend Green. This custom family edition of the cards was neatly produced with Photoshop and some printable fabric.

I’m a little jealous that this is headed to my brother’s house although I’ve suggested to Mother Spike that I wouldn’t say no to a Scrabble quillow for myself… watch this space!

You can check out more of Mother Spike’s craft adventures on her blog – www.monicadennis.wordpress.com

Click the thumbnails below to view the full size images
Cluedo_Quilt-10Cluedo Quilt by Monica DennisCluedo Quilt by Monica Dennis

Cluedo Quillow by Monica DennisCluedo Quillow by Monica DennisCluedo Quilt by Monica Dennis

Alistair Dennis as Colnel MustardCluedo Quillowby Monica DennisCluedo Quilt by Monica Dennis

The post Handmade Cluedo Quilt appeared first on Spikeworld.

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Embroidered Portraits Workshop

April 17, 2013, 10:00 am
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From Spikeworld. | Spikeworld - The blog of textile artist Spike Dennis

Maurizio Anzeri - Portrait Yellow

Embroidered Portraits Workshop

As a part of the forthcoming Diffusion Photography Festival I have been asked to lead an Embroidered Portraits workshop at Chapter Art Centre on Saturday 11 May 2013.

During this workshop you will have an opportunity to make your own combined media artwork, inspired by Maurizio Anzeri’s embroidered ‘photo sculptures’, which will be showing in Chapter’s Gallery. Learn how to sew directly onto vintage photographs to create colourful, shimmering three-dimensional objects to take home. A selection of photographs will be provided but please feel free to bring your own black and white photographs to embellish. Sewing materials will be provided.

These workshops are FREE and will last approximately two hours. Workshops will start at 11.00am and again at 2.00pm.

To book a place click here.

Children must be accompanied by an adult.

About Maurizio Anzeri

Maurizio Anzeri was born in Loano, Italy in 1969. He studied his BA at Camberwell College of Arts and an MFA at The Slade School of Art. He lives in London.

Diffusion International Photography Festival

The post Embroidered Portraits Workshop appeared first on Spikeworld.

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#boyswhosew On the bus to London with a charm of unicorns

April 13, 2013, 11:10 pm
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Loved Pae White’s epic thread installation at South London Gallery

April 14, 2013, 6:56 am
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Bleedin’ black stitches

April 22, 2013, 3:04 pm
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England’s unicorn

April 23, 2013, 2:03 pm
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#boyswhosew It’s shoe time!!

April 24, 2013, 12:52 pm
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Hand Embroidered Espadrilles

April 29, 2013, 11:17 am
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From Spikeworld. | Spikeworld - The blog of textile artist Spike Dennis

Embroidered Espadrilles | Contemporary Crafts

Hand Embroidered Espadrilles

It was my little sister’s birthday this week just gone. With summer on its way… in theory at least, I decided to embellish a pair of espadrilles as a birthday gift for her.

They can be a little fiddly to embroider onto as there’s not a lot of room in the toes of the shoes in which to work. Luckily I found a top tip in my Folk Art Needlecraft book which suggested starting by embroidering a row of stitches across the toe opening; this gave me a point at which to tie off my threads rather than getting myself in a muddle beneath the fabric at the tip of the shoe.

Having established some stitches across the opening I found the centre of the front of the shoe and stitched an eight pointed star. From this starting point I made up the pattern as I went along adding rings of stitches in alternating purple shades. I even added a splash of metallic purple stitches to give the shoes some pizzazz.

If you’re not comfortable making up your pattern as you go along you could buy some espadrilles in a lighter colour which would allow you to draw on a design with a soluble pen or some chalk.

It took me a while to get my head in the right space to embroider these shoes. My preference is usually for small tight split stitches usingh single strands of floss, but without the room to manoeuvre beneath the fabric I had to find a chunkier solution using running stitches and back stitches for the most part.

There’s no excuse really for not rocking your socks off with a pair of hand embellished espadrilles this summer.

The post Hand Embroidered Espadrilles appeared first on Spikeworld.

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England’s Unicorns Sketches

May 1, 2013, 11:31 am
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Stitching pictures

April 27, 2013, 2:40 am
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Rainbows in the mountains

April 28, 2013, 11:24 am
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Hello again Bein Eighe my old friend >>

April 28, 2013, 11:24 am
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Clambering up Bein Eoin’s ridge

April 29, 2013, 11:04 am
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Misty mountain ridges

April 29, 2013, 12:19 pm
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Embroidered Welsh Samplers

May 12, 2013, 5:00 am
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From Spikeworld. | Spikeworld - The blog of textile artist Spike Dennis

Welsh Embroidered Sampler | St Fagans Museum Wales
Click the images to view larger

Embroidered Welsh Samplers

Last Friday I headed over to the National Museum of Wales at St Fagans to visit the Textiles department. The Curator for Textiles, Elen Phillips, had kindly agreed to let me examine some of the old embroidered samplers in their collections.

The museum has hundreds of these creations but there are less than a handful on display – in no small part due to the current re-development project that is in progress and due for completion in 2016.

Whilst these embroideries might not be on public display at present you can make an appointment to view parts of the collection. Elen kindly dug out three boxes full of embroideries for me to look through which kept me entertained and engrossed for hours.

Embroidered Welsh Samplers | St Fagans Museum Wales

One of the first things I noticed about these embroideries was just how many of them were created by young girls aged from 7 – 11 years old. The scale and complexity of the designs that have been stitched by these young girls is quite staggering. I could never imagine a child of that age today undertaking the amount of work that would be necessary to complete one of these samplers.

The other thing that initially struck me about these creations was the size of the stitches that have been used. They are absolutely tiny!

I’d have to set myself up with a string daylight bulb and a magnifying class before even considering embroidering something with such small stitches.

Embroidered Welsh Samplers | St Fagans Museum Wales

The word ‘sampler’, or in French ‘essamlaire’, indicates that these works were intended to be exemplar pieces. Needle workers would use them as models from which to stitch. This is perhaps why so may of the samplers contain varying strings of alphabets and numbers often in different fonts.

That said many of the samplers are created as testimonials in remembrance of lost loved ones and others contain religious messages.

A large number of the samplers were completely monochromatic; completed using only one colour of thread. This is perhaps understandable if these works had been created by young girls wanting to practice their stitches. Choosing to perfect ones stitches before introducing another layer of complexity in terms of colour makes sense.

Blackwork Embroidery | St Fagans Museum Wales

There was however, only one example of black work embroidery (above) which is a shame. Black work tends to appear particularly stylised and given that a lot of my own embroideries are very monochromatic I’d have liked to have been able to examine a bit for of it up close.

Embroidered Welsh Samplers - SampleriCymreig | St Fagans Museum Wales

This recumbent stag created by Elizabeth Harvey in Penarth (1815) was one of my favourite images from those that I was able to examine. Like the majority that I looked at it was created using mostly cross stitches.

I found it interesting that so many of these works were created using cross stitch given the fine linen they were sewn upon. I think the combination of a fine ground and the cross stitch is a cause for some of incredibly tiny stitches. Upon closer inspection it looked as if the stitchers had tried to use the fine weave of the ground as guides for theor stitches in the same way that a cross stitcher might use Aida fabric.

The collection provided exactly the kind of inspiration that I was looking for as I’m starting to thing about beginning a new series of embroideries. If you have the inclination and opportunity I would definitely recommend booking yourself an appointment to view some of these works for yourself.

Find out more about St Fagans here: www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/stfagans/

Embroidered Welsh Samplers - SampleriCymreig | St Fagans Museum WalesEmbroidered Welsh Samplers - SampleriCymreig | St Fagans Museum WalesEmbroidered Welsh Samplers - SampleriCymreig | St Fagans Museum Wales

The post Embroidered Welsh Samplers appeared first on Spikeworld.

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Ascending Bein Liacth Mor >>

April 30, 2013, 11:03 am
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Conquering mountain ridges >>

April 30, 2013, 11:10 am
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Slioch from Fion Loch

May 1, 2013, 10:07 am
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Creepy bothy >>

May 1, 2013, 10:56 am
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Onwards and upwards

May 2, 2013, 8:37 am
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