Elephants & Spiders

Ages ago I attended a Kantha class, my samples of printed fabric lay untouched in a box. Until I realised that the elephant would be a great thank you card for my friends. So I started stitching.
I had a great idea to outline the elephant in a golden thread. This thread split, hurt my fingers and generally was a pain in the arse! Remind me to never sew anything in gold again!
Still feeling in a creative mood (but with sore fingers!) I decided to attempt free motion embroidery. Inspired by my current reading The encyclopedia of Machine Embroidery by Val Holmes. I had been putting this off, as I knew if meant getting out my sewing machine manual! Surprisingly it was super easy to switch my machine to free motion embroidery, all I had to do was take off the foot & put a cover plate on the feed dog. I used felt, so that I didn't have to use an embroidery hoop to stretch the fabric. Firstly an ode to this blog...
The blue at the start of 'gets' is the bobbin thread coming through - shhhh! Then getting excited by learning to write with the sewing machine, I decided to write the title of this song by Billie Jo Spears.

I like the spidery stitching! Great fun to do, just mind your fingers on the exposed needle!

Kantha embroidery

I recently attend a class on 'Kantha Inspirations' at my local branch of the Embroiderers' Guild. Kantha originates from West Bengal and Bangladesh. Kantha stitches are essentially running stitches, they were used to layer old saris to make quilts. This resourcefulness did not stop at recycling old saris, the thread used to sew was often drawn from the borders of the used cloth. Traditionally the running stitch would be decorated into birds, flowers and whatever else the embroiderers' found as inspiration in their day to day lives.

In our class we used pre-prepared stencils and acrylic paints to transfer motifs on to brightly coloured cloth. Once dry we layered fabrics together to create a wavy, quilted surface. Here I used a golden organza at the top, pink turban cotton, followed by white muslin. A pink bird is stencilled on the organza. Running stitches surround the bird, with flower and sun details added. The stitching scrunches up the fabric, enhancing the shimmering of the golden organza. Interestingly the central bird looks almost appliqued, I think this is due to the pink cotton behind creating a depth to its colour. Kantha embroidery used such a simple stitch, yet creates a strong effective technique. I have many more fabrics to embroider that I printed at the class - should keep me busy for a while!