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Valerie invited us back to the Ulster folk and transport Museum, and generously let us  rummage around in the archives- some  of the photos in the collection are just stunning.

She also pulled loads of beautiful pieces out of the colllection for us to see. They made me wonder about the hundreds and thousands of hours spent  over the years by women  just stitching away.......Hours we now spend in front of screens , TV, computers, kindles.....!

This piece of drawn thread-work was a sample piece for one of the large departnment stores

after all the time painstakingly creating this incredible work by hand, a customer could wander in and just chop off a sample from the end!

There were samplers , and little garments, whitework quilts...

I left with a head full of ideas - which was the point of the excercise 

Alma's demonstration

Alma has been experimenting - she passes on this quick tutorial....

"

When free machining fine fabric or making lace I find -

1. Embroidery hoops awkward and very restricting

2. Romeo and disolvables better but difficult to remove completely leaving the work hard.

A cardboard frame is much better -

Attatch support threads firmly round the frame in both or all directions. It slips easily

under the needle for stitching. When completed the work can be cut out and extended if desired.

See you soon

Alma"

 

A brilliant, brilliantly simple idea- thanks for that.

Olive gets a head start

Olive has sent a few pictures of the drawn threadwork on linen she's been doing- a wall hanging with long fringing threads.... I like it a lot....   when you see the amount of withdrawn threads you know it must have taken ages just to prepare.


And thats the gauntlet thrown down!  We'll all have to get working now!

Kindle covers and trips out

Life has been a bit brisk lately- But in keeping with my therapy I have to do more things for myself...so in the last 2 weeks I have made a fabric from gauze scraps, designed and made a kindle cover with them, and been to see 2 out of 3 textile exhibitions. I have yet to sort out the building work I'm having, or  arrange my finances....but the important stuff  has been done!

First... The Kindle cover....

I made the fabric by bonding bits and pieces of lace and gauze to calico.

Then I machined on some fancy and metallic threads

Then I used it to cover some felt padded mount-board  to give a hard protective shell, and added elastic straps.....And a beaded self-cover button.

Just to be sure - I held the whole thing over my bed and shook it like a terrier with a squeeky toy...  The Kindle never budged!

I'd call this a success.


I got to see the Starstuck exhibition at the Ulster Museum- such lovely costumes... took a few close up photos of the embroidery and beading but failed to note which was which....

So have some fun guessing at these.....

I also called in at the "through the eye of the needle" exhibition in Armagh... Some beautiful work on display. - not allowed to use the camera.  I loved Armagh museum - it was full of  old fashioned dark wood cabinets with typed ( on a remmington, not a pc!) labels. Well worth a visit.

And in case you were wondering about the 3rd exhibition- I've arranged to see Frankie Creiff's exhibition at Lisbane old postoffice tomorrow

Folk Museum day out

We chose "Linen" as the theme of our next exhibition, and to get  the creative year started and to do a little research and gossip we went to see Valerie Wilson at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. She has all the costumes and textiles in her charge, and she culled a few titbits out of the enormous collection for us to see.

Irene and Johanna studying a quilt

 Alma and Carol

Olive and Valerie




First Valerie showed us some amazing white work quilts dating from 1790-ish-  beautiful tiny hand embroidered stitches- white on white- work that would a be challenge today with modern daylight bulbs and fine strong steel needles

Then she produced some wonderful coloured embroidery on linen - this amazing early (1760) bed quilt- with the smallest back stitch I've ever seen. Its reputed to be the best example of this type of quilt in any museum in the UK












And  bedspread from the 30's - hand embroidered on unbleached linen from a commercial pattern- the reverse almost indistinguishable from the front!

There were cross stitch samplers on linen

Damask samples from weaving factories ( coloured so errors could be easily spotted)

and a school sample book  from 1905 (ish) with amazing mini garments made by the pupils to exhibt their prowess with a needle.

And a lot of other amazing stuff as well. - I  found it really inspiring,.... I must really do more handwork.....

The museum collection is an fantastic resource,  and Valerie gave us loads of information, enthusiastic support, and the use of a room for the afternoon.  She even invited us back to see the photographic collection and do reseach in the library. 
Many, many thanks to Valerie for her help and support.

Alma's singing with the choir

Alma sent me 2 photos of work she putting together for Christmas craft stalls ( Christmas!- I refuse to acknowlege it until we've had Halloween!)
She says the scarves were tiedyed "The acid lanaset dyes are easy to use - set in the microwave for a couple of minutes instead of ironng or boiling. The colours are stronger than expected but I will keep trying."

I'd never heard of lanaset dye- could be the subject of a messy play session.....







Isn't this wee choir sweet?!

Carol 's handstitching

Carol has sent me  photos of some amazing hand stitching shes done. Each piece has been created using a single stitch, and her wonderful sense of colour.
This piece, ( my favorite) has been made using fly stitch

feather stitch

Couching

Crossstitch

Creatan stitch- (thats a really tricky one )

 french knots

raised chain

 chainstitch

Composite stitch

 and  mountmellick

These are wonderful pieces, you should be so proud Carol!  and  pieces created with a single stitch could prove a good theme for a future exhibition......