The hip Victorian silhouette project

I love the trend for Victorian silhouettes that has come up in the last few years but the dull black leaves me a little uninspired and quite frankly makes me think of funerals. 

I also love to make mementos of my children at different stages of their life. Particularly a set of three showing all three girls at the same time. When the girls were little I did a set of their footprints all at once (ages 4 years/2 years/ 3 months) which were the things we most feared getting lost or broken in the move because they are irreplaceable and utterly priceless.

So here is my work in progress and a little (very very little and simple) how to:

You need:

1:  a digital camera and computer.

2:  tracing paper.

3:  a large enough piece of fabric to fit comfortably in an embroidery hoop of your chosen size. I used a 10 inch diameter hoop which is what I will display the portrait in long term as well, but you can mount it in a frame if that’s more your style.

4:  Your hoop

5: two coordinating pieces of felt- I used the acrylic kind that’s really cheap.

6: needle and thread in coordinating colours.

7: a stencil if you wish.

Seat your subject in a chair in front of a white, smooth  background (I hung a piece of paper on the wall) and shine as much light from every direction as possible. Take your photo and upload it to the computer. Size the photo on your screen to as big/ small as you fancy and trace your subjects profile onto tracing paper directly from the screen- carefully don’t press hard!!

Carefully cut out the profile- that’s your silhouette template. Cut out one exact copy from your top piece of felt and an enlarged (by only a ¼ to ½ an inch) copy from the bottom felt colour. It’s okay to be less precise on the bottom copy but try to keep the enlargement even all around the silhouette.

With your fabric in the hoop and your two felt silhouettes placed on top stitch in small even stitches all around the edge of the top silhouette.

If you are going to skip the stenciling- you are done.  Either cut away the excess fabric from your hoop or stitch it back behind and hang your portrait. Alternatively frame your beauty and make it look as proper as you choose!

For the stencilers… I am ashamed to show you the messy back of my work but I feel it is only fair to show you how I am adding pattern to my piece…  My stitching looks great at the front but is a 

PAR-TAY 

at the back….

***BLUSH***

I used a stencil which came as a set of three for free with a magazine and I traced my basic design onto the back of the outline of my stitching and added embellishment where it looked too bare.  

Voilà! Hip Victorian Silhouette! 

 Use your template for other projects too. 

I used mine to make porcelain silhouettes which I hang in a group. They took (surprisingly) less time to make than the stitched versions. But you could use the template to cut sheet icing for a special birthday cake or to paint a drawer in a shared room  rather than putting names on the drawers.

Have fun!

xx Jo

The Jubilee Quilt

Introducing 

(drum roll please- or maybe a fairground organ like you get a British fairs)

The Jubilee Quilt!!!

(terrible photo, sorry- how do you photograph a 7 foot quilt??)

 

Perfect for cozy moments nestled with a hot chocolate and Pride and Prejudice while the rain taps against the windows and the sun has put itself to bed early for the night.
 

It has also been perfect for procrastinating doing things like ironing M.'s work shirts and hoovering the carpets! Not to mention making dinner for the family or washing my hair!

 

This is my first quilt in about eight years.  Note the lack of piecing... ahem... I chickened out of that bit.  However also note the plethora of applique! I started with one patch (the Corgi in a crown) and enjoyed it soooooooo much I had to just keep going. Then there is the freestyle machine embroidery... Kristy Alsop called it the "crack cocaine of the sewing world" and I totally agree. I settled with my new sewing machine, a piece of fabric and an embroidery hoop thinking I would just have a go at a little machine sketching and five minutes later I had finished the London sky line block! Its satisfyingly quick and creative, allowing a sense of freedom you rarely get when sat before a sewing machine!

 

A London Mayor

A Wee Highland Cow

Since we decided to move to the states I've been feeling nostalgic about all the little things in the UK that I will miss. Thus The Jubilee Quilt was born of all those little lovely quirky that I will miss. For example:  what other place can you find a cow that looks just like the Mayor of the capital city? Seriously.
So The Jubilee Quilt is full of things I love: Big Ben, postage stamps with the queen's profile, red squirrels, hedgehogs, foxes, castles, post boxes, red phone booths and the London sky line. 

It has Highland Cows too but (sorry Boris Johnson) no Mayor of London.
 I've adored and continue to adore two special little critters in the quilt. LOOK at those! Does anything get cuter than a red squirrel's tufty ears? Like armadillos you see hedgehogs more often spread several feet across the road but this little guy looks just like the fellow that wandered into our garden a few weeks ago. I picked him up (much to M.'s horror as he moans "They have mites!!") and he squirmed then stopped and just stared at me. When I put him down- cause they are surprisingly prickly- he did this funny little "keep your eyes on the predator" shuffle away from me. So that is what my quilted hedgehog is up to.
 

It took a little thinking to decide what time Big Ben should read right in the center of the quilt. In the end it was M.'s very clever idea for it to read 8:12. It is not a significant time of day for us for any reason but it makes a tiny little puzzle for those of you who would like to work it out.

 

x Jo

London Stitching Sneak Preview

 Having completed two projects on the trot did not mean I get to start on ideas I have set aside in an enormous "I want to be doing these" dream list... no. Oh no.

 I also have a pile of half complete projects which I've started in fits of boredom (half way through the back piece of a sweater), or temper (ripping out two thirds of the back piece of a sweater) or in a panic (certain I've just ruined the back piece of a sweater and have to put it away and just not think about it). Anyhow... I have a basket which sits in ignominy in the corner of our living room looking at me balefully with its accusations of neglect. As our house move is coming on I rather feel the need to complete some of these projects before evil forces beyond my control send them to the Island of Misfit Projects.

This particular one is so exciting and huge- I didn't realize what I was biting off when I started it. I got a bee in my bonnet last July looking at these stunning papercut maps by Famille Summerbelle. I am about 1/3 of the way through it but now all the preliminaries are out of the way its coming on much faster.

It is- for those who don't recognize it- a map of London (she says hoping people do recognize it... otherwise its pointless). I started with a regular map- of the tourist variety- with a nice size enlargement of the center of London. The difficulty with my map is that I wanted to combine the structure of a ridged street map with the artistry of doodled hand embroidery.  It is working but slowly. I am learning bits of history and fable and incorporating it into the detail of my map as I fancy. Unfortunately it means I don't know which streets I want to show and which I will be happy to disappear under a doodle before I get there.  I traced the map onto projector acetate with a permanent marker and then the experimental stage began!

 Firstly it became clear doing one small bit at a time without the map in-situ was resulting a a distorted map so I went back to the beginning. I tried seamstresses chalk, water soluble ink, pencil, etc etc etc for transferring a light version of the streets onto my white cotton. Eventually I settled on stitching all the streets with one thread onto the cotton.It would be easier with a light box- I however did it by eye with my acetate as a over-lay.

  I am enjoying it and it is easy to just stop for a few minutes and add a little bit more to it. It makes a very nice sitting with M. in the evening project as he likes to read aloud to me and I like to be read to but loath my hands being idle.

I think this could be a great way to map your own neighbourhood, or favorite coastline, or your own house with little doodles of your favorite things stitched in! I'm wondering about getting the girls to do just their own rooms in a 12 in embroidery hoop as part of a home school textile project.



This little bit is one of my favorite sections. I love China Town and Leicester Square, its always bustling, you can find really great food and the National  Gallery is just around the corner!

 X Jo

Pottery love

Last night was my first evening in an 8 week ceramics and pottery class which M. gave me for my birthday. I've never really had a drive to do ceramics. I keep myself neck deep in projects that need finished without the necessity of three days cooking in extreme temperatures (thank you very much). Needless to say as people moved into the ceramics room and were chatting like old friends and began to raid cupboards and pull out almost finished pieces I began to have a creeping sense of how wrong this class could be for me. And I wished for a sinking hole in the earth to swallow me and save me the embarrassment of admitting my ignorance. HOWEVER…

Oh my giddy wonderful racing heart!! I LOVE it!

I was encouraged to start with moulding but. . . err. . . being a bit hard headed and not having been at all interested in doing moulded clay I said with total ignorance of the processes, limitations, and qualities of clay "No I want to either throw or do sculptural stuff." So I was sat down with a piece of paper and pencil which is no hardship as sketching is my favourite diversion.

What came out was a regurgitation of something that I have been sketching on the borders of notebooks and corners of sticky pads for at least 16 years. This (above) is the earliest sketch I have of it which is from 2002 but it has been bouncing around my head for much longer. Then I sat with clay and just did what I had in my head. And it was so peaceful and soul centring, like a meditation on form and touch. I sense that I could have closed my eyes and felt what the clay wanted me to do with it. I learned a few things about the process and how to make sure my piece doesn't crack in the kiln or take four years to dry for that matter.

I cannot wait till next week. I have a coral reef in my head and hands which is burning to escape and become tangible!

As a BIG aside I am about to go onto ETSY and see if my makes are as nice to anyone other than me. . . eeeek! This embroidered broach (modelled by my obliging but terribly embarrassed 12 year old) is one of the few things I have to sell. It is slightly larger than life size and a Peacock butterfly which is very common in our area of England. It will be on sale in a day or two. Wish me luck!