embroidery – Mixy's Art Blog

back and forth and backth again

Like a meandering meandery thing, so much to say, so little sense of order…!

Amongst the changes I’m progressing through in recent months, I’ve re-aquired a bunch of stuff that’s been in storage for a number of years. Some of which: a veritable shedload (well, technically, half a van load) of miscellaneous textiles which are gradually cycling into new creations. From linen to clothes and curtains, some are older than I am, some scrips and scraps, but they all have fantastic futures as somethings beautiful and/or useful (in most cases, I hope, both).

the seat from where I'm typing to you! — the seat from where I’m typing to you!

Then at the same time the gods of synchronicity have sent some gloriously inspirational folks to cross my path. I can’t leave them unmentioned in this post.

I encountered Raggedy Rags earlier this year at the London Knit & Stitch Show.

Raggedy Rags – Dress like nobody’s judging

Drawn in by the delight of uniquely upcycled clothing and the wonderful mantra I’ve since adopted as my own: Dress like nobody’s judging. I wish I’d gone back for that red coat, but I did leave with a head full of fresh ideas. And I’ll catch another coat another time.

Then the colorfulicious Katwise pinged up on my web-wanderings radar. Recently her splendidly multi-coloured home has been featured in articles all over the place, you may have seen it? As an artwork it’s amazing even if it surpasses your personal technicolour tolerances.

https://i0.wp.com/katwise.com/house_slices/house_003.jpg — living the rainbow dream

But beyond this, it led me to her sumptuous knitwear regenerations.

Katwise Elf Coat - Recycled Sweater Tutorial - Plus size

If you have even an inkling of a desire to learn more I can really recommend her ebooks.

Between these guys and the web-rabbit-holes I’ve explored as a result, I’m all fired up for some cosy winter sewings coming up soon. Just need Santa to bring me a serger (or eBay, gotta be a little realistic) and I’m good to go!

Hi Folks!

Lordy, where has the time gone since I last posted….? I’ve missed our chats.

Student life is going from strength to strength – initial doubts replaced by a deep joy of the challenges. This week has been ‘reading week’ so college was closed, I’ve caught up on the day job & finally replaced my creaky 8 yr old computer in the office. In the odd moments in between I’ve been busy-ing on the quilt which has grown dramatically since I last showed you….

Also I got myself some Easy Batik I plan to play with this weekend – I’ll show you how it goes – I’m intrigued!! I also found out we can do real batik in school, and am super excited about this!

More soon… 😀

Cosy Snugness, in the making

A little while ago I told you about my plan to make a quilt.

So far I’ve completed 9 5×5 squares……

I started by recycling a quilt I made years ago, stripping it down for usable fabric, but there wasn’t going to be enough to complete the project.

I scoured boot sales, charity shops and my wardrobe for possible cut-up-able clothing, and finally the shop-that-sells-everything came up trumps with 2 large offcuts of pink cotton velvet.

Although pink isn’t a color I plan to use, but I chose it for it’s 2 very easy options: + yellow = orange, and + blue = purple.

These arrived at the end of last week, so the weekend was dying time!

It has a certain wonky appeal, which I put down to IK‘s aversion to ironing.

More precisely, IK’s aversion to clearing space to set up the ironing board. Coupled with the memory of a sewing time many years ago when I let IK iron on the carpet instead of the ironing board. It didn’t end well for the carpet.

We ironed some pieces today (properly), they look much better for it. We agreed the ironing board should be left up while construction stage is still in progress! 😉

a re-work in progress

This time last year I was just finishing a year’s foundation course in art and design.

For the end of year show I made a textile sculpture, but the design wandered off a long way from my original idea.

Although i liked the elements of it, I wasn’t happy with the overall look.

These are bits of a re-made version. It will be a wall-hung sculpture in 5 parts. 3 are nearly complete, the other 2 are nearly started.
I’ll post some more as it moves on.