I can't believe it's

finished. And ahead of time. Go me!

For the calm section I drew outlines of rectangles and 3 straight lines on the computer.

 I traced the printout onto Stitch 'n Tear.

 I used a yellow ochre thread to stitch through the Stitch 'n Tear using running stitch.

I added some grey running stitch to connect through from chaos to order.

And here is the finished piece: Total chaos to less chaos to order to calm.

I'm thrilled it's finished.  I'm already thinking about the next piece which is called Dancing in Fetters.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

A short update

The chaos part of Chaos to Calm is almost finished.  I have one thin grey cord left which I need to decide about.  Do I add it or not?

Total chaos (on the left) unravels with less chaos - represented by thinner cords.

As the chaos unravels things become more ordered.

I have finished stitching the fragments on which represent order.

Next stop: calm

I'm excited to work on the calm side of this piece.  Hopefully it's going to be finished this week.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Chaos update

My Chaos to Calm piece is coming on slowly - mostly because I haven't really buckled down to it.

Since I last posted about it I have stamped some unreadable text on the dyed calcico using acrylic paint.  Because I wanted some of the cord to fall off the edge of the piece I put the partially dyed calico onto a piece of felt with black cotton poplin backing.  It's rare for me to think about how a piece will be finished before I even start!

Once the back was finished it had enough weight for me to be able to stitch down the thick cords.

I wrapped some of the thick cord with torn fabric and stitched that on over the top.

I placed the small fragments I had made.

I made some different thicknesses of cord using the zigzag stitch on my machine.

I stitched the fragments on using cross stitch.  I have now started adding the thinner dyed cord.

Once the thinner cord is attached, I shall be adding more fragments and then the thin machine cords.

I'm really pleased with how it's going.  I've set myself a deadline of April 11th to finish the piece.  I'll let you know how that goes!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Chaos to Calm

While I was struggling to complete the river piece I had announced to anyone who would listen, that I was going to give textiles a rest.  I was going to go back to art journaling and mixed media.

So much for that!

As I was finishing the river piece I got the inspiration for 4 new pieces.  I actually had pictures in my mind of what they would look like.  They are all very different but all represent freedom in some form.

Chaos to Calm

I have drawn them in a workbook to get them out of my head and only working on one piece at the moment.

I was also inspired by a lamp made by Donna the winner of the Great British Pottery Throwdown, called The Ascent, which represented her journey out of depression.

I have painted procion dye onto calico.  It was supposed to be really dark  at one end getting lighter using a dark black, a lighter black, a medium charcoal and a lighter charcoal.  However it didn't really work out but never mind.  There was supposed to bee a lighter grey where the black 'bled' into the cream!

Plus when I washed the dye out 24 hours later, I managed to get some staining on the part that was supposed to be undyed.  However it will work out okay as move on with the piece.

I decided to make the piece slightly smaller so ripped off some of the black on the left and a strip from the top.

I had dyed other fabrics to use with this piece plus some pieces dyed with rust coloured procion dye to make chains for two of the other pieces.

I have torn up some of the fabric to make fragments which I have currently just placed onto the background.  Each of them will be handstitched before being stitched onto the piece.

I am going to wrap the cords with the different torn black fabrics before couching them onto the piece.

My tasks for this week include wrapping the cords, making some thinner cords on the sewing machine and attaching the background to some wadding and a backing so that they will take the weight of the cords.

Not much then!!

I'll let you know my progress in a later blog post.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice