Assessed sample cont'd

On my church steeple I decided to fly the Union flag and had a scarf which had discoloured in the wash so cut the flag from the scarf and using an embroidery frame to stitch the edges and satin stitch down one side with support from water-soluble Romeo. 

The once lovely Alexander McQueen scarf pieces

The flag

I mostly dissolved the water-soluble but left some to support the flag and threaded a piece of sprung wire which was scored at the top. This would hold the flag upright to 'fly' at the top of the church steeple.

I then selected all the fabrics and threads that I was using for the sample

Organzas for sky and sea.

Silk and organzas for fields 

Silk for rape field and hill

Silk for water

Silk for cotswold village buildings

Fabrics for Lulworth crumble cliffs

Left to right; Walnut ink dyed, red onion dyed, tea dyed, yellow onion dyed and plain muslin 

Scraps of silk to be used in cliffs

Threads for sea

Fabric and threads for sky

Fabrics and some threads for files - more threads were used

Fabric and threads for cliffs

Free embroidered poppy for corn field

The fields

I appliqued silk to the top two fields using a small zigzag stitch, the yellow silk to depict an oil-seed rape field again stitched with with small zigzag. The the ploughed field was stitched using two tones of brown to give depth and height of the furrows, larger at the front and smaller at the back to give a feeling of distance. 

The pale green field is stitched in straight lines on the calico to give an impression of a small growing crop on a limestone base. The hills are made of limestone in reality. To the left, silk is embedded with random stitching to suggest limestone under grass. The field to the top appearing pale is in reality a limestone quarry on Cley Hill and this area represents that element. Trees and a small hedge line we free-embroidered. 

At the bottom of this section, a small river is stitched with blue variegated thread and continues into the sea and across to the third village section. I had thought about using silk fabric for all the water but the thread seems to work well and I have used the silk for the sea in the central section and tried to get some continuity by bringing the thread into the sea element.

River and sea

Blue silk from a sari length which also contained the greens, yellows and beige in this piece was used for the sea. It looked to overpowering after it was stitched won so I overlaid a piece of paler organza and attached that to the sea apart from the edges where I had stitched. I had applied the sea to the calico using a zigzag stitched which will in the log term be covered as the piece is developed. 

At the edge of the water near the beach, I have used a granite stitch in a very pale blue, white/silver and white threads to create a feeling of the tide coming in. This will be developed as I create the sea. The river from the small streams on the left side of the piece and the right side merge into the sea. I will continue using the variegated thread as I create the sea. 

My next blog will show the further development of this piece.